.png)
Iberian wine city / TUE 7-19-22 / Angrily stops playing a game, in modern parlance / Gate marvel of Babylonian architecture / Upscale boarding kennel
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Constructor: Andy Kravis
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- FOOT THE BILL (18A: Pay for something expensive)
- FACE THE MUSIC (26A: Confront unpleasant consequences)
- SHOULDER THE BLAME (40A: Take responsibility for a misdeed)
- BACK THE FIELD (49A: Bet on every competitor but one)
- TOES THE LINE (62A: Conforms to expectations)
Stephen Vincent Benét /bɪˈneɪ/ (July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943) was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist. He is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body (1928), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and for the short stories "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1936) and "By the Waters of Babylon" (1937). In 2009, The Library of America selected his story "The King of the Cats" (1929) for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales edited by Peter Straub.
• • •
But enough about the short fill, what about the long fill. It's good. Varied, colorful. I got SAUERKRAUT off the SAUE- without even looking at the clue, so that was fun (29D: Ingredient in a Reuben). I have never seen a DOG HOTEL but I believe that they exist. I wanted DOGSPA at first (which is also a thing that somehow exists), but it wouldn't fit. No FLEAS in a DOG HOTEL, I bet. That would be a major ISSUE. I've seen RAGEQUITS before (37D: Angrily stops playing a game, in modern parlance)—it's possible that I learned it from crosswords years and years ago—and I like it, since, well, let's just say, "rage-quitting: it's just just for video games anymore!" [cue photo of Any Number of people abandoning Sunday's puzzle]. And then there's AIR BUBBLES, which are literally bubbly. This quartet definitely alleviated some of the short-fill malaise.
I reacted so negatively to the "dad joke" that my eyes ran away from it holding only the phrase "four seconds" and then used crosses to make something vaguely related to that phrase (CLOCK) (my fingers are now refusing to type out the full clue, sorry). Interesting choice to clue KUBLAI that way (23A: ___ Khan, Yuan Dynasty founder) instead of via Coleridge, though Coleridge is almost certainly the reason the vast majority of solvers know who KUBLAI Khan is.
According to Coleridge's preface to Kubla Khan, the poem was composed one night after he experienced an opium-influenced dream after reading a work describing Shangdu, the summer capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China founded by Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu of Yuan). (wikipedia)
Haven't read Coleridge for a while so I'm gonna have Ian McMillan read him to me now while I format this post. Take care, everyone.
Save And Share :
80 comments:
If I may speak for the Millenials, I for one definitely know KUBLAI Khan thanks to the 1997 edutainment classic, "Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?".
Why did Dad throw the CLOCK out the window?*
Very nice puzzle for all the reasons offered by @Rex. I would not have been at all surprised to have seen Jeff's POW "star" on this one.
As a Zoomer, this puzzle was VERY HARD for me… had never heard of multiple answers :/
Hooray! I remembered that it's BIL KEANE and not BILL KEAN!
Why did Dad go to bed last night covered in oil?
He wanted to wake up oily in the morning.
And if Coleridge were in the clue, the answer would be Kubla, without the I.
When I saw the clue for 2D I was afraid that today's theme was "Dad jokes". Glad that was not the case!
I liked Rex’s write-up today, very amusing and (somewhat uncharacteristically?) affable. A pretty fun puzzle for this boomer. Our family are kind of dad-joke afficionados, and the clock one is not bad.
Oporto, Apian, ATT and I DNF. Should know Apian though, so it's on me. A cheerful puzzle.
@OffTheGrid, He wanted to see time bolt, I mean fly! That classic goes back to my childhood. Thanks 😀
Too easy. I finished this puzzle more quickly than I finished in anyone during pride month. The quality of puzzles needs to improve (Sunday was awful too) or I’m going to quit and get myself the monkeypox just to feel something.
Being an old-timer (aka Boomer but on the younger end) myself, I shaved some time off with this one. I liked the theme answers which were structured consistently.
Pretty sure someone agreed to run this puzzle in 1987 then misplaced it for 35 years
Yup, a nice Tuesday. It went pretty fast but not by methodically filling section after section.
