Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Monday ... those big corners were weird / slowish)
THEME: STRIKE ONE (37A: Ump's call after a first pitch ... or a hint to the ends of 17-, 25-, 53- and 63-Across) — each of the endings is a thing you can strike, i.e. you can STRIKE ONE of the following:
Theme answers:
a balance (NEW BALANCE) (17A: Footwear giant headquartered in Boston, Mass.)
a deal (DONE DEAL) (25A: Fait accompli)
a pose (YOGA POSE) (53A: Downward dog, for one)
a chord (MINOR CHORD) (63A: Group of notes that often sounds sad)
Hello, I'm back, no thanks to the good people at Delta, or to my car, which gave out at 70mph on the I-86 today, about ninety miles west of my final destination, i.e. home. We got in to Detroit after midnight, drove a couple hours to a tollbooth rest area plaza dealie, slept in the car for three hours, then drove back through Ohio and Pennsylvania to New York, where the car died, after which we spent hours waiting for a tow truck that was supposed to take half an hour the *first* time we called (we called at least four times), and even then since it's Sunday and we were ninety miles from home there was nothing much to be done so the car is back in Bath, NY waiting to be seen by Some Garage, which will tell us that it's a small thing or a big thing, and it will cost a little money or a lot of money. Anyway, thank god for friends, who came and rescued us and took us home. Now I'm all jet-lagged and obsessed with the fact that my house doesn't smell right. It doesn't smell bad, it just doesn't smell like I've been living in it. Not sure what the missing ingredient is yet. Coffee, probably. And scented candles. So yeah I've had about three hours sleep in the last 36 hours but at least I'm well fed (thawed some soup—magic). And now there's this puzzle, and it's fine, I guess, but it's built weird, I think. Giant corners and a super-choppy, hole-ridden center. Big corners might hold delights, the delights that longer answers often bring, but today they don't, not really. They're pretty shruggy. As for the theme, I didn't like the revealer at first because the ONE part felt awkward, but now I think maybe I like it fine. What might you do with each of the ending words? You might STRIKE ONE. None of the themers is that interesting on its own, but the theme holds up fine. Fine enough for Monday. I am only now learning that there is such a thing as MICROSLEEP (heard of "micronap," but not "-sleep"). I don't think it's clued well, though, since the clue implies that it's something that's intentional and possibly refreshing, whereas it's a no and no on both counts."People who experience microsleeps often remain unaware of them, instead believing themselves to have been awake the whole time, or to have temporarily lost focus" (wikipedia). I liked remembering SLIP 'N' SLIDE—do they still make them? I thought maybe they had been outlawed, like Jarts (lawn darts), since they were the cause of many a backyard injury, for sure.
had a great two-week vacation, first in Northern Michigan and then in Los Angeles. I'll discuss it over the coming week. Or I won't. We'll see. I gotta prepare for the start of the Fall semester (a week from tomorrow), and as I say, I gotta deal with my car, and on top of it all I have jury duty starting Tuesday. The highlights of L.A. were the New Beverly Cinema (I saw "Cinderella" (1950) and "Moonraker" (1979)), the Getty (esp. the Cy Twombly exhibit), and the Huntington Library/Museum in Pasadena (finally got to see the most important Chaucer MS on the planet, as well as other beautiful things.
at The Huntington
Not much to say about the fill in today's puzzle except that MANCAVE and "she-shed" are some vomity gender-binary nonsense. "She-shed" is actually physically painful to see and say, I can't believe women let themselves be talked into that bit of tin-eared marketing terminology. You don't even get a place in the actual house? Just ... a shed? Shed? That's the word for the dank cobwebby place you put dirty tools or whatever. And "she-shed" sounds like a hair and/or skin problem. Nah, you got the short end of the stick there, for sure. What else? I had LEGO ___ and no idea what followed, possibly because nothing made out of Legos qualifies as ART. Also, AH is not a sound of "contented pleasure." That's AAH, or possibly AHH. "AH" is a kind of unimpressed "I see," or else what you say at the dentist's office (28A: Sounds of contented pleasure = AHS). I had PUG for POM and SAYS YES instead of SAYS I DO, and I really truly believe it's spelled 'eeny' not EENIE. OK, glad to be back, etc. See you tomorrow.
Easy. Smooth and Jim at Xwordinfo says it’s a pretty tight set of theme answers. Solid Monday, liked it.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #734 was tough. I worked on it over a couple of days and had no confidence when I finished that I got it right. Turns out I did get it right, but that was more lucky guessing than solving skills. I’m still not sure how some of the clues relate to the answers. The bottom half seemed slightly less diabolical than the top. I sincerely wish you good luck on this one!
Rotten Tomatoes score for yesterday’s puzzle.
Liked it - 50% Meh - 27% Not their cup of tea - 23% Percent of total comments that actually expressed an opinion - 35%
“Footwear giant?” I have owned NEW BALANCE running shoes (decades ago) so definitely a big name. But “giant?” Nike is a footwear giant. NEW BALANCE doesn’t have quite the same stature. (FWIW - my running shoe of choice is a Saucony and my casual shoes are Under Armours).
So the eyebrow was already arched when I ran into the convoluted DUNE clue. Great movie (much better than the earlier foray) and a great book, but I’d have gone Sahara or Sleeping Bear, personally.
After that by eyebrows calmed down and I enjoyed the solve. The choppy middle was a little weird, but the big corners were mostly fun. 👍🏽👍🏽
Rex: Yikes! All that, dead car, and jury duty too. I vote Yes! for you discussing it over the coming week. On my last LA trip I was impressed with the Getty architecturally, but kinda underwhelmed by the art. Glad to see you had a different experience.
Solved this by looking at only the down clues, and there were some head-scratchers: MICROSLEEP and LEGO ART. I finished having to guess at 26 down: N-YOU crossing S-W. I tried NAYO then NOYO before NEYO; never heard of him/her. Theme wise, even with the revealer it took me a while to get it: (strike "a" BALANCE, etc...).
Rex – great to have you back. But what an awful trip home you describe. Glad that soup was available. I can totally relate to your reaction to your house’s smell; this must be a phenomenon that we all experience upon returning after a trip. I know I sure do. I’ve applied for a different smell.
I’ve had the same thoughts on the term she shed. Why can’t it be part of the main house? I mean, MAN CAVE ain’t no shining endorsement (but better than feller cellar, right?). I guess we women could retire to our hen den, but that feels almost as icky. Gal salle? Nah. When my kids were little, I’da killed for a tidy little effete suite. (Hah – a couple of years ago, this was the tweet suite)
Also – your description of she shed as some kind of skin problem almost made me spit my coffee. How timely – yesterday Mom and I were watching my sister’s dog for the day and binging on some vapid TV. I was on the phone with said sister when Mom nudged my arm and whispered, Look at this . . . [I went back and decided to, well, STRIKE what I wrote next in honor of our breakfast test, but “reptilian” comes to mind.] Honestly, I’ve come to dread the words Come look at this.
At boring meetings (redundant?) I DOODLE flowers and sentences in Japanese, this latter in hopes that someone notices and admires my stunning intellect and capabilities. So far no takers. I’ll keep you posted.
The clue for APT made me laugh. Rob Banks, indeed. If I were a guy and aptly named, I’d be Skip Summers.
“Like the sound of a creaky basement door” – calling forth James Earl Jones’s voice telling me You are about to die. I hear him telling me this, too, whenever my “service engine soon” light comes on.
I had never heard of MICROSLEEP, either, but it’s happening to me more and more as I try mightily to stay up to spend time with Mom after school but am Seriously Spent. MICROSLEEP, unplanned. NAP, planned.
On STEALTH. First of all, great word. At school Mr. Burch (custodian) and I are the first there by a couple of hours. I have these black flip-flops that are like the loudest, flippiest floppiest flip-flops ever, and we joke about them. But a couple weeks ago, I got a terrific new pair from Walmart, and they’re super quiet. I inadvertently surprised him last week and joked that they were my ninja STEALTH flip-flops. Mr. Burch is a state treasure and has made my life at Turning Point very, very pleasant. He’s The Man.
PS – Thanks to all of you who offered dental advice yesterday. But If I can’t have sedation, I just can’t see it through; it’s that simple. (@Nancy -I went to a wonderful sedation dentistry practice in WV, and I totally agree. Money well spent.)
-0% of Ukrainian clues for BOMB are box-office related.
-Chances someone will trash the puzzle because some ATMs dispense $10s: 100%
-Percentage of solvers who hate OWIE: 58%
-Those learning just now NEW BALANCE is still in business, and they are in Boston, and they're puzz-worthy: 99%
-MCRIB's are made from 100% murdered pigs.
-Number of people who saw Dune and liked it: 7
-Percentage of solvers white-knuckling it through every AHS related crosswordsy answer: 99% (some are too new to know the horror)
-Number of living people who've ever SEWn anything ever: 312
-Need for plural EDENS in the Bible: 0
-People wishing LILY had a Harry Potter clue: moi.
