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Portmanteau for a radical environmentalist / TUE 4-5-22 / Piece of material used to strengthen a garment / Candy piece with white sprinkles / Phillis Wheatley wrote one to Neptune
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Constructor: Bruce Haight
Relative difficulty: Medium ... maybe tipping toward Medium-Challenging (for a Tuesday ... those corners are big and at least one of these answers is ???)
Theme answers:
- BLOWN GLASS (17A: Fragile art form crafted with air and heat)
- ACE PITCHER (25A: Starter on the mound, often)
- SPACE CASE (36A: Type who's out of touch with reality)
- PORK BARREL (50A: Metaphorical source of some government funds)
Kew Gardens is a botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its living collections includes some of the 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. [...] Kew Gardens, together with the botanic gardens at Wakehurst in Sussex, are managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, an internationally important botanical research and education institution that employs over 1,100 staff and is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. (wikipedia)
• • •
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| [Nov. 11, 2015] |
Sorry for the memory lane diversion. Back to our puzzle—the theme works, the revealer is good. I like that the holders of beer get larger as the puzzle progresses (from top to bottom). My only issue was that ACE PITCHER is a little redundant and SPACE CASE ... well, I really wanted it to be SPACE CADET and (very) briefly thought there was some kind of trick or rebus going on that would make CADET somehow work. But no. CASE. I have certainly heard SPACE CASE, so that's fine. And I actually like PORK BARREL a lot, as a standalone answer, so thumbs-up to the theme. The fill wasn't terrible, overall, but it was gridotaged by a gridoteur toward the end, resulting in a disaster that made me forget anything good about the rest of the non-theme parts of the puzzle. ECO has always been a bit of a grid scourge, but the proliferation of ECO-prefixed words is really horrific, and ECOTEUR is beyond the limits. I don't even believe in ECOTAGE as a word (I've seen it in grids, unfortunately) so how in the hell do you expect me to buy into ECOTEUR. I challenge you to use that word in conversation—even ecologically minded people are going to go "Huh? What did you say? What is E-COUTURE?" "I said ECOTEUR, E-C-O-T-E-U-R." "Oh, like ... a literary type who writes about ... plants?" "No." "An arty director of plant movies?" "No, someone who commits ECOTAGE." "Oh, like decoupage but with tree leaves. I get it now." [/scene] No one will misunderstand you if you say SABOTEUR or SABOTAGE, everyone will misunderstand you if you replace SABO- with ECO-. Kindly put ECOTEUR and ECOTAGE in your ECOCAR and drive it over a cliff ... but not into the ocean, that would be ECOTAGE.
POP TOPS before POP TABS (29D: Soda can features), OMITS before LACKS (1A: Doesn't include), and ACME before APEX (6A: Very top). Totally forgot who Sylvia SYMS was, despite having seen her name in crosswords before (57D: Jazz singer Sylvia). Wanted [Running on EMPTY], not FUMES. Had a little trouble turning up EARSHOT (11D: A voice might be heard within this). This all feels like slightly more struggle than I usually experience on a Tuesday, But maybe not. Enjoy your day. See you tomorrow.
P.S. forgot to say this yesterday, but congratulations to Tyler Hinman on winning his seventh (!!) American Crossword Puzzle Tournament this past weekend in Stamford, CT.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Conversations with Dad #ACPT pic.twitter.com/xA9GUc2lR6
— Tyler Hinman (@thatpuzzleguy) April 3, 2022
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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87 comments:
this version is more 2022 than rex's variation since beer belly is the sorta body-shamey downer that i think present day rex himself wouldn't want to see.
I struggled a bit more than I do on a typical Tuesday, but it was an enjoyable diversion. I got in trouble right off the hop with @Rex omitS instead of LACKS at 1A. That made the NW hard to see, so I moved on, and found more fertile soil. ZiG before ZAG at 39A was easily corrected, as was HeP before HIP at 60D. Returned to the NW and got KEW and SYNC, which led to the fall of that corner. Nice crunchy Tuesday.
So, these are all things that HOLD (MY) BEER, from smallest to largest.
That's pretty good, if not exactly thrilling.
My issues were with some of the fill. Started the whole thing off with "omits" instead of LACKS, but thank Gof for KEW.
Really wanted SPACE CAdEt, but obviously there wasn't a rebus.
And will always always want POP Top or Pull TAB, but that extra "L" is pesky.
Interesting that MEH is in the big, fat middle of the grid.
🧠🧠
🎉🎉.5
My experience with this puzzle was a lot like @Rex's experience: enjoyable, somewhat challenging, liked the theme, didn't like ECOTEUR, wanted SPACECAdet and POPTopS. Thanks, Bruce Haight, for a fun puzzle, and thanks, Rex, for a good blog post.
A bit more in the way of mid-length fill, than we normally get on a Tuesday, which I like.
It occurs to me that there are a lot of steps that are simply not part of my laundry process, but that I know some people do. These include Pre-treating, soaking, sorting, adding fabric softener, using dryer sheets, ironing, folding, putting into drawers. Of these, I only had to choose between SORTS and SOakS.
I don’t know if @Nancy ever came to a conclusion on the supposedly equivalent phrases that are not, but we have what I think is a good example today with ITS A SIN.
