Rosebud ravager / SUN 7-24-22 / Downwind locales for ships / English landing spot / First pope to be called the great / NFL star Elliott to fans / Where all the people that come and go stop and say "hello," in a 1967 hit

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Constructor: Jessie Trudeau and Ross Trudeau

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: "Going Somewhere?" — various famous roads go Down, where they intersect (at the "E") with answers that end in the letter string "ROME"; the revealer is ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME (115A: Aphorism that's visually depicted five times in this grid):

Theme answers:
  • MASS PIKE (7D: Easternmost leg of I-90, familiarly) / BICHROME (51A: Two-colored)
  • PENNY LANE (24D: Where all the people that come and go stop and say "hello," in a 1967 hit) / AERODROME (68A: English landing spot)
  • RODEO DRIVE (37D: Noted shopping mecca) / ETHAN FROME (88A: Edith Wharton's "ruin of a man")
  • EVERGREEN TERRACE (13D: Home of the Simpson and Flanders households) / IMPOSTER SYNDROME (98A: Habitual fear of being exposed as a fraud)
  • PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE (20D: One side of D.C.'s Federal Triangle) / ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME
Word of the Day: Andrea BOCELLI (94D: Of whom Celine Dion said "If God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like ...") —

Andrea Bocelli OMRI OMDSM (Italian: [anˈdreːa boˈtʃɛlli]; born 22 September 1958) is an Italian operatic tenor and multi-instrumentalist. He was born visually impaired, and was born with congenital glaucoma, and at the age of 12, Bocelli became completely blind, following a brain hemorrhage resulting from a football accident. After performing evenings in piano bars and competing in local singing contests, Bocelli signed his first recording contract with the Sugar Music label. He rose to fame in 1994, winning the 44th Sanremo Music Festival performing "Il mare calmo della sera".

Since 1994, Bocelli has recorded 15 solo studio albums of both pop and classical music, three greatest hits albums, and nine complete operas, selling over 75 million records worldwide.[4] He has had success as a crossover performer, bringing classical music to the top of international pop charts. His album, Romanza, is one of the best-selling albums of all time, while Sacred Arias is the biggest selling classical album by any solo artist in history. My Christmas was the best-selling holiday album of 2009 and one of the best-selling holiday albums in the United States. The 2019 album  debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and US Billboard 200, becoming Bocelli's first number-one album in both countries. His song "Con te partirò", included on his second album Bocelli, is one of the best-selling singles of all time. The track was licensed to feature in a series of television commercials for TIM in the late 1990s, which eventually became very popular in Italy. (wikipedia)

• • •

Dang, it even says "CARD" 
right there in the comic! Gah!
The first thing a proofreader or editor ought to have caught is that the "aphorism" in question is not "depicted five times in this grid"; it's depicted once. ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME ... that's the theme. That describes all the themers taken as a group. There are five examples of roads leading to ROME, but ALL ROADS are not depicted "five times," as the clue claims. I don't care that it's a minor point—it's in the most major part of the puzzle, the revealer clue, so the phrasing ought to be Precise. [Aphorism represented visually by five answers in this puzzle], something like that; that would be accurate. The five long Downs together represent the aphorism. Once. Not separately five times. Yes, NERD, I know. Whatever, the phrasing on the revealer clue is nails + chalkboard to me. Aside from that hitch, the theme is interesting. Well, the grid is interesting, for sure—mirror symmetry along the NW to SE axis. The intersecting themers end up forming a kind of nesting arrowhead pattern, with all long answers meeting at their very tips (the "E" in "ROME" in each case). Structurally innovative. I was not a fan of the weird long non-themers just hanging on there non-thematically, but I guess that's the price you pay for this particular architectural gambit. WORSHIPPER with two "P"s is weird to me because I'm not British and the clue is not tagged as British. RORSCHACH CARDS was extremely weird to me because after TESTS and BLOTS I was completely out of ideas. I literally teach a comic with a protagonist named RORSCHACH who literally takes a RORSCHACH Test (in Book VI, administered by Dr. Malcolm Long, whose mind RORSCHACH just wrecks), and yet CARDS was absolutely brutal for me, even with the "C" in place. If it hadn't been for YODELS, I think that CARDS section would've destroyed me. I had TACK for FORK, largely because it's a way better answer for that clue (74A: Stick with it!). Had ORS instead of IFS (are ORS a thing???) (87A: Some coding statements). Just a disaster in there. Anyway, the cards are real things, just ... not the first thing that comes to mind when you see RORSCHACH (as Google here can tell you):


The British call airports "airports," so I had no idea what 68A: English landing spot was going for. I thought ... maybe the English landed ... on Plymouth Rock? I dunno. AERODROME is an odd one, as is BICHROME. Just not words I ever see or use or really ... know. See also LEESHORES (?) (80D: Downwind locales for ships). But as for AERODROME and BICHROME: you do what you gotta do to make your theme work, I guess. Outside the themers, the fill is pretty ordinary. The runaway highlight of the day for me was EVERGREEN TERRACE! That's gonna be a gimme or a lotta work, depending on your level of "Simpsons" fandom (mine: high). I liked that answer, and I thought the revealer itself was cute. 