Rather by jumping to clues that caught my eye, then going back to fill in around them. One major 'doh' moment was OPORTO. Brain said, "You know this one. Remember? It's where you booked that time share once when you couldn't get a place in Lisbon (where I really wanted to go after seeing it in The Amazing Race) but then had to cancel due to a work assignment." But it just wouldn't come. Then I built it from crosses and somehow had an unnoticed s where the T should be. Brain looks at OPORsO and says, "Huh. They sure have some strange names in those countries " without ever triggering the correct version. So, a rare 'no happy pencil' on first try for a Tuesday, then major head slap when the T clicked into place. Other than that the puzzle felt like 80 days around the world. We had Portugal's OPORTO and England with the brit speak of ARSE and The Bard (btw, loved that he has his IAMBS sitting over his head at 39A. And then there's Asia with Khan and ENLAI. North America makes an appearance with our Alaskan or Canadian mushers behind their SLEDS. While LIMA, Peru brings us further south in the new world. Juxtapose that with the Biblical ESAU which brings us to the Middle East, and SKA/reggae adds a little flavor around the Caribbean. We even get the Seven Seas (or maybe Oceania) sailed by AHAB! Delightful!
Having multiple names crossing each other is just wrong and this puzzle has that several times
Nice puzzle - cute theme and well filled. Noticed the plural TOES also but I’ll let it slide early week. TABU again so soon? No real pushback anywhere in the grid - the two long downs were cool. Read the Devil and Daniel Webster in high school so no problem with BENÉT.
I’ve since warmed to Ella’s version of Let’s FACE THE MUSIC and Dance but grew up hearing Sinatra’s cover on the console.
ALTHEA
Enjoyable Tuesday solve.
Some of it looks a touch out of place for a Tuesday (KUBLAI, OPORTO, AEGIS, IONE), but we can accept the close call by the ref that rex mentioned ("no foul"). I don't know the phrase "RAGE QUITS" so it may be relatively popular, or it may be one of the NYT stabs at being more young and hip (they don't have a very high success rate with those types of "try to hard" endeavors).
LOL at the 1987 comment. If you had been doing puzzles in the Maleksa era, you'd know that those puzzles relied on even more esoteric trivia, but not as much as his predecessors.
Here's a few example clues and answers from a Maleska era Tuesday puzzle in 1987:
East Indian vine : ODAL
Novice : TYRO
Colorful perennial : IRID
Variable star : MIRA
Kirghizian range: ALAI
Arab garment : HAIK
There's a reason they used to publish crossword puzzle dictionaries!
BTW, this particular puzzle had marquee answers with then-current TV detective programs. Even so, it had a few other pop culture figures, and those were mostly of a bygone era, even in 1987: Gene Autry/Barry, Ernie Banks/Ford.
Agree that having names crossing in NE section was difficult, almost a natick. I guessed right on the N in Ione/Enlai, but was lucky.
Sort of clock joke-
At what time do you have to go to the dentist?
2:30.
Yeah, I'm a Dad that does that, and so was my Dad. Carrying on the tradition.
This went in about as fast as I could write, the only WTF was IONE, easy crosses. I was trying to think of Rioja for a while and couldn't come up with it but it wouldn't have fit and the P gave me OPORTO instanter
Nice theme, fun long downs, and an enjoyable solve.
Thanks for all the fun, AK. Puzzles like this make me feel All Knowing.
Thx, Andy; good 'body' of work! :)
Med.
Bit of a rough start; SCAMPI, CLOCK & ISHTAR were not readily forthcoming.
Had hMM before UMM; didn't know OPORTO, so waited for the crosses.
Did catch on to the 'body' parts theme early on, also seeing THE as a part of each answer.
Good to see ALTHEA Gibson, a truly remarkable human being in so many ways!
Althea Gibson "When You're Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)" on The Ed Sullivan Show
For the most part, this one was in my wheelhouse; a pretty smooth solve.
