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Relative difficulty: Easy
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| [forgot to take screenshot of finished grid before I closed puzzle, so rather than type it all back in, I just hit "Reveal All," which puts accusing little eyeballs in every revealed square, my apologies] |
Theme answers:
- BLACK COFFEE (17A: Easy order for a barista) (Black Rock, coffee roll)
- BEDSPRING (33A: Coil in a mattress) (bedrock, spring roll)
- MOON JELLY (40A: Ocean invertebrate with a round, translucent body) (moon rock, jellyroll)
BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment management corporation based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with US$10 trillion in assets under management as of January 2022. BlackRock operates globally with 70 offices in 30 countries and clients in 100 countries.
BlackRock has sought to position itself as an industry leader in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). The company has faced criticism for worsening climate change, its close ties with the Federal Reserve System during the COVID-19 pandemic, anticompetitive behavior, and its unprecedented investments in China. (wikipedia)
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This is one of those "Both Halves"-type puzzles that you used to see more often. The concept is old, but this one puts something of a new twist on it by having "Both Halves" of the answers be able to follow not a single word (the most common variation) but two different words. The revealer's first word goes with first halves, and the second with second. That's an interesting variation on what can be a kind of dull theme. The trouble with this kind of theme is you walk a very narrow beam—there may be a lot of words that can follow "rock," and a lot of words that can follow "roll," but there are going to be Very Few phrases that you can make out of one word from column A and another from column B. It's tempting to try to come up with your own ... although maybe that's only true for NERDS. Anyway, for instance, ACID TEST might work if people were familiar enough with the concept of a "test roll" (from photography). How about PET SPIDER? I think that one is definitely viable, but it's hard to get a phrase that makes sense on its own *and* makes sense as parts of two other, different phrases—you're really working with three phrases for every one that appears in the grid. So there are only three themers in the grid, but there are six shadow answers floating behind it. I'm not sure it's the most rewarding kind of puzzle to solve, but it has construction complexity that might not be readily apparent to solvers.
Overall, the puzzle was very easy, with my only hesitations coming at COOL (was thinking actual cucumbers), BISON (I am numismatically challenged, I'll admit), and ORS (I wrote in IFS, which is definitely the less probable of those two options). Oh, and I needed a ton of crosses to remember the JELLY part of MOON JELLY. I liked that the puzzle was bookish today. Actually, I liked that the NERDS were bookish. So often they are more STEM-ish mathy techy nerds. Although maybe today's NERDS are "bookish" because they're reading software manuals, I don't know. But in my head, they are reading TSE's "The Wasteland" (literally me this week) and Shakespeare's Macbeth (32A) (me earlier in the year) and tales of Sherwood FOREST and maybe a bio of Toulouse-LAUTREC. We see the NERDS we are. Be the nerd you want to see in the world! Enjoy the rest of your day! Shout-out to BOONIES, which is a good answer! OK, I'm off to drink a whole damn pot of BLACK COFFEE, bye.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. the fill could be much, much cleaner on this one. I promise you that you, yes you, can make a better NE corner than the one that's currently there (ABU ESS SLOE). You can get real words and familiar abbrs. in there instead of name parts and "feminine suffixes" and old-school crosswordese like SLOE. Here's a simple, clean version I cooked up quickly. Doable!
“Black Rock” is the nickname for CBS, after its headquarters building on 52nd Street. In the 1980s, the big 3 networks were called Black Rock, 30 Rock, and Hard Rock (the last because ABC was still thought of as an upstart).
ReplyDeleteMy former office building, where I first discovered NYTX and this wonderful little corner of the internet.
DeleteBlack Rock is also the name of the desert where Burning Man happens
DeleteWhen I hear Black Rock, I think of the excellent brewery named after a beautiful rock formation in Marquette, MI where I went to college. Probably not what the constructor was thinking, but it brought back some wonderful memories.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of this blog is when Rex shows alternate constructions.
ReplyDeleteVery fine theme in an absolutely fine puzzle, that unfortunately should have run on a Monday. Black Rock to me evoked the ship that brought Richard Alpert to the island in LOST.
ReplyDeleteGreat debut, Robert! Almost Monday easy but the revealer was definitely worth the price of admission.