A few more things:
  • 94D: Of whom Celine Dion said "If God would have a singing voice, he must sound a lot like ..." (BOCELLI) — I knew this pretty quickly but ... could not decide if it was two "C"s one "L" or two "L"s one "C." As for who has the voice of God ... I'm gonna stick with Marianne Faithfull's assessment on this one:

  • I have to tell you, the voice of God, if you really want to know, is Aretha Franklin.

  • 43A: One looking for missing persons (TRACER) — awkward way to clue this, but I guess it allows you to avoid the more probably bullet clue, so OK
  • 124A: Apply (to) (REFER) — why doesn't this make sense to me? I'm sure there's an equivalency somewhere in the dictionary, but I can't really make this work in everyday speech.
  • 1D: Rosebud ravager (APHID) — soooo hard for me. I was like "uh ... TIME? SNOW? FIRE? I haven't seen the movie in a long time!"
  • 98A: Habitual fear of being exposed as a fraud (IMPOSTER SYNDROME — still haunted by IMPOSTOR ... which is how the NYTXW told me it was spelled two months ago.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

99 comments:

jae 12:10 AM  

Easy-medium. Smooth, clever, and POW at Xwordinfo, liked it a bunch!

Erasures: @Rex tests before CARDS and waY before GUY

Melrose 12:10 AM  

Easily finished, but didn't completely grok the theme. Thought it was just a bunch of exoressions ending in Rome, didn't see that all the down road answers ended in Rome. Doh. Much more interesting than what I thought at first.

Also, as a retired psychologist I can vouch for the expression Rorschach cards; that's what they are, regardless of how most people Google them.

Joe Dipinto 12:23 AM  

They should have clued 20d
"Quaker of D.C.'s Federal Triangle?"
Because, you know, Quakers are associated with Pennsylvania.

I also wish the answers at 2d and 22a were linked into the theme somehow. They're longer than six of the ten theme entries. Even LEE SHORES and FRAGRANCE are pushing it, lengthwise.

I dont get how REFER means "apply" either. And, sorry to interrupt the wedding reception, but I really dislike seeing IMPOSTOR spelled with an E. A quick fix changes BEAU to BEAM and HUES to HMOS. Could you guys go back and take care of that, please? The band will cover for you while you're gone.

What else? With BO___L__ in place at 94d I really wanted BOB DYLAN to be the answer but it didn't fit.

So, I like the theme idea, but most of the non-theme stuff seems sort of bland

(Btw, there's a clumsy error in the note in the print edition, which identifies Ross as Jessie's "husband" but then goes on to say they "are scheduled to marry this weekend." The online note says "fiancé" the first time.)

Yitz 12:27 AM  

Egrets and herons. Ole and oye. Yankee stadium and diamond. Air and aerodrome. YSL and Yves. Combines and combined. Spill the tea twice. Yuck.

Ken Freeland 12:36 AM  

Maybe easy for Rex, but I found it a super slog. The theme was mildly amusing but the fill was dreck. Way too much PPP for comfort, crowned with the natick SEADOO/BORAT, which I misguessed as SEADuO... Fie on constructors who create these naticks, and the editors who refuse to edit them out!
Too bad about this... It broke the longest string of natick-free Sundays I 've seen in over a year! Better luck next week, I guess...

Kent 12:41 AM  

Clever theme. As Rex said, the long non-themers were architecturally necessary, but a bother. Before I got to the revealer, I just figured we were looking for road names, and I was really trying to come up with Rorschach … Drive? Place? Expwy?

Evergreen Terrace was indeed a gimme, although I spent a moment or two trying to make Springfield fit with a state. I remembered Matt Groening had revealed it’s location a few years ago but didn’t remember for sure where it was.

I’m baffled by 124A too.

okanaganer 12:53 AM  

From xwordinfo I learn that Ross and Jessie were married today!!! Congrats to the constructors!

Wow, neat theme. The roads and ROMEs are nicely arrayed from top left to bottom right. The roads are missing "road" and "street" but that's okay because they are the most boring road labels.

Seemed like a lotta names again: KARYN, DREA, ETHANFROME, ZEKE, PROUST, OPI, ABRAMS, SERTA, KOCH, UMA, ROCCO, BORAT, ARIADNE, BOCELLI, AMY, RUDD, SIMON, yikes. SIMON Bolivar not only had a country named after him, he was president of Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru at the same time.

I thought the "Univ. V.I.P." was the PRES! PROFs are a dime a dozen there.

[Spelling Bee: Sat currently pg-1, missing a 5er. The pangram seems uncommon.]

Joe Dipinto 2:12 AM  

Oh look, I just noticed you can do this:
PENNsYLvania AveNuE.

Will Shortz will be so proud of me.

Joaquin 2:33 AM  

I always enjoy a Ross Trudeau crossword; now we've got double the fun to anticipate. Congrats/mazel tov Ross and Jessie! Hope your marriage is filled with lots of great "aha moments", just like this puzzle (and free of the nit-picking like you read in this blog and comments).

chefwen 3:17 AM  

This was cute, noticed all the different types of streets at first and was mildly confused, glanced up at the puzzle and saw all the ROMES, which handed me 115 across. Ha ha ha, got it!

