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Egyptian ophidian / WED 8-31-22 / Dubious food-eating guideline / Type of meal first sold by C.A. Swanson & Sons / Nickname for Mowgli in the Jungle Book / Flux 1990s MTV series
Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Constructor: Joe Deeney
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (though it will probably time out "Easy" because of the undersized grid (14x15))
Theme answers:
- TV DINNER (16A: *Type of meal first sold by C.A. Swanson & Sons)
- IV FLUID (24A: *Hospital bagful)
- AV CLUB (26A: *Multimedia-focused school org.)
- RV PARK (44A: *Camper's place, maybe)
- JV SQUAD (45A: *Up-and-coming group in high school athletics)
- EV CREDIT (57A: *Federal tax incentive for buying a Tesla, say)
Idi Amin Dada Oumee (/ˈiːdi ɑːˈmiːn, ˈɪdi -/, UK also /- æˈmiːn/; c. 1925 – 16 August 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history. [...] Amin's rule was characterised by rampant human rights abuses, including political repression, ethnic persecution and extrajudicial killings, as well as nepotism, corruption, and gross economic mismanagement. International observers and human rights groups estimate that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed under his regime. (wikipedia) (my emph.)
• • •
["The stars are gonna spell out the answers to tomorrow's crossword..."]
Outside the theme, there's a little less to love. I like the long Downs OK, though the clue on "I CAN DREAM" feels tenuous (31D: "My lotto ticket might be the winner"). The clue phrase sounds like something a not terribly bright person would say; there's no inflection, no sense that the speaker has any sense of the preposterousness of the odds, which is why it's not a great clue for "I CAN DREAM," which situates lotto triumph securely in Fantasyland, where it belongs. There's also no reason a "busy day" should be a BLUR. I tend to remember busy days better than unbusy ones. The puzzle has always expected me to know a weird lot about "The Jungle Book," and MAN CUB went way beyond my normal store of crossword knowledge (KAA, BALOO, SHERE, etc.), but it was ultimately inferable from crosses (5D: Nickname for Mowgli in "The Jungle Book"). I didn't love the clue on MINUS (41A: -) because I kept wondering why they'd omitted the clue, or what clue this was the second part of ... took a few crosses to see that the dash was a MINUS symbol. I had CEDE before CAVE (28D: Give in) and while I got SCARFS on the first guess, I held that "C" very loosely, knowing that it could very easily be an "N" (8D: Devours, with "down") Thought the pun on ELISE ("a lease") was awful, but I can't yet decide if it's so awful it's good (59A: Good name for a home renter?). My current feeling is no, it's bad. But things change.
The worst thing about the puzzle for me was seeing IDI Amin's stupid face in it again. There are two good reasons to banish the dude forever. First, he was an ethnic-cleansing war criminal of the first order (see "Word of the Day," above). It has never been entirely clear to me why the world's most famous murderous dictator (white) is never* allowed to appear in the grid but IDI AMIN (Black) was a grid staple. Note: not interested in Comparative Atrocity Studies, only noting that war criminals are demonstrably more likely to appear in the grid if they aren't white. Maybe "foreign" names are just more tempting to constructors because of their "unusual" letter combinations. I dunno. The other good reason for IDI banishment is sheer name fatigue. That guy used to be ubiquitous, since both his name parts are incredibly useful, grid-wise. To the puzzle's (and constructors') immense credit, his visibility has radically decreased in recent years. AMIN hasn't appeared in the #NYTXW in almost three years, and today's is the first appearance of IDI in 2022. Here's the last ten years' worth of IDIs; you can see how the flow slows to a trickle in recent years:
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| source: xwordinfo |
It would be great if the guy disappeared from grids entirely. I'm never gonna not notice, not comment on, not disparage the appearance of a murderer of this magnitude. Yes, it's just three letters, but it's an unnecessary distraction and a significant (albeit brief) downer. Puzzle vibes are real! Make them good!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*Did you know?: HITLER used to appear in the grid reasonably regularly, mostly during and immediately after WWII itself. Look at these insane clues!
P.S. in case you somehow have never heard of the FIVE-SECOND RULE, it's the idea that if food falls on the floor and you pick it up before five seconds have elapsed, it's still good to eat. It's a pretty good rule: food I drop on the floor, I still eat. Food I *find* on the floor ... not so much.
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114 comments:
Reminds me of the old cartoon with the Roman at the bar with two fingers extended in "V" formation: "Five beers please."
Really enjoyed solving this puzzle.
You are missing RV.
2 more themers. RV Park and AV Club.
And AV!
Rex,
You're just a few years younger than me, but I can promise you that when I was about 6 I was an obnoxious little shit playing the Disney Jungle Book soundtrack LP and singing along with, so MANCUB was so far in my wheel house, I'm just happy it didn't break a rib.
Also, good to see you complain about IDI, as that person is much worse than so many other people and orgs who show up in NYTXW whom you do complain about. Also good to see you post a chart showing that it's been over a year since the word appeared in the NYTXW. I thought it had been a while since it last appeared. So maybe the editor has gleaned a slight scintilla of a clue?
The FIVESECONDRULE and butter-side-down theory are not a happy combination.
I enjoyed this one. Took me more crosses than it should have to get FIVE SECOND RULE, especially since I’d spotted the pattern in the answers but couldn’t figure out how it related to food. Pre-coffee solving not at my sharpest I guess.
I liked that all of the theme answers were real phrases and real things. No contortions or fake phrases to force an answer into the theme.
