One-named entertainer from Spain / SUN 7-31-22 / Killer of the Night King on Game of Thrones / Author journalist Welteroth / Condiment at a pho shop / Flagship vehicle line for Mercedes-Benz / Smallest country in the E.U. by area / Serving with a meze platter / Hand-held device used by Mr. Spock

Sunday, July 31, 2022

Constructor: Jesse Goldberg

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: "Why? Well, Why Not?" — the actual theme is expressed by the answer WISE UP TO (115A: Become aware of ... or a hompohonic description of four letter shifts in this grid). The idea is that "Y"s move "up" "two" rows, four different times. So, an answer that should have a "Y" loses a "Y" because that "Y" (in theory) has jumped up two rows to an answer that *isn't* supposed to have a "Y," but now does. So you get phrases made wacky by either by the addition or subtraction of a "Y," depending:

Theme answers:
  • BELLY BOTTOMS (24A: Places where some belts are tightened?)
  • COMBAT READ (29A: Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage," e.g.?)
  • CAMPY COUNSELOR (51A: Lawyer with absurdly exaggerated humor?)
  • SLUMBER PART (58A: Sleep phase?)
  • GRIMY REAPER (71A: Harvesting machine that needs cleaning?)
  • THREE TIMES A LAD (80A: Doctor's description of the birth of triplet sons?)
  • FAIRY FIGHT (96A: Battle between Tinker Bell and Princess Ozma?)
  • MADISON COUNT (108A: Census-taking of a Midwest capital?)
Word of the Day: CHARO (74D: One-named entertainer from Spain) —

María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, professionally known by her stage name Charo, is a Spanish-American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist.

Charo began playing guitar at the age of nine and trained under the famed Andrés Segovia.[6][7] In 1966, she married 65-year-old bandleader Xavier Cugat and moved to the United States with him. In the late 1960s and 1970s, she became a ubiquitous presence on American television, frequently appearing as a guest star on series such as Laugh-InFantasy IslandThe Love Boat, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. She is known for her uninhibited and exuberant manner, vague age, heavy Spanish accent and the catchphrase "cuchi-cuchi."

As a musician, Charo has performed and recorded in various styles for five decades. She released a series of disco recordings in the 1970s with Salsoul Records, most notably Dance a Little Bit Closer (1977). In 1995, her flamenco album Guitar Passion(1994) won the Female Pop Album of the Year award at the Billboard International Latin Music Conference and was named best female Latin pop album by Billboard. In an interview, she said, "Around the world I am known as a great musician. But in America I am known as the cuchi-cuchi girl. That’s okay, because cuchi-cuchi has taken me all the way to the bank." (wikipedia)

• • •

Hello. I am on vacation with friends. It is very low-key. Doing virtually nothing for a week. So I have some time to write. Next week, my vacation shifts to Los Angeles, where I will be with my extended family. Then, I will have no time, so you will be visited by many wonderful substitutes. But for now, please enjoy my lakeside write-ups. These will be somewhat shorter than usual, because, well, there's ... a lake ... and my friends ... but I promise they will be no less heartfelt ...


I do not like being away from my normal blogging set-up, which is to say, away from my printer. I like to print the puzzle out when I'm done and write comments on it. It's a pretty important part of the ritual. No printer here at the lake house, so I can't ... really *feel* or *see* the puzzle properly, or that's how it feels anyway. Bah. But the solving experience itself is largely the same, and today ... yeah, largely the same Sunday experience (wading thru wackiness), though of maybe a slightly higher conceptual caliber than usual. I was very weirded out by the revealer—that is, by its very existence, since, as far as I could tell, the title was the revealer. There was a "Why?" (added "Y") and a "Why not?" (subtracted "Y"), in alternating sequence, so ... you know, I had it. I was good. And then the revealer comes along and is like "Here's the punch line! Wait ... did you already tell them the joke?! Damn it, title! We talked about this!" The revealer is more elaborate and precise, changing the "Y" pun (from "why"s to "wise") and then adding the "two" pun. So the themers aren't just alternative between Y and Y-not; rather, the "Y"s are doing this very specific two-line leap "up." Cute. But again, the revealer felt redundant and belated, because of the title's having given everything away already. And the wackiness was your garden-variety add/subtract-a-letter wackiness. So, yeah, a pretty Sunday Sunday.


By far my favorite part of the puzzle was trying to figure out what the hell a THREE TIME(Y) SALAD was. A THREE BEAN SALAD is a very legitimate salad name, and I believe I might have tried to write THREE BEANY SALAD in there, just to make the origin phrase make *any* kind of sense. Never mind that BEANY makes no kind of sense for the actual clue. I was completely flummoxed. It wasn't until I had the whole answer from crosses that my brain finally parsed the base phrase correctly: it's the Commodores song, "Three Times A Lady"!! Never saw the "salad" hidden in there before! Speaking of hidden words, when did this whole "name hidden in this phrase"-type clue become such a big deal? ELI was hidden in a phrase just this week, and now we've got ALEC hiding in "global economy" (31D: Name hidden in "global economy"). I am extremely not a fan of this childish cluing. At least in cryptic crosswords, when they hide words and names like this, they don't just tell you outright that that's what's happening. You have to figure it out. But here, they're just like "Can you find the name in this phrase, Billy? What a good boy! So smart!" Come on. Why not just have the clue read [ALEC, just write in ALEC, it's ALEC]. At least that's not patronizing. Oh and another thing—who/what the hell is this ASTRO of which you speak? I asked everyone in the house just now, "Hey, if I asked you for a [Household robot from Amazon], what would you say?" Everyone: "... ALEXA?" And that was before I told them that yes, it had five letters, and yes, it began with "A." When I told them "no, ASTRO." They, like me, made a "what?" face. And then my friend had to tell ALEXA "shhh, it's OK ALEXA, I wasn't actually talking to you." ASTRO is the dog on "The Jetsons." That is the only non-baseball clue for ASTRO that I recognize. 