Had hOWLED for 103D and waY at 108A, it took my puzzle partner to sort out that mess and we were done.

Congratulations on the puzzle and your nuptials, Jessie and Ross.

Colin 6:44 AM  

Congrats to Jessie and Ross! - on both their wedding and their puzzle.

I liked this - very clever construction - but have to agree some of the answers were a bit forced. Only saw the theme after all was said and done. For a while, I was wondering how HEROWORSHIPPER fit into the theme, and if the ROME hidden in the 3D/4D squares was a part of all this - not!

Heading (virtually) to the Boswords tournament this afternoon - my first time. Hope to see some of you there.

Anonymous 7:21 AM  

Anyone who reads this blog knows how hard it is to pull off a satisfying Sunday puzzle. IMO, this succeeds unusually well. Easy-medium is just right, and the construction is clever and fun. Double congratulations to the two constructors!

Anonymous 7:37 AM  

Or is definitely a thing in computer programming, but it is an operator, not a statement. ifs are a type of statement.

Anonymous 7:50 AM  

In programming, an "if" is part of a statement, whereas an "or" is part of an expression. So in this case I'd say they were being precise, but that the precision didn't help you.

Son Volt 7:57 AM  

For me this was a case of a little goes a long way - tough to keep things interesting on a Sunday. I liked the grid layout - the ascending blacks from NW to SE were neat. Agree with Rex that the long downs were a distraction.

PROUST and Wharton? the purveyors of I started it but couldn’t get thru it. Lots of trivia today. No idea on KARYN or VIV - and not sure about Pope ST LEO.

50 years ago it was Crosby’s voice that everyone was talking about

This was fine - Sundays are just not my thing.

SouthsideJohnny 8:05 AM  

When the theme requires the constructors to include things like BICHROME and AERODROME, the theme is detracting from the enjoyment of solving rather than contributing much of interest, imho. Add the ungodly reliance on PPP, foreign stuff (including a pope) and unfortunately, “spill the tea” and it quickly turned into a full blown slog for me.

I’ve never watched an episode of The Simpsons and didn’t know ARIADNE (which just looked like one large misspelling to me while filling in the grid), so that whole east side wasn’t much fun. Too look for a silver lining, at least I confidently dropped in ORC, which I only know from CrossWorld.

Barbara S. 8:28 AM  

I really enjoyed solving this one. I didn’t grasp the theme quickly, but realized as I went along that there was an ever-growing group of street/road names and an ever-growing group of words containing ROME. That was enough to keep me interested, and then the revealer hit the spot. This is an elegant construction and the diagonal symmetry is a perfect complement to the theme.

I think of IMPUGN and its sister, “oppugn”, as Spelling Bee words. I never can tell those two apart. I was utterly fooled by KARYN White and her song “Romantic”: I was sure we were talking bARry White – the type of song and time period seemed right and the AR just confirmed it. When I was a kid my mother often told me I DAWDLEd, a word which I somehow turned into “Dwawdle” – I still think it’s improved by the extra W.

She's like the swallow that flies so high
She's like the river that never runs dry
She's like the sunshine on the LEE SHORE
She loves her love and love is no more.

And last:

“FRET NOT thyself because of evildoers,
Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.” (Psalm 37)

Let’s hope it’s true.

Anonymous 8:30 AM  

Amy: Swell puzzle. And love IMPUGN sitting there at 33 across with impunity. All the best to the Trudeaus. Thanks for a clever and sparkly Sunday!

Anonymous 8:33 AM  

1D rosebud ravager --I believe this clue refers to actual rosebuds. If you get aphid plants on your rose bush, it will destroy it.

Anonymous 8:41 AM  

Sorry but FORK is way better than "tack." I've never heard anyone say "stick a tack in it" or "stick it with a tack."

Also found it interesting that BORAT/SEADOO is seen as a Natick by anyone. Both gimmes for me and I expect for many, and neither are "in my wheelhouse" (I hate anything with a two-stroke engine, and, well, never saw BORAT, the previews and publicity --- of which there was a LOT --- seemed awfully tasteless).

Lori 8:46 AM  

I loved this puzzle, theme was so fun and perfectly paced for me. Congrats to the constructors on it and on your wedding! My only sticking point, as was one of Rex's, was "imposter". I was convinced it had a second O and spent an inordinate amount of time trying to parse what "huos" was in the cross. Still doesn't look right to me with the E but apparently both spellings are acceptable. Live and learn. Thanks for a fun Sunday Puzzle!

Nancy 9:04 AM  

I didn't see it until I did. And one of the reasons I saw it at all is that Ross Trudeau is a pro and I didn't think he'd just be giving us a whole bunch of ROMEs. I also knew that there weren't any BI roads or ETHAN roads or AEROD roads. So I went ROAD-hunting.

I looked for them at first over the "R"s in ROME. It never occurred to me to look over the "E"s. By then, ROME is in your rear-view window. But then I noticed LANE...

Once you're over the "E"s, it's sort of like you're leaving Rome. As in ALL ROADS LEAD FROM ROME.