-People eager for childbirth related clues: Anti-choicers
-People appearing so often this week they nudged ELSA from Frozen out of the puzzle world: SELA "I hate Disney" Ward and Raggedy "I will never see that movie so I can cry about it on my puzzle reviews" ANN
-General glee at the return of EPEE: Palpable
-Latest dog proffered by puppy mills in the NYTXW: POM
-Zzzzzzzzz related entries: 3
-Single fat-shaming entry: STOUT
-Movies you might have seen about selling drugs when you weren't watching Frozen: Dallas Buyers Club
-Other possible answer to a group of sad sounding notes: Everything Gary plays
-Percentage of people eager to hear dirt: 100%
-Number of times EERIE is the answer: 1 billion
-Rate of joy for golf-related entries: 4%
-Percentage of solvers believing all laser related clues should involve aggravating a kitten: 95% (error factor of 5% due to woke-ness of the pro-kitten fuzz heads)
-Likelihood of being grossed out at the thought of a MAN CAVE: 51%
-Times people hearing of a wedding think, "Well that's a bad idea:" Most times
-People thinking the clue for CREASED should be pants-related: 100%
-Times I've been on an EGO TRIP: All times
-Percentage of non-art-school graduates thinking LEGO ART is ART: 3%
-Number of non-sleep-related events scheduled this week "under the covers" by all crossword solvers: 1 (and it's somebody in Gen Z from California... let's wish them well)
-Number of legitimately cool AUNTs in the United States: 734
-Joy evoked by yet another ESE directional clue: Abysmally low
-Reasons a puzzle gets published with APT and OPTS staring each other down: None whatsoever
-More degrading clues that could've been used for LUSH: At least one
-Chances RENO is your first thought when gambling is mentioned: Zero
-People preferring snake BOAS over feathered BOAS: 6%
-Likelihood someone will say they hated the SLIPNSLIDE answer: 100% Likelihood that person is 100% wrong: 100%
-People questioning EENIE and EERIE in the same puzzle: Hopefully nobody, but EPEE EPICS is getting awfully E-ey
-Chances you'll ever hear the term MICROSLEEP after today: 0%
-Chances I've heard of NEYO but am pretty sure only through crosswords: 97% Chances I want to know more: 0% Based on the other pairs we've already discovered in the puzzle, chances it'll show up with NEMO: 99%
-Times I'd like to light anagram clues on fire: 100% until I get them from crosses, then 0%
-Twin clue pairing for MANIACS: Fiends, or friends (depending on how you make choices in life)
Uniclues:
1 Adam encouraging God to brighten the place up a bit, especially since Easter is coming in about 4000 years. 2 Ward's sword dramas. 3 Why Johnny got suspended. 4 It's Canada. It's freezing there. What do you expect? 5 When you hold the Cheeto bag upside down above your face and wiggle it around trying to get the little piece out that's stuck in the corner. 6 You?
I found the puzzle to be beyond easy, but I haven’t struggled through a horrendous homecoming like Rex did. After that ordeal the People magazine puzzle would be difficult. Yikes!
Saw the multiple pix on Twitter of you and Alfie. He's a good cat.
So you can stop pretending that you are not glad to be home.
Otherwise, aside from a bad letter than F-ed my solve time by 25%, this was not horrible. The short fill was not objectionable, although SELA Ward has probably had more of career in XWs rather than TV/movies.
@Rex: Welcome back, and sympathies on your car problems. May the cost be minimal!
I'm not quite up to @okanaganer's downs-only solving, but for the early week puzzles I try not to read the clues for the long acrosses until after I'm done. That a distinct lack of happy music because I misremembered NEYO as NEYa. Like others, I've only heard of the performer through crosswords. Other than that, Medium Monday.
What a delight! I LOVE MCRIBS and try to have them at least once a week when they come around! But still put in poboy at 1A. Then, when I went to the downs, immediately fixed that and smiled at the thought of my beloved MCRIB. I do find it unlikely that there is any rib meat in them, but the taste really appeals to me, especially with extra onion. Continuing to 6A, I again zigged when I should have zagged, and put in flop for BOMB, and again fixed it as soon as I looked at the downs. So my time played a little longer than average. But my experience of the solve was nothing but delight! Mixing old standards like SELA and OREO with great stuff like SLIPNSLIDE and MANCAVE was a nice mix, I thought.
Ditto what has already been said on LEGO ART. I mean, ART? I actually watched a couple of episodes of those LEGO build wars. Meh. Interesting, I guess, but I'm not a MANIAC for that sort of thing. I actually lost all respect for LEGO when they introduced people and cars and stuff already pre-built. When I was a kid, we had to build our own people, using the blue roof two-ers (two knob pieces) as hats, and singletons as feet. Now that was creativity! And of course old birds like me also had to walk to school. In the snow, up hill. Both ways!
Also did not know MICRO SLEEP existed. Sounds sad. Also do not know NEYO and barely know LETO (yes, I am probably the last person on the planet who has not seen DBC; am more of a DUNE genre fan), but crosses brought those down.
I'll also weigh in on the SHE SHED (clue). I don't mind the term, nor concept. A gal in my garden club has an extraordinary one! With Champaign cooler and lace curtains and day bed! Looks exactly nothing like my garden shed, which is filled with nothing but tools, mower, wheel barrow, spare hoses, and weed whackers. The fanciest part of the thing is the red shutters on the outside of the windows to kinda match the house. @LMS, I love your alternate alliterative locales! And as for DOODLES, I used to DOODLE curly qs on the back of my notebooks back in high school when bored with the slow pace of teaching. I still keep one in my memorabilia box (along with my diary and first rock concert ticket (Journey) and my Ode to a Moth poem from sophomore English class, probably for the same reasons you gave.
Finally, I especially like the SW corner. For reasons unknown, it brought to mind this imagery: the happy nerd couple that SAYSIDO and had themselves a little EGOTRIP with their LEGO-themed wedding, where all the AUNTS of a certain AGE enjoyed a glass of STOUT or two and dished DIRT about SELA's SHE SHED. You may now try to get that image out of your head for the rest of the day. You're welcome.
There’s a wonderful collection of feminist poetry you might like, featuring inspirational works by Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, and Christina Rosetti, among others. It’s called Vomity Gender-Binary Nonsense.
This was almost an all-time best, very fast and easy solve. The rebus isn't really something that is presented during the solve but as a sort of post-facto rationalization which is fine, I suppose, but perhaps a missed opportunity.
Simon’s five NYT puzzles have been beginning-of-week, and he’s proven to be very good at making puzzles with accessible answers and easy-to-understand themes, just what early week puzzles need. One thing that makes today’s construction stellar is that the grid only has 32 black squares, more typical of a Friday puzzle than a Monday, and with the higher number of white squares, it’s much harder to fill with accessible answers. Simon did just that. Those four white-dense corners are clean and very in-the-language.
I liked the 6 double-E’s, and was inspired by [Cry to a birthing mother], it appears, as in my scan of the grid, a mini birthing tale emerged:
PUSH STRIKE ONE PUSH DRAT MINOR CHORD YOGA POSE SLIP ‘N SLIDE DONE DEAL AHS NAP
Simon, I loved the clip in your notes in WordPlay and XwordInfo.com , and I loved experiencing your beautifully made Monday puzzle. Thank you!
My five favorite clues from last week (in order of appearance):
1. One known for living large and getting stoned? (7) 2. Bat boy? (5) 3. Buff, and then some (7) 4. Leaves total drained of energy? (5)(3) 5. It's good for three points (7)
Well I learned what a she-shed is, although I'm not sure that I'm glad I did since it sounds kind of foolish. These themes that are not readily apparent and may require some "deciphering" post-solve to discern don't really seem to add much to the solving experience. I wonder how many truly "aha moments" the group of pretty experienced solvers who visit here regularly had today- did you bother to figure out the theme?
Seems like a lot of work and effort go into cramming the theme entries and a revealer into the grid only to have it be played as a themeless by a fairly large percentage of solvers (if that is indeed even the case). So, how many of us wait with baited breath to determine how the theme pulls together five days a week ?
Yikes, a return home from hell! And BATH… I recall from our many years in North Central Pennsylvania that it was often in the news for assault and battery cases as well as very much domestic abuse. Crossing fingers for your car!
I liked all the white space. Seems like a lot for a Monday. The center was a near checker board.
Some nice stuffing too. STEALTH MANIACS EGOTRIP and MANCAVE full of LEGOART and a SLIPNSLIDE. SLIPNSLIDES are great until you get a drought or a water bill.
I think our Nate Silver impressionist was emphasizing some weaknesses in the fill. I'd add TEES to his ey list.
Also in the stuffing were a mess 'o plurals.
AHS OPTS TOTS SAYS ATMS EPICS EDENS ASIDES MANIACS and give INDOORS a pass (but would INDOOR also fit the clue? Refs ruling please). Then the RE in front and one ED and one D behind. So the stuffing was stuffed and the whitespace was filled.
We had the MCRIB discussion before and it got many bad reviews. It is too bad to be a good 1A.
Good solid theme. So overall, a pretty god Monday.
I did quite a bit of paper folding onceupona. Enjoyed it more than pants as far as CREASED clues go.
Welcome back Rex. I enjoyed all the subs and their differing approaches to reviews and puzzles. Sounds like you need another week off recovery time. But 2 weeks off makes me worried you might find you enjoy not doing this.
I was luckier than you. One time I drove home from a trip and the car died just as I coasted into my driveway.
At least MAN CAVE seemed like a description for an actual thing. I knew several couples where the wife made all decorating decisions for the house and the husband had a basement rec room.
I’ve never heard of a SHE SHED before Lowe’s or Home Depot had an ad about it.
Cute theme - although I’m not seeing why the revealer couldn’t be “ball ONE”. Clean mid length fill - nothing overly snazzy other than SLIP N SLIDE but made for a smooth time.
Learned MICRO SLEEP. Had the same side eye as @Z to the giant descriptor for NEW BALANCE - although they appear to be the 5th largest shoe company in the US behind Nike, Adidas, Jordan and Sketchers. Only time I’ve heard “she shed” is the insurance commercial on tv.
I think OFL must still be groggy from his misadventures, as I found this one somewhere on the pre-Monday side of Monday, my only minor snag being DONEDEED for DONEDEAL. I actually like DONEDEED better. I do agree with his observations about Pasadena and the Huntington. LA he can have.
Found out that NEWBALANCRE is headquartered just down the road. Who knew? I'm a Brooks Ghost guy myself.
SLIPNSLIDE is a cool product name and something that looks like more fun than it actually is when you try it.
Good theme, nice revealer. but it is definitely misplaced in the middle of the puzzle. I've mentioned this before, constructors, and don't want to have to say it again. Let's try a little harder here.
@GaryJ- You've outdone yourself, which I find hard to believe.
Nice Mondecito, SM. Not quite a Super Monday but definitely lots of fun, for which thanks.
Welcome back, OFL! Missed you, man, and really sorry about the bad ending of your trip. Is anyone having easy, on-time travel these days? On my last trip to California in June, I got back to the airport at 4 AM. Many hours late. The car service I use to and from the airport stops at 2 AM, so I had to beg a ride with some other dazed passengers. Got home at 6 AM. Good luck with your car!
Amazing comments today too. @LMS: Agree about the house smell. It's never quite right when I get back. "Hen den!" I'd be Skip Summer too, but you were clever enough to think of it. @Gary Jugert: Enjoyed your Harper's Index list. @Anonymous 7:11: That is some Ph.D.-level dad joke!