Speed round:
  • 1D: Proceeded down a lane, maybe (SWAM) — speaking of "speed," I wrote SPED here at first. No idea about any of the long Acrosses in this NW section at first, so I just threw in the first thing I could think of for all the short Downs, and despite a couple mistakes, the gambit paid off
  • 41A: Medical gloves and N95 masks, for short (PPE) — never can quite remember this initialism or what it stands for. Personal protection ... equipment? Close. "Protective." I don't love it, not just because it reminds me of COVID. I never heard the term before COVID, and I can't see it remaining in public consciousness after COVID (unless deadly pandemics are just the new normal, which, maybe, but even then we mostly only talk about masks). Anyway, just because an abbr. is new doesn't mean that it's good. (Note: PPE has only appeared twice—both appearances were this month; I fear a PPE onslaught ... I hope not)
  • 79A: Mythical weaver (ARACHNE) — ugh, wrote in ARIADNE—same number of letters, same first and last two letters, both of them involved with threads, of a sort (ARIADNE gave Theseus a thread so he could find his way back out of the labyrinth after killing the Minotaur with a sword, which ARIADNE also provided him. He rewarded her by abandoning her on an island. What a guy.
  • 75D: Hand-held device used by Mr. Spock (TRICORDER) — I asked everyone in the house what a TRICORDER was and without hesitation they started shouting "Star Trek" info at me. Who are these people? (Hint: one of them is my wife). I have heard of TRICORDER but couldn't tell you what it does, or what is "TRI-" about it.
  • 46D: Dancer Charisse of "Singin' in the Rain" (CYD) — SYD, SID, CID ... I think I tried them all, despite knowing exactly who CYD Charisse is. I forgot she was even in "Singin' in the Rain!"
  • 36D: God associated with the moon (APOLLO) — mythologically untrue, but via the space program of that name ... yes, OK.
Note: my friend put on Brian ENO while I was finishing my write-up ... without any crossword intent! He just likes "Music for Airports" (as do I). Anyway, gotta go ENO. Bye bye.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

128 comments:

jae 12:09 AM  

Easy-medium except for the NW section where I really got bogged down. eat before ATE didn’t help, plus I’ve only had pho a couple of times and don’t remember seeing SRIRACHA on the table. Also ASTRO (hand up for alexa) as clued was a WOE.

I thought this was a pretty solid Sunday but once Jeff Chen realized/explained what was going on with the Ys I was very impressed. Clever, liked it a bunch!

egsforbreakfast 12:10 AM  

I’m not sure I’m really down with all the UPs. My Spider Sense started tingling when LOADUP was followed by WISEUPTO. But that turned out to be sitting smack on top of FESSESUP. And if you look at 65A (SPURON) you might think it has neither downs NORUPS, and that you’re ALLSET. Until you notice ALLSTATE. What a PAIR.

SALT’s presence on Mars offers a clue to life………..But its presence on French fries offers a road to death. What a versatile little compound.

In what SENSEISCLASS a political construct or a Japanese honorific for a Mercedes?

Hey @RooMonster. What do you call your many advanced business degrees? Just as I thought…ROOMBAS.

The puzzle was pretty easy, and the notion that the theme had something to do with adding and dropping “Y” was obvious just from the title. But not until I got down to the revealer did I grasp the “Y’s up two” play. Oddly, Jeff Chen seemed to have missed it entirely judging by his write up. I enjoyed this a lot for a Sunday. Thanks, Jesse Goldberg.

Ken Freeland 12:15 AM  

I guess I can't complain about a Sunday puzzle I finished correctly, but whilst I suppose it's unfair to call TRICORDER/HARTS a natick, since nothing but TRICORDER really sounds like a sci-fi instrument, staring at the word HARTS and suspecting I had something wrong was not what I would call a clean finish. I'm pretty well read, but have never encountered that term before. Can anyone clue me in?

Joe Dipinto 12:21 AM  

—Name hidden in "medieval ecdysiast"—
is a much better clue for ALEC.

okanaganer 12:43 AM  

Wow, neat theme. Though Rex is right about the redundant title/revealer.

But geez so many names! ALLSTATE ASTRO MEYERS ELAINE MALTA ENOLA OBRIEN BART OLIN CYD up top. Then the worst: ARYA crossing SAMOA and ARACHNE, all unknown to me. Too many more to mention. And then, non name answers just have to be clued with names: ESCAPEE, DEAF, FAIRY FIGHT, COMBAT READ. Please ease up on the names, constructors!

[Spelling Bee: Sat 0; my last word a 4er again!]

Gary Jugert 1:08 AM  

It was a Sunday. It's hard to tell if I love a Sunday or hate a Sunday by the time I'm finished. They all take so long. I guess only thinking makes it so.

I liked GRIMY REAPER, learning how to spell SRIRACHA, and the SE corner.

Bel Paese is new to me and I am married to an Italian. Never heard of harts and hinds, but looks like I should have.

Peeps:

DEB Haaland is somebody in the government, woo. ELAINE Welteroth runs a typewiter, woo. MORRIS Day went to high school with Prince and now I should care? Gimme Morris the cat.

And the ongoing saga of "you better watch Game of Thrones and The Simpsons or you can't do crosswords" continues with ANYA.

Boo:

COMBAT READ. Gad.

Uniclues:

1 Half-shirt competition for Delawarians.
2 Enjoyed War and Peace wearing underwear.
3 Send funny guy home after one too many canoe mishaps.
4 Doze (?) with dirty Death.
5 Who sucks? Nymph or Pixie?
6 Elroy's dog's un-picked-up messes.

1 ALL STATE BELLY BOTTOMS
2 COMBAT, READ BRIEFED
3 LOAD UP CAMPY COUNSELOR
4 LIE ON GRIMY REAPER
5 ROOMBA'S FAIRY FIGHT
6 ASTRO CURBSIDE ABUSES

Anonymous 1:23 AM  

@Ken, a hart is a female deer, and a hind a male deer. Old-fashioned, if not archaic, terms.

Anonymous 1:25 AM  

What is HARTS? Isn’t APOLLO the sun god?

okanaganer 1:27 AM  

Oh forgot I had a funny typeover: WRONG DISH for "Server error".

chefwen 2:38 AM  

The most fun I had with this puzzle was solving it with my husband and our window washer who is also a good friend and trivia buff. Our windows are now sparkly clean and we had a fun time solving while sipping wine on the lanai.