Oh, well. Let's not be too picky. This is still an impressive bit of construction. What's a shame, though, is that the feat is sort of invisible if you're not paying close attention. You can solve this puzzle perfectly well without noticing the theme at all. Which was my experience most of the way through.

Dan Miller 9:09 AM  

A fun alternative way to clue TRACER would be "Calvin's detective alter ego".

Teedmn 9:16 AM  

I always think it is ETHAN FROmME for some reason. I almost MUFFed it with rUin. I YelpED in pain. And I missed a key word in the 58A clue so with "Disappearing medium" in mind, thought Ink.

In the end, I successfully finished and found my way to Rome via all of the roads.

Thanks, Jessie and Ross, and congratulations on your marriage!

kenji 9:19 AM  

Maybe it's a secret that one of the newlyweds is keeping from the other (and out of print), but wouldn't it be fitting if they're (about to be) honeymooning in Rome?

Anonymous 9:22 AM  

Is Serta paying for placement, I wonder every time I see it in the grid. I started working the puzzle daily (again) only a few months ago and I think I have seen it at least 4 times in that period.

bocamp 9:23 AM  

Thx, Jessie & Ross, for an exhilarating Sun. morning trip! :)

Med.; avg time, but a bit bumpy along the way.

Slow and steady got the job done, with ALL ROADS LEADing TO a successful destination.

SkiDOO before SEADOO; PRes before PROF.

Clever theme and execution.

Enjoyed the ride. :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊

pmdm 9:24 AM  

As usual, I solved the puzzle on Saturday. I consider the puzzle theme successful only if I remember the theme after waking up on Sunday. Today, I could not remember the theme at all. So I guess I have to consider the theme, and therefore the puzzle, a fail. Doesn't bother me a bit, since I usually dislike Ross's puzzles, for whatever reason.

I had to laugh at the start of the write-up proper. Sure, the published note may be incorrect. But it really seems that Sharp goes on and on defending his observation. Sometimes his comments seem more to me that the comment is trying to justify one's reaction than simply stating the reaction and moving on. I guess I should shut up or I'll fall into exactly what it seems I'm complaining about.

Anonymous 9:28 AM  

Thus is about “worshipping” vs “worshiping”, but probably applies to the -er form too. It says American English usage is split about 50/50. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/423656/are-worshiping-and-worshipping-interchangeable/423670#423670

Anonymous 9:39 AM  

Isn’t the aphorism “It’s UP to ME” which appears 5 times going upward diagonally?

Joe Welling 9:41 AM  

It has both an ARSE and an ASS. That doesn't seem very cricket.

Pete 9:58 AM  

@Joe Di - Ditto on Dylan. Even when I wrote in BOCELLI I thought Dylan would be a better answer, and I am no Dylan fan. BOCELLI has a pretty voice, but a horribly weak voice. Paul Robeson, now he has the voice of gof. Or Ella, or Aretha, or many others who have actual depth.

I have multiple pictures of EGRETs and (Great Blue) Herons in the room I'm currently in. The pictures of the GBH document some sexually inappropriate inter-species interaction.

I wonder how much before hand they film Sunday Morning on CBS, as I assume Jane was kind of busy this weekend. I'm guessing Wednesday at the latest.

jberg 10:29 AM  

Wow! I only got half the theme. The diagonal symmetry was tricky, but when I finally figued it out I wondered why the symmetrical pair HERO WORSHIPPER/RORSCHACH CARDS were not theme answers. For some reason, it never occurred to me to look for the symmetrical partners of the ROME words. Doh!

Minor complaints: Elan means "stylish flair;" ECLAT means flashy and ostentatious, not the same thing. And while M-W gives IMPOSTER as a variant of IMPOSToR, it doesn't even mention SHEAFS. The only plural it mentions is SHEAves. Tennessee Ernie Ford agrees. I'll leave others to complain about mooring at a DOCK.

All that said, I liked the puzzle a lot, and even more after I read Rex and understood the whole theme. I don't know whether it's a bug or a feature that the revealer also works as a theme answer, but I think it's the latter.

RooMonster 10:31 AM  

Hey All !
Awesome construction. Cool diagonal symmetry to get the Themers to play nice. I was looking for something on the order of steps-to-ROME, as all the ROMEs protrude further away from the left side of the grid in a step pattern. Was wondering what all the street names were doing in the puz, until finally grokking the Revealer, then a "wow! Neat!" reaction from me.

SW and SCenter toughest spots for me. Filled in last letter, then the Almost There popped up! Argh! Not wanted to scan the entire puz looking for a mistake I probably wouldn't find anyway, I hit Check Puzzle to see I had an L at APHIL/LOCK instead of the correct D. Dang. I was thinking of a possible person's name for 1D, not a plague. Never read Rosebud. Shocking, I know. And LOCK, possible answer for Moor.

ANKH, my old friend, where've you been hiding? ST LEO, tripped me up quite a bit. Wanted a single name there. Off the B of BOCELLI, I originally wrote in Beyonce. Is that blasphemy? Never knew the Simpsons actual Street name, but having VEEPS already in, staved me off of putting Springfield in immediately.

