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Young Salmon / SUN 8-7-22 / The whole package, colloquially / Like the Xbox One X vis-à-vis the Xbox One / Nigerian city of 3.5+ million / Jazz singer born Eunice Kathleen Waymon / Crystal-clear
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Constructor: TINA LABADIE
Relative difficulty: EASY-MEDIUM (I imagine this will vary widely today, based on your proper noun knowledge)
THEME: LETTERPLAY — Theme answers feature multiple letters or repeating patterns of letters that are cross-referenced as "hints" in other clues in the grid.
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: SMOLT (100D: Young Salmon) —
- AT AN ANGLE (25A: Not true?)
- TRIPLE A (68A: Top credit rating ... or a hint to 25-Across)
- UNIQUE USER (27A: Visitor to a website, in analytics lingo)
- DOUBLE U (71A: 23rd in a series ... or a hint to 27-Across)
- SAM ADAMS (42A: Beer named for a founding father)
- TWO AM (52A: D.S.T. starting time ... or a hint to 42-Across)
- HUSH HUSH (97A: Secretive)
- FOUR H (90A: Club for farm kids ... or a hint to 97-Across)
- VOODOO DOLL (115A: Spelling aid?)
- FIVE-O (89A: Cops ... or a hint to 115-Across)
- OIN OIN ONE (118A: Baseball announcer's call on a home run. As in "Going, Going, Gone," because...)
- ZERO G (54A: Weightlessness ... or a hint to 118-Across).
Word of the Day: SMOLT (100D: Young Salmon) —
Smolt may refer to:
- a juvenile salmon, having reached the stage of adulthood, that is ready to migrate to sea for the first time.
- Smolt (Linux), a project aimed at hardware information collection
• • •
Hello once again! It's Eli Selzer, filling in for Rex as he vacations (checks Twitter) in my home town! Excited to be tackling a Sunday, though I was a little nervous because Friday and Saturday knocked me out this week. I enjoyed both puzzles and am a fan of all the constructors, and I'm not even sure they were actually HARD, but my times were well above average on both. Turns out I needn't have worried; this one played decidedly easier for me.It looks like this is the NYT debut for Tina Labadie, so congratulations! I don't recognize the name from any other outlets, but it's always refreshing to see a non-male name on the byline (seriously, NYT, check out the amazing constructors for other puzzles and ask yourself why your gender disparity is still so stark). Ok, rant over, on to the puzzle!
So. The theme. It's perfectly fine conceptually, but I have a couple of issues. First, DOUBLE U looks ugly. Maybe it's a personal thing, but I've never seen the letter W written out that way. On top of that, the letter U appears THREE TIMES in UNIQUE USER. I suppose it means that the answer has two words that both start with the letter U, but it seriously bumps for me. And I'm not sure an analytics based clue is interesting enough to justify the stretch.
Second, the ZERO G / OIN OIN ONE pairing just doesn't fit the pattern. None of the other themers require you to remove letters or create a nonsense phrase to make them work. Maybe it was intended to be a bit of a "gotcha" on the last theme entry, but to me it feels less like a trick and more like cheating. If there had been other patterns that worked like this (or even if ALL of them were this style), I might have enjoyed it more. As it is, all I can see in 118A is "Oi Noi," making me think of Lily Sullivan's fake Australian accent on Comedy Bang Bang. (Seriously, say "Oh no" like this; it's fun!)
The other issue with the theme is that it's so dense the rest of the puzzle never really goes anywhere. I'm really struggling to find fill that stands out to me. There's a lot of history/geography TRIVIA (125A: "Jeopardy!" fodder) that wasn't really in my wheelhouse: IBADAN, SAUD, SIDRA. Nothing that slowed me down, just not things that came to mind readily. That plural ETNAS isn't doing the puzzle any favors, and I doubt many people are excited about LIMPID. I've definitely had lag on video calls, but I don't know that I've ever seen it referred to as TIME LAG. I can find the clued definition for STOW IT (though it's not one I've ever used), but Google strongly favors storage options for the phrase.
All right, I don't want this to be too much of a downer; let's find some positives!
Bullets:
Signed Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of Crossworld
All right, I don't want this to be too much of a downer; let's find some positives!
Bullets:
- 7D: The "you" of the song lyric "I'm begging of you, please don't take my man"(JOLENE) — Like I need an excuse to listen to Jolene.
- 3D: Jazz singer born Eunice Kathleen Waymon (NINA SIMONE) — See Jolene comment above.
- 80D: The art of music? (ALBUM COVER) — I like the clue, but the answer is so generic that all I can think of is this:
- 104D: Hit 1979 musical in which a character's mistress is one of the main roles (EVITA) — I'm not sure I'd call Peron's Mistress a MAIN character, but she's certainly featured. Anyway, I'm a musical theater guy, and I like Evita.
- Speaking of TRIVIA and its clue, I recently auditioned for Jeopardy (again) and am back in the contestant pool for the fifth time. Maybe they'll actually call this time? Fingers crossed!
All right, it's 100 degrees outside and I need a(nother) cocktail. Thanks to Rex for letting me sub in, and thanks to all the other bloggers taking part. Fun as always, and I'll see you all next time!
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129 comments:
Zero G
Ridin down the 5-0
in a purple remlin
in this car, I'm the Czar (is it Tsar)
of my own Kremlin.
Rollin phat in my TIN HAT
with Sauvignon BLANC and SAM ADAMS
my butler's at the MANOR cuz he's ALL THAT
prolly playin TETRIS 'n' eatin my UDON
It's TWO AM the light's AGLARE
I needa buya bird
a LOON, a TERN, a MACAW
you ot it somethin rare
I miht seem kinda blurred
to needa all-night pet store just to say "AHA!"
imme what I want
or you'll hear some RIM SLAN
yer bones, the MARROW, I will haunt
like a HUSH HUSH boomeran
No need to excuse me
from my own JACUZZI
no need for a VOODOO DOLL
put the pin in mI ROBOT's skull
cuz by dawn
I'll be oin oin one
Oh, the puzzle:
As for the solve: easy and fun. ALBUM COVER, IPHONE and VOODOODOLL clues were reat really really reat.
