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Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- ROCK IDOLS (23A: Unwavering) (rock solid)
- MOVIE TROPES (24A: Bit of cinema décor) (movie poster)
- POWER STRIP (34A: Outbursts of megalomania) (power trips)
- DEAD SPOT (47A: You might come to one suddenly) (dead stop)
- OIL PALM (55A: Antiquated source of light)
- PEANUT ALLERGY (67A: Spectators taking potshots, collectively) (peanut gallery)
- WET ONES (82A: Feature of a healthy dog) (wet nose)
- SEASHORE (90A: Fish with a prehensile tail) (seahorse)
- MIDDLE SEAT (99A: Birthplace of three major world religions) (Middle East)
- MENTAL LAPSE (115A: Advances in a baby's cognitive development) (mental leaps)
- BLACK STAR (117A: Demonology and such) (black arts)
Pepe the Frog (/ˈpɛpeɪ/) is an Internet meme consisting of a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body. Pepe originated in a 2005 comic by Matt Furie called Boy's Club. It became an Internet meme when its popularity steadily grew across Myspace, Gaia Online and 4chan in 2008. By 2015, it had become one of the most popular memes used on 4chan and Tumblr. Different types of Pepe include "Sad Frog", "Smug Frog", "Angry Pepe", "Feels Frog", and "You will never..." Frog. Since 2014, 'rare Pepes' have been posted on the 'meme market' as if they were trading cards.
Originally an apolitical character, Pepe was appropriated from 2015 to 2016 onward as a symbol of the alt-right movement. The Anti-Defamation League included Pepe in its hate symbol database in 2016, but said most instances of Pepe were not used in a hate-related context. Since then, Furie has expressed his dismay at Pepe being used as a hate symbol and has sued organizations for doing so. [...]
As early as 2015, a number of Pepe variants were created by Internet trolls to associate the character with the alt-right movement. Some of the variants produced by this had Nazi Germany, Ku Klux Klan, or white power skinhead themes. // During the 2016 United States presidential election, the meme was connected to Donald Trump's campaign. In October 2015, Trump retweeted a Pepe representation of himself, associated with a video called "You Can't Stump the Trump (Volume 4)". Later in the election, Roger Stone and Donald Trump Jr. posted a parody movie poster of The Expendables on Twitter and Instagram titled "The Deplorables", a play on Hillary Clinton's controversial phrase "basket of deplorables", which included Pepe's face among those of members of the Trump family and other figures popular among the alt-right. [...] In January 2017, in a response to "pundits" calling on Theresa May to disrupt Trump's relationship with Russia, the Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom tweeted an image of Pepe. White supremacist Richard B. Spencer, during a street interview after Trump's inauguration, was preparing to explain the meaning of a Pepe pin on his jacket when he was punched in the face, with the resulting video itself becoming the source of many memes. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)
• • •
A black star is a gravitational object composed of matter. It is a theoretical alternative to the black hole concept from general relativity. The theoretical construct was created through the use of semiclassical gravity theory. A similar structure should also exist for the Einstein–Maxwell–Dirac equations system, which is the (super) classical limit of quantum electrodynamics, and for the Einstein–Yang–Mills–Dirac system, which is the (super) classical limit of the standard model.There's also a rap group called BLACK STAR. So that's three. Three valid BLACK STARs. That should be enough for anyone.
Five things:
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- 40A: Educator Khan who founded Khan Academy (SAL) — I've seen his name a bunch now but wow SAL is just not gonna stick. Even after I got SAL I was like "that can't be right ... that's an Italian guy's name ... that's the pizzeria guy's name from 'Do the Right Thing' ... SAL?!" But yes, SAL. I'll try to remember this for next time.
- 61A: Where you might see scrolling credits? (IMDB) — is this because you are "scrolling" on your phone? Because "scrolling credits" are already associated with movies, so the "misdirection" here (to a movie database) doesn't really track as misdirection ... it's more "mildly adjacent reorientation." It's weird. I tend to think that these "?" clues should land perfectly or not exist.
- 45D: Finished the golf hole (ATE A SANDWICH) — I mean, basically
- 100D: Tackles (SETS TO) — I had SEES TO and it felt (and still feels) very very right. Really glad the cross was totally nonsensical with an "E" in that position (TOME > EOME, glaringly) (11A: It's not light reading).
- 41D: Imitation (APERY) — I would like to nominate APERY as the word with the highest seen-in-crosswords to seen-in-real-life ratio. I have seen "japery" in real life more than I've seen APERY, and that ... should tell you something about the commonness of APERY.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
59A - [Partner of dark] / STORMY reminds me of the annual Bulwer-Lytton writing contest, honoring the writer of "It was a dark and stormy night." The object is to compose the worst possible first sentence of a novel. A winner from years ago that still amuses the daylights out of me:
ReplyDelete"Seeing how the victim's body, or what remained of it, was wedged between the grille of the Peterbilt 389 and the bumper of the 2008 Cadillac Escalade EXT, officer 'Dirk' Dirksen wondered why reporters always used the phrase 'sandwiched' to describe such a scene since there was nothing appetizing about it, but still, he thought, they might have a point because some of this would probably end up on the front of his shirt.”
I guess PEtE the frog isn’t a thing. And wanted obI instead of ANI .Cleared those up and it was something sailing, though hesitated at OTTO. cool puzzle
ReplyDeleteAnagrams! Oh Goody!
ReplyDeleteBLACK STAR
Rex's PEPE was my TONYA. Ugh, that's a nasty memory; no thank you.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I didn't get the theme trick for ages. I must have spent 10 minutes trying to make MIDDLE EAST work. Just: "what is going on here?"
Today we have SANK A PUT and TEES (off)... in honor of the Master's? For the former I had PUTTED OUT then MADE A PUTT. Go Scottie! (I know how much Rex loves golf!)
[Spelling Bee: Sat. 5 min exactly to pg, then another 12 min to QB!]
Me too, @okanaga er: two very “ugh” references.
DeleteFinished this worst puzzle and threw it across the room... i stil don't get it.
DeleteStil don't get it. Can we g back to old-fashioned crossword puzzles? The ones that use words? PLEASE?
DeleteI’m very sorry but I can’t shake the feeling that this was possibly an intentional dog whistle somehow, especially given the authors young age, there’s no way he doesn’t know how loaded this term this. This is a huge failure on behalf of the NYT and I’m disappointed.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Especially with peanut gallery as the central theme answer. I'm surprised Rex didn't mention the racist connotations of that one.
DeleteAgreed. And concerned.
DeleteIt's a puzzle NOT a political statement. Solve it,acknowledge for an instant how what Pepe represents is reprehensible, and move on. Clearly whoever clued this puzzle did a below average job. Oh well.
DeleteThe funny thing is that political correctness, as tiresome as it is,is not nearly as big a problem as the average Joe, regardless of political philosophy, acting not like we are in a Constitutional and cultural norms crisis, but in just another day in paradise.
DeleteToo much guesswork in this one and the natick that really foiled me was that stupid ATEIT/AESIR crossing. Who knows answers like this? Apparently Rex. Anyway, would someone be kind enough to explain to me 74 across? Bow does "G or K" wind up meaning "thou?" Really lost here....
ReplyDelete“Thou” is short for a thousand. So are G and K. $100K for example. I didn’t get it at first either.
Delete@Ken Freeland 1:45 AM - Agreed in general, and in particular regarding ATEIT/AESIR. In Boomer-speak, ATE IT means took some sort of financial loss, like on a stock purchase that "went south" or "took a dive." As for AESIR, well, I read my Thor and Avengers comics pretty avidly as a kid in the 1960s and 70s, and I try to stay up to date on my Marvel franchise films, and I know they come from Asgard, but I never heard of AESIR.