A fun SunPuz. Nice way to get your theme to work. Puz makers marrying. Good stuff. Congrats!

yd -2 (on a small list!)(One miss was the P. Unsure if I would've got it or not eventually, but), should'ves 2

Seven F's, Nice!
RooMonster
DarrinV

Anonymous 10:31 AM  

Flipped a coin between DISK/ORK and DISC/ORC. Lost the toss

Anonymous 10:33 AM  

I enjoyed this one … clever theme. I was slightly thrown off by the reference to “visual” in the themer clue. I had already noticed the appearance of Rome and how it led to difference roads. But I kept wondering if there was another “aha” moment in the visual construction of the grid. Is it an aerial view of Rome, etc.? I finally gave up on that … the theme was interesting enough without having to add stick figures of Romulus and Remus into the mix …

Daveyhead 10:34 AM  

Everybody knows that the voice of God was Ray Charles.

Anonymous 10:40 AM  
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Blue Stater 10:58 AM  

An easy, lazy, uninteresting puzzle, artificially toughened up with mistakes, as pointed out by OFL, and stretchers. It's the WS way, sigh....

BobL 11:07 AM  

Dylan? Really?

Geezer 11:13 AM  

The revealer was clumsy and awkwardly worded. @Rex's suggestion, "Aphorism represented visually by five answers in this puzzle" is much better but I would excise "visually" as well. What is that supposed to mean?

"Aphorism represented by five answers in this puzzle" seems sufficient and clear.

Anonymous 11:22 AM  

"Ultimate needs" are DISCS? HUH?!!

sixtyni yogini 11:26 AM  

How about ALLROADS - in this 🧩 - LEADTOROME, 🦖? Worked for me. 🤗

Liked this one. And loved having BORAT show up. That movie was wicked funny (but not mean-spirited IMHO - like S.B. Cohen’s other pics.)

My only nit was that HEROWORSHIPPER answer neither contained or led to a iROME. 🤷‍♀️😞🤷‍♀️

Some clever clues and the aphorism brought the puzzle pieces together.
Yes, easy - but not the usual Sunday bore.
So hooray Sunday!
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗

Monicat 11:36 AM  



I saw Rome in 22A aeRO going up into 16A proMo and 1 A acrEs.

I though I had missed something, but I see no mention of it here.

Oh well.

egsforbreakfast 11:37 AM  

The sobriquet “Voice of God” REFERs to Leonard Cohen
The sobriquet “Voice of God” applies to Leonard Cohen.

The clue works for me.

My daughter in law graduated from Evergreen State College a few weeks ago, whicjh is also Matt Greenig’s alma mater, so I was confident that EVERGREEN street/road/TERRACE had to be on the right path.

How does a fella get his gal across the lake?
HEROWORSHIPPER.

I’m slightly shocked to find the FRAGRANCE of the Queen’s ARSE in the AIR.

Pretty nifty, though easy, puzzle. Congratulations Jessie and Ross Trudeau. I hope that all went well when you METAT the altar today.

Anonymous 11:38 AM  

Anon 11:22,
Ugh. You’ve given our resident blowhard an opening.
Ultimate is the absurd name of a game which involves throwing a flying disc.
Otherwise known as a frisbee.
Don’t let anyone tell you different.

Carolita 11:40 AM  

For those who did not see apply (to) as refer. How about, I don't think that comment applies/refers to you?

Could someone please explain how discs are ultimate needs? Are these spinal discs?

Loved the theme. Only saw the Romes and got it through that, but love the addition of the street names leading to the Romes. So clever!!

Congrats to the Trudeaus (or should it be Trudeaux?) on your nuptials and a really clever puzzle.

Now, on to surviving the heat.

David Rome 11:45 AM  

Not sure why, but I really enjoyed this puzzle

Anonymous 11:56 AM  

There IS something off about Apply (to)/REFER. Can't be lawyered away.

Anonymous 12:02 PM  

ultimate frisbee

ZJD 12:10 PM  

Found this one very easy. Got all the down themers first time through and then had enough down crosses to see the revealer and just dutifully plugged in my ROMEs. Only trouble I had was in the center where KARYN crosses NODE which crosses SEADOO. I eventually got NODE but the other two were utterly unfamiliar to me. Still just saved them for last and then had enough context fill to slot them in. So yeah, aggressively fine puzzle. Not great, but not the dumpster fire that was last Sunday.

Wordler 12:13 PM  

I liked the puzzle well enough but didn't get the theme until I read @Rex.

I had a better day at Wordle.

Wordle 400 2/6

⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Luck all the way. There were multiple options for the eagle attempt.

Beezer 12:18 PM  

@Joaquin pretty much summed it up today for me. As for the aphorism controversy…what? Am I missing something but don’t ALLROADS (inthepuzzle) LEAD TO ROME? Oh well, nit-picking is at its finest on this blog.

Immediately thought of @Zed when I filled in DISCS….

For whatever reason PPP that involves history, art, and music does not bother me because if I don’t know it, I probably should and I end up learning something! The PPP may have been a little high (I really have never paid much attention) but it seemed fair.

