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Video game character in a hit 2020 film / SUN 3-13-22 / Self-title rock album of 1958 / Vegas venue with an iconic fountain / Greek performance venue / Smoking spot for short / Deseret News Reader typically / Govt organization with a two-syllable acronym
Sunday, March 13, 2022
Constructor: Christina Iverson and Katie Hale
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- 2D: "Fully ready to listen" (all ears, i.e. EAREAREAREAR)
- 7D: "Walk around at a rest stop, say" (stretch one's legs, i.e. OONNEESSLLEEGGSS)
- 30A: "With 12-Down, spend much more than a fair price" (PAY through THE NOSE)
- 69A: "With 74-Across, gesture of approval" (PAT on THE BACK)
- 83A: "Petty" (small-minded, i.e. "minded" shrunk into just three squares => (MI)(ND)(ED))
- 99D: "Bankrupt" (belly-up, i.e. YLLEB)
- 113A: "Insincere, as a remark" (tongue-in-cheek, i.e. CHETONGUEEK)
- 110D: "With 111-Down, in cooperation" (SIDE by SIDE)
- It's possible that "SEE WHAT I DID THERE" is also some kind of winky part of the theme, since its in a theme position, i.e. symmetrical with "stretch one's legs" (42D: Question following a clever trick)
1: esoteric doctrines or practices
2
: the quality or state of being esoteric
• • •
ESOTERY is the one huge clunk in this puzzle. Just ... what? I am stunned to find that the word has appeared two times before this in the Shortz era, but I am not at all stunned that it went through a 35-year (!) period of remission between 1955 and 1990. Maleska himself barely even touched this one, and his name is virtually synonymous with ESOTERY. And this ugly answer sits nearly alongside SPITS AT, another very ugly answer, so that little section in the WNW was briefly unpleasant. But nothing else rose to that level of repugnance. TSETSE over UTAHAN isn't great (the latter, and its variant "UTAHN," always makes me laugh—so awkward, so little called-for in everyday speech), and they both cross EAT A SANDWICH, I mean EAT A TON, but since those answers all occur right at the site of a theme answer stack (PAT on THE BACK), I can forgive them a certain amount of infelicity.
Mistakes, I made a few. Wrote in MIA for MIB, which was MIBad, for sure (36D: Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones film franchise, for short) (short for "Men in Black"). I just could not come up with the first word of CALL DESK (96A: I.T. help center, often). I know the phrase HELP DESK and after that, pfffffft, I got nothing. Needed almost every cross. Worst mistake was also the tiniest mistake, i.e. S.O.S. for TOW (90D: Emergency request). This added to the slowness woes in the small-MINDED / BINDI section. Otherwise, I got the theme early with all-EARs and never really got held up for very long. The puzzle felt toughish, but it was never a slog. Toughish but breezy, if that's possible. Hurray for an enjoyable Sunday.
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| [I don't know what I mean any more, Google] |
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135 comments:
Best. Sunday. Ever.
Methinks the actual toughest for Rex was PAY through THE NOSE since he forgot it in his list and didn’t include the full answer when he said it was awkward. Personally, stretch ONE’S LEGS was my toughest to suss out even though I had all the letters correct.
The theme clues were in italics in the app/website. 42d wasn't in italics fwiw, but possibly a different kind of theme. Side by side was a themer. I was actually slightly annoyed that it was hard to identify all the themets when you were done.
Such a refreshing Sunday; very much an Easter egg hunt tracking down the theme answers. For me the best one came late, and it was EAR EAR EAR EAR. Just a great aha moment: it's All Ears!! Pretty brilliant. Also SIDE / SIDE.
SEE WHAT I DID THERE is very long but not a themer, and that's just fine, in this slapstick funhouse puzzle.
@Loren, from yesterday, who was "SPort" in your celebrity name thingys?
[Spelling Bee: Sat 0, after 3 -1's in a row, whew! FYI here is a Google ngram of 6 infrequently used words from this SB. Note the top rated one is the only one not accepted.]
@Z beat me to the shocking reveal that Rex missed one of the themers (PAY through THE NOSE), but then trashed it anyway. I thought it was pretty good, as were most all of the other themers. Except that CHETONGUECHEEK is garbage. If you’re going to use that sort of prepositional insert clue, it has to stand alone. Like LSONAW as a representation of son in law would be a WTF for most solvers. Not difficult but also not sensical. Whereas THEJACKBOX, for example, as an answer representing Jack in the Box, is visually appealing and could be clued cleverly. Maybe I’m just being a grumpy old man. If so, ignore me. If not, ignore me anyway.
I liked 52D ESOTERY. Never heard of it, but as it unfolded through crosses it seemed like a great discovery. To accuse someone of being guilty of ESOTERY, seems like a serious (and possibly sexual) criminal accusation. When in fact, it is only a commentary on the degree of specialization they exhibit in their speech.
Side eye to CELLI next to KALES. The first is a POOL (Plural Out Of the Language), and the second is the standard @Anoa Bob
POC.
I thought 99A YOUWIN should have been a themer with 105A LSD directly below it. YOUWIN when you drop LSD.
Wonderful how this Sunday puzzle kept me going and guessing for a long time. One of the best Sunday’s in ages. Thanks, Christina Iverson and Katie Hale.