PPP-palooza:
JAKOB, AMC, Sevastopol, Santa CRUZ, B.C. Neighbor, SAM ADAMS, IROBOT, ANN, SIDRA, MOE'S, NAPA, ELLE, IBADAN, SIAM, EVITA, Santa ANITA, ARNO, LOBOS, NINA SIMONE, EDDIE Vetter, Ibn SAUD, JOLENE, TAFTS, Old LYME, OAHU, Gregor SAMSA (26).
Yawns: ANIMAL, NEWER, HIRING.
Wha?:
Keen = WAIL?
STYLET s/b STYLUS, right?
Please NO just NO:
APER, RELY ON + REST ON, two Santas but apparently the rinch stole Christmas.
Just a reminder Will:
It's OHO, not AHA.
Uniclues:
1 High-tech petting zoo discotheques.
2 Minor league success.
3 Making the decision about putting a pillow over his face after listening to the latest weird sounds rumbling out of him in his sleep.
1 ANIMAL SOCIALS AGLARE
2 TRIPLE A DOUBLE U
3 ASSESS NEWER SNORES
Easy. Cute theme with a delightful twist at 118a....@Eli I think of 118a as more of a punchline than a gotcha. Fun solve, liked it. A fine debut!
IMHO, Eli is too forgiving of this constructor.... where's Rex's vitriol when we really need it? LOL. The theme seemed to me too clever by half, but then there were two naticks on top of it:
JAKOB/JOLENE could easily have been yAKOB/yOLENE and who would know? I got lucky there, but not with the tortuous EDDIE/ELLE, where my best guess was ELLAa/aDDIE, compounded here with the obscure Nigerian city. Who the heck knows this stuff? Then there was the ridiculous, obscurantist clue "KEEN" for "WAIL" - - give me a break! Is editor Shortz on summer vacation or is he just sleeping at the switch?
Hello Eli,
Actually I really liked the ZERO G gimmick, just a nice bazinga twist to the other themers. When I saw OINOINONE I thought: huh?.. gee I need to watch more baseball games; never heard that phrase, it sounds really goofy. ("GOING GOING GONE!" if you haven't got it yet.)
I ROBOT needs Asimov in the clue (thinking of the latest acrostic). And I'm sure there is somewhere a more interesting clue for LAY DOWN. And I like to avoid names when possible, but HUSH HUSH begs for the 1960s Joe South song.
[Spelling Bee: Sat g-6, still missing 2 pangrams(!!?!), but not putting much time/effort into it. Beautiful clear day, major beach time and Peachfest stuff. On Skaha beach today there was a guy who talked like an astronomy nerd but looked like a Hell's Angel in a swimsuit. Bald head, refrigerator body, huge beard, tattoos everywhere. I wish my brain had a PVR to record days like this to play back in the winter.]
100% on board with your take on this one. surely this theme has to have been used before? i haven't tried to vet it yet to find out, but really the point is, anyway, that the theme FELT already re-re-cycled.
more stimulating fill would've definitely helped counter that quality, i think, and yet... here we are, now with two days of pretty mediocre fill under our belts.
today's puzzle seemed to be especially scaffolded by the smattering of *very* usual suspects that's literally managing to reach every nook and cranny of the grid. it's hard not to wonder whether a lot of this is the result of editor interference. or, on the other hand, maybe a brand-new constructor might feel in some way obligated to keep her NYT debut on the tamer, more familiar side, rather than like, risk trying to be as clever or as zany or as whatever else she's capable of bringing before she's had a chance to like, establish very much constructor cred?
anyway. i did like HUSH HUSH a lot. it still felt cute despite having been nestled in amongst the clutter of NEHI AHA UDON IAM HIRING PEAS TEABAG.
VOODOO DOLL isn't bad either, but, from far away (which is how the sunday puzzles always tend to look if you're solving in the app), it kind of just looks like a bunch of zeros. it's a dumb complaint, i know, but i still think it would probably be (and probably has been, for that matter) more fun as an entry in a regular-sized grid.
The news reported Amazon's purchase of the company iRobot just as I got to 51A, but I didn't need the help. Easy puzzle. No non-typo overwrites.
@ken freeland - FWIW, anybody from the south is going to know JOLENE, and tbh, everybody everywhere *should* want to know it. it's iconic and/because it's also just great music.
hearing it would also explain the existence of a particularly terrible song by miranda lambert called "geraldine," which i'm sort of inclined to assume a lot of people have probably heard? but idk, i have no idea what people listen to.
in any case, this is a PSA for anyone who has heard "geraldine" but not "jolene" -- please please please please go spend the 2 min and 30 seconds it will take you to listen to the entirety of jolene! also, anyone who hasn't heard either song... avoid geraldine forever but the jolene plea applies to y'all too!
Isn't "Cops" as a clue to FIVEO getting really obscure? Is PPP allowed to have a highly indirect clue just to make it even harder? Or is the fact that the prior clue (and one other) referred to Hawaii supposed to be some kind of an extra hint?
"A pointed instrument (as for graving)" is Meriam-Webster's definition 1c for STYLET. Shouldn't an obscure word be described by its main definition?
The paper newspaper version of the puzzle noted that 118 across was different from all the other theme answers.
Villager
Eli – thanks for filling in with such a well-considered write-up. And fingers crossed for your Jeopardy appearance!
I had the exact same two issues: UNIQUE USERS has three U’s and OIN OIN GONE was an outlier in its Thursday trickery-ness. So I chewed on this, searching my soul for forgiveness, and I found it. I’ma look at the DOUBLE U as describing the two-word phrase where both words begin with U, as Eli explains. I can live with that.
