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Legacy I.S.P. / MON 4-18-22 / Gel-filled NyQuil offerings / Immunity tokens on Survivor / Big obstacles on a golf course / Wildly absurd colloquially
Monday, April 18, 2022
Constructor: Carl Larson
Relative difficulty: Medium (super easy ... and then the SW corner ... which took us back to normal easy Monday)
Theme answers:
This theme is a little, uh, loose. I think it's fine, conceptually, but why these "loose" answers, why "tooth" and not "cannon" or "leaf" or "morals" or "knit"? I probably wouldn't have thought to ask this question about all the other possible "looses" were it not for the semi-glaring fact that "loose talk" and "loose lips" mean the same thing! Why would you do this? Why would you use a duplicate "loose" meaning when there are other "loose" phrases there for the taking? Bah. The talk / lips thing is bugging me. It's a simple theme, you'd think you could at least avoid a sense duplication like that. Also, I resent LIQUICAPS. No, more specifically, I resent the clue on LIQUICAPS. See, I don't really know the term LIQUICAPS, but I sure as hell know the term LIQUIGELS. Advil makes LIQUIGELS. Other companies probably do too ... so ... how are LIQUICAPS different from LIQUIGELS, exactly? It's weird to have "Gel-filled" in a clue for a kind of "cap" that is not "gel"—and there's yet another term I know better than LIQUICAP: GELCAP! Maybe my beef is with the stupidity and redundancy and redundant stupidity of branding and product naming, but this is far too many names for "soft pill go in mouth." Don't tell me a "cap" is "gel-filled" and then tell me it's a LIQUI-CAP. It's like you're just deliberately lying. DECEPTICAPS! Sigh. Otherwise, as I said, it's a fine idea for a Monday theme—simple and playfulish.
- TAKE A WALK (17A: Go strolling)
- BAND SHELL (25A: Outdoor concert stage)
- CHALLENGE (30A: Stiff test)
- TOLLBOOTH (45A: Turnpike feature made obsolescent by electronic passes)
- LIQUICAPS (51A: Gel-filled NyQuil offerings)
Giada Pamela De Laurentiis (Italian: [ˈdʒaːda paˈmɛːla de lauˈrɛnti.is]; born August 22, 1970) is an Italian-American chef, writer, and television personality. She was the host of Food Network's Giada at Home. She also appears regularly as a contributor and guest co-host on NBC's Today. De Laurentiis is the founder of the catering business GDL Foods. She is a winner of the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Host and the Gracie Award for Best Television Host. (wikipedia)
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The whole "LIQUI-" thing slowed me way, way down. I was going lightning-fast, so the "slowness" here is relative, but still, it's jarring how much more resistance the SW corner puts up compared to the rest of the grid. Couldn't come up with ALL SQUARE easily either, so the "Q" stayed well hidden til almost the end. The other flummoxy thing down here, for me, was GIADA. Not only do I not know the celebrity chef in question, I don't think I've ever known any GIADA, ever. I needed every cross and was genuinely concerned that I had an error, as GIADA just didn't look like a name. Unsurprisingly, this is the first time GIADA has ever appeared in the NYTXW. Looking her up, I recognize her face—maybe I've seen it on cookbooks in the bookstore?—but I clearly never registered that first name before. I am happy to learn the name, but come on: GIADA, but still no Agnès VARDA!? No Yasujiro OZU!? Y'all are killing me with this nonsense. Crossword justice for legendary movie directors! Crossword justice for cinema!
Just a couple more notes. TOLLBOOTHs have not been "made obsolescent" by anything. They still exist, often right alongside EZ-Pass booths (and the like). I guess they are becoming obsolete to the extent that cash is become obsolete, but ... not yet. Also, no one's going to write a legendary children's book called "The Phantom Electronic Pass," so ... no need to shove all non-automated things out of the plane just yet. Yeesh. Also, that's enough Tracee ELLIS Ross for one week (month, year) *unless* you go all in and use TRACEE. She can come back as TRACEE. But as ELLIS, she's gonna have to wait til 2023. Give other ELLISes a chance! (Actually, I don't mind Tracee ELLIS Ross at all, I'm just still mad about the continued VARDA and OZU snubbing). See you tomorrow.
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88 comments:
Or, as half the internet trolls would say, "Crossword solvers are a bunch of loosers!"
I thought the first three rows made a beautiful stanza:
TAPE JUDO WHAMS
OBEY A SEA ROBOT
TAKE A WALK, AN ODE
44D got right to the bottom with SKIP ASS. Whereas 54D could be a bit upper crusty if clued as “ Peasant like”……. PEONY,
Being a foodie myself, GIADIA was a gimme, so no Rexish SW problems. Very easy but also fun. Thanks, Carl Larson.
