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Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (pop culture might get ya)
Word of the Day: The BARNES (28A: Philadelphia art museum, with "the") —
The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The arboretum of the Barnes Foundation remains in Merion, where it has been proposed to be maintained under a long-term educational affiliation agreement with Saint Joseph's University.The Barnes was founded in 1922 by Albert C. Barnes, who made his fortune by co-developing Argyrol, an antiseptic silver compound that was used to combat gonorrhea and inflammations of the eye, ear, nose, and throat. He sold his business, the A.C. Barnes Company, just months before the stock market crash of 1929.
Today, the foundation owns more than 4,000 objects, including over 900 paintings, estimated to be worth about $25 billion. These are primarily works by Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Modernist masters, but the collection also includes many other paintings by leading European and American artists, as well as African art, antiquities from China, Egypt, and Greece, and Native American art.
In the 1990s, the Foundation's declining finances led its leaders to various controversial moves, including sending artworks on a world tour and proposing to move the collection to Philadelphia. After numerous court challenges, the new Barnes building opened on Benjamin Franklin Parkway on May 19, 2012. The foundation's current president and executive director, Thomas “Thom” Collins, was appointed on January 7, 2015. (wikipedia)
• • •
I had to leave the NW to get any real traction, and finally ended up finding some in the north, after trying SALADS and YAP, I tried MACARONI (only half rings!) before using ALOHA to get CALAMARI (13A: Some rings on a plate) and then I backed my way back to the NW from there.
After this, the puzzle went from being Challenging to being something more like Easy-Medium for me. I knew The BARNES despite never having been there (saw a documentary about it once, maybe?). I knew the "DC" in question at 28D: Emergency device in DC (BATPHONE) was the comics and not the capital. I am reading a (wonderful) new novel ("Mecca," by Susan Straight) where at least one of the characters meditates on the lyrics to "Route 66," so BARSTOW was very fresh in my head (31D: California city in the Mojave Desert). ONE-ACTER felt too informal for the Wilde play, but it worked (47A: Oscar Wilde's "Salome," e.g.). I guessed the COLOR part of TONE COLOR 'cause it seemed ... music-y. No idea who HAYLEY Atwell is*, but I do know THOTH, so I worked it out (38D: God with the head of an ibis). And then I just kind of whooshed through the SE and up to the NE from there. Slight trouble with the SE but Mariah came to the rescue (I may or may not have owned a CD single, or "Ka-dingle" as my friend used to say, of "DREAMLOVER" when I was in grad school) (which means I probably still own it) (25D: "Someone to comfort and hold me," in a #1 Mariah Carey hit). I loved seeing HOT COMB here. There's a wonderful set of short story-comics by Ebony Flowers called HOT COMB, all of them focused on Black women, Black families, and especially Black hair. Can't recommend it enough. And well, what else is there to say? ... HYPERBOLIC DOG SLOBBER! I'm into it.
A few things left to say:
- 14D: Very, informally (MAD) — I hope at least one person in the blog-reading universe out there remembered that I wanted MAD a few days ago for this very same clue, when the answer was WAY. I actually found myself sitting here trying to Remember My Own Blog so that I could get this answer, LOL.
- 43D: Supergroup at Woodstock, familiarly (CSNY) — Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, just in case that was unclear.
- 33A: Blast from the past (A-TEST) — A or N or H work, but only "A" works after the "B" from BARNES, so for once, no trouble with the blank-TEST answer.
- 17A: Name synonymous with longevity (METHUSELAH) — just admitting that I had a spelling uncertainty here at the second "E," but now that I look at the name, "E" is pretty obviously the right option, in that SELAH can stand alone, and so just looks ... more right than SALAH.
- 49A: World Wide ___, nickname of an N.B.A. power broker (WES) — I never actually saw this clue. I thought this was a reference to Russell WEStbrook. It's not. It's to a guy named William Wesley, Executive Vice President and Senior Basketball Adviser to the Knicks who gets name-checked in a lot of rap songs. He is a big deal, but it is ... weird not to have any part of his actual name, or employer's name, in the clue, considering he's not exactly Ariana- or Mariah-famous. Cool nickname, though. Knickname!
*I've actually seen HAYLEY Atwell in a Marvel movie or two. I can't keep any of them straight, so please don't ask me which ones. Anyway, she plays Agent Peggy Carter in the MCU. I probably saw her in the first "Captain America" movie (2011), if I had to guess.
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[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
ReplyDeleteReally, REALLY wanted "Down in the Mouth" for the byproduct of kissing a pet at 21D.
Hah! That’s hilarious!
DeleteEww, dog slobber failed the breakfast test for me!
ReplyDeleteDogslobber was the best thing in this wonderful puzzle. Made me LOL.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do remember you wanted "MAD" instead of "WAY." So I wrote in WAY. Then, I had "MAY" in place of "SAY." Screwed up the whole corner for quite some time.
ReplyDeleteDo WAY and SAY qualify as Naticks?
I’m still buzzing after this. It screamed with energy in answer and clue. I plodded through, but was so amped by the energy, it never felt like a plod, rather, more like I was a shooting star, streaking in all directions. After a sparse opening round, I started climbing into KAC’s brain, which loves to play with words in the clues, and threw in guesses, many which stuck.
ReplyDeleteIf I knew more, if I had a better Jeopardy brain, this would have been far easier, but, as I said, the energy injected into the construction of this puzzle gave me the interest and stamina to keep going with it. Oh, I loved CARE BEAR because I had a daughter who was, long ago, obsessed with them, and I loved DOG SLOBBER because not minding from a dog of mine is proof of true love, which I had for Reggie and Chester, the rescues who changed my life and taught me so much about love.