Enjoyed every minute of the adventure! :)
@jae
Croce's 728 was relatively easy, as you indicated. No prob with the texting abbr., as granddaughters and I use it for quick exits. The 'trees' / 'language' cross was an educated guess, which paid off. See you (and perhaps @pabloinnh) next Mon. :)
@pabloinnh yd; yw :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
To file under "I only expect the impossible": with FOOT THE BILL, I surmised that the theme was "human body part turned into verb" + THE + "animal body part with new meaning" (e.g., the BILL of a bird). But with the next one, I had to FACE the fact that the only other animals involved were at the DOG HOTEL. I liked the parallel REIGN and OUSTS, the TSAR or whoever having failed to SHOULDER THE BLAME and abdicate, and thought SAUERKRAUT and AIR BUBBLES were great. A fun one to solve.
@Rex, thank you for that treat of a write-up.
Hey All !
Feeling brain smart today, as 1) finished rather quickly today, even though some of the names were mysteries, and 2) I seem to be the first to point out another 16 wide grid today.
I did finish quickly, although I also had a DNF. Dang. Had hMM for UMM, which made KhBLAI, but since not knowing it regardless, thought it could possibly be correct. Nope . Second spot was AvIAN/OvORTO. Always confuse APIAN and AVIAN. Ah, me
Nice theme. Oversized grid with only 36 Blockers. More puz for your money.
Gotta get off my ARSE and get going. IAMB OUSTS. (Dad joke?)
yd -2, should'ves 2, closest in a while. (One I missed I would've sworn I tried, don't you hate that?)
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
OK! URGENT! Is sauerkraut a type of coleslaw? I hope so, because we've been killing it in the slaw department and even had a legit salad the other day. Can we all agree puzzles are better with shredded veggies?
Well, goodness. I think the body-parts theme is way less amazing than the total amount of crosswordese, as if there was a secret theme specifically targeted at mouthy solvers. "You wanna grumble about junk fill? Well let me show you how it's done." Maybe the turnaround time in the NYTXW offices is 20 years or so and these were sparkling back then. With as many puzzles as they get, shouldn't turnaround be two weeks?
Maybe with five long theme answers you don't have any choice, but this one was a see-how-fast-you-can-fill-it-in kind of puzzle and that's not fun.
We're on a bit of a schizophrenic journey this week. Sunday so horrible unless you like stunt puzzles and technological catastrophes, yesterday so solid we had to pick on each other, and now we begin to hope things'll come with a backhoe tomorrow to help clear away the muck from today.
Yays:
All the long downs are lovely.
I've never heard of a RAGE QUIT, but I've seen a few. Always awkward and fun.
TABU is owning our nostrils this week having appeared on Sunday too. Move over Johnny Depp fake-playing a guitar badly in the desert with wolves, or all you career actresses past your prime lolling about in pools of water, there's a new stench and it's called TABU. Uncle G says there's an Indian actress, a gay sports bar (aren't they all?), and search algorithm software all named TABU.
The only thing standing between the DOG HOTEL and FLEAS is a Spanish bear and I have no faith in him.
Uniclues:
1 Isaac's eldest son on why he married two idolatrous adulterers.
2 The magi.
3 Where exactly should we grab and lift?
1 "TABU," ESAU EMOTED
2 ADORATION COMBO
3 HOIST ITT ISSUE
As a side note, in trying to figure out who the heck Esau married, it's way easier to find out they were idolatrous and adulterous (woo hoo) than their actual names. Way to put judgment shorthand before humanity ye goode people of the myths. He was apparently 40 when he landed these two party girls simultaneously, so you'd have to say he won.
Fun puzzle!
I solve using the NYT app and have noticed recently that the bar graph in Stats is not showing my daily solve times, just my averages and best times. Is anyone else having this ISSUE?
Must have read thousands of Family Circus strips and never realized that Bil Keane only uses 1L. My wife is right I am the least observant person in the world. What is with the Obsession with Tabu this week?
If we were in Ireland, the theme might also have included HEAD THE BALL (stupid person), but since we’re here, I think the body parts have all been exhausted. Clever theme (except for all of those TOES) and some good fill (RAGE QUITS) but some annoying fill (I’m looking at you UMM and ERS). Would love to see what the rooms are like in a DOG HOTEL.