It’s sweet to see a puzzle by Bruce, whose puzzles are often made with a twinkle in his eye, like today’s, with its punny theme. Time was when his puzzles showed up here just around the next corner – he averaged one a month in 2017 and had 13 puzzles in 2018. But there were only two Haights in both 2020 and 2021. So when his puzzles do come, drink them in!
I don’t know if we’ll ever see 13 puzzles in a year by a constructor in the NYT again. Doesn’t feel like it.
I like how Bruce’s mind works, how he saw HOLD MY BEER, and, with that twinkle in his eye, gave it new meaning. Good IDEA, I SAY!
I like having words in puzzles that are in the language but not used with high regularity, such as today’s ALL TOLD, GERMANE, and EARSHOT. I also like when several puzzle answers together trigger random thoughts, such as today when I saw ALLEY, SPHERES, and XES and thought “bowling!”, and when my Jewish upbringing made me smile when I saw IT’S A SIN, NOSH, and PORK.
Good to see ye, Bruce! Good to brush with that entertaining mind of yours again. Thank you for a fun puzzle!
Not so sure Rex should have given us an example of his creative skills.Anton,Enya,Lees,Ida,Azera,Ikea,Matt,Karen,Peke,Olay,Ryne,Oreo,Renu,Tarzan
Cmag,aka,esc,ttyl,eer,ukes,mds.
Would have loved to see the clues for "urine" and "export terror".
Fun theme - like Rex I thought the increasing volume track was elegant. SPACE CASE was offbeat for sure - maybe Peter or Neko would have been more apt.
The NW and SW corners were the stars here. Love GERMANE and CLOMPED. I’m sure the majority here wanted POP TopS. No idea on ECOTEUR but clean crosses. IONA is a stones throw from fan favorite Rye Playland.
Enjoyable Tuesday solve.
You're absolutely spot on about 'ecoteur.' A search of the 14-billion-word iWeb corpus (https://www.english-corpora.org/iweb/) turns up '0' examples of ecoteur. 'Ecotage' at least comes up 12 times, mostly in UK contexts.
Another quibble with this puzzle: "Finish by" is absolutely not a synonym for "End at." The former includes time between now and the endpoint, while the latter identifies a specific endpoint.
Decided to work this one on my phone (which I seldom do) last night, and found it more difficult than a usual Tuesday. Figured my slower pace was all about trying to use the phone app. But it turns out that others including Rex also felt a little Tuesday crunch.
Started with plOddED for 3D, Walked heavily, and went through a couple of other options ( including CLOpPED) before CLOMPED.
Hand up for POPTopS.
Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clue & answer for this grid: "________ for the poor"
ALMS (Begins at 14A square, moves SE)
Really good puzzle. Except for ECOTEUR. Could replace that word with AMATEUR and I bet there's a decent fill for the rest of that corner. I always wonder how smart constructors get lured into using an obviously annoying word when simple solutions are sitting right there. Guess I should try writing one myself before I get too judgmental. Had to look up SYMS thanks to ECOTEUR obscuring MOUSE.
First mistake was seeing the constructor's name and thinking OFL would not have anything good to say about this one. Pleasantly surprised.
So Cielito Lindo? Oye Como Va? Eres tu? How about LABAMBA? See, there you go. A few nanoseconds there, but no biggie.
Agree with Rex that ACEPITCHER is redundant and that plain ACE is far more common.
Nice to see SNO with its CAP on for a change.
My favorite answer in this one is CLOMPED, which is just a great word.
Very nice puzzle, BH. Right up the ALLEY of an old Beer Hound like me. Thanks for all the fun.
So if you wanted to feature wine in a puzzle, what would your revealer be?
Very good Tuesday fare. Breezy and fun.
The theme held together, but just barely (with SPACE CASE feeling a bit too "forced"). The NYT went down the rabbit hole of making stuff up years ago, so a total WoE like ECOTEUR is neither uncommon or surprising.
Who makes up these laundry rules ? I've gotten away without "SORTing" anything before throwing it in the washer for years - dirty clothes when they go in, good as new when they come out. Has not been an issue. I had a friend years ago tell me that she sorted her clothes into "whites, colors and darks"! I still haven't figured out how to tell the difference between "colors" and "darks" - maybe red and yellow are "colors", and blue and back are "darks" ? Why ? Humans sure can take the simplest task/concept and turn it into an unnecessarily difficult "project".
Would've been a good day to see Gertrude Stein in the puzzle. . . .
About as expected for a Tuesday. Some one should come up for a Portmanteau for words nobody uses such as Ecotuer and Space Case for example. Don’t like made up words. Other than that ok with the theme Enjoyed being made to think about La Bamba and Richie Valens for a moment.
Thx Bruce, for a delightfully challenging Tues. puz!
Very tough.
This was as hard a Tues. as I can recall; just not on my wavelength at all.
I was wondering if I would finish this one.
Wanted SPACE CAdet; didn't know SPACE CASE. Actually, was looking for a Tues. rebus. lol
Finally, paid attention to the themer, and got the whole BEER thing; hence CASE over CAdet, and that broke it open for me.
Other probs in that area were: SNO CAP, IT'S A SIN, ECON, ECOTEUR, HOLD MY BEER.
Had minor issues in the other corners, as well.