Easy-medium. The top half was easier than the bottom. Help from past puzzles - spelling ALLAN correctly. An interesting and smooth take on a familiar theme, liked it.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #700 is back to a slightly gentler Croce, or just a tad tougher than Saturday’s NYT. That said, I did know the Seinfeld episode and was vaguely familiar with the 1990s animated series. Good luck!
It's times like this, when Rex goes on a rant because the constructor cited Nyquil's trademarked "LIQUICAPS" rather than using "GELCAPS", that I worry for his sanity in a world filled with much greater contradictions.
I sure do feel smart on Monday as opposed to Saturday.
One write over, TRapS before TREES at 69A. Loose tooth made me wince a little. Upcoming dentist appointment, not my favorite time.
Enjoyable puzzle.
@Rex: OBSOLESCENT is not the same as OBSOLETE. It means "becoming obsolete," which TOLLBOOTHS are, more or less. Objection overruled.
For "stiff test" I really wanted AUTOPSY
I loved @Rex today. It seems he really liked this puzzle but glowing endorsements aren't his thing. I noticed the TALK/LIPS dup. too. It's sloppy. Nyquil? SEE THIS
I liked that I needed the revealer even though the theme is not complicated. Just right for the Monday.
You're just gonna let "BANDSHELL" sit there and pretend like it's a thing??
It's gelcaps, not liquicaps.
A sweet theme that I couldn’t figure out before getting the reveal, but in the trying my brain got its stimulation quota, and that’s treat on a Monday.
The grid construction is excellent, but I could say this for almost every NYT crossword, and credit the high bar of the crossword team as well as the high caliber of constructors. We solvers are lucky indeed.
A post-solve stroll yielded some gifts. I like the echo of yesterday’s Easter eggs with DYES. I like BELTS abutting SAKE, and the PuzzPair© of I SEE and ICU. Things are ALL SQUARE on the double-letter front between E and L, with seven each. I felt no woe from DOE and HOE, and HANDY by ANDIE was dandy.
Loveliness all around, and thank you for creating this, Carl!
@ncmathsadist. See OTG 5:44
It’s not the puzzle’s fault that you don’t know stuff. Giada is very famous. Even if she weren’t each cross was a gimme.
If you don’t like repeated clues, this is not the day for you.
BAND SHELL – or possibly BANDS HELL – falls squarely in the “insufficiently well-known for a themer” category. LIQUICAPS may be there, too.
And it is interesting that someone named GIADA is apparently so famous that he is fair game on a Monday, but I’ve never heard of him. [post-Google update: she/her, not he/him]
I think this is an example of what Rex has complained about lately: theme inflation. Six theme-related entries requires you to put things like BANDSHELL and GIADA in your grid that might have been avoided with one fewer.
I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT HERE
Learned about Bundt cake, Chef Giada D Laurentiis, and Liquicaps today, so that is a good thing. Got to keep on learning all the time.
Very normal and serviceable Monday, and low on dreck. Rex isn’t happy unless he’s busy molding nits into major offenses. So he doesn’t know a celebrity chef - big deal, I get blindsided by PPP all the time. Ditto for the product placement - happens all the time, with much more esoteric items, especially later in the week.
Quite the pharma/medical sub-theme going on south of the equator (probably totally inadvertent) with ICU, DNA, REHAB, LIQUICAPS, IRON and DYES.
More entries in the "if you know it, it's easy" department. GIADA was a gimme for me, but not ELLIS or IDOLS as clued.
Interesting clue for TREES, not quite as straightforward as Scotch ____. for instance.
Didn't see the theme until the revealer, which is just the way I like it.
@joaquin-I totally agree with your statement, but I think you're wasting your breathe.
Some tricksiness on Monday, CL, but Coulda Lasted longer with no complaints from me. Thanks for some fun.
Brainpan7:02 AM - Uhh...it is. Maybe it's regional. Here in NYC, we have many of them, for example, in Central Park, and in Seaside Park where I grew up in Coney Island (although some might argue that Seaside Park is in something called "West Brighton" which sound less trashy, but isn't really).
Anonymous - 7:13 AM - "It’s not the puzzle’s fault that you don’t know stuff." That's gotta go on somebody's list of best comments of the week.
I like it when I get the reveal and it helps me get some of the themers. I like it when the themers help me get the reveal. Today I had all of them, then wondered how the reveal was a hint, then realized the circled letters spell stuff that can be loose and are at the ends of the answers. So, that's sort of cool, but also didn't matter at all. Kind of a post mortem "I get it" as opposed to an AHA that helped anything. But solving puzzles is fun, and it's Monday, so all good.
Then I come here and find out there's so much more to talk about. LOOSE TALK and LOOSE LIPS being the same had gone noticed. I don't really think that's true, but OK, interesting point. And now I'm wondering, if obsolescent means becoming obsolete, can it be in the past, like can something be made obsolescent, or is it that EZPass and such are making tollbooths obsolescent. I kind of miss tollbooth operators along my journey. Sometimes. Plus there's the whole pharma branding thing to go on about now whereas I thought there was nothing about liquicaps worth even noting. Lol, so much more to talk about than I realized.