ReplyDeleteThis debut has some lovely touches:
ReplyDelete• Words to enjoy – INKBLOT, BOONIES, MOON JELLY, DAFT.
• The happy surprise of wordplay clues on Tuesday – for OBOISTS, SUE, and the terrific [Pisa dough?] for EUROS.
• Neighboring palindromes (AHA and LOL).
• A NYT answer debut. If I had to guess, I would have thought it would be MOON JELLY, but no, it’s BEDSPRING. Even its plural has never been in a NYT puzzle before.
• A clashing PuzzPair© of STERILE and BREEDER.
• For me, a bit of learning, as I had never heard of MOON JELLY, and now after some research I have seen that they are beautiful, and learned that a group of them is called a “smack”.
• The word HALER. Why? Because you can find “ale” in “haler”, and there are some IPA lovers, I’m guessing, who *are* ale inhalers.
Robert, your puzzle gave me an enjoyable fill-in, and brought some lovely treasures. It’s a most promising portent for crossword pleasure ahead. Congratulations on your debut, and much gratitude!
Put my wrong foot forward with jellyfish. A correct answer but a wrong one too.
ReplyDeleteI wish HALER could have been HALEY (member of that place in Cleveland I would hope).
I thought the flappers were going to be wings.
BLACKCOFFEE MOONJELLY BEDSPRINGS LAUTREC MEATLOAF ROCKANDROLL FEMUR BEALE (book better than movie for the clue, although Zed might prefer the more recent one. I'd go for a blues or jugband clue myself) OBOISTS and COOL CHILI made thus tuezz enough for me.
I do hope someone would tell me what tuezzing means someday. I truly have no idea.
MOONJELLY is said to be delicious. Is it good on an onion bagel?
Which reminds me, the theme. BLACK ROCK MOON ROCK BEDROCK COFFEE ROLL JELLYROLL SPRINGROLL (BEDROLL). Not sure if BLACK ROCK is a music genre or where Spencer Tracy had a bad day. Not quite double the pleasure but good having both parts of an anwer be OFUSE. Now I'm getting hungry and and want to find a geology book.
This took me back to the day when parents listened to Aaron Copeland and were Irate that their Idiot children liked Rock & Roll. To quote dear old dad, “I’d like to hit ‘em with a rock and watch ‘em roll.” Ah the good old days.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the boomer stuff here because I am one.
Your dad probably enjoyed the old Sid Caesar routine where he sang, “I’ve got rocks in my head and a roll in my mouth”.
DeleteFun puzzle. When I saw Black Rock I immediately thought of the CBS headquarters in New York (too parochial?). And of course - like Rex - bad day at.....
ReplyDeleteThanks for an interesting Tuesday.j
A lot of it was just fill-in-the-blanks, which gave it quite the Monday vibe. HALER was a bit of a side-eye, I still have no clue how it relates to “robust” - it was hard to argue with the crosses so I just went with it and hoped for the happy music.
ReplyDeleteFrom the expression "hale and hearty." :-)
DeleteKind of fun because I couldn't see where it was going.
ReplyDeleteI get SPRING ROLL and JELLY ROLL but I don't think I've ever had a COFFEE ROLL, but as pointed out by a "late singer with a food name", two out of three ain't bad.
Come to think of it, I've never had an ICEE either. Life in the BOONIES.
Congrats on the debut, RW. Really Wish it had a little more crunch, but enjoyable enough. Thanks for some fun.
I'm sitting at a Dunkin' right now, and I'm looking over at a tray with the label coffee roll.
DeleteThe CBS Building, also known as Black Rock, is the headquarters of the CBS broadcasting network at 51 West 52nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 38-story, 491-foot-tall building, the only skyscraper designed by Eero Saarinen, was constructed from 1961 to 1964.
ReplyDeleteCute theme - could have been more dense. Overall fill felt strained - too much short glue and ORS etc. Not sure I like ALP or alpe better. MOON JELLY is pretty cool - HALER is not.
ReplyDeletePeter Gunn
Enjoyable Tuesday solve.
