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Willow used in basket-weaving / THU 3-10-22 / Brit's bottom / Grinder vendor / Volcanic vestige / Mad Men milieu informally / Dummy in Canadian slang / Hearing disorder remedy? / Movement that began with Stonewall informally
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Constructor: John Westwig
Relative difficulty: Challenging (despite the fairly basic theme gimmick)
Theme answers:
- TRAIN A RIDE (=> ride a train)(17A: "Equestrian is wanted to ... / Experience needed: conducting")
- MOVE A BUST (=> bust a move) (12D: "Museum curator is wanted to ... / Experience needed: freestyle dancing")
- DEAL A STRIKE (=> strike a deal) (23A: "Baseball pitcher is wanted to ... Experience needed: negotiating")
- PLANE A BOARD (=> board a plane) (46A: "Carpenter is wanted to ... / Experience needed: flying")
- CHECK A CUT (=> cut a check) (31D: "Nurse is wanted to ... / Experience needed: philanthropy")
Plastique is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. She is an enemy of Firestorm and both an enemy and love interest of Captain Atom. (wikipedia)
• • •
The fill was also quite unpleasant in many places. Who in the world is PLASTIQUE!!? LOL, I just spent the last six weeks teaching superhero comics and I've literally never heard of PLASTIQUE. If you read her wikipedia page, you'll see, there's not a ton of reason for me ever to have heard of her. And if *I* haven't heard of her, it seems, let's say, probable, that a sizable chunk of NYTXWsolverland isn't going to have a clue. Of course many of you won't have known ZENDAYA either, but you don't have as much to complain about there, as she is very (if fairly recently) famous (she won the Emmy for "Euphoria," an HBO show that I learned only recently is really really popular with college students; it's one of HBO's most popular series ever). Older solvers will have to content themselves with Danny KAYE and Mortimer SNERD. Speaking of names, just a gruesome one-two punch with ELON and RUBIO. Then there's the downer of REPO and the really badly timed super-downer of TOTAL WAR. Then there's the not-at-all foreign-language words, TUO (slightly rough if you don't know Italian) and HAEC, dear lord, HAEC, I studied Latin for a bit and forgot HAEC was a thing. And it's clued in a phrase I've never heard of. I just kept wanting the clue to be [In ___ veritas] so I could write in VINO and move on. Oof, HAEC. And who calls it GAY LIB!?!? Women's Lib, Gay Pride. I can figure out what is meant by GAY LIB, obviously, but I don't think it ever had the widespread currency that WOMEN'S LIB did. Also, like WOMEN'S LIB, it's a dated phrase. Anyway, I knew what Stonewall was, obviously, but LIB, yeah, did not see that coming. The worst mistake I made, though, by far, was writing in PRAT for ARSE (18D: Brit's bottom). I'm not even sure Brits say that. And wow, if you're gonna make a mistake, maybe don't make it in the answer that crosses the *one letter* ("A") that is going to be most crucial to your understanding the theme. Hard to see the "blank A blank" pattern when your "A" isn't there. Also, if you've got PRAT where ARSE should be, you get TRAIN PRIDE, and honestly, that seemed very right. A conductor should have TRAIN PRIDE, and the equestrian ... I don't know, maybe the horse's name is PRIDE?? Or else the equestrian will also be doubling as a lion tamer.
SAD SIGHT was tough, as I had SAD STATE and then later considered SAD SIGNS and SAD SIGHS before SAD SIGHT ever occurred to me. But perhaps the toughest struggle came with LOWKEY (24D: Chill), a perfectly good answer clued in a perfectly good way except, ugh, OYEZ, what is happening there!? It's a horrible little answer to begin with, and then you get cute with the clue and the horribleness just goes up exponentially (27A: Hearing disorder remedy?). So I guess ... there's a trial ... and something causes "disorder" in the court ... and maybe the bailiff shouts "OYEZ"!!? (it's an exclamation that essentially means "hear ye, hear ye"). But I can't blame OYEZ for my LOWKEY screwup. For that, I have to go to SCHWA, and a little bit to "OH, OK." I had the "S" and "A" at 30A: It begins "again" and didn't even hesitate to write in SOFT A. I'm not even sure that's a real thing, but I've seen "hard" letters (HARDG, for example), so I thought "well, I've got the "S" and the "A," so why not?" Well, "why not?" is because it's wrong. The SOFT also meant I got into trouble with 32D: Alarms—I wanted FIRE BELLS (!?!) instead of HORRIFIES. In short, there was not one section of this grid where the solving experience felt smooth or delightful. A slog from start to finish, despite the inclusion of some nice (NOICE!) fill here and there. Corny theme, depressing fill. This week has been particularly off. The themes just haven't landed right at all. Really looking forward to cleaning my palate with some crisp themelesses this weekend, and then ... well, I'm on vacation most of next week, so other people will be writing about the puzzles while I get some much-needed puzzle-free time. But in the meantime .... see you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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125 comments:
I thought men were already pigs.
I love reading @Rex. I sometimes totally agree with him and sometimes not at all. Most of the time it's a mix. My take today was that I enjoyed the solve a lot. I thought the theme was just fine and the cluing was overall interesting.
Actually, the shortening of Women's Liberation Movement to "women's lib" was a pejorative. We in the women's movement often pointed that out. The media didn't shorten Black liberation to "Black lib" but as a way to denigrate the women's movement, they sneered at "Women's Lib." Younger folks might not realize how despised the women's movement was in the 1970s and that one of the main weapons of the anti-feminists was belittlement. So, well meaning people without this sense of history, please do not use that phrasing!
And as someone involved with both movements, yes, Gay Liberation was what we used to call it. The Gay Liberation Front was a very radical group back in the 70s.
Oh, man, what an involving puzzle!
I caught on to the theme at the first theme answer I came to, so I was immediately drawn into figuring out the other theme answers with as few crosses as possible, with varying success, but with a big “Hah!” and “Aha!” each time I got one.
That threw me into the solving zone, but what deepened it and kept me there every moment was the cluing throughout the puzzle. So many clues were riddles in their own right. I love that! It wasn’t just the six question mark clues – and all of them were terrific riddles, including the world-class [Hearing disorder remedy?] – but also clues that could have more than one answer such as [Alarms] and [Build], and riddly non-question-mark clues such as [Smooth over, in a way] and [It begins “again”].
