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Scottish island home to Fingal's cave / WED 7-20-22 / Popular comic strip about a 17-year-old high school student / Comment after a swish / Poem with about 16,000 lines / Doing some mess hall duty in army lingo / Late to a Harvard Lampoon meeting / Rapper with the double platinum album Hardcore / Commercial mascot whose name sounds like that of its company
Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Constructor: Josh Kindler
Relative difficulty: Mediumish, though felt like slow going for me
Theme answers:
- DOC ("dark") COMEDY (17A: Jokes at Massachusetts General Hospital?)
- MISSING THE MOCK ("mark") (28A: Late to a Harvard Lampoon meeting?)
- PICK A COD ("card"), ANY COD (44A: Invitation at Beantown fish markets?)
- LOAN SHOCK ("shark") (58A: Unexpectedly high interest rate for a borrower from a Boston bank?)
Staffa (Scottish Gaelic: Stafa, pronounced [ˈs̪t̪afa], from the Old Norse for stave or pillar island) is an island of the Inner Hebrides in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The Vikings gave it this name as its columnar basalt reminded them of their houses, which were built from vertically placed tree-logs.
Staffa lies about 10 kilometres (6 miles) west of the Isle of Mull; its area is 33 hectares (82 acres) and the highest point is 42 metres (138 feet) above sea level.
The island came to prominence in the late 18th century after a visit by Sir Joseph Banks. He and his fellow-travellers extolled the natural beauty of the basalt columns in general and of the island's main sea cavern, which Banks renamed 'Fingal's Cave'. Their visit was followed by those of many other prominent personalities throughout the next two centuries, including Queen Victoria and Felix Mendelssohn. The latter's Hebrides Overture brought further fame to the island, which was by then uninhabited. It is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. (wikipedia)
• • •
I studied abroad in Scotland and have been there a couple times since and yet I have never heard of STAFFA. My wife is from New Zealand, which has a fern as its national symbol, and yet I have never heard of a FERNERY. These two facts made the STAFFA / FERNERY crossing ... interesting. Luckily, I was able to infer(n) FERNERY because, well, "ferns" are plants and plants are what you'd find at a "botanical garden," tada. Still, kind of a wicked cross for any day, let alone a Wednesday. I got bad vibes off the grid right away when it opened with ZITI / ZOD. Not that I mind that particular cross—it's great. But ... my thought was "oh, no, someone's gonna get enamored of crooked letters and the Scrabble-f***ing is gonna get unbearable." And, well, no Qs or Js, so Scrabble-f***ing wasn't really the problem, but the fill was a bit UGH throughout. ONKP is a real warning sign (very old skool). IPOS IPSO, MORRIE NONCOM, ABES OCHRE, UAE YAYS (plural?) ... really that whole SE corner, just dripping with gunky fill. No idea why you go with LEW / WILE over, say, LET / TILE. Is that "W" so important to you?? You really narrow your cluing options with the "W." You also get options that take you way way out of common speech. A single WILE? One of like two or three famous LEWs that ever existed (or, in the case of LEW Archer, "existed")? LET / TILE may seem "more boring" but it's so much cleaner and allows for so many many many more kinds of clues: straightforward, funny, hard, easy, whatever. LEW / WILE just backs you into an ugly corner. As I say, I don't get it.
 |
| FERNERY |
- 29D: 1990 #1 rap hit that ends "too cold, too cold" ("ICE, ICE, BABY") — the one answer in the puzzle (besides the double COD one) that I can really get behind. A lovable low point in rap history. Curious to see Vanilla Ice and LIL KIM in the same grid, but apparently they've shared the stage before: at a Gathering of the Juggalos in 2010 (still waiting to see JUGGALO(S) in my grid, #NYTXW editors, come on!)
- 4D: Facing ruin, say (IN CRISIS) — this answer and "NICE SHOT!" give the grid some pep as well. The short stuff kinda LIMPS today, but the longer stuff does alright.
- 53A: Waves, perhaps (SAYS "HI") — I had LAPSAT ... because waves ... lap at ... the shore?
- 63A: ___ O's (breakfast cereal) (OREO) — I like how this answer sits above TATS. Only the hardest of hardcore crossword fans ... or OREO fans, I guess ... would get OREO TATS. Gonna search the internet for OREO TATS now, pray for my eyes ... oh these aren't so bad. Some of them appear to be pet memorial tattoos :(
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114 comments:
What Rex said. STAFFA? I was wondering who ST. AFFA might be. The patron saint of alfalfa maybe?
Didn't know General ZOD and didn't get DOC COMEDY until well into the solve. Guessed at D and typed it in "pencil." Other than that a normal Wednesday.
What’s the rule for repeat answers in the grid? We had both ICEICEBABY and ICET.
Also as a native Bostonian, the COD answer certainly has thematic relevance as our most important fish, but Rex is right — the accent is more high palate “cahd” than frontal “cod”, which I associate more with a New York accent.
None of these theme answers have anything to do with what a Boston accent sounds like. This is more like a Brooklyn accent. Also: enough with the Boston accent theme. It's so overdone and nobody gets it right. Example: this crossword.
This is a Brooklyn accent. Also: enough already with the Boston accent theme. It’s completely overdone and no one gets it right. Ever.
Would like to state for the record that there was never any need to grow the OREO brand with any other version of ersatz Oreos which are now to numerous to mention. With the exception of maybe oreo ice cream sandwiches. Hmmf.