@anonymous (6:39am) - yes, ABC began as the spin-off of the NBC Blue network (mandated by the FCC), which was NBC's non-commercial (and non-money making) cultural and public service network, and had less desirable (and fewer) broadcast frequency assignments on both radio and television. So right out of the gate it was considered the very "weak sister" to the two big fat networks, and had trouble getting on its feet and establishing commercial credibility,
ReplyDeleteThat is why the ABC network lineup in the late fifties and early sixties was filled with very cheaply made Warner Brothers Westerns (Maverick, Cheyanne, Sugarfoot, etc. that could all use the same sets and crews, and were essentially clones of one another) and Warner Brothers detective shows (77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Surfside 6 etc., that were also essentially clones of one another and could use a lot of the same props, sets and crews).
Interestingly, its first real hit (in the mid-fifties) was "Walt Disney Presents" - before the show moved to NBC. Of course, now Disney owns ABC.
Oh, and let's not forget putting Joey Bishop up against Johnny Carson on late night TV. Can't quite recall who won that battle, though. (more trivia: Joey Bishops' "Ed McMahon" was Regis Philbin).
It wasn't until well into the 1970s that ABC started to be spoken in the same breath as the other two networks.
@ejnoble 745am
Deleteamazing info. i cant keep up with all the current start ups / aquisistions... im guessing you do. ?
Rex, thanks for saying Tough Town, which evokes Raymond Chandler: “‘That doll don't belong in Tough Town,’ he said slowly.”
ReplyDeleteThe problem, @Albie, is that the puzzle doesn’t tuezz.
ReplyDelete@Zed
DeleteI might agree if I only knew what it meant. I solved this as a themeless and just barely remembered to check out the theme. How about BEALE?
Thx, Robert; good theme, nicely executed! :)
ReplyDeleteEasy-med.
Pretty smooth solve.
New to me were LOCO, MOON JELLY & LAUTREC, but no prob w/ fair crosses.
Loved the clueing for OBOISTS.
Fun puz! :)
@jae
Med+ solve (2 1/2 hrs). You were right about that extended SW area; it was a doozy. I count myself somewhat lucky on this one. See you next Mon. :)
___
yd 0 / W: 4* / WH: 3 / Duo: 34
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Fun puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThanks @E. J. Noble for the history lesson. I did not know that.
Uniclues:
1 Stupid thing sticking you up.
2 RWNJs speaking their minds lately.
3 Adam's wife's green painting.
4 What else would you do? Duh.
5 Urban sophistication, not.
6 A pan of chilled murder.
7 Rock band dipped in bleach.
8 Bookish British buffalo's bathroom.
1 IDIOT BED SPRING
2 IRATE TRENDS
3 EVE'S LAUTREC
4 MIC ROCK AND ROLL
5 LOCO BOONIES
6 COOL MEATLOAF
7 STERILE CRÜE
8 BISON NERD'S LOO
Yesterday we got a Monday puzzle that required a little thought. So today, we get stuck with an easy Monday. I guess they are trying to please everyone. A little.
ReplyDeleteBlack Rock is the definitive firm for fixed rate trading. Would have required some thought if it were an answer. I like Rex's theory better, but watched that movie decades ago, and would have gotten it only with a lot of crosses.
I enjoyed this one. I had no idea about the theme until the end as, in early-week puzzles, I mostly solve from north to south. (This gets reversed as the week goes on.) This is a familiar theme type, but I liked the fact that the two halves of the answers were paired differently.
ReplyDeleteJellyfish have some amazing names: Black Sea Nettle, Crystal, Sea Wasp, Flower Hat. There’s even the Immortal Jellyfish which, “instead of completing the life cycle and dying after the medusae phase…settles on the seafloor and becomes polyps again, which spawn new clones of the original jellyfish. This life cycle quirk…is also used as a defense mechanism. When threatened by predators or starvation, this jellyfish transforms back into a polyp and starts over again. This cellular process is called transdifferentiation and is being researched by scientists for its potential applications in the medical field” (outforia.com). The lion’s mane jellyfish even finds its way into a Sherlock Holmes story. And how about jellyfish with food names: Fried Egg and Cauliflower.
Henri [de] Toulouse-LAUTREC: an artist preoccupied with line when most of his contemporaries were preoccupied with color. When I was 19 and preparing for a trip to Europe, I went backpack shopping with a friend. One of brands we looked at was the La Trek. “Hey,” quipped my buddy, ”if you didn’t adjust the straps right and the pack was flopping around, you’d have your own too-loose La Trek!” I think we laughed for a week.