I didn’t pay much attention to the reveal and just added or subtracted the Y when needed to whack out the phrase. I try not to overthink these things and just enjoy, which we did. I also finished Fridays and Saturday’s with only one cheat each, so it’s been a good weekend.

Ken Freeland 3:21 AM  

thanx... pretty obscure IMHO

Ken Freeland 3:25 AM  

Lol... well don't feel like the Lone Ranger... I originally had "farts" for "partners of hinds" ROFL

Victoria Max 5:13 AM  

This is really interesting, you are a very talented blogger.
I joined your feed and I'm looking forward to it
I am looking for more of your great articles. I also shared your website on my social network!
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Conrad 5:13 AM  


@okanaganer: I stumbled on 17D as well, also in restaurant mode. I came at it from the end and had ----tAbLE, trying to figure a four-letter word for "wrong".

Didn't recognize the heavy lifting being done by the "Y's up 2" revealer until I read OFL's writeup. Clever!

Victoria Max 5:17 AM  

This is really interesting, you are a very talented blogger.
I joined your feed and I'm looking forward to it
I am looking for more of your great articles. I also shared your website on my social network!
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Colin 6:37 AM  

I enjoyed this pleasant Sunday solve. The theme was fine. A few allusions to space and outer space entertainment are always welcome: APOLLO, "Failure ISNOT an option," ASTRO, TRICORDER, LEIA, etc. But yes, a lot of PPP in this puzzle.

Lewis 7:21 AM  

An impressive construction and lovely idea, to get those stolen Ys to move directly up two spaces – a new, I believe, variation on the well-established drop- or add-a-letter theme. The theme answer that made me smile the biggest was THREE TIMES A LAD.

The difficulty level, to me, felt SDS (smack dab Sunday), and the puzzle rewarded me with some lovely highlights, such as SWAM over SPLASH, and an O-train that happened to fall exclusively on down answers: CHARO, APOLLO, ASTRO, TOMATO, ARLO, TSO, and RETRO. Not to mention a quartet of answers that hit my sweet spot: SRIRACHA, ENAMOR, WRESTS, and EXTOL. Also, ‘tis certainly the season, around here at least, for TOMATO. (We have a huge gangly cherry tomato plant that has been producing buckets of the delicious morsels.)

And a perk. To go along with today’s errory THREE TIME SALAD, there’s a backward ROMANE, also errory.

Just for fun, I looked for a supporting cast – non-theme answers that Y could be taken from or added to, excluding proper words, and found the following:
Words that Y can be taken from: ORATORY, CYD.
Words that Y can be added to: RAS, CAGE, SALT, NAH, GLASS, LEER, SPLASH, and my favorite, HERES.

Thus, an impressive grid that provided for a fine outing. Thank you so much, Jesse!

SouthsideJohnny 7:36 AM  

I enjoyed sparring with the theme where I could. The central section on the east coast is just brutal if your not a big fan of the trivial - you’ve got a GoT character who killed somebody (ARYA) adjacent to MORRIS Day (a musician or perhaps a songwriter, who knows - maybe he was a pharmacist), crossed by a mythological ARACHNE along with a Japanese SENSEI and (I believe) a Spanish SEIS. Congrats to anyone who was able to bull their way through that whole section unassisted.

I had the hardest time convincing myself that BAG works for Clutch - still don’t see it. The closest I could get was clutch kind of means “grab” so I clutched, grasped or bagged the last morsel of Mom’s chocolate cream pie. Maybe I’m missing something on that one.

Apparently someone is surprised that there is SALT on Mars, which seems a little weird to me (the fact that they are surprised is weird, not the fact that an inorganic compound made up of sodium and chloride is present on Mars). Any astrophysicists in the crowd (where is NDT when I need him) ?

Son Volt 7:43 AM  

The overall fill and crosses were clean enough - I solved this as a themeless for the most part. Just no interest in another large grid letter swap/mod theme.

Liked the cluing on FOOT FAULT. The SW corner was brutal with the double clue and whatever the Italian cheese is. I knew HARTS from Tolkien. Don’t think ARLO is driving an S CLASS.

SOPS, TUTU, STOP?? NAH.

ENOLA Gay

I’m going surfing.

ncmathsadist 7:58 AM  

Useless theme and proper name blitz. Ugh.

kitshef 7:58 AM  

NW was the hardest section for me, not knowing pho and not knowing my late night tv hosts.

Weird slot for the revealer. I'm guessing JG really wanted it in the bottom right corner but could not come up with fill for that section. As it is, we wound up with two UPs in that one tiny section of the grid.

Interesting to see complaints about the "name found in a phrase" clue. I'm OK with those, but detest "direction from city a to city b" clues.

Anonymous 7:58 AM  

So agree with Rex about the dopey new "Name hidden in" clues. And they are everywhere. Certain things make me long for the days before crossword construction software appeared on the scene. This is one of them.

ASTRO. I looked it up on Amazon after erasing "Alexa" and getting this one through the downs. It costs a thousand bucks and protects your home or something. But more importantly, it's so new that it's invitation-only to buy it right now, and it's been on the (limited) market for less than two months, so...really? Did anyone get this answer on its own? Is this legit? I vote NO.

Liked the theme but wasn't wild about the fill, for reasons others have already pointed out--too many names, too many UPs, too many too-clever-by-half answers. Like ASTRO.

Anonymous 7:59 AM  

I read a bunch of those Oz books with my kids and never was Ozma a fairy. Now Wikipedia tells me that that revealer comes late in the series. News to me. Guess we didn’t get that far. Still, she’s my favorite trans character in traditional children’s literature. This just adds another layer to her nonbinarism, I suppose.

Bernadette 8:13 AM  

I found this puzzle easy, but very enjoyable. I did have WIGGED out for 9A, which caused some problems later. Also, I'm strictly a black tea drinker, so I've never heard of rooibas and I thought 'sure, that could be a local name for the Red Sea.'