DeleteThanks for the explanation... I cannot agree that "thou" is fairly clued... It is a sort if slang, not a true abbreviation. As to "ATE IT," I'd be ok with it if I knew what "face-planted" meant, but I 'd never heard the term..
DeleteTough. Sorting out the anagrams and making sense of the downs took a while. I’m not that fond of anagrams so this was a bit of a slog. Jeff at Xwordinfo is right, this would have been better as a 15x15.
ReplyDeletePEPE is the common nickname for Jose, so that alone creates all kinds of opportunities ("Spanish Joe" is even a misdirect involving coffee). PEPE Mujica was the president of Uruguay for five years and has lived an incredibly interesting life. There is at least one world-famous soccer player whose name is simply "PEPE." Ugh.
ReplyDeleteAlso, are we really just going along with MIRY as a word? Because... really?
@ken - G for grand, K for kilo. Also ATEIT is pretty common crosswordese, so I would not say that's a Natik.
ReplyDeletePepe can go get MIRY. Yuk. Off to the races with me. Found a 10K in the park.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI didn't "get" the theme early on, so I just solved as if the acrosses with shaded squares were clued as "Common phrase." That worked until I got stuck in the SE after finishing most of the puzzle: I don't know my mixed drinks, never heard of BLACK STAR, tern before ERNE at 114D and several zoo sounds before MAAS at 113D. That's when I reviewed the puzzle and noticed the anagrams. That helped with BLACK STAR and helped me to the finish line with no cheats. Add me to the list of those who couldn't believe or accept the not-so-innocent frog reference at 17D.
BULGY? MIRY??
ReplyDeleteCrappy, Lazy, Unworthy.
In addition to 17D: PEPE, there's 62D: DNC, as if the Democratic National Committee is a left-leaning organization. That one should have been caught as well.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more.
DeleteG and K can denote THOUsand. $10,000-10G. 10,000 meter run-10K
ReplyDeleteAnd in accounting and finance, $10k is $10,000.
DeleteMan, a lot of talent and perseverance had to go into coming up with these theme answers. According to his notes, David did it the old-fashioned way by finding a massive list of anagrams online, then culling through them using just his brain, rather than having computer code spit out answer possibilities.
ReplyDeleteThat’s the perseverence part, manually working out possibilities. Because surely, the great majority of the anagrams he came across wouldn’t work. For instance, let’s take puzzle answer GENRE, which anagrams to RENEG. Is there a word that beautifully jives with GENRE and RENEG? No. But David had to put in time and effort to come to that conclusion – each time!
The talent part is coming up with a word that actually works well with each half of an anagram pair. Coming up with ROCK to go with IDOLS and SOLID, or SEA to go with HORSE or SHORE. Here, can you come up with a word that goes with LUMPS and PLUMS (which Jeff Chen came up with by coding and put in his blog)? It takes a special ability, IMO, to find these words using the brain alone. (The answer is SUGAR.)
So bravo and thank you for what you put into this puzzle, David. Even I, to whom anagrams do not come easily, enjoyed solving this on top of admiring the work and cleverness that went into it.
A joyless slog. Anagrams don't belong in crosswords. EVER. Especially half-answer anagrams.
ReplyDeleteWhen 1a is the high point we have some issues. I have no idea who or what PEPE is - I had already reached slog mode after the first anagram.
ReplyDeleteAnagrams + MIRY, BULGY, MAAS etc = recipe for disaster.
I'm learning a lot today. PEPE frog=bad. I never heard of this. Rex's screed is mildly interesting but so what?! Also PEANUT ALLERGY(GALLERY) is somehow insensitive. I have no idea. Please don't tell me. IF....IF you want to be triggered how about HOT TAMALES as a term sexually objectifying women? And you may want to sue me, but I like Tonya.
ReplyDelete@Anonymoose 7:09 AM - Agreed on all counts, and FWIW, "I, Tonya" is a pretty great film.
DeleteTerrific and solid Sunday puzzle. I expect to see some anagram hate today but nothing pleases everyone.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of a madman is out there making MANHATTANs with Tennessee Whiskey?
ReplyDeletePepe is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in the NYT puzzle. Like having a swastika tattooed on your forehead. Unforgiveable.
ReplyDelete"Finished the golf hole (ATE A SANDWICH) — I mean, basically"
ReplyDeleteWhat?
Advances in a baby's cognitive development = Mental leaps? That's a real thing?
ReplyDeleteBut I do agree, this took some work to come up with these themers, even if some were hit-or-miss!
PEANUT GALLERY
ReplyDelete@Ando - ATE A SANDWICH is similar to “green paint,” examples of mundane, uninteresting phrases. Rex is saying that SANK A PUTT is not interesting as an entry.
I don’t like circles and I don’t like anagrams, but the puzzle was okay. Except for PEPE (and Rex’s rant about it was far milder than I expected).
ReplyDeleteI didn't even finish the puzzle and as soon as I saw the PEPE clue came here to see what Rex would do with it. Bonehead move by NYT to include a meme appropriated by the Alt-right and White nationalists.
ReplyDeleteA painful slog. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI could tell that this one was not going to be for me for me right out of the gate in the NW section. I don’t know how most sexy ones would feel about being referred to as a HOT TAMALE, although at my age I will concede that I will take anything that sounds even remotely complimentary. The clue for HARE (March madness figure) just fell flat and in fact still hasn’t registered, then I had to deal with the black matter OSOS, which means absolutely nothing to me, and the extremely unfortunate Latin ESSE/ERSE situation. That’s also where I groked the theme - I appreciate the difficulty that probably went into constructing it, but my solving experience was similar to OFL’s.
ReplyDeleteI’ve met SAL Kahn and still don’t remember his name - no secret why I get along with PPP so swimmingly. The G or K clue for THOU was brutally effective - very tough though and would definitely feel at home in a Saturday grid. KNEX on the other hand would have been better-served if it was left on the cutting room floor.
I agree with Rex - today the whole grid seemed like it was in that GENRE that includes GREEN PAINT, ATE A SANDWICH, SANK A PUTT, etc.
The first themer I “got” was MOVIE TROPES, which I though was simply adding a T to MOVIE ROPES. Then I was looking for added letters in the others. Then the next one was POWER STRIP, where the S was moved from beginning to end. So now I’m looking for some really complex theme, in which some themers involve adding a letter, and some moving a letter, and I figured some might remove or change a letter and it would all, eventually, be explained. At that point, I started solving as a themeless. Not until after my last entry did I see that it was simple anagrams.
ReplyDeleteAll of which meant this took me longer than it probably should have … in the top 10% of difficulty for Sunday puzzles for me.
Learned today and will remember: OGRES eat people. The other things I ‘learned’ - ADRIANA, TBT, SAL and such – will be gone by Tuesday.
"45D: Finished the golf hole (ATE A SANDWICH) — I mean, basically..."
ReplyDeleteHUH?!! The answer to 45D Finished the golf hole is "sank a putt"
A small, but very important, nit...
ReplyDeleteAs C-Span itself keeps reminding us, C-SPAN does not set up cameras around the House of Representatives. The cameras that provide the feed from the House of Representatives' sessions belong to the US Congress itself, and are placed in the chamber by and controlled by the Office of the Speaker. C-Span simply passively receives the feed provided to it, and distributes that feed to its Cable TV affiliates, and to its own website.