Having grown up in the Greater Boston area, I agree with all above... they could have called this a New York accent-themed puzzle and it would have been closer to the mark. Yuck.
ATTN: NYT Xword editors. Nothing better than this in the queue? Really? For shame!
Variation on a theme - again. This has some decent fill with just enough NUANCE and overall kept me interested. Like both of the long downs. No idea on STAFFA but the crosses were fair.
The Botanical Gardens has a great hardy FERN area.
KRONOS Quartet covering Pete Seeger
Enjoyable Wednesday solve.
As Rex noted, and some of the commenters above, this puzzle is... puzzling... because people hear pronunciations differently. As a native Philadelphian, I learned this "Are you from Philly?" test early in life: Say these three words--merry, marry, Mary. If each word is pronounced differently, congrats and have a cheesesteak. But many people, in the Midwest for example, pronounce and hear all three words the same. So as someone who hears "cahd" from a Bostonian, not "cod," I had a hard time with this one.
Also thought the difficulty level was high for a Wednesday: STAFFA, ZOD, SHRUBS instead of HEDGES...
Yipes! This felt like a crash after enjoying the past few days of what I thought were delightful puzzles. I lived an hour outside of Boston for a decade, and it's pahk the cahr, not pock! Trying to give the puzzle a fair shake, though, I slogged on, only to stumble into STAF_FA/_ _ _NERY. No idea. I've been in a Garden Club for over a decade, and we tour estates and botanical gardens several times a year; haven't come across a FERNERY yet, though I did see an orangerie once. They had all the trees in huge "tubs", for lack of a better description, on wheels, and they needed to be rolled in and out of a huge greenhouse seasonally, or as the weather dictated. And it just didn't get more joyful after that. Some were my mistake, like thinking that 28D was MORlEY(lower case L) at first, and 58D was Lou, not LEW. But 56D, ORA was a complete blank. Of course by the time I got that far down, I had lost all will to finish, so I'm not even going to bother looking her up now. (Well, maybe later, because some of those Brit pop stars are brilliant and should get more playtime in the U.S. market). I could not see the PICKACOD.... themer at all, and then not really enjoy it. Shame, since, as @Rex states, it is a kind of make-you-smile answer. The not so make-me-smile answers for me included OKBYME over KOS; never am sure about how to spell YAYS;and really most of those 3ers, OPI, UAE, IDA, MRI, USC... . Just too much non-word fill for an iffy payoff. My other nits: not sure HOBBLES = LIMPS, but I can see a person hobbling barefoot over gravel and it could look like limping, I guess. And 53A SAYS HI = WAVES? One clearly is a gesture, the other a verbalization. If I wave at someone, I could just as well be warning them off something, like maybe this puzzle. Wait, that last was just me being grumbly because I struggled with the puzz and thought it just wasn't as smooth and lively as the last few.
Lovely fun puzzle from start to finish. Just delighted as funny clues kept rolling through and with a bit of patience even the tough unknowns like ZOD, MUMBAI, and LI'L KIM revealed themselves. I did research Pavlov's first name and the Scottish island. Who can keep track of all these isles and their random tourist attractions?
The theme is cute. They got easier the further down the rabbit hole I went. Assuming the super wise among us will squeak, "That's an East Rutherford, New Jersey accent! I know Boston accents, and this ain't it." But honestly, being from Colorado, this is close enough for the bit.
Yays:
I basically love everything here even with a little bit of sludge, because the rest of the fill is first rate.
The three (!) rap answers were mainstream and guess-able so hopefully not too much grumbling over those.
Uniclues:
1 View from a top-down convertible ride share.
2 The cast of Scrubs (if it had been funny).
3 Potted plants doing the dishes.
4 Comment to out-of-control weeds.
5 Probably unwelcome Ouija board salutation.
6 Cookie in the Terminator franchise.
7 Indian lizard.
8 Photographer's compliment to Queen Bee.
1 OPEN UBER VISTA
2 DOC COMEDY ALUMS
3 SHRUBS ON KP
4 I RESIGN FERNERY
5 BOZO SAYS HI
6 ROBOT EPIC OREO
7 MUMBAI GECKO
8 LI'L KIM, NICE SHOT
It would be extremely difficult to capture any accent accurately in an xword and I would take offense only if it were done incorrectly on my own (but, ya know, with my perfect diction well...) All I know about Boston accents I learned from MASH, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. If you're out there reading fellas, feel free to weigh in.
Rough beginning. Doc Comedy held me up because I shoved Doctor in there prematurely and then thought maybe it was some Doc Com thing.
Wanted Herbery for Fernery, knowing full well it should be Herbarium but since accuracy doesn't matter to the NYT... As a real coincidence, Herb Fernery is my CPA. Actually I just made that up but it sounds true.
The Pac-12 has only had football championships since 2011. Oregon has won the most, with 4. Go Ducks!
I didn't catch on until PICKACODANYCOD. which made things obvious, and nothing more obvious than all the Mass/Boston references in the clues. I'm blaming all this heat. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Had LAMES for LIMPS for too long, which was not helpful. Good old LEW didn't bother me though, because it felt good to remember his name after not thinking about him in, well, forever.
The last F in the STAFFA/FERNERY cross was a logical assumption which proved to be correct when I looked at the answer, so I gave myself my own version of happy music, since I solve on paper. Today it was "Separation Blues", which I am relearning. Fun song.
Always nice to see two rappers and a rap song in one puzzle, except for seeing two rappers and a rap song in the same puzzle.