The cluing today was, to me, the star. There is always at least one world-class clue in a KAC puzzle, and of the ten clues I marked as terrific, the one that stood out, that made me mentally give a standing O, was [Putting greens in these courses might be expected]. Oh, man, clues like that! Why I do crosswords.
Thank you, Kameron, for another of your joints, and really, you don’t ever need to put your name on top of one of your puzzles, they are so obviously yours. You are an original, layered with personality and talent, and you keep crosswords hopping. I loved this.
I set a personal record!
ReplyDeleteIt was for the number of googles used to solve, but hey - a record's a record.
Gotta repeat Anonymous 6:50
ReplyDeleteDogslobber was the best thing in this wonderful puzzle. Made me LOL.
OOPS! That should be "Do MAY and SAY qualify as Naticks?"
ReplyDeleteFine Saturday. My only objection in the whole grid is to “one acter” on grounds that it’s a no-one-ever-says-that. They say “It’s a one act.” If they said “It’s a one acter,” it would be homonphonous with “one actor,” so they wouldn’t.
ReplyDeleteFine Saturday. My only objection in the whole grid is to “one acter” on grounds that it’s a no-one-ever-says-that. They say “It’s a one act.” If they said “It’s a one acter,” it would be homonphonous with “one actor,” so they wouldn’t.
ReplyDeleteThat THOTH dude must have been something back in the day, but really - isn’t there anything better that you can use as a clue for him besides the fact that he has a funny head? It just seems really insensitive to me that the guy works his whole life and makes it to the level of a “god” even, and the NYT just points out that his head looks like a bird. Not funny.
ReplyDeleteI would nominate CASH AWARDS as another in that whole category of GREEN PAINT answers. Redundant at best.
I don’t understand the clue for SOLO PARTS - what would a non-SOLO part be, one that needed two actors in a costume, like a donkey or something ? I’m assuming that the SOLDIER DOLL, et al are actual characters in the the play/musical/ballet whatever it is and not musical numbers, so maybe I bought on a misdirection. It just seems like 99% of all characters in plays are SOLO PARTS - more GREEN PAINT, perhaps?
The Nutcracker also has numbers with multiple dancers as snowflakes and such.. I don’t know ballet SUPER well, but in the way opera has solo parts and also usually a chorus, with many people on stage who only sing the choruses with others, so does ballet have a “chorus” of dancers who have no solo parts.
DeleteThe Nutcracker is known for a string of solos performed by the Soldier, the Mouse King, etc., so those would be solo parts as opposed to the general corps.
DeleteYesterday's LAT xword had Canine kiss/LICK for an entry. Dog kisses, cats, too, are fine, but I try to keep my mouth a kiss-free zone. It happens and I don't die, just a preference. I volunteer at an animal shelter and clean up all kinds of yuk, which doesn't bother me.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or did this and last Saturday feel more like the Saturdays of a decade ago, challenge-wise? I didn't have to actually Google any answers, but I resorted to "check puzzle" numerous times on both.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the clueing has been extra devious and ambiguous, and the PPP has been well wide of my wheelhouse. Again, just me? Anyone?
Liked most of this - CAP the cute trivia here and the result is an outstanding puzzle. DEAR OLD DAD x NEURAL NETS is fantastic. I solve everyday with DOG SLOBBER at my feet so that was welcome. TORPOR is a great word.
ReplyDeleteSome of this did feel as if it speaking Esperanto
I could do without CARE BEAR - had to back into it either way. I’ve been skiing for over 50 years and have never used or heard POLED. The ER suffix with ONE ACT is awkward. Down with Rex and the musical sub-theme.
I’m all for gun control - but not these PISTOLs
Enjoyable Saturday solve.
Poled is from cross country not downhill
DeleteFor those of us *of a certain age* "Dream Lover" will always refer to a hit by Bobby Darin. Better clue might have been Darrin/Carey ideal.
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteHear! Hear!
DeleteA musical puzzle indeed, and an exceptionally fun one, especially in the SW. Just below TONE COLOR was ONE-ACTER, which I got from Strauss’s opera. And BARSTOW not only is in the lyrics of “Route 66” but also is the title of Harry Partch’s remarkable musical setting of hitchhiker graffiti he collected there while hobo-ing during the Great Depression. Lots of fun for this DEAR (I hope) OLD DAD.
ReplyDeleteAn ultra-rare day – no ‘minuses’ in my notes today. No clues or answers that irritated me. ATEST is probably the worst thing in the grid, and it’s not that bad. Or maybe START A BLOG. Anyway, I’d like to think I could some day make a puzzle so pristine.
ReplyDeleteWorld Wide Wes is his real name for all intents and purposes.
ReplyDeleteTotally out of my wheelhouse. Whopping 25 minutes to solve. We need more just like this
ReplyDeleteBring it on.
Geez, how I loved this puzzle and its sensational cluing. One of my favorites was the one Rex (oddly) didn't like: START A BLOG. It was a slightly weird solve for me, in that some of the answers, like everything in the NW, came very, very easily--BARNES, ODELL, CASH AWARDS, ANEMONE--which boosted my confidence. Others eluded me to the point that I began to despair of finishing--NEURAL NETS? NGRAMS? The confidence kept me working away at the ones I didn't know. That, to me, is the mark of a great Saturday.
ReplyDeleteHere's an age thing: To this old solver, DREAM LOVER is and always will be a Bobby Darrin song. I still know every word and inflection. Don't believe I've ever heard the Beyonce version. Think I'll go check it out.
When I saw METHUSELAH, a gimme straight away I thought this was going to be an easy one. Oof. Challenging for me but an enjoyable Saturday puzzle. Honestly have never heard any one say “In the SWIM” though. Wonder if this is either too new for me or more regionally common some where.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the ROPY DOGSLOBBER this puzzle had some teeth. It was a big step up after yesterday's anemic offering and an enjoyable solve.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I couldn't be sure of was BARNES. That N was a bit of a holdout. No other letter made sense but BARNES didn't ring any bells.
