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Baby aardvark / WED 8-10-2022 / Welty with a Pulitzer / Grammy-winning Aimee
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Constructor: Karen Lurie
Relative difficulty: Easy (8:34)
THEME: WELL, ACTUALLY — Nitpicker's lead-in... or, an answer to:
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: EUDORA (Welty with a Pulitzer) —
- Drink from a spring-- MINERAL WATER (as in, "Actually, I'd like well water!")
- Steakhouse option-- MEDIUM RARE (as in, "Actually, I'd like it cooked well!")
- Queasy, perhaps-- FEELING ILL (as in, "Actually, I'm feeling well!")
• • •
Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer, who wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South.Heyyyy friendos, it's your pal Malaika subbing in for the ephemeral Rex. Sometimes y'all call me "adorable" and sometimes y'all call me "thoughtless," so we'll see what you think today! (Honestly, I think those are kinda the same thing.) I just played an incredibly good game of volleyball and I'm high off endorphins and adrenaline and serotonin and etc. I want to sprint laps around my block like a small child who was allowed to have both cake and ice cream at their birthday party but instead I will write this blog post!!!! ONWARDS!
I breezed through this puzzle (I average about ~15mins on a Wednesday, and this one I solved on my phone on the train!), and had all three of the theme answers before I reached the revealer, and zero guesses as to what it could be. It took a second for it to click-- It's not that "nitpicker" is the wrong term (it's not!), it's just not the term I most associate with "Well, actually..."
You know how people will usually discuss the plusses and minuses of something? Or the highs and lows? I've been toying with listing the "zings" and "dings." Let me know in the comments if you're in.
Zings: We get three different meanings of the word WELL. The revealer is fun and modern, and ties things together with a good "Oh!!" moment. That's only two things but the last zing is just... I really liked this theme!! Which counts for like ten more zings because really that's all that matters when you solve your little crossword on your little train ride home from your little volleyball game.
Dings: My main ding is the grid layout. I am picky pick picky about grid shapes, and I am not a fan of groups of three three-letter words in the corners-- this puzzle has that in all four corners, and two of them were closed off. And, while there was some nice mid-length stuff like WINGMAN and TWIRLED and GAYDAR (with that clue!!! [Sense of orientation?]), there were no (non-theme answers) that were longer than seven letters.
I totally get that building a grid around a revealer that's twelve letters is tough, but I wonder if just removing that block after LSU could have worked. Or either of these shapes? (I'm not putting in any effort to fill this, so maybe they're impossible.)
Bullets:
- [Tall, slender hound] for SALUKI — This is a new term for me. The dog resembles a greyhound with fluffier ears.
- Production company that's its founder's name spelled backwards] for OPRAH — I like that this went a more modern angle than the Marx Brothers :)
- I have not heard of OXY (Big name in acne medication) or DMX (First musician to have his first five albums debut at #1) and I feel like in a corner this small and closed off they were just added to get the letter X in there?
P.S. I'll close with an unrelated tip from when I started constructing crosswords: I thought the hardest part of making a puzzle was arranging the black squares, so I would take themes from old NYT puzzles, lay them out in a grid, and then compare my layout to the original! It was kind of like Puzzle Push-ups. A good exercise, if you will.
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94 comments:
Easy. I finished this fairly quickly and had no idea what was going on. After a more than a bit of staring I “Got It” (51a AHA). My first thought was that this would be Jeff’s POW pick and it was. Very clever, liked it a bunch!
First thing tomorrow I will head over to the office supply store and get my money back for the calendar they sold me. It shows today as being Wednesday and yesterday as Tuesday. Obviously, that is backwards.
Goose was not Maverick’s wingman. Goose was Maverick’s “rear”. Maverick was Iceman’s wingman in the final dogfight, after which Iceman tells Maverick “you can be my wingman anytime.” Maverick replies “bull**** you can be mine.”
As I hope my two or three readers will recognize, I typically try to be supportive of any constructor’s effort. However, I am a bit mystified by this one. Sure, all of the themers work ok with the revealer. But to me, the crux of the revealer demands that there must be an IRL question posed. I guess I can see a waitperson saying “MINERALWATER?” and me saying “ WELLACTUALLY, no I’d rather have tap.” But I really can’t see my waitperson asking “MEDIUMRARE?” after I ordered the filet mignon (or dainty slice for those keeping score). Rather, the waitperson would ask, “how would you like that done?”. Similarly, no one would ask, FEELINGILL? It’s always “Feeling ok?” I recognize, of course, that the game here is to take a solid answer for the clue and reveal that it could be posed as a question. The thing that bugs me is that, at best, only one of them would ever be used as a question ITW.
That aside, it was a fresh and dreck-free puzzle, which I solved 4 minutes faster than yesterday’s. Congrats on POW from JC, Karen Lurie.
Delightful theme, and GAYDAR. Great puzzle.
Overall I really enjoyed this puzzle. There was a lot of short fill, but cluing felt pretty modern and not overwhelming crosswordese-y.
My main ding (I like this zing/ding!) is what Malaika mentioned for the revealer. “Nitpicker” isn’t the phrase I associate most readily with “well actually” - mansplainer is. Nitpicker also has some questionable origins as a term. As far as I know none of the theories about its original meaning are fully supported, but I’ve read enough about them that it still feels like an uncomfortable term to use now.