TV Dinner, Jones For, Idi, Aeon, Styx, made it feel like this was a puzzle that had been in storage a while. Maybe from a time when my mother’s generation said of good housekeepers, “you could eat of her floors,” which always made me think, “but why would you want to.” Someone must’ve come up with the Five Second Rule for the slovenlier among them. My personal rule is that if the dropped thing is wet, can it. If it’s dry and I’m hungry, brush it off and I’m In. As for eating off my floor, help yourself to whatever you find.
Now I’m thinking of my mother’s harvest gold fridge and avocado green kitchen accessories. The school bus is out there and my mother’s yelling get your Coats and Run! Mornings were a Blur.
SW corner was a little tough for me. Liked the clue for Adieu.
@Joaquin, In college I waitressed at bar that sold two pony bottles of a certain beer for 50 cents. People would walk in and flash the V sign as they headed to a table.
A theme that tries too hard and ends up being a stretch. (And a clue that does, too, for ELISE.)
Rex apparently missed that AV CLUB and RV PARK are part of the theme, so the V in DMVS is not a stray. There is no DMV in Maryland; it’s the MVA.
Rex, living with cats, the five-second rule is no fun for me. It can take hours to find the invisible hairs annoyingly clinging to the back of my tongue.
DMVS crosses RVPARK, also a theme answer. There were 6 total.
One of my kid's high school science fair projects was disproving the Five Second Rule by dropping foods of varying consistencies on floors, picking them up after different time intervals, and then doing microbiological cultures. Her presentation at the fair was titled, "Don't Be A Five Second Fool."
Like this one, and it would have been difficult to come up with alternative to DMVS given the D and V were fixed by themers and that part of the grid is tight.
Thankful that SCARFS was not Snarfs and dont think it should ever be. Only gripe was the clueing of EYES. Why the plural? Makes it sound like 1/6 of the number of eyes versus 1/6 of the total area or structure of the human eye in 3D. Seemed a little off to me.
In your comments, you left out RV Park as one of the themers, so there are 5 or V of them.
"All you need is a dollar and a dream" , "Hey, you never know" , and "You've gotta be in it to win it" are NY Lotto slogans.
Wordle 438 3/6*
🟦⬜🟧⬜🟧
🟧🟧🟧⬜🟧
🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧
My seed really delivered today! Plain sailing from there.
Spot on !
Hmm. You start with MEN (from MARS, natch), and end with SEX. ICANDREAM indeed, and puts an additional perspective on the FIVESECONDRULE, which FWIW was also a self help guide related to acting on impulse (to some, better decision making to others). OK. But it was DRY SEX, and there was RANCOR, so that stopped being a fun diversion.
Thought the stand alone V in the themers was pure elegance, never noticed DMV, so not as elegant as I thought, I guess. And while I'm sure OFL's IDI thoughts will spark the usual, I appreciated them today and agree with him.
@Rex spent almost half his log today ranting about, and thereby drawing even more attention to, IDI Amin. And for good measure he throws in Hitler, complete with clues from old puzzles. Personally, IDI in the grid doesn't bother me. Hitler wouldn't either. If you want to pretend something doesn't exist, or you simply don"t like it, ignore it!
Kind of a neat - nuanced theme. Goofy looking grid - like Rex I thought the revealer was top notch. Other than the plural - no issue with DMVS. Intriguing JVSQ x JCR intersection.
If my big mush is around - and he’s always close when we’re in the kitchen - todays theme is a non-starter.
If my words did glow - with the gold of sunshine
Enjoyable Wednesday solve.
The cross of OSU and ISOLDE annoyed me.
OK. So I’m a regular off-the-floor eater and have lived a perfectly normal life. Five second, schmive second. If I walk into my classroom this morning and see an errant Skittle on the floor, I’ma pop that puppy right in my mouth and keep it moving. Especially if it’s a yellow one. Maybe I’ve been dodging bullets. (Hi, @blooddoc) Or maybe I’ve just built up an astonishing resistance to germs and icky stuff. When I see some kind of exposé on how awful the beef industry is or what extraneous stuff is in a hot dog or how many bajillion mites are on my own pillowcase or the bacterial minefield that is a hotel room, I just shrug and think, Man, I guess I have a strong constitution and casually look around for another dropped Skittle.
“C’mon” before I’M IN.
CAR WINDOW – I check my windows as often as my zoom meeting mic when I go through the car wash. Can you imagine?
The clue for EYES had me pause. For a nanosecond I felt all arachnidsome. Hah. It reads two ways: one-sixth of the hundreds of EYES we have, or one-sixth of the actual whole of an eyeball. I loved double meaning, but I’m a linguist; I like ambiguity more than most people.
“You might be on it during a meeting” – man oh man if I’m in a zoom meeting at school and another teacher is in the room with me, I check my mic button like ever thirty seconds ‘cause we’re all about snarky comments and observations. There’s a lot of texting during these meetings, too. More snark. I hate to be so negative, but sheesh – we had a recent PD meeting with a guy who has never been in a classroom (he’s a social worker) explaining how this chart with the acronym H.O.P.E. (Helpful, Observant, Patient, Erudite (No, really, I’m not making this up.) is going to help with classroom management. Are. You. Kidding. Me. I have students with extreme anger issues, ankle monitors, and behaviors that got them expelled for a very long time. I’m supposed to point to this poster and remind someone who’s busy balancing his desk on his head (yesterday) about our H.O.P.E. matrix? Anyhoo – yeah, zoom meetings. (At the end of our last 4-hour (!) zoom training, we were all done, put a fork in us. I kept looking at the face of a new, earnest, lovely, serious man who was heroically trying to pay attention. Just to liven things up, I texted him asking if he’d like to know if he had something making its way out of his nose. I saw him look down, and his camera was off quicker than I could send the follow up I’M KIDDING! I’M KIDDING! I’M KIDDING!)