And FWIW, that was the most annoying coverage of an All Star game I've ever seen. Three innings and out for me.
Well that was a total dud, JK. Ha ha, Just Kidding. Close enough to a Boston accent for me (see Joaquin's Dictum) and thanks for all the fun.
It's really more of a Klingon accent.
Didn't mind the theme, got the gimmick and just went with the flow. Unfortunately, we may get as many as 100 comments opining on the validity of the "accent" as if it were truly of any social or political import.
No wheelhouse to be found for me today with the trivial including ZOD, ORA, KRONOS. ZITS, LEW, OPI, HORA, STAFFA et al.
Personally, I'm definitely not a fan of the sub-theme which appears to be a celebration of vulgarity, violence and misogyny with the inclusion of two rap "artists" and the celebration of a rap song about someone getting gunned down in the streets. Still don't know how/why the NYT Xword puzzle attracts that kind of constituency - but it must exist because that type of content is welcome there pretty much on a daily basis.
Wadded this one up, threw it at Nancy’s Wall, tore it into little pieces and gave it to Rip to take to the train station. I think I will try making a cutesy crossword with a theme based on a Texas accent or Alabama or Mississippi. It would be about as appealing to the people in Boston as this one was to me.
I have a dog (Bubba) that this little girl at the farmers market calls OREO, has for years, as he's white with black patches and ticking. We've been looking for another dog, and found one actually named OREO because she's white with black patches and ticking. We (wife, Bubba, me) would like to meet this girl to see if we all fit together. Unfortunately, Oreo is in the hands of a vanity rescue, so we have to submit he pre-application application (no, not a typo), have our references checked, get our vet to submit to a consultation, have a home visit even before we can àpply. Only then (if we pass) can we actually meet the dog, and see where in the range of $800 to $1500 her adoption fee falls.
@Anon 8:22. You are correct if you count only the championships since playoffs began in 2011. Prior to that The championship was determined by the best winning record for the season. By that criterion USC, at 37, has more than twice as many as the team with the second most. USC is correct for clue as written.
THIS WILL GIVE DETAILS
I moved around the country a lot as a child (~ every 3 years) and learned to become a language chameleon quite quickly.
We moved to to a town about 20 miles south of Boston when I was in fourth grade.
One aspect of the Bahston accent missing in the video and comments here is the substitution of an "er" to the ends of words ending in an "a".
When we were reviewing the continents, this came into sharp relief:
North and South America(er), Asia(er), Africa(er), Antarctica(er).
My favorite example though was a fellow student whose name was Tina Turner (not the famous one, this was 1974)
Her name when pronounced by my teacher had the suffixes reversed and became Tina(er) Turnah.
Shouldn’t the clue be chair lift (with space), not chairlift?
Liked it - it kept me puzzling all the way down to the fish market. I had DOC COMEDY without any inkling why it might be right, and the following MOCK didn't enlighten me. So, COD was a triple winner, finally making me notice we we'd been in Boston all along, getting me the accent theme, and making me laugh. That one was definitely worth the puzzle. And I enjoyed having a Wednesday theme that kept me in the dark for a good while.
@Those who know the Boston accent - I'm afraid that to this Midwesterner, "cahd" and "cod" sound exactly the same.
@Zed 6:17 - I was astonished to learn from @Rex that it's not ST. AFFA.
@JD 8:10 - Me, too, for writing in hERbERY, for the same reason.
Thx, Josh, for the Boston treat! :)
Hard.
Toughest Wednes. puz in a long time. 2x avg.
Honestly thot I might not get this one, but lucked out in the end, finishing with STAFFA.
Took far too long to suss out the theme.
Nevertheless, enjoyed the challenge! :)
@pabloinnh yd; yw :)
Looks like Tim publishes a Freestyle every 3 or 4 days (at least so far this month). Also, has an archive going back to 2014.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Maddening when I didn't know the pop culture answers and joyless when I did. I spent most of the puzzle MISSING THE MOCK in both senses because I was too busy wrestling with the villain and the rapper and the dance and the pop star and the "too, too cold" rap hit and the nail polish.
Finally I realized the Boston accent punnery that was going on. Is punnery any relation to a FERNERY? There's such a thing as a FERNERY? I mean I've heard of ferns, but...
I got the LIL half of LIL KIM because, for reasons quite unknown to me, all rappers seem to dub themselves LIL something-or-others. It signals a near terminal lack of imagination, I'd argue.
But now I had VI??? for "there might be a good one on top of a mountain." Without a moment's hesitation, I wrote in VILLA.
Look, you can have what you want at the top of that mountain after climbing the damn thing for two days and I'll have what I want. Also up there, I hope, would be a really strong VodkA martini.
OK, BYE. I've had enough of your WILE (missing plural?)for one morning.
@Pete. Interesting story. I never heard the term "vanity rescue". Sounds awful. I volunteer at an animal shelter(no kill). We do adoption by application and look for suitable match ups based on a handful of criteria but it's a pretty simple process. Fee is about $200 for a dog and somewhat less for a cat. For that fee an adopter gets an animal that has been spayed or neutered, tested for disease, has all shots, flea and tick treatment and an implanted microchip. We also provide follow follow up services to ensure a successful placement.
Count me among those who demur on this being a Boston accent.
Sorry to leave you with these, but...
-- 30D: Boston MOB boss's reference to any women but Tony Soprano's wife?
-- 61A: Exhortation to the Simpson kid participating in Head of the Charles?