All I can think about is the I Love Lucy episode where they have a seance. Ethel to Tilly, Ethel to Tilly, come in Tilly, Over. Ethel was Medium Raya. Fred says: Well done Medium Raya.
It’s so fun to get all the themers and still not see the connection. Then consider the reveal, squint, say it out loud and bam the aha moment. I loved this.
Malaika – I really like your Zings and Dings idea.
Mom, my two sisters and I ate last night at this steakhouse, Lineberger’s, famous for prime rib. I ordered mine rare. It was MEDIUM RARE. My sister was treating and very proud of this, so I didn’t complain. But. . . with its prices and reputation, you can’t be messing up like that. Inside I was really mad and disappointed. On the way home with Mom I had a peevish tirade, which morphed into my disdain for people who order good beef WELL done. You can respond to me here, argue, blah blah, but I will forever believe that eating WELL-done beef is not pleasant; you’re just pretending to enjoy it. I don’t wanna see that disgusting blood on my plate… (Relax. It’s not blood; it’s mainly water with this stuff called myoglobin.) I believe with every fiber of my being that going to battle on a grey piece of well-done steak is akin to choking down compressed sawdust. My first job was at Quinn’s Mill in Atlanta, also a prime-rib mecca, and it was a fact all waiters knew that the people who ordered their meat well done were bad tippers. Let’s see.. . what else can I say that will insult people here. I’ll chew on it and get back to you.
A couple of decades ago, we used to receive this catalogue International Male that was basically a book of gorgeous men resplendent in their very revealing junk DRAWERS. “Place for a stud” indeed. Sheesh. ERECT and LURE join the party in that corner, too. I have to stop; I’m a Capricorn, and I’m blushing.
MINERAL WATER – if you’re into fizzy water, run, don’t walk to the Hispanic section of your grocery store and get yourself a 12-pack of Topo Chico. It’s old-school; glass bottles you have to open with a bottle opener. Aside from the way the tiny bubbles feel in your mouth, you can leave a half-drunk open bottle on the counter for like forever, and when you go back to drink some more, it is still remarkably carbonated. It’s the Michael Jordan of sparkling water.
The idea of a WINGMAN mystifies me. If I ever start dating again, I would never trust a buddy to do whatever a WINGMAN’s job is, which is. . . what exactly? Pave the way to meet the guy at the bar? I think I can manage that just fine, thankyouverymuch. I’ll lead with what a good judge of character I am, how I like to people watch, how stubborn I am, how crazy my family is . . all clever tactics that I’m sure have never been used to chat up a potential love interest. Snort.
“Soaking spots” – hotel restaurants in LA. I recently went to a training, and CMS (Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools) gave us a food stipend that must have been established in the Carter administration. We were allowed $8 for breakfast. A bagel and OJ in the hotel restaurant was $34. No, really. And the hotel was not within walking distance of any fast-food place where breakfast *still* woulda cost more than $8. It was a terrific training, but I don’t think I can afford to go to any more. First thing I would do as president is double public school teacher salaries and exempt them from federal income tax.
I’m working at Turning Point Academy - the school where you’re sent if you’ve been expelled or suspended for a long time - and I’m so enjoying learning their dialect. AMEN and WORD could both be clued as “You said it!” There are mean girls there, too, and their preyday is well-honed. And AND. . . all the kids live for fights and have a well-honed fraydar. No cap.
this was very distracting to me too.
Easy, but I had never heard of the SALUKI dog breed and stared way too long at 3D.
@egs: Try preceding the questions with "Is this," as in
Q: Is this mineral water?
A: Well, actually.
You need to change it to "Are you" or "Is she" for 49A.
@LMS: I order my steaks medium rare and if they come out rare I'm fine with that but if they're medium (or worse!) I send them back. I order my burgers rare. I say, "Just bring me a cow and a meat grinder." Most of the time I get them medium rare, which is okay. But if a burger comes out medium (or worse!) I'll do the peevish tirade bit right then and there.
Unrelated "well" humor:
Q: Why did the blind man fall into the well?
A: He couldn't see that well.
@LMS's story of dining at Lineberger's (and her rant regarding well-done beef) reminds me of the dinner meeting I attended years ago at Lawrey's Prime Rib in Los Angeles. There were nine of us and, of course, everyone ordered the prime rib. The waiter confirmed our order thusly: "Three rare. Five medium-rare. Ruin one."
Then the one who had ordered well-done asked for ketchup. I thought the waiter might croak right on the spot.
Topo Chico really is remarkable. Nice with a fresh spear of cucumber too. I think you can get it everywhere now. Distro really broadened after Coke bought them.
Interesting stuff about grid construction, Malaika. This post is a zing!
And I’ll say AMEN to Loren’s plug for Topo Chico. Hard to find in Vermont. I buy it when visiting family in Texas.
Goose was Mav's "wingman" in the bar room scene, however.
Please, no more rants about meat preparation. Nobody really cares. Shocker alert-Tastes vary!
Thank you.
Please explain “gaydar.” Jim
Nice enough puzzle. Theme is different, which I liked seeing.
There are tons of BMWs in this area. I have to say, I’ve never noticed a thing about their GRILLEs. Tried to fit in 'Erratic, aggressive driver' as a rebus. (The 5000+ page Wikipedia does not mention the GRILLEs.)