And congrats to Christina who is Patti's assistant now at LAT!!!
Atrocious.... southwest corner totally unworkable, and the whole puzzle chock-full of PPP. Yeccchhh!
How much fun was this, kids?
I was going to plop down stretch one’s legs at 7D, fortunately I did a letter count and came up one too many. Saved myself a lot of Wite Out. Went back to the crosses and came up with two OO’s and two NN’s in a row. Okay, I think I know what we’re playing with here and did one of @GILL’s happy dances. Hoo boy, this is going to be great, and it was.CHE TONGUE CHE was the last to fall.
Really wanted 92D Vikings’ foes to be Packers, alas one too many letters.
More like this, please.
Hello All!! What about Side by Side!
How about stab in the back?
How about side by side and stab in the back! Selmersba
Very disappointed in the clue to 72A. Chomping is more common these days, I suppose, but I would expect the NYT to know that it's "champing at the bit."
Is “chomping at the bit” not considered an incorrect phrase anymore?
I'm not quite ready to declare it @Joaquin "Best. Sunday. Ever," but it may be a pretty strong candidate for Best. Rebus. Ever.
As fun as it was, it was ruined by “chomping at the bit.” The NYT should have caught the mistake. It’s “champing at the bit.” A horse shows it’s EAGER to move not by biting down on the bit in its mouth (chomping), but by pushing forward against it (champing). Shiortz should know better.
Props to Christina and Katie for their persistence in bringing this uber-entertaining puzzle to fruition. First (according to their puzzle notes), Christina submitted and had rejected a puzzle (I’m assuming it was a Sunday) that was rejected because the theme wasn’t strong enough. Then the two strengthened that theme, put together another Sunday puzzle – which, in case you don’t know, is a major undertaking, given its 21 x 21 size, and that, for the NYT, you have to submit a grid AND clues – and get it rejected as well, with no invitation to re-do.
Still, they believe in the theme so strongly that they make a completely new similarly-themed Sunday puzzle that they believe is superior to the previous one, and submit that, finally getting an okay. That’s making three Sunday puzzles – incredible persistence!
And, IMO, it paid off. The fun of the visual puns combined with challenging areas due to tough clues gave me smiles throughout underscored with sweet moments of satisfaction.
Christina and Katie, thank you for reminding me about the value of dogged determination. You showed how it can apply to the making of a puzzle, but it can also relate to solving one. That is, sticking with a puzzle at a point where you feel hopelessly stuck sometimes results in one of the most gratifying solves of all.
30A and 110D are additional themed answers.
I liked this. Probably my favorite Sunday of 2022 so far.
The theme answer is PAT on the BACK. Although how funny that STAB sorta works too.
Thx Christina & Katie, for a very creative and fun Sun. :)
Med++
Very slow and methodical solve, but fruitful.
Agree with those who feel this may be one of the best Sun. NYT puz's ever!
Enjoyed the adventure! :)
chomping at the bit vs champing at the bit (Ngram)
@okanaganer 👍 for 0 yd
___
yd pg: 6:39 (0 in 17:44) / W: 3*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
And I thought that Rex would hate it!
Narrow minded? Loved this puzzle. Hope to see more from Christina and Katie😁
Apparently champ=chomp these days. It took 500 years for that to happen. Back then champ was specific to the horse, and chomp didn't exist.
I don't understand what @Z et al are talking about: pay through the nose is the third bullet on the list. Did Rex make the correction after reading Z's note? Methinks?
My printed puzzle didn't have either italics or quote marks in the theme clues so I had to figure out the answers with no assistance. This added to my enjoyment and sense of satisfaction when I got them. I would not have liked the visual aids! I figured out 2D fairly quickly and expected others to be similar. Much better that they differed. I appreciated the variety and the surprise when a theme answer popped up.
Yikes! Brilliant. First real challenge on a Sunday since I can't remember when.
I started this puzzle on Saturday and there was no way I could stop. I was having much too much fun. It's clever and playful in so many ways and figuring out the "so many ways" is part of the enjoyment. For instance, if you think upon getting 2D that you've figured out the gimmick, think again. The constructors have many more tricks up their sleeves -- and all are wonderfully different from one another.
Christina and Katie seem to have no other goal in mind other than giving maximum pleasure to solvers. And they've certainly accomplished it. I'm hoping to see many, many more puzzles from them in the future. This was a real treat. I agree with @Joaquin that this was "the best Sunday in ages.
Best Sunday ever!
I finished up on 83A: Petty. I had filled in the mark on a Hindu woman’s forehead as BINI. So when I finally realized that ‘PETTY’ needed a rebus answer, I filled in the ‘MI’ and the ‘ED’ for 83A and the NYT app gave me puzzle completion credit for MI-N-ED.
Wonderful puzzle! I liked how each theme answer had a different visual trick to it, with my favorite being the ears.
Small minded (83A) could have been a clue for that dieter (78A) right above it. Was his appetite suppressed, or did he eat a ton?
Are Bud Selig at 92A and Buddy Holly at 86A best buds now?
I don't know why this happened. But I printed it from The New York Times website, and there was no indication of any of the themers. No italics, no quotation marks, nothing. And I am pissed off because this was virtually impossible without that indication.
