Relative difficulty: Easy (extremely easy, easier than most Mondays)
THEME: "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" (63A: Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Do-Re-Mi" show, with a hint to this puzzle's theme) — final words of theme answers contain sections of an orchestra: WINDS, STRINGS, BRASS:
Theme answers:
PREVAILING WINDS (17A: Air currents from the most typical direction)
PULLED STRINGS (27A: Resorted to good old-fashioned know-who, say)
PENTAGON BRASS (49A: Top military leaders in Washington)
Word of the Day: Shelley DUVALL (4D: "The Shining" actress Shelley) —
Shelley Alexis Duvall (born July 7, 1949) is an American retired actress and producer who is known for her portrayals of distinct, eccentric characters. Duvall was the recipient of several accolades across her career, including a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Peabody Award. She also received a British Academy Film Award nomination and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
In the 1980s, Duvall became famous for her leading roles, which include Olive Oyl in Altman's live-active feature version of Popeye (1980) and in Stanley Kubrick's horror film The Shining (1980) as protagonist Wendy Torrance, the latter of which is considered to be her magnum opus performance, polarizing critics and audiences. She appeared in Terry Gilliam's fantasy film Time Bandits(1981), the short comedy horror film Frankenweenie (1984) and the comedy Roxanne (1987). She ventured into producing television programming aimed at children and youth in the latter half of the 1980s, notably creating and hosting the programs Faerie Tale Theatre (1982–1987), Tall Tales & Legends (1985–1987) which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 1988, and Nightmare Classics (1989). (wikipedia)
• • •
So, let's see, if it's Tuesday ... then it must be ... AMON RA (50D: Egyptian sun god). And Sundays are AMUN RA? I forget which day is AMEN RA. I assume he (He?) takes the other days off. I'll sort this all out one day. In the meantime, we have this puzzle, which ... I can't really conceive how yesterday's was the Monday and today's the Tuesday. I don't time myself, but yesterday's had a revealer answer that had never appeared in the puzzle ever, and at least one bumpy section, whereas today, almost no resistance at all. Token resistance here and there: Which '___ la la' will it be? Which spelling of AM-N RA will it be? Will it be LAY IN or LAY UP? — that kind of resistance. Otherwise, you can just fill 'em in as fast as you can read the clues, especially if you just work the crosses. I wrote in CAEN (?) before LYON, but even as I was writing CAEN in I thought "nah I think LYON's more probable." And it was. This is a Monday puzzle, is what I'm saying. Easier than most Mondays. Monday in concept, Monday in execution, Monday. And as a Monday, it's fine. Feels like a theme that would've been done a bunch by now. Very simple, but perfectly coherent and well executed. My only problem with the theme was the cluing. Specifically, what is this corny phrase "Good old-fashioned know-who"??? I mean, I get it. It's playing on "know-how." But if someone said it I'd have to ask them to repeat themselves. Feels very last-century, and very "something that only works in print." Worse for me was calling 'THE SOUND OF MUSIC" a "'Do-Re-Mi' show." "Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Do-Re-Mi" show?" What kind of phrasing is that? Did someone else have a "Do-Re-Mi" show. Bram Stoker's "Do-Re-Mi" show? Hugh Hefner's "Do-Re-Mi" show? The show has the song "Do-Re-Mi" in it, but it is very weird to call it the "Do-Re-Mi" show. If it had just been ["Do-Re-Mi" musical, with a hint to this puzzle's theme], that actually would've worked. Something about the possessive ("Rodgers and Hammerstein's"), and then the mere word "show," really felt tin-eared. But again, theme basically good. Good theme. 'Do,' a theme, a good enough theme.
The rest of the grid is pretty blah. I see "You bet!" is back again today, this time cluing "Sure THING!" (30D: "Sure ___!" ("You bet!")). I told you (yesterday) that "You bet!" suggested something more slangy and enthusiastic than merely "YES," and now I see that the puzzle itself has come around to my way of thinking. We get a double serving of frozen-dessert crosswordese today (EDY'S with a TCBY chaser), so that's ... interesting. We also get TNN, which I'd like to nominate for retirement / relegation (46D: Spike TV, previously). TNN was bad enough when it was an actual channel, but as a bygone channel, and a bygone minor channel at that, it's particularly inedible. Way past its use-by date. That NOTI / TNN / IBEAM section is one of the less lovely parts of the grid. Not as unlovely as the gruesome clownish billionaire part of the grid, though. I mean, if you insist on ELON, at least clue it as the university. Or better yet, just ditch the name altogether. There's this:
Or, OOH, no, this. This is better:
And just like that, poof! No rotting megalomaniac. Wasn't hard!
Here we go with day placement RANTs. Feel free to refrain. I see nothing wrong with *Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Do-Re-Mi" show, with a hint to this puzzle's theme*. It IS a show. Oh, and I can't wait to hear about how G sharp is not really A flat.
Construction? Good. Clueing? Good. Editing? Weird. Not only does this feel like a Monday, but it feels like many of the answers have also been in other puzzles the last few days. Maybe it’s just the AMON RA answer and “Sure bet!” clue that gave me that feeling, but it definitely felt like deja vu doing a chunk of this puzzle. No knock on the constructor, just the editorial decision to run certain puzzles within days of each other.
I liked the music-related supporting cast today – IPOD, PSALM, HARPS, PIED (Piper), TRIANGLE, AIRS, and A FLAT (Hi, @Off The Grid!), not to mention the musical chairs clue. There was also a “down the HATCH” mini theme, with SUGAR, IPA, EDYS, EDAM, POI, and TCBY. Plus a lovely joining of HAND and TOOK HOLD. And maybe the reason all the theme answers begin with the letter P is to suggest "percussion"?
THE SOUND OF MUSIC shoots me right back to Austria, where my wife Susan and I took our honeymoon, and where driving through the Alps brought a new spectacular picture-postcard view with every turn. There is such beauty in this world, in vistas like that, and in small things, such as a blade of grass.
Thank you as well for turning my thoughts that way, Lou, and for a lovely start to the day. Congratulations on your debut!
So in my printed version the Rodgers and Hammerstein clue was about the first thing I saw, and after the obvious PREVAILINGWINDS, it was just a matter of wondering how the other sections of the orchestra might be clued, and the answer was "about as simply as possible". Never fun to see the revealer first, especially when it's unnecessary. This one was not only a LAYUP, it was a slam dunk.
A one-nanosecond glitch while I remembered DOULAS, but not much else required more than minimal cogitation.
Agree with @Lewis on the Alps, although we saw much of Austria and Switzerland from a train when we backpacked and Eurailpassed through Europe many years ago. We were so engrossed that we almost wound up in Italy, where we had not intended to go. Good times.
Fun enough solve for speed freaks, LW. Less Work than the daily Jumble, but pleasant enough, for which thanks.
A Menu, a Grill, some Sugar, Edys, Harps, The Sound of Music, only a hint of Ass with LMAO, Toes with nothing between them. Easy yes, but nice easy.
