THEME: "HERE'S THE KICKER..." (51A: Lead-in to a surprising twist ... or a hint to 16-, 22-=, 32- and 45-Across) — themers are all "kickers" in one way or another:
Theme answers:
FOOTBALL PLAYER (16A: Buffalo Bill, e.g.)
ROCKETTE (22A: Radio City Music Hall performer)
UNBORN BABY (32A: Bun in the oven, so to speak)
KANGAROO (45A: Marsupial stylized in the Qantas logo)
Word of the Day: Jason MRAZ (25A: Jason who sang "I'm Yours") —
The album's lead single "I'm Yours", reached the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, while spending a then-record 76 weeks on the Hot 100, and was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).[6] His fourth album, Love Is a Four Letter Word (2012), peaked at number two on the Billboard 200, becoming his highest-charting album to date, and spawned the single "I Won't Give Up", which became his second top ten on the Hot 100. (wikipedia)
• • •
Short write-up today because somehow I'm writing this at night instead of my usual 4:30am and I really have no business being up this late but I couldn't sleep so ... here I am. This felt long / slow, which is very Very weird considering that it's undersized (14x15). Just couldn't get on the right wavelength. There were names that I blanked on (OCKHAM) or forgot existed (MRAZ), and then a whole lot of awkward / dated fill (RUER, LEK, ECOCAR, etc.). I have never believed in ECOCARs, and I believe in them even less now that electric cars are so common. I'd (much) sooner accept E-CAR than ECOCAR. I'm looking at the grid and seeing AIS and I can't even imagine what its clue was. [... checking...] Oh. Artificial Intelligenceseses? (47D: The Terminator and HAL 9000, for two). Hmm. I think there's a reason constructors haven't tried to make that happen. It just looks / feels bad. It's an OK thing (and a movie title!) in the singular, but in the plural, woof, don't like it. Then there's just a heap of ye olde stuff, your ATATs and NONOs and TSARs and what not. IN THE ZONE and UP IN ARMS give the grid some much-needed life, but the short stuff is really far too bumpy. As for the theme ... it doesn't quite work for me. The revealer has potential, but somehow the execution feels uneven, haphazard. A FOOTBALL PLAYERmight be a "kicker"—that is a position that exists, true—but a ROCKETTE is definitely, always a "kicker." I think of KANGAROOs more as hoppers than kickers. Mules kick. I'm sure KANGAROOs do kick, but, I dunno, kicking's not really a paradigmatic Kangactivity in my mind. And sure, babies do kick in the womb from time to time, so that's fine, but the very phrase UNBORN BABY ... you know, I think maybe all the disingenuously sentimental anti-abortion / forced-birth rhetoric around the "unborn" has just SOURED me on this phrase. It's a perfectly fine phrase. It just hit me wrong, for some reason. I honestly could not come up with UNBORN BABY without a bunch of crosses. The creepy pregnancy euphemism in the clue ("Bun in the oven") was not helping. I just did not share this puzzle's idea of fun.
Jason MRAZ is a name that maybe ten years ago seemed cool to put in grids, but now it seems like an old person's idea of "fresh fill." He had two Top Ten hits a decade+ ago. I guess we're probably going to be seeing him for decades whether he remains culturally relevant or not. That's quite a letter sequence he's got there. But today he added to the overall stale feel of the short stuff. It's an interestingly symphonic puzzle, with both an OBOE and CELLOS making their presence felt. Was very happy that the plural was not CELLI today, but definitely hesitated there, thinking of how the puzzle loves CELLI and maybe this is actually some *other* instrument (it wasn't) (7D: Instruments played pizzicato in Britten's "Simple Symphony"). I wanted JAPES but then pulled it when I couldn't think of an airport code starting with "J" (truly my lowest low) (35D: Airport once called Idlewild, for short). Clue for FBI didn't help me at all (38A: Part of the D.O.J.). So I was ultimately rescued in that tiny section by ... well, more crosswordese (ABA). Thought NO SHOT was NOT HOT for a bit (40D: A 0% chance, colloquially). So yeah, this one just never clicked with me. Maybe night-solving just doesn't agree with me any more. Or maybe the puzzle really is just so-so. You'll decide for yourself, as usual. See you tomorrow.