More importantly, (hi, @jae, @okanaganer) if you think about it, you *have* to do some kind of sleight of hand for the ZERO G entry ‘cause if you don’t, then any phrase with no G is a contender. The more I considered this, the more enamored I became of the entry: Tina found a common phrase with four (!) G’s to adios. Very, very nice. (Eli, we’ll have to agree to disagree. [see also LIMPID, which pleased me to no end. I’m adding this word into the rotation forthwith.])
I spent like forever trying to think of other possibilities. . . how ‘bout a super-duper souped-up Supra pick-up groupie. Thanks, and I’ll just see myself out.
48D reminded me of this gem.
“Put down” before LAY DOWN. LAY as the past tense of lie is something else I’m slowly eliminating from my speech. It just never feels natural to say Last night I lay down at 7 and then slept the night through. I have to force that LAY, and it feels weird. Like it or not, the lie/lay distinction is dying a slow little death, and I’m all about it.
An unabashed Real Housewives/Bravo fan, I love seeing the episodes where there is a MANOR and a butler involved. Bluestone Manor, Moore Manor, Patricia Altshul’s butler. . . I dunno, sinking in and watching vapid tv laves away the stresses of the day. It’s fascinating to see how the (seemingly?) ultra-wealthy live. Even if many of them are. . . wait for it and work with me here. . . back-biting bitches.
PS - @Lewis from yesterday. . . your lyrical tribute to that bit of crosswordese was a tour-de-force for two reasons.
1. The words and their stresses were spot-on for singing; like @Brian Stiltner, I sang the whole thing out loud, just to make sure.
2. You expressed the exact sentiment I had; I was awash with relief when I saw the clue and was unspeakably grateful for this old crosswordese friend that afforded me the toehold to dispatch that corner.
@Loren FINALLY another Housewives person. literally no one in my current friend/family network watches anything on bravo, which is just a massive downer on my life tbh.
saddest storyline of the year so far (and maybe of ever) is patricia's butler michael suddenly being just gone from her life completely after he had a spinal stroke that left him paralyzed from the waist down. soo soooo not fair in so so so many ways, especially since michael was apparently the only good person in south carolina 😭😭😭😭
The title is LETTERPLAY, and PLAY it was. I'm going to overlook the technical inconsistency in the theme because it was a fun, breezy puzzle and I learned of a city whose name I hadn't heard before.
Congratulations on your debut puzzle, Tina! I was OK with OINOINONE, especially as this was highlighted in the bio notes - there was OIN to be something a little different about this answer!
I agree there was quite a lot of PPP. Oh well. Still finished in a reasonable time.
Slightly off-topic: I have problems when I play these puzzles on my smart phone / online. Since Wordle crossed to NYT territory, it has not recorded things correctly at all. And, this past Monday, it recorded my time as 1:22! (It was more like 6 or 7 minutes.) The whole NYT online puzzle thing seems glitchy...
Who the heck actually used the “twoam” hint for “Sam Adams?” Figuring out how it was a hint was harder than it helped.
@Colin: You may be on to something. The NYT XW app lists my best Sunday time as 9:18. I couldn't fill a Sunday grid that fast if I knew all the answers in advance.
@Loren -- Thank you!
Three things especially shined in this puzzle for me:
1. The beautiful design in how the theme answers are placed in the grid. They are not only symmetrical, but the “numbered” theme answers are grouped together, sandwiched by the “bread” of the other theme answers. It’s gorgeous to see, and I suggest you go to XwordInfo.com, click on “Solution”, and look at the grid as they colored it in there. Props, Tina, on this very pleasing-to-see design.
2. The theme concept itself, finding “number-letter” phrases (such as FIVE-O and ZERO-G) and colorful phrases to match them with. Prime idea!
3. OINOINONE! This was easily my favorite puzzle piece. I kept checking its crosses, looking for where I made a mistake. Desperately tried to think of home-run phrases that end in “IN ONE”. And when I finally saw the solution, it brought an echo-in-the-Alps “Aha” mixed with a thunderous happy-burst, easily justifying the entire puzzle for me. How beautifully you set the solver up to expect just another count-the-letters answer, and whammed them with a count-the-missing-letters surprise.
Brava on your debut, Tina of London (Ontario). Thank you for the banger and for the beauty mash.
Like the theme and the ZEROG reverse application, but did not like the PPP. I can see why it was necessary because of the density of the concept, but that excuse doesn't thrill me. Hopefully the constructor will be accepted for some weekday puzzles. I'm looking forward to seeing how they will turn out.
A word about Jeopardy!: has the difficulty bar been lowered for the clues and the contestants? That would explain why, should a really good contestant appear on the show, the resulting streak of wins exceeds five? No matter, it still is a feat for inclusion in the pool. Good luck and I hope you make it. As a unasked for helpful hint, don't guess and lose money. Especially in the second round. Patience frequently pays off as a win, or at least as a potential win. Alas, since I am bad at pop trivia, I would never pass the bar and would probably embarrass myself if I appeared on the show. But hopefully you will hit the big times. Please do let us know when you will appear by [hopefully] reading a comment by Sharp about your good fortune.
*
I did the exact same thing
This was fine - but I think would have sparkled more in a smaller format. The theme is so dense it lost me somewhere in the middle. Attractive grid as @Lewis highlighted. The ZERO G pair is killer.
Some mundane TRIVIA throughout - but all crossed fairly. A little side eye to the ANNUAL + MANUAL adjacency. I can still hear my father singing to Eric Bogle - “they gave me a TIN HAT and they gave me a gun”.
Los LOBOS
Not ALL THAT but an enjoyable Sunday solve.
For me the highlight of the puzzle was GOING GOING GONE. And I liked the rest of the puzzle too. My thanks and congratulations to the author and to the reviewer. Good stuff!