Rex, You want the clue for The Sound of Music to be Do-Re-Mi MUSICal. I can only imagine the rant.
My brother told me a story on Sunday (he’s in construction) and said that only thing that cuts through red tape is green. I think he meant that he Pulled Strings. I didn’t ask. Which reminds me, wouldn’t it be great if Oneg, Noti and Edam LLP merged with Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, representing cheese producers and construction companies?
Difficulty level no big deal. Mon/Tue blur together anyway.
Good start with IPOD, down, around, and ending with MESH.
AM (choose your vowel) N-RA. lol
Got my 1st iPOD in '02.
Pleased that I remembered DOULAS from a previous puz.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC: one of my all time faves!
Had a lovely adventure on this one; very enjoyable! :) ___
@okanaganer (2:03 PM yd)
The secondary school curling team I coached played Jim Cotter's rink in the round-robin at the BC Provincials (early '90s), who I think went on to win the championship.
@Joe
Total bomb on my 1st Worldle. Love the concept and hope to improve td. :)
@jae
Croce #705 update: 1/2 finished (in 4 hrs). More td, hopefully! 🤞
@OffTheGrid, you baited the hook, I’ll bite: In quarter-comma meantone temperament, commonly used for tuning keyboard instruments in the 16th and 17th centuries, G sharp and A flat were indeed not the same note. But what’s a little enharmonicity between friends?
I guess it's harmless if Shortz want to keep changing the spelling on an Egyptian god and let us figure it out through the crosses (who wouldn't welcome OOH into their grid - hey, it's Tuesday). I guess if he publishes 365 of these things each year he needs to keep himself amused.
Agree that the cable tv stations have been overused, but it is better than a RRN or a thrown-together jumble of letters than means something somewhere if you are in pinch for three-letter fill.
Very weak rant from OFL re ELON today - I guess it must be tough to muster up the energy for faux outrage on a daily basis.
This was very easy, though admittedly, always head here after a fast solve to confirm, holding out hope I became markedly smarter overnight. 🤭 Did miss the percussion section. DRUMS would have been too hard to slip in somewhere? At least we got the triangle. Did not know SNL get jackets after 5 appearances.
As a DOULA. I take exception to the idea of a labor leader. A Doula is support who takes all their cues from the woman in labor who is leading the show. Super easy puzzle probably my fastest Tuesday ever.
The somewhat inelegant clue for 63A might be because there is a Comden and Green and Jule Styne musical entitled "Do Re Mi." It starred Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker with John Reardon, Nancy Dussault and Al Lewis in its original 1960 run. There was an Encores version with Nathan Lane and Brian Stokes Mitchell in 1999.
If you've never heard of it, you've probably heard its best-known song, "Make Someone Happy." The most popular version was sung by Jimmy Durante, and has been used in soundtracks, notably "Sleepless in Seattle."
I have been doing NYT puzzles for probably 20 years now and basically every day is still a heavy lift because I think I might be missing a chromosome. And I've been reading this blog for a couple of years and gotten used to the fill in the blank complaints likely to raise up each day. But in all this time, today is the first time I burst out laughing. I dropped in my last letter "O" for AMON RA and was filled with glee. It was Sunday they spelled it with a U and Rex's opening line today is to raise the white flag on the Sun God. This is fun.
I thought the puzzle today was lovely.
I too drove through Austria once. Positively breath-taking.
@Mike in Bed-Stuy and @Wanderlust defended PPP brilliantly in yesterday's comments. I've probably grumbled about proper nouns at some point too, but when I think about all the weird back alleys of human knowledge I've wandered down, and how lucky we are to have Wikipedia, I should thank every constructor for foisting all those extinct birds, rappers, silent-era movie stars, chemicals, and all things Asia into my noggin'.
I am ever so happy that the "inclusivity" push at the NYTimes hasn't taken hold, and 30D x 39A wasn't changed to Sho' THANG crossing SAT. Wait, I forgot, I'm for inclusivity. Having that might have added some pizzazz to the puzzle.
I actually have nothing to say about this puzzle...except to report that my paper was not delivered this morning so I had to solve it online, which I *hate* doing.
This puzzle lacked the special key it needed to drum up any excitement on my part. There were no cluing notes of interest and the fill lacked color and tone. It played like a lullaby or a pastoral -- in that it pretty much put me to sleep.
I was expecting ORCHESTRA to be in the revealer, but it didn't matter that it turned out to be THE SOUND OF MUSIC. One's just as ho-hum as the other.
I did have to change TOOK rOot to TOOK HOLD. And I did find myself wondering which 2nd vowel AMENRA/AMUNRA/AMANRA/AMONRA would have today. But that DOTH not require any real thinking and thuth I didn't do any real thinking today.
Hey All ! WINDS, STRINGS, BRASS make SOUNDs OF MUSIC, bit aren't technically THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Although, Revealer clue does say "hint", so maybe my nit is unwarranted. Let's SLEEP ON it.
Good puz for a Tuesday. Felt TuesPuzish to me. Got your (@M&A) semi-jaws which results from 13 letter Themers. Nothing wrong with that, just an observation. One writeover, OOH for tra. Got a chuckle seeing AM_NRA, the ole whack-a-vowel king.. Got two ASSes hiding today, LMAO and BRASS. No ROO today, but since we had ROOS not too long ago, it sufficed for multi-puzs. 😁
AND SO, that's it.
yd -3, should'ves 2 Duo 36, missed 1-2-3-9 (Oof start!)
The fun in this one was to try to get the theme answers without crosses. After I got WINDS and STRINGS, I knew I was looking for BRASS. But I did read the clue; if I'd thought a little more, I wouldn't have needed it. As for the revealer, I did need the clue, because what we are really looking at are orchestral sections, not sound. Maybe leave the revealer out and put in a percussion section, though that would be tough. Maybe cheat a little and make it some kind of repercussion.
If this puzzle were easier than yesterday's, I wonder how many complaints would be lodged against today's. But it wasn't. I liked the puzzle, but I would have to say that it should have been switched with yesterday's puzzle.
Which gets me wondering. The NYT has certainly the amount of puzzles it currently publishes. I guess we have to thank (or blame) Shortz for that. Which makes me wonder exactly how his duties of the crossword editing responsibilities have morphed. Could it be he is more of an executive editor now more or less rubber stamping the decisions made by others who have assumed the major responsibilities of the crossword editing? If the NYT published an article revealing such a change, I missed it.
Huge movie star, familiarly (4 letters, answer below)
An unsurprising best time for a Tuesday, as it fell more easily than most Mondays (much faster than yesterday).
Hand up for Robert Altman movies, especially Nashville.
Speaking of that song from that musical set in the Alps, there is a Hidden Diagonal Word in today's grid that answers the clue, "______, a deer, a female deer." (You can find it in the "far east.")