Where I finished was the NE. That section got delayed by my SOLOPISTS/SOLOPARTS write over. That was a bit befuddled but that clue didn't give me much.
The SE was the easiest section. After finishing I realized that I'd never read the clue for GINUP so that section was a little early week but everything else was solidly Saturday.
yd -0
Agrees
ReplyDeleteSTARTABLOG is definitely in the EATASANDWICH/GREENPAINT bucket. And the clue was a bit of a contortion.
ReplyDeleteMy Gof. My favorite grid configuration, filled with beautiful language, and then clever cluing. Across-the-board greatness. Dear Old Dad, Start A Blog, Dear Old Dad, Hyperbolic, Methusela, NGrams. Fun stuff!
ReplyDeleteAnd woo did I have some luck. Streamed the Christopher Guest/Chris O’Dowd series Family Tree on Amazon yesterday where Chris O’Dowd goes to Barstow in the Mojave Desert in search of his roots. Yeah, I know! I know!
My son gave me the book Talking Nets: An Oral History of Neural Networks (my son thinks I’m smarter than I actually am). Fascinating interviews with the technical geniuses of yore who grew up when tech meant building your own radio and then transistors changed everything. MIT press. I recommend it. I may’ve mentioned this before.
And I worked at Tonecolor, Colder, & Calamari LLP, lawyers to musicians and the frozen seafood industry. It's true.
Jim Horne explained that DC meant DC Comics but I thought they might just use the term at the White House for a little bit of levity. So … Lucky AND stupid!
Brian A in SLC: Yes, I thought the very same thing: much more like the Saturdays of yore.
ReplyDeleteKAC does puzzles for The New Yorker frequently and often includes some pop culture that is way out of my wheelhouse, so I wasn't surprised when more showed up here. Slogged on through, but was unfamiliar with the BARNES and didn't remember NGRAMS, so a mini DNF, which is what I get for refusing to google. Oh well, life goes on.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else who can't see BOLERO without thinking of Torvil and Dean? I mean, whew.
I got to know CALAMARI over fifty years ago when I was going to school in Spain, and we used to have to go to a Spanish restaurant in Montreal to find any. Of course they're on nearly every appetizer menu you see now. Sometimes change is good.
Thanks for the workout, KAC. Just when I think I'm a Knowledgeable Advanced Crossworder, you come along to straighten me out. Good fun.
A couple of reactions to earlier comments. I’ve been skiing for a long time too, and you “pole” when you hit a flat stretch on a trail where gravity isn’t enough to keep you going. A “solo part” in a musical performance would be a role that includes a solo song at some point (as opposed, e.g., to a duet). And I thought “start a blog” was a great match of answer to clue. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat Saturday fare. The Barnes is probably hard for those that didn't grow up in Center City, I'd imagine. My only nit was 2-Down (propelled oneself on skis). The answer was POLED and this is flat out incorrect. As a former ski instructor, I'd always have my students begin learning without poles because, as everyone who's ever skied knows, poles are strictly used for rhythm and balance; they have nothing to do with propulsion. If you're on flat ground and need to get going, you'd do the same thing you'd do if you were standing in the park: use your legs!
ReplyDeleteI wanted RED PHONE at first for the emergency device in DC, but HOT PHONE was what came in, sort of.
ReplyDeleteBut I needed an A not an O for BANDED.
Aha -- DC is a stupid superhero comic reference, not the seat of our goverment. In went BAT PHONE. So glad you have a phone, Batman. Puts my mind at ease.
My one cheat was to type BARSTOW into Google and up came "city in California." Whew. Left side finished. Onto the right.
When DOG SLOBBER came in (I chuckled, btw), I knew I would finish the fiendish East Coast -- especially the SE.
I pride myself on not cheating on HAYLEY, CARE BEAR, DREAM LOVER, CSNY or THOTH. Who on earth is THOTH????
Nor do I want to hear One More Word on how I'm biased against youthful pop culture. I'm not. I'm biased against all pop culture. Woodstock was my era, sort of, and I didn't know CSNY any better than I knew the names of the CARE BEARS or the lyrics of the Mariah Carey hit.
But while the pop culture here was tough, there actually wasn't all that much of it. I thought the puzzle presented a good Saturday challenge and was engrossing to work on. Some lovely clues, including a great clue/answer for START A BLOG.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteWell, angsty-ness got the better of me. Had top half of puz done, but just couldn't get too much to happen in the bottom half. So, resorted to Reveal Word at RPM. Had BARSTOW and BAT___, , but the PHONE part was eluding me. Thought, "Bat signal? Mobile? Belt? Boat? Argh! What is it?" After Revealing RPM, did a head slap finally seeing PHONE. But then stil had to employ Check Puzzle feature as (especially) the SE was sticking its hands on the side of its head and saying Nyah-Nyah. Dang. Finally got it all, but an assisted finish, no Happy Music at the end.
Fun (and evil 😁) clue on SALADS. ONE ACTER seemed a stretch of a phrase. "You seen that Wilde show?" "You mean the ONE ACTER?" /scene Rex got a LOL from me about START A BLOG. He gets a pas, though, as his was started, what, 15 years ago?
BARSTOW is about 2 hours from here. It's also close to Ft. Irwin Army Base, and Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Base. I was in the Army late 80's, stationed at Ft. Irwin, with BARSTOW being the closest town to the base (but still 45 miles away.) It's gotten a little bigger since then, but still a smallish quirky town. IMO, of course.
Anyway, keep your DOG SLOBBER to yourSELVES. Har.