Nevertheless, a successful solve, and time well spent! :)
@jae
Croce's 696 was comparatively easier than usual for me (got it in one sitting). Still, it did take 3 hrs, but that's to be expected for most of his. It'll be interesting to see how the ones @Zed spoke of pan out. See you next Mon. :)
@Roo / @Eniale 👍 for excellent SB results! :)
@okanaganer 👍 for QB yd and a blazing fast pg and solving time! :)
–––
yd 0
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@TJS 7:30. Jeff Chen just called. He’s giving you blog post of the week.
In the modern major league game starting pitching staffs are at least five pitchers deep and the very best rarely pitch more than 7 innings. That means the ACE PITCHER is seen roughly 7 out of every 45 innings. I don’t know about you, but 15.5% (and I’m being generous here) does not meet my definition of “often.” “Occasionally,” “infrequently,” maybe even “once in a blue moon” seem like accurate words to put after that comma. I normally defend Shortz’s clues, but that “often” made the eyebrow arch so much it hurt.
Anyway, like the theme well enough although the containers beer comes in has to be close to the least interesting thing about beer there is. I guess it could have been worse (that is arcane) by going with a beer glass type theme (I don’t know which is more embarrassing, that I know that there are at least 24 types of beer glasses or that I have had beer in every example in that chart). Beer is a fascinating subject. There’s a case to be made that fermentation and beer are the primary cause of the transition from hunter-gatherers to agricultural societies, and thus to cities and civilization. But drinking vessels? The mundanity seems extreme. Although Extreme Mundanity seems like an excellent Synth Pop band name.
Still, it holds up as a theme set and does the growth progression thing so a perfectly cromulent Tuesday theme.
My biggest complaint on the fill is the kealoafest nature of it. Acme/APEX, ZiG/ZAG, LaS/LOS, IONe/IONA, HeP/HIP, republican/SPACE CASE. Did Haight forget any?
ECO saboTEUR or ECO amaTEUR?
Speaking of, @TJS - it wasn’t EXPORT TERROR, just the mundane computer message EXPORT ERROR. Yours would have been far more interesting but there’s no PORTTER beer.
Last week or so there were several mentions of nonpareil. Several folks did not know it as clued. The other definition of nonpareil was not mentioned which surprised me because of the keen interest this blog often takes in the subject of sweets. So if you are NOSHing and washing down your SNOCAPS with ICEES - a bit of overkill I would think - then I hope you take time to enjoy those chocolate nonpareils. The best ones are better. The sprinkles or a tiny ball of colored sugar and starch is a constant but the chocolate may be a bite-size cake cookie or whatever. Sometimes the balls or sprinkles are called nonpareils themselves. Sometimes they are used to decorate larger cakes. I find nonpareil is also a name for the painted bunting. Anyway now I wonder if most of you knew this even if you did not mention it. And if I should have mentioned it at all.
I enjoyed the solve. Probably slowed down the most in the SW. I like pitching ACE better than ACEPITCHER but can live with either. We have to keep to the theme. GLASS PITCHER CASE BARREL are all things that may hold my beer and in order by amount. Nicely done.
LABAMBA ALLTOLD ECOTEUR EARSHOT CLOMPED SPACECASE PORKBARREL, ALLEYcat symmetric to computer MOUSE, and even good ole EDMEESE produced sufficient Wednesday AROUSal. Maybe I should rephrase that. Pretend I did.
Silvia SYMS the American jazz singer not Sylvia SYMS the English actress. They both died in 1992 but the singer was 17 years older. I saw the actress before I heard the singer.
AMANA AFLAC ISAY IDEA LOS EOS OSU I don't care. And if you care about SLUM do something besides wanting it out of your crossword.
Last night, as the teams came out after halftime, Bill Self was heard saying to Hubert Davis, "Wanna see something crazy? HOLD MY BEER."
@glen and @Z, thanks and whoops.
@amyyanni
Why a suburban oenophile would order a Starbucks trenta cup empty: HOLDSABOTTLE
Traffic woes: BOTTLENECK
Dolfin, or insult: BOTTLENOSE
Small android: BOTLET
Things that hold bottles: The MAMAS and the PAPAS, BABIES, RACKS, SOTS, DOGIE FEEDERS, PHARMACISTS. Hm.
And the wine vs. whine dad jokes.
Red, white and blurry.
I thought we had a sparkling revealer today. It was a moment of delight. I thoroughly enjoyed this Tuesday while still finding it relatively easy. I was surprised that EDMEESE came back to me so quickly. I only paused twice. I had to reach for CASE and ECOTEUR since they were new to me and I appreciate a bit of a reach on a Tuesday.
All the same issues with omitS, Acme, POPTopS, SPACECA(det) etc, but fun untangling the mess created.
Where I'll diverge, HOLDMYBEER, is with the complaints around ECOTEUR. As with ecotage, I think both have been around since the mid 70s, popularized notably through Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang, which numerous sites will tell you "weaves a tale of three 'ecoteurs' who defend the wild west by destroying the means and machines of development". Whether Abbey and the book inspired or appalled is entirely irrelevant (the former in my case), but I'd say both ECOTAGE and ECOTEUR are more than welcome in a crossword puzzle. This one makes me want to dust off and reread a book I loved, and that's one of the many reasons I enjoyed it.