What TV I watch is mostly limited to HGTV and the Food Network so GIADA was a gimme (even though I first splatzed in GIAnA - like Rex, I haven't seen GIADA as a name before Ms. De Laurentiis showed up.)
My hold-up in the SW was due to my Even-Steven "ALL tied up". That gave me a disturbing vowel line-up IiUI in 51A but it ALL SQUAREd up in the end.
Thanks, Carl Larson, this was a nifty Monday theme. (But now I can't get the phrase, "LOOSE lips sink ships" out of my mind.)
@kitshef 7:15 AM - I loved BANDSHELL because I grew up down the street from one and it makes me pleasantly nostalgic for my native Coney Island / Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. And as for GIADA, as others have said, the crosses were all gimmes, and you get to learn something new.
Kind of a mash up of various theme types we’ve seen before. It didn’t land with me - but I could see some thinking it cute. Agree with @Conrad that “obsolescent” involves the process of becoming obsolete - so the clue is apt.
Side eye to ABACI and the dual “girder” clues. Wanted lift in lieu of SKI PASS. Fond memories of my mom’s old BUNDT pan.
Not sure of the anti BANDSHELL slant - but NYC Parks has a few beautiful examples in Central Park, Forest Park and the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park. See also the famous Jones Beach BANDSHELL built by Robert Moses.
Quick Monday solve.
I had _ANDSHELL and had no idea what the first letter might be.
Nice Monday. Never heard of a Loose Ball, though. (Short for Loose-eel? ;-)
And where are there still tollbooths anymore? I only see those scaffold-type things with a million gizmos and cameras and whatever on them that you drive under at full speed. No tollbooths along side those. I haven’t seen a tollbooth in years. That’s not to say they don’t exist, but where??
@Lewis - I’d like to nominate @Megafrim’s wrong answer for your list.
Same corner, different reason. ALL tied up before ALL SQUARE. Blrrgh.
I know GIADA and still needed 80% f the crosses to get the spelling correct.
Who are you people who haven’t heard of a BANDSHELL? Apparently you didn’t grow up in Holland like I did. (The BANDSHELL is one of the four images at the top of the page)
Wasn’t there just a anti-medicinal advertising rant/discussion yesterday? I’m with them and Rex on LIQUICAPS. I had EdO, which looked fine, but then I noticed LIQUIdAPS and realized we weren’t drinking our SAKE in Japan. Near DNF because randomly dropping letters to leave an impression helps marketing and xword constructors.
Funny how our perception of crossword answers is colored by our backgrounds and personal vocabularies. I can't tell you why, but BANDSHELL is a completely normal and descriptive word for me.
Enjoyable puzzle, maybe a touch crunchy for a Monday, which is a good thing.
Noticed on this "Easter Monday" that both SIN and SINS appeared as Hidden Diagonal Words in this grid. :-)
Boulder has a BAND SHELL. It's a thing. Right in the middle town.
[img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57a0fe8be58c625a65cb7638/1471370032818-23RL4GQ4DUTU258H5QGH/bandshells.jpg"/]
GIADA is pretty famous. Greatest cheerleader smile on TV, and unrepentantly trying to stay 25 in a very-much-not 25 way. A lot more famous in my mind than lots of people in puzzles,including ELLIS and ANDIE in this puzzle. And every cross was easy for GIADA. And, her recipes are great.
Yay:
ROBOT
Ug.
The theme.
ICIER
Everything else was just fine. I can proceed into Monday knowing Friday and Saturday misery-puzzles are still far away.
Thx Carl; a good start to the week! :)
Med.
Moved smoothly from the NW, clockwise around to the SW, where I ran into a bit of a CHALLENGE, as both LIQUICAPS & GIADA were unknowns. Fair crosses saved the day, leaving no LOOSE ENDS! :)
Fun puz! :)
@jae
Thx, looking forward to it! :)
___
yd pg -3
yd: Phrazle 14: 2/6
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https://solitaired.com/phrazle
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Morning, all. Boston Marathon Monday, in fact. @mmorgan, there are tollbooths on the bridge over the Caloosahatchee River that connects Fort Myers to Cape Coral (FL) and also going to Sanibel Island. Moved out last year, but believe they're still there. Used to drive to races, which start early due to heat, and remember the eerie glow of the booth lights in the humid pre dawn air. About the time I'd consider why signing up for the race seemed to be a good idea.🙄
Good morning! It is I, old 26D Herself. I feel so special. My experience sort of mirrored Rex’s today. Very easy until I got to the SW corner where LIQUICAPS tripped me up for a while, complicated by the fact that I had no idea on the name of the chef. Not necessarily unfair, just took a while to sort it out. Not a fan of the duplicate clues, but a good Monday for a beginning solver.