-- 39D: What Philip Seymour Hoffman's character might have said if "Along Came Polly" were set in Southie?
I know, I know -- UGH!
Just stopped in to say hi.
"Ock" is probably the best you could do for a Boston accent x-word theme using real words. How many words have "ahk" in them? It certainly doesn't suggest a Brooklyn accent to me.
Thoughts on 46d.
Ok, bye.
I think it was yesterday I was looking at a map of Scottish islands to see how close IONe was to SKYE, and noticed that Fingal's Cave was on the map. Sadly, I neglected to note which island it was on, so I needed all the crosses.
I've lived in Boston since 1964, but still sport my Midwestern accent. More to the point, that are about a bazillion different Boston accents, depending on an individual's ethnic background and history. I didn't get it until I got to the COD (which has been virtually unavailable for several years, though numbers are now increasing).
Geez, I came here today to see how Hobbies = LIMPS only to discover it was "hobbles", not "hobbies". The LEW/WILE/OPI mess was tough for me too
ziti is not an alternative to manicotti; ravioli or cannelloni are cheese filled pastas which could be alternatives to manicotti.
@Carola, Thank you!
Hey All !
Theme got a small chuckle out of me. Wondering was Bostonians think of this theme.
We all think we don't have accents (raises hand), but to some others, we do. I used to drive limousines, I had a lady once ask me if I was from Pennsylvania. I said, "yes, how'd you know?", and she said from your accent. I didn't think Pennsylvanians had accents. Well, maybe Philly. 😁
One letter DNF. Dang. Had ZOg. Would've put money on ZOg, not ZOD. Even though no clue what gOC COMEDY could possibly mean. What a BOZO.
Puz has an intro and an outro. SAYS HI/OK BYE. Neat. Also noticed B's seemed to pop up frequently. There's 6, seemed more. My odd letter-noticing "talent". Har.
yd -5, should'ves 0, dang, first time the ones I missed more than likely wouldn't have got.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I was at Newark airport recently waiting for a flight to Paris. It was delayed and delayed. I went up to the desk for an update and I noticed a guy who looked like David Blaine standing next to me. Couldn't be. Then I noticed he had a deck of cards in his hand. I said "David Blaine?" and I swear he said "Pick a card, any card" and fanned the deck infront of me. He then proceeded to do three card tricks just for me. Each one was increasingly mindblowing. It was awesome
Anon 7:42,
Marry, Mary, and merry are good ways to suss out a Philadelphian. But why use three words when one will do?
Water (pronounced wudder) is a dead giveaway. So is Gasoline (gazzoleen).
As for fictional St. Affa. Well, any self respecting Philadelphian knows St. Asaph's road. ( I suppose any Welshman knows St Asaph as well).
Seen this theme before, but that's OK since the idea would be to let new solvers in on the experience. So thumb up for the puzzle.
I prefer not to comment if the only thing I have to say is if I liked the puzzle. Today, I have two reasons to publish a comment.
First, there are no rules concerning crosswords. There are norms that vary between editors and are enforced by them. But rules? Don't think so.
Second, I spoke with someone who claimed you can always tell someone from the NYC area because when they pronounce "mother" it always sounds like a curse. Interesting observation, whether it's true or not.
Isn't his official name WIL-E coyote??? Never heard the clue meaning in the singular.
What @bocamp said--very hard Wednesday, long time to get theme, fun challenge.
And just to play along with the poorly received Boston accent feature, here's a clue for a Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) in this grid:
Historic building at the Paul Revere Museum
Answer:
Bon (begins with the B in 5D (MUMBAI) and moves NW)
well... the hora is a near universal festive dance, but the only time (think so; not being of The Faith, but close to it) there's a chair lift is during the wedding celebration. so 'often' is stretching things a tad.
I lived in Bryn Mawr for a year or two, and my New England English sounded fine. How far from Center City does this 'Philly' accent travel?
sorry I don't know how to create a blue hypahlink. But if you want to hear authentic Boston accents, cut and paste the below...its wicked smaht
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLwbzGyC6t4
wanna drive an Italian over the edge? ask the server for 'man-e-cott-ee'. you might get some, you might not. the word is 'managot' or 'managut' or 'managat' depending. when I was riding Amtrak between DC and Up North, there was a conductor who always called out that Maryland town with the habah, 'Bal-tee-more'. I finally asked him, 'how come?' turns out natives pronounce it something close to 'Ball-mer' (yeah, nearly identical to that Microsoft guy); it made him chuckle.
Well...I"ll say this: It was cute. As in a gitchee gitchee goo cute. At least I got LIL KIM and ICET. I'll take two ICE cubes in my after dinner drink. No DECAF thank you very much. You go BABY!
I like accents - especially Spanish ones. But this isn't Spanish it's a Boston thingie. I've seen puzzles like this before so, and because I'm a smarty pants, I figured out the theme at PICK A COD ANY COD. The YAYS were thundering in the crowd.
Comment after a swish?...NICE SHOT? What's that? I was thinking a little fandango tango dance. I've been to Scotland but STAFFA? Why is HORA included in a chairlift? It means hour. And so, it went.....
@Moorstep 9:06. Don't forget JFK and calling Cuba "Cuber."
@Pete 8:56. Vanity Rescue? Never heard of such a thing. pre-application application. Good gravy.....Does the little pup have gold molars? I personally think all furry friends should be given away free of charge. I can understand wanting to know what home they will be going to but ay, dios mio, $800 to $1500? Anyway, I hope it works out for you.