Then there's @JOHN X. You can take your misogynistic drivel and, well, you know. Be sure to let us know if you ever write anything clever.
Liked this puzzle, which is extremely low on junk fill, especially for a Monday. As much as I hate OREOs, both the cookie and its overuse in puzzles, I had to laugh at how Simon managed to sneak a reference in with CALORIE.
@SouthsideJohnny: I'm often surprised to find that a completed Monday puzzle had a theme. Today was no exception. Mondays are easy, many of us watch our solve times, so the goal is to just fly through it. You don't need the theme to solve, and paying attention to it would just slow you down.
I had no problem at all with LEGOART, my local newspaper had an example of it on the front page today. It seems a new Chinese restaurant has opened in the city, which is different from mother Chinese restaurants in two ways: Fall River being 70 percent Portuguese, it offers chourico egg rolls and cacoila fried wontons. And it is decorated not with dragons and Buddhas and tiki gods, but with giant lego creatures put together by the owner's family. A 5 food Mario is the one on the front page.
By the way I object to ODOR being characterized as a Bad smell, I believe there are as many good odors as bad. I looked up a poem by George Herbert to try to prove it and it turns out not to prove it at all, since it does not in fact use the word; but I shall share it anyhow:
Life I made a posie, while the day ran by: Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie My life within this band.
But time did beckon to the flowers, and they By noon most cunningly did steal away And wither'd in my hand.
My hand was next to them, and then my heart: I took, without more thinking, in good part Times gentle admonition: Who did so sweetly deaths sad taste convey Making my minde to smell my fatal day; Yet sugring the suspicion.
Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent, Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament, And after death for cures. I follow straight without complaints or grief, Since if my sent be good, I care not, if It be as short as yours.
Welcome back Rex and what a vacation horror story! Thankfully the car waited until you were closer to home. Hope the repair isn’t too painful a DEAL … or the jury duty either.
Completely painless was this sweet Monday puzzle which I found very smooth flowing and satisfying. Just the right BALANCE for the day and an interesting enough theme to make it thought-provoking. The only other STRIKEs I came up with off the cuff were MATCH and NERVE which seems like it’s more often said in the past tense come to think of it.
Had never heard of MICRO SLEEP and tried FORTY WINKS but really wanted POWER NAP to fit. I tried a MCRIB once and that was enough. EPIC BOMB.
Hey All ! Liked the open corners. Interesting theme. Revealer clue seemed a bit off, as in, why would it necessarily be "after a first pitch"? It could be in the second inning, e.g., after 12 pitches. I guess you can Lawyer it. It sounds to myself like I'm channeling Rex! Why this, not that? Har
Anyway, @LMS got one other in her avatar, I got NERVE. Clue could be - "The gall!" - answered as WHAT NERVE.
Double O fest in SE. (Well, only three, but other O's around) Also a bunch of Double E's around the puz @Lewis's Double-Counting is rubbing off. 😁
I have many MICROSLEEPS during the day, especially after eating. I actually do realize what's happening, and hope nobody sees it!
Newsflash for Southside and Anon 8:59. Every Monday has a theme, along with Tues, Wed, Thurs, and very nearly all Sundays. Solving style is a personal choice. I like to make the theme part of my solving fun. Enjoy.
You're wrong. First on the plural - the plural of Lego is Lego. Secondly, there is a massive travelling exhibition called "The Art of the Brick" that is literally making the rounds in art museums right now. Look it up, it's amazing.
But hey, even if your idea of art doesn't include such things, the answer still holds because there's an entire line of Lego that builds hangable mosaics and the name of that line is Lego Art.
But hey, this is the same Rex who once said that "nobody knows what Princess Leia's last name is" so yeah.
I'm all for gender do-what-you-want whatever, but that doesn't mean that we should erase gendered words. If a non-binary person wants to have a basement to play guitar or video games, that person can call it whatever they want, but it doesn't mean "man cave" is now not a legitimate term. Make a new term if you like, but the old term still has meaning to people. Whoever has the spot can call it what they wish. More words, not fewer.
If someone what's to call it a "she-shed," fine. Maybe a transwoman wants call it a she-shed. Perhaps a transman wants to use the name man-cave, for that matter. Great. Just because "middle" doesn't have a counterpart doesn't mean other terms don't.
There seems to be a contradiction when (some) people are basically saying that gendered language should be basically erased while at the same time saying that it's the most important thing for a person's identity and gendered language must be specific.
The only thing I know for sure will cause a modern car to die on the move: broken or slipped timing belt. If so, you'll be lucky if it's just a replacement. Most modern engines are not non-interfering (sorry for the double negative, but that's how it's expressed) design, so you might easily have bent a valve stem or two and/or busted a piston or two. Just depends on where the valves were when the camshaft stopped turning.
The first, and so far only, time I've heard 'she shed' is in that insurance advert (although not recently). Figured it was some Mad Man's coinage for the purpose. Such really exist? I suspect only below the Mason-Dixon line, as in the Blue States, it's just too cold nine months out of the year. And heating one will cost more than the gear Dad has in his Man Cave, and will cost that every bloody year. Just parcel the basement into threes: laundry (for both), Man Cave, Woman Womb.
I saw the "B" in 1A and immediately thought of a BAN MI [sic], only it's spelled Banh Mi, I think. And the "B" is on the wrong end. Other than that...
And since I've never heard of a "she-shed", I didn't initially know MAN CAVE at 1D either.
How many crosses do you think it took me to get MCRIB? Wrong. It took me all five, the "C" being the last letter in. It's a very DOOK-y answer and I've never eaten a MCRIB or even seen one. I've vaguely heard of it, I suppose, but I never imagined it having real pork any more than I think of a Big Mac as having real beef. I think of it more as the kind of "mystery meat" they used to occasionally serve at Camp Pinecliffe.
I was amused by MICROSLEEP. New coinages often seem to be created by lazy texters who don't want to do all that typing. But wait -- here's a 10-letter word replacing the perfectly swell 3-letter word NAP. It would take forever to type. What's going on here? Why would anyone do that?
But wait. Many rows down, when your solving mind has moved elsewhere, here comes NAP into the grid. That's very cute, Simon.
Apropos of nothing at all, MINOR CHORDs always sound sad to me. Musicians, please help me out here. Is that the reason that even Harold Arlen's happiest songs so often depress me whereas Richard Rodgers's saddest songs never do? Does Arlen mostly use MINOR CHORDS while Rodgers mostly uses major chords? Am I right about this?
Really enjoyed this puzzle. Wish all Mondays could be this interesting and well-crafted.
OSHEA was INBED in his MAN CAVE. His STOUT wife, POM, was INDOORS eating Oreos and counting CALORIES. She liked to DOODLE while in a YOGA POSE because it ADDED NEW BALANCE to the EGO TRIP her LUSH body craved. OSHEA thought it EERIE to watch....he didn't CARE. After OSHEA's afternoon MICRO SLEEP NAP he'd go out for a MC RIB and a tater TOT. He wasn't a big SPENDER but the eating ACT would make him MEW. He would sit in an EDEN park always facing EAST and listen to NEYO sing in his MINOR CHORD. He was careful, though, because he didn't want any BEE MANICS to give him a MINOR OWIE. He always carried a STEALTH BOMB LASER to ward any tater TOT ODOR. Further, there were always BOAS lurking in the DUNE DIRT waiting to STRIKE ONE in the EENIE. After lunch, he'd go home to his STOUT wife. She'd be on her SLIP N SLIDE...it was an EPEE of EPICS to watch. OSHEA didn't CARE. He loved her and would gladly SAY I DO again as long as TRUDEAU would officiate. Moral of the story? Buy your wife a SHE SHED.
As the owner of two DOODLEs, I resemble @GaryJugert’s condescension yesterday regarding designer dogs and their farmers market-attending woke keepers. Actually, I enjoy @Gary’s remarks 72.86% of the time, and thought today’s were particularly good.
With regard to the SHESHED/Man Cave inferno that is now blazing, don’t we need something for those whose PGP (Preferred Gender Pronouns) are different. Many now use they/them/their. How about a Their Lair?
I, like others, did the BOMB flop before being disabused by crosses. Much less understandable was writing in “origami” for CREASED and thinking “well, maybe it’s Japanese for CREASED. Seems like the clue should have alluded to that.”
How an Irishman, after over-celebrating his new U.S. citizenship, begins his new national anthem: OSHEA can you see……
Very easy puzzle, but a fun one for a Monday. Thanks, Simon Marotte.
I just hit 100 Phreagles (two guesses) on today's first Phrasle. My record to date is two Phraces (on the first guess), 100 Phreagles, 81 birdies (three guesses) and 16 pars (four guesses). Nothing longer than that.
I wonder why I care so much since no one else does. :)
As someone on the back end (hopefully) of a COVID bout, my still-fatigued self was not thrilled to see the INBED/MICROSLEEP/NAP trilogy.
The puzzle also had a menagerie feel to it -- BEE, BOAS, POM and animals BAAing and MEWing.
Probably no more than normal, but for some reason I noticed LUSH/PUSH, ACT/APT and EENIE/EERIE today.
Hilarious that we have "Rob Banks" today after Saturday's APTONYM.
When I went through all the themers at the end of my solve, the first thing I thought was, "I hope Rex posts the Madonna video." He did not disappoint.
Nice theme! For me, it was well enough disguised that mid-way it had me wondering how I was supposed to STRIKE O-N-E from NEW BALANCE or make sense of D...DEAL. But then I caught on at YOGA POSE, followed by the solver's high of getting MINOR CHORD with no crosses (aka EGO TRIP). I thought that finding this array of very different things that can be struck was a stroke of genius by the constructor (it also made me think of the many sources of consternation for learners of English). Lots of other entries that were fun to write in, too. Great Monday!
@Southside Johnny 7:41 - On M, T, W, I always try to figure out the theme before the reveal, and I enjoy being faked out (i.e., needing the reveal to get it) as much as catching on before the unveiling. Once in a while I need @Rex to explain the theme and I count those days as a DNF, even if the grid is filled correctly.