Some puzzles I solve and throughout I am just half there, where experience takes over and rote is rife. Puzzles like today’s, though, grab me, shake me, and won’t let go until the last square is filled in, and then it spits me out as I wear a blissful smile.
And that is me right now – expectorated, enlivened, and ebullient. Not a THUD at the end of this trip, John Westwig, but a huge thanks. I loved this!
Bit of a struggle with this one. Got the theme, more or less, but was way down by PLANEABOARD when that happened, and even then struggled a bit with the others.
Held on forever to SoftA which really made the west tough, as I didn't have CRYOUT or ACID and just couldn't get those long downs to gel.
Had happily forgotten ELON was person of the year, and yeah, Rubio, TOTALWAR, and the fill in general didn't exactly spark curiosity or further exploration.
Am debating whether to SWITCHJOBS or retire, so perhaps I felt like the themers didn't really do the topic justice. Or I'm just grumpy this AM.
Totally agree with you, Rex. Even once I got the theme, what a slog. It took me an exceptionally long time to solve, too, because parts looked so nonsensical that I kept second guessing myself. Hoping tomorrow is better.
Wordle 264 2/6
🟨🟩🟨⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
But woohoo, got my 2nd eagle after 50 played. One under par now...
I’m no prig, but I’m not delighted to see ARSE in the grid. Paired with the unpleasant clue for EDDY, it adds up to a puzzle that fails the breakfast test. And what an awful time to include TOTAL WAR. Ugh. Downer.
No one with a brain ever called that steroid-swilling cheater from Chicago by that name. There is only one "Slammin' Sammy," and his last name is Snead.
I got stumped at GAY LIB too. I so wanted to write in GAY PRIDE that I considered throwing out everything I’d written so far and looking for rebuses.
But the web assures me, the Gay Liberation Movement was a thing. I lived that era and fought that fight. Maybe we did call it gay liberation for a day or two in the 1970s, but “gay liberation” was so quickly replaced by “gay pride”, the older phrase it just falls wrongly on the ear nowadays. Even old queer ears like mine.
Talk about "fussy and unpleasant".
Could there be any person who needs a vacation more than @Rex?
As almost always, I enjoyed the theme more than Uncle Rex. All the themers are consistent: verb-a-noun, read either direction. And several land pretty well, to me. My favorites, most to least:
MOVE A BUST and CHECK A CUT, land both ways.
PLANE A BOARD works forward, DEAL A STRIKE works backward.
TRAIN a RIDE falls with a THUD both ways.
But I'm not a big baseball fan, nor an equestrian. Do pitchers "deal" strikes? Do equestrians train "rides"? I dunno ... Either way, thanks John W.
Meanwhile, Ukraine weighs heavy, all day, every day. Will the next few months or years be the crucial moment in the lives of everyone on this earth right now? Either the human race cowers in fear, or turns its back, as another of the great psychopaths of history marches humanity back to totalitarianism. Or we decide never again.
Will we watch the Putins, Trumps and Xi Jinpings prevail in madness? Sometimes, possible death isn't the worst risk in life. We're all going to leave this planet in the blink of an eye. What will be our legacy? It seems the people of Ukraine have made their choice.
BRAGA, HAEC, PLASTIQUE, and TUO were WoEs, but all the crosses were good for me.
I knew ZENDAYA from the current Spider-man series (where she is very good), but I can see that BRAGA/ICI/ZENDAYA section leading to trouble for some.
In my world, RPM stands for Revolutions Per Minute, so is already plural.
GAYLIB?
Too much gay agenda all around here. I mean, you have all these LIBIDInous bi athletes après-SKI in their preppy POLOS showing off their PHYSIQUEs and wiggling their ARSEs while sipping SPRITZes in CAFÉS and EYEing one another.
The New York Times had better be very careful it does not find itself banned in Florida.
Why is "neat" clued in parenthesis? Neat is a legitimate definition of no ice.
Had to catch one error at the intersection of SNERD/HOSER (13D/22A) before the happy music played.
Tough puzzle, but I'm on "Team Lewis" over "Team Rex" today. Had to work start to finish, and even walk away and return later to get this one done. Loved it!
Like Rex, I had SoftA instead of SCHWA; once I got CHECK A CUT and knew SoftA couldn't be right, I then put teRRIFIES for HORRIFIES.
This also happened to be a grid with a treasure trove of Hidden Diagonal Words (HDWs)--tons of 3 letter entries and several really nice 4 letter finds: TEAK, HOAR, RIDS, SAID, LOUD ("Like golfer Daly's pants, often"); and SHRY (which apparently is urban slang for "cry in the shower").
But the best of all is the 5 letter "Basic skateboard trick" OLLIE, which appears both as the answer to 60A, and as a HDW (begins with the O in 40D, COPS, and moves to the SE)!
Delighted by all of your tricks, Mr. Westwig!
Got stuck in many of the same places as OFL, only I didn't get off to as smooth a start. I had mad av. for the milieu at 1A, so the NW was problematic. Luckily, I'm old enough to remember Danny KAYE, Mortimer SNERD and the GAY LIBeration Movement, although I don't remember it being shortened to GAY LIB. Too bad there wasn't a way to include SANDWICH A EAT.
Thx John; fun Thurs. puz! :)
Med++
Seemed like I was struggling everywhere on this one.
Wasn't sure of SPRITZ / OYEZ / ZENDAYA / CIRCE area; ended up with CIRCi for the dnf. Lucked out on the others.
Did grok the theme early on, which was some help with the solve. Cute; liked it. :)
Enjoyed the challenge.
@okanaganer 👍 for QB Tues.
___
yd pg: 20:23 / W: 2*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Had a similar solving experience — breezed through the NW and struggled everywhere else — but enjoyed it much more than Rex. I was looking for the rebus from 6A (Snead, not Sosa, and I’m a Cubs fan). Also spent way too long trying to make RecS work for RPMS. LOWKEY was a great answer with a tough but fair clue, and once that fell I could clear the last section I was struggling with.
Good thing Rex is getting a vacation other than his stay in the NW corner roach motel.
I get all his points and agree with them in theory, but I actually enjoyed the theme.
Most of the themers don't make actual sense in that they're not real "jobs" or common phrases, but I didn't care.
Some days I just don't give it that much thought. Mostly because I can't afford to waste it.
Enjoy your day.
🧠🧠
🎉🎉🎉
@Conrad 731am 🤣🤣
The constructor is right in that the Gay Liberation Movement is what emerged in the years following the Stonewall riots. However, I’ve studied (and lived) a lot of gay history; I’ve never heard that movement referred to as “gay lib”.