Same here! A bit challenging for a Tuesday, started with "omits", HATED ecoteur. I know the word ecoterrorist, but ecoteur is not a word. I also thought there might be a rebus to make space cadet work. I don't like space case, people don't say that. But I also enjoyed the theme. It worked because the revealer answer provided just enough of a hint to help with the remaining theme answers I still needed.
I guess I don't do stupid stunts myself or know anyone who does stupid stunts, because I've never heard the expression HOLD MY BEER. I was all set to write in HOLD MY COAT, only I realized that a GLASS, a PITCHER, a CASE and a BARREL do not a coat hold.
This was fun. Haight aimed this puzzle at an above-Tuesday challenge and some thinking was required. And best of all, I don't think there's a single proper name in the whole shebang. With the exception of two very well-known companies, but I didn't mind. The word "spokesduck" always makes me chuckle. I also love the provocative clue for PORK BARREL. A very clean and quite enjoyable puzzle.
Hey All !
It must be snowing in Hell, hovering around the 32° mark, as Rex actually likes a Bruce Haight puz! Holy *BLEEPS*. 😁
Revealer would also work as "Famous last words... or (etc.)" Some of those accidental doings could be Darwin Award nominees.
Rex, you crack me up a lot on your ramblings against certain words that shouldn't be in puzs, then you show us yours, and it has URINE as an answer!
Liked this puz. The larger holder progression was neat. Next would be a VAT.
ICEES on top of SNOCAP. APEX-Acme kealoa. 45D applies to just NYTXWs, no?
So a good start to a day when we don't get a Rex tirade over a Haight puz.
yd -6, should'ves 5
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
The answer to the question "Who has time.?" Why, anyone who does not speed solve, of course.
I sometimes (often?) find Bruce's puzzles too quirky for me, whatever that means. But I did enjoy solving this one a lot. Maybe because I like micro brewery beer a lot. Especially stouts. Now back to Two Not Touch.
@pabloinnh @rex - This is like the kerfuffle over ADDED BONUS several days ago. Yes, ACE is often stand-alone; but ACE PITCHER is a thing, too, depending on context.
Without:
"The Mets didn't have a chance thanks to Giants ACE Madison Bumgarner."
With:
"The Giants had it in the bag once they put their ACE PITCHER on the mound."
The Mother of all kealoas!
Have you ever thought how many very similar words there are for "walk heavily or ungracefully"?
CLOMP
TROMP
STOMP
STAMP
TRAMP
It has to be on account of onomatopoeia, of course. (And, yes, I just looked up the spelling of onomatopoeia.)
Thanks Lewis! Nice to be remembered! The NYT leans heavily toward new constructors now but it’s fun to think back to the glory days of 2018 :)
I enjoyed and - alert the media! - agreed with most of @Rex's review today. His lack of "Haight hate" was a welcome surprise. Also, love the Liberace piece. We tend to remember only how much of a showman he was, but his skills as a pianist are equally remarkable.
HOLD MY BEER is a great example of how a revealer can really pull a puzzle together and make it sparkle. Or perhaps, in this case, foam.
Enjoyed how we keep getting more and more beer as the puzzle unfolds, though I hate to think of the stupid stunt that might be tried after that BARREL of beer has been drained. Perhaps Gertrude STEIN could write a story about it.
@Southside Johnny - Not that I am a domestic wizard by any stretch, but sorting laundry was more of a problem before when dyes were not quite as colorfast as today (and probably detergent technology had something to with it, too.) I don't sort too aggressively these days, but I do keep my whites separate usually. It was also usual to wash whites at a higher temperature (and maybe even include some "bluing," but that was before my time) to keep them really white instead of a dingy one. At those high temps, colors were even more likely to run. The whole point of sorting is to keep white and light colored clothes bright, and dark-colored clothes dark. Even in the 80s, I do remember my mom having to wash certain shirts several times before their dyes would no longer stain the water.
ECOTEUR is awful, but I don't have an issue with SPACE CASE. While SPACE CAdEt is much more common, I've certainly heard "SPACE CASE" in the wild (and I'm not conflating it with "head case.") It's got the nice rhyme going for it.The English Stack Exchange has a little bit about it: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/185043/origin-of-the-phrase-space-case
One respondent says they remember using it in the 70s in the Midwest. I'm a decade younger, but I am in the Midwest, so perhaps that's why I'm familiar with it? It dates the phrase to 1976 as street slang and 1978 as student sland.
@albatross_shell - The sweets definition of NONPAREIL was the only one I was aware of. I would have mentioned it last week (I, too, was surprised nobody brought it up), but just didn't have the energy to do so.
@Zed - I agree, the clue for ACEPITCHER made me grimace with the "often" wording for the same reasons you stated.
I CLOMPED my way through this puzzle getting stuck somewhere due to ALLsaid, SPACECAdet, ECO????, egad instead of ISAY. Could not parse out EARSHOT or TEN, even though I've seen the latter before. Great clue for the former! Did not get the happy music when I realized I'd somehow changed ZiG to ZGG instead of ZAG. oops. Loved the revealer. I agreed with everything Rex said.
I too am amused by his use of URINE in the puzzle, I think all of the puzzles he's done he will admit have a flaw or two, but at least he's done them so he knows what the process is.
@Mike in Bed Stuy-
Fair enough, but I still think you can say "put in their ACE" without significantly changing the meaning, since I've never heard "ace" used to describe anything but a pitcher, at least in baseball.