Rollicking! 🤜🤛🔥💯%
on the print version, the jokes/themers were not in italics. So, it seemed they cropped up randomly. They were inferable from the crosses though. That made the solve a slog. I suppose if I saw the italics I would have had a better solve experience,
Some puzzles have themes that remind me of a one-trick dog. Once you understand the trick, it repeats itself in every themed entry. And then there are gems like today's puzzle. Based on the constructors comments, an initial rejection led to a brilliant (in my opinion) rethinking of the theme. This is a puzzle to remember before voicing general complaints about puzzle quality. Would all puzzles be as interesting. But that would be a very tough act to stage.
same problem. but my takeaway was annoyance not satisfaction
agreed
I have to admire what the constructors were able to accomplish - each individual theme entry is a riddle unto itself. Also admirable on the part of the constructors was the way they minimized a lot of the collateral damage to the grid. Yes, there are some unfortunate spots (Sea-TAC crossing HOLA, ALTA, CELLI, SELA . . ) but that is to be expected.
Btw, if you want to get a friend of yours in the grid, or pay homage to someone you respect, and you have to write an entire paragraph to come up with a valid clue - it is just not worth it. I don’t know beans about ELISE McDougald, and I’m sure she is a nice/respected person, but really - that one just doesn’t pass the smell test.
@John H - Yes. Rex must have been notified that he missed a couple of themers because at midnight SIDE by SIDE and PAY through THE NOSE were not in Rex’s list of theme answers.
@Amie Devero & everyone else who didn’t get italics when they printed the puzzle - Pro Tip - Scroll down a little bit and select the “Newspaper Version” to print. This is always the way the puzzle appears in the paper and is also the only way to insure that you get the puzzle presented as intended aside from actually getting the printed paper. I just checked and the default “standard layout” does not have the italicized clues, but the Newspaper Version does.
Chomp or Champ. What Grammar Girl implies but doesn’t come out and explicitly state is that this is basically a dead metaphor so why the heck are you even using the phrase? Except as a xword clue and then No matter which form you choose, some people will think you got it wrong.
Very hard, and very, very good puzzle. Tiny section in the PLUSH almost killed me, aided by my misspelt entry of reprRESSED for 51A. But beyond that, I had no idea what Martini and Rossi produced, who ELISE was, what kind of ticket we were dealing with, and most importantly whether there would be a themer in that section.
Surprised the clue for TSTORM didn’t indicate an abbreviation.
Couldn't agree more with Rex. Just a sparkling, wonderful bit of fun. I did this puzzle on a dank rainy Saturday in New York and it was like a ray of sunshine. Please, keep puzzles like this one coming. Thank you so much and congratulations Ms. Iverson and Ms. Hale!
Hey Mikey, he likes it!!
I finished most of this on my commute into work on Metro-North. This was clever... I thought with all the all-EARS that this would be a rebus thing that many dislike, then had to regroup when this was obviously not! And regroup in a big way, since you didn't know how the themers would work out.
'Twas interesting that PATONTHEBACK was also right there with STAB in THEBACK... Someone a double-crosser?
Colin
[At work, so posting "anonymously."]
What a great Sunday! The variety of rebus types was so refreshing - usually you crack one, you can pretty much fill in the rest. Not so here.
BELLY up was so unexpected - as were the 4 EARS (I had EARS - one letter per box - since that would technically be all EARS for the 2 down clue).
ESOTERY was ok - it made sense, based on Esoteric - a bit antiquated but still.
Didn’t realize they were all body parts until after - an added bonus as I admired the FUN puzzle I had completed. So many regions with unique challenges! KUDOS!
(Also read how much work these two put into this - wow! And POW! as in the Jeff Chen rating).
Christina and Katie, in my opinion, you
HITTHEPARKIT!
I know I must be missing something. How is one’s mind part of one’s body ? Thanks in advance.
Pretty neat puzzle, all in all. A minor quibble: are "Elise Johnson McDougald" and "Sela Ward" names that a reasonably informed person should know? I mean "Gil McDougald" or "Ward Bond" would have been okay,but ... Yeah, I know they're men, but nobody's perfect!
Great fun! My last to fall was 'ear's and it took me a while. Tongue in cheek,side by side, and pat on the back were relatively easy but for some reason I couldn't see 'ear's, 'belly' up, and 'mi-nd-ed' even though they were italicized clues. I enjoyed the whole thing!
Just so the expressed opinion here won't be unanimous, I will record my (alas, entirely predictable) vote. I really Did Not Like this puzzle. Tricks, tricks, überall tricks. Not much else. I yearn, no doubt in vain, for the day when we can once again have a *crossword* puzzle (that is, not a tricks exercise) that does not depend on esoterica [sic] -- like the New Yorker puzzles, say....
Printed version here with no help except from the title (I really do recommend reading the title) but that made it even more fun, if that's possible. Caught on at EARS and thought, here we go, and as many have said, each one was a revelation.
Today was the day I discovered the Large Print Version of the print out and relaiized I should have been doing this for, oh ten years or so. You have to go back and forth between the puzzle page and a clue page, but YOU CAN READ THE NUMBERS! We get too soon old and too late smart. I mean, really.
Muchisimas gracias for this one, KH and CI. I Keep Hoping for a puzzle you Couldn't Improve, and here it is. A masterpiece, i. e. SATURDAZO!