"Fussy and unpleasant". Is there anyone less self-aware than Rex? Take that vacation Dude.
Had rush for ARSE for a while and was in the Soft A camp so had some revising to do. Some themers landed better than others. Move A Bust is my favorite.
Believe Rex is off to California, right? Don't let the Bomb cyclone get in the way. Saturday is going to hurt.😬
Wow, it’s been a while since I stuck this long with such a thoroughly unenjoyable puzzle. Started out in the NW wIth an actress next to a foreign fill-in-the gibberish, next to another actor/actress crossing a sorceress and two theme entries - ok, Saturday-level stuff here but I’ll try the blind faith gambit . . .
Unfortunately it was pretty much more of the same everywhere I turned - PLASTIQUE clogging up the NE, right next to a Latin crossing something that looks like a Spanish or Italian algebra test. Throw in stuff like HAEC, TUO, and OYEZ - and well, you get the picture and it is not a pretty one. All well and good for those of you who enjoy the high-level parsing, but obviously not my cup of Java.
On a more positive note, has anyone else been dipping into their Jeff Chen giant book of puzzles - I like the fact that he embraces all skill sets and difficulty levels. Definitely enough there to keep one busy on an entire rainy day (or even a weekend in binge mode). Good stuff.
I liked this one, and I liked Rex’s take. Good read. But somebody help me: SCHWA??? (I went with SOFTA too, as I suspect many did.)
Don’t know why there is an exclamation point in the clue at 36 across. I suppose it implies a political position held by the constructor and/or the editor. If the citizens of the District of Columbia are really concerned about taxation without representation then they can retrocede to Maryland. We’d love to have them !!!
This was fun - cute themers with oddball fill but I need a little more trickery on a Thursday. Agree with Rex on the Debbie downer feeling - HORRIFIES, TOTAL WAR, DIRGE etc darken this thing. I guess SOSA lightens it? OYEZ is off - I knew HAEC but that’s an outlier too.
Enjoyable enough solve - but Thursday should challenge at a deeper level.
I took it as a nod to the double-nature of the clue.
Neat means no ice.
"Noice" with an exaggerated "o" is a slang synonym for nice or neat or sweet or cool etc.
One of my favorite entries as of late.
There was a weird aura to this puzzle. Toilet clue, TOTAL WAR, even the distribution of letters seemed odd at times.
The clues were different. I was blind to the LIB part of GAYLIB too but it was a nice aha because of the clue. That is what it was called at the time. I loved that movement because in many ways it was the most radical and they were the bravest amongst us being the most prone to being despised and physically attacked. @Shirley F is perfectly correct about LIB. LIBbers even more so of any variety. The GAYLIBeration Moveent proudly accepting the the word queer was a big step forward. Let your freak flag fly. What a wonderful world it was.
I had the most trouble in the NE trying to BUST A step. But I enjoyed all the oddness and all the reversing backward themers. A slow solve with much to be amused by. OYEZ to ACID to REPO. Unknowns ZENDAYA SIETA BRAGA all filled in. May you all have A DAY of ZEN.
For me the SW was really brutal. Could someone please explain SCHWA? What on earth is that? I could not have gotten that in a million years and still don’t understand it.
Couldn’t get HORRIFIES because to me, “alarms” is much less intense than HORRIFIES. Nurses do many, many things - CHECKACUT doesn’t pop out at the top of the list.
Agreed it was Saturday brutal around much of the grid. Various things just would not fall. Agreed with Rex about PLASTIQUE... WTF? That Q was the last piece to go in and I was REALLY unsure about it.
That LOWKEY area was a mess. I also went for SOFTA at first but it didn't seem to be working for the downs so I tried SCHWA very hesitantly, but I had OKOK instead of OHOK so CK__ isn't going to be a word and I was just... GAH.
This was a clever puzzle with an engaging theme. It took me much longer than an average Thursday to finish and since the cluing was interesting I enjoyed every minute. Since the DC universe is as remote to me as the Marvel one, I had to claw my way to get PLASTIQUE. Since I’m not up on Canadian slang, HOSER compounded the problem. SCHWA gets me every single time. OSIER is a jumble of letters as was HAEC. Of course I wanted GAYpride. PHYSIQUE played tricky for me. The themers were all fun and I can’t decide if CHECKACUT or MOVEABUST is my favorite. This was a winner because I didn’t miss a rebus at all.
Ugh, I just gave up on the NW. No idea about BRAGA, ICI, ZENDAYA, or SCHWA, which, even seeing it now, that last letter could be a few things and I would just have to take the puzzle's word for it. CIRCE wasn't coming to me, and AD--- left me struggling, ADAGY? my final theory that maybe in the show they called Madison Avenue AD AVE led nowhere. HAEC similar to SCHWA, ok, if you say so, puzzle, but there I at least had the crosses. Theme came pretty quickly for me @ BUST A MOVE, but agree about RIDE A TRAIN, and with someone above about RPM already being plural. I actually winced at RUBIO, not a fan of ELON, but sending those internet device thingies to Ukraine was pretty cool
Easier for me than for Rex, but I also finished with a mehty shrug. First, do we really need the second half of the clues? It seems like the first half of the clue lets us know that we need to phrase a flip, why all the extra verbiage? I suppose the second half helps suss out the theme, but isn’t getting one themer from the crosses or the revealer clue enough?
And then OSIER appears and the eyebrow arched. That’s one of those guilt inducing answers, the sort of answer where a new solver or non-xword solver looks at you in amazement at the breadth and depth of your knowledge and really you just know it because you solve crosswords. It has appeared in NYTX over 200 times, I don’t recall ever seeing it in the wild. I see that answer and the the flashing neon “Warning! Obscurese Ahead” sign lights up. OYEZ and HAEC complete the obscurese triumvirate. We’ve definitely seen worse, but that’s three answers giving some significant demerits to the fill.
There were some highlights. BRAGA crossing CIRCE induced a moment of cinematic reverie. Although today it would probably be ZENDAYA. And Biathletes do it in the same puzzle as GAY LIB caused a chuckle.
@kitshef - We’ve had this discussion before, AGS, RBIS, RPMS, when we pluralize the abbreviation we add an S even though the plural would be added to the first word in the phrase were written out.
@mmbeitlermd - I guess to indicate that we should be imagine somebody saying “neat” and “no ice.”