Ummmm..let's see. Did you like this? you ask. Well, yes, I did! It reminded me of jukebox songs. A RELIC here, some OLDIES there..all old friends greeting me. Happy feet dancing with AHAB, KUBLAI and ISHTAR.
Every time I see TABU, I'm reminded of riding an elevator up about 30 floors and being stuck with a woman wearing that god-awful scent. I would've preferred smelling old SAUER KRAUT.
I always wondered where many of these saying got their start and why. I also thought it was TOwS THE LINE. What do your toes have to do with a LINE?
Speaking of strange things in our language.... When we moved to the USofA, I was still struggling with English. I remember going to one of my first parties and everyone was telling elephant jokes. Everyone was laughing hysterically. I didn't get the jokes. Then after a while I just joined in and rolled on the floor with the others. Speaking of: Here's a groaner Dad Joke for everyone:
I was addicted to the hokey pokey...but I turned myself around.
@Roo from yesterday....Gracias, amigo. All it takes is a bit of colorful imagination and a little sense of humor. You have both...Give it a try, it's fun! You, too, @Whatsername!
Cute, but so obvious in both theme&filling that it just all ran together: must be Tuesday? Glad that @Gary horned in to keep us amused at least!
I had filled in FOOT THE BILL and I had the "F" of FACE THE MUSIC before having read the clue. I knew immediately what the clue/answer would be and also what the theme was.
So I pulled an @Lewis. I stopped solving, stopped looking at the clues or grid, and began guessing what the other themers might be. I came up with these -- but without first checking any of them for length:
TOE THE LINE
SHOULDER THE BLAME/BURDEN
ARM THE TROOPS
HEAD THE COMPANY
HAND THE REINS
FINGER THE CULPRIT
PALM THE ACE
As you can see, I had two of them. Somehow I never thought of BACK. Well, when you're running your hands up and down your body to jog your thoughts of different body parts (no wisecracks, please), you won't ever get to your own BACK, will you, now?
Other than the pathetic 2D "Dad joke" -- all Dads everywhere should sue for defamation -- this was a cute and enjoyable puzzle, if very, very easy. I made it last more than twice as long, however, by thinking up my own themers when I was less than a third of the way finished. This is the sort of thing I sometimes do on early week puzzles.
The decent theme suffered by comparison with yesterday's; the body parts were fine, but what else was there? It would have been pretty hard to make the last words have something in common (hi, @Carola), but maybe the parts could be in order, top to bottom, in the puzzle.
I know Rex teaches poetry, but I think he overestimates the contemporary readership of Coleridge. I mean, I love that poem--even memorized it once, but have not retained all of it. But I'm pretty confident KUBLAI Khan became famous because of Marco Polo's account of his court, which made him a romantic figure who has been popping up in literature ever since.
I liked seeing both ATT and ITT, two telecom giants of yore, standing near each other; and the cluing of HIGHS as temperature extremes was timely!
Now here's some advice:
1. But a lottery ticket
2. Win
3. Buy a nice bottle of vintage OPORTO (port in English)
4. Enjoy it, you'll never have trouble remembering OPORTO again.
Seems kinda unfair to have a cartoon reference in a newsrag that has none. And, being the anti-@Conrad, never did get his name spelled write. The paper version doesn't complain, thank goodness.
@bocamp-Finished the Freestyle and had a lot of fun, thanks again.
Are these weekly?
Isn’t it “tow the line”?
I'm more familiar with "take THE FIELD" although "BACK THE FIELD" seems to be common in horse racing (and there doesn't happen to be a body part known as the take--so there's that.
One entertaining diagonal line beginning with the P in the 5D position and moving to the SE. It features the following Hidden Diagonal Words (HDW): TIN (and its semordinlap sibling NIT), two buzzing insects on a collision course (one BEE moving to the SE and another BEE headed NW), a bit of clairvoyance, ESP, and a diagonal TEES intersecting with the horizontal TEES (22A).
Bit of a side eye to the clue for TEES, Golfer's pocketful--no golfer I know needs a pocket full of TEES--that would be seriously uncomfortable. A pocket full of miracles, sure. Of course, the pocket one is to imagine is, I suppose, one of the pockets of the golf bag.