ALOHA!
yd -5, should'ves seemingly all. Drat.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
This one actually took me less time than the Friday this week, a blistering 49:03--without Google or "Check Word" or "Check Puzzle" or "phone a friend." I did have to run the alphabet and try a couple of incorrect entries before the N in the BARNES/NEURALNETS cross produced the happy tune.
ReplyDeleteSWIM and SPEC and EMOTED and CASH fell right off the bat, which brought METHUSELAH into play. I also had the AWARDS piece of 4D in place, but took it out for a time because it left me with a DW start to 23A (Mythical race) and that DW looked so unlikely.
Another hand up for DOG SLOBBER!
The Nutcracker is a ballet, not a musical, and SOLO PARTS in a ballet afford a dancer the opportunity to be the center of attention, onstage by themselves or featured in a way that stands out from the ensemble.
I also enjoyed this puzzle. A toothsome layout (just 10 three-letter answers, if I counted correctly), and a satisfyingly al dente resistance from the cluing. Made me work for it.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to disagree with Rex about START A BLOG. I think one reason that EAT A SANDWICH answers are off-putting is by being so prosaic, quotidian to the point of boredom, whereas START A BLOG is something that most people will do at most once, and it's an adventurous undertaking. If you tell a friend you plan to START A BLOG, they'll probably go, "Really? What about?"
Yeah, ONE-ACTER is something no one said ever. The low point of the puzzle.
I don't mind DOG SLOBBER ("Wudn't he a good boy!"), although juxtaposed close to ROPY, it comes just SHY of failing a breakfast test.
I paused over DWARVES. I kept thinking "isn't 'dwarfs' the plural?", but as ever there is LOTR lurking around the corner. Deal with it!
I really enjoyed this weekend's acrostic. The quote author has an unmistakeable authorial voice, so sounding and significant, even when you disagree with him.
SB: Yep, that's our Sam Ezersky, trotting out one of his favorite D-words in today's. And one arguably fitting at the end of a sequence. What a card.
No words can describe my first pass-through. Okay, almost no words, I had a few.
ReplyDeleteStart a blog is totally fair, because the clue was a great pun. Once you get the pun, the answer is a perfect fit. And s"tart a" is essential. Toughest answer for me, couldn't get past start a. Kept thinking films. But that made it the best aha.
ReplyDeleteVery satisfying Saturday.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold
ReplyDeleteChallenging, fun to solve, satisfying to finish. I got in the SWIM immediately at 1D, but then began to flounder dangerously until rescued by the team of METHUSELAH, ODELL, BARNES, and TESLA, who took me a long way, e.g., METHUSELAH's "U" to NEURAL NETS, BARNES's start to BAT-something and ANEMONE, and TESLA's T to TORPOR. After that it was more a square-by-square, me-against-constructor effort. Loved the clue-cracking and the writing in the terrific answers.
ReplyDeleteDo-overs: mAtH AWARDS, horus before THOTH. No idea: HAYLEY, CSNY, NGRAMS. Help from previous puzzles: THOTH (once "horus" was a no-go). Help from being old: knowing the song title DREAM LOVER from Bobby Darin (hi, @TLK 7:58 and others).
@POLED commenters: Yup, POLED is absolutely wrong. Totally. I go uphill magically when the terrain dictates.
ReplyDeleteI broke into a cold sweat when I saw the constructor's name, but I plugged away and completed my faith solve. I did check BARSTOW on Google Maps, but only after I had it.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest problem was wiLDER before COLDER, making it really hard to see either CALAMARI or SOLO PARTS-- especially since I had a DEAL OLD mAn at first.
Fortunately, I've been to the BARNES collection, even saw a play about it once. According to the play, Barnes's will had specified that the displays not be changed, which meant all the African art stayed in storage. The Wiki article says nothing about this, so it may have been fiction. They did have to break the will to move the museum to the city, though.
I didn't know any of those song lyrics, but WOMAN seemed logical, and I knew DREAM LOVER from the old (Darin?) version, so that was fair enough.
I thought START A BLOG was justified by the tricksy clue.
I really wanted the result of kissing a pet to be monkey pox, but it didn't fit.
I'm surprised there are no comments about Tesla being a "protégé" of Edison's. Tesla only worked for six months for Edison's company in the US, was one of many employees, only encountered Edison himself maybe a handful of times, and ultimately quit reportedly due to not receiving promised bonuses. There was nothing like a "protégé" relationship involved.
ReplyDeleteMedium-Tough. The top half was pretty easy but the bottom half was very tough. MAs before MAD ate a few nanoseconds and THOTH was a WOE. DREAMLOVER is a Bobby Darin song for me. Solid with some great cluing and, of course, DOG SLOBBER, liked it!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain the “gets in line” answer?
ReplyDeleteI think our ski experts today have never heard of cross country skiing where poles play a definite role in propulsion.
ReplyDeleteYay! For DEAROLDDAD, DOGSLOBBER, DREAMLOVER, and once I read the clue more closely to see why writeABLOG didn’t work -STARTABLOG! Also clues for ARTFILMS and NASCAR!
ReplyDeleteI liked BATPHONE too, once I took out HAMRADIO. The SW slowed me down a lot. I drew a blank on BARSTOW for several minutes, even though I know it. My dear, late Aunt Bernice lived there after retiring, and I'd passed through many times before then. I always like to see locations west of the Rockies in the puzzle.
Lots I didn’t know that made this puzzle a rewarding challenge - NGRAMS, BARNES, HAYLEY, CAREBEAR, ODELL, WES. And the clues in pop music. I knew Nutcracker is a ballet (right up there with water is wet) and among Wilde's work there are plays. TONECOLOR seems a bit redundant but if it’s a phrase…
Very enjoyable puzzle today, Hooray!