Not a fan of zings and dings. It seems like every radio show in the world tries to come up with their own version of this ... love it or shove it, buy or sell, like it or spike it etc. Don't be cute and just stick with pluses and minuses.
Goose was Mavrick's RIO, Radar Intercept Officer. The backseater. A wingman literally flies on the wing of the lead aircraft. Silly Mistake.
As pointed out earlier, Goose wasn’t Maverick’s WINGMAN, Ice Man was! Get it straight!
This calls for an encore presentation of Quentin Tarantino explaining Top Gun
This is one of the most clever early week themes I've seen. It works WELL just as it's presented. Along with some sharp clueing, the theme more than makes up for a couple of clunkers. First in line/ELL. I kinda hate these. And then counting words in a clue-not very inspired. So, overall, A-/B+ range. I like GRILL(E) as a theme spin-off.
If someone didn't quite understand or maybe disagreed with a certain commenter on this blog they might say "I'm not FEELIN GILL."
I know where the door is.
Yup. Also played pretty easy for me. Everything in my wheelhouse, except for EUDORA, but that filled with crosses. Loved, *loved!*, seeing SALUKI and GAYDAR in the grid! Not so much the old stand-bys of ERIE, ORE, and ONO. Great clue for REEL! And generally, loved the theme! I have well water out here at the farmette, so the question of (is this) MINERAL WATER? really tickles me. Similarly, I am finally watching Downton Abbey, so 49A FEELING ILL? sounds just fine to me. Have probably heard that a dozen times in 2 seasons of binge watching. Once again enjoyed the mix of answers from rap (DMX) and GTA culture to ONO and GAYDAR; animals (LYNX, SALUKI, BEETLE (the non-ONO-related type), and aardvark CUBS) to sports (LSU, RAN, PUNT), with a small trip around the world (SHERPA pitching a TENT at base camp (though I think that's probably not their job), German BMW GRILLEs, AARDVARK and the exotic SALUKI (from Africa?)). Culture with MONET and EUDORA. Maybe just a little light on the sciences. And all the cute pairings were a delight, too. I'm seeing ONO and BEaTLES; MONET and ART; STEAL and STEELS; BEER, TEA and ADE (though I'm not a fan of ADE. I think it is a suffix and has no right to become its own word IMHO); body positional ERECT and FACEUP (though sadly we get a dupe UP at 25D with EDGEUP); food category with STEWS and ATE (and let's not forget the WELL done steak). Etc . So, just a real delight today. And thanks @LMS for the "blood" explanation/link. I went on a women's retreat in VT decades ago. Very earth mother, animal-lover types. As I am also. Great women, but when I ordered my roast beef sandwich rare and the "blood" was soaking through my bread, you would have though that I was a murdering vampire from the looks I got from them! I'll agree that, yes, I am a murdering type if I eat meat, but they sure enjoyed their roast chicken with relish; hold the sense of irony! At least I've evolved enough to mainly eat meat from my homesteader friends' farm these days. If I have to eat meat (and I have several days a week that are meatless), at least I know it had a great life, and the least traumatic death possible. End of lecture.
Puzzle after puzzle, he cannot get it right...idiotic cluing, non-words, sounds, alternate spelling, and ignorant mistakes, such as the 100% wrong clue for WINGMAN. It is truly unfortunate what the NYT Crossword has become under will shortz, the Poster Boy for The Peter Principle.
Thank you!!
“I’ve never heard of DMX”
Holy fudge am I that old???
Monday level - didn’t think the theme was snazzy enough to warrant the segmented grid. Agree with Malaika on the choppy corners - not very slick. @LMS - I always order MEDIUM RARE - no matter where we are it’s a crapshoot as to what comes out. EUDORA x GAYDAR shines here.
The only SALUKI I know is the great Clyde. As a founding member of the Tom Cruise haters club - I’ve never seen Top Gun.
MELLOW - it’s so MELLOW
This one didn’t hit for me.
Oh, I loved this theme! Wordplay at its best. No chance for me to figure out the reveal before uncovering it, and when I saw what it was, I actually broke into a big smile, with yeses caroming around inside me. Brilliance in the box today. I’m a fan.
I shouldn’t be surprised. This is a constructor with moxie. In her last puzzle, her debut, the theme was SPOILER ALERT, with answers like SHE FREED WILLY, and THEY FOUND NEMO. But what I liked best of all was that her reveal (SPOILER ALERT) came before any of the theme answers – it was a spoiler alert itself! So, Karen has a twinkle in her eye, and an out-of-the-box-ness to go with her skill and cleverness. This is a rich combination that makes me eager to see more.
Plus, there were bonuses today. A trio of palindromes. A magnificent PuzzPair© of ART and DRAWER. And a subtheme related to the number six: Six double-E’s, a rare six-letter semordnilap (STEELS), BEETLE which has six legs, and the clue for WORD – [One of six in this clue].
I’m still glowing inside from the burst that came after uncovering the reveal. This was a wow for me, a terrific springboard to the day. Three thumbs up from me, Karen – thank you!
Older NY Knick fans know Salukis as the nickname for Walt “Clyde” Frazier’s team, Southern Illinois University. They won the NIT in 1967.
Have a kid at SIU-Carbondale. Go SALUKIS!