And speaking of Hidden Diagonal Words, here's your answer to the "Huge movie star" clue:
KONG (begins in the 53A square and moves to the SW)>
Wow, you must be exhauster! The Monday/Tuesday problem. . . The do-re-mi clue. . . That was some heavy lifting you did to nitpick this one. . . Good Day.
Found it extremely easy as I am sure many did. Much more like a Monday but early in the week I always think of beginning solvers SO in that respect easier is good. Better to be encouraged with success than to be defeated by one that’s too difficult.
A sweet theme with a revealer that put a big smile on my face. Who can think of THE SOUND OF MUSIC without hearing those joyful refrains brought to life by the magnificent voice of Julie Andrews? And one of the best grids in a while. Well except for the gag worthy 41A. In his notes, the constructor credits Robyn Weintraub for her mentorship, and it shows. An exceptionally nice debut IMHO. Congratulations Mr. Weiss!
Do Re Mi is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and a book by Garson Kanin, who also directed the original 1960 Broadway production. The plot centers on a minor-league con man who decides to go (somewhat) straight by moving into the legitimate business of juke boxes and music promotion. The musical was headlined by the comedy couple of Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker, both of whom were Tony nominated. Popular songs introduced included "Cry Like the Wind" and "Make Someone Happy".
This was the year after "The Sound Of Music" opened. (Gotta laugh at that "legitimate business" part.)
Phrazle 43: 2/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Btw: the word SUNDAY was not accepted for my initial guess today.
I wanted to post my puzzle-related story yesterday but the shit hit the fan here and I wasn't able to. Years ago I was in Italy hanging out with an Italian friend and he told me his favorite singer was VooDoo Goot Tri. I said I never heard of any VooDoo Goot Tri. After about an hour of this I realized he was saying Woody Guthrie! I can't see Woody without thinking about VooDoo.
Also, yes @Rex, good choice in figuring that LYON was more probable than Caen, because I don't think you can consider a city to be "on the Rhône" if it's 400 miles away from the Rhône.
Whew! @bocamp also had a Phrazle 3 like me today. But Joe had a Phreagle...again! And while I've been phracing 3s (and one 4!) for the last few days, two Phrazle newcomers, @Whatsername and @A, have been sneaking up quietly on the inside rail -- sort of like Rich Strike.
O AMONRA (AMENRA? AMUNRA? AMANRA?), God of Phrazle (and I gather a lot of other sundry stuff) -- have you forsaken me? Made me feel immortal and untouchable in my early efforts, only to take away my golden touch once you got me hooked?
I had an excellent first guess on my first stab and knew I should have seen it in two. But when it just wasn't coming and just wasn't coming, I knew I'd have to spend my 2nd guess on nailing it down.
M&A and his PuzEatinSpouse have had different Wordle word solutions two days in a row now. AM(A-E-I-O-U-Y)NRA seems to be doin somethin similar. Confusin. I blame Trump.
Anyhoo, puz was mostly nice and extra-easy, which was probably outta tryin to adjust for the difficulty of AMONRA. Maybe @RP shoulda focused on changin that there AMONRA entry, instead of ELON. ELON could just as well be a nice little college town in North Carolina, btw.
staff weeject pick: OOH. In order to preserve AMONRA.
I thought the theme was right on pitch for a Tuesday and that the three theme phrases were unusually good. I especially liked PREVAILING WINDS (and I wondered if those in that orchestra section might think "If only!" with the trumpets, trombones and other BRASS right behind them. Thank you to those who pointed out the other musical references.
If folks are truly offended that ELON Musk has found his way into the XW puzzle world, then I understand why the Trumpsters make so much fun of you all as *snowflakes*.
At some point, if MUSK and the NRA and whoever else offends your political sensitivities are too much, perhaps it's time to take up a new hobby.
Yeesh, thought I'd pop in to see rex's blog as it had been a while, and it just reaffirmed why it was the smart choice to stay away. Over & out.
Musk, McConnell and the rest of the Right Wingnuts will take away some of the freedoms you enjoy, too. If they kill Roe based on the protecton of privacy being explicit in the 14th. May the Stasi be with you.
Fun and breezy, like flying through the AIRS on a swing at the playground. Wheee! Lots of short -ese but not painful. Well, I knew we’d get a complaint about he-who-shall-not-be-named. I even had a go before reading @Rex at redoing that mideast section. Decided it wasn’t worth losing SELMA, though. I did like his version that added gelato to the frozen treats EDYS and TCBY.
Enjoyed all the theme supporters as mentioned by @OTG and @Lewis - we can add MONO and its clue to the list. @Lewis, I wondered about those P’s too!
In solfege, G-sharp (and A-flat) equivalent is Si. And ACDC is La Doredo. I could go on but I'll just let it hang. “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti….”
@Joe, thanks for the heads up last night about the second Phrazle! I left it open to do this morning. Took longer than the crossword. Then after the crossword did today’s Phrazle. @Nancy, @bocamp, #43 was tough! I had four letters I knew needed to be somewhere in the 2nd word and I couldn’t think of one, not one word, for 20 minutes. Finally saw it and it gave away the first.
Phrazle 42: 2/6 🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟪🟪⬜ ⬜⬜🟪🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Phrazle 43: 2/6 ⬜⬜🟪🟨🟨🟪 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
It's Milton Babbitt's birthday. I'm still looking.
@MkB 7:28am: I agree about IBEAM being much less bad than IBAR. Although as I've argued previously, I-beams also aren't used much any more. However, everyone knows what the term means. Also, the clue points to an age when they were common! Nice.
I can't remember why I skipped Salzburg when I visited Austria. I went to Innsbruck which was nice, but still.
[Spelling Bee: yd pg in 11:50 and QB later. Proud of myself for remembering all these. Sam Ezersky sure gets around. I just read a Smithsonian magazine at breakfast and it has a crossword by him.]
@Okanaganer,I LOVED Salzburg! We stayed at the Shloss Leopoldskron hotel which is where some of the outside scenes for Sound of. Using (I think it was supposed to be the back of the Von Trapp manse. This was probably 15 years ago but you could take paths that led to the Old Town…quite rural and one route took you past a small farm/home with a large flock of flamingoes. Not sure how THEY stay pink there because I thought the diet of ? makes them pink.
Oh. The puzzle. Easy and kind of cute.
@Zed…did your cryptic comment mean that you don’t think Elon Musk fits the definition of entrepreneur? I mean, certainly not with Twitter, but what about Tesla and Space X? I really don’t know if I think he is a megalomaniac but I do believe he is unbalanced. I used to work with someone whose son worked (and in direct contact) with Musk and he quit because he quite often would be called in the middle of the night. (And I mean from midnight to four am type “middle of the night”)
@Beezer - He bought Tesla. Space X is a vanity project. The Twitter purchase is being funded by banks so that when he drives it into the ground his loss will be minimal. He's a snake oil salesman, not an entrepreneur. As American oligarchs go, he's right there with the Kochs and Thiel. He makes Gates and Jobs and Knight look like good dudes. He's the sort of dude that makes one think Robespierre maybe had the right idea. Until you remember Napoleon.