Clever, but a few went over my head. I never saw THE NOSE part of 12D/30A - I got PAY and then paid no mind to the rest of it. Speaking of MIND, never got "small MINDED" which was a triple DNF area. I wanted ADMIT, BINDI and LEEDS but never put the three rebi together. And I didn't see the BELLY up until after it was all filled in. Stared at YLLEB for longer than one would think necessary.
I did not know ESOTERY - left it as ESOTERa. A noun was needed there and I was thinking of ESOTERica.
Some of the non-theme fill was clued fairly hard - "Part of a prank" was very misleading to me, since I misinterpreted the "Part" part. And thank goodness I knew all of the crosses on DOWEL because "One holding things together, perhaps" is pretty non-specific. Is "The BIGGER they are ..." a common phrase? I ask because BIGGER came to me fairly quickly but why? WHEN do we say that? Ah, "the harder they fall" is the rest of it. Of course.
Maybe it's the loss of the hour, but I'm feeling rather dull-MINDED this morning.
Christina and Katie, congrats on getting Jeff Chen's POW and Christina, congratulations on the new assistant crossword editing position at the LA Times!
Yes, it reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer goes to Detroit and designs his dream car. In a good way.
Hey All !
Broken record time! And I'm sure you either don't want to hear it, or just don't care. I had a similar themed SunPuz submitted and rejected by the NYT. Can't remember the reason right now. Mine didn't have Rebi, but did have the "throughs", "overs", "unders", and various other trickery (I'd have to find it in my stack, and right this minute am too lazy. 😁)
Anyway, I'm actually surprised the majority liked this (even Rex!) I figured with the inconsistency of the Themers, y'all would pan it as gobbledygook. Rebus here, cross there, doubled letters, backward word, ... But, it works for ya.
I did like it, but wouldn't call it BSE (Best Sunday Ever). (Maybe I'm jaded about mine?)
The one Themer is PAT (on) THE BACK. Not STAB (in) THE BACK. STAB just happened to be there. To be consistent with the way this theme plays, ala PAY (through) THE NOSE (with the A making it THEANOSE), that would have to be THEBBACK, with that extra B from STAB. See it?
Had a one-letter DNF (well, actually a one-rebus DNF) at the ED of MINDED. Couldn't get the ole brain to think of "small minded", and LEEDS (England town I take it? [Was thinking York, PA, har]) wasn't on my radar (😁), so put in SEYE making MINDS EYE, thinking I needed a body part there, totally eliding past the fact that MIND (brain) already is a body part. Tricky. Then no Happy Music, changed it to LESS, then FUL, then finally out of desperation, hit Reveal Square, to see it be ED. Dang. I said, "LEEDS! Really?"
First one I figured out was PAT (on) THE BACK, even though I had STUPiFY spelt thusly. At one point, entertained PAy (over) THEBelt, which is idiotic. Cracked up at Rex's EAT A SANDWICH for EAT A TON. (Which, naturally, started out as EAT A lot.) Another iffy plural there, KALES. "I bought these KALES today, are they any good?"
Fill ended up not too shabby considering the weirdness that some of the Themers caused. The EAR Rebus got a sorta groan from me. At first had ALL(EAR), but wondered what happened to the S. Then said, "Is it all EARs?" and gave myself a Meta chuckle.
So nice puz ladies. Like your F work, too. And that TISNT CHETONGUEEK.
yd -2, should'ves 2 (easy words, again)
Three F's (ok, so seemed like more before I counted!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Great puzzle. I couldn’t to see @LMS comments… (sigh)
This was an A+ puzzle, Christina and Katie. The themers were all different tricks which made it tough. Took me awhile, but I finished no errors (I did cheat, googled once for ALTA). My errors I had to correct were sOs> nOW > TOW. EATAlot>EATATON. KeLpS>KALES. LIESAwait>LIESAHEAD. Had a bit of a problem with HOTROLL... is that really a thing? I agree with someone who mentioned that they thought narrowMINDED instead of smallMINDED. SEEWHATIDIDTHERE does fit into the theme when you think about it. SIDE by SIDE was my last themer to fall, so simple yet it eluded me. The stretch "ones legs” was wild. Really a well done puzzle. I showed it to my family when I finished - which is my benchmark on how good a puzzle it is . Best Sunday in awhile, IMO. Thanks gals!
Loved this too much.
Two funny coincidences occurred while I was solving. As usual, I was watching CBS Sunday Morning while I solved. During the show there was a commercial about the new West Side Story movie. There was a long shot of the star of the show with a big caption, Rachel Zegler as MARIA.
Then later in the show there was an interview with Will Smith, which featured his MIB movies prominently.
I had already filled in both answers (really! I'm not lyin'!) but it was pretty OUTRE (SEEWHATIDIDTHERE).
You wuz robbed if you didn't get italicized clues, so my deepest sympathies to @mary in nebr, @Amie Devero, and @Roberto.
Because this puzzle was tricky in so many different and unexpected ways, the solver really did need to know where the trickery -- whatever it was -- would occur. Without that help, this puzzle might have ended up being quite frustrating and perhaps not even solvable. With it, the puzzle was pure delight -- as can be seen from all the over-the-top raves this morning, including mine.