UVEA and AEON cross was brutal
I had noticed the _V start to several answers and figured that was theme related, and tried like heck to guess what the revealer would be – with no success – so when the revealer showed itself, that brought a big “Good one!” and “Bravo!” (Hi, @Rex!)) Then, when I saw the [-] clue at 41A, I thought, “Wait… there’s more to the theme?”, and spent a few moments trying to figure what extra element could be (Hi, @Rex!). So, when MINUS appeared, I nodded with respect; you got me good on that one, Joe; I felt like I’d been April fooled.
My fill-in was never stymied for too long, but there were enough areas of niggly resistance to satisfy my brain’s workout ethic. I learned that “ophidian” is animal group including snakes, and in my bit of reading about it, I learned a new classification term: clade. A clade is a group of organisms believed to have been derived from a common ancestor. That’s très cool. I’ll remember clade.
I also liked SUSS above MUSS, the unusual 14-wide grid, and I will confess here and now that I have often broken the Five-Second Rule with no shame whatsoever! I do hold to a “Stepped-On Food Rule”, however.
Your quirky theme charmed me, Joe, and all that your puzzle engendered has left me in a state of delight. Thank you very much for making this!
I’m pretty much a sixty-second rule guy myself, as well as a SLOB who doesn’t sweep - so, well not a pretty picture. Understood the theme and the reveal after solve was complete - I didn’t have to wait for Rex’s explanation for a change.
Rex is so funny. Probably upwards of 90% of solvers will pencil in IDI and go about their day without giving it a second thought - but Rex devotes half his blog post to giving the guy way more attention than he warrants - and to make it even more farcical he drudges up ACTUAL HISTORICAL clues for HITLER ! ! ! I know he’s making the point that they both should be verboten, however from a purely logical perspective (ignoring considerations of decor and good taste), can’t a similar logical argument be made that if the likes of IDI Amin are welcome, then HITLER should be too? Better quit while your ahead OFL, lol. At least your funny dude.
“Man with glowing future” ??? The rest I get but that one escapes me (Schicklgruber was his mother’s maiden name - Yes, he had a mother)
@OffTheGrid - Just because zits exist doesn’t mean I want one with my morning coffee.
The IMAC clue got an arched eyebrow. First, enough with your PPP (that’s Paid Product Placement again) and PPP (Pop culture, Product names, and other Proper nouns). PPP is bad. PPP squared is The Worst.
Otherwise a fine Wednesday puzzle.
As @Zed said — “Man with glowing future” ?!?!? Huh??
I was living in London in the early 70s when Idi Amin was in the news almost every day there. When I got back to the states, it seemed like no one had ever heard of him.
Will never understand the desire to censor historical figures from crosswords. To me, it’s about balance. While I wouldn’t want a dictator themed puzzle, occasional use to me is fine, and in fact good. Let’s not forget the educational component that we all enjoy by doing these puzzles. Or is it bad to learn about Amin?
To get rid of Amin, you simply need another, similar in difficulty, way to clue IDI. Got one?
@Loren - You know I love you girl, but eat Skittles off the floor? Skittles? Skittles are trash M&Ms.
Speaking of M&Ms in particular, and foods that don't melt in your hand in general, did you all that they're covered in shellac, which is the secretion of the Lac bug as it feeds on tree sap. Lac bug poop, dissolved in alcohol. Yum.
Off to a flying start, as I had _UT_ for "something you might be on in a meeting", and giggled as I wrote in BUTT, and was sorry when MUTE was obviously right. Oh well.
Got to the FIVE in a jiffy, and all was revealed, alas. Neat theme anyway, and terrific execution.
I started teaching back in the days when movies were still shown in classrooms which meant using a projector with actual film. I will be forever thankful to those students in the AVCLUB who were able to untangle the inevitable messes. Blessings be upon them.
Remembered MANCUB. Location of car keys, however, always iffy.
The one award I got in high school was for being the NVP of my JV basketball team. Glory days.
Very nice Wednesdecto, JD. Just Damdy, and thanks for all the fun.
BTW, for those of you who were wondering, starting day two of year 53. So far so good.
@LMS, LOL, on EYES my first reaction was WHAT?!? I have more eyes than the two you can see???? Took me awhile to get that you can only see a sixth of an eye..
@anon 7:55, and should've been TOSU.
The EV CREDIT is just another giveaway to the wealthy. Millions of people struggle to keep their ten year old cars running. You think they can afford a Tesla or any other EV to get a tax credit? But if you have enough money for a Tesla, you get a tax break, too. Thanks, Republicans.
Thanks to Rex for pointing out that each of the "Vs" are pronounced "VEE" and that "second" in the revealer has two meanings --a unit of time in the saying and the position of "V" in the themers.
I liked it a lot. Even with the six themers, there was some sparkle. Plus smart cluing and no junk.
@Zed - Perhaps they were envisioning his being electrocuted.
No problem having Idi Amin or Hitler or any historical figure, no matter how evil, in a crossword puzzle.
Terrific theme, and one that eluded me to the end. I'd gotten TV DINNER and IV FLUID and had the revealer because that was an easy get. OK, so food rule...TV DINNER...IV FLUID? IVs can contain nourishment... You can see how tangled up my neurons got. AV CLUB threw me into a complete tizzy. I didn't get the trick until I'd finished the puzzle and stared at the answers for quite some time. Well done!