Having dOdO before finally spotting BOZO made today’s clown fest a real laughing matter. This was a perfectly placed Wednesday debut for Josh Kindler with a real mix of clueing that made for a ROBOT dance solve. Doing the puzzle on iPad doesn’t generate the muttering of clues that a paper & pencil seems to promote, and I wonder if that is a personal quirk or some neurological disorder brought on by the technology being used?? There’s a PHD in there for Josh’s future. And a great day for OREO TATS to boot. Bravo 🙌 👍🏼
@Anon – It's a question of preparation. If I want to make a cheesy baked pasta dish I will choose between manicotti or other stuffed pasta and ziti. Yes I have to add the cheese myself to tbe ziti. But I consider them alternatives.
In fact, I don't consider ravioli an alternative to manicotti in the same way, because I only ever boil ravioli, never bake them. But that's just me.
Is the Boston accent better represented using an A or an O? I SUPPOSES O. Sometimes my humor is nothing but groan-worthy, but OMANI TRY. I’m just grateful that I seldom see an IRE SIGN from other commenters.
Nice Boston accent joke implied in 24D. If you want to know where Fingal’s Cave is, ask a STAFFA.
Congrats to Josh Kindler on the fun debut.
Well, Boston accent or no, the theme had me stumped for a little while. I didn’t know ZOD or what Alibaba or Grubhub were, didn’t think of ZITI, and found USA ____ too general, so I abandoned the NW pretty rapidly. I’m always more than ready to cut bait and run from that corner when the unknowns start to pile up. I did much better in the NE and started working my way down the eastern seaboard, then headed back west, so got most of MISSING THE MOCK, realized we were getting a lot of references to Boston, and cottoned on. Despite that, I found the COD answer difficult to suss because of the repetition. Not knowing STAFFA (and I call myself a Scot!) didn’t help. And, parenthetically, I think the word YAY has undergone a spelling transformation over the course of my lifetime. I don’t think any serious linguists have taken this up but, really, they should. When I was a kid, we always spelled that word “yeah” or “yeay” or “yea” – in any case, there was an E. Which has disappeared. Perhaps logically, but nevertheless it’s been an evolution. Of language. In our time. Or maybe the whole thing is just a regional quirk.
Anyway, I thought the theme was amusing without being thigh-slapping. Oh – and another themer I had a bit of trouble with was DOC COMEDY when I finally returned to the NW. “Black comedy” is a term I’m familiar with, “dark comedy” not so much, although I see from Google that the two terms are acceptable and synonymous.
Lots of Puz/Pairs in this one. (Where’s @Lewis?) ZITI/ZITS, IPOS/IPSO, ORA/HORA, IDA/IRA, LEW/LED. I thought the letter “I” did a great deal of work here. There were 19 of them, which seemed like a lot. Twelve answers began with “I”: ILIAD, IRA, IPSO, IRESIGN, ISEE, IPOS, ICEICEBABY, INCRISIS, IDA, IVAN, ISUPPOSESO, ICET. (If one cares about repetition – which I don’t particularly – that’s three uses of the personal pronoun.) And 7 answers ended with “I”: ZITI, LOCI, MRI, SAYSHI, OMANI, MUMBAI, OPI. OPI, OPI, OPI – I *think* I finally have that %$*&ing brand of nail polish down – it’s only taken 5 years.
I found the puzzle more difficult than the typical Wednesday and I had lots of hesitations but few actual mistakes. It took me long enough, but I enjoyed the solve. Thanks, Josh Kindler.
@The Joker (8:39)
QAPLA’!
@Gill I. (10:36)
HORA with “chairlift(s)”
I received a letter from the law firm of Staffa, Fernery, and Sayshi warning me that this puzzle was going to be difficult for a Wednesday and that I should solve it only at my own risk. I took the chance and found myself at first with a grid that wouldn’t say “Uncle” and then with a grid that included themers like DOC COMEDY and MISSING THE MOCK which made little sense.
But then finally the “I SEE” moment happened and I went from hating to loving the puzzle, especially when PICK A COD, ANY COD fell into place. Thanks, Josh, for the ride and congrats on your debut.
IceT,Zod,Ohara,Morrie,Ivan,Staffa,Ora,Lew,Mumbai,too many PPPs! It's called a "crossWORD" puzzle, not a "crossNAME" puzzle.
Medium-tough. STAFFA?? The first F was my last entry. OK Wednesday, liked it.
@Anon 9:48. "Alternative" in a xword clue does not necessarily mean Equivalent. This is a case of CEFC..............Close Enough For Crosswords
And I left out LilKim and Kronos, among probably others.
Sould have gone with Fernway Park, would have been the only real Boston themed answer in the whole puzzle!
Pretty much agreed with everything @Rex said today plus I was SHOCKED, I tell you shocked with the duplicate of ICEICEBABY and ICET! 🤣
@Carola, I agree that the sound of AH and cod sound the same to me. What I wonder is whether folks pronounce AH the same on the blog and whether some folks do a sound that is somewhere in between a short o and a short a (which is how I think of a Boston accent. This kind of reminds me of the “dispute” a few months ago as to the pronunciation of the name Aaron….
FERNERY crossing STAFFA?
Good grief, this should have been reworked. Tough cross, even for a Saturday.