Phillyrad1999 8:14 AM  

Only had a sip of coffee when I started so read 1A as Condiment at a PRO Shop and spun my wheels a little. Other than that found it easy for a Sunday - the reveal in the title sort of made it that way. I did enjoy the fact that the theme followed a rule consistently. Way more fond of the Jetson’s maid (Rosie) and dog (Astro) than Amazon’s robot.

pmdm 8:14 AM  

Early on, I got that four clues had a Y added to them. But for whatever reason I never got that four other clues consisted of a common (enough) phrase that had the Y removed. Had to have the concept explained to me by XWordInfo.com, which posts the day before this site. Still, a pleasant enough puzzle. Not much else to say.

Teedmn 8:25 AM  

I finished with an error - my mental map of Texas had Dallas west of Austin and I didn't read the down clue for 69D so...

Jeff Chen is obviously a skinny guy since, in his write-up, he questions whether BELLYs have BOTTOMS. Check out any guy with a beer belly, my friend. Snug that belt right up under there!

Thanks, Jesse Goldberg, for an entertaining Sunday.

smalltowndoc 8:33 AM  

Is IRE a verb?

mmorgan 8:35 AM  

I had a hard time getting on this puzzle’s wavelength — my solve was choppy, in fits and starts. I figured out that some theme answers lost a Y and some added a Y, but didn’t realize that the Ys shifted straight up two rows. That’s a very nice and clever and elegant piece of construction, but it had nothing to do with my solve. Oh, I had GETS WISE for the revealer, but just briefly.

Rex, Rex, Rex, how could you ever forget the scene with Cyd Charisse in “Singin’ in the Rain”??.

Z 8:36 AM  

Normally feats of construction do not impress me, but the Y alignment does add a layer to the standard wackiness that I appreciated.

@Ken Freeland & @anon1:23 - Chiefly British and specifically the red deer. I think I ran across the terms in Tolkien.

@anon1:25 - Rex pointed out that the clue references the APOLLO NASA missions, not mythology.

@Son Volt late yesterday - Given the Jet’s history I’d say watch Playing for Change.

NYDenizen 8:37 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
T. Ribble 8:47 AM  

What does tricorder do?

WHAT DOES A TRICODER DO?

Geez, Michael....

A tricorder does whatever the Star Trek plot NEEDS it to do.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Logical.

Gary Jugert 8:53 AM  

@SouthsideJohnny 7:36 AM "Clutch hand bags." Those little handheld purses you see at the opera for fancy ladies to hold, I dunno, their weed?

kitshef 8:55 AM  

@SouthsideJohnny 7:36 - a purse might be referred to as a 'bag' or (if it doesn't have straps) as a 'clutch'.

@smalltowndoc 8:33. No, it is not.

Anonymous 9:15 AM  

Happily, first fill in was the incredible Cyd Charisse, a dancer who could hold her own with Gene Kelly. We've had 2 rain showers in 2 days, so our temps are down, highs in the 80s instead of 90s. Perfect for a leisurely Sunday Puzzle, and this fits the bill. Enjoyed it very much.

Birchbark 9:16 AM  

ILE DE MALTA is a nice pairing. So is ASTRO CHASM, the depths of space.

Nancy 9:18 AM  

I suppose one shouldn't be too literal when discussing a silly phrase kind of puzzle, but wouldn't you tighten a belt around your BELLY MIDDLE and not your BELLY BOTTOM? Well, I guess if it's a low-rise pair of pants or jeans...?

(I won't wear low-rise pants. They always feel like they're about to fall down. And maybe they are.)

Other than BELLY BOTTOMS, I thought the "Y"-added answers were funnier than the "Y"-subtracted answers. I quite liked CAMPY COUNSELOR and I must admit to laughing out loud over GRIMY REAPER.

"Rooibos" as a clue and ROOMBAS as an answer -- and I knew neither one. Too many peculiar "ROO" words for my liking. (Sorry, @Roo, but I have to tell it like it is.)

Enough pleasant-enough humor in the theme answers to justify the theme. The theme was the easy part. The plethora of obscure names was the hard part. As always, the ones I didn't know frustrated me and the ones I did know bored me. And putting the GoT clue next to the Prince clue was the height of unnecessary-ness. There may not be any other ARYAs (a name I'll forget by noon today) but there certainly are other MORRISes.

P.S. I did this puzzle yesterday in order to free up my morning today. I'm meeting a Rexite whom I've never met and who is in NYC for the weekend at 10:30 at an outdoor cafe near me. I know you'll think it's Lewis who is also in NYC right now, but no, it's not Lewis...

Lewis 9:32 AM  

@Nancy -- I returned to NC on Monday, by the way.

puzzlehoarder 9:41 AM  

We always have a bottle of SRIRACHA sauce in the fridge but don't ask me how to spell it. As a kid I watched Star Trek but I have no memory of anything called a TRICODER. That's just the tip of the pain in the ass iceberg that I found solving this puzzle to be. Every unknown seemed to fall in the worst possible spot so I was constantly working around road blocks.

My wife and I are in New York City helping our youngest move. Today is D-Day so I did this as quickly as I could on my phone after my wife went to sleep.

Solving a Sunday on your phone is like solving a micro puzzle. I'm always amazed that I can get it to respond properly.

The NE corner was the hardest part. FOOTFAULT crossing the unknown ENOLA was the biggest hurdle. Just over an hour to a clean grid.

yd -0

pabloinnh 9:42 AM  

Checked out the NW first, as usual, which yielded nothing, so I scanned the clue list for something obvious, which gave me SEIS, and meant I started in the SE, which led to the revealer right away. Something with Y's, which made sense given the title, but not the "up to" part, which was unnecessary anyway. Add or subtract a Y was fine with me.

OFL had problems with the SALAD answer. For me it was reading SCLASS as a DOOK and wondering why I had never hear of that one.

Fun Sunday, just about right in terms of difficulty, and some groaners as themers which always bother me not at all.

Nicely done, JG, and I am Just Grateful that there are still Sunday puzzles like this one. Thanks for all the fun.

Lori 9:49 AM  

I thought this was a great puzzle, fun, funny theme answers, theme didn't reveal itself to me immediately (I got the Y's were being transposed but didn't see the "two up" until I got the revealer, and the rest of the puzzle). This is two great Sundays in a row for me. I should buy a lottery ticket. Thanks Mr. Goldberg!