Lautrec is returning his suit. Tailor says, “Too tight Toulouse?”
Delete@Barbara S 8:35 AM Spent a long time reading about jellies today. Fascinating. Thanks for the inspiration.
DeleteRex’s revised corner is better. But it reuses EVE, so it’s a non-starter.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I am amazed at my own ignorance. I did not know that BLACKrock is currently the largest asset manager in the world AND I did not know that the CBS building was called Black Rock. So, I thank the puz, @Rex, and the commentariat for learning this today. Otherwise, this was an okay Tuesday puzzle and I saw that I completed it in less time than yesterday’s puzzle FWIW. (Remember @Nancy…I do not purposely time myself, the app just does it anyway) It only means something to me when I know I haven’t been eating breakfast while solving or being interrupted in other ways.
ReplyDelete@Albie, I’d like to know the secret of “Tuezzing” also! In fact, I thought @Zed would say “Tuesday’s gonna Tuezz” but NO! So @Zed, does your proclamation today (the puzzle didn’t Tuezz) mean the puzzle was BETTER than a typical Tuesday?
You should know about BlackRock. It is an evil corporation.
ReplyDeleteOh my, MOON JELLY is bringing back some very, very old memories. Possibly one of my first. I believe I had just turned four and I was on vacation with my mom in Poland during the summer. My uncle took us all up to the Baltic coast where I dined on some of the first and best fried fish ever (not that I had much to compare to, but I was addicted to it.) I remember finding these fascinating jelly creatures with their four-leaf clover-like designs washed up at the edge of the surf. I picked one up, showed it to my uncle, and he suggested I plop it down on my aunt's stomach, who was sun-tanning and had a hat propped over her face as shade. Oh my did she jump up with a squeak and a start! That's about the only thing I still remember from that month-long trip. That and fuzzy memories of fluorescent airport terminals, waiting for our onward flight from Frankfurt.
ReplyDeleteThis played like a Monday -- close to record Tuesday time. My main write-over was correcting BoxSPRING to BEDSPRING. I'm completely unaware of the word HALER, so hesitated in that section for a few seconds, but decided the crosses couldn't be wrong. No idea on "Black rock" as an expression, but didn't need to understand the themers to help with this early week puzzle.
All in all, a very buttery puzzle.
I knew Zed would be in on the Tuezz question, albeit coyly:)
ReplyDeleteIn case the suspense is killing anyone, Tuezzing is being kind of mid-week, too easy and bland, "stick the weak puzzle of the week here". see also "Tuezzdays gonna Tuezz".
Thanks A and Joe P for the lovely musical selections a couple of days ago. The lyrics were gorgeous, and Karen Carpenter still gets me every time.
Good Rex today. I was waiting for the uber capitalist Blackrock to send him into a tailspin, but thinking about his happy place old movies was a successful detour:) I always have fun imagining how he would trash his new suggestions for puzzle improvement if they showed up in a WS edited puzzle. Great take on NERDS!
@Lewis - anyone inhaling ale won't stay hale for long.
@Southside - there is a soup chain called Hale & Hearty. Haler does look slightly unusual.
I liked the SUE clue although "Froggie went a-courtin', he did WOO" was my one mistep causing a delay in the happy music.
Perhaps the mention of SLOE can get us into a third round of martinis?
If you ever get a chance, go to a zoo or aquarium with a MOONJELLYfish exhibit. In NY and Montreal, they are lit with a purple light and their motion is mesmerizingly beautiful. They should probably play the slow part of the Beautiful Blue Danube next to the exhibit.
Thanks bloggers for the early TV history - I only knew 30 Rock. Also, FOX network is the upstart for my generation. They took a chance on The Simpsons, a little show that became a crossword staple to the chagrin of some.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteWhat about the other pairs?
BLACK ROLL, COFFEE ROCK, BED ROLL, SPRING ROCK, MOON ROLL, JELLY ROCK? Some of those work...
I found this one easier than YesterPuz myself, although the timer says it was about 30 seconds longer. Weird.
In OO news, we get COO, MOO, BOO, LOO, and two boggled ROOs in SE.