I liked this puzzle; fun solve. It does seem that the collection of down answers across the north edge (ISHTAR, ALBEE, HOIST (as clued), BILKEANE, ENLAI) were a bit unusual for a Tuesday.
Like yesterday, this was a fun theme and had an almost juvenile appeal - in a very good way. A quick run through for us OLDIES but for a new solver it ought to be enough of a challenge to feel good about finishing it. The long downs added a little something beyond THE usual Tuesday fill. Very nicely done!
27D is certainly a timely entry. Nothing but HIGHS In the southern Midwest this week. We’re looking at triple digits thru next Wednesday and even the lows are not exactly COOLS.
I took my pups to a DOG HOTEL once. They had a little “room“ with two beds and I even had the option of paying extra to get them a TV. However, I’m pretty sure they have just as many FLEAS as any other boarding facility.
I wish trump would do the country a service and RAGE QUIT the game he’s playing.
Easy-medium. No real problems with this one. Great theme phrases, a reasonably smooth grid, plus some fun long downs, liked it!
@pabloinnh - just a heads up about Croce’s puzzles, he does not play by the NYT rules. Do not expect “fairness” what ever that is.
I enjoyed this puzzle but recognized it would likely be decidedly unfun for those a few decades younger than I. Bil Keane is pretty obscure to all but a relative few people by now.
On another note, so many glaring repeats from puzzles the from last few days! Sunday had ATEST and Saturday had ATT and TABU, crossed! That stuff gets old.
@Gary Jugert:
He was apparently 40 when he landed these two party girls simultaneously
which, surprise surprise, is yet more evidence that folks lived to ripe old ages if they managed to get to 'adulthood', since the beginning of time. the 'extension' of expected lifetime since, say 1900, is almost entirely due to yunguns not croaking before about 25. when certain politicos bitch and moan that 'people are living so much longer now' so we have to stop X, Y, and Z programs, they're lying. and they really have it in for Joe Sixpack, even if Joe Sixpack is oblivious.
Rage quit? New to me.
Isn’t it a no-no to put a non-themer body part (ARSE) in this puzzle? I can’t stomach the thought that this was overlooked.
Doctor to incoming med students: Name the only city that can be left in the middle of rounds.
Student: OPORTO!
Informal greeting to Mr. Vance ….. LOCI
(I love Dad jokes and all other forms of puns)
Nice, witty write up by Rex today. I don’t disagree on the fill, although it was easy for this codger.
Thanks for a fun Tuesday, Andy Kravis.
No JUNKTHEJALOPY themer, as the dad joke finale? … but I reckon that's sorta understandable -- them J's are day-um hard to fill a puzgrid around.
Nice puz, overall. Surprised to see stuff like KUBLAI & IONE & OPORTO & ISHTAR & AEGIS in a TuesPuz, but, hey -- bring it, Shortzmeister!
staff weeject pick: UMM.
fave stuff: DOGHOTEL. CLOCK clue.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Kravis dude.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
When I see BIL I always think of Ogden Nash and his one-L and two-L lamas/llamas.
Had no trouble with the puzzle, but for inexplicable reasons, I kept trying to make the theme something to do with the last word, not the first. Doh!
Luckily Genghis Khan did not fit the space available.
I knew the Spanish city was named after the wine (or vice versa), but couldn't remember if I needs A's, O's or one of each.
We read Stephen Vincent BENET's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" in school.
Any time I see an Andy Kravis byline my heart smiles. No disappointment today. Just a sweet little gambol for this old solver.
I’ve been to Porto, Portugal, where I learned it’s not actually called “Oporto”. That’s what the English call it, for whatever reason, and the locals don’t like it. It’s wrong.
@10:50
no.
Hi All, I am entering my first Pairs competition this weekend at Boswords. Looking for any advice on techniques and strategies when there are 2 solvers. Thanks.
Easy but fun puzzle and another day with very little junk. Went by so fast I didn’t even notice the body part themed idioms.
I never really had thought of FOOTTHEBILL as referencing something expensive but a few definitions do qualify with “especially something expensive,” but Merriam-Webster just says “pays for something.”