Barbara S. 10:02 AM  

CYD Charisse in "Singin' in the Rain." Wait for it -- she comes on about 1:36, and is well worth the delay (and who doesn't love Gene Kelly?). CYD had a background in classical ballet and legs that went on for miles. Hollywood and movie-goers everywhere ATE her UP!

Anonymous 10:02 AM  

I think name Alec stands for the acronym ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council…if you don’t know who they are, you should probably check up on them. Appropriate inclusion for “global economy”. Kind of surprised you didn’t catch that one, Rex!

Tom T 10:04 AM  

I never was able to unpack the NW (very disappointed that SWAM never occurred to me), and between that and the AAA/PAESE cross in the SW, I dnf'ed a Sunday.

I get what Rex is saying about the title already giving away the gimmick, but it seems to me that the revealer takes the gimmick to the next level (or the level above that, pun intended). The title helped me complete some of the theme answers (once I understood the gimmick), but even after entering the revealer answer, I didn't see the impressive "Y up 2" cherry on the top of the "Sunday." I GUESS this one could have been untitled, but that's not how Sundays go.

Tough puzzle for me, but enjoyed the effort.

bocamp 10:09 AM  

Thx, Jesse; 'Y', I really dug this puz! :)

Med+

Bubkes in the NW; eventually circled back, and seemingly took forever to piece it together.

Much better luck in the NE with ENOLA, FOOT FAULT. Originally had BELLY BUTTONS, but ELM wasn't happy, so BOTTOMS saved the day and provided the needed theme direction, which definitely aided in the solve.

Loved Millie Bobby Brown in the ENOLA Holmes tv series.

Fun trip, with a happy ending! :)

@pabloinnh 👍 for QB dbyd :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊

Jonathan 10:18 AM  

By coincidence, I just finished “Wisecrack,” published on September 10, 1995. It was a less ambitious version of the “[ys]-crack” theme.

Mkeit 10:21 AM  

Just try to buy an Astro robot on Amazon.

RooMonster 10:29 AM  

Hey All !
@ egs - 👍😂
@Nancy - It's OK. No offense taken. Sometimes, I'm too peculiar of a ROO!
@SouthSide Johnny - C'mon, now, you never heard of MORRIS Day and The Time?

Cool puz, like Rex, was thinking it was alternating Y's and non Y's phrases. Never did get the Revealer wordplay. Thinking it was missing something. Got the "WISE" = Y's, but the UP TO seemed like it needed something more. Like, UPTO sneaky stuff, or something. Thanks for the explanation of the Y's going UP T(w)O , even though technically they go UP T(w}O and over one.TOMATO, potato. 😁

I'm sure this wasn't the easiest to construct, but came out pretty good. Kudos to Jesse

As much as I like getting another F in the puz, the clue for FOOT FAULT was evil! Tennis (or bowling?) never entered the ole brain, couldn't get computer-something out of my mind, so had a DNF in that corner. Wanted rOOT, then bOOT. And the RAS clue whoosed over the head. I think I ended up with REbEt, or some ridiculous answer.

Still a fun solve overall. A snicker here and there, but no outright chuckles. Never mind a guffaw.

I have an empty bottle of Rooibos TEA, because... me. Har.

yd -2, should'ves 1

Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Birchbark 10:34 AM  

@Barbara S. (10:02) re CYD Charisse -- Ay Carumba, to quote the Simpson imp.

Nick 10:42 AM  

Too segmented and too much trivia to be much fun. More of an ‘oh, huh’ post-solve experience than in-the-moment fun.

Sixthstone 10:43 AM  

Fun puzzle with wide span of difficulty--some real gimmes and some very tricky or esoteric answers. The theme was well done. My only real complaint is the final themer: MADISON COUNT. Madison County is part of a book/movie title, but it's not really a standalone thing. And removing the y still leaves you with the same placename. It's definitely the weakest of the lot. I also didn't appreciate the pair of "inits on the road" clues. Seriously, those could be anything. Crossed with a little-known Italian cheese and random male/female animal names, these were tough. Overall pretty fun.

Sadly Astro will never be able to comment on Rex's blog. After all, it is a robot.

Anonymous 10:45 AM  

A hart is a male deer and a hind is a female deer.

Anonymous 10:47 AM  

PPE been around at least since early 70’s.

Anonymous 10:53 AM  

Wanted the founder of the Girl Scouts to be dead. And she is. Thought that would be a funny and quirky answer. She was also DEAF, apparently. Oh well.

linac800 10:54 AM  

Rooi=red bos=bush so Rooibos=red bush

Anonymous 10:58 AM  

Charo married a 65 year-old when she was fifteen?!!?

Anonymous 11:06 AM  

This is pure Rex. He starts by saying he has time to write.And in almost the next breath says he’ll make it short because he wasn’t to go outside and play. I begrudge no man his vacation. I do mind flat out contradiction.

Not going to scroll though the comments, because, well, I know from experience they’re full of error and idiocy.
Take Anon 10:47. I was subjected to it by dint of the page layout.
PPE has been around at least since the 70’s?
Unless he means the 3270’s BC that’s silly. You think Assyrians and Hittites were banging it out sans protection?
What do you think Homer was writing about when he writes of Achilles:
Filets he greaved his legs with greaves of good make and fitted with ankle clasps of silver; after this he donned the cuirass of Aeacus, richly inlaid and studded.

Sounds like some kick-ass PPE to me.

B Right There 11:10 AM  

Had the same experience as many with a completely empty NW. It was only filling in SALT that got me any foothold there with the CT at 4D giving me diSECT until the corner filled in finally. Hubby saw the themers much quicker than I did and also mentions that anyone who ever walked onto a factory floor has seen PPE for decades before Covid. Apparently there's usually a big sing at every entrance reminding people to wear their PPE (goggles and hearing protection usually). Enjoyed the puz in general. Once again finished faster than average. Alot. I always like whacky add-a-letter, drop-a-letter puzzles, so I was already inclined to like it, but never noticed the 2 UP construction. Even tilted my head at the 115A revealer, but thought that maybe they were just referring to 2 phrases with and 2 without? When I saw Rex's explanation, I looked back at the puzzle and said, "Oh, wow!" Pretty neat trick!

beverly c 11:11 AM  

What! Oh dear!
@ RooMonster 10:29 Thank you for explaining FOOTFAULT. I looked for anything to make Boot or Root work, and finally decided that there was some computer FOOTFAULT term I didn’t know. Argh! When I still didn’t get the happy music it turned out I had a typo over on Apollo - SiLT instead of SALT.