@Peter P yesterday - Damn. I explicitly ask in order to try to keep all you Petes straight and I mixed you up. I’m sorry.
I agree with most the criticisms already posted. One addition: are "Alarms" and HORRIFIES supposed to be synonyms? I disagree.
I did not like this puzzle.
SCHWA - The first vowel in “again” is a SCHWA. “Uh” is how I would represent the SCHWA sound, but if you look at a dictionary pronunciation it will be represented by ə.
🤣😂🤣 - Tried OSIER as my first wordle guess. It wasn’t an awful start. Par but I had a decent birdie opportunity.
Caught on to the "what makes this a Thursday" after a couple of switcheroos and deciding that SNEAD was not going to lead to some sort of rebus. Otherwise only snags were the usual pop culture stuff-PLASTICQUE and ZENDAYA, and parsing NOICE as one word, and not knowing poor FRED.
TERRIFIES before HORRIFIES which obscured the W of SCHWA forever. Speaking of which, what exactly is the "soft a" everyone is referring to? I've heard of a short a and a long a, but a soft a, not so much.
Some diabolical cluing, JW, Just What I want on a Thursday. Reminded me of some of the stuff you see in the Saturday Stumpers, and that's fine by me. Thanks for the fun.
Ain't Gonna Study War no More ~ Nat King Cole
Won't that be one mighty day
When we hear world leaders say
"We don't have to cry no more"
"We're givin' it up, we gonna let it all go"
Ain't gonna study, study war no more
Ain't gonna think, think war no more
Ain't gonna fight, fight war no more
We're givin' it up, we gonna let it go
We're givin' it up, we gonna let it go
We will take gun powder to have fun
Then get rid of the atom bomb
Something else that we can do
Get rid of all those rockets too
Ain't gonna study, study war no more
Ain't gonna think, think war no more
Ain't gonna fight, fight war no more
We're givin' it up, we gonna let it go
We're givin' it up, we gonna let it go
The money spent on bombs alone
Can build poor people a happy home
Something good we can do
You treat me like I treat you
No more starving in the nation
Everybody gets an education
Every time a baby is born
We know he'll have him a happy home
Ain't gonna study, study war no more
Ain't gonna think, think war no more
Ain't gonna fight, fight war no more
We're givin' it up, we gonna let it go
We're givin' it up, we gonna let it go
No more sleeping in the street
We all happy whoever we meet
Then we all will shake their hand
And make this world a promised land.
Songwriters: Cole / Jenkins
___
td pg: 23:55 / W: *3
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
This one should have been sent back to the drawing board.
The theme fails on several counts. There are no jobs being switched. The switched phrase isn't experience for the original. The expressions are clunky -- e.g. TRAINARIDE.
Weak cluing. "Drop it!" for ACID. "Collector's item?" for REPO.
But there was still a bit of fun to be had. We didn't learn LIBIDO in the Latin classes at St. Ignatius High School.
*********** Wordle Stuff ***********
My first word came through again. Three greens. I missed the putt for eagle and settled for birdie.
************************************
Our governor Gavin Newsom has just announced a plan to help homeless people who are mentally ill. It's called CARE Court. If properly implemented, it sounds like a winner. Is it getting any publicity outside of California?
Thanks @Z for the SCHWA explanation. That does sound familiar, now that you mention it, though that whole class of SOFTA, HARDG, etc type clues still throws me pretty often, even without a linguistic term for it. Also, yeah, I forgot to put OYEZ in that list of NW unknowns. LOWKEY, ARSE & SPRITZ all went right in, but what could O-EZ be? A brand name for hearing aids? Having googled it now, my reaction is, ok puzzle, fine, maybe I'll remember it for next time.
OSIER is indeed a good starter for Wordle, I was in the AUDIO club for awhile, until it got boring & went back to mixing it up every day.
Adding to Southside....(one of my fav commenters, GO SSJ!)
NW - 10 clues with 40% PPP plus a foreign word. Not surprising this is the area Rex completed in "10 seconds" - nothing but trivia and garbage.
Add in French, Italian, Latin and Spanish (entire clues and answers, mind you) for today's version of language stew. Yuck!
Other than all the garbage and made up words (I am looking at you OYEZ,HAEC and others), I liked the theme and thought most of puzzle was nice. If the NYT is our "Gold Standard" for puzzles I think we have work to do.
I just got the "Neat" clue meaning the one word "NOICE", which also works as "NO ICE".
I love coming here to learn that the clue for OYEZ was either a horrible answer with a too cute clue that makes for exponential horribleness OR a world class terrific riddle. Can anyone guess the author of both of those? If not, you are banished for a week.
I thought this was easy/medium. Steady progress, not fill in the blank easy, but never stuck.
I like WERECOOL crossing LOWKEY - tonal symbiosis. WE(')RECOOL looks like a leftover from yesterday.
Prat means idiot, not bottom, in the UK Rex since you asked... It is still used.
I really, really did not need a toilet bowl EDDY here with my cornflakes.
Agree. That was my pet peeve with this one!
The theme is cute enough but the density impacted the fill, it would seem to me. I solve English crossword puzzles and when things in Latin, French, Italian and Spanish appear, I am not amused. I might have reqacted positively to the puzzle but for the fill.
I can understand why Sharp does not compose write-ups during his vacations, but given the speed of his solves I would not stop solving the puzzle. Especially when you are as discriminating as he is, you would not want to miss a puzzle you respond positively to. Has it become too much of a job? That would be sad.
@Nancy from yesterday - There's a real reason for the new tie-breaker in Jeopardy!. At some point, all serious Jeopardy! players realized that the smart wager, in Final Jeopardy! was to play for a tie if you and your opponent(s) are right and they bet their max. The most important thing is to come back tomorrow. At some point, there were weeks where multiple times the games ended in ties. Once all three contestants tied. The powers that be decided that the nature of Jeopardy! demanded a clear winner, hence the rule change.
Elon Musk helps Ukrainians by supplying much needed internet but according to Rex, he,s GRUESOME!!!
Great idea. Wish I'd thought of it. I didn't "get" the gimmick until all the way down at CHECK A CUT. But I was stubborn: this wasn't going to be the second day in a row that the theme sailed right over my head.
With a theme like this, some of your themers will be a bit awkward-- almost in the language, though not quite -- but it's all in a worthy cause. I'm not compaining, not really, but you don't TRAIN A RIDE, you TRAIN A HORSE. And yo don't really DEAL A STRIKE, you THROW A STRIKE.