Nice fill in general, but someone has to say it, Joe: J CREW and Eddie Bauer are not similar businesses. L.L. Bean is a Bauer competitor. Just take a look at their offerings online. Some puzz editor should have checked this.
As for IDI, and all the other obnoxious answers that show up from time to time and are subject to Rex's wrath, in general I don't think 99.99% of possible words should be banned. And if bans were to be implemented, I'd vote for "Oreo" to be the first to go, just because, like cockroaches, it's every-damn-where. But I must admit that the first time I see *RUMP as a puzzle answer, I'm not gonna like it. It's a conundrum.
In response to the comment about checking car windows before entering a car wash... When my daughter was 3, we went to a drive-through car wash. I heard her laughing in the back seat and I turned around to find a scene I will never forget. I had left the windows open a bit and with all the bits of dust and paper scraps (no I don't vacuum often enough) flying around because of the wind, it looked like a snow globe in the car. She was laughing so hard she didn't think to tell me what was going on. It was pure delight for her. I don't remember a whole lot of water getting in, at that point, and I quickly rolled the windows up. I will never forget the sight or the sound of that moment.
This probably would have been a fine puzzle if the publisher hadn't programmed in all the highlighted cross references. Just one more indication of the decline of the NY Times as the preeminent crossword puzzle. Get back to the basics, NYT! Stop giving us cutesy graphics and focus on content!
Hey All !
My take on what Rex said about the V in DMVS, was that it was pronounced VEE, whereas the other five Themer V's were pronounced differently in the crossing Downs. (Although, ENVY is borderline.) (UVEA, too) Har, nevermind. But still...
Seven Themer spots, in a smaller grid! Nice, me of the liking lots of theme in my puzs. And fill doesn't suffer as much as you would think. Crossing JVSQUAD couldn't have been easy. Joe breaks out an IQ TEST in that corner. And not only that, but 5x5 NE/SW corners, which even by themselves are tough to fill, nevermind with Themers in them. So kudos, Joe!
I think he exhausted all the _V things out there, no?
@LMS
Tell me you at least blow off said found Skittle. I agree with whoever said if it's wet, ala a noodle, then toss it, bit if it's dry, ala Skittles, blow 'em off and have at it! Also depending on where you are, for me. Home, sure, out? Maaaayyyyybe.
SEX only warrants a PG-13 Rating? I thought It'd be R. Kids these days...
Enjoyed the puz today. Good start to a Wednesday. Now, to take out the papers and the trash. (Or I won't get no spending cash.)
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Apparently NASA WANTS MARS SEX. It might get MESSI, but IMIN.
Terrible editing. 22A (Michigan football rival, for short) has to be THEOSU. Of course they might produce their share of MVPs, but neither is in the IVLEAGUE.
Some of my fondest memories involve RIPPLE and TUNA in an RVPARK.
I did a little reading on the PG 13 rating and was surprised and amused to find that the F word can be used once, but only once, in such a film.
I thought this puzzle was great. The revealer seemed off for a second until it didn’t. Thanks,Joe Deeny.
“Man with glowing future” ?!?!? Huh??
Think hot coals, embers, other fire-related imagery.
I was wondering just what kind of boneheaded diet we were talking about and would it be as dumb -- or maybe even dumber --than the one where you burn up your own fat and probably most of the rest of yourself too?
Surely that's what a FIVE SECOND MEAL would be, right? And that's sort of what I was looking for as I struggled mightily in the SE -- not knowing STYX or MINUS (I thought it was some sort of slash) or TBD or EV CREDIT. I thought I'd have a DNF for sure. But then something made me realize that a busy day seen in retrospect might be a BLUR (I'd had only the "B" and was thinking BEAR) and then, miracle of miracles, RULE came in.
I have never heard of the FIVE SECOND RULE.
So now I finish the puzzle and see that a "V" comes second in all the starred clues. Aha! A tenuous connection, but...a connection.
There were a number of clues in this puzzle that provoked real curiosity -- not just the revealer. DMVS and MANCUB were two of them. MANCUB was especially hard to see since I initially wanted IpAd instead of IMAC at 4A. Until I asked myself: "Who would carry around a 27-inch IPAD? No wonder it was discontinued." :)
Any puzzle that arouses my curiosity is a good puzzle. I liked this -- though I certainly didn't distinguish myself time-wise.
So this poor schlemiel whose whole life has been one misfortune after another drops his buttered toast one morning and it lands buttered side up. He’s astounded, and calls his rabbi to ask if it means his luck has changed. The rabbi says that’s a question of first impression – he doesn’t know, but he is attending a council of rabbis soon – he will raise the issue and get back to him.
A week or so later the rabbi calls back and says, “No, you’re still a complete loser; your luck hasn’t changed.” And the man says, “But how do you explain the way the toast fell?” And the rabbi says “The Council believes you buttered the wrong side of the toast.”
According to CNN, there's a $1.34 billion lottery win still unclaimed. I CAN DREAM, fur shur.
"The ticket was purchased from a Speedway gas station in Des Plaines, around a 20-mile drive northwest of downtown Chicago, on July 29"
Of course, since it was purchased at a gas station, the holder could be from anywhere. Why anyone not of Des Plaines would be in Des Plaines is a question.
Feeling sad this morning for the 5/6 of the human population with invisible eyes. Who knew?
Nice to be back after three weeks in Germany. I was able to work most of the puzzles on my phone, and read the blog, but posting on the blog from several time zones away was more than I could muster.
This was a clever theme and a fine Wednesday workout--one of those weird not-on-the-wavelength solving experiences for me that took longer than usual (especially the lower half) but in retrospect had very few answers I didn't know (hello, AEON Flux).