This feed is available to other broadcast, cable and internet media companies, as well - though only C-Span distributes the feed for the entirety of House sessions. But that feed does not belong to C-Span, is not controlled by it, and does not use C-Span cameras.
A similar arragement exists in the Senate - under the control of the Office of the Majority Leader.
Rex rarely gives credit for coming up with a theme, gathering theme entries and constructing a grid to support the theme.
ReplyDeleteThe execution alone is deserving of credit and applause.
Lighten up…. Please….
I can’t speak for the other OGRES, but the only OGRE I know (and he is an NYT-fave as well, SHREK) is more of a trickster type, who pretty much stays to himself and his family - he definitely does not EAT PEOPLE (slugs, yes and maybe the occasional rat now and then but that’s where he draws the line). I think Shortz needs to be a little more sensitive to the feelings of the well-behaved OGRES when painting them all with the same brushstroke as flesh-devouring monsters.
ReplyDeleteAgree 100% , SSJ. I wanted OrcaS for the longest time.
DeleteItalian Dish: Cacio e ____
ReplyDeleteThere, pepe problem solved for the foreseeable future
I second the kudos to the constructor for the skill it took to make this puzzle work. But as a solver, I had two problems with it. One was that I feel like the NYT Sunday puzzle just did anagrams recently. And two, I kept looking for some punchline, some link or "aha" for the anagrammed sections, and never found one (aside from the title of the puzzle), so the solving was kind of a letdown. The themers were just kind of hanging there. I guess I'm reiterating what Rex said much better.
ReplyDeleteThx David; just right for a Sun. puz! :)
ReplyDeleteMed+
A fair amt of pushback on this one; never felt I had it totally under control. Had to come back to revisit many patchy areas.
Always struggle with KLUM (wanted KLeM).
K'NEX & PEPE were new.
Grokked all the themer anagrams except MOVIE TROPES (still working on it).
Enjoyed the challenge; fun trip. :)
@okanaganer 👍 for QB yd! :)
–––
yd pg -3 (looking for a 4 to get down to -2, then will pack it in) 🤞
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
MPG is not a dash figure! MPH is. RPM is. MPG is on the sticker, sure. Cost me dearly.
ReplyDeleteOur Subaru Forester shows mpg on the dash. My retired Intrepid (1993) showed mpg on an overhead console.
Delete:| = meh
ReplyDeleteExactly
@Adam12 - Most (I'm guessing, but 100% in my experience) cars since the 2010 model years have the option to show MPG on the dash.
ReplyDeleteOther than PEPE this puzzle was amazing. Who could have thought that you can spell different words with the same letters? I'm in awe.
Isn't it weird that so many in-the-language phrases can be created by anagramming the second word of other in-the-language phrases? Weird...and also very interesting. Props to David for seizing on this anomaly in the first place and then executing it so well in a quite dense Sunday grid. I found this puzzle consistently interesting to work on. And PEANUT GALLERY/ALLERGY is sensational!
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I'm a bit disappointed that the two different phrases couldn't have been melded in some way in the clues. I'm not sure if such a thing could be done, much less how it could be done, but by doing something of that sort, you can create many more "Aha!" moments while presenting solvers with much more of a challenge.
Maybe too much of a challenge? Then you'd have complaints that the puzzle was too complicated and too difficult. Perhaps it's best left just the way it is. I have a hunch that most solvers will enjoy it and not be too unhappy that it's pretty easy.
Jeez louise Rex, I can't understand how you people keep supporting your party when I can't afford gas or groceries. And just because the other guy lied? Your party lies. All the time.
ReplyDeleteMy 2019 Mazda CX-5 has an MPG indicator on the dashboard
ReplyDelete@ADAM12: My car has a MPG display on the dash. You can step through the display sequence to show instantaneous fuel consumption, MPG since the last reset, MPG since you last started the engine, and estimated mileage to an empty tank.
ReplyDeleteRe: PEPE, this was a new one to me. What a world...
@Adam12, 9:43: I too had MPH instead of MPG for a while, which held things up in that corner. But, my dashboard actually does have an MPG readout - it's one of the odometer options.
ReplyDeleteI just didn't really get the AGNES/INEZ clue. Just they are kind of old-timey women's names? Is that it?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was REALLY hoping for a Sideshow Bob reference in this write-up. "No, it says DIE, Bart, DIE. 'The Bart'".
ReplyDeleteRex knows the answer to 45D isn't "ate a sandwich." He is just pointing out the extremely uninteresting nature of the correct answer. What is called "green paint."
ReplyDeleteVillager
FWIW, I got 'PEPE' with ease, and had no idea it was somehow tied to anything subversive. Only know it as that frog meme. As such, it only evoked....y'know...that dumb frog meme, not any other 'ideology'.
ReplyDeleteHI ALL ! 😁
ReplyDeleteI liked this puz. I'll be over here with @Lewis. Har.
People who enjoy the Spelling Bee will like this puz, others who abhor anagrams will not. Nature of anagraminess. I thought it nice, albeit not ROFL cool. Enough for a one side mouth upturn. MOVIE TROPES being the toughest.
The SANKAPUTT/EATASANDWICH Rexism was what gave me a chuckle.
Has DITzY spelt thusly, causing some pretty good confusion looking at EZ__S. An EZEES Award? Har, sounds like something @M&A would hand out. Speaking of him, shout-out to MAAS.
So enjoyed it more than the "ITSAMESS" people. Now I'll go and RIDEACAR around whilst eating my sandwich. 🤪
yd -4, should'ves 2
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw
ReplyDeleteI never understand why this man bother solving crossword puzzles in the New York Times.
ReplyDeleteWhile solving, I never realized the anagram trick, which means I solved this as a themeless puzzle. While I acknowledge the theme is somewhat clever, the problem is that I didn't get the theme while solving the puzzle. I really did not get the theme until reading the XWordInfo entry for today, and I didn't bother to work out the original phrases (which I simply read out on this site). From that point of view, the puzzle was a fail for me. I didn't dislike the puzzle for that reason, but it still was a fail for me for that reason. I guess that's bad. And I have no clue how to avoid the problem. Perhaps, a different title? Perhaps.
ReplyDeleteI look to the NY Times crossword puzzle as a brief respite from politics and other unpleasant matters. Can we please keep "Pepe the Frog" and "left-leaning" insinuation clues out of the mix!!
ReplyDeleteAre we also supposed to know what an OIL PALM is? I've never heard those words in that order before.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is real problem in this puzzle. OIL LAMP is an antiquated source of light and PALM OIL is a thing, but not OIL PALM. For this clue, the constructor is expecting us not only to anagram of the last word but to reverse the order of the two words, and only here in the puzzle. I was expecting Rex to jump all over this inconsistency, but he seems to have missed it entirely. In his write-up, it is the only one of the themed answers where he doesn't offer the anagrammed alternative. This one just doesn't work.
DeleteThe oil palm is the tree from which we get palm oil!!!
DeleteTwo typos and a WTH on MPG (our Prius shows an approximation of the current miles per gallon the car is getting but it's not on the dash - is it on most cars now?) meant a DNF but it never got totally MIRY (ugh, shouldn't that be mire-y?) (I know better than to leave hAZES as an answer to "Looks long and hard" d'oh.)
ReplyDeleteI had to head over to xwordinfo to find out what the anagram of MOVIE TROPES was. Poster never occurred to me. And it took me a MENTAL LEAPS to anagram LAPSE. The rest were ROCK SOLID.
I didn't even notice the rearrangement of the circled areas until my SEA HORSE cut into my leprechaun home. Ah, now I understand POWER STRIP and why I couldn't come up with any imitation with _tERY or grok why a shot was a pRY, both crossing 47A's DEAD StOp.