Also if I'm a museum curator, I'm not gonna MOVE any damn BUST. BUSTs can be quite heavy. That's what strong male underlings are for. What's the point of being a curator if you have to go around moving a bust yourself, that's what I say. I would have preferred the clue to have been "museum worker".
I would have had NO ICE in a nanosec if "Neat" had not been in quotes. Why the quotes?
I cheated on ZENDAYA, btw. I was too intrigued with this puzzle to get all bogged down in TV pop culture clues. I wanted to focus on the good stuff.
I found this one quite challenging, probably would have solved it without the cheat but it would have taken longer. I enjoyed it and think it's quite clever.
This wasn't quite the slog for me that it was for others (finished at about 60% of my Thursday average) but I agree that the theme was lackluster. The only theme answer I really liked was MOVE A BUST.
Hey All !
Brain not functioning correctly this morning. Stuck all over the place. Same with SB. Tough getting words. My wheels aren't spinning quickly enough.
Tough puz for me (in case you didn't grasp that 😁). Three letter/six word DNF. Had DuRGE spelled thusly, never occurring to me that it could be an I. Never mind that CIRCE I've heard of, and CuRCE I haven't. SNERt/TAt. Defensible? ZENDArA/OrEZ. OY VE.
I did like that the top two and bottom two Themers have one-row twixt them. Sorta stacked. Tough to fill cleanly having that many Downs crossing them. And in open space like they are.
Wanted ADmen for 1A, but men was in the clue, so went with ADrep. Took till end of puz to fix that. Didn't fall for SADStory as I think constructor wanted me too, as having STATE already there.
Puz didn't quite land with a THUD, but TESTED the wordings of the theme and Revealer. But, still, WERE COOL.
yd -9, should'ves 3 (tough one!)
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Just no to "oyez." It is not something shouted to calm a courtroom, it is an expression used at the beginning of a court proceeding. It means "Listen." Horrible puzzle today, worst of the week. Mr. Shortz is getting too clever by half with some of his clues.
This was a bear! I struggled to get a handle on the theme, and I think I set a record for "Well, let's go on to the next one" in the clues. But after the very gratifying moment of enlightenment at the inspired MOVE A BUST, my pace picked up with the theme answers and those threw me a lifeline of crosses for the clues that @Lewis likened to riddles (I loved that comparison). One of the hardest Thursdays in a while for me, and I really enjoyed matching wits with the constructor, including getting faked out on the familiar REPO and SCHWA and catching on to the wordplay for OYEZ.
Do-overs: SAD Story, teRRIFIES. Help from previous puzzles: HOSER, JLO. No idea: ZENDAYA, PLASTIQUE, HAEC, FRED.
@burtonkd 9:24 - I loved your quiz on OYEZ (which I'm confident I aced:) ).
A slow frustrating journey which started out great* but figuring out the theme took so long that by then the aha moment kinda landed with a THUD. I get that the concept is JOB SWITCHing but I just don’t see where busting a MOVE or cutting a CHECK or riding a TRAIN or boarding a PLANE constitutes any kind of a job. So good idea in theory but again, thud.
Agree it was challenging and all over the place with pop culture. Canadian slang, an LGBTQ term, a Spanish translation, an Italian pronoun, basket weaving, comic books, skateboarding, and entertainment trivia all the way from Danny KAYE in 1947 to Sonia ZENDAYA in 2020.
*But I did love 1A. Any clue that gives me visions of the ultimate AD man PHYSIQUE of Don Draper is OK by me. A DOSE of just what the doctor ordered.
@mathgent - It’s all Ukraine all the time, so no, I’ve not seen any mention of CARE Courts. My initial reaction is If properly implemented is key. There will be pressure for it to just become another criminal court.
@kid - Yep. Letterist clues still trip me up, but less often than they used to.
I’m always a different word every day to start wordle, although I do like equip, quiet, and other Q words. Just because.
@Blackhat - It’s even worse than you state. If you look at just the 3x5 section of the NW 13 of the 15 squares are PPP in at least one direction. Ouch. I have CIRCE by Madeline Miller on my To Read list so that corner was easy for me, but it is quite the PPP Phest.
NO ICE v NOICE - Five appearances in the Shortz era, all suggestive of the ICE meaning. Only four non-Shortz appearances, all in the 1960’s and all clued with Cut ______.
@Alex - What I saw was two ties in the same taping led to the tie-breaker.
@Unknown - That he wants to polish his public image makes him no less of a jerk.
Let me add a huge "amen!" to those who have protested taking Snead's immortal moniker, "Slammin' Sammy", and bestowing it, THUD, on another Sammy athlete in a different sport. You can't do that!!!!
And anyway, "Slammin'" isn't Sosa's moniker, it's his noniker.
The theme was so dreary and not fun that when I hit that puppet clue I bailed. Voluntary dnf. But did like being reminded of Zendaya first thing in the morning.
Hmmmm....Do I like this? Or, as Rex put it...was it a slog from start to finish? Toss a coin: heads or tails?
Which reminded me of a joke:
POLICE: "I'm sorry for the both of you, your son set the school on fire"
PARENTS: "ARSON?"
POLICE: "Yes, your son."
Feel free to get up and scratch the arse.
Well I've been gone for several days and so, perhaps, I'm rusty and dusty and I felt like a HOSER.
I caught on to the theme at DEAL A STRIKE. Oh...one of those kinds of puzzles. But getting there was like trying to get a horse to plow the fields with a little rake and a shovel. Good gravy on my hot tamales.... this was hard. As I itched my scratch all over the place, I got s few here and there. Did anyone else have AD MEN for 1A? Was I alone in my quest for sense and sensibility? Yes?
I moved on, inch by little inch worm. Forgot about BRAGA, didn't know ZENDAYA , forgot about ELON and PLASTIQUE could have been a banana split for all I knew.
OLLIE OLLIE in free.
SCHWA threw me the curve ball from hell...HAEC did no dance with me and when I got to the grinder vendor cue at 41D, all I could think about was a dentist.
So it went. I certainly thought it clever...but no AHA shouted from my balcony.
Sometimes, wavelengths mean a lot. I wasn't on John's boat today.
I enjoyed this puzzle, and it was a puzzle. I had an especially challenging time around SCHWA - I've seen it here recently but it's barely in my crossword vocabulary. I got a smile out of BIZ when I saw it, and NOICE too, but it took a while. ZENDAYA was 100% through crosses, and of course I didn't know PLASTIQUE either. I knew OSIER because of studying plant books looking for shrubs suitable for challenging locations. Willows would thrive too well for my tiny yard.