So many bubbles we live in! Like millions of women (not 312 per Gary Jugert) I SEW in an in-house SEWing room (previously a bedroom til the kids moved out) but SHE-SHEDS are definitely a thing, and they are definitely not your typical garden shed. Google it to see some pretty cottages and cabins. Proof that we still live in a man’s world: I’m expected to know all kinds of male-related sports terms, facts and characters, but a past-time enjoyed by millions of women is open speculation that it’s even “a thing.” Today’s puzzle was blessedly pure of such “man-lore” (‘cause it’s a Monday?) but I’d say the average ratio of “stuff men are into” to “stuff women are into” is about 98:2
I'm going way out on a limb here, but I think Simon Marotte is a Dad. Or at least an uncle. SLIP N SLIDE brings back wonderful memories of children's parties in our back yard, back when we had a back yard with grass. On hot days, it was a lifesaver. And of course accidents happen to all tots, and in our family, they resulted in an OWIE.
Very easy puzzle today. The only mystery was NEYO, a person I never heard of and never want to hear of again. Also never heard of a she-shed, but that's OK. No doubt sea shells are artfully arranged there, to be sold down by the seashore. We had a shed once in our back yard, but it basically fell down in some earthquake, though it was a handy place still to stow garden tools. We tore it down when we remodeled that yard.
I highly recommend you Google for "the shed song". You will get a better version than the one someone here cited, complete with pictures of sheds of all kinds.
Very glad to see OFL is back, and await further word on his poor car. I would point out that The Huntington is actually in San Marino. Lovely place, and besides the paintings they have an amazing collection of rare books, some of which are on exhibit, or used to be. As for The Getty, I assume OFL visited the one off the San Diego Freeway. I am wracking my brain trying to remember the artist whose wonderful paintings so impressed me, the one time I visited, long ago. The Getty did not exist when I was a kid in L.A., and it was preceded by a Getty in Malibu, that opened some years earlier. It holds ancient Greek and Roman art.
Huntington of course was one of the Big Four who built the Central Pacific Railroad, along with Crocker, Stanford, and Mark Hopkins. But in LA a different Huntington (Henry,nephew of the Big Four guy) is locally famous for having created the Pacific Electric Railway, which was everywhere, including San Marino. The Huntington Museum is where Henry and his family lived. I suppose he could have ridden his own streetcar to his office in Downtown L.A., and who knows? Maybe he was the only railroad magnate with his own private streetcar.
You may not have heard that Actress Ward has quit the entertainment business to move to the beach and be a vendor of small, stand alone spaces for women. Or to put it simply,
An occasional MICROSLEEP might just be because of insufficient SLEEP time the night before. Frequent, regular MICROSLEEP, where the person nods off for a few seconds several times a day, could be a sign of an underlying disorder, especially SLEEP apnea.
If I were creating a heraldic shield (escutcheon) for Crossword Puzzlers, I would make it with crossed EPEES over an OREO cookie as the centerpiece and with OHO AHA OHS OOHS AHS AAHS written in Old English Font around the outside border. Maybe throw in a MAA and BAA or two.
@albatross 8:02, in addition to your list of POCs (plural of convenience), there's one of the STEALTH variety, one that's not immediately obvious. It's where SAY I DO was one letter short of its slot in the SW.
Like many sailors, I learned to SEW so that I could do my own canvas and sailcloth work. I can SEW by hand or with a SEWing machine. When a friend was trying to good naturedly tease me by asking what you call a man who SEWs, I just said "a seamster". That was the end of that.
Weird incident at the 1st Avenue station on the L train just now. All of a sudden throngs of people were running down the platform shouting "get out get out, go go go!" Hey, when in Rome...I left the train and ran toward the exit with everyone else. On the M14 bus now. Still not sure what happened, someone said gunshots. Maybe news coverage later? Scary...
And appreciate the art review. Love it that museums have been pairing classics with contemporary paintings and sculpture. (And comparing/juxtaposeing the two is both fascinating and gently didactic—historically, socially, visually! 🤸🏽♀️
As for the 🧩, undistracted by vacay head and adrenalin, I found it very easy Monday ok. 🤗
@egsforbreakfast 11:32 AM I didn't mean to sound condescending about owning a designer dog. I was surprised I didn't see any NON-designer dogs. You'd think I would've at a farmer's market. I only wish all shelter dogs could find good homes.
I don't disagree about the term "sheshed," but it might be worth pointing out that Virginia Woolf, author of A Room of One's Own, did much of her writing in a converted potting shed out on the lawn near Monk's House, her home in Sussex. So the shed tradition goes back 100 years. Woolf's writing shed was large and comfortable, but a shed nevertheless. thanks, N
@Rex, @Amy (11:01) re the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (the primary source of modern editions): What a fine thing to see on a summer day in Southern California.
On a family vacation in junior high (late '70s), we'd paused from a long day of driving and found ourselves in the local library of a small Wisconsin city. As we kids-of-various-ages poked around, my dad told the librarian, "Other families visit local tourist attractions. We visit the local library."
I was utterly sad and embarrassed, not seeing his tongue-in-cheek humor for what it was. I wished so much that we could just once be "normal". (Of course now, at family gatherings, "We visit the local library" has polished itself into a proud motto, defining us against the world and making us chuckle at how goofy we all turned out.) So I am very happy, @Rex, that you visited the "local library" and saw such a special book.
And I have no qualms now about saying, proudly, that among my Chaucer books is a little volume by Herbert C. Schulz (Huntington Library, 1966) called "Ellesmere Manuscript," well worth the read and glossy illustrations of selected pages. It's beautifully illuminated with marginal illustrations, including the famous one of a pilgrim on a horse thought to represent Chaucer.
@Gary Jugert. I wasn’t actually complaining. Just wanted to make the connection between designer dogs in your yesterday post and DOODLE in today’s puzzle.
Good point, @ Ethan T! I, too, am in the front lines of LGBTQOIA acceptance. But how about we add M and F to that? We can't expect 'equal rights' to mean 'mine more than yours'. And, in regards to xwords, in general, I would love to see a puzzle that uses that, or any version of it, in some way!
Am I the only one here who knows that EENIE meenie money mo is super racist? Like, we don’t teach it to our kids anymore BECAUSE the history is so racist, and yet it’s okay to put in the puzzle, without even a nod to how problematic it is?? What the actual F, NYT?
Well, I think everything done in LEGO by Elbe Spurling is capital-A Art.
Stories of the American and French revolutions depicted in LEGO? Stories of assassination attempts on American presidents told in LEGO? And it's not just a gimmick that these stories are illustrated in LEGO and it's not just a "hobby" sort of activity. This is real art. Serious research went into the work, and a true artistic approach was taken for the creation of the builds and the photographs. Images from Elbe's work have been in museums, they have hung on coffeeshop walls, and they have hung in people's homes.
I know I'm biased because she's my wife, but I was her fan before I was her wife and I am still a fan. She's an excellent artist in many mediums, she's just most well known for her LEGO work. And I don't know anyone who looks at it and doesn't recognize it as art.
Having now spent many hours with her at LEGO conventions selling her books and seeing the art created by others with LEGO, I feel I could go on for a long time about the various different types of incredible art I've seen created in LEGO. And what about Ai WeiWei's incredible installation of art at Alcatraz which featured a massive piece made out of LEGO? There is so much actual art being created using LEGO as the medium. It is no less valuable as captial-A Art than any other being made.
Disagree with Rex. Anything can be art, including LEGO. Also disagree with his review. This one was a pretty good one for a Monday. The gimmick was clever and fun to solve. Easy like a Monday should be.
WB OFF! I was surprised, though pleasantly so, that you did not shirk jury duty. Most people, when they get the notice, immediately think of ways to get out of it. I don't understand that. It is a key part of the process that tries its best to ensure justice, almost certainly the best in the world. One should be proud to take part. I did once, and I'll never forget it. (We put a child molester behind bars.)
To the puzz. Opening the page to a nice, wide-open grid I thought: +1. I'm so tired of those little box corners, 3x4 or 4x4, that so often meet the Monday-Wednesday eye. I didn't find it any harder than any other Monday to solve, though. Simple theme, makes sense, central revealer. All not flashy, but good.
A very hearty second WB, Fearless One, for featuring my DOD/DOAT SELA Ward as your WOD. In another universe...
Mini-theme: MICROSLEEP/NAP. I do a lot of that now. The puzzle's not a world-beater--like the Las Vegas Aces!!!--but to start the week we'll give it a birdie.
Easy enough for a Mon-puz. Nothing over-written. @spacey - guess we might see whose team is real after Monday Night Football. Wordle bogey. 4 shots at _RI_E, imagine the possibilities.
I'm a little surprised (just a little, not a lot) that more people on this blog are only familiar with the term she-shed from a commercial. But, then again, maybe I watch too many shows about remodeling/rehabbing houses. A she shed is just an alliterative term for a place or room designed exclusively for the woman living there. Just as a man cave is not a literal cave, though they often were/are in the basement, hence the term, a she shed does not have to be a literal outbuilding, although many are.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
.png)
96 comments:
Sea shells she-sheds by the seashore…
Easy. Smooth and Jim at Xwordinfo says it’s a pretty tight set of theme answers. Solid Monday, liked it.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #734 was tough. I worked on it over a couple of days and had no confidence when I finished that I got it right. Turns out I did get it right, but that was more lucky guessing than solving skills. I’m still not sure how some of the clues relate to the answers. The bottom half seemed slightly less diabolical than the top. I sincerely wish you good luck on this one!
Rotten Tomatoes score for yesterday’s puzzle.
Liked it - 50%
Meh - 27%
Not their cup of tea - 23%
Percent of total comments that actually expressed an opinion - 35%
Welcome back. We've been here the whole time. You could have called us, someone would've come and got you.
To paraphrase you: ...what you might do to each of the ending words?
That should be the second part of the revealer clue, not the milquetoasty "a hint to the ends of..."
Here's some more music.
“Footwear giant?” I have owned NEW BALANCE running shoes (decades ago) so definitely a big name. But “giant?” Nike is a footwear giant. NEW BALANCE doesn’t have quite the same stature. (FWIW - my running shoe of choice is a Saucony and my casual shoes are Under Armours).