Anonymous 12:34 PM  

There are color in some of the Rorschach cards. Makes the clue really stupid

Gary Jugert 12:46 PM  

I opened the puzzle up and thought, "Oh geez, look at all those little words," but then I dove in and the challenge took over and lots of fun work ensued and plenty of sparkle showed up. Delighted to report I fought the battle and won without Uncle G and it feels pretty good. Plenty of times things looked bleak, but then something wriggled loose, and poof, another small section done. Took longer than usual, but I never lost hope. Uma saves the day again.

Side note #1: Remember yesterday when we threw a community conniption over AMIRITE? Remember that? Right spelled Rite! The WORST sign of society's decline and further evidence we should chase WS out of town with flaming pitch forks. Well, today we have the correctly spelled IMPUGN. Go ahead and tell me how that spelling doesn't cause shivers of exasperation. Pugnare! Bah!

Side note #2: So often on Sundays, when dreaming up my barely sensible uniclues for which I have become overly enamored, four word spanners almost never make any sense and as such early week puzzles are more fun to clue. The biggest tragedy of Sundays is I'm often forced to abandon really delightful moments as they can't be cobbled side to side. Today, sitting in plain sight is NERD TRIALS with two unfortunate words preceeding, so it gets dumped. BUT we have @Nancy reading this blog (and our constructor's too no doubt), so in the interest of partial uniclue answers, let me admit the bloodbath of clues for NERD TRIALS floating in my noggin, and now you're coming up with clues too, AMIRITE?

Uniclues:

1 Exotic birds who love Marilyn Monroe.
2 Overly enthused opera critic lauds Alpine singer.
3 Exhausted officer manager directs assistant to instruct the heavy-set wrestler on how to fix the Xerox machine.
4 Smartest dude in Bart's neighborhood.

1 HERO WORSHIPPER EGRETS
2 "YODELS BEFIT VERONA"
3 "TEACH SUMO GUY TONER"
4 EVERGREEN TERRACE PROF

CDilly52 12:52 PM  

I’m with @Roo and @Nancy on today’s theme. This is my favorite type of Sunday (with maybe fewer names) - a big fat interesting looking grid and a theme that hides and reveals itself slowly until I figure out the whole thing.

My solve actually tracked with my theme discovery. I worked my way down the left side of the puzzle and saw that I was expanding to the east the farther towards the bottom I got. The reveal dropped in easily and I saw the oh so clever step pattern and thought “there’s more somehow because this is Ross Trudeau after all.” Sure enough, when I put in PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE as a down and it joined up with the E in ROME, I got it! Looked back to see what the other road answers were doing. Turns out Penn Ave is the only toad I actually went all the way “down.” I noticed TERRACE as I filled in its last few letters but the shorter roads “down” which our newlyweds intended us to tread had alas been filled in on my trip “across” the grid. The result was my favorite type of theme discovery: looked for after the fact and delightedly surprised upon its discovery.

I won’t repeat gripes already made about sloppy editing, but will say that I echo sentiments of @Joe Di and @Ken Freeland in that regard. The editing staff do such a shameful disservice to constructors as brilliant and clever as ours today by failing to provide the final polish that would allow this work of art to sparkle like the true gem it is.

Congrats to Ross and Jessie Trudeau on a marvel of construction that while quite easy was nonetheless enjoyable and surprising. May your marriage bring you joy and surprises and a life together that gets better and better with age.

Anonymous 12:58 PM  

I think the reason for the fiance/husband discrepancy is because, theoretically, the print edition is long-lasting and dated on Sunday. Jessie and Ross Trudeau got married on Saturday night, so on Sunday, he is her husband. The print edition IMO should contain his status as of Sunday, even though it is printed earlier than that.

The online version came out before they got married, so at the time when people were reading that, he was her fiance. I wonder if they will update that reference now that they are presumably married (and congratulations to them!).

Masked and Anonymous 1:05 PM  

On the one hand, cool ahar moment, when I finally reached the revealer.
On the other hand, kinda humorless/ergo dull solvequest, along the looong SunPuz way to there.

Primo lopsided puzgrid symmetry, with a prominent (Rorschach?) blob in the SE corner. Is it perhaps the arrowhead for the diagonal black squares, sorta pointin down toward the revealer?

Congratz to the Trudeaus on their marriage. So far, the Trudeaus have produced, together or individually, 52 NYTPuzs -- all themed! I admire their exquisite predilections to goin the themed route. [i.e., all roads lead to themes]

staff weeject pick: Tough call for the staff, due to there bein 34 of the lil ainjels to choose from. Kinda partial to VIV, who spear-headed a long list of M&A no-know people name entries.
honrable mention to OPI, which M&A successfully remembered from another of its recent puz appearance.

Impressive revealer/PENNSYLVANIAAVENUE meetin at the ROME NODE. Two intricately-related 18-longballers, crossin at the big blob. Like.

Thanx for gangin up on us, and for makin it legal, to the Trudeau constructioneerin couple.

Masked & Anonym007Us


**gruntz**

pabloinnh 1:12 PM  

I thought this was fine for a Sunday, especially after I went back and found all the ROMES. Ecce! I said, trying for some kind of Latin reaction.

Tried SKIDOO, as they are common here in the winter, and wondered why SKI would be in the answer when it was in the clue. Turns out that actually, it wasn't.