I loved the HOOHAH discussions while I was away, including the connection someone made with the combo of HOOHAH, SCOUR, and GLEE. Made me laugh and triggered the memory of the Pleasantville scene involving a bathtub and a blazing tree.
@Liveprof,love it. Best part of the morning, so far.
Who came up with the "one sixth of our eyes" bit ? I didn't get it and I'm not buyin' it.
BTW Rex's I Can Dream About You video includes footage from the movie Streets of Fire, a flawed yet wonderful movie that featured the great Rick Moranis, an electrifying performance by Diane Lane, and Jim Steinman's greatest song.
@RooMonster “ I think he exhausted all the _V things out there, no?”… UV Light?
Putsch, Schickl gruber and Exophthalmic came into my bar. @Rex, the bartender tossed them out like a MAN CUB should.
I sat on the fence with this one. It had a few spikes protruding and I wasn't all the comfortable. Why is it that some clues and the answers nettle my skin. They are small nits but they sometimes sting. For instance, the clue for EYES 19A makes no sense to me. Why in this strange world we live in are EYES only visible to 1/6 of humans...Ponder, ponder. The clue for STEED 12D, was just as irritating. Some STEEDs do charge after you've spurred them on and waved a sword. Would "Rudolph" qualify? Strange that little things like this change your mood.
I had a few write-over dos: MAN boy for MANCUB...Cede for CAVE...Matte instead of SATIN and I thought Perseverance might've landed on the Moon. No, it was MARS al along.
I haven't read anyone else yet and I'm hoping I might change my mind.
While we're at it, add your hero CHE to the waste basket.
Nifty theme and a reveal that made me laugh. I'd noted the three Vs that preceded it, and thought that would be it for the theme: an array of xVs, Wednesday worthy on its own. So I loved the surprise of their transformation into FIVEs in SECOND place along with the "reapplication" of the RULE. So clever!
Help from previous puzzles: AEON. No idea: MANCUB. He's back?: IDI; having not encountered him in a grid for so long, I thought he'd been relegated to the unmentionable list.
Thanks TJS!
My most difficult confrontation with “the rule” came in Lansing, MI, years ago (pre-Covid). I had an hour to kill before meeting my son for lunch, so I got some coffee and settled in at a table in Starbucks. A cookie would have been nice, but the only ones they had were too big (and too expensive). When I went over to the trash can to toss something out, I noticed that someone had thrown out half of a cookie and it was sitting near the top – within easy reach. Nah, I couldn’t possibly. I returned to my seat but the image wouldn’t leave me. The half-cookie was still in that little paper bag they give you, and, (this was key) it was clearly broken in half – not bitten into. As I deliberated, I kept my eye on the trash can to make sure no one else made any deposits. Is it too late to say “long story short?” It was delicious.
I was planning on addressing the puzzle but, like some other commenters, I have to first express my astonishment at "Man with a glowing future" -- WTF? The publication date was after he had killed himself in his bunker, but the puzzle was probably written before then. But still -- WTF??
Moving on to today...I really enjoyed this, although agree that the theme would have stood on its own without the excessive telegraphing (asterisks, highlights in the online version).
Right after college, when a bunch of my buddies still lived together, someone would inevitably ask others, "Who's up for...?" a beer run, a trip to Mickey D's, a drive to Atlantic City, whatever. The response "IMIN" was usually pronounced "uh-min", similar to an Americanized pronunciation of the Ugandan dictator's surname. So eventually, the response morphed permanently into "Call me IDI" or simply "IDI". To this day, some of my friends still say that.
IVe enjoyed this grid after being away for a week on a Canadian island. IDI taken a pass on the Rexrant of the day. Blogs like puzzles have a “vibe” as he astutely pointed out. Maybe a FIVE SECOND RULE should be applied to previously articulated objections that are clearly correct though predictable?
it was one letter too short for the true answer of ohio
I like the theory of two afterlives. The first is kind of a purgatory where you stay until your name is no longer mentioned on earth. Then you go to your particular heaven or hell.
Once we stop putting Hitler in crosswords he moves to his ‘glowing future.’
Or burning in hell.
I liked this and enjoyed the solve but wondered why there were six theme entries. Just seems to me if you’re going to have a puzzle built around the number FIVE, then that’s how many themers there’d be. Not that there’s anything really wrong with that, just seemed ODD to me.
I’m old enough to remember the original TV DINNER frozen in an aluminum tray and covered with foil which had to be baked in the oven. No nuking but of course microwaves were still a DREAM back then. It was divided into compartments, the entrée and then tiny little squares for the the side items. Sometimes those servings were shrunk down to just a spoonful or two by the time the food was frozen and then cooked. Swanson’s was the pioneer soon to be followed by Banquet which also introduced the pot pie and which coincidentally started out as the F. M. Stamper Company not far my hometown in Missouri.
And now, like JD, I think I hear my mother calling me to RUN and catch the school bus.
Somebody has to do it, so here's ZZ Top.
@Nancy is going to laugh at me, but I spent about 100 nanoseconds wondering if there was a tennis player with the surname "Bye."
Aha! I discover here that the FIVE SECOND RULE isn't a dieting rule at all. It's an eating-off-the-floor rule.
I agree with those commenters who say that five seconds isn't nearly long enough.
The explosion in food allergies these days? Eat off the floor from early childhood on and you'll build up one hell of an all-purpose immunity -- that's what I say.
There used to be an expression: "Not too clean; not too dirty" which recommended not overprotecting children from germs. Can't find it on Google: Maybe I'm misquoting slightly or maybe it's been scrubbed like IDI.