I agree the theme was corny, but must we be superior to corniness at all times? Life is too short to be cool.
I first saw ZENDAYA on Dancing with the Stars in 2013. I thought she was a ringer. She was a professional Hip-Hop dancer and had been dancing her entire life. I realize she had no experience in Ballroom but still-not an equal playing field. I enjoy watching people with no dance background learn and get better. Having professional dancers compete seems to be against the whole concept of the show.
I started to watch Euphoria but it depressed me too much. I need something light these days!
LOL. No such thing as gay lib. Homosexual acts enslave, they don't liberate.
And before I get flamed and then memory-holed. I speak of actions not people who enage in those acts. People of good heart can disagree on the rightness of action without speaking in any way at all about the actor.
I’m back in @Lewis’s campfire circle today singing Kumbaya. From NO ICE to OYEZ today’s grid was a multiple head shaking experience! Thanks for a non-rebus Thursday triumph Mr. Westwig. As a non-TV watcher, the Y for ZENDA?A was a mystifyingly hard square since I’d missed all those ads for that popular hearing aid cleaner OY EZ though I’d luckily seen ads for tiDY bowl in print. And that SOW rooting up the newly SOWn garden brought me back to barefoot boy days in reverie—that smell of freshly plowed furrows, just “Wow!” No THUDs at all John and I’ve never dropped ACID though the new research on psychotropics may make me change my mind.
OH OK, just frigging brilliant.
A tough Thursday.
Let me add to the list of wrong/misguided clues/answers already mentioned; you drink a SPRITZer, you SPRITZ Windex on the pane of glass you want to clean.
Slamming clues for SNEAD - 28
Slamming clues for SOSA - 6
Tough, mostly because I held on to soft A before SCHWA for much too long. The rest was more medium. I caught the JOB SWITCH about half way through which made for a nice aha experience. Fun Thursday, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did.
الوان حجر بازلت
تركيب ارضيات حجر بازلت
حجر بازلت عباسية
تركيب ارضيات بازلت
Is this puzzle really telling me to drop ACID?
In spite of a couple of clumsy themers (TRAIN A RIDE, DEAL A STRIKE), I liked this one and had to put up a good fight to wrestle it into a solve. Really like the SWITCHes in MOVE A BUST and CHECK A CUT and the discovery that each of my eyes has its own immune system.
Got stumped at 45A wondering what bi athletes could do in only three letters.
NOICE keeps popping out of the grid as a Dook begging for a definition. An Australian synonym for “awesome”?
And in memory of the werewolves from yesterday’s theme, it occurs to me that a really hip werewolf would be WERECOOL.
Back in the day, before Omni took over The Homestead, Sam Snead's bar was terrific. Can't vouch for it these days. But Sammy Sosa? Come in. Did anyone see his most recent tally of the HOF vote? I'd be sorry for anyone else but his steroid-fueled rampage through the NL is unforgiveable (in terms of the Hall). Of course, as you all know, only a sin against the Holy Spirit is unforgivable.
10:51. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
Does no one remember Slammin' Sammy Swindell? Always felt like Slammin' was a weird choice for a racecar driver.
@Anon 10:51 - There's no such thing as a homosexual act (except maybe Act IV of La Cage Aux Folles but I don't think that's what you're talking, there are only acts performed by homosexuals. Homosexuals don't do anything my wife and I haven't done together over the years, and we're not homosexuals.
There's no pretending you're not a bigot.
Count me in the puzzle admiration society today and I was thrilled that I didn’t have to cheat although I spent a great deal of time in the SCHWA zone! So, like others I put in SOFTA then FINALLY thought…hmmm. It’s short and long for vowels and soft and hard for consonants. This led me to reflect on the “correct” pronunciation of Aaron…just kidding! Anyway that crazy SCHWA finally popped into my head.
I have NOT watched Euphoria but knew ZENDAYA due to the recent Dune movie. ZENDAYA doesn’t really get much action in Dune Part I and is mostly featured in premonitions.
OYEZ is fair…although I would say the announcement is more to stop folks from chattering before the judge comes in, but I guess that chatter is disorder. I typically think of a CONTEMPT citation as a cure for court disorder, though. [Gavel banging]
I have to admit my non-friend RUBIO helped me out in the SE. I forget how, but he did step up.
This was an exceptionally tough Thursday. There were unknowns like ZENDAYA, HAEC and TUO which had to be worked around and verb/ noun confusions that I totally fell for. SCHWA held out the longest thanks to my TERRIFIES/ HORRIFIES write over.
I know that patiently waiting for the fog to clear made me a better solver but I can't say that I enjoyed it.
yd pg-4
A soft "A" is the same sound as a short "O" which is not the "A" sound in again. I'm surprised so many tripped on that, even Rex.
Angler is wanted to…/ Experience needed: underwater live videography. (Answer below)
I agree that GAYLIB is not really a phrase, but LIBIDO is a LIB I DO like.
I liked this lighthearted theme. Sure, you can carp about some of the job duties not being real to life. But I think it was a cute idea and fun to solve. Thanks, John Westwig.
Answer: FISHASTREAM
I'm a Brit, and yes Brits use "arse" for bottom (i.e., backside) all the time. It's not derogatory.
For Wordle lovers and haters both courtesy of Deb Amlen’s Twitter.
I finished it, but was scratching my head, asking, "Can OYEZ really be right?" The clue is just wrong. OYEZ OYEZ is identical to "hear ye, hear ye". The English version is used in most courts today, but the Clerk of the U.S. Supreme court still says "OYEZ" at the start of a session, which is pronounced "Oh Yes". Law French has a pronunciation all its own. In any case, it is never used as a response to disorder in the court. The gavel is used for that, sometimes accompanied by "Order! Order!" and an admonition from the bench that any person who engages in further disorder will be removed from the court by force. And the bailiff, often a deputy sheriff, but in Federal courts a U.S. Marshal, is accompanied by his two friends, Smith and Wesson.
Now if you like to visit courts, may I recommend a trip to the Old Bailey, aka the London Central Criminal Court. There, the bailiff will CRY OUT "Be upstanding!" before the Judges come in to take their places. It really is quite a show. My wife and I were delighted when after a morning session, we went to a famous waterside pub near the Tower, and heard one of the barristers we had just seen. (Yes, I introduced myself, and we had a nice little chat).