@Joaquin (12:10) Your crazy. I could of told you their are alot of people smarter then that.
There’s hole in this BUNDT.
Took two days, but you reminded me that one of the crosswords I've put together but never finished clueing does have OZU in it, because I love him a whole lot.
Wordle 303 3/6
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Lol, there's a first for me. So many options for that 3rd guess.
I guess all you folks unfamiliar with BANDSHELLs have never seen the Hollywood Bowl. Too bad…it’s a great music venue. Btw, the “bowl” refers not to the BANDSHELL but to the concave hillside where the seating is.
Loved the fact that in the dead tree version - at least in north Jersey - the top of the puzzle page featured a large picture of the stars of black-ish, including Tracee Ellis Ross!
Very convenient!
Hey All !
GIADA a gimme here, as her smiling face was all over billboards on The Strip here in Las Vegas touting her restaurant. At least she's pleasant to look at. Since stopped driving Limos about a year ago now, I haven't seen said billboards, as no reason to drive on The Strip.
But, what exactly is a Loose BALL? Is that a basketball term? Not a b-ball watcher. The others are fine. Have to actually agree with Rex on the fact that there are other "Loose" things that'd fit better. He listed some. Normally I rail on Rex for his "why these?". Har.
With how risqúe Miley Cyrus is, really wanted aSs for 8D. 😂
Got TALK, TOOTH and LIPS first, thinking theme had something to do with the mouth. Looking for TONGUE. (That sounds racy!)
Almost a pangram, but no X's, or F's! Dang! No respect.
Nice MonPuz. Not too big a CHALLENGE. Decent fill. Four Boggled ROOs, makes up for no F's.
Gotta WRAPSUP and go PREEN. *EYEROLL*
yd -8, should'ves 6
No F's (INSANE!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Nuclear codes? (6)
2. Rose by another name? (3)
3. Look up, in a way (6)
4. Sound of the West Coast (5)
5. People in a long line, perhaps (6)
GENOME
AXL
GOOGLE
PUGET
RULERS
Hate to break it to Rex, but in some areas of the country, there are no more toll booths on toll roads, or more precisely, no cash/coin collection.
Here in the DFW area, the NTTA (operator of the various toll roads, bridges and tunnels) went completely cashless back in 2010. In a couple places, the booth structures still exist, but their lanes are blocked off and they are unstaffed and have been for nearly 12 years. The toll roads built since then have no booths at all.
NTTA has 5 toll roads, 2 bridges and one tunnel. They also collect tolls for the capacity-managed express lanes on 8 area freeways. When I moved here in 1987, there was one toll road and one toll bridge.
NTTA was the first toll road operator to use an electronic pass.
But it is correct to state that the electronic passes didn't make cash toll collection obsolete. It was the combination of the electronic tag technology with the high-speed license plate cameras, along with legislation that allows tolling agencies to access DMV/DOT license plate databases. Otherwise, there would be no way to collect tolls from drivers without electronic tags.
Never heard of LOOSE BALLS as a thing and agree with Rex that LOOSE LIPS and LOOSE TALK is sloppy.
I consider myself a foodie, but sadly not a TV watching foodie, so I barely know these names. I always mix up AuDIE and Andie MacDowell. (I think I'm confusing her with Audra McDonald who is often called Audie in interviews...)
Re: LOOSE ball...
In American football, a ball that has been fumbled is a loose ball, where you'll most commonly encounter the term. But in the rulebook, a loose ball is defined as a live ball that is not in player possession (i.e., any kick, pass or fumble).
And in basketball, there are loose ball fouls, which is a foul committed when ball possession is being contested.
This is my least favorite puzzle-type: randomly placed annoying tiny little circles that no solver needs to know are there and that no one would miss if they were gone.
I wish we could lose this puzzle-type completely. I, for one, wouldn't miss it if it were gone. In fact, I might not realize that is was gone.
I will leave you with the immortal words of someone I worked with in publishing back in the day: "For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like."
Absolutely knew Giada. Never have heard anyone else named that. It means ‘jade’ in Italian, which is what she named her daughter.
So Ca has lost most of its toll booths too. Just have a sign above the freeway that causes our auto-toll to click our our dash board.
I ran afoul of an electronic toll booth in Iceland. It was a fee to go through the tunnel leaving Akureyri. You had to use WiFi to create an account and pay by credit card. But our onboard WiFi battery was dead. The sign said you had within 3 hours of passing through the tunnel to sign in and pay.
Panicked that the toll and a fine would be assigned to our rental car and passed on to us, my friend and I drove through the tunnel and when we found civilization again, we stopped at a tourist center and persuaded the guide to let us plug in the WiFi unit. We went on a hike and when we got back, I was able to complete the transaction. I don't think my friend was all that panicked about it but I get nervous about "breaking the rules" in a foreign country. I had a lot more pleasant day after that was dealt with!