Yeesh. After Guess #1 I felt sure this would take three guesses minimum.
But then...then...I saw it! It flashed before my eyes in a blinding light! I checked it and it totally worked! I knew it had to be right! It couldn't be anything else! It was...a miracle!
Yay.
@A – if you can't find any Milton Babbitt you can always fall back on Sondheim. He was famously Babbitt's student.
More puzzle solfegge:
"Does the second note of the scale occur in that song?" "RE? NO." "And the leading tone, what about that?" "NO TI."
@Gio My brother and grandmother took a trip to Munich in the 60's to visit relatives. My brother came back talking about how much they loved the American singer Rain Showers. When they started singing his C&W hit he realized it was Ray Charles. Not sure if it was their accent or Tim's ears.
@jberg Woody returns. Thanks. @bocamp Thanks and expected to see @jberg's link from you.
@ Nolaist 817am I did not know your profession or the word. Glad to learn of both. M-W claims first usage is 1969 while elsewhere someone is credited with coining it in 1976. Did it have another name before that or is it a new concept? I see the word derives from a word meaning slave. That explains your comment on leaders.
I've been wondering what @anoa is going to think. Short plurals: AIRS ENDS TOES EDYS HARPS. Longer: DOULAS SLEEPS and SNLHOSTS. Plus 3 plural theme answers. The first one has an ING that maybe forgivable as is maybe the S in this case. Or if you go whole hog you might claim the PRE is an extender too. So that boils down to VAILWIND. Then the third themer has another S and an ED extender so that one boils down to PULLSTRING. Now the 2nd themer is a doozie. You drop the final S on the plural noun BRASS (thank god it wasn't BRASSes) and you have another plural. You drop the remaining S to get BRA. But PENTA is an extender too so that gets us to GONBRA. Now the revealer has no plurals itself but is the bearer of SLEEPS and AIRS as BRASS births TOES and ENDS.
The dead trees version (likely earlier on-line) has a long piece on my good bud, Ron Carter. Too bad they never did the same for Gary Peacock; well an obit when he died at 85 - same as Carter is now. He wasn't just Keith's time keeper; spent years with Ayler and Coleman; not retro-jazz like Wynton. Not recorded, that I know of, Peacock also was in a Davis band.
I'm b-a-a-a-ck. Finally!!! Whew!!!!! And a very close call. It came to me in the nick of time.
There's often an element of intuition in solving these -- and generally you're better off waiting for it to kick in. (Of course, you do need to have a life, too.)
I almost think this theme was drive. By our constructor’s invention of the clue “good old fashioned know-who, but of course that’s just a guess. However, the other theme clues really have nothing “cute” about them, which makes the “know-who” just seem forced, odd and not indicative of the answer.
Or it could be my post-booster COVID funk. Apparently, my vaccination and booster have done their job since I have yet to succumb to COVID. And. Each dose has resulted in less severe post-administration symptoms, so hopefully I will be able to pry myself off the couch tomorrow. Glad this was Monday level because I fell asleep about half a dozen times throughout my all day solve.
@Joe and @Nancy: I guess we know now who the real pros are. No eagle for me this afternoon. I did manage to solve it but took me four tries. Oh well, at least I didn’t bogey.
Kept chipping away, and finally finished successfully (6+ hrs; med-hard). What a thrill! Didn't understand a couple: 'Part of a flight, maybe' (just now looked it up; totally unknown, heretofore); 'If you ask…' (still out to lunch on this one). See you next Mon.! :)
Didn't think of it; glad to see that @jberg linked to it! Great song! :)
A big 👍 for all those excellent SB, Wordle/Phrazle (et al) results. ___ td's: SB pg -4 / Sed: 19/21 (wrong guess on last word) / Duo: 35/37 (one blunder)
@Curtis Lundy – I did read the piece on Ron Carter. He had a birthday concert at Carnegie Hall tonight apparently. (The first time ever I saw his name was in the credits on Roberta Flack's "First Take" album.) Less familiar with Gary Peacock, but I have him on Tony Williams's early Blue Note albums, and maybe some Bill Evans? Nothing with Jarrett I don't think, and he's not on the Ornette Coleman records I have.
I'm surprised no one has remarked on the answer to 1A, on the very same day that Apple announced the discontinuation of the iPod, after 21 years. Sigh. I continue to think that the iPod shuffle was the best music player ever.
This is clearly just a coincidence as I'm sure this puzzle was submitted way before anyone would have known the exact day of death of the iPod. Nonetheless, I did have a fleeting thought that this might have something to do with the puzzle's theme, when first seeing the clue.
It’s Lou Weiss’s debut, so you have to cut him a bit of slack. The THING is, it’s not his fault the editor ran what was an easy Monday on a Tuesday. But let’s not SUGAR coat it. It doesn’t FLY. The main problem was the plethora of acronyms, non-words, internet lingo and three-letter glue bits - STA e.g. The theme was pretty MONOtonous and the result is AFLAT puzzle that lacking OOHs and aahs. This one badly needs a RENO.
Not much to say about this one; it did seem awfully easy, so perhaps it should've been flipped with yesterday's. Nothing sparkles, but a decent, simple theme, not overdone. A no-stress, tap-in par.
A par also, the result of a lapse in logic, in Wordle. I still gape at all these Phrazle eagles and holes-in-one. I tried one of those, and instantly knew I was beyond my depth. Can't imagine how it could be that easy for so many. I fear I may have stumbled into a Mensa meeting.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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80 comments:
Here we go with day placement RANTs. Feel free to refrain. I see nothing wrong with *Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Do-Re-Mi" show, with a hint to this puzzle's theme*. It IS a show. Oh, and I can't wait to hear about how G sharp is not really A flat.
Theme bonus words. ACDC, HARPS*, AFLAT, IPOD, ASIA*, AIRS*
* Not musically clued
Other clues:
AFLAT. Let, in London. Road trip delay.
ARMED. "This is the humerus, this is the radius, ......."
NOTI. Scale fault.
IBEAM "That makes me so happy"
ONEG Feature of grease
Construction? Good. Clueing? Good. Editing? Weird. Not only does this feel like a Monday, but it feels like many of the answers have also been in other puzzles the last few days. Maybe it’s just the AMON RA answer and “Sure bet!” clue that gave me that feeling, but it definitely felt like deja vu doing a chunk of this puzzle. No knock on the constructor, just the editorial decision to run certain puzzles within days of each other.
I liked the music-related supporting cast today – IPOD, PSALM, HARPS, PIED (Piper), TRIANGLE, AIRS, and A FLAT (Hi, @Off The Grid!), not to mention the musical chairs clue. There was also a “down the HATCH” mini theme, with SUGAR, IPA, EDYS, EDAM, POI, and TCBY. Plus a lovely joining of HAND and TOOK HOLD. And maybe the reason all the theme answers begin with the letter P is to suggest "percussion"?