Was that NERDy? I can't see the FOREST for the trees. 😁
Happy Flag Day everyone!
yd -3, should'ves 2
No Duo doing
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
After getting the reveal, I enjoyed going back to the theme answers and test driving them. MOON JELLY was tops for me, lovely in itself and for having the most far-flung ROCK and tastiest ROLL (not that I know what a COFFEE ROLL is - coffee cake, yes; roll. no).
ReplyDeleteI appreciated @Rex's highlighting the movie Bad Day at Black Rock. My dad adopted the phrase to use in any "things are not going well here" situation, and I've continued to use it. Did not make the transfer to the next generation.
@E.J. Noble 7:49 - Thank you for that bit of TV history. I watched those shows - interesting to get the background!
All the above aside, clueing loo as John of Salisbury was brilliant.
ReplyDelete26 A, “Patent”, also can have a “roll” attached to it. In Pre-computer days I did my graduate research on them in London’s Public Record Office and British Museum.
ReplyDeleteIf it's the clueing that makes a puzzle sing, then this seemingly modest Tuesday just sang the score of "Sunday in the Park With George."
ReplyDeleteI love clues that create curiosity. The "hot dish that sounds cold" at 1A did that for me. What on earth? I hesitated to fill anything else in around it because than the mystery and the suspense would be gone. It felt sort of like peeking ahead to the end of a murder mystery -- which I never do.
"Late singer with a food name". More curiosity created. Normally I hate pop culture clues, but I like this one. Even though I wouldn't know MEATLOAF if I fell over him.
The perfectly ordinary word SUE is turned into a kealoa by the clue "Go a-courting." You think it's going to be WOO, of course.
What sounds like a card between "flop" and "river"? Surely not TURN -- which could have been clued in a much more ordinary and prosaic way.
The theme, btw, seemed quite clever when I went back to check it out. But I didn't pay it much attention en route. I was having too much fun with the clues. Very nice and very enjoyable Tuesday.
Burtonkd,
ReplyDeleteYou left out the most important thing Fox did to become a viable network: Buy the rights to NFL football. When they started airing the NFC games they instantly became a player. Have been ever since. The Simpsons were a hit, but they had nothing to do with Fox's rise to real network status.
aannndd dont forget "america's most wanted".
DeleteApparently Robert Won has not ordered black coffee lately. If you order black coffee in a coffee shop these days, the counter person stares at you and waits for you to study the chalk board menu in order to choose which brew of black coffee you want from a list of names that mean nothing to you, and then to choose the size coffee of your coffee using quantities that, I guess, comport to "small, medium and large," but seem to be in a foreign language.
ReplyDeleteSolved this and stared at it for a while before I finally figured out the theme. Part of what confused me is that BED can be followed by both ROCK and ROLL. But then this didn’t hold up for SPRING unless there’s a SPRING ROCK I’m not aware of. (A stone in a creek?) Eventually I saw the light and all was well. Thanks for a fun solve, Robert, and congrats on the debut.
ReplyDeleteGot out of bed early this morning to beat the heat. Poured my COFFEE and looked around for a ROLL but it was no USE. Had to settle for toast and JELLY. Then went outside to water flowers while it’s COOL and accidentally MOONed the trash truck driver. I don’t think he was too impressed with my assets. I CANT believe that IDIOT threw a ROCK at me. I should SUE! LOL.
ReplyDeleteAfter I got over my wounded pride I did the puzzle which I thought was very clever and fun. Like yesterday’s Monday, this was a near perfect Tuesday which I would be very pleased to share with a new solver and think they would find quite satisfying. Very impressive debut Mr. Won! Thank you and I hope to see more with your byline.
@E.J. Noble Thanks! I never knew that, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteTuesday Trivia:
ReplyDeleteAnne Francis and John Ericson, both in "Bad Day At Black Rock" —see Rex's trailer— later teamed up on the mid-60's detective show "Honey West".
(I also assumed the puzzle was referencing the CBS Building. I worked a block south of it in the late 70's.)
My vote goes for "Bad Day at Black Rock"..Who doesn't love film noir with a COOL Spencer Tracy? Just look at that one-armed war veteran sauntering into the town cafe.... ordering his COFFEE BLACK and having a bite of the MEAT LOAF special. EDDY tells him that the MOON JELLY pie is also pretty good with a spoonful of CHILI DIP.
ReplyDeleteMy happy was slapped this fine Tuesday. I can just hear ADELE and SUE singing "Smoke on the Water."