So the eyebrow was already arched when I ran into the convoluted DUNE clue. Great movie (much better than the earlier foray) and a great book, but I’d have gone Sahara or Sleeping Bear, personally.
After that by eyebrows calmed down and I enjoyed the solve. The choppy middle was a little weird, but the big corners were mostly fun. 👍🏽👍🏽
Rex: Yikes! All that, dead car, and jury duty too. I vote Yes! for you discussing it over the coming week. On my last LA trip I was impressed with the Getty architecturally, but kinda underwhelmed by the art. Glad to see you had a different experience.
Solved this by looking at only the down clues, and there were some head-scratchers: MICROSLEEP and LEGO ART. I finished having to guess at 26 down: N-YOU crossing S-W. I tried NAYO then NOYO before NEYO; never heard of him/her. Theme wise, even with the revealer it took me a while to get it: (strike "a" BALANCE, etc...).
SHE SHED reminds me, perversely, of The Shed Song, a Newfie classic about a HE SHED. And MINOR CHORD reminds me of this lovely Billy Bragg / Wilco tune.
[Spelling Bee: Sun. currently pg-5, not really into it today. Sat pg-2, missed these.]
I think I would rather live in a shed than a cave. And it’s alliterative. Travel woes enough to make me shudder.
Nice Monday puzzle. Modest theme but well clued, no junk, and felt like an early week puzzle. Enough pushback to make it enjoyable.
Rex – great to have you back. But what an awful trip home you describe. Glad that soup was available. I can totally relate to your reaction to your house’s smell; this must be a phenomenon that we all experience upon returning after a trip. I know I sure do. I’ve applied for a different smell.
I’ve had the same thoughts on the term she shed. Why can’t it be part of the main house? I mean, MAN CAVE ain’t no shining endorsement (but better than feller cellar, right?). I guess we women could retire to our hen den, but that feels almost as icky. Gal salle? Nah. When my kids were little, I’da killed for a tidy little effete suite. (Hah – a couple of years ago, this was the tweet suite)
Also – your description of she shed as some kind of skin problem almost made me spit my coffee. How timely – yesterday Mom and I were watching my sister’s dog for the day and binging on some vapid TV. I was on the phone with said sister when Mom nudged my arm and whispered, Look at this . . . [I went back and decided to, well, STRIKE what I wrote next in honor of our breakfast test, but “reptilian” comes to mind.] Honestly, I’ve come to dread the words Come look at this.
At boring meetings (redundant?) I DOODLE flowers and sentences in Japanese, this latter in hopes that someone notices and admires my stunning intellect and capabilities. So far no takers. I’ll keep you posted.
The clue for APT made me laugh. Rob Banks, indeed. If I were a guy and aptly named, I’d be Skip Summers.
“Like the sound of a creaky basement door” – calling forth James Earl Jones’s voice telling me You are about to die. I hear him telling me this, too, whenever my “service engine soon” light comes on.
I had never heard of MICROSLEEP, either, but it’s happening to me more and more as I try mightily to stay up to spend time with Mom after school but am Seriously Spent. MICROSLEEP, unplanned. NAP, planned.
On STEALTH. First of all, great word. At school Mr. Burch (custodian) and I are the first there by a couple of hours. I have these black flip-flops that are like the loudest, flippiest floppiest flip-flops ever, and we joke about them. But a couple weeks ago, I got a terrific new pair from Walmart, and they’re super quiet. I inadvertently surprised him last week and joked that they were my ninja STEALTH flip-flops. Mr. Burch is a state treasure and has made my life at Turning Point very, very pleasant. He’s The Man.
PS – Thanks to all of you who offered dental advice yesterday. But If I can’t have sedation, I just can’t see it through; it’s that simple. (@Nancy -I went to a wonderful sedation dentistry practice in WV, and I totally agree. Money well spent.)
Welcome back @OFL!
Nate Silver's review of this puzzle:
-0% of Ukrainian clues for BOMB are box-office related.
-Chances someone will trash the puzzle because some ATMs dispense $10s: 100%
-Percentage of solvers who hate OWIE: 58%
-Those learning just now NEW BALANCE is still in business, and they are in Boston, and they're puzz-worthy: 99%
-MCRIB's are made from 100% murdered pigs.
-Number of people who saw Dune and liked it: 7
-Percentage of solvers white-knuckling it through every AHS related crosswordsy answer: 99% (some are too new to know the horror)
-Number of living people who've ever SEWn anything ever: 312
-Need for plural EDENS in the Bible: 0
-People wishing LILY had a Harry Potter clue: moi.
-People eager for childbirth related clues: Anti-choicers
-People appearing so often this week they nudged ELSA from Frozen out of the puzzle world: SELA "I hate Disney" Ward and Raggedy "I will never see that movie so I can cry about it on my puzzle reviews" ANN
-General glee at the return of EPEE: Palpable
-Latest dog proffered by puppy mills in the NYTXW: POM
-Zzzzzzzzz related entries: 3
-Single fat-shaming entry: STOUT
-Movies you might have seen about selling drugs when you weren't watching Frozen: Dallas Buyers Club
-Other possible answer to a group of sad sounding notes: Everything Gary plays
-Percentage of people eager to hear dirt: 100%
-Number of times EERIE is the answer: 1 billion
-Rate of joy for golf-related entries: 4%
-Percentage of solvers believing all laser related clues should involve aggravating a kitten: 95% (error factor of 5% due to woke-ness of the pro-kitten fuzz heads)
-Likelihood of being grossed out at the thought of a MAN CAVE: 51%
-Times people hearing of a wedding think, "Well that's a bad idea:" Most times
-People thinking the clue for CREASED should be pants-related: 100%
-Times I've been on an EGO TRIP: All times
-Percentage of non-art-school graduates thinking LEGO ART is ART: 3%
-Number of non-sleep-related events scheduled this week "under the covers" by all crossword solvers: 1 (and it's somebody in Gen Z from California... let's wish them well)
-Number of legitimately cool AUNTs in the United States: 734
-Joy evoked by yet another ESE directional clue: Abysmally low
-Reasons a puzzle gets published with APT and OPTS staring each other down: None whatsoever
-More degrading clues that could've been used for LUSH: At least one
-Chances RENO is your first thought when gambling is mentioned: Zero
-People preferring snake BOAS over feathered BOAS: 6%
-Likelihood someone will say they hated the SLIPNSLIDE answer: 100% Likelihood that person is 100% wrong: 100%
-People questioning EENIE and EERIE in the same puzzle: Hopefully nobody, but EPEE EPICS is getting awfully E-ey
-Chances you'll ever hear the term MICROSLEEP after today: 0%
-Chances I've heard of NEYO but am pretty sure only through crosswords: 97% Chances I want to know more: 0% Based on the other pairs we've already discovered in the puzzle, chances it'll show up with NEMO: 99%
-Times I'd like to light anagram clues on fire: 100% until I get them from crosses, then 0%
-Twin clue pairing for MANIACS: Fiends, or friends (depending on how you make choices in life)
Uniclues:
1 Adam encouraging God to brighten the place up a bit, especially since Easter is coming in about 4000 years.
2 Ward's sword dramas.
3 Why Johnny got suspended.
4 It's Canada. It's freezing there. What do you expect?
5 When you hold the Cheeto bag upside down above your face and wiggle it around trying to get the little piece out that's stuck in the corner.
6 You?
1 EDEN'S LILY PUSH
2 SELA EPEE EPICS
3 YOGA POSE DOODLE
4 TRUDEAU INDOORS
5 MANIAC'S CALORIE
6 STEALTH SPENDER
Welcome home, Rex. We missed you.
I found the puzzle to be beyond easy, but I haven’t struggled through a horrendous homecoming like Rex did. After that ordeal the People magazine puzzle would be difficult. Yikes!
Saw the multiple pix on Twitter of you and Alfie. He's a good cat.
So you can stop pretending that you are not glad to be home.
Otherwise, aside from a bad letter than F-ed my solve time by 25%, this was not horrible. The short fill was not objectionable, although SELA Ward has probably had more of career in XWs rather than TV/movies.
Also, for a Monday, this was not "terrible".
My solve time was terrible, but that was because I mid-read a clue and after "finishing" spent minutes trying to figure out WTF I messed up.
@Rex: Welcome back, and sympathies on your car problems. May the cost be minimal!
I'm not quite up to @okanaganer's downs-only solving, but for the early week puzzles I try not to read the clues for the long acrosses until after I'm done. That a distinct lack of happy music because I misremembered NEYO as NEYa. Like others, I've only heard of the performer through crosswords. Other than that, Medium Monday.
What a delight! I LOVE MCRIBS and try to have them at least once a week when they come around! But still put in poboy at 1A. Then, when I went to the downs, immediately fixed that and smiled at the thought of my beloved MCRIB. I do find it unlikely that there is any rib meat in them, but the taste really appeals to me, especially with extra onion. Continuing to 6A, I again zigged when I should have zagged, and put in flop for BOMB, and again fixed it as soon as I looked at the downs. So my time played a little longer than average. But my experience of the solve was nothing but delight! Mixing old standards like SELA and OREO with great stuff like SLIPNSLIDE and MANCAVE was a nice mix, I thought.
Ditto what has already been said on LEGO ART. I mean, ART? I actually watched a couple of episodes of those LEGO build wars. Meh. Interesting, I guess, but I'm not a MANIAC for that sort of thing. I actually lost all respect for LEGO when they introduced people and cars and stuff already pre-built. When I was a kid, we had to build our own people, using the blue roof two-ers (two knob pieces) as hats, and singletons as feet. Now that was creativity! And of course old birds like me also had to walk to school. In the snow, up hill. Both ways!
Also did not know MICRO SLEEP existed. Sounds sad. Also do not know NEYO and barely know LETO (yes, I am probably the last person on the planet who has not seen DBC; am more of a DUNE genre fan), but crosses brought those down.
I'll also weigh in on the SHE SHED (clue). I don't mind the term, nor concept. A gal in my garden club has an extraordinary one! With Champaign cooler and lace curtains and day bed! Looks exactly nothing like my garden shed, which is filled with nothing but tools, mower, wheel barrow, spare hoses, and weed whackers. The fanciest part of the thing is the red shutters on the outside of the windows to kinda match the house. @LMS, I love your alternate alliterative locales! And as for DOODLES, I used to DOODLE curly qs on the back of my notebooks back in high school when bored with the slow pace of teaching. I still keep one in my memorabilia box (along with my diary and first rock concert ticket (Journey) and my Ode to a Moth poem from sophomore English class, probably for the same reasons you gave.