@Nancy oh yes, agree, and love the quote: from uncle google: "This is a well-known quote from Muriel Spark's novel about a teacher in a private girls school in Scotland, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: "For those who like that sort of thing," said Miss Brodie in her best Edinburgh voice, "That is the sort of thing they like."
Question: what is the objection to the word BANDSHELL? Thanks.
@Teedmn. If I had been in your situation I would have mailed a check. What a ridiculous system.
I also got 34 down by looking at her captioned photo at the top of the puzzle page.
BTW, “begging the question” means suggesting the answer in the question itself, the way every NPR news interviewer asks every question.
E.G., “Why is “x” the most loved American song of the 1980s?”
Second comment and then I will shut up. Every day leaving our university parking lot, I drive through a TOLLBOOTH staffed by lovely students. They read a barcode on my windshield, the gate goes up, we mutually nod, and many days it feels like my main human interaction in an increasingly robotic world.
I am particularly enamored by one young woman who continues to wear her black mask (alone in her tollbooth), and she also closes both eyes with her thank-you nod elevating the whole experience, and sending me into an unforgiving world with hope and optimism for the future.
Didn’t know Giada wow
Count me among those who find BANDSHELL (one word, @Rex) completely unexotic. Surely they don't exist only in New York. And yes, GIADA is sufficiently famous, not least for wearing low-cut tops while bending over the dishes she's preparing.
Now we take a walk in April 1973.
Phrazle 15: 2/6
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Well, I'm not sure I should say: Ha ha, this was fun... good grief... or holy little ant hills.
Wait...this is MONDAY!. I actually like Mondays...they can be filled with little surprises - like some GOO on your BUNDT cake or maybe LULU do the JUDO with a PEONY hanging from her LOOSE LIPS.
So... I'm always curious and want to figure out the theme after some entries....Hmmm says, I....what does TALK and BALL have in common....That's the good grief part. Then I get to CHANGE and TOOTH and my holy little ant hills kept being stepped on. Where does my HA HA part come in? Well, I'll be... (fill in the blank).
My favorite theme answer is LOOSE LIPS.
I wasn't sure what that phrase meant when I first heard it but look.....!!! I found this:
"It wasn't what Monica's lips did for Bill but what Monica's LOOSE LIPS did for Linda that got Bill impeached"
I've heard of the sinking ship one and I still don't understand.
GIADA is everywhere - you can't miss her little bobble head and her huge smile full of pearly whites.
In the end, I rather enjoyed this, Carl. I learned a few things...
Good start to the week. Liked the wordplay involved in finding the two ENDS of each themer and how they form a third word that can follow LOOSE.
Didn’t know LIQUICAPS, but I am not offended by that fact. Didn’t know GIARDO either and was surprised to see it on a Monday but am still not offended. Liked a lot of the fill, especially EYE ROLL (Rex’s daily exercise while doing the crossword).
What does a hygienist and a hayfield have in common? See 56 and 57D: H AND Y AND I E
How do you reign instead of reassign? SKIP ASS
@Leslie (10:26-- Aha!!! So Sandra S. at the Literary Guild (a Brit herself, btw) stole it from Muriel Spark! I never knew that! Which is strange, considering that "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is one of my five favorite films of all time. (I'm not sure I ever read the novel, though. If I did and don't remember, then the book can't hold a candle to the film, which is the opposite of the way things usually are.)
Sandra S. is also the "much of a much of a muchness" oft-saying person whom I quoted not that long ago right here on the blog with that deathless phrase. I wonder if she stole that one too. :)
I thought this was very cute. Along the way, I made a stab at figuring out the theme: TALK to BALL....hmm, a double consonant progression? CHANGE soon scotched that idea, so I just let it all happen until the reveal - which then required a second, until the gratifying flash of getting it. An aces moment on a Monday.
The questions about BANDSHELL surprised me - it was my favorite answer, evoking images of old-time evenings in a park on balmy summer nights. But the BANDSHELL to end all BANDSHELLS is (I think) a very modern one, Frank Gehry's monumental brushed stainless steel structure in Chicago's Millennium Park.
Do-over: ALL tied up. Help from previous puzzles: ELLIS. Should have been help from previous puzzles: ALLAN (@jae 12:54, my thought was, "I know it's 'different,' but how?" and guessed wrong). No idea: LIQUICAPS.
Gill I: "Loose lips sink ships" is from WW2 when someone, somewhere could have made a careless statement (in a place public or private) which could have been overheard by someone, and passed on to the enemy which could have led directly to the sabotaging or torpedoing an American ship. This was a real problem for two reasons: it not only could result in "enemy action" and the loss of American lives. The second is it unleashed to civil and military authorities a spate of false reporting of "war information" being leaked in public. American forces personnel were reputed to be as tight lipped as possible, but even they could repeat information to their friends and families which could then be passed on, unwillingly and unknowingly, to others.