I thought this was a super fun puzzle with very fair crosses…except I agree with @Nancy above since I initially had STOMP.
I had no problem getting ECOTEUR, but I started thinking about it and I don’t think it is an appropriate word for someone committing ECOTAGE and here’s why. ECOTAGE are acts by ecowarriers (some might say terrorists) to destroy the equipment or means that others use that destroy the ecological system, I.e. blowing up heavy equipment used in clear cutting of forests, blowing up a whaling ship, etc. The portmanteau (I hope I didn’t use the wrong term) of ECOTEUR to me would point to someone sabotaging an aspect of the ecosystem, that is, the ECOTEUR would BE the clear cutters and out of control whalers. I’d be interested to know how others think about this, but believe you me it did NOT spoil the enjoyment of the puzzle for me!
Oh, and I really hope there isn’t too much talk about ACEPITCHER…yikes that is really getting into weeds that most folks don’t know.
Hand up for expecting a pan from @Rex. Mazel Tov, @Bruce.
@Zed & @Peter P
When isn't an ACE PITCHER a starter? (-:
"I challenge you to use that word in conversation ..." says Rex as a kind of criticism here. But isn't that what x-word puzzles are all about? If that were the requirement for every puzzle, they'd all be Mondays.
A crossword puzzle that starts with LA BAMBA and ends with HOLD MY BEER? Well SAY no more. I’ve got my Puzzle Of the Week. Oh what fun this was. The only place I didn’t smile was at 42A which reminded me of a few churches I’ve been to where a TITHE was more like extortion than a donation.
Thank you Bruce and On Wisconsin! I know of no better PLACE to hoist an ICEE cold one than at Camp Randall Stadium.
Post script to my ECOTEUR ramble. Yeah, under my analysis…the term ECOTAGE is a faulty portmanteau. So, if ECOTAGE works then so does ECOTEUR.
Sparkling revealer. So much better than revealing a dinosaur theme with “dinosaur.”
I was going to say yes to ecotage but no to ECOTEUR, but @thfenn cites a source, so I’ve learned something.
Agree with 🦖 on almost all counts!
Enjoyed it and thought the theme was funny and clever
- so
HOLD MY BEER!
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
More please!
(I mean 🧩s like this.)
@Nancy (9:48) that looks like a tough Wordle string.
Editeur, Secteur and Vecteur met up with ECOTEUR at my bar. Coeur was the bartender de jour. @pablito was the waiter this evening serving up the PITCHERs of all kinds of Ales. They were Pale.
To get the BOO crowd AROUSED he went around asking if anyone would sing LA BAMBA with him. " Osu, Maria... shouted FLOE...can't we do the PORK BARREL fandango tango, instead?"
AMANA and I linked ARMS, got up, and CLOMPED our way to the stage. HOLD MY BEER I yelled to GERMANE, I'm HIP, I'll ZAG and I can do the NOSH better than anyone. No one clapped...they continued to BOO.....IT'S A SIN yelled ADO... flailing ARMS just like a SLUM PEST...@pablito threw him out. He also threw a stinky little MOUSE sitting in a corner who smelled like NIP.
Now, everyone clapped and the BEER fest finally got started. It was a fun night after all......
I need some coffee.
Surprising and enjoyable Tuesday challenge.
I can’t understand the objections to SPACECASE
@thfenn 9:16 Thanks for the reminder of Abbey's ecoteurs. I tend to get irate when they’re slandered as terrorists. It’s closer to the reverse.
Speaking of beer types, way back around 1990 we were planning a trip to Europe and wanted to explore the world of beer (our budget didn't accommodate scotch yet). We visited local bookshops (quaint, I know) to learn a bit more before leaving, but were met with eyerolls and guffaws. Books on BEER?
Yes, we said, like these you have about wine.
But about BEER??
When we were contemplating purchasing appliances, my detail-oriented spouse said, “I want to know the brand, how you know they’ll fit in our kitchen, how you’ll avoid trucking charges in going from the east coast to the west, and where they’ll cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific. “My dear,” I calmly replied, “AMANA plan a canal Panama.”
I liked this easy Tuesday. Thanks, Bruce Haight.
TuesPuz thUmbsUp, at our house. Woulda been extra funny, if somethin like JELLYBELLY had been one of the themers.
ECOTEUR was about the only word of total mystery. Actually, I reckon SPACECASE was, too … but it was easily inferable.
fave stuff: LABAMBA. EARSHOT. POPTABS [slightly beerily theme-ish]. ZIPFILE [debut word].
staff weeject picks: EOS & XES, splatzed together in luvly desperation. Necessary to scrabble-twerk that X out, tho.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Haight dude. Superb job. Hoppy to see U back again.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
this puppy bit all the test solvers:
**gruntz**
Good puzzle. A little slow today for me. NE corner took forever. Couldn’t remember “Blanc” and struggled with “earshot”, “Lade” and “Inset.” Otherwise it was pretty smooth.
Last square filled was R in SORTS, and I fully expected the app to have learned a new raspberry sound in exasperation. But the you-got-this music played and I learned ECOTEUR, along the lines of auteur, I guess. Ohmygosh! Two portmanteaus - someone who commits ecotage.