I think a lot more about Sammy SOSA than Sam Snead. I remember exciting baseball seasons, and while I enjoy watching some golf on TV, my memory of golf players begins and ends with Tiger Woods, and the players he competed against.
@jammon:
that's right.
@Brian A in SLC:
who wooda thunk it? but Lady Lindsey says that Vlad should be 'taken out'. after all these years of boot licking The Trumpster, MAGA, and Russia!!!
"The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country - and the world - a great service."
@R.D. Santis:
y'all sound like a self-loathing Queen.
@Marylander:
as a Yankee who spent a decade or so in DC, some decades ago I'll admit, it was taken for granted that MD was as Deep South as Mississippi. I don't think much has changed, and I don't think the Black population of DC would feature moving to Mississippi.
come to think about it, but the only time I recall hearing OYEZ was in "The Verdict" where the bailiff calls it out as the Judge enters. he says it 2 or 3 times, then gives a spiel about all who come to the court, etc.
gay lib has certainly appeared in print in the late 70's and 80's
What does WERECOOL turn into when he or she is not cool? Does that thing bite?
@JC66:
manies the barkeep who's asked if I want a SPRITZ and a lime wedge with my vodka. sometimes NO ICE and sometimes on the rocks.
@Z 8:45 Thanks for the explanation, guess this is a thing I should have known. Learn something new every day!
MFCTM.
The Joker (5:53)
Z (10:28)
old timer (12:05)
@Joaquin 7:00AM, @TJS 8:01AM, @pmdm 9:39AM... Agreed. Should @Rex take a TRIP? because the rhetoric is hitting with a THUD.
Easy for me, except having to write in RUBIO and ELON. But perhaps Westwig is suggesting that they SWITCH JOBS, and couldn't agree more.
Today's SAD Story revolves around the 8D/33A area but overall, my solve followed @Carola's hop-skipping technique fairly closely. HOSER crossing SNERD, jump to SOSA crossing OSIER and ATE, ARSE crossing nothing. Eventually I found my way back to the NE, got MOVE A BUST, the theme light bulb went on, and I started using the theme to fill in the blanks.
Granted, there was some bewilderment in the west when teRRIFIES had me staring at 35A's _HeK for a begruding agreement, but what the HAEC.
NOICE sounds like something Scooby-Doo would say for "Neat".
I found this challenging and entertaining and didn't worry my pretty little head about whether the theme answers made any sense. Thanks, John Westwig.
HAAAA!
The only themer that I liked was BUST A MOVE. It works smoothly and is in the language both ways. The others all sounded awkward and too far fetched in at least one of the SWITCHes, especially the DEAL A STRIKE. I played baseball throughout my youth from Little League (we called it Babe Ruth League) through college. I played most positions at one time or another including pitching and that phrase is just silly if not nonsensical to my ear.
The plural of convenience (POC) does get some grid space today although not as much as in yesterday's S fest. Other than the long Down HORRIFIES, the POCs that caught my eye most were the two for one types like at the end of COP/CAFE and the one where one of these is most often found, yep, the lower, rightmost square.
One of our neighbors has this large, strikingly handsome dog that looks like some kind of Siberian Husky but isn't. His name is something like a combination of PLASTIQUE and PHYSIQUE with a little OYEZ thrown in. I can never remember it and his owner said I'm not the only one and that most people just call him FRED!
DNF.. Didn't know of Zendaya. Went with ZeldaYa and trail a ride. Meh...
Regarding OYEZ - I think people are imagining a TV courtroom where the witness has just confessed and the gallery erupts, but the clue doesn’t actually require that sort of scenario. A Hearing disorder remedy can be applied as the Hearing begins. Everyone is chit chatting, waiting for the proceedings to begin, and the bailiff enters with OYEZ OYEZ and everyone quiets down and stands up.
Having a good day.
Wordle 264 3/6
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Daily Dordle #0045 3&4/7
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@Z (2:34 PM)
Agreed re: OYEZ.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Good theme with a few off clues. Feisty attitude in places, such as ACID as clued, and the in-your-face multi-lingualism.
I did not get the NW easily like OFL. Think my first entry was the feisty ARSE. First themer was one of the downs, CHECK A CUT. Thank you SCHWA.
Last in was the Y at ZENDAYA/OYEZ. I knew OYEZ but totally missed the court connection. Once it was REXplained to me it I actually liked it, even if he didn’t.
It’s not the puzzles fault, but TOTAL WAR, CRY OUT, SOULS, and DIRGE were very unwelcome reminders of the SAD SIGHTS in Ukraine.
If you need some beauty in your day/year/life like I did, CHECK out this moving rendition of Romanza Andaluza by today’s birthday composer, Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908).
OK, as an oldie here, I'm going to take the opposite position from many: GAYLIB was absolutely a phrase used, and not (as one poster says) as pejorative. I was on college campus in 1970-73, and Gay Lib speakers were on the bill every time there was a rally against everything else the Nixon administration was doing. George Carlin did a lengthy (supportive) riff on it on one of his early 70s albums, and "Gay Lib" was absolutely the phrase he used; it's how people knew the issue.
This is certainly not to deny that the phrase feels antiquated now -- and I hesitated briefly at filling it in here -- but the clue specifically locates it as just post-Stonewall, and that was absolutely the terminology used then by supporters.
Wow tough solve! A lot of negativity in the answers. Write overs: TERRIFIES, SAD STATE then SAD STORY. And of course, hands up for SOFT A.
[Spelling Bee: yd pg -1, missed this word and I have no idea why.]
OSage before OSIER. Only OSIER I know is a red osier dogwood. Took a long time even after getting PLANEABOARD. No idea PLASTIQUE (thank you, PHYSIQUE), ZENDAYA, once had a neighbor Zenda, tho.
Saw Son Volt in concert last night, the Jay Farrar version, not our fellow poster. Yes, we were the oldest people there. His songs that I know are quieter (Windfall, Tear Stained Eye, the one with all the cliches which Uncle Google tells me is called The Reason) but they were definitely rocking out. Fun night!
@Gill 10:42
OLLIE OLLIE oxen free, no?
@mathgent, z
Re: CARE court
California is where CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children) started, so if that's the model it will probably go well. After my husband retired from the practice of law he was a CASA volunteer for 2 years and a case supervisor (paid employee) for another dozen years. It's a terrific organization.
Hoping for the same from CARE.