Like a low-budget schlock flick, this puz had no FX. Otherwise, it'da been a MonPuz pangrammer.
But, hey -- any puz with both a SKIP-ASS theme *and* cleverly subtle 44-D revealer is A-ok with M&A.
staff weeject pick: ECO. Cuz we gotta do somethin big to save the environment before Nov 2024, or it's all over. [M&A recently planted an extra tree. If everyone did that, we might make up for them tearin down the Amazon rain forest.]
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Warmer than freezing, on the Celsius scale} = ABOVEZERO. Certainly easier than rhymin slams with WHAMS, anyhoo.
M&A would even be willin to dress up [i.e., ditch 365-daily sweatshirt & jeans uniform], to get to attend one of them "LOOSE" BALLS. Sooo … fave split-ass theme answer.
other, non-loose, faves: LULU [50% solid gold]. SKIPASS. ABOVEZERO. ALLSQUARE. BUNDT cake.
no-knows: GIADA. I think Godzilla mighta battled it, in one of them loose-ass-FX schlock flicks, tho…
Thanx for the fun and the neat bonus TO OTH gap dealy, Mr. Larson dude.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
better late than never, Easter-wise:
**gruntz**
No one seems to agree with me, but in my mind loose TALK means stating things as fact, or making accusations, or maybe bragging about what you are going to do, without any real basis -- it's just 'loose talk.' Loose LIPS, OTOH, refers to talking about things that are supposed to be secret. Loose lips sink ships because if you talk about planned naval maneuvers in your local bar the enemy force may hear about them and set an ambush. (In a non-naval context, it's a major plot device in Aida.)
Massachusetts has eliminated all toll booths, as have many other states, and probably everyone is going that way. So 'obsolescent' is precisely the right word. @Amyyanni, we just spent the month of March on Captiva, and drove over the Sanibel causeway many times. I might have missed it (we have a SunPass), but I'm pretty sure they have removed the toll booth.
The principal BANDSHELL here in Boston is just called a shell, specifically the Hatch Shell. I've never heard the term BANDSHELL (unlike bandstand), but I take it others have, so OK.
All you Rex-haters should read him more carefully. At no time does he say that GIADA should not be in the puzzle; he simply makes a semi-comic demand for crossword justice for Varda and Ozu.
@Nancy, I'd be happy to solve this puzzle without the circles. But tbf, they are not randomly placed -- they are at the ends of each theme answer. If they were really random, I think the circles would be needed (though still annoying!)
I’m reminded of the former Steeler wide receiver Louis Lipps. I used to fantasize that there was an NFL team named the Ships so that, after Mr. Lipps snagged the winning touchdown catch, the newspaper headline would be “Louis Lipps Sinks Ships.”
ELLIS Peters, author of the Brother Cadfael mysteries.
Cash-obsolescence counterpoint: I paid cash yesterday for some onions at a Walmart near my brother-in-law's house in North Minneapolis. My contribution to their chicken piccata with home-made fettuccine -- nary an onion in the fridge at the moment of truth, so off to find an open grocer, returned timely, and it was delicious. I paid $3.25 for seven yellow onions -- guessing they used about four. I paid with a $5 bill (one of two in my wallet), receiving a $1 bill and three quarters in change.
@jberg (11:40) -- Fine comments on "Loose LIPS." And for me, any mention of "Aida" conjures Amneris' final "Pace, Pace" as the trilling lovers go quiet in the sealed tomb below. What an ending.
Honorable "Loose LIPS" mention to @egsforbreakfast (11:42).
@kitshef:
BAND SHELL – or possibly BANDS HELL – falls squarely in the “insufficiently well-known for a themer” category.
not if your from Taxachusetts or nearby. one of the most famous on the planet (Hatch Shell) is next to the Muddy Charles. or on the Left Coast, you've got the Hollywood Bowl. you've covered half the US population between them. Hatch is on flat ground, so not an amphitheater.
@Mary McCarty:
Btw, the “bowl” refers not to the BANDSHELL but to the concave hillside where the seating is.
that's why their called 'amphitheaters'. you get unpowered 'amplification' from the megaphone (not MAGAphone, mind) shape.
Time Magazine founder mouths a Barry Manilow hit:
LUCE LIPSYNCS "SHIPS"
(Would you like some sake with your eye roll?)
I would say a trickier theme than that for most Mondays, since it involves a double concept. Too bad many editors insist on doing such tricks to get these types of themes into puzzles, because I think newer solvers would enjoy these easier theme. Older editors and solvers seem to deny this.
Comment to whatsername about the late comment yesterday (at least late enough for me to miss it): I wonder if we used the same binders. As a Region II employee, I think my training was someplace in New Jersey. In terms of identifying Special Emphasis industries for OSHA to inspect, I think the results of some of the sessions were worth the stupidity other sessions produced. In the end, the best results stemmed from win-win bargaining when both management and union reps bought into the system. And that did not as often as it should have due to recalcitrant members of both groups. Distrust seemed very hard to overcome.