Finally, I especially like the SW corner. For reasons unknown, it brought to mind this imagery: the happy nerd couple that SAYSIDO and had themselves a little EGOTRIP with their LEGO-themed wedding, where all the AUNTS of a certain AGE enjoyed a glass of STOUT or two and dished DIRT about SELA's SHE SHED. You may now try to get that image out of your head for the rest of the day. You're welcome.
"MANCAVE and "she-shed" are some vomity gender-binary nonsense."
I decided to quote @Rex because there's no better way to say it.
That's the only blemish on this clever Monday Xword.
There’s a wonderful collection of feminist poetry you might like, featuring inspirational works by Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, and Christina Rosetti, among others. It’s called Vomity Gender-Binary Nonsense.
So glad to have you back. Hoping your car expenses and hassles are minimal.
There is an artist that uses Legos as his medium: https://www.brickartist.com/
Could do without the image of Prime Minister Jolson before breakfast.
This was almost an all-time best, very fast and easy solve. The rebus isn't really something that is presented during the solve but as a sort of post-facto rationalization which is fine, I suppose, but perhaps a missed opportunity.
I knew a mystic who refused even numbing when he had work done on his teeth. He could transcend dental medication.
@rex -- Welcome back!
Simon’s five NYT puzzles have been beginning-of-week, and he’s proven to be very good at making puzzles with accessible answers and easy-to-understand themes, just what early week puzzles need. One thing that makes today’s construction stellar is that the grid only has 32 black squares, more typical of a Friday puzzle than a Monday, and with the higher number of white squares, it’s much harder to fill with accessible answers. Simon did just that. Those four white-dense corners are clean and very in-the-language.
I liked the 6 double-E’s, and was inspired by [Cry to a birthing mother], it appears, as in my scan of the grid, a mini birthing tale emerged:
PUSH
STRIKE ONE
PUSH
DRAT
MINOR CHORD
YOGA POSE
SLIP ‘N SLIDE
DONE DEAL
AHS
NAP
Simon, I loved the clip in your notes in WordPlay and XwordInfo.com , and I loved experiencing your beautifully made Monday puzzle. Thank you!
My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. One known for living large and getting stoned? (7)
2. Bat boy? (5)
3. Buff, and then some (7)
4. Leaves total drained of energy? (5)(3)
5. It's good for three points (7)
GOLIATH
ROBIN
MEGAFAN
DECAF TEA
TRIDENT
Well I learned what a she-shed is, although I'm not sure that I'm glad I did since it sounds kind of foolish. These themes that are not readily apparent and may require some "deciphering" post-solve to discern don't really seem to add much to the solving experience. I wonder how many truly "aha moments" the group of pretty experienced solvers who visit here regularly had today- did you bother to figure out the theme?
Seems like a lot of work and effort go into cramming the theme entries and a revealer into the grid only to have it be played as a themeless by a fairly large percentage of solvers (if that is indeed even the case). So, how many of us wait with baited breath to determine how the theme pulls together five days a week ?
Yikes, a return home from hell! And BATH… I recall from our many years in North Central Pennsylvania that it was often in the news for assault and battery cases as well as very much domestic abuse. Crossing fingers for your car!
I liked all the white space. Seems like a lot for a Monday. The center was a near checker board.
Some nice stuffing too. STEALTH MANIACS EGOTRIP and MANCAVE full of LEGOART and a SLIPNSLIDE. SLIPNSLIDES are great until you get a drought or a water bill.
I think our Nate Silver impressionist was emphasizing some weaknesses in the fill. I'd add TEES to his ey list.
Also in the stuffing were a mess 'o plurals.
AHS OPTS TOTS SAYS ATMS EPICS EDENS ASIDES MANIACS and give INDOORS a pass (but would INDOOR also fit the clue? Refs ruling please). Then the RE in front and one ED and one D behind.
So the stuffing was stuffed and the whitespace was filled.
We had the MCRIB discussion before and it got many bad reviews. It is too bad to be a good 1A.
Good solid theme. So overall, a pretty god Monday.
I did quite a bit of paper folding onceupona. Enjoyed it more than pants as far as CREASED clues go.
Welcome back Rex. I enjoyed all the subs and their differing approaches to reviews and puzzles. Sounds like you need another week off recovery time. But 2 weeks off makes me worried you might find you enjoy not doing this.
I was luckier than you. One time I drove home from a trip and the car died just as I coasted into my driveway.
Angela Kinsey, who was in The Office, calls her outbuilding a “that’s what she shed.”
At least MAN CAVE seemed like a description for an actual thing. I knew several couples where the wife made all decorating decisions for the house and the husband had a basement rec room.
I’ve never heard of a SHE SHED before Lowe’s or Home Depot had an ad about it.
@Lewis. SLIPNSLIDE. Too funny.
Cute theme - although I’m not seeing why the revealer couldn’t be “ball ONE”. Clean mid length fill - nothing overly snazzy other than SLIP N SLIDE but made for a smooth time.
Learned MICRO SLEEP. Had the same side eye as @Z to the giant descriptor for NEW BALANCE - although they appear to be the 5th largest shoe company in the US behind Nike, Adidas, Jordan and Sketchers. Only time I’ve heard “she shed” is the insurance commercial on tv.
Go, go, go - PUSH him away
Enjoyable Monday solve.
Amy: Welcome home. Glad you're back safe and sound. My mom made fantastic soup. It really does have healing powers. Good luck with the car. 🥣
Liked it. Easy.
MCRIB needs to be retired.
I think OFL must still be groggy from his misadventures, as I found this one somewhere on the pre-Monday side of Monday, my only minor snag being DONEDEED for DONEDEAL. I actually like DONEDEED better. I do agree with his observations about Pasadena and the Huntington. LA he can have.
Found out that NEWBALANCRE is headquartered just down the road. Who knew? I'm a Brooks Ghost guy myself.
SLIPNSLIDE is a cool product name and something that looks like more fun than it actually is when you try it.
Good theme, nice revealer. but it is definitely misplaced in the middle of the puzzle. I've mentioned this before, constructors, and don't want to have to say it again. Let's try a little harder here.
@GaryJ- You've outdone yourself, which I find hard to believe.
Nice Mondecito, SM. Not quite a Super Monday but definitely lots of fun, for which thanks.
39 down..should be "Marlin" no? Don't think Dory was Nemo's friend.
Welcome back, OFL! Missed you, man, and really sorry about the bad ending of your trip. Is anyone having easy, on-time travel these days? On my last trip to California in June, I got back to the airport at 4 AM. Many hours late. The car service I use to and from the airport stops at 2 AM, so I had to beg a ride with some other dazed passengers. Got home at 6 AM. Good luck with your car!
Amazing comments today too. @LMS: Agree about the house smell. It's never quite right when I get back. "Hen den!" I'd be Skip Summer too, but you were clever enough to think of it. @Gary Jugert: Enjoyed your Harper's Index list.
@Anonymous 7:11: That is some Ph.D.-level dad joke!
Then there's @JOHN X. You can take your misogynistic drivel and, well, you know. Be sure to let us know if you ever write anything clever.
Liked this puzzle, which is extremely low on junk fill, especially for a Monday. As much as I hate OREOs, both the cookie and its overuse in puzzles, I had to laugh at how Simon managed to sneak a reference in with CALORIE.
@SouthsideJohnny: I'm often surprised to find that a completed Monday puzzle had a theme. Today was no exception. Mondays are easy, many of us watch our solve times, so the goal is to just fly through it. You don't need the theme to solve, and paying attention to it would just slow you down.
So, yeah. What you said.
Thx, Simon; this puz STRuCK a nice BALANCE with just the right amt of STEALTH! :)
Hi @Rex; nice to have you back! :)
Med.
Not a great start in the NW with ARENA / oRigami. Smooth sailing thereafter. No BOMBing or STRIKing out.
Have experienced the occasional MICRO SLEEP, especially after a shorter than usual nite sleep, altho a 5-min. nap is more common.
The view from my balcony is 'bliss'ful; LUSH and EDEN-like.
Very enjoyable adventure! :)
Thx, jae; on it! and, thx also for the well-wishes; sounds like I'll need some luck! :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I had no problem at all with LEGOART, my local newspaper had an example of it on the front page today. It seems a new Chinese restaurant has opened in the city, which is different from mother Chinese restaurants in two ways: Fall River being 70 percent Portuguese, it offers chourico egg rolls and cacoila fried wontons. And it is decorated not with dragons and Buddhas and tiki gods, but with giant lego creatures put together by the owner's family. A 5 food Mario is the one on the front page.
By the way I object to ODOR being characterized as a Bad smell, I believe there are as many good odors as bad. I looked up a poem by George Herbert to try to prove it and it turns out not to prove it at all, since it does not in fact use the word; but I shall share it anyhow:
Life
I made a posie, while the day ran by:
Here will I smell my remnant out, and tie
My life within this band.
But time did beckon to the flowers, and they
By noon most cunningly did steal away
And wither'd in my hand.
My hand was next to them, and then my heart:
I took, without more thinking, in good part
Times gentle admonition:
Who did so sweetly deaths sad taste convey
Making my minde to smell my fatal day;
Yet sugring the suspicion.
Farewell deare flowers, sweetly your time ye spent,
Fit, while ye liv'd, for smell or ornament,
And after death for cures.
I follow straight without complaints or grief,
Since if my sent be good, I care not, if
It be as short as yours.
Probably took me longer to grok the theme than to solve the puzzle. It makes sense, but may be a bit advanced for a Monday.
Welcome back Rex and what a vacation horror story! Thankfully the car waited until you were closer to home. Hope the repair isn’t too painful a DEAL … or the jury duty either.
Completely painless was this sweet Monday puzzle which I found very smooth flowing and satisfying. Just the right BALANCE for the day and an interesting enough theme to make it thought-provoking. The only other STRIKEs I came up with off the cuff were MATCH and NERVE which seems like it’s more often said in the past tense come to think of it.