So this gave me more than a SPECK of trouble but overall, it was enjoyable. Thanks, David Tuffs.
Oh what MIRY APERY this puzzle was. Agree with Rex and others that it was mostly MEH. Odd that JANET Yellen was clued for her former job and not her higher-level current one. Coincidence that Jada and JADEN (clued in relation to his father) both were in puzzles this week with no mention of the slap?
ReplyDeleteCan’t even say there were many clues that amused me - maybe “quickly join hands” for CLAP.
I don’t get the “oil palm”. Palm oil is a thing, but oil palm?
ReplyDeleteIt's OIL LAMP, "reordered" by the perverse puzzle construction.
DeleteYes, but each anagram is supposed to provide a valid phrase. I just googled "oil palm " .... says it's an African tree. Should have been something more familiar, like seashore or power strip.
DeleteYup. Palm oil is the thing, but not oil palm, at least in the world of NYT puzzle solvers. And did you notice that this was the only thing to clue where Rex did not give an anagrammed alternative? He seems to have missed this anomaly and normally he jumps all over such
DeleteIt is truly impressive to make the theme work...but the editors might have edited out the Tonya Harding, Will Smith, Pepe, and hot tamales clues. Truly cringeworthy.
ReplyDeleteI hated it. Why does anyone think it is fun or constructive to have to guess 11 longish answers that are intentionally falsely clued? I think it might have been easier if there had been no clues for those answers. Instead, I felt like I kept running into dead ends when answer space after answer space wouldn't accomodate an appropriate answer to the clue. Instead of deriving any amusement from the exercise, I felt like I was being mocked by the puzzle for even trying.
ReplyDeleteI quit after a (too long) while and came here and am now at least glad I did quit.
Agree, Rex, on the theme. Never caused the light to come on for me. A good theme, I feel, is one that at some point gets me to “Oh, I get it. This Is clever.” And that OILLAMP never lit up.
ReplyDeleteApparently PALM OIL comes from OIL PALMS. Who knew?!
ReplyDeleteYes, why not go with Pepe Le Moko, the tale of a gangster who wants to leave his mistress for the mistress of another man but sees her fly away from the Casbah so he commits suicide. Way more acceptable than that "problematic" Pepe La Pew.
ReplyDeleteWhat a jamoke.
Best Sunday in a long time. Probably a problem for speed solvers...
It's not that I don't like anagrams, it's that I'm terrible at them - as in: despite long minutes of letter shuffling, I never did get POSTERS, settling for the unlikely MOVIE PRO SET. Fortunately, the next one I encountered, DEAD STOP-->SPOT, was much easier to sort out, and then I really got into the swing of things with an uncrossed PEANUT ALLERGY. And I enjoyed working the others out. So a tip of the hat to the constructor for overcoming a deep-seated aversion and turning it into fun.
ReplyDeleteDo-over: BIOta before BIOME. Help from previous puzzles: NAS, AESIR, SAL. No idea: TBT, KNEX, KAL
Oh, dear. The things you learn on this blog.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I've never heard of PEPE the frog.
Second, I have only the dimmest conception, gleaned entirely from crossword puzzles and from nowhere else, of what a "meme" is.
Third, I didn't know that the unknown PEPE was a white nationalist meme. White nationalists want to be represented by a...frog???!!! For heaven sakes, why would they want that???
Anyway, here's my dilemma. I can go Google PEPE the frog. But then maybe I'll be wooed online by a lot white nationalists looking for converts. I'll get terrible, unspeakably evil emails. I'll have to change my email address to protect my sanity.
But it only gets worse. Government authorities, looking for white nationalist conspirators, will find my name on their recruiting lists. They'll come, search my computer and see that I once did an online search for PEPE the frog. They'll arrest me and lock me up. I'll be thrown into a prison that mostly imprisons white nationalists.
The white nationalists will see at a glance that I am not One of Them. And when the guards have their backs turned, they will do horrible, unspeakable things to me. The mind simply boggles.
Which goes by way of explanation as to why I've decided not to look up PEPE the frog online.
Funniest post in a long time!
DeleteOIL PALM tree
ReplyDeleteINEZ is related to Agnes the way Iago is related to James or Ian is related to John.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat did I see when I saw this puzzle?
ReplyDeleteI saw LOGS.
LOGS. SLOG
DeleteJeeze, do I have to explain it?
Black Stars is the name of the Ghana national soccer team, who qualified for the World Cup
ReplyDeleteBest post and best laugh of the day goes to @Nancy 11:04.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this was one of the worst Sunday NYTXW puzzles in a very long time. The gimmick was weak and just not worth the trouble. Might have worked better on a small grid. Some of the jumbled answers worked okay but the majority clunked badly. Plus there were several Naticks to add to the frustration - 70A-70D etc. WS should never have given this one the green light. BOO!
ReplyDeleteEither the NYT or the Wapo (I read them both) had a "Mickey is a Groomer" article mentioning the movement to boycott Disney presentations for disagreeing with Floridas" "Don't Say Gay" law. So I guess that's it for the Mouse. Anyone who can take over a well-intentioned fictional character for their own nefarious purposes apparently eliminates that characters' reference forever. And some people who believe this is okay are teaching our kids.
ReplyDeleteWhere do I even begin? I'll start with my brain.... It doesn't comprehend anagrams. It becomes this MENTAL BLACK PEANUT wafting in TAFFY. Not a pretty sight.
ReplyDeleteROCK IDOLS turned the dim light on. Although I could see, I still groped for balance. The creaky stairs got me falling hither and yon. Although I got up, I wasn't all that thrilled.
DOES TO A TEE? Not I.
KNEX? Do they make little PEPE frogs? What happened to Le Pew?
I stopped and wanted to sing GLITCHY, GLITCHY goo.
I suppose that if I didn't mind anagrams, I would be proud and happy. I was proud that I finished but I was not happy that it took a long time of sheer frustration.
I only finished this because our weather is awful and I've run out of books to read and bread to bake.
Pepe, clue for DNC, peanut gallery? All dog whistles. Do better NYT.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle in the USA Today contains “Pepper, in Italian” as a clue.
ReplyDelete@ Nancy (11:04 am)
ReplyDeleteToo late.
Did you seriously think that this blog was safe? That it is not monitored by government officials and white nationalists? Or that webcrawlers aren't tracing and tracking every mention of the term "p*p*"at every second of every minute of every hour of every day, weekends included? That you would not be caught and could actually get away with this once you stuck your toe into these deep dark waters?
Alas, it is over. There is nothing we can do to help you now.
Au revior, mon ami.
ReplyDeleteI really like @Rex's "highest-seen-in-crosswords to seen-in-real-life ratio" -- a valuable tool (his nominee = APERY). Based on my recently-completed backward journey through the Archives, I add a few more nominees:
EEE -- the widest of all shoes, yet the only size known to crosswords.
LESE -- always clued "____ majesty," never can remember what it means despite looking it up many times.
Honorable mentions:
EERO Saarinen, the architect.
Oklahoma municipalities (ENID, ADA, STILLWATER)
EDINA Minnesota, the only Twin Cities suburb recognized by the NYT.
LAIC
ATTAR
ESTER
ETE, the only French season you need to know
AUKS
FOLDEROL as spelled and clued as though it means "to-do" (having trouble getting past that one).
Der ALTE (nickname for 20th c. West German Chancellor Brandt)
SETH Thomas, clockmaker
And even ORCAS and EELS, in my humble opinion.
I knew the locale of the Hittite Empire AS I AM IN OR around ASIAMINOR quite often.