That was another case of not seeing why APOLLO is correct but having no choice.
Thanks to the revealer for the up two rows tip.

GRIMYREAPER was the best.

Anonymous 11:28 AM  

I agree with others … pretty easy/straightforward, except for the NW corner which bogged me down. I finally got it, but that section was a challenge!

Bruce R 11:44 AM  

People actually listen to Brian Eno? I did not know that. Next thing you'll tell me that people listen to Yoko Ono.

Don't get it 11:50 AM  

How does moving a Y up indicate a homophobic description?

Anonymous 11:54 AM  

I liked this puzzle! I asked my Trekkie husband as well what the heck a tricorder does and he answered same as above....whatever the heck Spock needs it to do! Ha!

Carola 11:56 AM  

Very cute, enjoyable to solve. I'd noticed the Ys moving up, and that, I think, made me appreciate the wit and cleverness of the reveal even more. Me, too, for loving the GRIMY REAPER and the surprise of finally locating the well-hidden LAD[Y]. Fun all the way for me, a fine Sunday.

Z 12:05 PM  

@Don'tget it - Uh, homophoNic description. WISE UP TO sounds like Y’s UP 2. See Rex for an explanation of the theme.

@Anon11:06 - Fremdschämen inducing comment. Apparently you don’t know what …at least since… means. No big deal, we all elide past words at times, except you start off by calling everyone else an idiot. Also, I doubt that Achilles armor did as much good against viruses as a good N95 mask. Sad, too, because you could have made a funny point if you hadn’t been so busy insulting everyone.

kitshef 12:12 PM  

Currently showing on BET Her: The Kid (Prince) fights his rival (Morris Day) for a singer (Apollonia Kotero) and success.

Don't get it 12:27 PM  

@Zed - It pays to read more carefully! Thank you!

Nancy 12:47 PM  

Just got back from a really enjoyable first-time meeting with @Puzzlehoarder at an outdoor cafe right near me. He's a delightful, good-natured, interesting guy and it was so nice spending time with him. The conversation flowed -- and it wasn't all about the NYT crossword or the Rexblog, either. Hope he's back in NYC at some point. (He lives in Chicago, in case you've forgotten.)



sixtyni yogini 12:53 PM  

I got the Y thing late in the puzzle, but 😂 read homophoNic as homophoBic 😂 WTF??? FAIRYFIGHTS?
(Okay my eyesight may be going bad but still funny.)

Not a big fan of this 🧩 but imho slightly above average for a Sunday. Stayed interested at least.
🤗🧩🧩🧩🤗



sixtyni yogini 12:57 PM  

Yes and OZMA is not fairy. Glinda was.
(Also into the OZ books. 🤗)

Master Melvin 1:05 PM  

SID, SYD, CID,CYD. When Sid Fernandez pitched for the 1980's Mets, he was known as EL SID.

Safety First 1:21 PM  

I learned about PPE long before COVID: hard hat, goggles, gloves, steel toed boots . . .

Anonymous 1:29 PM  
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Anonymous 1:38 PM  
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Anonymous 1:45 PM  

Not to be confused with reticule.

Barbara S. 1:47 PM  

I thought this was a monument to precision construction – wow. And also fun to solve. But not without its challenges. I’m among those who had lots of trouble in the NW. It was where I started and where I finished and where I thought I was going to perish, although it all came right in the end. I’m weak on Asian cuisine (but SRIRACHA looked familiar when I saw it written out), I’m weak on late-night TV and on TV ads (Nationwide/ALLSTATE). I couldn’t see SWAM and IDLY for a long time, and didn’t know ASTRO as clued. What finally got me on the right track was the COM of COMBAT READ, which gave me RESECT and CHASM. I already had HOT and ATE, so I was able to see ALLSTATE, which put me on the home stretch.

OK, here’s my chance to mangle thoughts about SALT on Mars given to me by my husband, a planetary scientist who studies soils on the Red Planet. (To establish his cred: he was on the science team for the Phoenix project, one of NASA’s lander missions, which touched down near Mars’ north polar cap in 2008.) Sodium chloride and calcium chloride, both sea salts, and related compounds such as silicates and calcium carbonate, have been found on Mars in abundance, suggesting there was once a vast area of ocean. Life may well have developed in this ocean some 4 billion years ago, earlier than would have been possible on Earth which, being larger and closer to the sun, cooled off more slowly than Mars, and was too hot to support life until about half a billion years later. Mars’ oceans would have been life-friendly for nearly a billion years, so speculation is rife. And, according to the theory of panspermia (I’m holding out for that word to appear in a crossword), we may all *be* Martians, organic material from Mars having been ejected into space by an impact of some kind, and finding a welcoming home on Earth some 3.5 billion years ago. You’ll have noticed that there are no oceans on Mars today: as conditions changed, the water evaporated or seeped through the soil and froze at depth. Today many of the salts found on the surface of Mars are perchlorates – calcium perchlorate and magnesium perchlorate – which are life-unfriendly, being aggressive desiccants and oxidizers.

The word HIND reminded me of a silly song I once wrote for a party. I think it was to illustrate the perils of mnemonic devices:

HIND: a deer, a female deer
Beam: a drop of golden sun
I: a name I call myself
Mile: a long, long way to run
Stitch: a needle pulling thread
Tra: a note to follow stitch
Chai: a drink with jam and bread
That will bring us back to HIND-HIND-HIND-HIND.

Nancy 2:04 PM  

I LOVE that parody, @Barbara S!!! Very, very funny!!!

Anonymous 2:09 PM  

Me too!

Anonymoose 2:09 PM  

I wish the mods could exclude the Anonytroll. It (yes,it) really mars the blog.

Anonymous 2:17 PM  

There’s not enough Steven Wright humor in the world—glad this puzzle shifts that balance, even if it’s just a tad.

Oh, and at the store last night the sign said “8 items or less.” So I changed my name to Les.