Agree with Rex on the rating. Not the EASIEST for a Tuesday. Had never heard SPACE CASE, so I also wanted SPACE CAdet and wondered if there was a lonely rebus there.
Fun to remember those tiny SNO-CAPS candies to NOSH on. Considered "Eso Beso" for 1D before LA BAMBA. Wanted POPTopS instead of POPTABS. Today we're loading LADE, not unloading - and I thought about how some words and their variants just start trending across crossword land.
If you have beer in a case I hope it's also in bottles or cans. Har!
@ Peter P Interesting the history of the whole chemistry/technology timeline as it applies to laundry cleaning. Sounds like one of those things that get's passed down through the generations until the reasons for doing it are lost in antiquity. You see that in the business world - Q: Why do we currently do this? A: Because that's the way we have always done it!
@albatross shell 8:51am Thank you! Whenever I see Sylvia followed by 4 letters, not 5, I plug in SYMS. I see her in my head as the Brit actress I remember who must be able to carry a mean tune. It never occurred to me there were two separate talented women with the same name. Thanks to your post, I now can give credit where credit is due.
@thefenn - Based on the ngrams it was Abbey and the reviewers and nobody else. Also, looking at the graph it really looks like the ECO prefix hit it’s peak in the 1990’s, which is in keeping with the NYTX conception of “current.” I’m also curious about the “ecotage” blip around 1860.
**Baseball Drivel Alert**
@JC66 - Willie Hernandez in 1984. John Smoltz 2002-2004, Mariano Rivera almost his entire career. But, I do think the “starter” part is okay.
@Mike in Bed-Stuy - If the question is “is it in the language?” then the answer is “yes.” If the question is “Does @Zed have to suppress the urge to yell ‘Repetitive Redundancy’?” every time somebody uses it then the answer is also “yes.” There’s no ACE catcher or ACE hitter or ACE shortstop in baseball so there is zero reason to specify that it is an ACE PITCHER unless the damn Yankees add an ACE fighter pilot to their bench.
**/BASEBALL DRIVEL**
Non-Pareils - I didn’t mention it last time it appeared? I thought I did but maybe I just thought about it. That means I didn’t mention that the single best reason to visit my home town is The Holland Peanut Store where you can buy non-pareils by the pound if you want (I usually keep it to a quarter pound).
So nice to see the constructor reply to a comment! Allows me to tell you directly how much I enjoyed this puzzle, Bruce! Even though I don't like beer���� A refreshing amount of difficulty for a Tuesday! So many words from my past: INSET and AMANA (Home Ec class) and TITHE (10% of my weekly allowance was 2.5 cents - I rounded it up to 3!). I love BEETs and borscht! And great clues and answers for X - Roman numerals rule! And love me a treasure map - and a scavenger hunt! So have I 'dated' and 'placed' myself enough? Born in the 1950s and grew up in the Midwest �� Thanks again for a great start to my day ��
@ColleenAK - If you preview your comment Blogger turns emojis into those weird question mark thingies. Either don’t preview when you have emojis or follow these steps: Select All - Copy - Preview - Select All again - Paste - Publish.
Tough. Me too for omits, POPTop and wanting cadet, plus egad before ISAY and a bit of confusion on the INSET/ITSASIN cross. Did not like ECOTEUR. Ok for a Tuesday.
@Z 12:16, LOL, well, glad to know those of us here and elsewhere that appreciate the word are in such elite company. And yeah, wonder what that 1860 blip was. The Monkey Wrench Gang and the controversies it (and Abbey) stirred up seem to have loomed large in my formative years. Have had some fun googling the topic between zoom meetings.
Here's a 2010 senior thesis on ecotage and its practitioners (whom I'm happy calling ecoteurs): https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/712/
And here's more than I knew about Abbey when I considered him a hero, some of which I'd have to say doesn't seem to have aged particularly well given the current social and political climate:
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/211749.
(And sorry, someday I'll learn how to embed links in the text - still don't know how you actually do that).
I’ve never been a beer drinker but I thought the puzzle was just fine. The revealer made me laugh – it’s so true to life. But I did have a little problem in the SE corner with ECOToUR. That left me with HOLD MY BoE_. HOLD MY BoER?? Some obscure South African reference, the meaning of which is best forgotten? Mercifully, that confusion lasted no more than a nanosecond. My favorite themer was BLOWN GLASS because it’s a lovely answer and I thought the clue was evocative and beautifully written: “Fragile art form crafted with air and heat.” It could be lifted from an ODE. I also loved the earthiness of PORK BARREL, a term that’s used all the time in Canadian political commentary, sometimes as a gerund(?): “Trudeau caps 10 days of pork barrelling in vacant Québec riding.” I have to say I’ve never heard of SPACE CASE (but like the rhyme). Only cadets and cookies.
I have an old flame who’s German, and I remember his puzzlement when I first mentioned the term “beer stein.” “Beer stone??” he asked. “Yeah,” I said, “you know, those large lidded mugs, often made of stoneware (I guess) and decorated with kitschy drinking scenes? Aren’t they German?” He’d never heard the expression. He’s from the former East Berlin. Were beer steins verboten as decadent under Communist rule? I don’t know; it surprised me.