If this is a debut (tubed if you read backwards) then en hora buena.....
Easy-medium. Fun to see a more complicated take on a familiar theme. Liked it, nice debut!
ReplyDeleteAs an engineer, "More robust" immediately had me filling in "safer" for what I thought was the only logical answer. Took me a solid couple of minutes to figure out what had gone wrong in that area.
ReplyDeleteKudos Barbara S, 8:35, and LOL, Anon, 9:08. Wonderful commenting today, everybody -- and it's just 11! Thanks for stoking the fire, Robert Won.
ReplyDelete@ anonymous (10:04):
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention FOX and the NFL....
ABC, as well, made a big leap forward into legitimacy with NFL football. During the 1960's, while NBC and CBS carried NFL (and AFL before the merger) football on Sunday, ABC was relegated to "spanning the globe" buying footage of international sporting events and stringing them together as "Wide World of Sports" - the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.
But by the end of the 1960's, Roone Arledge, the producer of "Wide World of Sports," came up with the brilliant idea that NFL football need not take place only on Sunday afternoons, but could be played in Monday nights, as well. Hence, the birth of Monday Night Football in 1970, which Arledge cerated and produced. Arledge went on to become a huge creative force at ABC and was a major force in bringing the network into the big times, but it was Monday NIght Football that first got the other networks to sit up and pay attention.
RAISE before I had to change to ADD TO?? you can't just 'ADD TO' the pot. well in gambling (Hi to Phil) anyway. IIRC, the clue (paper's long gone) was something like 'increase the pot', so not a stew or soup.
ReplyDeleteM&A will take a ROCKANDROLL puztheme rodeo, any-old-time. M&A has visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; luved it.
ReplyDeleteThemer no-know: MOONJELLY.
Have heard of the BLACK ROCK investment outfit. And the cool Spencer Tracy flick.
Also, M&A googled "black rock band" and got a Jimi Hendrix pic. Just sayin.
staff weeject pick: ABU. Whose U became an endangered species, when @RP started suggestin rework of its NE corner. Much caution is called for, there. Don't just rush for an E-fest & that scrabble-twerkin X.
Primo weeject stacks, in all four puzcorners, btw.
fave fillins: MEATLOAF (Rock star in "Rocky Horror Picture Show"). Toulouse-LAUTREC partial artist.
Thanx for the rocks & rolls, Mr. Won dude. And congratz on yer fine debut. Too bad somethin with a dash of CINNAMON wouldn't work, as a themer … but M&A can kinda sympathize.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
ReplyDelete52D. Mixed up Bruins that will fight for your rights.
30A. Newbie beer maker’s prayer on opening the first batch.
ACLU
BEALE
OBOISTS got me wondering about their belief system. Is it oboism?
Judging by yesterday’s comments, I may consider myself, as a oenophile, the Lord O’VINE, but not o’MARTINIS. (My martini practice is to mail a bottle of Vermouth to a fictitious address in Paris so it will be returned with a fresh hint of La Belle France clinging to it. I then bury it in a sealed casket for three years with a bottle of Nolet Reserve Gin and two chilled glasses. Three years later, I’ve generally moved on to something else, and I forget all about it).
The theme was enjoyable, although not integral to my solve. Many of the clues were wonderful as per @Nancy. I wanted to compete with this debut constructor, but in the end, Robert Won. Congrats!!!
A "gaggle" refers to geese on the ground. A "flock" refers to geese in flight. While it's possible for a grounded gaggle of geese to be wing flappers, I don't think that's the image the editor had in mind.
ReplyDeleteFelt like a Monday and flew through it much faster than yesterday’s puzzle! Loved seeing a poker reference and did get caught for a second by the “goes a-courting” when the u in the middle meant woo wasn’t right. Quickly realized it was a-COURTing and was off to the races.
ReplyDeleteI have a commission to make. I couldn't quite parse the revealer, so I only looked for the ROCK but didn't notice the ROLL in each themer. I still liked it.