Of course it's easy for me to say. I don't have cats like @Snabby so adhering hairs are not a problem.
@Anony 10:11
Nice!
I think I've posted this before, but...
What would happen if you tied a piece of buttered bread to a cat and tossed it in the air? (Think about it for a sec...)
@Anony 9:59
I can only hope said person is getting everything set up with lawyers, trusts, banks, etc. and not some schmo who bought a ticket, and never checked it.
RooMonster Think I Can Eke Out A Living With $1B Guy
I wonder how many White People know that 'oreo' is used by some, both Black and White, as a slur against Black people who speak The King's English? How many Americans know that if you watch a Brit TV show with your eyes closed, there's a fair to middlin chance that the Cockney is coming from a Black bad guy? And so on.
I found the puzzle very fun and kind of easy. Maybe a wheelhouse thing. MANCUB made me smile with fond memories.
@LMS you are in rare form today with your Skittles 🤣. And for those who brought up UV, look at the LMS avatar today.
Yeah. Count me on the side that doesn’t get riled up by real life historical villains in a crossword as long as they aren’t clued “cutesy.” They exist. What is the badness cut-off point? Nero? Any Roman emperor that put Christians in with lions as entertainment for the masses? As a not real entity Cruella DeVille had designs on a coat of Dalmatian fur….banishment?
Medium. team before SQUAD (didn’t fit) and CedE before CAVE @Rex were my major erasures. It took me a few nanoseconds post solve to grok the theme, clever, liked it.
I've always wondered where the 'burning in hell' meme came from, since the most well known (at least among the Educated Class) description (no one's ever come back to tell the truth) is of Dante, and the bottom circle of hell encases the damned in ice. Kind of like the end of "Frankenstein"; most folks don't know that Frankenstein and the monster die up in the Arctic; the Karloff film ends rather differently.
I enjoyed the heck out of this, but it sure put up a fight with me. I finally had to straight up cheat on REAL ID issuers. That area boxed me out. I couldn't see FIVE SECOND RULE until I had the D.
I love the theme and the funny revealer.
When we were kids, we ate a lot of TV dinners, but haven't had one in decades now. I think I miss them. They're probably way better now.
I thought codes were components of the law, not the other way around.
Speaking of JV SQUAD, it is volleyball season over at the university, so now when I go into the gym, I am the shortest person in the building.
I wonder if on French crossword puzzles you have to put in the accents. VOILA drives me crazy every single time we type it. I know, no accents, no punctuation, but I miss them. I guess we have a minus sign today so I should take some solace in that. Do the French have crosswords? And a French 🦖?
Speaking of IQ TESTS, one time I was invited to a Mensa society meeting (and as all of you know I had no business being there) to talk about community music, and by the end I had them singing Kumbaya and strumming ukuleles. If that's not genius I don't know what is.
Uniclues:
1 Beer, probably.
2 Nerdity?
3 Overnight rest stop where things are likely to get weird.
4 Poor reason to join the astronaut training program.
5 Click on TLC while Say Yes to the Dress is airing.
6 "Everything's a nightmare on land, but..."
7 Fighting 49ers.
1 OSU IV FLUID
2 AV-CLUB-NESS
3 "I'M IN" RV PARK
4 WANTS MARS SEX
5 VOILA, VEIL ENVY (~)
6 "ASEA, I CAN DREAM"
7 VEIN RANCOR
Very enjoyable puzzle.
Thx, Joe; 'V'ery clever! :)
Easy-med.
Pretty smooth solve; no major hitches along the way.
The kids still have their old IMAC 27"er; bff recently got her new 24"er, and loves it! The only desktops I've owned were a Macintosh in the '80s and a Performa in the '90s. It's been laptops since the early aughts.
Never could cotton to TV DINNERs.
Love REESE Witherspoon on The Morning Show (Apple TV+).
TBa before TBD.
Thot the FIVE SECOND RULE came up on a Seinfeld episode, but couldn't find any evidence. Must be confusing it with the 'double-dipping' one. 🤔
Anyhoo, SUSSed this puz out in Tues. time; liked it a lot! :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Nancy: I was brought up with the old-timey rule "Gotta eat a peck of dirt before you die." My kitchen floor will boost anyone's immune system.
<a href="https://throwedrolls.com/“>Lambert’s Cafe</a> is a local Ozarks institution - the original in Sikeston, MO, one between Springfield and Branson and a third in Foley, AL - famous for their delicious hot rolls that get thrown to the customers straight from the oven. An employee brings out a huge bushel basket full of them and yells “hot rolls“. Anyone who wants one raises a hand and it gets pitched to you. Naturally the FIVE SECOND RULE applies and it always makes me a little queasy knowing how many gazillions of tourists have passed through there and clomped across the floor before me. But the rolls, and the rest of their food, are definitely worth the risk. Go hungry and plan on a long wait in the summertime.
I'm a little annoyed at the repeat V's. There's VISION and VISUAL, and DMV crossing RV where the V stands for VEHICLE in both directions.
This puzzle was a lot of fun! I moved pretty quickly through the top half and and then things slowed down considerably. That’s when I noticed the second position V, and quickly put a V in the lower half themers. This broke the rest of the puzzle open. But I do wish the NYTXW app didn’t highlight all the theme answers until the end. I would have puzzled it out eventually and enjoyed it.
It still took a bit more solving to see the revealer. I thought it would involve food groups. But how clever! Thanks for the most enjoyable puzzle in a while.
@LMS - Ha ha ha You are too funny!