So sick and tired of the endless constructor gender disparity hand-wringing on here. And from a guest blogger no less.
Stopped reading right there.
Exactly to whom is it you all are pandering? I would venture to guess that the vast majority of us are here for the puzzles, not the social and political commentary. Anybody who cared even the slightest bit would have bailed on the NYT puzzle long ago.
SAMADAMS actually seemed too easy to me. Why did it need a hint?
But I wanted march instead of TWOAM, and needed 4 letters of the latter through crosses before finally getting it. So it sort of worked as a reverse clue for me. Knowing that the DST answer was supposed to be a clue for SAMADAMS helped convince me that TWOAM was the correct answer.
Similarly with DOUBLEU.
Villager
With the cryptic theme entries cross-referenced to other clues, this one sure at least flirted with turning into a real snoozer of a slogfest - but may have pulled it off. As usual, too much trivia for my tastes.
I’m never a fan of putting gibberish in the grid, no matter how witty the cluing, so I cringed at OINOINONE but will concede that the clue was pretty good on that one.
One more stride down the stunt grid rabbit hole! Sigh..
I was willing to go along with all the letter play, but got ired at FIVE O. To me, that is a specific Hawaii designation, and to clue it with the general Cops seemed a bit unfair. And then we get IPHONE! So specific, versus it's clue! Still slogged on, guessing and filling with crosses the SAUD, SIDRA, and both Santas. Had to Google IBADAN and EDDY. Had SMeLT before SMOLT, so VOODOODOLL paired with the FIVEO hint came late. And semi-confidently wrote in ANNIE at 104 D for EVITA. I was pretty sure Miss Hannigan was the head mistress of the orphanage. So that SW corner was a PPP nightmare. I don't mind stretching the culture/name boundaries of my brain, but stuffing one little corner that full seems beneath NYTxw standards. And yet, we do seem to still get that sort of thing alot. So, I kinda enjoyed the puzzle, thought the gimmick was richly embedded/featured in the puzzle (not just 2 or 3 words or interesting phrases, but rather a bunch of sets that worked together, placed elegantly in the grid), but that SW corner (my last fill) gave me a deflated aftertaste.
I was OK with OIN OIN ONE because the clue refers to something we are used to experiencing being gone. We all live in one G so ZEROG is the removal of gravity.
And the DOUBLEU in UNIQUE USER referred to the two first letters which is probably used as an acronym in the industry.
For those JOLENE fans, a refreshing look comes from this reaction video where two very expressive young man react to hearing it for the first time:
https://youtu.be/_pEPFYiJOXU
I spent many hours watching these guys react to many of my favorite oldies and it inspired me to expose my 22 year old sons to the same. (Didn’t get the same reactions, though)
Going to work right now to write a children’s book called The Three Bs that will achieve sufficient fame so that it can be used to reference your last three words in a future iteration of this theme.
Easiest Sunday in recent memory! Finished it before my cigar, which never happens.
Easiest Sunday in recent memory. Finished it before my cigar!
What on earth is OINOINONE? Don't all chime in at once.
Please don't be TONITE, I thought, when I saw the "this evenin'" clue. But, alas, it is.
I didn't know IBADAN, but somehow I got the PPP-laden corner anyway, guessing at LOBOS, ELLE and EDDIE.
I could hear Dolly singing that great country song she wrote, but couldn't remember the name of that mean, man-stealing woman. Fortunately JOLENE came in, and when she did, I recognized that heartless hussy imediately.
That heartless hussy, btw, was the high point of a puzzle I found boring in the extreme. Will Shortz calls this a puzzle "offering many different 'aha' moments" but it didn't provide me with one single "aha", Will, not even one. The cluing was flat and unimaginative and there was much too much mindless TRIVIA. SNORES reigned here.
I’m good with OINOINONE, but can’t get around the third u in UNIQUEUSER. Didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the solve, though. Helped that most of the trivia was on my wavelength.
IMO the best version of Jolene is this one by Miley Cyrus (who happens to be Dolly Parton's goddaughter):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOwblaKmyVw
Kent, I think she meant the phrase "two bit" as a clue for the Housewives.
Amy: This is a fine Sunday puzzle. The Zero G cluing and resulting answer tickles me, and it took me way too long to get it. Very much enjoyed the review, Eli.
Theme felt really dull at first, but it grew on me and by the end I was looking forward to the next themer.
Aha. ZERO G. If the cross-referencing had been done down at the OINOINONE answer, instead of all the way up at the ZERO G answer, I might have noticed it. But by the time I got to filling in 118A, I had forgotten all about the "hint to 118A" all the way up at 54A. And I assume that's true of many more answers as well. Those must be the "many" aha moments that Will Shortz alludes to.
Look -- I tend to be lazy, unobservant, and forgetful. Also I hate cross-referencing. And I was bored with the puzzle anyway. I just didn't expend the kind of effort that was required to see what was going on in each of the two related, but separated answers. My bad -- but I still didn't enjoy the puzzle.
Even if all you care about is the puzzles, puzzles reflect the perspective of their creators. More diverse creators leads to more interesting puzzles. That one of the top newspapers in the country is empowering creators that have historically been pushed to the sidelines is an important ancillary benefit for many.
Easy Sunday here, and like others, had trouble parsing the "home run call" clue, even though the crosses had to be right, because I forgot all about the ZEROG answer, since it was several minutes ago. What short term memory?
The disadvantage of speaking Spanish is that El ____ could be zillions of things, and it took many nanoseconds before the obvious NINO arrived. Ay Dios mio.
Mostly enjoyed this one, nice lower case aha! when the gimmick showed up, and fun to look back and use previous answers in subsequent clues. If it's been done before, I don't care. Also included SAMADAMS, which is a nice treat in this hot weather.