Had never heard of MICRO SLEEP and tried FORTY WINKS but really wanted POWER NAP to fit. I tried a MCRIB once and that was enough. EPIC BOMB.
@8:49.Re, the collected epics of G.J., glad you're a fan, someone has to be.
Re. the @John X. comment : How long you been around ?
Hey All !
Liked the open corners. Interesting theme. Revealer clue seemed a bit off, as in, why would it necessarily be "after a first pitch"? It could be in the second inning, e.g., after 12 pitches. I guess you can Lawyer it. It sounds to myself like I'm channeling Rex! Why this, not that? Har
Anyway, @LMS got one other in her avatar, I got NERVE. Clue could be - "The gall!" - answered as WHAT NERVE.
Double O fest in SE. (Well, only three, but other O's around) Also a bunch of Double E's around the puz @Lewis's Double-Counting is rubbing off. 😁
I have many MICROSLEEPS during the day, especially after eating. I actually do realize what's happening, and hope nobody sees it!
Nice MonPuz. Off to start the work-week. (Ugh. 😁)
No F's (Ugh, again.)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Nathan Sawaya is pretty famous for his Lego Art .
Newsflash for Southside and Anon 8:59. Every Monday has a theme, along with Tues, Wed, Thurs, and very nearly all Sundays. Solving style is a personal choice. I like to make the theme part of my solving fun. Enjoy.
"Nothing made of Legos is art"
You're wrong. First on the plural - the plural of Lego is Lego.
Secondly, there is a massive travelling exhibition called "The Art of the Brick" that is literally making the rounds in art museums right now. Look it up, it's amazing.
But hey, even if your idea of art doesn't include such things, the answer still holds because there's an entire line of Lego that builds hangable mosaics and the name of that line is Lego Art.
But hey, this is the same Rex who once said that "nobody knows what Princess Leia's last name is" so yeah.
I'm all for gender do-what-you-want whatever, but that doesn't mean that we should erase gendered words. If a non-binary person wants to have a basement to play guitar or video games, that person can call it whatever they want, but it doesn't mean "man cave" is now not a legitimate term. Make a new term if you like, but the old term still has meaning to people. Whoever has the spot can call it what they wish. More words, not fewer.
If someone what's to call it a "she-shed," fine. Maybe a transwoman wants call it a she-shed. Perhaps a transman wants to use the name man-cave, for that matter. Great. Just because "middle" doesn't have a counterpart doesn't mean other terms don't.
There seems to be a contradiction when (some) people are basically saying that gendered language should be basically erased while at the same time saying that it's the most important thing for a person's identity and gendered language must be specific.
FH
He's baaaaack!!
The only thing I know for sure will cause a modern car to die on the move: broken or slipped timing belt. If so, you'll be lucky if it's just a replacement. Most modern engines are not non-interfering (sorry for the double negative, but that's how it's expressed) design, so you might easily have bent a valve stem or two and/or busted a piston or two. Just depends on where the valves were when the camshaft stopped turning.
The first, and so far only, time I've heard 'she shed' is in that insurance advert (although not recently). Figured it was some Mad Man's coinage for the purpose. Such really exist? I suspect only below the Mason-Dixon line, as in the Blue States, it's just too cold nine months out of the year. And heating one will cost more than the gear Dad has in his Man Cave, and will cost that every bloody year. Just parcel the basement into threes: laundry (for both), Man Cave, Woman Womb.
It's taking longer and longer to scroll past Jugert.
FH
Fuel pump
One of the most enjoyable Mondays in a long time.
I saw the "B" in 1A and immediately thought of a BAN MI [sic], only it's spelled Banh Mi, I think. And the "B" is on the wrong end. Other than that...
And since I've never heard of a "she-shed", I didn't initially know MAN CAVE at 1D either.
How many crosses do you think it took me to get MCRIB? Wrong. It took me all five, the "C" being the last letter in. It's a very DOOK-y answer and I've never eaten a MCRIB or even seen one. I've vaguely heard of it, I suppose, but I never imagined it having real pork any more than I think of a Big Mac as having real beef. I think of it more as the kind of "mystery meat" they used to occasionally serve at Camp Pinecliffe.
I was amused by MICROSLEEP. New coinages often seem to be created by lazy texters who don't want to do all that typing. But wait -- here's a 10-letter word replacing the perfectly swell 3-letter word NAP. It would take forever to type. What's going on here? Why would anyone do that?
But wait. Many rows down, when your solving mind has moved elsewhere, here comes NAP into the grid. That's very cute, Simon.
Apropos of nothing at all, MINOR CHORDs always sound sad to me. Musicians, please help me out here. Is that the reason that even Harold Arlen's happiest songs so often depress me whereas Richard Rodgers's saddest songs never do? Does Arlen mostly use MINOR CHORDS while Rodgers mostly uses major chords? Am I right about this?
Really enjoyed this puzzle. Wish all Mondays could be this interesting and well-crafted.
@Bad Mouse:
Man Cave, Woman Womb
vewy cute.
OSHEA was INBED in his MAN CAVE. His STOUT wife, POM, was INDOORS eating Oreos and counting CALORIES. She liked to DOODLE while in a YOGA POSE because it ADDED NEW BALANCE to the EGO TRIP her LUSH body craved. OSHEA thought it EERIE to watch....he didn't CARE.
After OSHEA's afternoon MICRO SLEEP NAP he'd go out for a MC RIB and a tater TOT. He wasn't a big SPENDER but the eating ACT would make him MEW. He would sit in an EDEN park always facing EAST and listen to NEYO sing in his MINOR CHORD. He was careful, though, because he didn't want any BEE MANICS to give him a MINOR OWIE. He always carried a STEALTH BOMB LASER to ward any tater TOT ODOR. Further, there were always BOAS lurking in the DUNE DIRT waiting to STRIKE ONE in the EENIE.
After lunch, he'd go home to his STOUT wife. She'd be on her SLIP N SLIDE...it was an EPEE of EPICS to watch. OSHEA didn't CARE. He loved her and would gladly SAY I DO again as long as TRUDEAU would officiate.
Moral of the story? Buy your wife a SHE SHED.
@Rex i can’t believe you saw the ellesmere!! super jealous.
@Betterfallriver
Penultimate line: scent
Sheshack > sheshed?
And both better than
lady placey
dame den
princess palace
bitch niche
Woolf den
aroomofherown
The last three are connected.
A pleasant Monday puzzle that did not strike a sour note.
Highlight of the puzzle for me was the aptonym Rob Banks. Famous members of the aptonym club include:
* Poet: William Wordsworth
* Astronaut: Sally Ride
* Runner: Usain Lightning Bolt
* Undertaker: Robert Coffin
* Weather forecaster: Sara Blizzard
* Psychiatry professor: Jules Angst
* Toilet manufacturer: Thomas Crapper
* Quarterback: Willie Thrower
* Sommelier: Emily Wines
* Poker player: Chris Moneymaker
But shecave may be the way to go.
As the owner of two DOODLEs, I resemble @GaryJugert’s condescension yesterday regarding designer dogs and their farmers market-attending woke keepers. Actually, I enjoy @Gary’s remarks 72.86% of the time, and thought today’s were particularly good.
With regard to the SHESHED/Man Cave inferno that is now blazing, don’t we need something for those whose PGP (Preferred Gender Pronouns) are different. Many now use they/them/their. How about a Their Lair?
I, like others, did the BOMB flop before being disabused by crosses. Much less understandable was writing in “origami” for CREASED and thinking “well, maybe it’s Japanese for CREASED. Seems like the clue should have alluded to that.”
How an Irishman, after over-celebrating his new U.S. citizenship, begins his new national anthem: OSHEA can you see……
Very easy puzzle, but a fun one for a Monday. Thanks, Simon Marotte.
Thank you, Anonymice. I predicted to myself that sooner or later someone would be diagnosing @Rex's car problems. You didn't disappoint.
Non-Phraslers: Feel free to skip.
I just hit 100 Phreagles (two guesses) on today's first Phrasle. My record to date is two Phraces (on the first guess), 100 Phreagles, 81 birdies (three guesses) and 16 pars (four guesses). Nothing longer than that.
I wonder why I care so much since no one else does. :)
Played harder than a typical Monday for me.
As someone on the back end (hopefully) of a COVID bout, my still-fatigued self was not thrilled to see the INBED/MICROSLEEP/NAP trilogy.
The puzzle also had a menagerie feel to it -- BEE, BOAS, POM and animals BAAing and MEWing.
Probably no more than normal, but for some reason I noticed LUSH/PUSH, ACT/APT and EENIE/EERIE today.
Hilarious that we have "Rob Banks" today after Saturday's APTONYM.
When I went through all the themers at the end of my solve, the first thing I thought was, "I hope Rex posts the Madonna video." He did not disappoint.
Nice theme! For me, it was well enough disguised that mid-way it had me wondering how I was supposed to STRIKE O-N-E from NEW BALANCE or make sense of D...DEAL. But then I caught on at YOGA POSE, followed by the solver's high of getting MINOR CHORD with no crosses (aka EGO TRIP). I thought that finding this array of very different things that can be struck was a stroke of genius by the constructor (it also made me think of the many sources of consternation for learners of English). Lots of other entries that were fun to write in, too. Great Monday!
@Southside Johnny 7:41 - On M, T, W, I always try to figure out the theme before the reveal, and I enjoy being faked out (i.e., needing the reveal to get it) as much as catching on before the unveiling. Once in a while I need @Rex to explain the theme and I count those days as a DNF, even if the grid is filled correctly.
@Rex, welcome back! And good luck with your car.
So many bubbles we live in! Like millions of women (not 312 per Gary Jugert) I SEW in an in-house SEWing room (previously a bedroom til the kids moved out) but SHE-SHEDS are definitely a thing, and they are definitely not your typical garden shed. Google it to see some pretty cottages and cabins. Proof that we still live in a man’s world: I’m expected to know all kinds of male-related sports terms, facts and characters, but a past-time enjoyed by millions of women is open speculation that it’s even “a thing.” Today’s puzzle was blessedly pure of such “man-lore” (‘cause it’s a Monday?) but I’d say the average ratio of “stuff men are into” to “stuff women are into” is about 98:2
I'm going way out on a limb here, but I think Simon Marotte is a Dad. Or at least an uncle. SLIP N SLIDE brings back wonderful memories of children's parties in our back yard, back when we had a back yard with grass. On hot days, it was a lifesaver. And of course accidents happen to all tots, and in our family, they resulted in an OWIE.