Thx, Kameron; best Sat. workout in ages! :)
ReplyDeleteHard; 2x avg.
Just about as far off a constructor's wavelength as possible on this one.
One of those @Lewis 'faith solves', and a most gratifying one to complete successfully! :)
Ended up in the NW, which seemingly took forever to suss out.
It was DOG SLOBBER that turned the tide. 🐶
NGRAMS was a gimme. :)
Thx to Kameron & Will (and staff) for fair crosses! :)
Time worthwhile spent; enjoyed every minute of the trek! :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Ambitious as the SALADS-clue is, I must part company with its fans ("Putting greens in these courses might be expected"). Not so much a misdirect as a please-forgive-the-syntax because I really want the double-pun of "putting" and "courses" to land. Sadly, it asks too much.
ReplyDeleteHere's why: the "in" deflates the golf pun right out of the gate, (golf) putting greens being "on" (golf) courses. The clue construction only makes sense if we're putting (salad) greens "in" (dinner) courses. Answer entered and on to the next.
Not yet. We don't want to stare at remainder of the clue, but it somehow flops along to the wordy, passive "might be expected". Why aren't we sure? Are we afraid of greenless counterexamples: the surreal golf course without a green, the odd beet salad? "Might be" is only there to skirt the choice between "are" (golf greens) and "is" (salad greens). I'm afraid it's too awkward not to call attention to itself.
If I've been too HYPERBOLIC about good try-and-miss, that's on me, but I'm glad we SORTED this out. Now back to the game.
HERE'S PROOF
ReplyDeleteSigh. One of these days I'll get down to the Barnes.
ReplyDeleteI'd say this is the musical equivalent of dog slobber, but that's probably unkind to dog slobber.
If a WOMAN wants to be ONEACToR In a ONEACTER, I SAY LETTER.
ReplyDeleteWhy is a get together involving Ms. Arthur and Mr. Harris like a raccoon’s tail? They’re both BANDED.
A vehicle for an American rapper could be a NASCAR.
If you’re going to marry an enlisted man, I suggest you first sign a GINUP.
I can’t tell you how much I loved working through this beast of a puzzle (or if I did I’d have to kill you). Thanks, Kameron Austin Collins.
No Jay Farrar fans here?
ReplyDeleteBy the time we make it to Barstow
We'll be more than halfway to hell
Knickname! Oh Rex, you rascal.
ReplyDeleteI came here fearful that OFL would have given this grid his “easy” rating, so grateful indeed to see that WES at least gave him pause. KAC is a byline I’ve come to recognize & appreciate for the consistent late week challenges he gives us….just wow is my usual reaction. Today’s grid was A TEST but he EVENS out the SOLO PARTS with a ONE ACTER here and there to make us sweat until we leave the clips on the cutting room floor and notice belatedly the question mark that 36a sports. Those are the kind of curveballs that make Saturday sing. Spelling Biblical names and Egyptian gods are the kind of clues that always demand a second opinion from a DREAM LOVER wife or online girlfriend, Siri. Back up top to see what others have to say.
START A BLOG and DOG SLOBBER both made me laugh. Otherwise this puzzle wasn't for me. Uncle G did this one for me. No wooshing.
ReplyDeleteUniclues:
1 Chorus member's lament.
2 Basically every time he opens his mouth and why we don't ask him questions.
3 Electric car carrying a drummer, guitarist and bass player.
4 Buy everything.
5 Ironic sign next to cattle trough in the California desert.
6 Lazier than lazy.
7 "Dear Texans, I am good for you."
8 One who just had a nightmare.
9 Stuffed animal jig.
1 I LOSE SOLO PARTS
2 DEAR OLD DAD BIO
3 BANDED TESLA
4 SHOP HYPERBOLIC
5 SWIM BARSTOW
6 COLDER TORPOR
7 SALAD'S LETTER
8 MAD DREAM LOVER
9 CARE BEAR BOLERO
One of my worst solves in eons, several important answers I have never heard of. The one that still has me befuddled is RPM. I guess I have no idea what curveball means.
ReplyDeleteSpin rate is now a big measure for the quality of a curveball and many other pitches.
Delete@Michiganman
ReplyDeleteThe first example is the best. 😂
Popping in not to complain (for a change) but to cheer loudly for Hayley Atwell. This was a gimme for me in the puzzle. The following should not be missed.
ReplyDeleteShe starred opposite Matthew Macfadyen in the 2017 version of Howard's End, which I thought far superior to the one everyone goes on about.
She has one of the juicy roles in Criminal UK.
She stars in Restless, based on a William Boyd, an espionage thing in which she plays the young Charlotte Rampling. (It's complicated.)
Yes, she seems to be doing all kinds of Marvel, etc. work. But I wouldn't know anything about that.
Nice puzzle. Although, there was a slightly similar clue in his New Yorker crossword last Monday.
@Joaquin LOL. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.....
ReplyDeleteAltho I couldn't really finish clean, KAC will always get the admiration medal of HYPERBOLICalism in the category of "How do you spell that?" with some added AWARDS for "Remember me?".....
I truly wasn't able to get in the SWIM. The pool was just too deep in many parts.
I'll start by saying that...without so much as a little pitter patter beat...I penned in DROOL FESTS for my kisses. Perhaps if I knew ODELL and NGRAMS I might've been able to change my answer a tad faster.
DOG SLOBBER indeed!
When I inched over to 28A, I really had to think (surprise!)...There are a ton of museums win Philadelphia. Without musing too much, I penned in Mutter. It has two little dots over the u....I wanted this to be the answer because I loved going there and staring at Einstein's brain. Eventually got BARNES because I know that one as well. Thank you you little sneak of a BAT PHONE.