Man, I didn’t even know TABU was still made and I have to wonder who still buys it? My recollection is that its scent was pretty heavy and possibly only appropriate when you are hanging out with peeps that have no discernible sense of smell left! Anyway, if you JUST enter TABU into Google you have to scroll down pretty far to get to the “perfume” because of a popular Indian actress.
Keene for me!
The so-called professor only knows Stephen Vincent Benet through crosswords?
@offthegrid
Great. Now you are substituting Dad for moron in all the moron jokes I learned as kid. Well I guess we have run out of races, nationalities and religious sects to pick on. At least you are keeping it in your family.
Way easier than yesterday. I wrote letters so fast that I could not see my pen marks properly, and for a while thought that KUBLAI was mUBLAI, and HIGHS was mIGHS. I have no criticism at all for the puzzle, which was well crafted and entertaining. Well, one NIT. You can FOOT THE BILL for a night at a pub, which is not expensive at all.
I spent a night in York a few years ago, and searched for a pub where the pure Yorkshire accent was to be heard. Gotta say Ian McMillan's accent was not what I heard. Which proves there are many different Yorkshire accents. The West North and East Ridings might as well be in different counties, and I was more familiar with the accent spoken in Masham, many miles northwest of where Ian grew up. I had been to Masham to pay homage to the Black Sheep brewery, the greatest of the new breweries that arose as part of the CAMRA movement for "real ale".
A stronger memory was OPORTO. My best friend and I drove my VW bug all over France, Spain and Portugal in the summer of 1966. OPORTO was for me the highlight of the trip. In those days, OPORTO looked a lot like London must have looked like in the 1600s. Crowded, with narrow streets and ancient houses. We spent a night there, in order to go port tasting across the river in Villa Nova. The next day we drove up the Douro and into Spain, ending up camping out in the Sierra north of Madrid, and having the best hot chocolate I ever drank, and churros, from the nearest churro bakery. I was absolutely positive there would be a churro place in every little village there, and I was right.
I suppose OPORTO has changed some, and probably not for the better. But I have told many people over the years it is a delightful place to visit, and much more worthwhile than Lisbon.
@Beezer:
only appropriate when you are hanging out with peeps that have no discernible sense of smell left!
well... if you go shopping, w/o a mask of course, and have a pack of little olde ladies drift by, you'll know who it is that lacks the sense of smell. teenage boys, too. one Hell of a demographic.
Yes. I have the same issue on my phone. When I login on my computer all the stats are there.
For those who never studied Coleridge, here are some of what I consider to be the most sonorous lines ever written in poetry. I hope this little taste will send you many of you back to the entire poem.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
They don't write 'em like that anymore -- they just don't. What an ear that guy had!
I’m wondering if anyone else was put off by the OPORTO/APIAN/ATT crosses. That (and the plural TOES, noted by Rex) stood out to me as the dubious spot in an otherwise fine puzzle.
Wot, no "oreo"?
If you think Rex said Kublai was in the Coleridge poem, I disagree. He meant the person not the spelling.
I was a tad put off to have ARSE crossing the BARD and ALTHEA. ARSE cannot be a themer unless you find a way to make it a verb. If that makes any difference.
BACKTHEFIELD was the only themer that took much thought to get. On the Dan Patrick Show they often ask if you take the field or the favorite in sports competition. This year in baseball I guess it's do you take the Yanks or all the other teams. I'd still take all the other teams.
@Nancy
I believe you are a non-reader of Rex. He included a nice recitation of the Coleridge poem today.
@Pabloinnh - Croce puts out a new Freestyle puzzle every Tuesday. Sometimes he puts out extra one or two. I pick one of the more recent ones to do over the weekend and pass my take on it to @bocamp on Monday. This week’s pick was an easy one which is the exception. Glad you enjoyed the experience.
Gross but I love it
@anno y ours 12:23..🤣 True dat! Strong perfume and Axe!
@albatross (1:33) -- I just rapped myself across the knuckles. Yes, Rex did include a video of someone reciting the poem and I should have known that. I should have at least skimmed his writeup.