Congrats on the debut, TL. Totally Looking forward to more from you, and thanks for all the fun.
Eli, I think the clue for EVITA was fine. The “mistress” is Eva Peron, the main character. She eventually marries Juan Peron, but she starts as his mistress.
Agree!
This. So, so this.
Not sure which is worse, the constant virtue signalling or the pretentiousness of some of the comments. Yes people, we know how clever you are.
@Lobster 11 (8:37) -- Miley's got a great sense of rhythm, but I couldn't get past the harshness and unpleasantness of the instruments backing her up and all but drowning her out. They drove me away before the song was over.
For that reason, I like Dolly's version better.
Do we know the gender distribution of puzzle submitters to the NYT? Is it 50/50, 60/40, or what? Until we have that data, we can't know that the editor's puzzle selection is biased towards male constructors.
Double U also works for HUSHHUSH. That theme inconsistency should have killed this submission out of the gate. Find another entry for FOURH.
I think a tighter them might have pushed this toward interesting. Is there really no phrase with just two U's in it? Plus, "Unique User" is awfully bland. And it pains me just to type "oin oin one" again. Both a lousy answer and breaking consistency. They must have really been in love with ZeroG to try to shoehorn that junk in there. *sigh*
B Right There, I found this explanation of FIVE O from Mr. Google to be enlightening in terms of the seemingly off clue:
"Believe it or not, the TV series originated [the phrase Five-0]. The series' title actually was an homage to Hawaii being the 50th state of the U.S.A. Hawaii Five-O used the numerals as the fictional police division on the show. Over the year, the term came to be used as code for police in general."
Very easy Sunday for me; much of the cluing seemed Tuesday-ish.
Side glance at AGLARE ("Those skyscrapers are really AGLARE in the afternoon sun." Ick.)
And does anyone actually use the phrase STOW IT (or the phrase "Shut your trap" outside of a crossword?
Nits aside, I enjoyed the concept of this puzzle and nice to breeze through a Sunday.
Hey All !
Cross-references all over the place. I do see how it all plays, but some of the Themers we're gettable sans hints, whereas you needed ZEROG to figure out what in tarhooties OINOINONE was.
Interesting puz. Lots of space taken up by the Themers seemingly everywhere. Haven't checked if the hints are all symmetric. I'm sure once I finish reading the comments, someone would have said yes or no.
Had my eyebrow-arching at DOUBLEU also. Never understood why W it's not called DOUBLEV. UU is DOUBLE U. 😁
Quick puz for me today, nine seconds under 30 minutes. Toughest spot was having usual for PLAIN, and not knowing was a SMOLT was. SMELT, sure. SMOLT sounds like remnants of a fire. Add in HUMP (as clued) and IBADAN there, and yelling ensued.
Stopping putting my daily SB totals as of today. I'm sure they'll be missed! 😁 1) Only maybe three people care, 2) after the ass-handing of the past few days, it's getting embarrassing, 3)Sam is sadistic. Har
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
How's this for another theme pairing:
If the answer to 18A, Bear or Boar, had been what I first thought it would be--MAMMAL, a subsequent clue could have been, "Sticky pad folks ... or a hint to 18A.
"Three M." (Or "MMM")
Under "Me, too": the wit of ZERO G and OING OING ONE made the puzzle for me. Such a nice jolt of satisfaction when I caught on. FIVE-O helped me get VOODOO DOLL, turning me away from the "abracadabra" that kept wanting to fill itself in there. Otherwise the connections between the answers all came after the fact.
@Lewis 7:30 - Thank you for commenting on the grid design. I'd marked up the theme answers in the mag but had missed the "sandwich" aspect. I agree with you on this lovely construction; I just wish I'd appreciated it when solving was underway.
I enjoyed this puzzle more than most Sundays, and I'm a vote in favor of OINOINONE!
Thumbs up for HUSHHUSH and VOODOODOLL.
Tough SW corner with ELLE, IBADAN and IPHONES ( tricky clue)
JOLENE was playing in my head but for some reason Dolly kept mumbling when it came to the name. Why does that happen?
Did you hear that? Sounded like a crash. AHA! It was the bar for quality in the NYTXW being dropped again.
In the ghetto, “five-0” Commonly refers to the police.
Thought the letterplay theme was kind of cute, though I’m not usually a fan of heavy cross-referencing.
However, my final experience with the grid was the 2014 singer and the Nigerian city crossing the Pearl Ham singer and the university team, and that left me feeling cheated and disgruntled in the end. At least I learned a new word (LIMPID) and heard a good song (JOLENE).
Based on the corresponding UNIQUE USER, the answer for 71A should have been TRIPLE U, but that would have required creating a new letter for the alphabet: UUU.
I am the mother of two daughters, one who does the NYT puzzle faster than I do, in spite of not knowing the many references from decades before she was born. I care about having this pillar of the crossword community be more equitable in both constructors and content. This can be yet another arena dominated by one group of people or we can do better. If we can’t do better where little money or power is at stake, that would be a discouraging sign.
Yeah, OINOINONE and UNIQUEUSER were big time fails. But if they had somehow worked in MELS as an answer to go along with STOWIT, all would have been forgiven. “Stow it, Alice!”
FFS - GENDER DISPARITY?
How to immediately suck the joy out of a crossword commentary - a blog about an inconsequential diversion hobby. And, as noted above, as a guest columnist (though snarky Rex never misses an opportunity to gripe - part of his charm until he goes into a “how DARE they use ‘plays the TRUMP card.)
Stop the virtue signaling “rants” - its a crossword puzzle!
More women constructors. NOW! - preferably of color and who have transitioned! Because the content of the puzzle is secondary to EQUITY,
Any Dylan or Dolly fan would totally know. Come on.
I love that we have El NINO right next to ALBUMCOVER (To the BUMCOVER en español). And what about El NINO SIMONE? Doesn’t that often occur when La NINASIMONE subsides?