CALAMARI was my first real "I know that one and I'm not changing my mind."
While @Joaquin and I were fighting to get a hold of Google, I tried very hard to remember things that I knew a bajillion years ago. I was becoming TONE deaf. I wanted to cry out for DEAR OLD DAD. I wanted some sort of CASH AWARDs for at least remembering THOTH. I threw in the PEA at ONE ACTER and cried foul at having to hear Mariah sing rather than Bobby. When she hits those high pitch notes, I join my two little pups and hide underneath my chair.
One day, I will (maybe) get 75% of a Collins puzzle sans help from the NEURAL NETS. One can hope.
I would have gone with WES Unseld. Ok, I'm old.
ReplyDelete@Birchbark — brilliant dissection of how laboriously asinine that clue is.
ReplyDeleteWe could make such takedowns a regular (daily) feature of the Comments section:
WHY THIS CLUE SUCKS BIGTIME
@JD:
ReplyDeletethen transistors changed everything.
I worked at Tonecolor, Colder, & Calamari LLP, lawyers
well, may be. I've built both transistor and valve gear from a box of parts in the last decade. a transistor is just a semiconductor triode. integrated circuits, OTOH, are a different animal.
one floor up from Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe, over looking Our Fair City?
RE: TESLA, Edison. hardly. Edison pushed DC (not the comics ref.) electricity for municipal distribution. more dangerous and almost no distance. Tesla/Westinghouse pushed AC (not the Brit car company) as safer and near infinite distribution with acceptable transmission loss.
@Sane guy:
join the club, so to speak. the New Analytics Movement in sports, BB included, has invented evermore niche measures. one reason that some bitch that the Movement has killed the starting pitcher. although, nobody in the Movement calls it RPM, the name is Spin Rate.
This one made me feel like I live on a different planet. To think I once had a 200+ day streak… second Saturday in a row that I couldn’t finish. Actually this one was one that barely could start. Ouch….
ReplyDeleteRE confusion about the Bat Phone clue: you have to remember that this is a New York Times puzzle. If that had been a reference to the District of Columbia, they would have added periods after the capital letters. “ DC” in the clue is part of a corporate name, so they can’t apply their antiquated punctuation imperative.
ReplyDeleteGreat CSNY choice!
ReplyDeleteI guess I was channeling Lincoln when I confidently put down SPLIT RAILS instead of START A BLOG. Fun hard puzzle.
ReplyDeleteOnce again Kameron didn't disappoint. Very tough; lots of "Who?" and "What?" reactions. The clues for I LOSE and ART FILMS were brutal. "Result of tails" is about as much help as "Sometimes this happens".
ReplyDeleteI had BAT PLANE before BAT PHONE. (If SLOP and TANE COLOR made sense, I would have kept it.) But I really wanted BAT SIGNAL!
I have overnighted in BARSTOW and Mojave. The last time I crossed the Mojave Desert (Dec. 2010), it absolutely poured buckets of rain the whole way. Bizarre!
[Spelling Bee: yd 0; my last word.]
62-worder with the seldom-seen Jigsaw Jaws of Themelessness. With lotsa SatPuz-level sadistic clues, since many of the clues that would normally have had a ?-mark didn't. Two clues were given ?-markers, at random, IM&AO.
ReplyDeleteWas really really hopin they'd run the table this week, and all 7 puzs would have a theme. But, nope … 'fraid not today.
staff weeject pick: CCS. It was the first entry M&A entered that he was really confident about.
no-knows: Pretty much everything except CCS -- cuz of all them tough clues, mostly.
faves: DOGSLOBBER. DREAMLOVER [prefer the Bobby Darin version, tho]. METHUSELAH [coulda claimed this as an early entry success, if I coulda spelled it competently]. BATPHONE [nice feisty touch, with the DC misdirect]. DEAROLDDAD. Openin the rodeo chute up with them raised-by-wolves SPEC/SWIM clues.
fave Ow de Speration stuff: STARTABLOG. ONEACTER.
A little light on scrabble-twerkin, with no JKQXZ's. Shoot, barely had any U's, too boot.
Thanx for the neural nuts work, Mr. Collins dude. Tougher than snot, but yet somehow mostly fairer than dogslobber.
Masked & AnonymoUUs
**gruntz**
@Sane guy (12:22 PM)
ReplyDeleteRPM is related to 'spin rate', as per @Anonymous' (12:54 PM) last para.
"It’s interesting that 'sticky stuff' is the hot topic in baseball right now. Pitchers messing with the ball is actually an old subject. The infamous spitball. Vaseline on the hat. Nail files being flung on network TV. The fact is, the MLB banned 'doctoring' the ball all the way back in 1934. Back then, pitchers knew messing with the ball gave them an advantage, but they didn’t exactly know why. The reason, as we now know, is something called Spin Rate.
Spin rate is the amount of spin that a pitched ball has on its way to home plate. It is measured in Revolutions Per Minute (RPM) and it’s immensely important to understand when developing a pitcher’s arsenal.
If you wanna know more, check out this video that explains Spin Rate in greater detail." Diamond Kinetics
Bottom line: RPM/spin rate increases the amount of break on a curveball.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Is there some meaning to “Deja” (a place name? a streaming service?) that I am unaware of? Apparently, it is this way in the print edition too. “Deja” is not déjà. Even Merriam-Webster includes the accents, as an English phrase.
ReplyDeleteGoogling "curveball rpm", it seems a standard unit of measurement for spin rates (of curveballs) is RPM. Thus, statistics for spin rates of curveballs are displayed as RPM measurements. How is this confusing?
ReplyDelete@Birchbark (11:31) - I disagree with you regarding the SALADS clue.