@anon9:53 - Is this really the forum to discuss the MINDED/Body problem? Probably. 😉
@bigsteve46 - As a former principal I would generally agree that we are not crossworthy, but given ELISE Johnson McDougald’s First status and that it is in NYC I would say she’s the exception. As for SELA Ward, she replaced Burmese rice as the go to SELA clue way back in 1986 and the vast majority of the 98 NYTX SELA clues are the actress. She will be in a puzzle near you soon.
Some great answers here, (7D, 30A, 99D) but once again I must voice my strenuous objection to "rebuses." How many letters will we squeeze into a square? 3, 10, 15??? Honestly, the whole idea of a crossword is filling in one square with one letter (I'll even allow the odd number.) Multiple letters is a cheat, pure and simple, in my mind. "Belly up" was clever; putting three of the darned things in a row? Garbage.
@Anon 9:53. I questioned MIND at first but the mind is just BRAIN function so close enough.
Did I feel I was dressed as Sisyphus today? Yes....I did. I kept rolling that huge boulder up the hill only to watch it go thundering back down. Will Zeus get the better of me? Actually, I finally got to the top and yelled: Take that you godless god....
This kind of puzzle reminds me of the fun, clever Liz G. You had to think and peer closely and sniff out the maze creeping all around you. Once you see your exit....Eureka!
Had lots of do-overs.....drank some more Peets, walked the pups, erase, erase...oooo la la. That's it.
Favorite...hands down: CHETONGUEEK. Actually, I loved them all. EAR EAR EAR Ye. Two queens have emerged. Can we have seconds anytime soon?
I liked it! It felt challenging for a Sunday as I was doing it, but somehow I finished it 18 seconds faster than my Sunday average, so I guess that makes it medium for me.
ESOTERY is bad, but CELLI next to KALES is possibly worse. Just ugly, non-word answers.
It’s the kind of clever puzz I would love —after a good nights sleep.
Supports my theory that mood plays a big part of solving experience.
Got the literalness, cleverness but not the fun.😂😞😂
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
I fell
head
heels
for this puzzle
@Nancy 10:56 - I also had no italics, but I thought it added to the fun!
Wow! This was a theme that never quit. What a fun Sunday puzzle with lots of tricks to keep me amused. There was no chance of getting bored halfway through and walking away. I suppose it’s fair to say it was a disjointed solving experience, but that was the point, wasn’t it? I was so pleased to finally see all EARs and small MINDED. They were my last to fill because I didn’t expected a rebus experience so late in the solve. All that and a rebus too! I couldn’t have asked for more.
A couple of months ago I got flamed for having the audacity to say tennis player Naomi Osaka was not legendary. I stand by it. Last night she got bounced from the tourney at Indian Wells in straight sets. And the prima Donna that she is, she wanted to use the umpire’s microphone to address the crowd. Her absurd request was denied. If there’s anything legendary about her, it’s her sense of entitlement.
While “Utahan” may be little called for in New York-based speech, I found it called for often enough during the dozen years I lived in the Beehive State.
Why is everyone so complimentary of this mess of a puzzle? It's a stew of five different themes mixed with a dozen crosswordese clues and another dozen made up words. Why are there two rebuses randomly thrown in?
Agree with Joaquin (as I often do) and all those who loved this delightful romp. Got all ears first and loved every one that followed. Glad Rex liked it, too--imagine!!
Champ! The hard copy magazine, it said "champing"
I actually work the NYT puzzles in the paper as delivered each morning. I know— hopelessly old-fashioned.
But today, in The Magazine version, 73A is correctly spelled “champing at the bit. There is no 72A clue.
So that should solve your many complaints! Thank you, ladies, for a terrific puzzle! PS— I see the need for
“esotery,” but my iPad is insisting I spell check!!
Mods, how can you possibly allow the 12:14 comment?
@anon 12:14 What percentage of professional athletes are not spoiled, self-entitled brats (maybe one out of a 100)? Baseball players don’t run to first or hit the other way, Kylie Irving plays at most about every other game, Aaron Rogers is a dismal excuse for a so-called “professional”. Give me a break. If the whole lot of them were not some combination of strong, fast or possessive of good eye-hand coordination, they would all be working at a car wash somewhere.
When my son was about 4 or 5, we were in the car on a long trip and I said that we were going to stop soon to stretch our legs.
He got very upset and started whining and crying- I don't want to stretch my legs all out! Ha ha he took it literally!
I did the puzzle in the printed magazine; the italics helped, but not enough. I didn't know the educator, and never figured out MESA, so I ended up with aLISE, which seemed plausible as an alternative spelling.
@Z, thanks for explaining the difference between the printed version and the newspaper version, I was going nuts trying to figure out why other people's printed puzzles were different from mine.
Also--I've now chedked this 5 times -- my newspaper version has "Champing at the bit" as the clue for 73A; so either whoever set up the online version changed it, or whoever prints the paper in Florida changed it in the other direction.
No idea about MIB, but the crosses took care of that. I was also under the false impression that Wranglers were made by Lee (don't know why, but I've thought that for maybe 30 years), so I had LEvi there at first.
The other fun error was SAintS before SACONS, thinking football teams.
It took too long, but it was worth it.
Tough. I got bogged down in the MESA ELISE area and had to put it down and come back to it. Add me to the “great puzzle” contingent, liked it a bunch!