ReplyDeleteI don’t like being around Dad’s new wife, but today I’ll just suck it up and STEP SON IT.
Caffeine makes my hands shake, so I use a substitute when golfing. I can make a SANKA PUTT much more easily.
I liked the puzzle concept, but agree that PEPE as clued should be nixed, along with MIRY, BULGY and APERY (no matter how they’re clued).
However, I am a little surprised that 86D GEMSTATE has drawn no rebuke for it’s recent adoption of an anti-abortion bill that would make PEPE proud.
@Nancy. Given that just today you have blog commented extensively about PEPE, I fear for your (likely imprisoned) future.
Thanks for a mostly dnjoyable Sunday puzzle, David W. Tuffs.
Re: PEANUT GALLERY, etal:
ReplyDeleteby Olivia Eubanks of ABC News
In the midst of a cultural awakening on race, commonly used words and phrases and their origins are being reexamined and, in some cases, redefined entirely.
Still others, such as "peanut gallery" … remain in wide use despite their racially questionable origins.
That's because the definition of these words and phrases have often been lost over time, experts said.
"There is racism embedded throughout our language system just like every other system," said Jeffrey Barg, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist known as The Angry Grammarian, told ABC News. "We need to dig deeper and understand where the phrases and words we use come from because if we don't we are being complicit in perpetuating the racist systems that are embedded in our language."
To say these phrases and words are "just expressions" or to say the intent of using the word is "not meant to be racist" is not good enough, Barg explained.
"You have to consider how someone else feels when you use these terms," he said.
PEANUT GALLERY
According to linguistics experts, the origin of this phrase derives from the late 1800s Vaudeville era, a popular style of entertainment that included jugglers, comedians, singers and more. The "peanut gallery" was the cheapest section of seats, usually occupied by people with limited means.
The 1940s and 1950s-era children's program "Howdy Doody" used the term to refer to the groups of kids who participated in its audience.
However, in the segregated South, seats in the back or upper balcony levels were mostly reserved for Black people, according to author Stuart Berg Flexner, an expert on the origins of American phrases. In his book, "Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases From Our Lively and Splendid Past," he writes, "Peanut gallery was in use in the 1880s, as a synonym for n----- gallery (1840s) or n----- heaven (1870s), the upper balcony where blacks sat, as in segregated theaters."
(ABC News)
@Zed (11:06 AM)
Thx for the OIL PALM tree link, which explains where PALM OIL comes from. (hi Anonymous 11:03 AM)
___
td pg: 8:53 / Wordle 295 3/6*
⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@TJS - I cannot figure out what you are trying to say with your 11:30 post.
ReplyDelete@Birchbark - 🤣😂🤣 - I miss EDINA, it’s been almost five years. Orono has been missing for three years. And it has been nearly four months since we’ve seen Brian, five since we’ve seen Yoko, and six since we have seen Yma.
Looking up those clues I couldn’t help but notice that HOT TAMALE has had six appearances. Farrar did two food clues. Weng did the bad dad joke (Chili today, HOT TAMALE), and Shortz is a horndog.
On an unrelated note, the best first pitch ever.
I’m surprised (sort of) that no one else made my error. I had nOO for 75D “That’s just awful.” I don’t know many school acronyms so I couldn’t find the problem.
ReplyDeletePEANUTALLERGY/GALLERY was excellent. It took some doing to see Leaps from LAPSE and Poster from TROPES. For a Sunday I found the puzzle engaging. I can tell because I didn’t get up to refill my coffee….
MIRY was a stretch.
I don’t know the meme. Since the constructor put PEPE in as clued, it’s reasonable to think he knew what it was and what it promotes. Scary to me how many support that thinking. Maybe it wasn’t an editorial lapse.
@Joe B 9:27 ❤️ For Cacio e _____. Yumm!
Wow, I apparently had a big mental HOLE because I was not up on PEPE the frog plus I didn’t realize PEANUT gallery had racist roots. Poor Pepe started out just fine, it seems, until his meme was used for bad, and the Peanut Gallery started out with bad vibes and eventually got sanitized over the years to a guest audience of children, for heaven’s sake, then on to just a reference to people who might disagree. Ah well.
ReplyDeleteI am fine with anagrams so I was in the enjoyment camp sans any political overtones. I guess I’m a little surprised that (unless I missed it) no one commented on SPORTSSHOP. I dunno. In my neck of the woods they are called sporting goods stores. I’ve only heard SHOP in the narrow context of pro shops at tennis centers and golf courses.
@Z, 12:11. My point was in reference to the "Pepe" discussion. Apparently the character had an initial popularity for ten years before being appropriated against the creators' wishes in 2015. Now we are never to see references again because of this, so I guess we just let the haters win. Now apparently Disney characters are going to be in the crosshairs. And the ultra-woke crowd that OFL belongs to is okay with it.
ReplyDeleteHope this explains where I was coming from.
No, Disney characters will never be in the crosshairs of the alt-right or any other radical group. Disney has too much money and power to let that happen. What is the opposite of ultra-woke? ultra-comatose? I'll take woke any day! Hope this explains where I'm coming from.
DeleteWS is giving the green light to constructors who are clearly not ready for prime time (Sunday). Reserve the Monday slot for diamonds in the rough. Sunday should be better than this. The editor needs to do more editing MIRY, YEE, ESSE, IMS MPG, MAAS are all low-grade flotsam.
ReplyDelete@Zed (12:11 PM)
ReplyDeleteThat 1st pitch is a thing of beauty! ⛸ ⚾️
Not totally unrelated; Kim Ye-Lim is a figure skater, as was TONYA Harding.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I’d call a MANHATTAN made with Tennessee whiskey a “Nightmare.” Bourbon or Rye only please.
ReplyDeleteInteresting we have Will Smith and TONYA Harding here. Thanks for the reminders (ugh).
BLACK STAR is also a British company that makes great tube amps.
Nice theme density, and I liked starting with HOT TAMALE and ending with STAY LOOSE.
@thefogman summed it up nicely. It’s even more disheartening to know that there are no shortage of a-list constructors that would still contribute if they were more welcome, but instead their work appears elsewhere while we watch the up-and-comers hone their skills (which is necessary and valuable, but really doesn’t belong In the Sunday Times (in my opinion, which apparently is contrary to that of WS - and he is the big dog, so this is what we are left with).
ReplyDelete@Nancy I know you know people are just joshing you, but after my first post I DID look up Pepe and read a 2016 LA Times article about poor Pepe’s transition from “good” to “evil.” Such a shame. Pepe had not been around long enough maybe, but would we allow a character, let’s say Snoopy, to be banished if used in that way?
ReplyDelete@Bocamp…good peanut gallery discussion excerpt! The only time I ever remember saying the term would be on a road trip to the kids in the back seat voicing discontent about NOT stopping at their “restaurant” of choice….”and no more comments from the peanut gallery.” I will say, armed with my new knowledge I’d say there is zero chance that I’ll use the term in the future lest I’d be misunderstood.
Yes, Missy, clear as day.
ReplyDeleteWith the title, Ordering Seconds, and both hoTTamale and taFFy on the top row, I thought words/phrases with double letters would figure in the theme. Although that proved not to be the case, I counted 24 answers with double letters, which feels like enough to qualify as a secondary theme, including PEANUTALLERGY, MENTALLAPSE, and MANHATTAN.
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle; somehow I blanked on the theme device when I got to MIDDLE EAST/(SEAT), which meant I struggle in that section before finally finishing up there.
BLACK STAR Farms is also a great northern Michigan place to vacation, especially if you have a taste for wine.