I also liked that EUDORA is a quasi-themer.
Goose was Mavericks WINGMAN? WELL, ACTUALLY goose was Maverick’s RIO (radar intercept officer). The wingman is the pilot that flies the trailing plane In a two plane formation. This is as stupid as cluing Mercurio as “Romeo’s love interest”
I'll bet there are many PR's today, which I'm ok with. Definitely seemed some combo of M-T difficulty. The only trouble spot for me was trying to remember what the hell a SALUKI is - and yes, my first thought was Clyde as well.
I see that the NYT is again flirting with trouble (see BOX and SLING/SLINGSHOT) on the WINGMAN situation. I'll let it slide due to the bar scene; however I suspect there will be a lot of mixed reviews on that one
Amy: Excellent! Love this. And a fun write up, Malaika. Thanks.
Was fortunate enough to have 2 retired racing greyhounds (consecutively) and learned about Salukis. Once stayed at a hotel holding a meeting of Saluki owners and their dogs.
Another short story on my retirement. Age, Sags, Hurt, Bag(s under eyes). DNF on the dog and SMS.
Living in my hometown again. Here just north of the South, I’ve ordered Medium Well and Medium Rare at the only steakhouse in town and it was neither either time. But couldn’t send it back because the waitress was probably somebody’s granddaughter and everyone would hear about it and that would be the defining moment of my life, “She’s Fran’s daughter who complained about that steak to Eudora’s granddaughter who was practically in tears.” My mother would deny the relationship.
I say Well Actually a lot. A lot. Oddly, it seems to annoy people. Fine. If you don’t mind being wrong, I won’t say anything.
Fun puzzle. Malaika, always delighted.
I liked this one WELL enough, although the revealer for me didn't quite fit the themers, since more of the question had to be supplied to have WELLACTUALLY actually make sense.
I grew up fairly close to Saratoga, NY, famous for Saratoga Vichy and some mineral baths (there's also a race track, of course). Anyway, their famous bottled water always smelled exactly like sulfur dioxide to me. People drink it though.
Nice to see SALUKI, I like the word MEASLY, and I found out what to call a baby aardvark, which should come in handy when I see it in another crossword, as that will be my only occasion to need it.
Time to go listen to all my old DMX albums. Oops, don't have any. Finding out someone I've never listened to is this famous is like seeing a clue for a city with a population of five million or so that' I've never heard of. Some serious gaps in the knowledge base.
Solid Wednseday, KL, if a shade too easy. Kinda Like a Mon/Tues mashup. Thanks for all the fun.
Yes, agree that there's wordplay in the way the revealer relates to the themers. That part is unexpected and fun. So why isn't there playfulness in the cluing? "Get it?" = SEE and "mined find" = ORE and "chooses" = OPTS -- should I go on? I did wake up from my nap for "Sense of orientation" = GAYDAR (one of my favorite portanteaus, btw), but mostly I just slept through this. It deserved much better clues -- clues that would have been worthy of the playful theme.
There are still casinos where the players are allowed to handle the cards in blackjack, and so the cards are dealt face down. They usually have higher limits and fewer decks (typically two). Single deck tables are nearly extinct.
WELL, ACTUALLY “wingman” has multiple meanings and the clue seems intent on messing with people who only are thinking of the one.
@egs - Did it click, yet?
De gustibus and all that but there’s rare, MEDIUM RARE, and shoe leather. But, hey, people drink Bud and watch football, too.
Been sorta busy for a week plus. What the hell was that on Sunday? I don’t think he proved anything beyond him being a liar.
@LMS - I’m working at a non-profit and our breakfast per diem is $15 and it’s not always enough. I’m glad the training was useful at least.
Good Wednesday puzzle.
The theme doesn't click for me. As Nancy points out, the cluing is blah. The 22 threes crowd out longs. No me gusta.
Great post by Loren. The Outback Steakhouse we eat at has pictures of the cross-sections of steaks to be served rare, medium-rare, medium, medium-well, and well.
Hung up on 39-across because I initially thought "ONO", but the clue said "singer"?
An OJ and bagel for $34???!!! I have to assume that there was cream cheese and fine quality smoked salmon (and I'm not talking about lox, here) on the bagel. Now admittedly I haven't eaten in any hotel restaurants recently, but I'm not sure you could find such staggeringly ridiculous prices for a plain bagel and an OJ even here in notably overpriced NYC.
Yet another glorious day with a puzzle. I've been mesmerized by the "it's on the wrong day" comments since becoming active here. For me Monday through Wednesday all seem about the same, Thursday has something stupid in it, and Friday-Saturdays aren't fun. Is it because some people keep track of their time?
Was conquering this little grid glorious, or knowing we'd be diving into GAYDAR, SALUKI, WELL ACTUALLY, DMX, EUDORA and GRILLE (with an E!) glorious?
I'm almost positive this blog will be more fun than the puzzle. I mean honestly... SALUKI (?!) just laying around at the top of the puzzle like we're not gonna notice.
But let's start with the good stuff. Finally one of the greatest singer-songwriters of her generation gets honored in a New York Times crossword. Hi Yoko! The Boom-Booms love you. And there's a BEETLE buzzing just to the east.
"Well, actually" was my seven-year-old niece's go-to phrase when she needed to straighten me out on whatever point I was butchering in the moment. I am a menace to elementary schoolers' world views.