Curious about the video, I listened to the first few verses. And I hated it. I hate having poetry recited to me. I prefer to read it, to hear the words in my own voice, with the stresses I myself provide. I didn't like this reader's inflections and stresses at all. Bbut when I recite in my own head, it's flawless.
Which is the height of irony because I read out loud exceptionally badly. You don't want me reading anything out loud to you -- not a poem, not a bedtime story, nada. While I'm known to be quite a smooth extemporaneous speaker when speaking my own words, I stumble over words that are not my own. I'm also quite wooden. I may have been the worst actor that the Dalton School ever produced -- and after giving me one line my Freshman Year, they never gave me another. Thank God for small favors.
So I won't read "Kubla Khan" to you. That's a promise. But rather than listen to the guy in Rex's link, I strongly urge you to read the poem for yourself.
Number 9,437 of my career silly crossword errors:
I thought Ms. Gibson's name was AnTHEA, which resulted in BACK THE FIEnD [Bet on every competitor but one], an expression I thought colorful but also unintelligible. D'oh!
And did you know that it's inappropriate to tell a Dad Joke if you're not a dad? It's a faux pa.
I liked the puzzle's theme and loved all the historical, musical and literary allusions. Sometimes PPP just makes me smile.
And speaking of the literary, I just found this interesting short poem by Stephen Vincent Benét.
DIFFERENCE
My mind’s a map. A mad sea-captain drew it
Under a flowing moon until he knew it;
Winds with brass trumpets, puffy-cheeked as jugs,
And states bright-patterned like Arabian rugs.
“Here there be tygers.” “Here we buried Jim.”
Here is the strait where eyeless fishes swim
About their buried idol, drowned so cold
He weeps away his eyes in salt and gold.
A country like the dark side of the moon,
A cider-apple country, harsh and boon,
A country savage as a chestnut-rind,
A land of hungry sorcerers.
Your mind?
—Your mind is water through an April night,
A cherry-branch, plume-feathery with its white,
A lavender as fragrant as your words,
A room where Peace and Honor talk like birds,
Sewing bright coins upon the tragic cloth
Of heavy Fate, and Mockery, like a moth,
Flutters and beats about those lovely things.
You are the soul, enchanted with its wings,
The single voice that raises up the dead
To shake the pride of angels.
I have said.
@albatross shell - ARSE can indeed be a verb, though I think it still couldn't fit the theme. In British parlance, if one "can't be arsed", they cannot be bothered to do something.
@Barbara S. Your faux pa made me chuckle.
@jae-Thanks for the warning about Mr. Croce and his devious ways. I still like a lot of his songs though.
Unless that's a different Croce. Wait, the singer was Jim Croce?
Never mind.
Perceptive take on the puzzle from OFL today. I'd normally smile and say nice puzzle though I wish there were some interesting clues. But with the world falling apart, suffering through a global warming preview, a nice, ordinary puzzle is exactly what I needed. Fortunately for me, I find far fewr words and violations annoying than our intrepid blogger, so this was just a nice, breif break.
Alas, Tuesdays are always too breif, but if they don't build a new audience, I suppose I could outlive my daily treat.
@Coniuratos"
You are right.
The English made arse a verb. I found that it is also used as arse around and arse about as in being useless or non-productive. Still lacking proper transitivity.
@Nancy
I thought he read it too quickly and with too much regularity but I enjoyed the brogue or south Yorkshire accent or whatever it is. It changed some of the resonances in the poem. Not always for the better but I thought it caused an altered effect that was interesting. I already reread it last night. I only have the first lines in the memory banks. Never miss a chance to recite them although I might challenge you in a bad acting contest.
This puzzle was hard for me. I never heard of RAGEQUITS, or a bunch of the names.
But I'm most annoyed by OPORTO. As soon as I read the clue, before even looking at how many squares there are, I thought "Porto." When I saw that Porto didn't fit, I figured it must be some other wine city and it would reveal itself to me. It never did. I've never ever heard of Porto being called Oporto. I was just there last summer. It's a beautiful wonderful city. And its name is Porto. I never heard any Portuguese-speaking people call it Oporto. So that part of the puzzle really annoyed me. And yes, I googled it and see that Oporto is a thing, but it's probably an old thing that no one says anymore.