ReplyDeleteThis January M. and I decided that we could no longer bear being cooped up, and booked ourselves a week on the Big Island of Hawaii. We stayed in a VRBO rental about a 45-minute drive south of Kona. We cooked our own dinners, but went out for lunch, and our favorite place (the food was good, it was reliably open, and it took credit cards -- the only such place nearby!) was BLACK ROCK Pizza (they served other things, as well. Now, I didn't delude myself that that restaurant was the basis of the clue, but I did feel that they must have named it that because it was a common phrase, so I let it go at that.
But I have sad news to report: JELLYfish are no more. The biologists of the world have decided that they are not fish, and have renamed them "jellies." I've had them for meals once or twice in Chinese restaurants; they don't taste like much, but you can put sauce on them.
Better clue for 49-A: "Poet who, when doubled, can spread sleeping sickness."
what made "Bad Day at Black Rock" was the point/counter-point of racism early in the film. Tracy is in the greasy spoon, gets hassled by the Bad Guys (he's looking for the Japanese-American father of a dead soldier), then proceeds to wipe them out with Karate Chops. learned, of course, during the war, presumably from the dead soldier; that, unseen, action was in Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-American_service_in_World_War_II#442nd_Regimental_Combat_Team
ReplyDelete@burtonkd
ReplyDeleteSo tuezzy Tuesdays are weak and snoozey not snazzy and jazzy. Here I was thinking a good Tuesday had to really tuezz to be break through the not quite easy and not quite hard stereotype to be interesting. I err. This day of the week bigotry must end!
@Whatsername...We should dance the fandango tango and tell lots of stories! Do you think others would be impressed by our assets?
ReplyDeleteThere's an ecological downside to the increase in jellyfish numbers in the oceanic process known as "the rise of slime". "[Jeremy Jackson of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego] cites the synergistic effects of habitat destruction, overfishing, ocean warming, increased acidification and massive nutrient runoff as culprits in a grand transformation of once complex ocean ecosystems. Areas that had featured intricate marine food webs with large animals are being converted into simplistic ecosystems dominated by microbes, toxic algal blooms, JELLYfish and disease".
ReplyDeleteReally enjoying the entertaining comments today. I do love spending time with you people!
ReplyDeleteReading @Nancy’s reminded me I intended to mention also how much I like the cluing on this. Among them CHILI, LOO, SUE, and EUROS were a few I jotted in the margin.
@Barbara S (8:35) Enjoyed the jellyfish lesson very much. Thank you for sharing your extensive knowledge. I have always been fascinated with ocean creatures.
@GILL (11:53) Well from what I’ve seen of your assets on Facebook I’d say definitely - especially if I tag along with you. You’ll look even better by comparison. 😂
Sure, really, really easy-except for the revealer-which gave it a nice little bit bit more crunch. When I got ROCK AND ROLL, I was a bit concerned whether we needed both halves of the answer because admittedly, I had to thin about “BLACK ROCK for a hot second because it just didn’t seem like what Our constructor was aiming for-so many answers being so much more “current.” But, also as an old movie fan, Bad Day at BLACK ROCK came to mind even if it probably wasn’t what was on Robert Won’s mind. Still works!
ReplyDeleteAnd, the reveal as well as the fill, while easy, was fresher than the usual early week fill. This one absolutely impressed me. I enjoyed this on enormously and look forward to more form him.
MOONJELLY was the raison d’etre of this Tuesday puzzle that nevertheless gave us an entertaining theme. I’m obsessed. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteBlack Rock is where Burning Man happens in the end of August.
ReplyDeleteEJ noble,
ReplyDeleteSo close, but not quite. The NFL had been playing Monday night games on CBS and NBC prior to what we know as Monday Night Football. Arledge was a genius, Flat out straight up. But he wasn't genius enough to get ABC executives to sign off on the idea. It was Pete Rozelle who ultimately persuaded that ABC was sitting on a gold mine.
@E.J. Noble, Let me join the chorus of appreciative voices. Fascinating!
ReplyDeleteOkay today we're told jellyfish aren't fish; and a few days ago we learned neither are starfish, but I'm still gonna call them that. Jellies in aquariums (aquaria?) are gorgeous when lit up. Fond memories of the giant tank in Monterey.
ReplyDeleteAt 20 across, looking at -B--S-S, imagined IBISSES playing among the reeds.
[Spelling Bee: yd pg-1; missed this 8er which I swear I had tried, but I must have had the spelling wrong.]