I think I saw somewhere that the Simpsons live in Springfield because it is the most common name for a town or city in the US.

As for OFL's dismissal of FORK, I think he should stick a tack in it, it's done.

And I made the acquaintance of both KARYN and DREA today. Always nice to meet new crossword friends.

Nice work and impressive construction, and hearty congrats to you both, JT and RT. As a veteran of nearly fifty two years of marriage, I can tell you that it Just Takes Really Trying. Thanks for all the fun.

Joe Dipinto 1:14 PM  

@Unknown 11:07 – I hardly think Bob Dylan is the "voice of God". But the idea of God's voice sounding like Bob Dylan's is pretty funny.

SharonAk 1:27 PM  

Dif someone came up with a way that apply (to) can possibly be refer I would be amazed
Too busy today to read all the comments.
I was very surprised at the easy rating. I found it the most difficult for ages. Partly all the names I did not know.
Did not catch the roads leading down to the romes. Partly because I was unfamiliar with Mass like and Evergreen... and PennyLane
so was only seeing Penn Ave and rodeo Dr. as roads
Now off to google some recordings by Boccelli

Anonymous 1:35 PM  

The second thing a proofreader/editor ought to check is the usage of "scheduled"

"How about getting together this weekend?"

"let's see... [checks calendar] ; hmm, looks like I'm getting married then. Let me try and move some things around and get back to you."

In any case, congrats to the newlyweds!

SFR 1:52 PM  

I suspect Her Majesty would say 'bottom' not ARSE ... unless the clue is referring to rock rather than royalty.

Ken Freeland 2:18 PM  

Obviously they are both in your wheelhouse, even of not your bailiwick. Anytime two PPP answers that are not common knowledge cross paths, they constitute a natick!

Anonymous 2:23 PM  

Know of no comp language that includes OR, just ELSE. A few make you say ELSE IF.

Anonymous 2:30 PM  

For some time Frisbee was a trademark (still is, I guess) for the Wham-o! product. Just as one isn't allowed to say 'Super Bowl', thus Big Game, the generic DISC (which drives the vulgate crazy, since they spell it DISK) is used.

"The term frisbee is often used generically to describe all flying discs, but Frisbee is a registered trademark of the Wham-O toy company.[2] This protection results in organized sports such as ultimate or disc golf having to forgo use of the word "Frisbee".[3][4]"
-- the wiki

Matthew B 2:55 PM  

Frisbee... Ultimate Frisbee

thefogman 2:58 PM  

Does Rex have a thing against Ross Trudeau? I thought this was one of the best Sundays in ages. Creative theme that was fun to solve. I don’t get his nitpicky criticism of the reveal. I think it works just fine. I guess if you micro-dissect anything you are bound to find flaws. And yes, there are some flaws. But the overall solving experience is what matters most and this one gets an A+ on that front.

Anonymous 3:30 PM  

I probably wouldn’t have thought of ‘aphid’ if it hadn’t recently been a Wordle answer.

Anonymous 3:30 PM  

First thing that popped into my head when reading the clue for 94D was, "Bert Convy?".

Anoa Bob 4:31 PM  

I often don't finish Sunday puzzles due to loss of interest and solver fatigue. Hey, those are huge grids, right? Today I made it all the way to the end so that is a sincere sign that the puzzle was an enjoyable one for me .

Okay, this old sailor will pick up the gauntlet thrown down by jberg @10:29. There are three main ways to secure a water borne vessel. To DOCK (31A) is when a vessel is tied up to a pier or maybe in between two piers. To moor is when the vessel is tied up to a mooring buoy. And to anchor is when the vessel drops its anchor overboard and sets it into the sea bed. Nautically speaking, each of those is unique. Only a landlubber would conflate them. The NYTXW does it regularly.

The RORSCHACH ink blots were a spin-off of late 19th century Freudian psychoanalytic theory. They were designed to bypass the guardian of the subconscious, the ego, and get the test taker to reveal their hidden feelings, desires, fears, fixations, etc., by "projecting" them into their interpretations of the ambiguous patterns. But RORSCHACH CARDS, like Freud's theory, never stood up to scientific verification and were jettisoned by main stream psychiatry and psychology by mid 20th century. They may make for a fun parlor game these days but that's about it.

The Joker 5:15 PM  

I've seen those Rorschach things. Most of them are animals f***ing.

Anonymous 5:33 PM  

I don’t believe “rosebud” refers to Citizen Kane at all. It refers to the buds on a rose bush, which can be decimated by aphids.

Pete 5:57 PM  

@egs - When exactly did "sobriquet" come to mean "antithesis of"?

Newboy 6:00 PM  

I’m only 12 hours late to second @Joaquin’s 2:33AM comment, but I only came to the Sunday NYTXW parade after dropping by Mr. & Mrs. Trudeau inaugural grid at Rossword. I suspect they will forgive my tardy slip. I’m certainly willing to forgive some quirky fill and clueing to get the multiple layers of AHA that made today’s puzzle peel away like an onion! Like @Anoa, I often take a partial/full pass on Sunday slogs, but today’s dynamic duo was an irresistible attraction.