@Heather 8:50 I loved your drive-thru carwash story! Thanks! The first time I went through one I was thrilled - it was so exciting- like a carnival ride without the nausea! (Yes, I live a quiet life since I settled down.) So the next time through I brought along my mother-in-law to give her a treat. Unfortunately, she had a strong claustrophobic reaction and wanted out of the car. Who would have guessed? I still enjoy going through one, but it's not like the first time.
Well I haven't changed. my mind except to say that I was able to guffaw in a good sense upon reading:
@Joaquin and his "Five beers please."
@JD's harvest gold fridge. Mind wanders...Ours was avrocado green.
@Loren with her arachnidsome EYES and trying to draw a mental picture of one of her students balancing a desk on his head.
@Heather at 8:50...Her entire post. More, please
@egs enjoying RIPPLE and TUNA in an RV PARK.
@liveprof 9:40 entire post.
@Pondie eating a peck of dirt.
Please keep them up. More fun to read than a stale munchie grabbing my attention.
@Nancy:
If you were a juvenile in the 50s, and Mom had listened to her Mom and so forth on back, then getting you exposed to as many, non-lethal, germs as possible was an article of faith. Since I haven't breeded, don't know how badly that advice has been deep-sixed. But all sorts of maladies, diabetes and asthma in particular, are far more widespread than then. Could be all those sugar processed foods, of course.
Just have a quick second in another busy day to put in my 2 cents. I thought this was delightful!!! Rarely do I enjoy a puzzle that uses so much abbreviation (versus real words), but for me it just got more fun as it went along, so I thought the extra DMV was just the icing on the cake. Did think that CARWINDOW was a little Green Paint, and the - clue at 41A did get me. I kept looking at it as the continuation of 40A and kept thinking LAW what? LAWMINor? Do the people that write the law code need to MINor in CODE Law in order to qualify to write the law code? Dear me.
Wouldn't mind seeing more of this kind of puzz. Thanks, constructor.
The puzzle is a test of our knowledge and vocabulary. Sometimes this involves knowing about notorious people and events. Idi Amin was a monster but it’s important to have knowledge of his murderous reign. The same goes for any historic figure. So stop complaining about the inclusion of politicians you disapprove of and others that offend your rather delicate sensibility.
M&A has observed that when dinin at the house of folks with doggies, the V-second-rule is kinda a mute point, re: dropped on the floor food. Doggies seem to have a 1.2-second-rule, max. I have even witnessed a few impressive in-mid-air interceptions. Just sayin.
OK, so clearly the other most crucial agenda item to be addressed: New clues for the letter string IDI …
* Unpublished autobiography for the ill-fated Princess of Wales?
* Slangy version of the foremost request from Roman Empire polling place credentials checkers?
* Topless midi??
* Idiotic way to start??
* The very first original example of a big Freud find?
staff weeject pick: TBD. Admire its desperation.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Deeney dude. Good puz.
Masked & Anonymo8Us & Anonym007Vs
**gruntz**
JCREW is **not** a competitor of Eddie Bauer. Sure, they may both sell some sweaters and button downs, but they do not cater to the same crowd.
Nice puzzle with a great revealer that I had trouble seeing because of my CedE in at 28D, which made 35A look like it was going to be a Latin phrase (FIdES___). Fixed that when the rest of the phrase filled in.
Like Rex, I threw in SCARFS but was actually surprised that it was correct. Usually the NYTXW clues SnARFS unless it's an animal (dog), in which case then it's SCARFS. I guess "Devours, with "down" " doesn't indicate a species so... (I don't really know if that is a NYTXW RULE or LAW, it's just my gut feeling with no research to back it up.)
Joe Deeney, thanks for a nice Wednesday.
@Beezer, from yesterday, my secret is many turns, sometimes horizontally crossing most of the run. My friends point their skis down and whip off and I do switchbacks instead. Doesn't always work!
Finished this one with no problems and no lookups. It helped that I knew at the bottom that the second letter of that tax break had to be V. Helped even more that we ate a lot of TV DINNERs in our "playroom", which had our big TV at one end and a built in barbecue at the other. Though we mainly took barbecued steaks and the rare turkeys to the dining room. In my day, we watched Groucho, Perry Mason, and the quiz shows while eating our frozen DINNERs, plus Maverick if it was on.
Fine with me if Hitler and IDI and any historical bad guy is in my puzzle. You could include Mao and Pol Pot and Stalin for all I care. Being in a puzzle is not any kind of badge of honor.
I very much appreciated the Grateful Dead clip featuring RIPPLE, the first Dead song I ever memorized, and sang over and over again. I was imagining myself in that audience, cheering at the top of my lungs when the first notes of the song were played, and of course singing along with the band. I think that is easily the best song written in the last century, and it belongs in every church hymnbook.
Re FIVE SECOND RULE: When any of us grandkids were squeamish about eating something that hit the floor she would say, "You eat a peck of dirt before you die." My father quoted her often. It sounds like something that was an old adage to her, but I never heard from anyone other than my father or grandmother. So I wonder how widespread it was?
Son Volt @7:51
How in the world could the clue "man with glowing future" ever evoke the beautiful lyrics by Hunter/Garcia????
@bocamp. I wonder if you are thinking of the Seinfeld where George eats an eclair(or something similar) out of a trash can and is caught by the mother of a woman he wants to date. @liveprof's Starbuck's cookie story made me think of that.
For me the 5 second rule has more to do with the ICK factor than actual threat of harm. And it varies by location. I would eat a potato chip that I dropped on the floor at home but not in a public restroom.
p.s.
OK. Was kinda hopin someone else would say it first, but I reckon it looks like not. Sooo …
An undersized puz with a food-eatin theme revealer?