I feel that ONUS and LADE have recently risen to the top of NYTXW crosswordese. And we’ve drunk a lot of ICEES lately. Really glad to see ALL TOLD, an expression I use all the time. Count me out of the POPTopS crowd. Poptops to me are short-waisted women’s garments that barely reach the top of your shorts and bare your midriff every time you raise your arms. (AROUSED yet?) And it’s never occurred to me until this morning that I have not a clue what the song LA BAMBA is about, although I’ve heard it countless times. Is it about “my baby,” a dance, partying, young love? I guess I should look it up.
@Beezer, @Nancy, @okanaganer, @Whatsername (from last night) – Thanks for your comments about my dino story.
@Barbara S - Apparently the German word for “stein” is “krug.” And ”stein” means “stone.” It’s like the great philosopher Steve Martin once observed, “it’s as if they have a different word for everything.”
I got myself a really improbable birdie today in the afternoon Wordle 2. I had virtually no information to go on, so I asked myself: Based on what's left on the board -- almost everything, as you will see -- what are the fiendish Wordle people most likely to do to try and futz with my brain?
It's the same sort of psychology I'd apply to playing poker if I played poker. But I don't, because I'm constitutionally resistant to losing money.
Anyway, this was one TERRIFIC birdie!!!!
WordHurdle 154 3/6 #wordhurdle #peace
🤍🤍💛🤍🤍🤍
🤍🤍💛🤍🤍🤍
💙💙💙💙💙💙
Like Rex, I wanted SPACE CADET, but it was one letter too long. I also wanted EASIER for 45d, but it was one letter too short. I briefly thought there was some very complicated trick where the missing T from the former, was appended to the latter. "Hold my T?" That would be crazy.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0; td (Tues) 8:30 to pg & will try for QB later.]
@Mike in Bed-Stuy 9:48 - Tha js! My se time ts exactly re ACE PITCHER. I am puzzled (pun intended) when we talk so much about context in XW construction and then grouse about in answers. Oh well. This little dust up focuses on my very favorite time of hear - ⚾️!!! (And Oklahoma 🥎)
@Z 2:11p lol - and they don’t have the courtesy to speak English
everyone (including me) showing their age with POPTOPS.
Jimmy Buffet wrote in 1977:
"I blew out my flip flop
Stepped on a pop top
I broke my leg twice, I had to limp on back home"
In 1975, the Reynolds Metals Co. patented the StaTab, the can opening we still see on beer and soda cans today. Instead of ripping off, the tab stayed afixed to the can, saving litter and eliminating choking hazards. Benbow says they caught on quickly, and by 1980, most breweries had completely switched from pop-top cans to StaTabs.
He isn't an ACE PITCHER, but Tiger said (as I type, not retracted) he's playing The Masters. All Sports Fans rejoice. He'll likely get absurd betting, too.
Oye @GILL-I didn't realize I had become your designated bouncero, and if we stick to mice I'll be happy to accept the position.
Also, I've added "bouncear" to the Spanglish dictionary--Yo, bounceo, tu bounceas, etc. Vamos
a bouncear! Sounds like fun to me.
My heart went pitter patter for 49 across: candy piece with white sprinkles…oh how i miss going to the movies with a box of SNOCAPS! I agree with running on EMPTY, but these days I’m trying to be flexible so overall, it was fun…mmm…still thinking about snocaps..and icees…and movies.
I can remember a few times I asked someone to HOLD MY BEER before doing something stupid. I think the last time was when we hd a Slip ‘n’ Slide on the lawn for the kids, and I decided to do it too. Didn’t think about how I was launching myself onto it from a higher altitude than they were. Sore ribs for a week.
Now I would ask someone to HOLD MY BEER while I go back to the buffet. And of course, I have trouble holding my beer in a very different way. (Rimshot.)
This was the hardest Tuesday for me in a long time but the payoff in grokking the theme was worth it. Brilliant.
I lived in LOS Gatos during my first job out of college, working at the San Jose Mercury News. Wonderful place. For a Spanish speaker, it was so hard to pronounce it the locals’ way - Loss Gaatus. But I did to avoid seeming like one of those people who says they are vacationing in Pa-ree or May-hee-co.
Like many, I had omitS and empty before LACKS and FUMES. The Jackson Browne song is one of my favorites. Gonna listen to the whole Running on Empty album now.
Tiger who? What? Ho Hum.
@Hartley70
At one time I also only knew the English actress. Confusing isn't it? So you are welcome. But we were on the same wavelength on this one. I mentioned EDMESE on my AROUSal plus list precisely because of how quickly MEESE came to me followed by ED even more quickly. I wanted to mention it but did not since I had sunk so deeply into the SNOWCAP nonpareils just before that.
@Zed
Maybe you did mention nonpareils because I remember something about a candy store. I did not get to the puzzle or the blog til late that night. So I mostly sped read the comments. I may have missed some stuff. I guess @Peter P did too.
@thefenn
Doing the blog on a smart phone, it only takes one extra touch to get to a written address compared to a blue link most of the time. So it doesn't bother me at all. I feel guilty that I haven't learned either. @JC66's cheat sheet made it easier but not as easy as using share and I lost the cheat sheet. If those who are inconvenienced would complain about us witless folk that do not make blue links or tell us they don't link to non-bluelinks I might get off my ass and learn how. So far the only folks who mention the issue are those folks apologizing for not using bluelinks. So does anyone care? But thanks for the Abbey stuff you linked to.