ReplyDelete@bocamp12:50 - And she got the ball to the catcher!
Count me among the millions who knew nothing about Pepe the Frog until today, and certainly did not know he was (gasp!) racist in any way. Now I did know that in the South, the PEANUT GALLERY was a nickname for the balcony open to Negroes. But to me, it will always be the audience at the Howdy Doody show -- which come to think of it probably had fewer Black kids than any theater in Atlanta or Jackson.
ReplyDeleteNo matter, I adored Howdy Doody from the day in 1948 when my mother acquired a TV. My other favorite show was the Lone Ranger, which I can never think of as racist since Tonto was the smartest character on television. And Jack Benny, when he came on TV, who was not nearly as intelligent as his Black manservant.
The whole idea was to turn the world upside down in a comic way. Have you noticed, too, that in old TV comedies, the women were always smarter than the men, even Lucy, DITSY though she surely was. In the same way, those Southern theaters probably encouraged heckling from the PEANUT GALLERY, so long as it made the White patrons in the expensive seats laugh.
The puzzle was a slog, as Sunday puzzles often are. But above average, IMHO.
Whew! It must be exhausting being offended by every single word in the English language. Down with English! No one talk to anyone ever again!
ReplyDeleteThere, I just achieved World Peace.
@Beezer (1:07) -- Over my dead body would I ever allow Snoopy to be "evil-ized"! Heaven forfend! And if I were the Charles Schulz estate I'd sue. So why is no one sticking up for poor PEPE, whoever he used to be? You can't just go around stealing other people's cartoon creations, that's what I say.
ReplyDeleteNow for PEANUT GALLERY. I'm from the era that remembers "Howdy Doody" -- a sickeningly twee TV show, btw, that I didn't watch for very long. But the kids in the audience were called "the Peanut Gallery" -- and a whiter-than-white collection of kids you can't possibly imagine. So whatever racist connotations the term may have had originally, they were probably completely forgotten by the 1950s.
And like you, @Beezer, I remember my parents saying to my brother and me from time to time: "That's quite enough from the peanut gallery!" It was always said with humor and with affection.
@oldtimer and I were typing at the same time. I now see he makes some of the same points that I just made. We must be around the same age.
ReplyDelete@Beezer (1:07 PM) 👍
ReplyDeletePEANUT GALLERY joins 'cotton picker' in my 'do not use' folder.
@Zed (1:36 PM)
And, on the outside corner, to boot!
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Hey Birchbark 11.44, "Der Alte" was Konrad Adenauer, not Willy Brandt.
ReplyDelete@Nancy 11:04....Your post had me laughing at your dilemma and being wooed by white nationalists looking for converts....
ReplyDeleteHere's my true story:
My elderly neighbor wears Depends. She was ill for a while and asked me if I wouldn't mind buying her her diapers.. She was very specific about the size and the brand. She was a large woman and needed these special "leak-proof" panties and ones that would fit her buxom fondillo.
I went on-line trying to find where I could buy them. A few hours later I got a zillion ads, promising that no one would know you were wearing them; no leakage.... guaranteed ...and coupons with 30% off. This went on for days and days. I even got fotos showing how to wear them....!!! One ad even said they'd ship me a free sample. I was tempted but I pretty much wear a small. They are HUGE and you could probably carry a months load of unwanted stuff in those diapers. I finally let it take its course and die down.
By the way...I never got my free sample.
I’m an old Sunday liver and thisnone disappointed on a scale that, to me bears voicing. For all the reasons everyone has identified. I didn't really have trouble figuring out the theme, but it (again, in my own jaded little 60 years of solving pea brain) just was not a “NYT Sunday” puzzle. Even without the offensive stuff.
ReplyDeleteMy trouble spots were: had gETS TO for a long while because I was on a roll using down answers and had not hit enough of MIDDLE SEAT to see the oops.
The SW corner took a ridiculous ampunt of time. I’d been sailing along on a wavelength high and came to rather a screeching halt down there. And my dear sweet Gran, who raised me was named Agnes - just had no idea INEZ is a parallel. Learned something new - always a plus (possibly the only one today).
Seems harsh to pan such an opus from a you g constructor. My kudos to Mr. Tuffs. This is a well constructed theme, in fact one I categorize as a “constructor’s theme” because the idea is fascinating and the time and effort it takes to identify all the theme phrases is itself daunting and well done! The fill and clues are generally quite good.
The fault, in my opinion lies entirely with the editors and editorial team of test-solvers et al. The puzzle isn’t really a “Sunday” puzzle, and the editing was sloppy at best. The entire editorial process unfairly hurt this young constructor.
Mr. Tuffs, I look forward to more from you and wish you success and better editorial support!
Oil palm’s second order is Oil Lamp
ReplyDeleteAlso, what was up with 113D - Maas???? Have never seen that. I had Moos, then thought Tome was wrong b/c 113D was supposed to be Baas. Surprised Rex didn't remark on that, but maybe 'maas' is a thing and I just never had the full petting zoo experience.
ReplyDeleteFirst some thanks you's for birthday wishes to @JC66.@egs, and @teedmn. @Son Volt-good call on the Maine lunch. @JoeD-solid plan for a birthday duplication. @Mike in Bed Stuy-thanks for the reminder about Holden's clavichord. I think Sunny believed him though.
ReplyDeleteAs for today, I wanted ROCKSOLID but it turned out to be ROCKIDOLS and I thought, anagrams, here we go. I do appreciate the talent it took to come up with all these, especially as the other possible word after the first one. That said I was happy when I was finished, as this did not leave me thirsting for more. My absolute favorite was the last one, BLACK RATS, just great. (I know, I know.) On to the Acrostic.
Workmanlike Sunday, DWT. Didn't Waste Time doing too much thinking about any of the answers, and then it was done. Thanks for some fun.
"It's a Games Magazine 1.5-star difficulty level puzzle." Exactly. Further encumbered with an unusually high number of curve-balls and edgers. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteUpstate George (2:46) -- Point well taken -- I must be getting alte myself.
ReplyDeleteA happenin day in M&A-land, so we didn't get to this SunPuz until now. Sooo … have got to get this straight in my head … the wrong answers (a la anagrammers) are the right answers, theme-wise?
ReplyDeleteHey! 11 themers! And I got the impression that ITSAMESS coulda been the revealer, makin it 12. You'd think we'd then be treated to a lot of luvly desperation. Couldn't see anything too glitchy, tho. I mean, SETS TO & SANKA PUTT, maybe. Ohyeah -- also HIALL, I reckon.
A few scattered no-knows: KAL. TBT [debut abbreve of mystery]. PEPE [frog-wise … anagram of PEEP?]. SAL [Khan]. AESIR. ADRIANA. KNEX. Hathor the EGYPTIAN. Not too bad, for a SunPuz. But that weird-ball theme … sheesh.
staff weeject pick: TBT. Tibetan nostalgia example?
fave themer: {You might come to one suddenly} = DEAD POST. Well, yeah … but mosta the blog posts around here are pretty lively. Maybe they mean the ones that the moderatormeisters get rid of?
Thanx, Mr. Tuffs dude. Musta been an uphill fight, to come up with all these themers. Probably there are even more out there. Like SHARP WORDS/SWORD, or somesuch.