I only (finally!) started to do crossword puzzles about a month ago and English is not my mothertongue; I mostly stick to Monday and Tuesday puzzles, but it is going to take a while before I manage to finish them without looking up any answers... Learning new words, expressions and concepts, which is nice, even though I sometimes find it hard to understand where they come from ("one seed" as a tournament favourite?)!
Am I the only one who was bothered by "black tea VARIETY" as a clue for "pekoe"? I thought "variety" would rather refer to Darjeeling, Ceylon etc.
Count me among those who never heard of no GIADA. Got it right, but wondered for a moment of a roe also meant a female deer. Decided probably roes are sometimes males, so DOE was the only possible answer.
Toll booths are gone, period, on many bridges and highways. Golden Gate Bridge got read of tollbooths and the many related tolltaking jobs years ago. You just sail through, and if you don't have an electronic pass, or more likely you have one but it isn't read, the nice folks at the bridge just mail you a bill. If, that is, they know who you are. They have been known to not pick up your plates, or maybe you have a new car whose paper plates cannot easily be read. Or you have out of state or foreign plates that are not in the database. The toll authorities lose a ton of money every year because of that, but it still saves them money over having real toll takers.
Now for $6, if you get a bill, you just pay it. But there are toll roads in Southern California with much higher tolls. To avoid a ticket, you have to write them a nice letter, explaining you have never ridden on that road, and they have no choice but to believe you, if in fact you don't have a record of having used the road fairly often. Happened to me, anyhow, and they seem to have accepted it.
If you get a small bill, credibly could have used the facility, and don't pay it, they tack on extra fees. And if you rented from a major company like Hertz or Avis, believe me, your credit card will be charged if you don't pay when you get that first courtesy notice.
@Canon Chas 11:24
Thank you for the explanation. It was interesting to me. I've heard "Loose lips sink ships" but never knew why. My mind always wanders when it comes to American idioms. I alway wondered why someone would want to "cut the mustard" or "beat around the bush" or even put your ducks in a row. I've never cut any mustard or beaten a bush.
@egs 11:42 "Louis Lipps Sings Ships" made me giggle.
@jberg: I think I read all of the comments and I didn’t read any which said Rex said GIADA shouldn’t be in the puzzle. I’d be happy to be corrected if I’m wrong about that. I read one which said he shouldn’t be angry about not knowing stuff, which he clearly was, if only half kiddingly.
@egs:
“Louis Lipps Sinks Ships.”
well... the real one should have been (might well, for all I know): “Louis Lipps F*cks Bucs.” Buccaneers, after all, were seamen.
Apologies for the repeats (hopefully this one is formatted correctly) 🤞
Adding to what @Anonymous (9:48 AM) said:
LOOSE BALL foul (SportsLingo):
"This is a foul that is called when neither team has possession of the ball. This often occurs when players are attempting to rebound the ball and someone who has been boxed out makes illegal contact when moving towards the basket. Possession after the foul is given to the opposing team of the player who committed the foul."
@jae
I'm 2 hrs into Croce's 700. This may be the one that has been looming, i.e., impossible for me. Way, way too many unknowns, even for crosses to come to the rescue. We'll see. 🤞
___
td pg: 26:20 / W: 4*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@old timer:
but it still saves them money over having real toll takers.
I suspect the cost/benefits analysis for such 'decisions' are done by the same folks who did the arithmetic for taxpayer support of the Buffalo Billshitters new stadium. The cost of buying and maintaining both the EZ-pass equipment and all those cameras, not to mention the manpower back at The Home Office to send and process the mail-in fees. Any excuse to fire workers. MAGA will put them back to work in high paying jobs (that require no education or skills, of course)... oh wait... all The Orange Sh!tgibbon (not my coinage, but I cleave) was give away tax money to himself and his rich friends. All those dirt poor Rednecks who stormed the Capitol prove that there's a fool (or bunches) born every minute.
From the Never-Read-the-Comments-Up-From-the-Bottom Dept: @Mike in Bed-Stuy says:
"Maybe it's regional. Here in NYC, we have many of them, for example, in Central Park."
And I'm thinking: We do??? We have TOLLBOOTHS in Central Park??? You coulda fooled me!
And now I realize that Mike's comment wasn't part of the great TOLLBOOTH discussion today. No, instead it's part of the great BANDSHELL discussion today.
I recognize that Google Ngram is not the end-all, but for what it's worth, BANDSHELL doesn't NGram well.
If you can't beat tmesis, antitragus or Futhark ...
Typically easy Monday. I had to skip the chef's name as I can never remember it. I do know what a BAND SHE'LL is and at least for football I'm familiar with the term "loose ball."
After last week's POI/POE snafu I was wondering if his middle name used an A or an E. I guessed wrong today but it was easy to correct.
yd pg-1, td -0
@Nancy 11:08 → I wonder if she stole that one too
She did.