I really enjoyed the Abbey short story about driving his fiancee in her new car through a wilderness road quickly passing the point of no return. By the time they get back to civilization her car and their relationship are both totalled.
@Nancy
By the time I got to HOLDMYBEER I already had COAT in elsewhere. There are also some jokes that are or were popular along the lines of where do you go after saying Hold my beer, watch this. Answer: The emergency room.
@Nancy last night.
I thought Garner and Grant were quite similar in terms of seeming natural while acting, charm, and humor. Also for being under appreciated as actors. They make it look too easy. I am glad to hear you wouldn't have to lower your highest standards too far for Cary.
Another thing I didn't mention in a previous puzzle was the the wide ranging definitions of battery. I wanted to mention for the benefit of the non-sports folks amongst us, that in baseball, the pitcher and the catcher cuonstitute the battery of a team in a game. It might come in handy some puzzle. And relief Ace, not a starting pitcher. And one of dem Alou's was an ACE pinchhitter whether you have heard it or not. Or was that someone else?
@albie
I emailed you the Embedding Cheat Sheet again. Try not to lose it this time. 😂
@albatross shell, thanks. I won't fret anymore at my incompetence inconveniencing readers. But @jc66, can I have a copy too? (thfenn@gmail.com). Always willing to learn a new trick. @albie, the short story - was that a chapter in Desert Solitaire? I'm not sure I know that one, so point me to it if you don't mind. Most of what I read about Abbey connects him to Thoreau, and Carson, but his nonfiction struck me much like John McPhee's, another favorite author I can thank for books that nade a difference to me.
@thfenn
👍
It was in a collection of essays or stories. I'll try to locate it. The Pine Barrens by Mcphee is wonderful especially in combination with the Tracker by Tom Brown and some of Brown's subsequent books. I grew up in NJ so that may have had some effect on my taste. It's hard to go wrong with either Mcphee or Abbey. I somehow have never read The Monkey Wrench Gang but have greatly enjoyed Hayduke Lives. Similarly with Kesey I have never read Cuckoo's Nest but greatly enjoyed Sometimes a Great Notion. I flipped through Desert Solitaire and did not see it there. I might have to do some research.
Speaking of research I have been trying to find the name of a maybe 50s Japanese movie that tells the story of a seemingly ordinary old peasant man who has lived an extrodinary life. It explains the importance of Japanese drumming and other aspects of honor in Japanse life. It a bit on the same scale of fictional bio as It's a Wonderful Life. It was in the Janus catalog in the 60s. I saw it in the late 60s to early 70s. Despite it being in the Janus catalog the 60s it had by the 90s gone extinct. A lost movie. Anyone have an old Janus catalog or have any idea what I am talking about?
Unbelievably enough, I'm going to guess you might be thinking of The Rickshaw Man, directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, and originally released as The Life of Matsu the Untamed.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051955/
Strictly a wild guess, but not unlike your description. Loved The Pine Barrens, but might say Coming Into the Country is my favorite. Smiles, and yes Cuckoos Nest would also be on my Books That Changed Me list.
Yes The Rickshaw Man. I believe that is it. Except it was in black and white. The 58 color version (which somehow I didn't know existed) was a remake of the 1943 film by the same diector. It turns out the 43 version has been digitized and released supposedly just over a year ago. Apparently it was unavailable for a number of decades. I hope maybe it will be on TCM. The color version is streamable. What a wonderful day. Thanks, @thfenn.
@CDilly523:25 PM - Thank you!
@Zed12:16 PM - RIPPED FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES:
"Boston Red Sox ace pitcher Chris Sale to miss first 60 days of season due to rib injury"
https://www.wcvb.com/article/boston-red-sox-pitcher-chris-sale-60-day-il/39631675#
Not bad. I didn’t immediately get the gimmick. I had ECOToUR before ECOTEUR and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one. Is that word in common usage? Is SPACECASE in common usage? Space cadet yes. SPACECASE I dunno. Anyhoo, aside from a few nits it’s pretty good but Rex’s beer-themed puzzle was even better. But I’ll drink to this one too.
Fine except for the awkward-partial-fest (GOAS, ADDTO, KEYON, ENDAT), enough ICEES in the past month to cause a real brain freeze, and of course ECOTEUR.
I really expected a video of Jimmy Buffet doing the POPtop line. POPTAB is legit, but much less mainstream. Same for SPACECASE v. cadet. I oughta know that one.
Theme and revealer are solid, hit all the marks. This, then will be a mixed review, working out to a par.
What a way to close out the round:
BBBBG
GGGGG!
Using ALIEN on the front nine and RATIO on the back for starters, I closed with a 32-35-67, 5 under despite two sixes. I think I'll go back to ALIEN.
Didn't even notice the BH name until I came here.
Hand up for the ECOTour and POPtop missteps. But I got up off the floor, retrieved my libation, and finished up just fine.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
TOLD BLEEPS
The porn ACTOR was a SPACECASE,
for ALL in EARSHOT he espoused,
"This ROLE and SET is my PLACE,
the EASIEST TO be AROUSED."
---ED MEESE
The amount of BEER kept getting harder to HOLD. Good IDEA I thought.
LETS go to the corners.
Bogey 5 today;
BBBYB
YBYBB
BGBYB
BGGYB
GGGGG
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