@Off, @Gill I - There are a couple of local-ish SPCAs we're looking at. You go, bring your dog with you, if all goes well you give them $200 and go home with the dog. We've gotten several dogs this way. We've also gotten dogs from rescue groups which bring dogs up from the south and have adoption days at local pet shops and the Tractor Supply. You see one you like, bring your dog in, and if all goes well you give them $300 - $400 and you go home with the dog. We got our last two this way. Our big girl, the one that recently died, was a Tractor Supply Special from S Carolina, and the kindest critter that ever lived. Bubba came up from Georgia, and everyone who's ever met him knows him to be the happiest, friendliest dog they've met.
There are also type A personality dog lovers who think they alone can determine who's fit to be a dog owner. They start their own little rescue operation, working within a network, but they make it almost impossible to adopt. They keep the dogs in foster homes for months on end - literally, they will foster a puppy for 6+ months. They aren't trying to put dogs in good, safe homes, they're TRYING TO SAVE THE DOGS!!! Because only they can. Oreo is going to be stuck in their system for gof knows how long because I'm not going to jump through all those hoops without even first knowing if the dog is a good fit. But they get to say that they have their very own dog rescue.
I must really be in a mood to procrastinate. No sooner do I finish with the SB then I decide to try a Wednesday puzzle. Good choice at least puzzle wise. I got a Friday level of difficulty and that's comment worthy alone.
I finally caught on to the theme with PICKACOD.
There's such a thing as a FERNERY? If the FERNs are sick do they send them to the inFERNmary?
I swear I've never seen STAFFA before so the crosses had to fill that one in and they did.
td -0, yd pg-1, Sat-Mon -0
🦖, you need an OREO tat - or maybe we all do. Some weeks - we might need an EKE tattoo…
This was kinda cute. Made me think of two pals - both with strong southern and Boston accents. 😂😂They couldn’t understand each other! 😜🤷♀️😜 (Maybe someone wil do a southern accent 🧩)
Okay, good one. Not particularly fast here either but somewhat steady.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
I was just on Staffa last month! Was shocked to see it in a xword, but happy that I remembered it’s name. It’s a pretty typical tourist activity from Oban or Mull (combined either with the Abbey on Iona or the puffins on Lunga, we did the puffins). But I’ve done a lot of Scotland travel and didn’t know it until this trip, so it’s really obscure.
Sorry, my 10:53 post was meant for @Anon 9:48.
yep. This theme mcguffin sounds familiar. Good job revivin it, tho.
no-knows: STAFFA. FERNERY [but fairly infernable]. LILKIM. ICEICEBABY [a brrrly inferable one]. General ZOD. HORA clue which involved overturned furniture.
some fave fillins and such: NICESHOT. IRESIGN. OKBYE. INCRISIS. ISUPPOSESO/IPSO. SCORED clue.
staff weeject pick: OPI. Nail polish brand that includes another chair lift, while tryin to solve it.
Played about average feistiness for a WedPuz, at our house. Had no idea about the theme intent, at the DOCCOMEDY plateau. Just prayed it weren't DOCU-COMEDY, but with them droppin the U's. [shudder]
Once I had a second test case, at MISSINGTHEMOCK, then I reached the right conclusion on the theme pretty quick-like, once havin ruled out MISSINGTHEMUCK.
Christmas Wish: That the M&A brain could better remember if it's spelt OCHRE or OCHER. [p.s. The NYTPuz votes: OCHRE 160, OCHER 123. That sure don't help, much.]
Thanx for the spockly fun, Mr. Kindler dude. And congratz on yer debut. Also: Cool ICE-ICE-ICE-NICE-ISEE mini-theme.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
should U crave puz perfection …
**gruntz**
Possibly a new low for the New York Times. The creator should be ashamed of himself; ditto the editor.
Must be a regional thing, but my mother, northern Italian/Canadian, always made Manicotti with crepes, not pasta. It is, in my opinion, superior. If you have never tried it, please do so. When made with pasta, I grew up thinking that was Canneloni. Even putting that aside I wanted to put in Ziti, but held off until it was inevitable. I understand that "baked ziti" is very very roughly an alternative, but only in that it is a baked pasta. Just Ziti is not even close. Another Anon, I respectfully disagree that is close enough for crosswords. Ziti can be prepared on its own without being baked, and often is. Even baked ziti isn't stuffed. Stuffed shells or rigatonni maybe would be an alternative? Manicotti, even with pasta, is stuffed and baked by definition. They are worlds apart. it's like saying pappardele is an alternative to lasagna.
One time the bandleader Artie Shaw decided he needed some new music stands for his band; he enlisted one of his musicians to make the call and place the order. But Shaw didn't take the man's Boston accent into consideration; the new stands came back emblazoned with the logo: "Ottie Shore and His Orchestra"!
p.s.
Really shoulda also had a staffa weeject pick of: USC. Since USC crosses STAFFA. Just sayin.
@RP: Primo OREO TATS pic selection. Altho that uppermost tat almost looks too good to be true [but that well-fed leg certainly betrays a steady diet of the oreos].
M&Also
The Boston accent is only a little off. You probably remember this ditty:
Here's to good old Boston
The land of the bean and the cod
Where the Lowells speak only to Cabots
And the Cabots speak only to God.
There is a Boston Brahmin accent. My prep school principal was a Saltonstall, and had that accent, which originated on Beacon Hill. It's similar to a posh English accent, and people might well pahk the cah in Hahv'd yahd.