More Christian Nationalism with AMEN, thank God. Third holy puzz of the week. {Cue Gregorian chants.} Remember a few weeks back when a constructor put the real name of God in the puzzle and found out later it was super wrong to do that since some people aren't allowed to write or speak the word or, I dunno, something bad would happen, and obviously the NYTXW editorial staff didn't care enough to nix it? I miss the drama of that day.
@Newboy put @egsforbreakfast and I in a time-out yesterday because @egs is a rascal and somehow sitting next to me would either solve the problem or at least make him behave for a short time, but I'm thinking he's not going to let FELLIN' GILL pass by without being a little fishy.
PUNT returns from yesterday's LOW SNAP.
So many great downs like AMBUSH, WINGMAN, EAR LOBE and SHERPAS. Is @Mike in Bed-Stuy around? I know what HARPO is and who runs it because she's famous.
So let's turn our attention to:
THE GRILLE
why the E, I asked me
why indeed an E, says me, so fancy
LOKI likes a GRILL-E
SALUKI like GRILL-Es
WELL ACTUALLY Welty likes GRILL-E too
MONET says, "Ayyy," like Fonzarelli for GRILL-E
that MEASLY E gives GRILL the EDGE UP
and girls with GRILLS and ACNE
use their OXY
with a Y for an E
GAYDAR RHYMES-ISH
she's sort of the Czar
with a bizarre cigar
she's writing her memoir
about her guitar
and its admirable repertoire
including the slurs on her radar
and that's all I have thus far.
I might be pearl clutching, but I'd be okay with losing GAYDAR from my word list. It seemed funny in the 80s, but kinda stale and gross now.
Onto the unforgivables:
-It's OHO, not AHA. Where in the world is Will?
-So many things to do with a mustache before I would have TWIRLED it.
Uniclues:
1 Win a forged Nymphea at auction.
2 "Touching Vince is so great."
3 The summit.
4 The glow and all that goes with it.
5 Angsty feeling of 20-year-old boy in 1983 anytime any man looked at him.
6 A stop at the bar makes the museum tolerable.
1 BAG FALSE MONET
2 HYPE FEELIN' GILL
3 SHERPA'S RESULT
4 AURA REGALIA
5 AUTO GAYDAR
6 BEER STEELS ART
Have you seen today’s New Yorker puzzle? Freaky…!
SALUKI/LOKI crossing did me in. Brutal Natick for me. I also had Eve before ELL
Hey All !.
Jumping into the Steak fray: I am one of the Heathens who orders steak WELL done. Once you've calmed down from your shock, here's why. I always think I'll get some sort of stomach bug or something if I consume under-cooked meat. Is that true of steak, or just chicken? The other aspect of that, is most cooks just seem afraid to cook it until there's no more red in it. So most of the time, it still comes out medium-well. I never send food back, I've heard stories of what the cooks do to your food if you send it back. I'll either eat whatever's there, or just leave it on the plate uneaten.
Anyway, the puz was good. Neat Revealer, as you had to say (either out loud or in your mind) the Themers as questions to grok the Revealer. FEELING ILL? WELL, ACTUALLY. Neat
I liked Malaika's first re-Blockers grid. The second one is a bit funky, with four cheater squares. My two cents. 😁
Starting to construct a puz is a bunch of trial and error. You put your Themers in, then add the Blockers, then if odd letters line up, you can change the Blocker placement, or move your Themers around. Sometimes I think there's a better alignment I missed, but once you start filling and get a corner or a bunch of fill spread around, you really don't want to erase it all and start over. At least my experience. 👍
Another missed "add an F to your closed off corner" opportunity. Har. C'mon, people, respect the F!
*Addendum to not putting my SB results in anymore*
Only if I get QB (which doesn't happen often). Reason mentioning? I got QB yesterday!! Granted, it was an easy one, but a win is a win!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Anonymous 12:25 AM
i.e. "Well, actually..."
The comments are more interesting than this puzzle.
As I was penning in answers all I kept think was how old the cluing felt. Even the fun words such as SALUKI and SHERPA, were so obvious and overly seasoned in the cluing, that about the only thing that felt somewhat modern was GAYDAR.
Speaking of well seasoned....Lord have mercy on the person I'm eating with at a steakhouse who orders his meat "trop cuit: with a side of ketchup. I believe our ex (felonious) president ate his meat that way. WHY? Can you imagine the look on that steers face? "If you're gonna bop me on the head, then for filet mignons sake, eat me with some joie de vivre. I hope that's not you @Anony 7:27. You wouldn't be FEELIN GILL anytime soon... :-)
,Hand up for drinking Topo Chico. I like the grapefruit kind. the bubbles make you burp....I'd order it at a Mexican restaurant along with carnitas trop cuit!
Always a pleasure when Malaika fills in...
WELL okay, I get it but thought I was gonna have to PUNT before I did. The constructor notes only confused me but then Jeff Chen managed to draw a clear enough picture that I was able to understand the theme. However, I’m still struggling to figure out what day it is because it really seemed like Tuesday when I did the puzzle. (Hi @Joaquin. 👋)
Also hi @John X. And thanks for pointing out the glaring error at 14D. Shocking that got past editorial review. I mean who hasn’t seen Top Gun at this point?