Primo SunPuz. @Nancy darlin said it all pretty darn good, back there at 8:59AM [b-4 M&A was awake, due to his lazy bod thinkin it was 7 sumthin AM.]
How else to say it? Luved it. Flatout har-ful. sUnpUzthUmbsUp!
fave extras: BUDDYHOLLY. BELLAGIO [Home to the world's most expensive salad, btw]. HOTROLL [Sneaky clue made m&e want EGGROLL … lost precious nanosecs]. TSTORM [har].
Thanx for gangin up on us, Christina & Katie darling. Great job. Fun solvequest.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
Got (Loretta) LYNN right away in the NW corner, then figured the old-time call to action might be “oyez,” but backwards to fit the Y of LYNN, which was possible because there was clearly a trick going on with the italicized down clue. But nothing else was working, so I moved on. Didn’t get back to it until the end, and the whole Upper West Side was really tough for me. The two rebused answers were the last themers to fall.
I never look at the title (on the app), so I didn’t realize they were all body parts until I came here. That made it even cooler. I agree with most that it was a great Sunday, especially because figuring out the trick of one theme answer didn’t really help with the others. To come up with additional themers, you’d not only have to think of new body parts used in expressions, but you’d also have to come up with new ways to display them - so you couldn’t do “neck and neck” as two necks running alongside each other (because that was done with “side by side”). Difficult to construct and fun to solve!
Wanted the thing that babies do faster than college students to be something interesting like “interpret parents’ facial expressions” and was a little let down to find it was just GROW.
Loved the clue for LSD (“letters that might change your mind”). I tried that drug twice in my youth. The first time was delightful, but during the second trip, I really thought my mind had been permanently changed and I would never go back to normal. That was scary so I never did it again.
Yay! I am so happy for a fun Sunday puzzle, even though I was stumped by a single goofy mistake. I kept finding that the fill answers were just slightly out of the ordinary, and that made the puzzle more challenging and fun to solve.
BINDI was also my clue to unlock small MINDED - and then I jumped up to the NW to quadruple my Ears.Yay!
And thanks for pointing out the location of STAB!
More, please!
My “Newspaper Version,” printed from the NYT website around 11:30 last night, has “chomping.” xwordinfo.com has the clue as “chomping.” My understanding is that the physical magazine is printed days ahead. My understanding is that “champing” is original but “chomping” is well established so not “wrong” enough to need correcting. All this makes me wonder if anyone’s puzzles actually say “champing.” But @jberg says he has checked five times so it is a mystery.
@Unknown12:35 - I feel like that post says more about the commenter than about Osaka, but I tend to agree with you.
@Suzy - I can’t get the NYT delivered at my address otherwise I’d be solving in the paper as well. Especially irksome is I just got a delivery offer in the mail but when I tried it I got the same “hey we can’t deliver but we can mail it so you get it two days later” message. And Now? Email inquiries asking me to finish subscribing. Most irksome? The same people who deliver the local paper deliver the NYTs and I get the local paper every day. Blrrrgh.
Here I've been worrying about Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine when all along the real problem is using CHOMPING when it should have been CHaMPING!
Unknown,
What’s wrong w the comment at 12:14. Dude got the sh** kicked out of him for saying what increasingly looks true: Osaka is not some transcendent talent, she’s not a legend , or a legend in the making.
Lots of folks said otherwise.
It was point of debate on the blog.
There’s news on the subject. Why not let folks have their say?
Ok so this was a superb Sunday puzzle. Hi everyone!
DELIGHTFUL! I enjoyed it much more than my wife, but that has more to do with what today is — i.e. the day of The Clock Shenanigans. We lost an hour overnight, like most in the US today. Somehow I woke after five hours of sleep, chipper as can be, while my poor wife is still groggy. Even though I have provided her with coffee and a lox bagel in bed, the grog persists.
I can’t recall seeing a similar puzzle, where the theme gimmick was different for literally every themer — though I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve solved one and I’m just forgetting. I got All Ears rather quickly, and can also claim getting OONNEESSLLEEGGSS with only three crosses. (Though we solve on paper in ink, so we did wait for a few more corroborating letters before committing wholeheartedly.)
My wife got (MI)(ND)(ED) without hardly trying. Impressive brain on her.
Also, when we filled in CHETONGUEEK I pointed at it and said, “I just know Rex is going to call out that answer for looking ugly.” Lo and behold I was right.
Been a wild several weeks in our household. Attended an old friend’s memorial service in Texas (the first time we’ve been on a plane since covid), my wife’s employer went YLLEB (belly up, bankrupt — a Russian-owned company who got cut off from their venture capital because of Putin’s insane war, and in a matter of 24 hours their payroll couldn’t even cover her last check), our dear cat had a semi-costly health scare, and my own workload has precluded anything resembling a healthy work-life balance.
This is all just to say it’s been tough, and I miss engaging with you all in the comments. Thank you for being here.
Just discovered large print version myself. What a diffence!
Brilliant puzzle!
However, I have to admit this was a DNF for me because I was never able to suss out “all ears” and small-MINDED which left me with some non-theme gobbledygook in those areas. Since an ADIT is an entry, I overlooked the noun/verb disagreement in the clue. Ah well…it was STILL a fun ride!