I always think that “A tale told by an idiot...” is from King Lear. Because he gets my vote for The biggest idiot in Shakespeare’s oeuvre.
ReplyDeleteAnon 3:57 - LOL, I always think of Trump as a modern day personification of Lear!
ReplyDelete@Albatross Shell - Never! For whatever reason, Tuesday puzzles have a reputation for being the dumping ground for puzzles that don't quite work on different days because they don't quite work. Architectural feats that are no fun to actually solve, quote puzzles, pangrams achieved through scrabble you know what in some tiny corner, just about anything that annoys some large junk of solvers is stereotypically Tuezzday worthy.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, Tuesday is not Rex's tuezziest day. BTW, Tuesdays are gonna tuezz and variations are not uncommon on xword Twitter.
The Lone Ranger was ABC's top-rated show for the early 50s. They did get Ozzie and Harriet and Maverick with James Garner, Leave it to Beaver, The wonderful World of Disney, The Mickey Mouse Club and American Bandstabd.
ReplyDeletetoo. The youth culture channel. Rocky and Bullwinkle too. A lot of these shows were on different networks depending on year.
p.s.
ReplyDeleteAlternative to the @RP alternative NE puzcorner…
Across.
11. Bama's clear lack?
16. Borderline area
19. One with beard and hooves
21. Sics a legal beagle on
Down.
11. Spout two conflicting opinions
12. Stuff found on a bed and a table
13. It's not to be missed
M&A Crucial Vowel Preservation Assoc.
@Albie, you are right that a lot of the shows you mentioned were on different networks because The Wonderful World of Disney was on NBC in my area as a kid. ABC (in our area) was on UHF and in my recollection the t.v. In our house didn’t have a “converter” until I was an “older kid” which makes me wonder how I saw Leave it to Beaver. Dang. It’s almost 10pm. so I doubt you’ll see this.
ReplyDeleteDay of the week bigotry. When will they ever learn?
ReplyDeleteBut thanks for the info.
@Albie - Tomorrow’s puzzle, OTOH, definitely tuezzes. Start of a punny quip …. Need I say more?
ReplyDeleteA themed puzzle is only as strong as its weakest link. In this case BLACKROCK fails the test. BEDSPRINGS works fine but MOONJELLY isn’t in common enough usage to be a top-shelfer. So we have one great themer, one mediocre one and one bad one. ICANT say there were any real AHA moments. Not much more to ADDTO this one. It had potential but alas, it’s just too thin and untidy like Ted Cruz’s BEARD.
ReplyDeleteABC thrust itself onto my radar when they broadcast the Olympic Games, with Jim McKay & Co. That predated MNF. I recall with fondness the "Up Close and Personal" segments: remarkable reporting.
ReplyDeleteThis one certainly holds its Tuesday place, with a clever two-part theme that must have taken a challenging load of research--including MOONJELLY which was new to me.
I dimly remember a story about a tourist in a Paris CAB:
CABBY: Do you want Toulouse-Lautrec?
TOURIST: I don't want to lose anything.
Sorry, I can't recall anything else...
If I were grading this on American Bandstand (Oh wow: another ABC show!) I'd say, I'll give it an 80; it's got a good ROCKANDROLL beat and you can dance to it." Hey, let's have a little respect for ABC, shall we? Birdie.
GBBBY
GGGGG! Now can I emulate Shane Lowry and get back-to-back eagles? Stay tuned.
How very very strange. This is not the puzzle that was in my paper - which was listed as Puzzle Number 0614.
ReplyDeleteLady Di
ICEE STARE
ReplyDeleteICAN'T ROCKANDROLL with ADELE,
she's COOL AND STERILE EVES I need her,
she's an UPSET BEDSPRING BELLE,
IRATE AND CHILI, ICAN'T BREEDER.
--- EDDY BEALE
Can't imagine 'getting' it without the revealer. If you haven't been, you should go to the ROCKANDROLL HoF. Yeah, it's Cleveland, but worth it.
ReplyDeleteOkay, after 72 wordle attempts:
6 done in two attempts (@spacey eagles)
24 in three
27 in four (pars)
15 in five
Comes out to -21, or one better than Cam Smith at The Open
When I think "Black Rock", I'm thinking about the resort in Ukluelet, British Columbia. Beautiful place. You should visit :-).
ReplyDelete