Hello to Mr Lardner? HIRING
I’ve known of a princess, a mistress, a seamstress and a countess, but an ASSESS?
This puzzle showed that there is some upside to non-paper solving (other than saving trees), as each cross reference highlighted it’s other half when the cursor got there. Therefore you couldn’t forget ZEROG was linked to OINOINONE. I enjoyed the whole thing with it’s multiple AHA moments. Congrats on a nice debut, Tina Labadie.
This was an enjoyable Sunday. I did most of it last EVENIN' while watching TV. Given that the entire theme is based on some number of the same letter appearing in an answer, it really breaks down when the answer has three (U) and the cross reference answer is DOUBLE (which has always meant 2 during my 75 years).
Thx, Tina, for the LETTERPLAY challenge; loved it! :)
Med+
Typical Sun. solve for me; slow and methodical, even tho I was pretty much on Tina's wavelength.
Took some time before convincing myself that the DOUBLE U in UNIQUE USER was kosher; used the same rationale as @Eli: both words start with U. The 3rd U is a bonus and didn't really spoil the fun.
Watched 'Remains of the Day' yd, so 'butlers' and MANORS fit right in.
Very enjoyable adventure! :)
Now to tackle the NYT' Sun. 'Puns & Anagrams' by Alex Eaton-Salners
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Jim munson 7:06 AM - I actually used the TWO AM hint for SAM ADAMS.
Ghetto?? This ain’t the 70’s!!!
Yep, like others I gave the side-eye to DOUBLEU but still enjoyed the Sunday ride in spite of the fact that I DNFed due to the fact I had confidently plunked in JACOB (and didn’t even notice the DIY clue) plus had NO idea what OINOINONE meant (I thought the Os might represent zeros…yes, my thought process was screwed up)! In retrospect the zero G is brilliant and I don’t care if it is an “outlier”!
Hah! Eli made an interesting choice for her ALBUMCOVER. What comes to mind to me for art in that vein is Barbra Streisand’s Butterfly album. An oldie but a goodie.
I thought that -spelling aid- for VOODOODOLL was a particularly good clue.
I know, I know…this is SO self-centered but even though the puzzle arguably had a high PPP percentage, since it was in my wheelhouse (except for IBADAN) so check, check, check on fun for ME
Nice debut puzzle for Ms.Labadie. A great gimmick. Well executed, plus it is displayed in an elegant symmetrical manner. Fun to solve with many AHA moments. Who could ask for anything more? Ah yes. Our resident OGRE Rex might. I wonder what he would have said about it. He rareley EXALTS themers. My only nit is STYLET. Not sure the clue is accurate or fair. Besides that it’s a great offering from a NEWER constructor. I rate it four STARs out of five.
I just so so so disagree with the negative sentiments about the PPP. I thought the PPP was one of the assets of this puzzle. When this issue arises on this blog, people often address it in terms of "wheelhouses." I enjoyed the PPP today in part because it leapt deftly from wheelhouse to wheelhouse. Jacob Dylan and Eddie Vetter—prominent pop/rock musicians and recording artists, very 1990s. Sevastopol, Santa Cruz, Idaho, Sidra, Napa, Ibadan, Siam, Arno, Oahu, Old Lyme—a lot for the geography buffs to enjoy. Sam Adam, a widely known brand name with a historical resonance. "I Robot," a well known film with a well known actor based on a well known short story by a well known science fiction writer. Ann Compton, a well known television news reporter. Moe's, an iconic bar in an iconic and very long running TV series that has been a major cultural phenomenon for over 30 years. Evita—iconic musical by iconic composer, breakout stage roll for iconic Broadway star Patti LuPone, and painfully awkward screen roll for Madonna, who is virtually the one-word definition of iconic. Nina Simone—I mean, wow. "Jolene," an iconic song by an iconic singer, songwriter, actress, producer. For the history buffs—Ibn Saud, Santa Anita, Tafts. For the literati—Gregor Samsa. Never heard of Elle King, but had no trouble getting her from crosses. Know nothing about college football, but again, had no trouble getting LOBOS from crosses. If you are going to pour the PPP on thick, this was *definitely* the way to do it.
@Eli:
I did the test too and dove into the pool, although last time was some time ago. Sister is in CA, and I asked her to check with the producers about how one gets called. She said, they said, that if you toddle out to LA, they'll likely put you in the show. She's not in the LA area, quite, so I let it slide; not worth the cost. If they didn't call after 4 times in the pool...
@11:08
"Shaft" is long gone. Today it's "Holmes". At least in all the L&O episodes.
Worser - I focus on the grid from the get-go, so I don't internalize the title or the WS notes. Should learn to not do that.
This was a true Sunday lite puzzle. I largely ignored the theme as I was able to breeze through the fill. It was almost all low hanging and familiar.
The theme is mildly interesting but a little sloppy. Besides from the extra U glitch in 27A the entry SAMADAMS also fits with TRIPLEA as well as its own assigned TWOAM entry. Maybe the visual aspect that @Lewis points out makes this shine a little more, maybe not.
I did feel briefly at a loss for the last letter of IBADAN. This was was due to my TUSK/HUMP write over making IPHONES hard to recognize. Luckily PLAIN cleared that up.
OINOINONE is tantalizingly reminiscent of holeINONE.
yd -4
@RooMonster, I.E. "I'm sure they'll be missed." They will be. Keep the faith.
Thanks for the writeup, Eli - hope we get to see you on Jeopardy. Thanks for pointing out this is a debut. I’m impressed - I thought it was more interesting than most Sundays. Yes, the PPP in the SW was annoying and slowed things considerably, but I actually liked both DOUBLEU and UNIQUE USER. (BTW, I think that combo works because only two of the Us are pronounced “you” as it is in the clue.)