Rock Solid!
Buy Ivermectin Anti-Diabetes Medications Against Coronavirus. Buy hydroxychloroquine to deal with jungle fever. Ziverdo Kit is actually a medication that is utilized to remedy Bacterial as well as Parasitic Infections. You can easily buy Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and Ziverdo Kit online with swift shipment worldwide in surfacing conditions. Get a lot more info regarding Buy Ivermectin to the web link http://adipositas.selbsthilfegruppe-in.de/directory/psychotherapeut/how-buy-ivermectin-online-can-help-you-improve-your-business.html
.
Can someone explain why everyone, including Rex, is describing TOES plural. "Toes" here is a verb. When you add an 's' to a verb, that renders it singular. No one would argue that "walks" in the phrase "walks the line" is plural. Why is "toes" different?
Hand up for TOES bothering me, but liking the theme in general. Fill was a mite stale.
Why the hell is the answer “one of three in To be or not to be” IAMB? I’m missing something.
PET ISSUE
UMM, FACETHEMUSIC please,
YES, SHOULDERTHEBLAME and tell:
Who MITE have put THE FLEAS
BACK in THE DOGHOTEL?
--- ALTHEA ALBEE
What a nice solid Tuesday offering. Am I the only one who wondered if TOETHELINE was speeled with a W as in tow the line? The E in FLEAS made my decision a breeze.
PS - Nice one Burma!
PPS
From Vocabulary.com:
"toe the line" vs. "tow the line"
July 21, 2021
On your mark, get set, go! When you stand ready for a race with your toes on the starting line, you literally toe the line.
In fact, people used to say, "Toe your mark, get set, go!" These days, the expression toe the line is more commonly used to refer to doing what's expected of you, or conforming. If you constantly misbehave in class, your teacher might tell you that you need to start toeing the line. This phrase can also mean being right up against the line between two different things. If your short story toes the line between fantasy and science fiction, then it probably includes elements of both those genres but doesn't neatly align with either one. Any way you use it, the idiom toe the line always uses toe as in the one at the end of your foot.
I always associated TOE THE LINE with track meets and/or shooting free throws in basketball. THUMBTHENOSE woulda covered two more body parts.
Wordle par.
He confirms to expectations. He toes the line.
NO. Just NO.
I got "Face the Music" and Shoulder the blame" and thought "Cool, the phrases are body parts, reading top-to-bottom". (Ahem.) Anyway, then "Foot the bill" showed up and ruined the possible excellence of the puzzle. Heck, we even had "Back" and "Toes" in the right order. All we need was "Scalp (something)" or maybe "Wig out", I can't come up with any better answers, but I'm not the setter.
As a solver, I was sadly disappointed with the theme answers order.
And the tacky-tack fill didn't help.
I liked some bits (another Yay for "Dog hotel", nice to fit in "sauerkraut"), but overall, just NO.
PS: Dear "Anonymous": TOES is plural as a body part. It's a verb in the original phrase. As with ALL the theme answers, the trick part is a verb in the phrase, and a noun as a body part.
@anon 12:58: An IAMB is a "foot" of poetry which is composed of two syllables with the accent on the second, thus:
To be^
Or not^
To be^
Three IAMBS. The lines are in iambic pentameter, which means five of those feet each. The complete line adds "that is the question." A slight violation of form with the extra syllable at the end, but it's the thought that counts.
To the puzz. Easy, perhaps even easier than yesterday's. Another non-revealer theme, which is fine; we all get the pattern. It would be really elegant if the body parts descended in order as we move down the puzzle, but that's a lofty goal. We'd be footing the bill (no repeat since BILKEANE is a famous 1-l BIL) down at the bottom, properly at the end of the meal.
Lately, it seems constructors have tried to clean up their fill, and the process continues today. Still, there's those ATESTs which I wish would stop--both in crosswords and in real life. With all her lovely vowels, IONE Skye reprises as DOD. This one gets a par, equaling my Wordle result for the day.
Post a Comment