Or NOT A PEPE/PEEP, evidently … har
Masked & Anonymo4Us
for those that crave more desperation:
**gruntz**
A black star could refer to a pentangle or pentagram, whatever they're called, and that would feed in neatly with demonology. If the themed clues had double meanings, which would have been a much more satisfying puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to give a mild defense for Pepe as something other than a white nationalist symbol. For almost all users of the video game streaming site, Twitch, which is referenced in clue 116D, the character of Pepe is known purely as an expressive frog. Many emotes on the site are varieties of Pepes that express different emotions, e.g. FeelsGoodMan, FeelsBadMan monkaW, PepeG, that have absolutely nothing to do with the alt-right or white supremacy. I would guess most Twitch users are oblivious to the controversy surrounding Pepe, but I think the character's pervasiveness on the site has done quite a bit to reclaim it from the white nationalists who have attempted to co-opt it. If anyone is interested, there is a fascinating documentary about the evolution of the character and the fight to reclaim it from the alt-right. In some contexts, Pepe has even come to mean something entirely the opposite, like in Hong Kong, where Pepe has become a symbol of the pro-democracy movement and the pre-Covid extradition protests.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, anyone is entitled to feel as they please about the unpleasant associations of the character with the alt-right. I won't argue if you're not willing to go the extra mile to find out if an animated frog is worth `reclamation.' Just some food for thought, as it seems that most of the commentariat here is entirely unfamiliar with Pepe beyond its unsavory appearances in the media.
@GILL I, as usual your stories crack me up! It’s weird to me how the ‘net (Google, and yes, I know I should switch search engines @Zed) seems to KNOW my age group yet they really don’t seem to realize (knock on wood) that, at present, I really don’t NEED most of the ad “advice” that is thrown at me. I’ve learned to just ignore it. It tends to shift also to things my adult children would like after I’ve bought a gift. GAH!
ReplyDelete@Missy, I think you may need to read between the lines on the original @TJS post. I feel sure he is NOT semi-comatose but merely bemoaning the fact that a “Pepe the Frog” could be so successfully misappropriated that it can no longer be “spoken of.” Point taken that big Disney can successfully ward that off (and maybe the Schultz estate could ward off Snoopy misappropriation). I don’t think thinking about these things make people super-comatose. I, personally, don’t think wokeness is bad. In blogs like these, though, we often tend to gravitate to a “camp” and assume the worst in what people say.
@Beezer, I think you would benefit greatly if you read the lines and NOT between the lines. I never wrote or implied that @TJS was comatose, semi-comatose or supper-comatose. My question was, "what is the opposite of WOKE" How do you know @TJS is merely bemoaning the fact that a "Pepe the Frog" could be so successfully......
DeleteTalk about reading between the lines!
@ GILL I. 3:13PM
ReplyDeleteThe story about your neighbor is like the opening to the worst pornographic novel ever.
Some synchronicity of a sort just happened. I enjoy going back into the archived puzzles now and then (available to NYT xword subscribers) and the first theme entry for the 9/8/03 puzzle was a grid spanner clued as "His friends sat in the Peanut Gallery". I immediately entered BUFFALO BOB but had five more squares to fill and I couldn't remember his last name---if I ever knew it in the first place. Had to wait for crosses to figure that out. I see some of yous out there remember Howdy Doody's Peanut Gallery. Remember BUFFALO BOB's last name? No cheating now! Since A HINT is also in that puzzle, I'll give yous one. It starts with S and has only one vowel.
ReplyDeleteThe other themers were BOZO THE CLOWN, MISTER ROGERS and CAPTAIN KANGAROO. That was vintage stuff even in 2003, right?
We boomers grew up with Howdy Doody calling his live audience of kids the Peanut Gallery. I'm reading the name is from the vaudeville crowds that booed and threw the (cheap) peanuts at acts they didn't like.
ReplyDelete@JOHN X...You should've seen the offers I got.
ReplyDelete@pablito...A belated Apy Verde as we say in my barrio.
@Beezer. I've got lots of these stories. They kinda follow me around like a porcupine wanting to unload.
Good God, Mr. X, is that what it took for you to come out of hiding ? Or have you just escaped ?
ReplyDeleteBTW, I don't think the Left, which is where I primarily reside, is doing itself any favors complaining about people concerned about what should be part of the curriculum for children in 1st to 4th grade, And how does that equate with "Don't Say Gay" ? Drop the "Ad/Speak and stick to the facts, IMO. We still win. Speaking as comatose, apparently.
When Rex pointed out the political connection to Pepe the Frog, I sat up. Did not know about that, but for sure know that the DNC is NOT a left-leaning organization. Put together this seemed like a puzzle I did not want to do, and perhaps one the NYT sought to have edited more carefully.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI just did yesterday's puzzle and, after searching the comments, was surprised that nobody mentioned that tulsi is an actually word. It's a plant also known as holy basil.
Nor did anyone mention the nice crossing of BEFORE and AFTER.
You're welcome.
Just a big meh for me and my wife. Easy medium. And G or K=Thou. WTF? Someone help me, please. And never heard of Knex. But I remember Tinker Toys. Grandchild on the way, so guess I'll learn. And yes, Pepe was grotesque.
ReplyDeleteThe only PEPE I know is Le Pew. I guess I should spend more time on the Right Wingnut corners of the innterTubes. I should get a MAGA hat, too. Although the more forthright version is MAWA. Always reminds me of those corner stores I used in PA.
ReplyDeleteI just didn’t enjoy this puzzle one bit. I wasn’t on the right wavelength with Mr.Tuff and it felt like an endless slog with no humorous payoff. Sorry, I’m sure it was me, not you.
ReplyDeletei was so excited to see pepe in the puzzle today and i just KNEW rex would pop off about something he's uneducated about without doing his due diligence so i guess i had to torture myself by coming here to see if i was right. and what's worse, several people have now taken rex's word as gospel on the matter. (and it was mere moments before godwin's law entered the chat, nice.) yes, the alt right tried to steal pepe (much like cops tried to appropriate the punisher for the thin blue line bs, so i guess according to rex and some of y'all you can no longer talk about that either lol...or how about all those popular songs played at trump rallies, etc), but that is not the full story nor the end of the story. pepe is absolutely not "burnt" and never was. pepe is beloved by many, and alive and well in a positive light all over the internet, especially on twitch, where emotes of pepe doing all kinds of things are widely used and adored (140+ million users). we also use the "dank memer" bot to play a pepe-based text game in discord - a game with millions of users (1.3+ million servers with ??? users within). short movies about pepe have been made on youtube as an ode to twitch and pepe himself. and none of this has anything to do with politics of any sort. someone mentioned the constructor's age, so the constructor probably knows this, and to shit on the constructor simply because your knowledge is lacking is not the move. pepe was made with love, and continues to live on with love, period.
ReplyDeleteVery late to the party, and so much to say, but most already said. So am just going to add that we aren't taking enough umbrage at Manhattans being made with "Tennessee whisk(e)y". They're made with rye.
ReplyDelete@GILL (3:13)-- What an awful (but funny!) story. I've had similar things happen, though never with a product quite as much of a downer as that one.
ReplyDeleteHere's my low-tech way of dealing with that. Go search for something truly beautiful and expensive -- something that gives you real pleasure to look at. In my case, when I was being bombarded hourly with ugly ads for socks -- I had bought some socks on Amazon -- I started to search for really expensive antique clocks. I searched for at least a half hour, then went back the next day. It worked like a charm. Suddenly the socks disappeared from my screen and there were nothing but bronze or gold antique clocks as far as the eye could see. I've done this with fine Persian rugs too. You, art lover that you are, could search for great works of art. The Google trackers are none too bright: they're always interested in the shiny new thing that you just clicked on. Their memories are quite short.
The DNCis not a “left leaning org”?
ReplyDeleteWhat planet do you hail from?