Very easy puzzle today. The only mystery was NEYO, a person I never heard of and never want to hear of again. Also never heard of a she-shed, but that's OK. No doubt sea shells are artfully arranged there, to be sold down by the seashore. We had a shed once in our back yard, but it basically fell down in some earthquake, though it was a handy place still to stow garden tools. We tore it down when we remodeled that yard.
I highly recommend you Google for "the shed song". You will get a better version than the one someone here cited, complete with pictures of sheds of all kinds.
Very glad to see OFL is back, and await further word on his poor car. I would point out that The Huntington is actually in San Marino. Lovely place, and besides the paintings they have an amazing collection of rare books, some of which are on exhibit, or used to be. As for The Getty, I assume OFL visited the one off the San Diego Freeway. I am wracking my brain trying to remember the artist whose wonderful paintings so impressed me, the one time I visited, long ago. The Getty did not exist when I was a kid in L.A., and it was preceded by a Getty in Malibu, that opened some years earlier. It holds ancient Greek and Roman art.
Huntington of course was one of the Big Four who built the Central Pacific Railroad, along with Crocker, Stanford, and Mark Hopkins. But in LA a different Huntington (Henry,nephew of the Big Four guy) is locally famous for having created the Pacific Electric Railway, which was everywhere, including San Marino. The Huntington Museum is where Henry and his family lived. I suppose he could have ridden his own streetcar to his office in Downtown L.A., and who knows? Maybe he was the only railroad magnate with his own private streetcar.
I'm writing to confess that I've thought of some alliterative alternatives to MANCAVE and she shed, of which I am not proud.
You may not have heard that Actress Ward has quit the entertainment business to move to the beach and be a vendor of small, stand alone spaces for women. Or to put it simply,
SELA sells
SHESHEDS
By the seashore.
@Nancy – I care.
So, this happened just now. 'S been a while:
Phrazle 238: 1/6
🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩 🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
An occasional MICROSLEEP might just be because of insufficient SLEEP time the night before. Frequent, regular MICROSLEEP, where the person nods off for a few seconds several times a day, could be a sign of an underlying disorder, especially SLEEP apnea.
If I were creating a heraldic shield (escutcheon) for Crossword Puzzlers, I would make it with crossed EPEES over an OREO cookie as the centerpiece and with OHO AHA OHS OOHS AHS AAHS written in Old English Font around the outside border. Maybe throw in a MAA and BAA or two.
@albatross 8:02, in addition to your list of POCs (plural of convenience), there's one of the STEALTH variety, one that's not immediately obvious. It's where SAY I DO was one letter short of its slot in the SW.
Like many sailors, I learned to SEW so that I could do my own canvas and sailcloth work. I can SEW by hand or with a SEWing machine. When a friend was trying to good naturedly tease me by asking what you call a man who SEWs, I just said "a seamster". That was the end of that.
@Anoa
I stealthily listed it at #4 in my post.
Welcome back boss. Seeing Cinderelly at the New Beverly Cinema garners a chef's kiss mwah.
@Anoa:
Or "a rich Savile Row tailor".
Thank goodness!!
Indeed! But thank goodness for scrolling!
@Joe D (12:57) -- No matter how well, I do, Joe, you always do better. Darn! But still, it is my 101st Phreagle.
Phrazle 238: 2/6
🟩 🟩🟪⬜ 🟪⬜ 🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
🟩 🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩 🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
27 A - That clue is messed up .. as any FORMER Marine would tell you!
Agreed!
Weird incident at the 1st Avenue station on the L train just now. All of a sudden throngs of people were running down the platform shouting "get out get out, go go go!" Hey, when in Rome...I left the train and ran toward the exit with everyone else. On the M14 bus now. Still not sure what happened, someone said gunshots. Maybe news coverage later? Scary...
Welcome back, Rex. Great adventures!
And appreciate the art review. Love it that museums have been pairing classics with contemporary paintings and sculpture. (And comparing/juxtaposeing the two is both fascinating and gently didactic—historically, socially, visually! 🤸🏽♀️
As for the 🧩, undistracted by vacay head and adrenalin, I found it very easy Monday ok. 🤗
🤗🦖🦖🦖🤗
@egsforbreakfast 11:32 AM I didn't mean to sound condescending about owning a designer dog. I was surprised I didn't see any NON-designer dogs. You'd think I would've at a farmer's market. I only wish all shelter dogs could find good homes.
mathgent 10:32 AM Thanks for putting your thumb to good use.
I don't disagree about the term "sheshed," but it might be worth pointing out that Virginia Woolf, author of A Room of One's Own, did much of her writing in a converted potting shed out on the lawn near Monk's House, her home in Sussex. So the shed tradition goes back 100 years. Woolf's writing shed was large and comfortable, but a shed nevertheless. thanks, N
GJ can't take a hint!
@Rex, @Amy (11:01) re the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (the primary source of modern editions): What a fine thing to see on a summer day in Southern California.
On a family vacation in junior high (late '70s), we'd paused from a long day of driving and found ourselves in the local library of a small Wisconsin city. As we kids-of-various-ages poked around, my dad told the librarian, "Other families visit local tourist attractions. We visit the local library."
I was utterly sad and embarrassed, not seeing his tongue-in-cheek humor for what it was. I wished so much that we could just once be "normal". (Of course now, at family gatherings, "We visit the local library" has polished itself into a proud motto, defining us against the world and making us chuckle at how goofy we all turned out.) So I am very happy, @Rex, that you visited the "local library" and saw such a special book.
And I have no qualms now about saying, proudly, that among my Chaucer books is a little volume by Herbert C. Schulz (Huntington Library, 1966) called "Ellesmere Manuscript," well worth the read and glossy illustrations of selected pages. It's beautifully illuminated with marginal illustrations, including the famous one of a pilgrim on a horse thought to represent Chaucer.
And very nice to have you back --
@Gary Jugert. I wasn’t actually complaining. Just wanted to make the connection between designer dogs in your yesterday post and DOODLE in today’s puzzle.
Good point, @ Ethan T! I, too, am in the front lines of LGBTQOIA acceptance. But how about we add M and F to that? We can't expect 'equal rights' to mean 'mine more than yours'. And, in regards to xwords, in general, I would love to see a puzzle that uses that, or any version of it, in some way!
Well since nobody found a ref on Not alfresco being INDOORS or INDOOR my research shows it could be either.
@anon255pm
More of a conceit than a reality, but not a bad one to have.
@anon632
Thanks for explaining why I posted my list at 1132am.
Am I the only one here who knows that EENIE meenie money mo is super racist? Like, we don’t teach it to our kids anymore BECAUSE the history is so racist, and yet it’s okay to put in the puzzle, without even a nod to how problematic it is?? What the actual F, NYT?
I'm a huge Lego nerd but c'mon - this is art
https://ekownimako.com/artwork/
Well, I think everything done in LEGO by Elbe Spurling is capital-A Art.
Stories of the American and French revolutions depicted in LEGO? Stories of assassination attempts on American presidents told in LEGO? And it's not just a gimmick that these stories are illustrated in LEGO and it's not just a "hobby" sort of activity. This is real art. Serious research went into the work, and a true artistic approach was taken for the creation of the builds and the photographs. Images from Elbe's work have been in museums, they have hung on coffeeshop walls, and they have hung in people's homes.
I know I'm biased because she's my wife, but I was her fan before I was her wife and I am still a fan. She's an excellent artist in many mediums, she's just most well known for her LEGO work. And I don't know anyone who looks at it and doesn't recognize it as art.
Having now spent many hours with her at LEGO conventions selling her books and seeing the art created by others with LEGO, I feel I could go on for a long time about the various different types of incredible art I've seen created in LEGO. And what about Ai WeiWei's incredible installation of art at Alcatraz which featured a massive piece made out of LEGO? There is so much actual art being created using LEGO as the medium. It is no less valuable as captial-A Art than any other being made.
Disagree with Rex. Anything can be art, including LEGO. Also disagree with his review. This one was a pretty good one for a Monday. The gimmick was clever and fun to solve. Easy like a Monday should be.
NEWBALANCE ACT
"No STRIKEONE", SELA said,
"DEAL is DONE, get INBED!"
--- LILY TRUDEAU
WB OFF! I was surprised, though pleasantly so, that you did not shirk jury duty. Most people, when they get the notice, immediately think of ways to get out of it. I don't understand that. It is a key part of the process that tries its best to ensure justice, almost certainly the best in the world. One should be proud to take part. I did once, and I'll never forget it. (We put a child molester behind bars.)
To the puzz. Opening the page to a nice, wide-open grid I thought: +1. I'm so tired of those little box corners, 3x4 or 4x4, that so often meet the Monday-Wednesday eye. I didn't find it any harder than any other Monday to solve, though. Simple theme, makes sense, central revealer. All not flashy, but good.
A very hearty second WB, Fearless One, for featuring my DOD/DOAT SELA Ward as your WOD. In another universe...
Mini-theme: MICROSLEEP/NAP. I do a lot of that now. The puzzle's not a world-beater--like the Las Vegas Aces!!!--but to start the week we'll give it a birdie.
Wordle par.
Easy enough for a Mon-puz. Nothing over-written. @spacey - guess we might see whose team is real after Monday Night Football.
Wordle bogey. 4 shots at _RI_E, imagine the possibilities.
I'm a little surprised (just a little, not a lot) that more people on this blog are only familiar with the term she-shed from a commercial. But, then again, maybe I watch too many shows about remodeling/rehabbing houses. A she shed is just an alliterative term for a place or room designed exclusively for the woman living there. Just as a man cave is not a literal cave, though they often were/are in the basement, hence the term, a she shed does not have to be a literal outbuilding, although many are.
STRIKEONE was my first answer, then it all fell in place.
I would love a properly outfitted she-shed. Mr. W has his mancave, complete with TV and sound system for same. Sports, ya know. (I'm not a "sporter.")
Good Monday all.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Post a Comment