Shakespeare coined the words 'countless', silliness', 'tardiness' and many others of the same form. 'Muchness' sounds typical of the Bard's work and it seems a fair bet that it was one of his inventions. In fact, the word was in use by the 14th century, pre-dating Shakespeare by more than a century. Also, the Shakespearian-sounding phrase 'much of a muchness' first appeared considerably later, in the play The Provok'd Husband, 1728, which was a collaboration between John Vanbrugh and Colley Cibber:
Man: I hope... you and your good Woman agree still.
J. Moody: Ay! ay! much of a Muchness.
@kitshef - Change the time parameter and BANDSHELL does better. But that's also a weakness of the NGRAM viewer, which is looking at books. BANDSHELL is going to appear a lot more often in local newspapers. The Holland Sentinel, for example, would mention the Kollen Park BANDSHELL every day in the summer in their "local events" feature because there was a weekly concert there all summer long. But who is featuring that BANDSHELL in their book?
@The Cleaver - I'm not saying this is wise because cost efficiency should not be the only standard by which we judge public services, but labor is always more expensive than equipment. If toll booth operators only got minimum wage and insurance, keeping a single toll booth operating 24 hours is going to cost $250-300/day.
@Anon1:07 - Point taken. I agree with @jberg generally, but you are right about the comments today.
I'm just bummed that NyQuil missed the chance to call their product a Nightcap.
Chef Giada Laurentis and her bared cleavage are very well known in my circles
Wow @Cleaver 1:56
Send me some money so I can pay for my gas and groceries. And get your boy a friend, so he doesn't have to shake hands with the air.
@Zed:
but labor is always more expensive than equipment.
Then kindly explain why it is that as some company substitutes ever more capital for labor, the only way it manages to be profitable, i.e. pay off the amortization/maintenance of said capital, is to merge as close as legal to monopoly. AKA, oligopoly. And the reason is simple: the only way to make money in a highly capitalized production process is to run said process 24/7/365, since all those machine expenses have to be paid no matter what. You don't have the option to layoff redundant machines should demand slacken. No matter how much you use them, you have to pay for them. There is a reason that the Great Recession happened now.
Of note is the Chinese method of making all those widgets for US: cheap hands. China, by and large, uses 19th century production method. Of course, they've got a billion+ bodies and no social safety net. OTOH, the only way they make any money is to sell off all that production to countries with large blue collar, aka Redneck, middle classes. Again, AKA, stupid people with enough moolah to buy stuff.
Note, further, that American Capital has, from the beginning of the Union, always moved to ever more autocratic governance. New England manufacturing moved to the Business Friendly South. Then Mexico. Then Central America. Then Asia. Then China. And then whichever dictator is more friendly to them than the current bunch. Their problem: as labor becomes an ever diminishing amount of the BoM, moving to more nasty dictatorships (which allows for the exploitation of people) becomes, at the margin, less profitable. That pesky amortization, which is global and can't be gamed. Ya gotta pay the banker, no matter what. And finance, like it or don't, knows no borders.
@6:41
What's the matter?? Your MAGAbucks aren't legal tender any more?? So sad.
So my office-mate was a plagiarist when I thought she just had a terrific way with words. I imagine that Diogenes must have felt sort of the way I feel right now.:)
But this blog never disappoints. Thank you, @Joe D. (5:42), for your enlightening research, your tireless sleuthing, and your devastating (at least to Sandra) conclusions.
@Nancy – The Dormouse in "Alice In Wonderland" also says "much of a muchness" — I had a vague recollection of it being from there, which is what spurred me to look it up.
I'm surprised that so many didn't know about loose balls--even those who don't follow sports. The term is common in football, basketball--and even baseball. It basically refers to any situation in which no one on the field of play has possession of said ball.
GIADA's restaurant in the Cromwell is just a few blocks from my home. If it weren't for heartthrob ANDIE MacDowell, she'd be my DOD.
I didn't get into that much of a flap over LIQUICAPS. ALLSQUARE came fairly easily--it's a term in match play golf--and the SW was no more sweat than anywhere else over here. Mondays are not known for setting the world on fire, so as they go, this was decent enough for a birdie.
Almost had a bird in Wordle too: an either-or guess went awry, so par it was.
BGBYB
YGBBG
BGGGG (rats!)
GGGGG
MODEL TALK
To TAKEAWALK with ANDIE
is a CHALLENGE, like a 40-foot POLE,
she BELTS me when I'm HANDY,
ISEE HER point, it's ALL in how EYEROLL.
--- ALLAN BUNDT
Well...I did comment. Maybe I still need to prove I'm not a robot. Ha.
Anyway - yes, this was loose. But fine for Monday. And I didn't post yesterday, tho I thought the puz was really, really ok. (get it?)
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords, not a robot
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