Anonymous 2:19 PM  

SENSEI is NOT a Japanese honorific! It is a word, title, occupation but it is most certainly not an honorific. San, chan, sama, dono, etc. are honorifics. Words that mean something like teacher are not and cannot be honorifics!

Anonymous 2:34 PM  

Three times a Lad (laddy). Ha!

Pete 2:38 PM  

@Anonyass - Question: Why was Achilles wearing PPE on his shins? Wasn't his whole thing being invincible with the exception of his heels? Kind of a waste of time and armor, no?

Oh, and maybe it's only the term PPE which has been around since 1970. And "around since" quite often means "I heard it first in 1970, so it's been around since at least then". But you probably knew that, but couldn't pass up a chance to call someone an idiot.

jae 2:50 PM  

@Barbara S - Thanks for the Mars info and the delightful parody.

Dragoncat 2:53 PM  

I liked it and like Rex thought I had the gimmick early from the title. But someone explain how the Y In Bell bottoms relates to « wimped »? Isn’t that « two up »? Wimpedy?? What am I not seeing?

SouthsideJohnny 3:09 PM  

@Barbara S - great job of dropping some Mars knowledge on us, thank you. I think the key piece of info that you shared is that the salt(s) are found in such abundance, which would be consistent with the presence of a large body or bodies of water. Wish I could still be around in a hundred years or so when we (humans) do our first full-scale archeological digs on the Red Planet.

Anonymous 3:15 PM  

"Not going to scroll though the comments, because, well, I know from experience they’re full of error and idiocy." --Anon 11:06

Don't do us any favors, Anon 11:06. It's hard to know why you're even here. No one here, no one at all, would miss you if you were gone. I imagine that's true of you IRL too. Do you have any friends IRL at all? No need to answer.

MetroGnome 3:26 PM  

North: THREE names, a brand name, and an obscure French word (ILEDE?! I thought Notre Dame was in Paris!) Then that "Rooibos" a little further down doesn't help matters, either.

And, as a previous poster noted, a disproportionate number of clues are "name" trivia, also.

Anonymous 3:26 PM  

ME TOO! Got a good laugh inside!

Anonymous 3:34 PM  

The Y from Combat Ready moved up to make Belly Bottoms.

Maybe . . . 3:49 PM  

The Y in BELLYBOTTOMS is the Y now missing from 29A, COMBAT READ(Y).

thefogman 4:06 PM  

This puzzle gets a failing grade because of the terrible Natick trap in the very BOTTOM SW corner. I had to look up “hinds” from 116A which is a female deer. From that I knew the answer was HART. That is the only reason I was able to complete since MPH and AAA are not easily infered if you know nothing of Bel PAESE cheese (or HARTS), which I did not. I’m a little surprised Rex didn’t jump on this. I guess the great outdoors have a mellowing effect on him…

thefogman 4:11 PM  
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Anonymous 4:13 PM  

Been doing nyt puzzles since the 60s... This one is the very worse ever.. wtf is going on .. do i have to be lgbtqwrstirvxyz to solve a gawd awfol puzzle with no redeeming puzzle value whatso ever.... Omg! No wonder fat man trump won... U woke a o. B. S are unintelligible


Joe 4:15 PM  

I am so ired. Yes, I have never been so ired as after completing the puzzle to find that “ticks off” means “ires”! I know what ire is. It’s a noun!

TAB2TAB 4:30 PM  

PAESE/HARTS/MPH/AAA is not particularly inferable without the acrosses being in your wheelhouse. Tried MPH, MPg, Mil, Mls, Mov, Mvg, and Ave, Acr, and no combination remotely felt cheese-like or hind-y.

Anonymous 4:43 PM  

@thefogman. Keep workin' on it. Maybe read @Rex again. You missed COMBATREAD(Y) and SLUMBERPART(Y)

CDilly52 5:16 PM  

I have been struggling through this all dang day!!! Talk about a no wavelength experience! I finally finished and it wasn’t the theme that bothered me - other than the same THREE TIME(Y) SALAD that @Rex found challenging. I just had zero connection with the clues today. I fully expected a DNF and am thrilled to have completed this one!

egsforbreakfast 5:25 PM  

Thanks to @Barbara S. for the Mars info. Shortly after reading her comment, I came across this article in the NYT, concerning a different chemical compound being sold by Mars:

A Lawsuit Claims Skittles Are Unfit for Consumption. Experts Weigh In.
They contain the food additive titanium dioxide, which is in thousands of food products. Here’s what we learned about its safety.

The article reaches no definitive conclusions, but I infer that it would be unwise from a health perspective to include Skittles as more than 5% of your diet.

Smith 6:13 PM  

Haha, I had BELLYsysTeMS before BOTTOMS and I like it better!

Also, APOLLO was the sun god and his sister Diana was the moon goddess, so that was confusing. I suppose it's as in NASA. Got him from the crosses anyway!

Same reaction to revealer as OFL; by the time I got down there I had the exchange worked out, but it was pretty neat to see those Ys sitting exactly two rows down.

One more write over was GhoSt before GLASS because I had the initial G and the S in 115A! But STARTOUT fixed that fast.

Fun, Sundayish puzzle, thx!

Harry 6:20 PM  

Rex has me nostalgic for Michigan, particularly Traverse City (where my wife and I grew up, but haven't returned in the last 25 yrs.)

Rex could be anywhere, and apparently he's being coy about that, but there's such a concentration of fresh water lakes around Traverse City I imagine he's somewhere near. If you pick just about any bearing from TC, you'll come upon a significant lake within 50 miles (there's about 20, including some of the largest in the state).

Wherever Rex is, I imagine he's enjoying one of the finest getaways to be had in the Midwest.

Smith 6:31 PM  

@Bruce 11:44

And weirdly my 26 yo son posted pix of the album covers of Eno's Ambient 1, etc., music for airports, on IG just yesterday

Anonymous 6:51 PM  
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Anonymous 7:04 PM  

True dat.