ReplyDeleteMy view: Clues are just hints; they're not definitions and they're not synonyms. So they need not be precise and don't need to apply in all situations. They're just "clues" to assist one in figuring out the answers.
I reacted to this puzzle as one that I felt OK with - so I rate the puzzle as OK. Most of the crosses made it more enjoyble than some of the entries would suggest.
ReplyDeleteI normally solve the Sunday puzzle before the Saturday puzzle, for whatever reason. I don't like spoilers, so I usually wait to post on Sunday about that day's puzzle. But let me say this, which is not a spoiler. I did not find the puzzle's title to be a spoiler, and as usual I read the comment which usually does not spoil the solving experience for me. But some may find this puzzle's comment quite a bit of a spoiler, so don't read it until after you solve it. I know I don't have to warn Mike and shouldn't have to warn others, but just in case, be aware.
i couldn't begin to deal with this puzzle - got about two answers - so that didn't take long.
ReplyDeleteBut SB: I got to pg in 13 minutes.
@Birchbark -- How astute of you to point out that "might be expected" was in there to skirt the "is"/"are" giveaway. I never thought of that.
ReplyDeleteStill, while two of my favorite Rexites appear to really, really hate the SALADS clue, I kinda liked it. Maybe because I dropped it in without a moment's hesitation, though I might have had one or more crosses at the time. I can't remember. What it all means is that I've been doing puzzles for much too long and it didn't fool me for a moment.
@Sane guy: I assume that a curveball in baseball rotates more than a fastball and therefore you'd measure its rotations per minute to see how good a pitch it was? Of course if the batter missed it, it sort of doesn't matter what its RPM was.
Don't disagree with Rex about STARTABLOG, except that I decided to put that in with no crosses, and without that I might still be working on this.
ReplyDeleteI knew about CCNY as an initialism, but not CSNY. BATPHONE? DC? Oh, not the nation's capital. Sigh.
I'm a downhill skier of decades. You're going to pole to the lift, maybe from the lift, or on a traversing trail if it gets flat, etc. Takes muscles, you want to get back to the down slope asap.
ReplyDelete@Anon, I meant it changed everything for the people interviewed in the book.
ReplyDeleteAs for Tesla, wasn't it really Westinghouse who prevailed with AC and profited from Tesla's work? I'm really asking, you know more than I do. Mine is a purely historical perspective, but my impression has always been that as a shrewder businessman, Edison dominated for a while with DC.
@JD:
ReplyDeleteyes, Westinghouse ultimately made money; and had sense enough to keep it. Tesla was as mad as a hatter. had he been more grounded, perhaps he'd have died wealthy. OTOH, he was convinced that electrons could be distributed through the ether, i.e. wirelessly - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Wireless_power much of his money from the Westinghouse license went into that. no, Westinghouse didn't screw him to the wall.
@DigitalDan 2:40PM
ReplyDeleteCSNY stands for Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, one of the headliner acts for the Woodstock festival.
I was almost afraid to enter SALADS. The clue was so Monday-ish.
ReplyDeleteI heard Edison and Tesla were AC/DC, if you get my drift.
ReplyDeleteI guess someone should play this, to complement the deja view.
ReplyDelete@pmdm
ReplyDeleteI did the puzzle in the print edition and the note is staring you in the face. Hard to avoid. While I liked the puzzle a lot, you are right. That is one big-time spoiler. I don't know why they did that. I bet the constructor didn't want it.
@The Joker:
ReplyDeleteAlas, you've got them backasswards. OTOH, they'd have been complementary. Going both ways, both of them. Hard to tell who is who in a dark room.
I’m pretty sure Neil Young was not performing with CSN at Woodstock.
ReplyDeleteSo CSNY is not correct.
I have visited “The Barnes” and I agree that it contains a beautiful collection. Although I live in the suburbs, I’m all for moving art pieces to an urban setting to make them more accessible. I usually go to Philadelphia once a year for a medical checkup and I like to schedule a trip to one of the many museums also.
ReplyDeleteAs for the puzzle I finished it with errors and had to use the Autocheck function on the app to find my mistakes. It was still a fun solve for me although I don’t know why I am so stubborn about changing answers I know can’t be correct before I check them!
@Joaquin 1:46 Your explanation is so clear and logical that it should become a dictum.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 5:03 pm.
ReplyDeleteIt seems more than odd to say a clue is not correct because of something you’re “pretty sure” of. I’m 100% sure you’re wrong.
Was CSNY at Woodstock?
The band, now named Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, started their tour, and played their second gig at the Woodstock festival in the early morning hours of August 18, 1969. (Wikipedia).
@Anon 5:03 – Neil Young became part of the group right before Woodstock, and did perform with them there. Details here.
ReplyDeleteif memory serves (you can check the film), I think it was one of CSNY who announces to the crowd (something like) "this is only our first gig and we're scared shitless". certainly their largest gig, ever.
ReplyDeletememory not perfect. IMDB has the quote from Stills:
"This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man, we're scared shitless."
Loved the Elvis Costello video. Thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteLate to the slow dance today...
ReplyDeleteSOLOPART, danced as a solo, as opposed to ensemble, trio, etc. or most famously "pas de deux" or step of two, the ballet term for duet. I'm really surprised how many commenters don't know The Nutcracker is a ballet.
@anon 10:49, I was thinking TESLA was more of a fierce competitor, famously DC vs AC current. I think the clue was at least interesting in pointing out he worked in his lab.
Nice to have Gershwin's "METHUSELAH lived 900 years" going through my head now!