But the Boston accent most of us hear is essentially a Boston Irish accent, where you would pack the caa. When I was 13, my mother took me to Boston. We stayed in Copley Square, of course, and visited Filene's Basement, and had a lovely meal at the (now closed, sadly) Durgin-Park. I asked a salesclerk at Filene's how to get to the streetcar, and she said to go to Pack Street. Neither my mother or I had the slightest idea what she was talking about. Finally my mother understood she meant Park Street, where the streetcar (not then called the T) ran to Copley, as I already had observed at the hotel.
Filene's had a rival, Jordan Marsh, and I can't begin to explain how *that* was pronounced.
@Pete 11:31. Interesting....As much as I love animals, I've never been to an SPCA nor a pet shelter.
We've always had pets and the two we now have (Curly and Moe) were given to us. They are a crossbreed from a miniature poodle and dachshund . Little black and white muff balls. We wanted to name one of them OREO and the other Cookie. Instead my husband decided they were the funniest little Stooges he'd ever seen.
We've had animals for ever but I never had to purchase them. I guess we got lucky as EVERY single one of them was a joy.
A good fit, indeed!
I had a woefully bad solve today, starting with two ONES instead of ABES but I knew a "sawbuck" wasn't a two-dollar bill. Why did I even go there?
Then I misread the 19A clue for 9A and had to cross out ALUMS because DAS Rheingold was correct.
Misinterpreted "Hobbles" as a verb so 32D was LaMeS for a while.
Unknowns: Pavlov's name, who had an album "Hard Core", who co-starred in "Law & Order SVU", nail polish brands, and STAFFA.
On the other hand, I did know the GECKO, ICE ICE BABY, MORRIE, KRONOS and OHARA.
Did anyone else see the clue for 5D and think, "hmm, can't be SHORT Y, LONG Y, HARD Y, SOFT Y, SILENT Y".
Josh, congrats on your NYT debut.
@GILL (10:36) -- A "swish" is a basketball shot that goes through the hoop without touching the rim -- touching "nothing but net" -- and thereby making a swoosh sound. A shot that touches the rim before it goes through the hoop will make a "clunk" or "bonk" sound or something of that sort. Hitting "nothing but net" is deemed more of an achievement than hitting the rim -- though the point score is the same.
Here, curated for your viewing pleasure -- though not by me -- are some of the most impressive swoosh shots from the annals of the NBA.
Barbara S. 11:03
Oh good gravy...the dance!
Juggalos may not have been a crossword answer, but it's been in a clue.
I recall doing a crossword (AVC?) with the clue "Gathering of the Juggalos band, to fans." I had never heard of them, nor the answer "ICP," which stands for Insane Clown Posse.
Rex - always fun to read your commentary
Aaron
Oops. I said "swoosh" when I meant "swish" -- though I must admit they both sound exactly the same to me.
Fun puzzle today! Just reminds me of when we went to Boston years ago and we bought a box of 'Boston Baked Bean' candy from a tourist shop. The owner assured us that there were no more than 239 in the box. Sure glad there wasn't just one more!!
@Nancy 1:19. Wow, I sure am learning a lot today. The comments are more fun than the puzzle.....!!!
Those tat photos.
Wait til they’re in their sixties.
Two things about the OREO cookie tattoo.
1. OREO is spelled OREEO.
2> It's obviously photo-shopped.
Very enjoyable puzzle! Do all Bostonians speak alike? Great comments about accents. Having grown up in Texas I have found that most people think natives speak like LBJ. Nope. Lots of variations just as I suppose exist in Bahsten.
@pabloinnh
Sippie Wallace or Patrick Sky Separation Blues?
@Nancy
They don't even rhyme!
Swish swoosh.
PICK A COD ANY COD gave up the conceit. LOAN SHOCK for for loan shark made the "ock" sound "ark" sound fairly apparent, thus giving one dark for DOC and mark for MOCK if you hadn't figured it out yet. I hadn't.
Come on folks. In any CW with imprecise things like pronouciation or grid art it is up to the user to work with the puzzle when it is clearly giving you a path to walk down. Rex you should know that too.
In England, there's Cockney and Public School. In Eastern MA, Brahmin, aka Beacon Hill, WASP, and Rich White People on one side, and Southy, aka Boston Irish (Louise Day Hicks made it famous) on another. Of course, the Italians once (may be still do; it's been decades since I lived there) were the North End. (Matt Damon, he of the ludicrous crytpo advert, and the rest mixed all those up in "The Departed"; see it if you haven't) There's also a smattering of Mid-Atlantic, aka Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
In fact, 'OREO' is spelled out as ’GREED'.
I thought this was pretty cute. I thought the answers were what a Boston accent sounded like. Previous comments prove I’m wrong. On my defense, I was born and raised in Philadelphia, so I don’t have an accent.
@offthegrid - I think you missed the joke. Pac-10 vs Pac-12. Don’t get me started on the Big 10.
Yeah, this is pretty bad -- to this native Bostonian who is still a resident of the Commonwealth. As one commenter correctly observed, it's "ahk" not "ock." I have *lived* in the Outer Hebrides. I have *never* heard of the island of Staffa. Impossibly, unbelievably, unnecessarily obscure. A frustrating exercise throughout.
Went back to check but didn't see anywhere in the puzzle where "Boston accent" was mentioned as part of the theme so I guess that is something surmised by solvers. After seeing all the "That's not how Bostonians say it" in the comments, maybe it would be more acceptable to call them Boston-like, Bostony, Bostonish or Bostonesque accents. I'm no expert on accents from that part of the country so it all sounded OK BYE me. Certainly wasn't an IRE SIGN.