THE SOUND OF MUSIC shoots me right back to Austria, where my wife Susan and I took our honeymoon, and where driving through the Alps brought a new spectacular picture-postcard view with every turn. There is such beauty in this world, in vistas like that, and in small things, such as a blade of grass.
Thank you as well for turning my thoughts that way, Lou, and for a lovely start to the day. Congratulations on your debut!
TRIANGLE, HARPS were nice bonuses. The former in particular, since the percussion section was otherwise left out entirely.
Brief hesitation wondering if it could be LAY in rather than LAY UP.
Left the 2nd vowel open on AM_N RA and waited on the cross.
Other than that, every single answer went in with no thought at all. Run this on a Monday, and I’d complain it was too easy.
one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise - Yep. I’m willing to say the clue is wrong.
What Rex said about the theme, a fine Monday theme. This puzzle doesn’t tuezz enough to run on a Tuesday.
@offTheGrid - Apparently you didn’t grow up singing from this every Sunday. I’d add PSALM to your Bonus Theme List.
I liked the “know who” clue.
👍🏽👍🏽 Although I agree with Rex that this probably needed to run on a Monday. Tuesdays gotta tuezz.
It's nice to see IBEAM instead of the much more common IBAR, which I swear I've never heard a person in real life ever say.
So in my printed version the Rodgers and Hammerstein clue was about the first thing I saw, and after the obvious PREVAILINGWINDS, it was just a matter of wondering how the other sections of the orchestra might be clued, and the answer was "about as simply as possible". Never fun to see the revealer first, especially when it's unnecessary. This one was not only a LAYUP, it was a slam dunk.
A one-nanosecond glitch while I remembered DOULAS, but not much else required more than minimal cogitation.
Agree with @Lewis on the Alps, although we saw much of Austria and Switzerland from a train when we backpacked and Eurailpassed through Europe many years ago. We were so engrossed that we almost wound up in Italy, where we had not intended to go. Good times.
Fun enough solve for speed freaks, LW. Less Work than the daily Jumble, but pleasant enough, for which thanks.
A Menu, a Grill, some Sugar, Edys, Harps, The Sound of Music, only a hint of Ass with LMAO, Toes with nothing between them. Easy yes, but nice easy.
Rex, You want the clue for The Sound of Music to be Do-Re-Mi MUSICal. I can only imagine the rant.
My brother told me a story on Sunday (he’s in construction) and said that only thing that cuts through red tape is green. I think he meant that he Pulled Strings. I didn’t ask. Which reminds me, wouldn’t it be great if Oneg, Noti and Edam LLP merged with Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, representing cheese producers and construction companies?
Difficulty level no big deal. Mon/Tue blur together anyway.
Cute theme - flat overall - felt USA Today like. Love to study and discuss coastal PREVAILING WINDS. Is NOTI another flatbread?
Always liked this version
Not much to WHINE about here.
Thx Lou, for this smooth Tues. offering! :)
Easy+
This was my Mon. puz. lol
Good start with IPOD, down, around, and ending with MESH.
AM (choose your vowel) N-RA. lol
Got my 1st iPOD in '02.
Pleased that I remembered DOULAS from a previous puz.
THE SOUND OF MUSIC: one of my all time faves!
Had a lovely adventure on this one; very enjoyable! :)
___
@okanaganer (2:03 PM yd)
The secondary school curling team I coached played Jim Cotter's rink in the round-robin at the BC Provincials (early '90s), who I think went on to win the championship.
@Joe
Total bomb on my 1st Worldle. Love the concept and hope to improve td. :)
@jae
Croce #705 update: 1/2 finished (in 4 hrs). More td, hopefully! 🤞
@albatross shell (8:28 PM yd)
Good stuff! :)
___
yd's: pg -3 / WH: 4 / Sed: 21/21 (whew!) / Duo: 34/37
Phrazle #42: 3/6 (tried an actual phrase; bad move!) lol
⬜🟪⬜🟪 🟪🟪⬜ 🟪⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟪🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@OffTheGrid, you baited the hook, I’ll bite: In quarter-comma meantone temperament, commonly used for tuning keyboard instruments in the 16th and 17th centuries, G sharp and A flat were indeed not the same note. But what’s a little enharmonicity between friends?
Aptest Rex Tweet Ever
I guess it's harmless if Shortz want to keep changing the spelling on an Egyptian god and let us figure it out through the crosses (who wouldn't welcome OOH into their grid - hey, it's Tuesday). I guess if he publishes 365 of these things each year he needs to keep himself amused.
Agree that the cable tv stations have been overused, but it is better than a RRN or a thrown-together jumble of letters than means something somewhere if you are in pinch for three-letter fill.
Very weak rant from OFL re ELON today - I guess it must be tough to muster up the energy for faux outrage on a daily basis.
This was so easy I was faster than my best Monday time. Airplane magazine worthy.
This was very easy, though admittedly, always head here after a fast solve to confirm, holding out hope I became markedly smarter overnight. 🤭 Did miss the percussion section. DRUMS would have been too hard to slip in somewhere? At least we got the triangle. Did not know SNL get jackets after 5 appearances.
As a DOULA. I take exception to the idea of a labor leader. A Doula is support who takes all their cues from the woman in labor who is leading the show. Super easy puzzle probably my fastest Tuesday ever.
The somewhat inelegant clue for 63A might be because there is a Comden and Green and Jule Styne musical entitled "Do Re Mi." It starred Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker with John Reardon, Nancy Dussault and Al Lewis in its original 1960 run. There was an Encores version with Nathan Lane and Brian Stokes Mitchell in 1999.
If you've never heard of it, you've probably heard its best-known song, "Make Someone Happy." The most popular version was sung by Jimmy Durante, and has been used in soundtracks, notably "Sleepless in Seattle."
One rotting megalomaniac calling out another
twin brothers in different worlds
Do re mi fits the puzzle...it is the one thing everyone knows about the show/movie. Otherwise the clue might not be trivial.
I smile at the Labor Leader clue, but that's about it
I have been doing NYT puzzles for probably 20 years now and basically every day is still a heavy lift because I think I might be missing a chromosome. And I've been reading this blog for a couple of years and gotten used to the fill in the blank complaints likely to raise up each day. But in all this time, today is the first time I burst out laughing. I dropped in my last letter "O" for AMON RA and was filled with glee. It was Sunday they spelled it with a U and Rex's opening line today is to raise the white flag on the Sun God. This is fun.
I thought the puzzle today was lovely.
I too drove through Austria once. Positively breath-taking.
@Mike in Bed-Stuy and @Wanderlust defended PPP brilliantly in yesterday's comments. I've probably grumbled about proper nouns at some point too, but when I think about all the weird back alleys of human knowledge I've wandered down, and how lucky we are to have Wikipedia, I should thank every constructor for foisting all those extinct birds, rappers, silent-era movie stars, chemicals, and all things Asia into my noggin'.