It's a Deeney Diney little crossword!
har
M&Also
When we were kids we discovered that the floor improved the taste of TV DINNERS.
In New Mexico, the "DMV" is called "MVD" and would totally go with the theme. It also threw me off, since I first entered MVD before my NY roots reminded me of the more common "DMV".
@Anonymoose (2:10 PM)
Good sleuthing! a classic conflation on my part; I'm with @Liveprof (10:26 AM) and George Costanza on this one. lol
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
This was the crossword equivalent of a guy sitting next to me, elbowing me and saying, “know what I mean, know what I mean, see what I did there, did ya get it??” In other words, annoying and not half as witty as it thinks it is. Please move along.
@Master Melvin-The "peck of dirt" saying made it to the Adirondacks, where I grew up. Used to hear it often.
A penal code is a group of criminal laws.
The Napolepnic Code is a group of laws.
@anon 1:48p - the RIPPLE link is in reference to 38d RIPPLE
@ liveprof
LOL literally
I had no problem at all finishing this puzzle, but looking back I’m at a loss for 9 down clue and answer panels?
@Anonymous 10:11: @RooMonster: “I think he exhausted all the _V things out there, no?”... UV Light?
There are 26 _V possibilities, but a single one might lead to different phrases. I'm thinking of CV axle/boot/joint, for example. I expect that IV and AV might have alternate meanings than intravenous and audio-visual, with different endings.
Good Lord. "Easy-medium"???? This was the hardest Wednesday I can remember in many decades. Absolutely unfathomable.
Well, just finished up a BLUR of a day and got back here to enjoy the comments. That let me delve deeper into TVDINNER memories. When my family came to the US on July 28, 1975, there was a bit of a snafu with the shipping company for the rest of our things. The container containing all our worldly possessions outside of the 5 suitcases we had packed as full as allowed were tied up at the docks with the proper customs forms still missing! Well, we got a heaping helping of hospitality from our new neighbors. We got cots from the realtor, a 'spare' TV from the nextdoor neighbor! Imagine that! We'd just barely gotten our first TV a few years ago and these people had a spare!!!! Truly America was the land of opportunity and streets paved in gold!! Another neighbor loaned us a patio table and some lawn chairs for eating. But no kitchen implements. So, we discovered TVDINNERs! For over a month all our dinners were made by Swanson and cooked in the oven. We would fight over the ones with the chocolate pudding dessert compartment! Loved the chicken ones. The corn as the side dish always disappointed, and noone liked the Salisbury steak. Yet, it made such an impression on us that until just recently every July 28 was TVDINNER night in our family. Our spouses, now that we're grown up, have been very good sports about it once they heard the story. We are now in a time when TVDINNERs actually have become so good that the point of remembering a time of 'suffering' with those aluminum, compartmentalized trays is moot and most of us have stopped the tradition, but each July 28, I still find myself cruising the frozen brands aisle in the grocery store with that memory of years ago in mind.
A difficult Wednesday. The JCREW SQUAD corner the hardest. I had NEEDS for WANTS. My preferred answer would be craves was too long. WANTS strikes me as an understatement, but accurate enough.
Loved the theme heavy grid. All the downs cross 1, 2,or 3 theme answers. Most non-theme acrosses are bordered by theme answers, many on both top and bottom.
One negative result is a pile of 3s and 4s and of Es and esses. A bit heavy on the plurals too.
PV (photo voltaic) might have found its way in.
MINUS MUSSES MESSI
@HarryP
PANELS discussions at conventions.
Puzzle was a near pangram except for H and Z. Changing MEN MUTE UNO to HEN HATE ANO would give H. No easy Z I can see.
Did no one think cheat on might be DOUBLEXS where the X might also be a multiplication sign?
Please explain 1down. Mote?
Why is Idi Amin’s name spelled Imin in this puzzle?
A bit on the easy side for a Wednesday. Fluffy not stuffy. A bit more crunch would have been nice. Still good though. Wow! I coulda had a V-8 !
I NODE, RITE?
ICANDREAM of me and ELISE,
IN FIVESECONDs I’M a winner,
give me CREDIT for where it LEADS:
some RIPPLE and a TVDINNER.
--- ELIA MESSI
Amazed that I accomplished this, just having had two "tooth implants" this morning. Ugh. So it must have been fairly easy. Except for a name or two. ISOLDE, I'm looking at you.
Lady Di
Very clever theme/revealer. I remember V-2 rockets...but that's not Mr. Deeny's fault...and neither is IDI. It's just a name, and he existed. The good news is: he's gone now.
I had to fight my aversion to entries containing initials on this one. I don't particularly like TV-anything in a grid, and this one, TVDINNER, I wouldn't eat even if it NEVER hit the floor. But, it's the theme, so we deal with it.
Easy enough once you catch the drift. After that it actually helps you in the solve. I do agree that the DMVS--an unpleasant experience in their own right--shouldn't be hanging around here, though all those V's can add up to fill trouble. I think he did about as well as he could with it. Birdie.
And here's another:
YBBBB
YBYGB
GGGGG
Coulda done this in my BVdees while changing my CVjoints.
Same with Wordle:
BGYGB
GGGGG
Eagle!!!!
“I Can Dream About You” was written (and originally performed) by Dan Hartman. He also wrote the classic rock classic “Free Ride.” When I was in high school he led the local band “The Legends” in the Harrisburg area. My friends and I saw them many, many times. Local boy makes good type of situation.
Again Rex’s musical taste and mine eerily coincide. Thanks.
@JJPH: Was that Harrisburg, PA? I went to Wm. Penn. I remember "Free Ride" and "I Can Dream About You," but never realized they were local.
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