@Nancy & @GILL
ReplyDeleteIf you use DuckDuckGo rather than Google, you'd be a lot better off.
@9:12
ReplyDeleteso, it's ok to call out the Trumpublicans for being the Right Wingnut party of the 1%???
@Stephanie – all I can say is: Thank dog you showed up.
ReplyDelete@Stephanie
ReplyDeleteWhat @Joe D said.
@stephanie - Uh, wow. First, The move to get white supremacists off Twitch has been going on for awhile. Second, Twitch aside and Furie’s attempts aside, the predominant use of the meme online is still by extreme right wing white supremacists and self described nazis. Third, Godwin pointed out that his law isn’t particularly useful when discussing actual nazis. Which is how people who use Pepé describe themselves. Let me suggest that before you accuse anyone else of being “uneducated” on the topic that you search for January 6 and Pepé then tell me if you want to be aligned with all those people for whom Pepé is “beloved.”
ReplyDelete@Zed i've already succinctly explained that white supremacy related stuff is actually not the predominant use of the meme. you literally said to put "aside" the way millions of people engage with pepe to further your narrow and incomplete view of the topic so your reply was obviously not in good faith. yes, i still love pepe despite the actions of a small radical sect of bigoted idiots. i'm sure plenty of people still enjoy the punisher (whose first appearance was in 1974) despite that character being coopted by the thin blue line campaign, and don't feel they are associated or aligned with such things while they're reading a comic or watching a tv show. (and marvel is owned by disney, so to someone else's claim that disney would not "allow" one of their characters to be used by such groups, well, it already happened.) ultimately, these types of people are lazy and will continue to co-opt all manner of symbols and memes and characters for their own use. shit, anti-vaxxers even tried to co-opt the star of david, but i suspect you won't be telling any jewish folx they'll have to give that up lest they be associated or "aligned with all those people." to liken pepe to a swastika is to have a dim view of the subject.
DeleteSal Khan’s first name is Salman.
ReplyDeleteI vote for never using MIRY again.
I vote for MENTAL LEAPS being the weakest themer.
While Rex has no problem complaining about Pepe (a popular meme before the alt-right absconded it, and the creator vehemently fights), he is equally guilty of the alt left attitude that the NYTXW often takes, to the point where the clue 'Transition' did not lead me to SEGUE at first, but to any LGBTQWERTYUIP+-= that I could think of expecting that's what they were looking for. Yes, I am offended by the alt-right co-option of Pepe as a symbol, but equally put off by the wokeness trend of the NYTXW. In a currently highly polarized society, there seems to be no voice for those of us in the middle.
ReplyDeleteGo do the puzzle on Truth Social.
Delete@10:00
ReplyDeletethere seems to be no voice for those of us in the middle.
that's because there really aren't any, just spies masquerading. Don Jr. sent me a telepathic message.
1) If I switch to DuckDuckGo and I don't like it for any reason, can I effortlessly get back Google Search?
ReplyDelete2) Will anything else on my computer be changed along with it?
3) Will DuckDuckGo mean there will never be any ads at all onscreen?
4) Are there any downsides I should know about? Are there any things DDG can't search?
I'd like feedback from anyone who uses it. Thanks.
@Nancy
ReplyDeleteI've been using DDG for over three years and am very happy with it.
1) Definitely, yes. But I don't think you"ll want to.
2) Nope
3) No, you'll still get ads but most will be generic but your internet history (the sites you visit) will still be tracked and used to target you.
4) The only thing that comes to mind is that Google provides the number of "hits" the term your searching has and DDG doesn't.
ReplyDeleteThere's an excellent documentary called Feels Good Man (made by friends of mine) about how Pepe was coopted from its creator Matt Furie and his battle to reclaim it from those who turned it into a symbol of hate.
You can watch it on PBS. https://www.pbs.org/video/feels-good-man-qf7h6i/
I was just going to recommend that documentary, but you beat me to it. I sent praise to your friends that made it right after I saw it. And encourage lots of other people to watch it. It’s a brilliant piece of work. Essential viewing.
Delete@manitou (11:32 PM)
ReplyDeleteThx for the 'Feels Good Man' url. Unfortunately, I couldn't access it. I do have a membership (incl. PBS Passport) with the Vermont PBS station, and can watch most of the content via the Apple TV PBS app. I'm in Canada, so that might be the issue.
Anyway, I feel sad for Matt Furie and pray for a reasonable outcome for him and PEPE. 🙏
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Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
ReplyDelete@bocamp
Sorry. I didn't test the link. (I saw the film last year when it came out.) It seems like you should've been able to access it with your membership. Apparently you can get it through iTune$. I hope you get to see it.
Matt's a great guy. He used to work at my local thrift store. The film depicts a lot — Matt's journey, Pepe's journey, right wing white ring supremacy, underground viral movements, crass capitalism, technology — all in a smart, coherent, and visually cool way.
🤠
My sister does not use the internet for much. When she does Google searches, the most common reason is to research something that appeared in the NYT crossword that she didn't know about. This means all the ads she sees are for things she has no interest in. The question is whether Google will eventually figure out that her searches appeared in the crossword and start bombarding her with ads for puzzle sites. That would be impressive.
ReplyDeletemanitou (3:51 AM)
ReplyDeleteThx for the iTunes idea. I just searched for it on my Apple TV and discovered it's streaming on Tubi. And, as you indicated it can be purchased or rented in the Apple TV app, as well. All's well that croak's well! Ribbit! 😊 🐸
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Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Just watched Pepe le moko a few nights ago! Great movie!
ReplyDeleteI have a solution for the SE corner. 100 Down is Seesto, 112 Down is Baas (more common than a Maa at a petting zoo!!!), making 111 Across EOBs, as in Explanation of Benefits from your insurance company. Definitely not light reading.
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ReplyDeleteBULGY SPOT
ReplyDelete"ISIT JADEN and JANET?"
"LOOSE HOTTAMALE, should he?"
"MENTALLAPSE ORE he PLANS IT?"
"IHEAR he SPORTS a WOOODY."
--- TONYA, IRINA, ERIN RAE, and ADRIANA KLUM
I can't say that I overly enjoyed this.
ReplyDeleteDiana, Lady who Waits for her Syndicated Crosswords (LIW)
I can't say that I overly enjoyed this.
ReplyDeleteDiana, Lady who Waits for her Syndicated Crosswords (LIW)
Oh dear, you Wordle fans have created a monster:
ReplyDeleteBBYYY
GGGGG
for an eagle! 4 under after three; the Space Dude is feelin' it!
Today's puzzle took a while till I figured out the McGuffin. Not "ordering" as in commanding, but as in rearranging. Our old friend, the anagram. When that light was lit, it accelerated somewhat. Still enough tricky clues to pile up the nanoseconds. I guess I liked it as much as I can like any puzzle with shaded areas/circles. ADRIANA Lima for DOD. Par.
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ReplyDelete"...that's an Italian guy's name ... that's the pizzeria guy's name from 'Do the Right Thing'..."??? Really Rex? Very stereotypical. You are implying that an Italian couldn't possibly be be the founder of an an educational organization, because you know "Sal" to be only a pizza guy. Do you also believe that all Chinese people are only capable of running a laundry, perhaps located right next to Sal's pizzeria?
ReplyDeleteI can't believe no one has suggested cluing PEPE as "Muppet prawn" and HOTTAMALE as "cinnamon candy". Would have improved the solving experience a lot.
ReplyDeleteI liked the theme OK, though.
Black star is supposed to be "seconds" on black arts.
ReplyDeleteSorry -- ignore that previous comment. I misunderstood you.
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ReplyDelete