@SouthsideJohnny You know WS doesn't actually edit the puzzles, right?
I am ever so happy that the "inclusivity" push at the NYTimes hasn't taken hold, and 30D x 39A wasn't changed to Sho' THANG crossing SAT. Wait, I forgot, I'm for inclusivity. Having that might have added some pizzazz to the puzzle.
Never mind.
@Emily - Bless your heart. Your right, Sho THANG most certainly would have jazzed things up.
I actually have nothing to say about this puzzle...except to report that my paper was not delivered this morning so I had to solve it online, which I *hate* doing.
And Tutankhamen was originally Tutankhaten courtesy of daddy Akhenaten/Amenhotep IV.
This puzzle lacked the special key it needed to drum up any excitement on my part. There were no cluing notes of interest and the fill lacked color and tone. It played like a lullaby or a pastoral -- in that it pretty much put me to sleep.
I was expecting ORCHESTRA to be in the revealer, but it didn't matter that it turned out to be THE SOUND OF MUSIC. One's just as ho-hum as the other.
I did have to change TOOK rOot to TOOK HOLD. And I did find myself wondering which 2nd vowel AMENRA/AMUNRA/AMANRA/AMONRA would have today. But that DOTH not require any real thinking and thuth I didn't do any real thinking today.
Hey All !
WINDS, STRINGS, BRASS make SOUNDs OF MUSIC, bit aren't technically THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Although, Revealer clue does say "hint", so maybe my nit is unwarranted. Let's SLEEP ON it.
Good puz for a Tuesday. Felt TuesPuzish to me. Got your (@M&A) semi-jaws which results from 13 letter Themers. Nothing wrong with that, just an observation. One writeover, OOH for tra. Got a chuckle seeing AM_NRA, the ole whack-a-vowel king.. Got two ASSes hiding today, LMAO and BRASS. No ROO today, but since we had ROOS not too long ago, it sufficed for multi-puzs. 😁
AND SO, that's it.
yd -3, should'ves 2
Duo 36, missed 1-2-3-9 (Oof start!)
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
The fun in this one was to try to get the theme answers without crosses. After I got WINDS and STRINGS, I knew I was looking for BRASS. But I did read the clue; if I'd thought a little more, I wouldn't have needed it. As for the revealer, I did need the clue, because what we are really looking at are orchestral sections, not sound. Maybe leave the revealer out and put in a percussion section, though that would be tough. Maybe cheat a little and make it some kind of repercussion.
Nice Hamlet mini-theme as well.
Here's Woody Guthrie's version of Do-Re-Mi.
I feel that PULLEDSTRINGS is an off cluing. It’s not so much how you know as who you know. Or am I off?
Oh geeze, my eyes adjusted to the cluing. Please delete my previous comment!
If this puzzle were easier than yesterday's, I wonder how many complaints would be lodged against today's. But it wasn't. I liked the puzzle, but I would have to say that it should have been switched with yesterday's puzzle.
Which gets me wondering. The NYT has certainly the amount of puzzles it currently publishes. I guess we have to thank (or blame) Shortz for that. Which makes me wonder exactly how his duties of the crossword editing responsibilities have morphed. Could it be he is more of an executive editor now more or less rubber stamping the decisions made by others who have assumed the major responsibilities of the crossword editing? If the NYT published an article revealing such a change, I missed it.
Or ERIN and TED could DELETE ELON (or kill billionaire at Club MED). The perfect sleeper TIES in well here.
Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clue for today's grid:
Huge movie star, familiarly (4 letters, answer below)
An unsurprising best time for a Tuesday, as it fell more easily than most Mondays (much faster than yesterday).
Hand up for Robert Altman movies, especially Nashville.
Speaking of that song from that musical set in the Alps, there is a Hidden Diagonal Word in today's grid that answers the clue, "______, a deer, a female deer." (You can find it in the "far east.")
And speaking of Hidden Diagonal Words, here's your answer to the "Huge movie star" clue:
KONG (begins in the 53A square and moves to the SW)>
Wow, you must be exhauster! The Monday/Tuesday problem. . . The do-re-mi clue. . . That was some heavy lifting you did to nitpick this one. . . Good Day.
Found it extremely easy as I am sure many did. Much more like a Monday but early in the week I always think of beginning solvers SO in that respect easier is good. Better to be encouraged with success than to be defeated by one that’s too difficult.
A sweet theme with a revealer that put a big smile on my face. Who can think of THE SOUND OF MUSIC without hearing those joyful refrains brought to life by the magnificent voice of Julie Andrews? And one of the best grids in a while. Well except for the gag worthy 41A. In his notes, the constructor credits Robyn Weintraub for her mentorship, and it shows. An exceptionally nice debut IMHO. Congratulations Mr. Weiss!
Well, actually...
Do Re Mi is a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, and a book by Garson Kanin, who also directed the original 1960 Broadway production. The plot centers on a minor-league con man who decides to go (somewhat) straight by moving into the legitimate business of juke boxes and music promotion. The musical was headlined by the comedy couple of Phil Silvers and Nancy Walker, both of whom were Tony nominated. Popular songs introduced included "Cry Like the Wind" and "Make Someone Happy".
This was the year after "The Sound Of Music" opened. (Gotta laugh at that "legitimate business" part.)
Phrazle 43: 2/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩 🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Btw: the word SUNDAY was not accepted for my initial guess today.
Can we please keep Elon out of our mornings (or at least clue as a college/city in North Carolina)? Thank you.
Oops, @Anon 8:57's post wasn't there yet when I was posting. Sorry Anon!
NYT aborts FETUS from Wordle. Some folks get one word some another.
Did this get mentioned yesterday and I misseed it?
I wanted to post my puzzle-related story yesterday but the shit hit the fan here and I wasn't able to.
Years ago I was in Italy hanging out with an Italian friend and he told me his favorite singer was VooDoo Goot Tri. I said I never heard of any VooDoo Goot Tri. After about an hour of this I realized he was saying Woody Guthrie! I can't see Woody without thinking about VooDoo.
Also, yes @Rex, good choice in figuring that LYON was more probable than Caen, because I don't think you can consider a city to be "on the Rhône" if it's 400 miles away from the Rhône.
Alternate clues:
19D. No “a” for a surfer girl.
3D. Gravity on earth
15A. Where the movie action takes place
WaHINE
ONEG
ONSET
I’m getting confused now about what to say at the end of grace. Amen? Amon? ………..
Fun, super easy debut. Thanks, Lou Weiss.
Interesting to see this commentary about relative difficulty; today I was a full minute slower than yesterday, which was two seconds off my record.
Whew! @bocamp also had a Phrazle 3 like me today. But Joe had a Phreagle...again! And while I've been phracing 3s (and one 4!) for the last few days, two Phrazle newcomers, @Whatsername and @A, have been sneaking up quietly on the inside rail -- sort of like Rich Strike.