IVAN Pavlov (9D) received the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1904 for his research into the physiology of digestion. In one type of experiment, different foods were put into a dog's mouth and the resulting salivation was measured. After a few times, the dog would begin to salivate before the food was put into its mouth. Pavlov went on to show how this was a basic type of learning found in most all animals---including us---known as Classical or Pavlovian Conditioning. It happens to me whenever I hear the whoosh of a bottle or can of beer being opened.
I noticed the odd use of the single WILE but this was offset by having a bunch of plurals of convenience (POC) including several two for one POCs where a Down and an Across get a letter count, grid filling boost from sharing a single S at their ends. One of these is where a two for one POC is most likely to occur, in the lower, rightmost grid square.
Is ZITI (1A) the plural of ZITS (62D) or is it the other way around?
Just finished While the City Sleeps with IDA Lupino, Dana Andrews and the great Vincent Price. Highly recommend.
Anonymous 10:27 - 'man-e-cott-ee'. is in fact, the correct Italian pronunciation of the pasta dish, and any actually Italian waiter will understand perfectly. The 'managot' or 'managut' or 'managat' stuff is for the guy who has watched too many "Godfather" reruns. It's an approximation of the crude Neapolitan dialect but unless spoken by an actual Neapolitan, trying it will make you sound sound like an idiot.
@albatross shell-The one I found on youtube is Patrick Sky, and it is the one with which I am most familiar, having heard it in college in the late 60's. I wanted to dust it off for our Monday night hootenanny and get the lyrics and the chords down straight, which is now remarkably easy to do.
Fun to sing and play, and the group I play with will pick it up right away.
2
@bigsteve46:
the town I live in has a large Italian population. they always correct me if I pronounce as written. it is an ancient NE mill town, so lower class blue collar, whether native or immigrant. been too long since I lived in the North End, so I can't speak for them.
Son Volt,
Yes!!! Did you catch the feature before it, Where the Sidewalk Ends?
Andrews and Lupino again. Arguably better than While The City….
OMG! The horrible spelling of the supposed Boston accent slowed me way down. My initial reaction to the first theme entry was “why are medical/DOC jokes specific to Mass General?” Next one I think is simply a mess. To Lampoon something is to MOCK it. Accordingly, I thought that one maybe didn’t even intend to be a themer? Then I got down to PICK A COD . . . and the poor spelling finally translated into the flat short a sound (apologies to @ Loren Muse Smith for my inaccurate linguistic description!) of the constructor’s perceived “Boston.” At least I finally figured it out. As spelled, my brain thought more Brooklyn than Boston.
And I have seen this before - but the remaining fill was fine.
I liked FERNERY and especially enjoyed the straight question posed for HORA. Very clever. Overall a decent Wednesday that simply took longer than usual not because I couldn’t put the correct letters in the boxes, but because I kept reading the correct answers out loud to try to figure out what the answers had to do with Boston area things. I look forward to Josh Kindler’s next offering.
Big Steve,
Careful. At least if you’re at 10th and Catherine in Philadelphia.
That kind of smart mouth will yield trouble.
There is no standard pronunciation. Let alone in red sauce (gravy) restaurants,
But I’ll meet you at Dante and Luigi’s. You can expound as loud and long as you like to put your theory to the test. My treat.
With the large amount of PPP I knew i was in for a slog, but it went better that expected until the SE, where the LEW WILE cross stopped me.
@Anoa
I thought Mondays puz was worse on PoCs and other extra letters. Hope you caught my post late Monday. The Monday offering did have extra letters. But the density of the extra letters in some areas was overwhelming.
@8:45
you go guy/grrl.
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Agree completely on the WILE/LEW cross, and I'll throw in the unknown OPI as well. Why would you do that when there are so many options down there?
Hard puzzle - we get a Wednesday this tough about once per year.
As someone who has never lived in Boston, but visited, I would say this is exactly what a Boston accent sounds like.
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ISEE Rex pointed out a few ZITS, but it was still fun to do. STAFFA was a WOE but the crosses made it solvable so no UGH-moment there. Most of the puzzle was pretty easy with the exception of the SE corner where the constructor released his WILE. Like I said, it wasn’t EPIC but it SCORED high on the enjoyment meter. So NICESHOT Josh Kindler and Bravo on your NYTXW debut. OKBYE!
OPEN SHOT BOZO
ISEE I'm MISSINGTHEMOCK,
ISUPPOSE LED to be bored,
INCRISIS, kept IN THE DOC,
KIM SAYS I could have SCORED.
--- MORRIE O'HARA
OPEN SHOT BOZO
ISEE I'm MISSINGTHEMOCK,
ISUPPOSE LED to be bored,
INCRISIS, kept IN THE DOC,
KIM SAYS I could have SCORED.
--- MORRIE O'HARA
A bit crunchy, about right for Hump Day. Nobody's gonna know STAFFA...plus there's two too many rap references for me--including one too many answers as cold as ICE. Will! Where you AT?
DOD Rita ORA SAYSHI. Though I'm not particularly enamored of spoofing accents, I guess this wasn't any worse than any other such, and, as I said, there was some crunch. Par, and ditto Wordle.
PS - Does anyone else remember BOZO bubble gum?
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I’m from Boston and I never got the answers because of some cutsey imagined interpretation of the way I speak. Not only are these pretty far off the mark, but it just feels not fun *and* insulting.
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