Chasing down the “looky-loo” themers (where’s @Frantic?) took some time, but some of the clues were more imaginative than our usual Sunday offerings. [Not true?] AT AN ANGLE elicited a smile, as did [Spelling aid?] VOODOO DOLL. I did take the time to mark the locations of all the themers and they’re symmetrical!
When I saw ZERO G I wondered how that was going (oin?) to work - just a phrase that happens to be G-less? Very amusing to see the switcheroo.
SA MADAMS - Ladies of Lima?
Had a moment of “coinserendipity” mid-solve, when at 46D I realized I’d had this tune in my head:
Chestnut brown canary
Ruby throated sparrow
Sing a song, don't be long
Thrill me to the MARROW
Thanks for the fun Sunday, Tina. Hope we see you back for a weekday.
I thought this was a nice puzzle, but had the same question about Double U. I get that both words start with U, but there were three U’s in the themer answer. It didn’t slow me down, but was mildly annoying since it created an inconsistency among theme answers.
We all have our blind spots but should try to recognize them - Jolene and Eddie Vedder are not at all obscure music references.
@Lobster 11: thanks for sharing the Miley Cyrus version of Jolene. A worthy cover, but the original is still the best, no shame in that when it's Dolly! The pathos is all in the voice, not the performative-ness of it. Plus the tempo and drive of the original instrumentation has more understated angst - probably not fair to compare a studio version to a live cover. IMO:)
@LMS, so great to have you back - thought of you on a recent trip to NC. Aren't there five G's missing in going, going, gone? Could be clued as a "drop in cell service" 5G gone.
Holy______ CANOLI? TOLEDO? oh TERROR
Nyah, almost all of this excessive PPP was in the pop culture wheelhouse, subcategories are irrelevant then.
Well, I suppose since proper names don’t have to follow any rules, it COULD have been Bakob/Bolene or Wakob/Wolene. But part of a nattick is more than just the metaphysical possibility of multiple letters. It’s also that the underlying answers are not fairly knowable on their own. Neither answer fits that part of the test.
Kevin
My one error was "aDDIE" instead of EDDIE and therefore ELLa instead of ELLE. Had it been EDDIE Van Halen, no problemo. I sure knew SAM ADAMS, the revolutionary and the beer. When I first started visiting Vermont, there were no craft brewers, and it was the only beer I could find worth drinking -- the only American beer, anyway. Of course here in California, we already had Sierra Nevada, plus Anchor Steam, which has existed forever.
Let me point out yet again, AHA and OHO mean very different things. AHA means I found it, or Eureka (another California town) and a good puzzle has lots of AHA moments. OHO means "I found you out". Something you might see when you catch one of those right-wing ministers ogling Playboy (back then) or plain ole porn (in recent times).
My early writeover was putting in MANseS before MANORS. Of course I know, but many do not, that a MANse is generally the humble abode of a Presbyterian minister, and not at all like a MANsion.
I do miss OFL today. His commentary would have been spot-on. Oh, today's was OK, but it was missing that je ne sais quoi that makes me laugh, plus the brilliant links to video clips. I do think Dolly's JOLENE is a brilliant song. Turns out she wrote "I Will Always Love You on the same day. The latter is a real favorite of mine, because she wrote it after breaking up with her long time singing partner Porter Wagoner. Their early songs were amazing, but Dolly wanted to move on, musically, and aren't you all glad she did? She not only sang, she acted in the wonderful Nine to Five movie.
@old timer:
well... Dolly stepped in it with "Shock and Awe". but, I suppose, the Rednecks she caters to likely agreed. and thus started decades of mess.
Not sure what to make of this. I regularly stop by YouTube to see what it has QUEUED up for me. It will often have videos related to my recent online activity. No surprise there but today one of the first videos to pop up was JOLENE! Is that just some far fetched coincidence or is even my online NYTXW solving also being monitored?
The group is La Rosa Negra and here's their acoustic version of JOLENE. Couldn't quiet make it out but it sounds like there's a language shift during the song. From their name you'd think it would be Spanish but I'm not sure.
I understand all of the clues but one. Someone please explain how voodoo relates to spelling aid?
@Anon 2:24
One may use VOODOO to cast a spell.
For Anonymous: the entry is VOODOODOLL and it's an item that is used to as a spell.
The only pleasure I got from this puzzle was the anticipation of Rex blowing a gasket over (pick all that apply):
- Theme involving "hints" to answers that aren't difficult enough to need a hint
- Violation of said theme by "double-U" hinting at an answer with 3 U's
- Scrabble-f@#$ing
- Use of the letter Q in the clue for QUIT
- Generally uninteresting fill
- Yet another supercilious note from the puzzle editor including a quasi-spoiler for the final theme answer
Alas, even this minor joy was denied me (so disrespect to the guest blogger). SIGH
Aha! Thank you
OINOINONE also serves as a tribute and a goodbye to beloved Dodgers announcer Vin Scully, who passed this week
Liked theme so much and it was so fast that I didn’t care if the rest were Sunday MEH ….(long and dulll)
So good one, and good write-up.
🤗🦖🦖🦖1/2🦖🤗
@Anoa Bob 2:20 – re La Rosa Negra Band, she's singing in English the whole time but occasionally her pronunciation sounds off, or she accents an odd syllable. Apparently they are from Madrid and their repertory is country and Americana. They have Facebook and Instagram accounts.
@oldtimer 1:33
Hand up for thinking manse, but not putting it in for the very Presbyterian reason you mentioned!
Thanks @Tom T and Anon for the update on 5-0. Hubby also confirmed that his midwestern dad used that term regularly. Who knew? Live and learn. I still doubt that I'll ever use it. Also probably never to be heard from my lips: The Popo. Which is what his wife apparently said.
There’s a reason that you’ve never seen Tina Labadie in the NYT before…rumor has it that this is a pseudonym for a prolific (male) constructor. Sorry to disappoint you, Eli!