O AMONRA (AMENRA? AMUNRA? AMANRA?), God of Phrazle (and I gather a lot of other sundry stuff) -- have you forsaken me? Made me feel immortal and untouchable in my early efforts, only to take away my golden touch once you got me hooked?
I had an excellent first guess on my first stab and knew I should have seen it in two. But when it just wasn't coming and just wasn't coming, I knew I'd have to spend my 2nd guess on nailing it down.
O AMONRA -- Will I ever have a Phreagle again???
Phrazle 43: 3/6
⬜🟩🟪🟨🟨🟪 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟩🟩⬜🟩🟨 🟨🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
@Nancy (10:44) Well I wasn’t going to brag, but since you brought it up . . .
Phrazle 43: 2/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟪🟩🟪🟩🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I credit your encouragement and some online coaching.
M&A and his PuzEatinSpouse have had different Wordle word solutions two days in a row now. AM(A-E-I-O-U-Y)NRA seems to be doin somethin similar. Confusin. I blame Trump.
Anyhoo, puz was mostly nice and extra-easy, which was probably outta tryin to adjust for the difficulty of AMONRA. Maybe @RP shoulda focused on changin that there AMONRA entry, instead of ELON. ELON could just as well be a nice little college town in North Carolina, btw.
staff weeject pick: OOH. In order to preserve AMONRA.
fave stuffins: SNLHOSTS. TRIANGLE (musical). DOULAS clue.
Thanx for the fully orchestrated fun, Mr. Weiss dude. And congratz on yer debut.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
@Bobby Watson:
I'll bet I'm the only one who recognizes you.
@Nancy (10:44) Well I wasn’t going to brag but since you brought it up . . .
Phrazle 43: 2/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 🟪🟩🟪🟩🟪🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I credit some online coaching hints and your continued encouragement, without which I would’ve given up long ago.
Yep, Monday. I also got a chuckle out of AMON. Pretty smooth and breezy, liked it. Nice debut!
I thought the theme was right on pitch for a Tuesday and that the three theme phrases were unusually good. I especially liked PREVAILING WINDS (and I wondered if those in that orchestra section might think "If only!" with the trumpets, trombones and other BRASS right behind them. Thank you to those who pointed out the other musical references.
“Easy (extremely easy, easier than most Mondays)”
Not a complaint, but agree with 🦖.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🤗
If folks are truly offended that ELON Musk has found his way into the XW puzzle world, then I understand why the Trumpsters make so much fun of you all as *snowflakes*.
At some point, if MUSK and the NRA and whoever else offends your political sensitivities are too much, perhaps it's time to take up a new hobby.
Yeesh, thought I'd pop in to see rex's blog as it had been a while, and it just reaffirmed why it was the smart choice to stay away. Over & out.
@Unknown:
Musk, McConnell and the rest of the Right Wingnuts will take away some of the freedoms you enjoy, too. If they kill Roe based on the protecton of privacy being explicit in the 14th. May the Stasi be with you.
SUGARtime ~ The McGuire Sisters
@jae
SLEPt ON the 705; was elated to finish the NE this AM. Only the SW & Texas to go (4 /1/2 hrs in, so far). 🤞
@Nancy (10:44 AM)
Yes, many! :)
@Joe
Still on practice mode; aiming to get avg down to 7 or 8. 🤞
Globle: 🌎 May 10, 2022 🌍 (2nd guess)
🔥
@Whatsername (12:26 PM) 👍
___
td pg: 8.56 / W: 5* / WH: 4
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Fun and breezy, like flying through the AIRS on a swing at the playground. Wheee! Lots of short -ese but not painful. Well, I knew we’d get a complaint about he-who-shall-not-be-named. I even had a go before reading @Rex at redoing that mideast section. Decided it wasn’t worth losing SELMA, though. I did like his version that added gelato to the frozen treats EDYS and TCBY.
Enjoyed all the theme supporters as mentioned by @OTG and @Lewis - we can add MONO and its clue to the list. @Lewis, I wondered about those P’s too!
In solfege, G-sharp (and A-flat) equivalent is Si. And ACDC is La Doredo. I could go on but I'll just let it hang. “Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti….”
@Joe, thanks for the heads up last night about the second Phrazle! I left it open to do this morning. Took longer than the crossword. Then after the crossword did today’s Phrazle. @Nancy, @bocamp, #43 was tough! I had four letters I knew needed to be somewhere in the 2nd word and I couldn’t think of one, not one word, for 20 minutes. Finally saw it and it gave away the first.
Phrazle 42: 2/6
🟩🟩⬜🟩 🟪🟪⬜ ⬜⬜🟪🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Phrazle 43: 2/6
⬜⬜🟪🟨🟨🟪 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
It's Milton Babbitt's birthday. I'm still looking.
@MkB 7:28am: I agree about IBEAM being much less bad than IBAR. Although as I've argued previously, I-beams also aren't used much any more. However, everyone knows what the term means. Also, the clue points to an age when they were common! Nice.
I can't remember why I skipped Salzburg when I visited Austria. I went to Innsbruck which was nice, but still.
[Spelling Bee: yd pg in 11:50 and QB later. Proud of myself for remembering all these.
Sam Ezersky sure gets around. I just read a Smithsonian magazine at breakfast and it has a crossword by him.]
TRA LA LA kept me from my fastest Tuesday ever.
@Okanaganer,I LOVED Salzburg! We stayed at the Shloss Leopoldskron hotel which is where some of the outside scenes for Sound of. Using (I think it was supposed to be the back of the Von Trapp manse. This was probably 15 years ago but you could take paths that led to the Old Town…quite rural and one route took you past a small farm/home with a large flock of flamingoes. Not sure how THEY stay pink there because I thought the diet of ? makes them pink.
Oh. The puzzle. Easy and kind of cute.
@Zed…did your cryptic comment mean that you don’t think Elon Musk fits the definition of entrepreneur? I mean, certainly not with Twitter, but what about Tesla and Space X? I really don’t know if I think he is a megalomaniac but I do believe he is unbalanced. I used to work with someone whose son worked (and in direct contact) with Musk and he quit because he quite often would be called in the middle of the night. (And I mean from midnight to four am type “middle of the night”)
@Beezer - He bought Tesla. Space X is a vanity project. The Twitter purchase is being funded by banks so that when he drives it into the ground his loss will be minimal. He's a snake oil salesman, not an entrepreneur. As American oligarchs go, he's right there with the Kochs and Thiel. He makes Gates and Jobs and Knight look like good dudes. He's the sort of dude that makes one think Robespierre maybe had the right idea. Until you remember Napoleon.
@Beezer:
whether he'll ever admit it, Musk is an Afrikaner.
@Curtis Lundy – not quite. And I saw *you* with Betty Carter a bunch of times back in the day.
Phrazle 44: 2/6
🟪⬜⬜🟩 ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜🟪 ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨🟪🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Yeesh. After Guess #1 I felt sure this would take three guesses minimum.