What does it say about you if you’ve never even heard of DMX? Or GTA? Asking for a friend.
You've really never heard of DMX? I'm having a hard time with that.
Thx, Karen; finished this one with a sense of WELL-being! :)
Hi Malaika; always nice to see you. Thx for your write-up! :)
MEDIUM.
Avg. time, but felt harder.
MONET / MaNET is a kealoa pour moi.
Had SALUKa, so WINGMAN was hidden.
Staff before SLURS; pitched 'a fiT' before TENT.
DMX unknown, and couldn't recall OXY, making the SW somewhat tougher.
EUDORA was hazy; fortunately knew GAYDAR from SB.
Enjoyed the excursion! :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I think a lot of restaurants won't serve rare burgers as a policy - it's a liability thing
Another puzzle solved without understanding the theme until I came here and had it explained to me. But even without knowing what was going on, I thought WELL, ACTUALLY was a great revealer.
In the Terrible Threes Department, I could have done without the texting format crossing the slender hound or the wildcat crossing the acne med and the rapper. And video game acronyms feel pretty close to bottom of the barrel. But the puzzle was fun overall and I especially liked GAYDAR.
Great writeup, Malaika!
The two main complaints are surprising me today.
First, I'm not a Top Gun-ish movie fan, so I haven't seen the movie. But if the posts are correct that the movie has a barroom scene in which one character (I've already forgotten their names) acts as the "WINGMAN" for the other guy, then that's the kind of wordplay and classic misdirection that makes crosswords so enjoyable!
As for the theme, which I thought was terrific (the puzzle played at a MEDIUM time for me, because I was trying to finish all the themers before I got to a reveal), but the theme is comedy, and all three answers pay off the (dad) joke very WELL, ACTUALLY.
Think of them as lines from an old Steve Martin script:
Pretentious Waiter: Mineral Water?
Steve Martin: Well, actually.
Waiter (moments later): Medium rare?
Martin: Well, actually.
Waiter (mid-meal): Feeling ill?
Martin: Well, actually.
Clever wordplay, if not exactly knee-slappers.
Just checking: You know every goosebump on every oiled pectoral from Top Gun, but can't name the main character in Frozen, your granddaughter's favorite movie, despite it being in puzzles dozens of times a year. 🙃 That Tom Cruise must be special to you.
Near Natick at the crossing between SMS and SALUKI; otherwise, a piece of cake.
Which reminds me: both Malaika and LMS, I'm sure both inadvertently, bring Trump strongly to mind. The kid in Malaika who gets both cake and ice cream ineluctably reminded me of how Trump would get two scoops of ice cream on his chocolate pie, while everyone else got just one. One of several such stories here. And then Loren went into some detail about beef-cooking preferences and how they are correlated with ketchup and tipping, and WELL, the rest of the Trump-related thought basically writes itself. Before I forget: thank you, Loren, for that tidbit about myoglobin. My otherwise fantastic wife shuns steaks done RARE or MEDIUM RARE, I'm sure because she thinks it's blood coming out. I have something to tell her now.
GAYDAR, since someone asked, is that indefinable sense that someone must be gay.
Ditto @Zed's question to @egs.
Me too, @Gio 2:37 AM!!
Google ‘kidney grille’
I like my steak "black and blue". Charred on the outside and rare on the inside. If the beef's not tender enough at your restaurant to be cooked that way, I'll order something else.
I like my burgers black and blue too. Beet red on the inside. If the beef's not safe enough at your restaurant to be cooked that way, I'll order something else.
I also adore steak tartare and beef carpaccio.
I order fish medium rare. I like to see a little pink. Fish dries out so quickly. I also love sushi, sashimi and ceviche.
I'm completely with @GILL -- and aren't I always? It's a sacrilege to serve meat or fish well done or medium. Medium rare is acceptable to me, but you probably won't be my best buddy. And I won't ever be able to share dishes with you.
Other than lamb. For some reason, lamb is tough when it's rare and much better when it's medium rare. But that's the only exception.
I'm guessing I may have been some four-legged carnivore in a previous life. FWIW, my eyeteeth are pointed.
All in on the “Ruin” for well done beef. Just no. I actually got fired from a wait position in college for telling a customer (an annoying male who had already tried to pat my ass) “anyone ordering ketchup for his well done prime rib doesn’t deserve to eat here.” Enough.
I really enjoyed the clues on this one. Some clever and different for often used fill. Fun! And a Wednesday theme that I don’t already pick up way before the reveal is such a special treat. And what a relief after yesterday!
Malaika, super job today! And congrats on your volleyball win. I always wanted to play but am too short. Nobody ever let me hit 😢. Thank goodness for baseball and softball. Also loved the WELL ACTUALLY meme. LOL! Also, I vote a both hands up for Zings and Dings.
My only Ding is GAYDAR. Every time I have heard that word used it is decidedly unkindly. I may be over sensitive on this one, but that’s just me. As a Boomer who grew up watching my gay brother struggle through life and finally succumb to his chronic depression and mental illness through suicide, mI may be over critical of some accepted usage.
Excellent puzzle; quick solve; great theme.
Well actually actually, Goose was not Maverick’s “rear”. That word refers only to Mav’s taut buttocks. Goose was Maverick’s “RIO”, which stands for Radar Intercept Operator.