B Right There 7:24 PM  

@Barbara S, love the ditty! And regarding harts and hinds, if you ever look at the HARTford Insurance logo, it shows a proud HART (presumable about to ford a river). Along that line of 'Oh, I never realized that that was where a name comes from': Fishkill, NY or Catskill mountains or Schuylkill River...kill means creek, or river, or body of water. And, so, when I came across Bucksnort, TN when I lived near there, I was sure that a nort must be something like a hillock or thicket. Well, no. I've heard stories about a snort of moonshine and a hunter that heard a buck snort as origin stories. Oh well. ; )

Anonymous 7:28 PM  

Morris Day and the Time
"Jungle Love" appeared in Princes' movie.
It was phenomenally entertaining, and likely still is.

Z 7:56 PM  

@MetroGnome - The ÎLE DE la Cité is the island (“île” in French) in the middle of the Seine in the middle of the city of Paris. So it’s actually two French words.

@Harry - He’s somewhere on the big lake. I’m going to say within 200 miles north or south of Manistee.

Anonymous 8:15 PM  

80% fine / 20% deeply obnoxious… am I in the ballpark here?

Kate 8:29 PM  

I use PPE regularly at work. Not all crossword solvers have desk jobs. Some of us use our hands.

Joe Dipinto 9:56 PM  

That was a kickass Acrostic today. I filled in one answer this morning (guess which one) and then didn't get back to it until about an hour ago. I had three or four early guesses that I was reluctant to commit to because they didn't obviously lead anywhere, but they all turned out to be right. So that was fun.

Rich Furman 10:30 PM  

I was content to plug in ASTRO and be done with it, but now I've gone and Googled the thing, and egads, that thing needs to be destroyed yet another thing that can follow me around the house and keep me under surveillance? No way Bezos!

JC66 10:32 PM  

@Joe D

Yeah, the Acrostic was tough for me.. First time through, the only thing I had was the High German one. Finally Googled two unknowns and slowly proceeded from there. Never heard of the Sci Fi magazine.

Anonymous 10:37 PM  

Still stumped with SRSDY. I must be only one.

Joe Dipinto 11:01 PM  

@JC – my first entry was answer B, and when I went back to it later I added answer V. I guessed M and R early on but didn't put them in right away. I also had an idea of the author but wasn't sure if they wanted both first and last name. Funny how that worked out.

JC66 11:17 PM  

@Joe D

Haha, B was one of my two Googles.

Anonymous 12:42 AM  

Not as much fun a solve as it should have been, only because I was super dense on picking up on how the theme worked for some reason. Interesting to see a few others comment that they were not on the wavelength; that’s exactly how I felt. Is Mercury in retrograde or something? I got GRIMYREAPER (chuckle) and COMBATREAD (couldn’t quite figure out how it fit), and had 3/4 filled in on crosses but still couldn’t figure out the game, so I missed out on the fun for most of the solve. I think it’s because just as I was starting to suss out the Y pattern early on, I got completely thrown by THREETIMESALAD. I filled it in on crosses, chuckled at the joke, but could not figure out what it was a play on! I expected (struggled with, wanted, tried to force) it to be a play on “three bean salad,” and I think my brain just locked us into a stubborn corner after that. So even after getting the revealer and being 3/4 finished, I was still perplexed! I even thought for a moment that some of the Y-less acrosses were possibly red herrings, unrelated answers masquerading as part of the theme, which then made me grumpy that I might be dealing with lazy construction (talk about stubborn!). And this solid little puzzle did not deserve such IRE(S). (Ok that one was kind of weird.)

But hallelujah, it finally clicked, the CHASM closed and my WREST(ing)S eased. Turned out the PITA was I. After quickly filling in CAMPYCOUNSELOR (and making sense of SLUMBERPART), it was smooth sailing from there. Usually the a-ha moments are fun, but this was more of a facepalm. And after half an evening of being grumpy and blaming the puzzle, it took a little longer to turn it around lol (some of the trickier clues didn’t help either…ASTRO??). But at least we spent an enjoyable 15 minutes together at the end. 01:31:15 final solve time hurt my average a little, but I deserved it.

Overall solid construction, lively fill with some nice tricky clueing, and a perfectly tight Sunday-level theme that should not have FLUMMOXED me so.
=^__^=

Anonymous 11:20 AM  

Loved this puzzle. Thanks, Jesse, for all a delightful way to pass a Sunday morning!

Ahitra Gaethon 8:24 PM  
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KURT DUMFRIES 6:20 PM  
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Burma Shave 1:24 PM  

DEERE PAIR GETS SET

If you COUNT THREETIMESALAD ATTESTs,
he ISNOT one TO play OPOSSUM -
ELAINE and DEB deBRIEFED, IGUESS,
ALL HOT TO START ON BELLYBOTTOMS.

--- BART MORRIS O'BRIEN

Diana, LIW 6:32 PM  

Last comment for a while...

And the very NE corner was my downfall. FOOTFAULT? FOOT? Huh?

And I don't know Rooibos, but got the crosses.

See y'all around the 23rd!

Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords

spacecraft 6:54 PM  

Medium? SRSLY? MEDIUM??? You cannot be serious. I worked, I mean LABORED, for 6+ hours on this thing. More and more obscurities every day, it seems. Who is this ELAINE...I can't even remember? I thought these puzzles were for Everyman to enjoy solving. Okay, so say Jerry's friend. I mean, are you writing these for Mensa members only? Sheesh! There's plenty more, but I dunno, maybe I just need to quit this. It's all starting to fly way over my head. I watched a game show featuring "celebrities." I had NO IDEA who ANY of them were. Why they were "celebrities" would take a wild guess from me. I did it, just because I was feeling stubborn this day and had no plans, but I did NOT enjoy it.

Yes, I got the theme. Y's up two, ha ha. Yes, it was well done. Then why do I still want to give it a bogey?

Fultech 11:27 AM  
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Fultech 11:28 AM  
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Fultech 11:28 AM  
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Anonymous 11:49 AM  

Never heard of ASTRO as an Amazon device either. But it seems it’s on sale for a thousand bucks. A robot home helper.

Christoph W 9:33 PM  

As an IT guy I had “boot fault”, like a server that doesn’t boot up. Couldn’t figure out what “deber” was supposed to be ;-)

RickLevenson 11:39 AM  

And the clue for MALTA used "E.U." so I was expecting an abbreviated answer...

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