But then...then...I saw it! It flashed before my eyes in a blinding light! I checked it and it totally worked! I knew it had to be right! It couldn't be anything else! It was...a miracle!
Yay.
@A – if you can't find any Milton Babbitt you can always fall back on Sondheim. He was famously Babbitt's student.
More puzzle solfegge:
"Does the second note of the scale occur in that song?"
"RE? NO."
"And the leading tone, what about that?"
"NO TI."
@bocamp - The SW of #705 is vintage obscure Croce. I did a lot of trying stuff out and erasing down there. Again, good luck!
@Gio
My brother and grandmother took a trip to Munich in the 60's to visit relatives. My brother came back talking about how much they loved the American singer Rain Showers. When they started singing his C&W hit he realized it was Ray Charles. Not sure if it was their accent or Tim's ears.
@jberg
Woody returns. Thanks.
@bocamp
Thanks and expected to see @jberg's link from you.
@ Nolaist 817am
I did not know your profession or the word. Glad to learn of both. M-W claims first usage is 1969 while elsewhere someone is credited with coining it in 1976. Did it have another name before that or is it a new concept? I see the word derives from a word meaning slave. That explains your comment on leaders.
I've been wondering what @anoa is going to think. Short plurals: AIRS ENDS TOES EDYS HARPS. Longer: DOULAS SLEEPS and SNLHOSTS. Plus 3 plural theme answers. The first one has an ING that maybe forgivable as is maybe the S in this case. Or if you go whole hog you might claim the PRE is an extender too. So that boils down to VAILWIND. Then the third themer has another S and an ED extender so that one boils down to PULLSTRING.
Now the 2nd themer is a doozie. You drop the final S on the plural noun BRASS (thank god it wasn't BRASSes) and you have another plural. You drop the remaining S to get BRA. But PENTA is an extender too so that gets us to GONBRA.
Now the revealer has no plurals itself but is the bearer of SLEEPS and AIRS as BRASS births TOES and ENDS.
Yes, I exaggerated. EDYS is a possessive.
@Joe Dipinto:
The dead trees version (likely earlier on-line) has a long piece on my good bud, Ron Carter. Too bad they never did the same for Gary Peacock; well an obit when he died at 85 - same as Carter is now. He wasn't just Keith's time keeper; spent years with Ayler and Coleman; not retro-jazz like Wynton. Not recorded, that I know of, Peacock also was in a Davis band.
I'm b-a-a-a-ck. Finally!!! Whew!!!!! And a very close call. It came to me in the nick of time.
There's often an element of intuition in solving these -- and generally you're better off waiting for it to kick in. (Of course, you do need to have a life, too.)
Phrazle 44: 2/6
⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟪🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨 🟪⬜🟩⬜🟨🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I almost think this theme was drive. By our constructor’s invention of the clue “good old fashioned know-who, but of course that’s just a guess. However, the other theme clues really have nothing “cute” about them, which makes the “know-who” just seem forced, odd and not indicative of the answer.
Or it could be my post-booster COVID funk. Apparently, my vaccination and booster have done their job since I have yet to succumb to COVID. And. Each dose has resulted in less severe post-administration symptoms, so hopefully I will be able to pry myself off the couch tomorrow. Glad this was Monday level because I fell asleep about half a dozen times throughout my all day solve.
@Joe and @Nancy: I guess we know now who the real pros are. No eagle for me this afternoon. I did manage to solve it but took me four tries. Oh well, at least I didn’t bogey.
@jae
Kept chipping away, and finally finished successfully (6+ hrs; med-hard). What a thrill! Didn't understand a couple: 'Part of a flight, maybe' (just now looked it up; totally unknown, heretofore); 'If you ask…' (still out to lunch on this one). See you next Mon.! :)
@A (1:43 PM) 👍
@Joe
#Worldle #109 3/6 (100%)
🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛↙️
🟩🟩🟩🟨⬛⬇️
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🎉
https://worldle.teuteuf.fr
@albatross shell (6:12 PM )
Didn't think of it; glad to see that @jberg linked to it! Great song! :)
A big 👍 for all those excellent SB, Wordle/Phrazle (et al) results.
___
td's: SB pg -4 / Sed: 19/21 (wrong guess on last word) / Duo: 35/37 (one blunder)
Phrazle 43
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨🟪 ⬜🟩🟨🟪🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Phrazle 44
⬜🟩⬜🟨 ⬜🟨🟪🟪⬜⬜🟪 🟪🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩🟪
🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
(worked 43 on and off all day; finally hit like a bolt from the blue; 44 fell in 10 mins. Go figure!) 🤔
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Curtis Lundy – I did read the piece on Ron Carter. He had a birthday concert at Carnegie Hall tonight apparently. (The first time ever I saw his name was in the credits on Roberta Flack's "First Take" album.) Less familiar with Gary Peacock, but I have him on Tony Williams's early Blue Note albums, and maybe some Bill Evans? Nothing with Jarrett I don't think, and he's not on the Ornette Coleman records I have.
I'm surprised no one has remarked on the answer to 1A, on the very same day that Apple announced the discontinuation of the iPod, after 21 years. Sigh. I continue to think that the iPod shuffle was the best music player ever.
This is clearly just a coincidence as I'm sure this puzzle was submitted way before anyone would have known the exact day of death of the iPod. Nonetheless, I did have a fleeting thought that this might have something to do with the puzzle's theme, when first seeing the clue.
@SLG - Wow. I didn't even realize the iPod was still made. I honestly thought they were discontinued a decade ago.
Yes! Those firms definitely must merge.
It’s Lou Weiss’s debut, so you have to cut him a bit of slack. The THING is, it’s not his fault the editor ran what was an easy Monday on a Tuesday. But let’s not SUGAR coat it. It doesn’t FLY. The main problem was the plethora of acronyms, non-words, internet lingo and three-letter glue bits - STA e.g. The theme was pretty MONOtonous and the result is AFLAT puzzle that lacking OOHs and aahs. This one badly needs a RENO.
There’s a long delay before comments appear today…
Not much to say about this one; it did seem awfully easy, so perhaps it should've been flipped with yesterday's. Nothing sparkles, but a decent, simple theme, not overdone. A no-stress, tap-in par.
A par also, the result of a lapse in logic, in Wordle. I still gape at all these Phrazle eagles and holes-in-one. I tried one of those, and instantly knew I was beyond my depth. Can't imagine how it could be that easy for so many. I fear I may have stumbled into a Mensa meeting.
AFLAT PSALM
THESOUNDOFMUSIC isn't MONO,
not with BRASS AND WINDS AND THINGs.
It's ONE PREVAILING THING with Bono,
to play THE HARP he PULLED some STRINGS.
--- SELMA DUVALL
I agree - today's and yesterday's puzzles could have been flipped. But then, I'm a sucker for those long across answers.
But then...I love Mondays.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
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