I am a little confused by @Rex saying that the clue PETTY had quotation marks around it. In the app all theme clues were in italics and PETTY was not in quotation marks.
@Anon 12:14 - As far as I can tell, exactly one person (another Anon) disagreed with you back on 1/14/22, and did so gracefully by presenting what they though was evidence disputing your claim.
a) I hardly call that being flamed.
2) 2 months seems a long time to hold on to that particular grudge, and
iii) Naiomi cares not a whit about you, why the obsession with her?
Nothing to add that hasn't already been said.
Except maybe this: My dismay at realizing there were no nits to pick was more than compensated for by my enjoyment while solving the puzzle and then revisiting all the themers.
Like many here, I've been solving for [mumble mumble] decades so "best Sunday ever" might be overstating.
But, it's definitely in my top 10. Maybe even top 5.
Thank you, Ms. Iverson and Ms. Hale, for this gem and your tenacity!
🧠🧠🧠 (and so chewy!)
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉*
*A rare 5-party-favorer
Anon - point of debate on another blog. Nothing to do with today.
Mods - how about an answer?
@Beezer - Apparently if people did whatever needs to be done to solve the crossword in .puz format the italicized clues got changed to having quotation marks, instead. Since some non-theme clues also had quotation marks this caused some confusion.
@oceanjeremy - Yikes! I hope everything gets better.
@Questina - 👋🏽👋🏽
This was fun, and as others have noted, each theme answer required something unique. I got stuck in that same BINDI area. 2 proper nouns next to a rebus all going down to end in a quaint contraction didn't allow for much traction.
CELLI is the preferred plural, at least among people who play the CELLO - surprised this is getting questioned.
inre ELISE: Can anyone name a general knowledge principal other than Joe Louis Clark (subject of LEAN ON ME)? I have to chuckle because the puzzle used to feature clues like "female name", which would have been equally useful.
@Unknown 2:19 - I feel like we got the mods answer.
@Larry - I feel like the question may have come up some other time, but I don’t care enough about the opinions being expressed to check. I hadn’t heard about the most recent incident nor did I remember the history of the venue, but now that I am reminded I can’t say I am surprised. Personally, I continue to be impressed by Osaka’s willingness to be open. Definitely a legend on and off the court in my opinion.
I probably clocked 10 extra minutes searching for my one mistake. Was certain it was at “YLLEB” ‘cause I had no idea how to fit a body part in that. I had it filled in based on crosses, but kept thinking there must be a rebus in there.
Got tripped up on CHETOUNGUEK, as I typed in chetounguCK. My brain said “of course, it ends in CK... I took me for ever to spot that.
@Questinia.......Oh my, how you are missed.
Any chance of you coming back on a regular basis....?
xo
Cluing "esotery" as "arcane matters" makes no sense at all. "Thoughts of arcana" would be a better clue.
The word is arcane enough to be improperly "defined" on many internet sites, which I guess is the go-to place for puzzle editors these days. More's the pity.
A rare treat! I couldn't ask more of a Sunday puzzle - challenging, engaging from first square to last, so satisfying to figure out - again and again. It took me an age to get the first body part, the EARS, after which I expected to find multiple arms, toes, etc. But no. Instead I found OOs followed by NNs and EEs, and ???? over my head. Once I understood that stretch, I had a better idea of the task, or tasks, ahead. The hardest for me was making sense of MI-ND-ED - the Ohhhh! after that one was especially sweet. Those remaining, featuring on, in, by, and up were easier, as similar tricks have appeared in weekday puzzles - but not in such variety, of course.
One of my favorite non-theme clues was "Part of a prank," - like, what? Initial idea, execution, glee? (Hi @ Teedmn). I loved finally getting IN ON IT - it fit my experience of the theme so well.
I feel this is very close to being the best Sunday ever. But there's one I still remember (and there may be several others I've forgotten, forgetting being one of the best things I do) -- a classic puzzle that I think I found even more challenging, clever and enjoyable than this one. Do you remember this puzzle?
Z,
You and unknown didn’t so much get your answer so as much ass you got your wish.
Since even Rex missed on, I feel it would have been more democratic to asterisk the theme clues. I had a terrible time with belly up and small minded. Got belly up without a clue why. But overall, this was a nice challenge and I almost got it.
Really enjoyed this one BUT when printed from the website, it lacked the italics that indicated theme answers! So we never got SMALL MINDED.
@Nancy 3:26 if we are nominating, I'd like to suggest June 19 2016. One that had me pulling my hair out until the huge AHA!, but that still had one more surprise before it was over.
Thank you.
How are you to know to put all Es in the (All) EARS answer?? The online solution marked it wrong to actually spell out ears. All Es were required to get the little music reward. Grrr. When a box has multiple letters in it, how do you know which one to select online? Is it always the first letter?
Great puzzle. I agree that Esotery was a bad choice…I thought iogis was just a crossword word I wasn’t familiar with. However it was Edda crossing Gas that got me because GEs is a perfectly good answer too. Edde looks just as good as Edda for all my knowledge of Icelandic works, new or old.
Agree
6/19/16…my favorite so far!
@kitshef
Thanks for those aseball stats late last night.
Also I think television weather maps and graphics say T-STORM. That is was the abbreviation indicator. Of course they could have said TV weather map to make it really clear. I think TV is the only place I see weather maps anymore.