Had to duck duck go for KAR?N as the final square — Y oh Y he YOWLED🤕

Adding a handful of virtual rice for the happy couple.


Beezer 6:26 PM  

Lol @anon 3:30 pm! And I honestly can say I thought he was a nice game show host…

The Joker 7:55 PM  

Did anybody else get the joke describing 96D as a woman ?

Anonymous 7:56 PM  

@The Joker:

we should all greet like a bonobo.

egsforbreakfast 8:43 PM  

@Pete 5:57 pm. Quite recently. In a 6-3 SCOTUS decision that also made it legal for a fetus to carry a concealed weapon.

Anonymous 9:19 PM  

oh @egs, your such a card!!

Anonymous 9:46 PM  

Egs,
That’s precisely the glib nonsense that will cost the Dems the House and Senate this Fall, but the White House in 24.
Enjoy your ephemeral happiness

egsforbreakfast 10:56 PM  

@Anonymous 9:46. And enjoy your eternal damnation, as well.

Anonymous 11:07 PM  

@Anonymous 9:46 Thank goodness

Anonymous 11:45 PM  

I think Rorschach Cards doesn’t show up on your suggested searches because you search watchmen terms. It’s the fourth suggested term for me

crackblind 12:32 AM  

Always glad to see a professor teach Watchmen. And thanks for the clip from Aretha Live at the Fillmore West. It's an amazing album and I highly recommend it's companion, King Curtis Live at the Fillmore West. Curtis' band was the opening act as well as backing up Aretha during her set. He did an incredible cover of Whiter Shade of Pale that night which was used over the opening credits of Withnail & I.

Anonymous 6:40 AM  

The voice of God, IMO, is Elizabeth Fraser. Also, weren’t the Uruk-hai actually half orc and half human?

Anonymous 12:13 PM  

FWIW, the Jumble for July 8 covered similar ground
https://fun.chicagotribune.com/game/tca-jumble-daily?categoryId=jumble&external=true

Anonymous 6:48 PM  

If you ship something, you're a shipper. If you worship something, you're a worshipper. I don't know what's so British about that. You wouldn't spell it "shiper," for God's sake!

Anonymous 8:40 PM  

ultimate needs = discs as Frisbees ("discs") are needed for the sport of Ultimate.

kitshef 5:03 PM  

All birds have s-shaped necks.

ghostoflectricity 8:50 PM  

Thursday finish for Sunday Xword here. Being not particularly well-versed in current NFL players and with a deepening pessimism about human civilization, I had the cross of DEKE and DOOMER before ZEKE and ZOOMER. Was I the only one?

A Moderator 6:54 PM  

@Syndicated Solvers - I have no idea why your comments are not showing up. Blogger claims they are “published” but they are not appearing here.

Anonymous 11:22 AM  

117d: I think it's half ASSED, not half ASS, isn't it?

spacecraft 12:39 PM  

Slogsville. The excessively weird grid shape allows for huge entries both across and down--but it also chops...no, let's say dices the rest of it into far too many 3's and 4's. The clue set looks like a book.

The theme is admittedly very clever, but the journey over those ROADS gets very bumpy in several places. Of course I had RORSCHACHtestS like virtually everyone else. CARDS: well OK, they're a thing, just NOT what you think after that name. Also, "Don't be that___!" is gonna be WAY 99.9% of the time. Major misdirect there.

On the way down, I did notice the ROME string with AERODROME and ETHANFROME, but at the time I put it down to coincidence. The revealer did provide an eye-opener, a genuine aha! moment. I'll give it that. It was just too sloggy for me. Par.

Followed up my ace with an anticlimactic par.

Burma Shave 1:52 PM  

FORK BEFIT ROAD

From PENNSYLVANIA to PENNYLANE,
FRETNOT the GLOBE is home,
you'll DRIVE each PIKE, I'm TOLD, in vain,
since ALLROADSLEADTOROME.

PROF. DREA BOCELLI

rondo 2:16 PM  

@spacey - congrats on the wordle ace. I missed yesterday and birdie today.
The puz seemed tougher but more interesting than a usual Sunday. I noted the endings of SYNDROME and AERODROME but not that the ROADS led to them. It took some time today but I didn't mind.

Diana, LIW 6:31 PM  

I sound this to be the most normal and doable puzzle of the week - that's something for a Sunday!

Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords

Cross@words 1:40 PM  

You will see that my claim is correct if you refer to (apply) theorem X.

Brett Alan 2:37 AM  

Couldn't get the theme until I got to the revealer. It worked for me.

I do agree about IMPOSTOR SYNDROME being the preferred spelling. And it would have been easy enough to do--change HUES to "Ins. organizations" and BEAU to "ray of light". Or something more clever, but I think you've improved the puz that way. This wasn't my only kealoa--I was stuck on YIKES or yipes for a while, and, well, not technically a kealoa but I didn't know whether the Peace Prize winner was from IRAN or Iraq, but it wasn't hard to figure that the q didn't work. Oh, and MERGED or melded, but it turned out MELDS was lurking elsewhere. And I guess the whole "what comes after RORSCHACH?" was a big kealoa too. Other than that, it was a kick-ass puz.

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