Bob Dylan’s wife Sara was a crossword puzzle fanatic and chose the name JAKOB with a K for their second son with the hope that the unique spelling would make him a popular crossword answer.
Eli, like Rex, feels the need to nitpick to the nth degree every themed answer. I find it tedious and unkind. But I guess if you’re a constructor laboring to do the best you can, you should expect to be ripped. This blog rarely disappoints. I’m surprised that Lewis with his refreshingly and relentlessly positive comments is on this blog.
@Joe D., I agree. I went back and listened two more times and decided it was English all the way. I still couldn't figure out some of the lyrics, though.
@Roy Who is this “prolific (male) constructor” that you speak of?
Love this!
Yeah, thanks, I actually hadn't got it yet:)
Spot on, Eli. Good job, I agree. The women's a witch. Easy peasy but for mismatches and I was to too stupid or naive to get going, going, gone.
Quite right. As is often the case, recognized the joke immediately after hitting “Publish.” Ah well.
I read this blog quite a bit but I’ve yet to figure out what PPP stands for. Would someone be kind enough to clue me in?
FYI: One of my fastest Sundays ever, though I did resort to Google at the end for the natick-heavy SW corner: ELLE, LOBOS, and IBIDAN.
David C. Duncan Dekker wrote this puzzle.
4 previous puzzles is hardly “prolific”
Five O is the code cops use to refer to police over the radio no matter what state they’re in. It was a totally fair clue. LOBOS crossing IBADAN, however, is worthy of picking a NIT.
I will just add that gangstas also use "The Five-Oh" to refer to the popo, the cops. At least in Oakland, CA.
"Five-O" as slang for police is still pretty common/widespread I think, even without the Hawaii show being a major part of pop culture.
https://youtu.be/eXKE0nAMmg4
https://youtu.be/eXKE0nAMmg4
Hello Crossword World!
Yesterday's Sunday Crossword titled "Letterplay" was constructed by me... I did not sanction Willy to go forward with that crossword I, David C. Duncan Dekker, submitted. Tina is no one's business & I was just submitting crosswords to see whether or not Willy would except them based on him be the "Sanctioner" of what makes the cut.
Well, he took that crossword without knowing it was me, Tina or if Tina was even real OR if T. Lab. was a pseudonym that he guessed was pinpointed to London, Ontario. Or if Tina's real name was Chris Tina?!?
Anywho, you have now been duped because William F. Shortz let you in on claiming MY puzzle, NOT his NOR the NY Times NOR his colleagues!
This is the gist of the MY tale:
I submitted 3 puzzles about 5-6 months ago to keep track of his acceptance rates... The first 2 were denied & the 3rd (LETTERPLAY) was accepted. My title is "II the Letter"... He changed the title & half my clues... Classic Classy Control!
After the "Yes" acceptance E-mail, the NY Times Crossword Editorial Team got to claiming it was their'$. I never responded back, I wanted to see whether or not they'd continue to try & truly publish it without anyone's consent (mine NOR Tina's) OR I was actually hoping for, at the last moment, that they would make the sensible decision to substitute MY puzzle with something in their NY archives, as opposed to making a claim without no follow-up correspondence.
Speaking of follow-up correspondence, I have yet to click on the E-mail that requires a contract, signature & whatever other info they pry for.
I want the crossword community to agree that Willy should resign for being too many years too deep in controversy!
RIP Merl
I apologize that things have ended up this way, yet I feel I've uncovered something.
I'm not the trickster... He is!
Dekker
How did you find out that was David C. Duncan Dekker's work?
Laura
I just read on the Times Crossword blog that this puzzle wasn't constructed by Tina Labadie but by David Duncan Dekker. It was a misprint. So much for a debut female constructor.
Ok... Will F. Shortz stole that puzzle, so you know.
See Jim Horne on xwordinfo.com
Not a misprint. A deliberate deception by the constructor.
there is no way they would publish without the contract signed.
I hope NYT team puts out a statement but doubtful
I'm no lawyer, but the language in the NYT crossword submission form online seems crystal clear that by submitting, you agree to their Reader Submission Terms, which in turn seem to give the NYT the right to do pretty much anything they want with the content: https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004901454-Reader-submission-terms
It would appear that some xword obsessives convinced that their product is unimprovable need to diversify their hobbies.
Dekker: You sound unstable, and therefore are an unreliable narrator. Good luck to you, but I'm guessing your story is malarkey ... pure applesauce.
To those who say "more diverse creators leads to more interesting puzzles": so you do agree the goal is to have good (e.g. interesting) puzzles, right? It means you (and the publishers) should still judge a puzzle by the puzzle itself, and not by the identity of its creator. And if you're right (about more diverse creators leading to more interesting puzzles) then statistically you'll see that the more interesting puzzles come from "more diverse creators". But note that that logic does not justify creator diversity as a goal! It's only something that – in case your assumption is correct – happens to be statistically correlated.
Nice themr.
Exactly what our guest blogger said--except for the easy part. I naturally wrote the mammoth's tUsk, which played hell with the S and SW for too long.
Inconsistent theme, some way out fill, not full of joy, sorry to say. Give it a bogey, and that's a bit of a kindness for a first-timer.
YBYYB
BBYGG
GGGGG
BEATS ALLTHAT
It WAS TIME to meet ANN
in the JACUZZI, it WAS ANNUAL,
to GET RELIEF by hand,
her FORM WAS SOCIAL but MANUAL.
--- JAKOB BLANC
Had at least half of the theme answers in before seeing the 'hint'. Anticlimactical.
BBBYB
YYYBG
GGGGG
@Austin’sMom — going, going, gone seems to be generally associated with the Yankees’ Mel Allen, or, even earlier (from 1929), with the Reds’ Harry Hartman. Vin Scully may have used it occasionally, but, not as a catchphrase.
Thanks for all the information
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