@Malaika: I’ll OPT in on the Zings and Dings and thanks for taking the time to enlighten us this week.
@Gio (2:37) Enjoyed that great Lucy memory.
@Anon (7:27) FEELING GILL. I like it! LOL.
@JD (8:38) I laughed out loud at the tour through your hometown. Sounds a lot like mine.
@TTrimble (10:18) Interesting link. I just hope he never threw the pie and ice cream against the wall.
@Zed and @TTrimble. WELLACTUALLY, I don’t think you read my nitpicking correctly. If you had, you would know that it clicked for me, but that I found the click to be slightly unsatisfying. Any two word noun could be phrased as a question. But would it happen? For example:
Customer: I’d like to by a car.
Salesman: Volkswagen Jetta?
A: I love literature.
B: Philip Dick?
On the whole, my nit is so insignificant that I now apologize for ever bringing it up.
LOVED all the fuss about the wingman misdirect, and I haven't seen Top Gun either. Thanks JohnX for the Tarrantino bit, quite wonderful! And thanks LMS for the pic of Bill Hurt.
The reveal + Malaika's write-up + comments = a top-DRAWER puzzle day. Maybe there's something in the WATER that has brought forth this fountain of wit? Thanks to you all for the laughs, starting with @Gio 2:37. Like others, I loved the double pleasure of the reveal: first, what in the world could it be? and second, the "Wait, what?" moment before the meaning clicked in. I also liked the idea of EARLOBE REGALIA and find I have a soft spot for MEASLY.
As kids learn language through imitation, our two-year-old granddaughter went through a stage where she answered every question directed to her beginning with WELL, ACTUALLY. "Did you have fun at the petting farm?" "WELL, ACTUALLY...."
Do-over: base before COAT. No idea: SALUKI, DMX, GTA.
Nancy 6:35 summed the puzzle up for me.
@Joaquin - Your story gave me a laugh. My husband is one of those ketchup people. 41 years of trying to find it an endearing quirk instead of a travesty when he puts ketchup on something special I've prepared.
Is GAYDAR a shout out to rumors concerning one of the Top Gun stars?
Lots of beefs in today's blog.
The first thing I did after filling in the last letter was to Google SALUKI, and it was a joy to find it is actually a kind of dog. Now the only dogs I like are border collies, and if I had some acreage, I would buy some sheep just for the pleasure of watching them work. Otherwise, I prefer cats.
GAYDAR is amazing. I've seen it in action. Once, walking with a gay office mate in the vicinity of our old office in SF, he stopped to chat with a well dressed young man in the street, who looked as straight as straight can be. He ended up with his phone number, and I am told they went on a date that my friend found entirely satisfactory. GAYDAR at its best!
In those days I also saw the role of a WINGMAN at one of those trendy bars, such as the one owned by California's Governor Newsom. There are quite a few young women there whom experience has taught not to get involved with unattached young men, though they may be good looking and personable. The role of a WINGMAN is of course to make attractive young women feel comfortable meeting a new guy. And, if things don't work out that evening, to give their stud friend someone to commiserate with. Newsom's old bar on Fillmore in the Marina was a very pleasant place to have a beer or two with friends, though I was off the market, so to speak, at the time. But I had plenty of opportunity to observe how people interacted.
My one nit in M's review: Steakhouse patrons sometimes do order steaks MEDIUM WELL, hoping their steak will in fact be MEDIUM. Not everyone likes RARE steak, though some do, and all too often a MEDIUM RARE steak seems raw, so if you want your steak pink in the middle and grey at the edges, MEDIUM is your best way to order it. And that, IMO, is definitely what you want for the best tasting roast beef. (Though my stepfather, a lifelong beef eater, always ordered the end cuts -- better flavor, though none of it was red at all).
Remember the GE College Bowl? When I was an undergraduate student at Brandeis, back when Thomas Jefferson was in the White House, we faced U. of Chicago. It was quite a battle with Brandeis barely eking (sorry) out a win. It was then discovered that we were wrongly given points for answering Monet, when it should have been Manet (or vicey versey). Oh, no! They declared it a tie and had the match replayed the next week. Brandeis won handily. We went on to win the rest of our matches (4 more), one by a score that was something like 510 to minus 15 (you could lose points if you answered early and were wrong).
Several of my friends went down to NYC to watch the match live in the studio. During that trip, two of them (Marc and Jerry) wanted to visit MOMA but lacked the funds to pay for tickets. They decided to try to sneak in by climbing over one of those velvet rope thingies. But Jerry got his foot caught in it and it came crashing down. The museum guards came running towards them from several directions and Marc threw his hands in the air and started shouting "Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"
They were taken to the museum office and when they explained the situation, they were allowed in for free.
"Zings and dings" is an absolute zing.
This calls to mind Anthony Bourdain, in Kitchen Confidential, which led to his fame. He told of restaurants taking that undesirable grizzly piece and calling it "save for well done" - assuming anyone ordering that wouldn't know the difference (and apparently wouldn't tip well).
@pabloinnh - I drank from one of those fountains in Congress Park in downtown Saratoga (rookie mistake). I made sure not to go anywhere near strong magnets afterwards:)
I liked that I had to really read the themers after the revealer to get it, and what a thrill!
@Z - just can't help yourself with the football bashing, eh? Feeling bored?