I forgot earlier, but for 61A (Viscous -> ROPY), the relationship between clue (yes Joaquin, a clue) and the answer is so tenuous as to raise my ire. First, the common term is stringy, not ROPY. No one ever, in the history of the universe, even before the term stringy came into existence, ever called the phenomenon ROPY or ROPiness. It's stringy. The end.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the phenomenon is properly called extensional viscosity, but while the two terms share a root, viscous is not related to extensional viscosity. Materials with low viscosity can have high extensional viscosity, and vice versa. Saying something is viscous (every thing is viscous to some extent. Except for a vacuum, but that's really nothing) usually means it has high viscosity, which has a precise meaning which just happens to perfectly match what everyone thinks it is. That has nothing to do with stringiness, nor the non existent ROPiness.
Thus ends your rheology lesson for today.
* Props to Joe DiP
Wrong!!! Try using a dictionary sometime. It's one of the definitions.
DeleteI am so confused...I just came here and saw that my computer served me up Sunday's puzzle. I never got to see today. Bone up on your card game knowledge for tomorrow. Yikes.
ReplyDelete@burtonkd Anon 10:49 here. Agreed that the history between Edison and Tesla is interesting, but it would've been a more correct clue and just as interesting had it been worried "employee" or similar.
ReplyDeleteThe World Wide Wes clue is fine as is. Giving part of his legal name or the job he started last year won’t help anyone (I couldn’t have told you either even though the clue was a gimme). You either know it immediately from this clue or you won’t know it from any clue.
ReplyDeleteCSNY was not at Woodstock. It was only Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Neil Young joined later for a bit. So, CSN.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle was too hard for me. I still don't understand much of the cluing.
ReplyDeleteWhy would DOG SLOBBER be the result of kissing a pet?! Who kisses there pet in the mouth, other than that lady from There's Something About Mary? DOG SLOBBER is the result of your pet kissing you, but not you kissing your pet. Gross! It doesn't work.
Other clues I still can't make sense of:
"Handled well" for DEFT. DEFT is an adjective, and the clue suggests the answer will be a verb in past tense.
"Piehole" for YAP. Piehole is a noun, and yap is a verb. I wanted to put "trap" in there, but it obviously wouldn't fit.
I also just don't know what many of these answers are. Don't know the expression "Get in the SWIM." Didn't know there was a mythical race called DWARVES--weird. Never heard of TONECOLOR. Didn't know ATEST was a common abbreviation for atomic test (I'm guessing). I figured out ONE ACTER when "one act play" wouldn't fit, but I hate that. No one says "one acter" IRL. Never heard of THOTH. Didn't know NGRAMS. Yeah, this was way too hard for me.
Thanks for sharing the wonderful posts.
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Tough one. Had BARSTOp before BARSTOW - it sounded like a good name for a watering hole in the deset. Cluing was tweaked to SPEC for a proper Saturday which made it quite ATEST. You had to be DEFT with your pen or you would have EMOTED “ILOSE”. THOTH was a big roadblock. So was BATPHONE until I realized it was DC Comics not Washington DC. In the end I SORTED it all out and I can SAY I’m glad Rex decided to STARTABLOG so I could YAP about it.
ReplyDeletePS: I had DOGgieodoR before DOGSLOBBER. That too was a formidiable roadblock for me.
ReplyDeleteFinally, @Anon 5:03 spotted it: I was held up unnecessarily long because I "knew" 43d "couldn't" be CSNY, as Young wasn't with them for Woodstock. EDIT, Will, EDIT!
ReplyDeleteThat was one of several impediments that built up countless triumph points on this one. I literally guessed my way around this (DOGSLOBBERing) puppy. Surprisingly, I had only one writeover, when gimme BARSTOW kicked off Wilde's play with an O. All I could think of was OpEreTta. But truly, when I hit this blog and saw that all my guesses had been correct, I was GINned UP.
HAYLEY Atwell is a stunning DOD, with honorable mention to Mariah Carey in the DREAMLOVER clue. Same song as Darin's? If so, it might be one of the very few covers I can tolerate. Never heard her version.
Re BOLERO: Others think of Torvil & Dean--and rightly so--but I think of Bo Derek in "10." And now I must add another honorable mention.
As I said, points through the roof, and the enjoyment of figuring it all out without a single lookup. Eagle.
Contrast that with a Wordle double bogey, as there were almost too many possibilities for _REA_.
HOT PARTS
ReplyDeleteI am ONE WOMAN who is not SHY
to LETTER DREAMLOVER be the best.
It's not HYPERBOLIC to SAY why
I'll give your DEAROLDDAD ATEST.
--- HAYLEY BARNES
From Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteThe band, now named Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, started their tour, and played their second gig at the Woodstock festival in the early morning hours of August 18, 1969.
From Rolling Stone:
The original trio of CSN had released their mega-selling debut a few months earlier, and Neil Young had just joined up with them for their inaugural tour. Woodstock was their second show.
From Woodstock Wiki:
Luckily the formation of CSN&Y made it to Woodstock, too. It was only their second gig[1] and they were quite nervous on stage. Stephen Stills remarked: "This is the second time we've ever played in front of people, man. We're scared shitless."
The group played separate acoustic and electric sets. Neil Young joined them in the middle of the acoustic set. They performed in the night from Sunday to Monday, the start time is supposed to be 3:00 am.
Apparently Neil shied away from or even pushed away the cameras, saying they affected the music. So yes, CSNY was at Woodstock as a group, at least part of the time.
Wordle: sometimes I start with one of the many anagrams of 'LEAST'. Today it was a steal, then it was great, then what a treat to get birdie.
@anon 5:33 - your comment is such a cryptic non-sequitur. Nobody has any idea what it is about. Almost scary where that may have come from.
ReplyDeleteNothing against the constructors but Sundays should always be themed. Please stop running unthemed puzzles on Sunday Mr. Shortz.
ReplyDeleteGoogling ‘Buttercup’ for 29D to learn that it is the name of a restaurant in …. NATICK !!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.eatbuttercup.com/