I didn’t really pay much attention to it while solving, but on Across Lite the themer clues were in quotation marks.
Re: UTAHN vs UTAHAN, the locals prefer the former:
https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/so-is-it-utahn-or-utahan
Not having the italics in the printed version made it all the more satisfying when the theme finally reared its head. For me, it was "all ears". What a blast! The discovery of the themes was half the fun: I loved "stretched one's legs". And I don't think I've seen a puzzle so universally (almost) adored. Great job.
@unknown at 459, I put EAR in every box and got it right.
Maybe you entered EARS in every box? Which would be All Earses, correct only if Gollum says it.
@kitshef - What @albatross shell 5:06 said. That the Tigers fall further behind the Damn Yankees the deeper you go reminds me of the 1961 season where Cash hit .364, was bombing homers with Rocky Colavito, the Tigers won 101 games,… and finished 8 back of the Damn Yankees.
@Anon3:44 - What wish did I get? If you think I was wishing for 12:14 to be deleted, I wasn’t and they weren’t.
LOL funny tweet from David Steinberg.
Skipped around and the first themer I got was CHETONGUEEK, and I laughed out loud. The fun didn’t stop until, well, never, but boy did I get slowed up by Petty MINDED. Fortunately I had a vague recollection of learning an Indian word (from crosswords) that is similar to the word for okra - “bhindi.”
I would have been in the same boat as @Amie Devero, @Roberto, @Unknown 4:03 PM, i.e., up a creek without italics, but I’ve learned to check the “newspaper version” for notes, titles, and special fonts. Kudos to @mary in nebr and @kitshef for your unassisted solves! @Z, I see you posted about the newspaper version - do you know why the default version doesn’t have the “extras?”
I was totally thrown by “Part of a prank.” When the clouds parted I had to explain my exclamation to Mr. A. Love/hate it when something I was oblivious to seems so obvious in retrospect.
Posting even later than usual - been on a long journey with today’s birthday composer, Hugo Wolf. I knew the name but not his music - his lieder are fantastic. So distilled yet descriptive - the music actually intensifies the poetry. This one is set to “Sun of the Sleepless” by Byron, as translated into German by Otto Gildemeister. The images in the video are quite striking as well.
So the title of the puzzle is BODY LANGUAGE. The theme are are wackily clued body parts : EAR, LEGS, NOSE, BACK, BELLY, CHEEK, all of which are tangible body parts. Then you have MIND, which is not. Not complaining but it does not make sense.
Well, I'm completely off everyone's wavelength here -- a first for me. I found this a slog, even after having figured out the theme, and just frustrating. Glad everyone else liked it--I found it an unenjoyable mess.
Utahns consider "Utahan" a typo.
If by best you mean worst, I agree
Thanks for the recommendation....a very enjoyable puzzle, much needed after today's!
So did I ! I thought he was going to condemn it for having too many themers.
There should be a separate category for puzzles like this one. Call it "multi-thered," maybe. There are so many separate tricks here that one can't keep the straight. It's as if the constructors said, "Let's use every tricky theme we've ever seen, and put them all together into one puzzle."
Exhausting.
And every themer was different. That's what made it a "worst ever" for me.
My favorite puzzle EVER! Especially because each themer was different LOVED THIS!! MORE MORE MORE!!
I must admit, Thursday is my favorite puzzle day, and this was Thursday on steroids. Thank you so much to Christina and Katie!
It's CHE TONGUE EK. The tongue is in the cheek. Loved this one.
Yes! That could have been a double theme answer!!
Oh dear. Clearly, I am losing it. I way, WAY by a LONG shot DNF. This made NO SENSE WHATEVER to me, nor could I figure any way at all that it might. Threw in the towel less than halfway through. This was more than humbling--it was downright humiliating--or else all of you are MENSA. It was as far beyond me as the stars. I never had a chance.
CREEPER'S MYTH
HEARYE all YOU MEN who TRIED:
YOU SEEWHAT YOU DID was meek,
just a PAT(ON)THEBACK SIDE,
she'll PLUG her TONGUE(IN) TO your CHEEK.
--- MR. DIETER GEISEL
Apparently I'm in the minority. TRIED to like it but couldn't. Got a few themers, like PAY through THENOSE and TONGUE in CHEEK, but wasn't about to waste ATON of time on it. Made me sorta CROSS, no point starting the day like that. Lotsa different tricks so I suppose that's a better pony, Just not for me.
For @spacey - SELA Ward, yeah baby.
This puz? TISNT for me.
Apparently some folks had italics? Not here. Might have SUPPRESSED the slogginess.
Loved it!
Hooray! @Rainy's back!
At first I was worried this would be the dreaded rebus, but then I got the idea that this was full of many ideas.
As usual, good thing I don't care about "time." Do "timers" race through their meals, too? Slow down. Enjoy!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting, Patiently, for Crosswords
I didn't understand the answer "team" for "Os, but not Ps or Qs". Is this an oblique sports reference?? Fortunately, the crossing words were easy enough. Would appreciate an answer from anyone.
@unknown@12:04AM - O's is short for Orioles as in Baltimore Orioles.
Still can't figure out what the answer to 81 Across means.
TEAM - Os but not Ps or Qs. Huh?
chetongueek
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