Since I'm currently watching Euphoria, ZENDAYA was a no-brainer. She is simply amazing. Watch Season 2, episode 5 and tell me I'm wrong. (But you really need to watch everything that leads up to that chilling episode.)
@Nancy Trust me, EUPHORIA is not for you! You're welcome.
There is a blog called OYEZ, OYEZ (or something to that effect) that deals with SCOTUS stuff. Pretty informative. And made me chuckle when I saw the clue.
I thought today was simply a nifty Thursday. Hopefully rex can take that vacation and get re-adjusted.
And in more amazing news: Clearly I should play the lottery tonight.
Wordle 264 3/6*
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Hi all - I’m 68 and know both Danny Kaye and Zendaya. Isn’t popular culture of many eras fair game for a puzzle? Zendaya -Multi award winner and star of possibly the most popular show on television. Subject of countless articles in every major newspaper and magazine. Not exactly obscure. Why so many complaints? Old solvers have a distinct advantage so we have to keep up with new stuff. What I don’t know and will never know are sports figures. I am annoyed when they inevitably pop up but that’s my blind spot and I accept it.
What is meant by DEAL A STRIKE?
Please don't explain to anon @ 5:24
Cute, but awful basic, for a ThursPuz theme mcguffin. 6 themers, includin the SWITCHJOBS revealer! And the revealer has four consonants in a row (TCHJ)! All that constructioneerin bravado can encourage a nice, desperate HAEC or two to eruct.
Not sure about which themer was my fave … MOVEABUST is pretty solid. Kinda too bad they didn't include GOOSEACOOK, tho.
staff weeject picks: ICI TUO. Better TUO clue: {Out back??}. Better ICI clue: {Anticipate without offering the bug and the cracker spread??}. [M&A had to work harder, for that ICI one.]
SUBSHOP? - har
fave stuff: SPRITZ. LOWKEY. WERECOOL. PHYSIQUE.
Definite comic & villainous entry of mystery: PLASTIQUE. Downright explosive, in its puz-use obscurity.
Thanx for all them STATEARULE orders, Mr. Westwig dude. Good job of confusin the haec out of M&A for quite a spell … good for M&A to suffer.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
@Smith 4:55p - word is they are in great form. I’ll be repping the older age class too tomorrow night at the Brooklyn Bowl for my first post-Covid concert.
Here is my 2 cents on Wordle
Had to get PLASTIQUE, OYEZ, SNERD and HAEC entirely from crosses as I had not even an inkling of what any of them would be otherwise, but the crosses on all of them were gettable enough that I still finished under my Thursday average. Nary a NATICK in sight.
I must add that a 48 year old and not a college student I have been well aware of Zendaya for some time and easily got that clue. My kids have been watching her on KC Undercover for years. She is also been in other movies.
Anon 5:24,
Deal a strike means for a pitcher to throw a pitch which is called a strike.
One of the most common reportages ( in print, on radio, or tv) to praise a pitcher who is throwing well is to describe him as dealing.
I’m happy that we’ll have MLB this season.
If anyone wants to discuss two pitchers who could deal, I’m happy to debate the relative merits of Walter Johnson ‘s 1924 season compared to Dazzy Vance’s.
Are there any other Brits following Rex? Could we do a poll on whether ‘Arse’ would be welcome as an answer in a UK crossword?
The NYT seems to think Arse is a cute Brit synonym for tush or heinie. Or maybe a variant spelling of Ass? Yes some Brits, including my old man would say “Don’t be an arse!” as acceptable speech. But because arse also specifically means rectum in Brit English, it is not IMHO a polite word. I’m concerned for the health of innocent American puzzle solvers using the word carelessly in London pubs.
These puzzles are getting weirder and weirder…..
@Son Volt
Enjoy!!
Yes!!
@mathgent
Just read about the CARE court in copy-editing Sasha Abramsky's next "Left Coast" column for The Nation, going live very early tomorrow morning.
I'm torn because I'm not sure whether I struggled with this solve because it was a well-executed, challenging construction or because it was a poorly-themed/defined mess.
Frankly, cluing felt more obscure than clever and found little satisfaction in completion.
It was definitely one of the most frustrating Thursday's in memory.
BUSY STATE
JLO has had NO PLASTIQUE,
"TOTAL COOL", says A PAL who knows her,
"CHECK that BUST and PHYSIQUE,
my LIBIDO says to HOSER."
--- OLLIE ELON "FRED" RUBIO
Very enjoyable and fair until I hit the NW corner. BRAGA, ZENDAYA and SCHWA made that area quite Naticky. SPF was badly clued. And HAEC, PSAT, TUO etc. also bugged my ARSE a bit in spite of all the blemishes it was still OK.
@spacey - I am in Vegas now for a few days. Our hotel, the Strat, offers the Journal-Review for sale. Which reminds me that a few years back I recall seeing @Mrs.Spacecraft's picture in that paper. I presume you kept a souvenir copy?
@rondo: Welcome to the Big City with the Bright Lights and the Painted Women! Check out Carl's Jr., right across the street. Sinfully good! For more elegant dining, try Joe's Stone Crab in Caesar's Forum Shoppes. Reserve please. If the maitre D is a tall smiley gut named Tom, tell him Linda & Carl say hi. I do not recall the better half getting photoed, but then my fogettery is better than my remembery (Family Circus; Keane is great). On to the puz.
@The Joker: Your leadoff comment reminds me of the last sentence in Orwell's Animal Farm: And they looked from man to pig, and pig to man, and it was already becoming hard to tell which was which.
I'm surprised to see a "challenging" rating on this one. I had but one misstep: by the time I got down to the revealer, I wanted it to keep the same "blank a blank" pattern, so I wrote in SWITCHajob. But no, actually SWITCHJOBS makes more sense, as I soon found out via the trouble I was having in the SE corner. But for that, I might've even called it easy.
MOVEABUST could've gotten all PG13, but Westwig keeps it clean. I didn't have trouble with SCHWA, possibly because I really resist entries describing letter sounds, SILENT this or HARD that. At least SCHWA is its own, stand-alone, word. ZENDAYA went in on crosses; after the solve I Googled her: oh yeah, DOD.
I disagree with most of OFF's fussiness; score this a solid birdie.
P.S. @rondo: call or text (570)594-1891.
Finally finished - with a TAD of help.
Spanish, French, Italian, and Latin - what, no Urdu?
But the "trick" was punny and funny.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
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