My take on the "posed question" of the theme answers is:
Is this mineral water? WELL, ACTUALLY
Is this medium rare? WELL, ACTUALLY
Is you feeling ill? WELL, ACTUALLY
Works perfectly, for me. I liked it.
I did forget the SMS texting forman and ended up with a DNF with a mALUKI dog breed. And I had a writeover at 60A, having mixed up my acne meds with my kitchen tool brands (OXo).
This was fun, thanks Karen Lurie!
FH
I'm sure someone already said this (but I can't be bothered to read all 71 other postings), but Goose was Maverick's 'RIO' which is Radio Intercept Officer. His wingman (arguably) was Iceman.
This wouldn’t have been that out of place on a Monday. But yeah, no idea how this week’s puzzles got arranged in that order.
FH
Slip of the keyboard: Radar
The responder is simply NOT picking NITS. They are making a choice other than that offered, including a pun on WELL. A NITPICKER points out minor errors, usually grammatical. These responses are simply alternate choices. I know I am picking NITs here. You can easily tell the difference. People invariably get annoyed at nitpickers (ask me how I know -- in fact you know how I know). I can't imagine getting annoyed at any of these alternative responses.
malaika, i also am having a super hard time imagining you not knowing dmx. if indeed that is the case, please listen to 'X Gon'Give it to Ya' just before your next volleyball game. also consider the same when you beat up a bunch of bad guys with your granpa rick.
@Whatsername, The comedy here writes itself!
Got Saluki right away. It’s the mascot of Southern Illinois University, my alma mater.
Good puzzle overall, but my ding is WELLWATER. Does anybody really ever specify that? E.g. at a restaurant if asked for a preference for mineral water would anybody really say they would prefer WELLWATER instead?
At first the SMS/Saluki cross spelled trouble for me . . . . and I agree with the blogger that there were a LOT of 3s in this puzzle, BUT the theme was so tight and funny that my nits disappeared. GAYDAR was great.
Remember, if you don't pick nits the next thing you know you will have a full blown infestation of head lice.
Anybody out there ever order or hear anyone else order WELL WATER? A long, long time ago the already ancient two-room schoolhouse where I attended 1st and 2nd grade didn't have indoor plumbing. We had to bring our drinking WATER from home because the school only had WELL WATER and nobody would touch that stuff. Who knew what else was down in that WELL besides WATER?
I wouldn't be surprised to see WELL WATER become another pricey commercial product hawked as part of the WELLness movement, maybe something like a kale and WELL WATER colonic cleanse and detox.
25D EDGE UP and 49D FACE UP are what Sumo wrestlers do just before the match begins. Afterwards there is a formal MAKE UP ritual.
Which brings me to a follow UP from Monday's MAKE UP puzzle. A recent study found higher levels of carcinogenic PFAs, the so called "forever chemicals", in people who developed liver cancer. Among other products like nonstick surfaces in cooking utensils, PFAs are found in lots of MAKE UPs, especially the long lasting liquid types. Potential exposure to carcinogens is one of several reasons why I don't wear MAKE UP. Or canoodle with anyone who does.
Embarrassed as hell to report to @Zed @TTrimble and the entire f***ing world that it just clicked for me, and I wasn’t even looking at it. I was taking a shower. Man I’m embarrassed. Please disregard any stupid comments I make in the future.
Archimedes yelled Eureka in his bath. Egs aha-ed in the shower. Well, actually both may have been, well, enjoying their well water.
@egs - We’ve all been there.
@DigitalDan - Did you miss the “or” in the clue.
@burtonkd - It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it. Still waiting on the robust defense of Bud, though.
Thank you. GAYDAR was a ding for me as well.
It took me a while to get the thme. It’s fine, but the first themer (MINERALWATER) doesn’t hit the nail on the head like the other two do. The constricted corners were bad news for three-letter flotsam like DMX, OXY, REC, GTA, ELL etc. SMS crossing with SALUKI was almost a Natick that should have (and could have) been edited out. Fortunately, I guessed correctly with an S at the cross. But how did Will Shortz think that was okay? Not too many AHA! moments here. Not REAL great, nor bad. MEDIUM, or par as some would say
who or what the eff is DMX??????????????????????????????
UNSAID URGE
My WINGMAN’s not WELL,ACTUALLY,
no SIR, FEELINGILL I fear.
It’s RARE he OPTS for ADES ORE TEA,
ORE WATER and not BEER.
--- EUDORA MANN
Like radar for gays, I guess. I'd never heard it either. Now explain slurs for Get it? 42a for me.
I see I must repeat my rant re: ADES. Once again, folks: ADE is NOT A WORD!!! It is a SUFFIX! It cannot be clued as a word; it must be clued as a suffix! DO WE HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING?
Good. As to the rest of today's offering, I think it's kinda cute. It's like: How ARE you? --> WELL, ACTUALLY...yeah, you don't wanna ask ME that right now. Entertaining enough, but mayhap a tad too tame for midweek. I have a feeling they had three Mondays in the pipeline and just let 'em go through one at a time. It's okay though; par.
Stumbled to a bogey in Wordle.
Well, well, well. Didn't "get it" until I got here, but I did finish the puzzle.
It got funnier after thinking of theme for a little while - didn't hit me as very funny at first.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Not much trouble here except MEAger before MEASLY.
Wordle par.
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