Rex – “I really have no business being up this late but I couldn't sleep so ... here I am.” I feel ya, man. Welcome to my world.
I had FOOTBALL PLAYER and UNBORN BABY and was mystified. Counted the letters in ROCKETTE and dismissed it as a themer. I love being mystified. Love it. Couldn’t for the life of me see any connection. When I finally relented and looked to the reveal, I was like Ok Adam – you got me. Hah! Good one!
Rex – I felt weird with UNBORN BABY, too, but I’m not sure it’s ‘cause of all the anti-abortion stuff going on. Maybe. Somehow calling it anything other than a “baby” makes me feel uncomfortable. Fetus isn’t any better. I guess when you’re the recipient of all the kicks, you just say My baby’s kicking. Not My UNBORN BABY’s kicking. I hear a a woman say that, and I’m double-checking to make sure she’s not some kind of lunatic. I have to say that I infinitely prefer referring to it as “baby” and not the name it’s already been given. Asking how little Madison is doing when she’s still in utero makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. But I’m a Capricorn. I once went to a baby shower that culminated in each of us having to approach the soon-to-be mom positioned in the middle of our circle and address her stomach by name (Owen), saying something welcoming to him. I may have had more awkward moments in my life, but that one ranks way up there. I’m uptight and I own it.
I laughed when I saw the BABY/FAT cross:
Me: I can’t get into any of my clothes ‘cause I haven’t lost my BABY FAT yet. Them:Aww. How old is your baby? Me:Four. Years.
Hey RUER. TSAR called and wants his ELL back.
Adam – sly little tertiary theme material with the clue “give the boot.” Nice.
3D’s clue could have been, “Words shouted before a trip to the emergency room.”
LEK – this is also a verb or noun describing the rituals some male animals perform to attract a mate. I watch it all the time in class. (I think I learned this word here.) Studied up on it and casually dropped it into a conversation with my then vet-school daughter in my never-ending quest for her to think I’m smart. I think I said something about all the lekking Mom and I see at the bird feeder. She had no idea what I was talking about and had never heard the word. Sigh.
Wonder why his name is William of OCKHAM, but his theory is spelled Occam’s Razor. I guess the simplest explanation is that someone just misspelled it, and it stuck.
“Put in the overhead bin, say” – STOW. Actually it’s not that simple. First you have to stop every couple of rows, study the numbers, study your boarding pass. Rinse and repeat five times. Then stop. Careful final consideration of boarding pass. Put carry-on-that-shouldn’t-be-a-carry-on down so that you can rifle through it for God knows what. Shove it into overhead and then take it back out for your neck pillow. I’m pretty sure I was behind you at a salad bar last month.
I got a kick out of the theme! Didn't see it coming, then: ohh! Kickers.
Fun fact: the newsletter for the region of our family cabin is the North Shuswap Kicker. I'm not sure why it has that name.
Re LEK... 12 years ago my best friend, out of the blue, decided to take a leave of her comfortable teaching job in Canada and move to... wait for it... Albania. I read up on that country, and panicked, cuz it wasn't pretty. I read a scary book, and read about the Canon of LEK (particularly the section on blood feuds). I tried unsuccessfully to dissuade her. She went anyway, taught for 2 years and did fine; had a blast, met great people, traveled etc. I'm such a worrier.
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0; last word this 7er. QB 6/7 days.]
Theme was a little meh. Fill also meh. But if we’re going to draw the line at Jason Mraz there are a lot of names tha will never be in this puzzle. Which might be ok. Maybe it’s two-hit wonders week since yesterday we had one of the Sugarhill Gang’s two hits from 40 years ago.
Watching LEKking manikins is one of life's great joys.
Rex's "I just did not share this puzzle's idea of fun" sums it up for me.
In other news, competed in a crossword competition of a sort for the first time yesterday, in our regional Senior Olympics. Took gold in my age range (which I will not specify), I think by prioritizing accuracy over speed. Worst Natick was PAI (town in northern Thailand) crossing SPLINE (device for drawing curves).
Adam’s a wordplayer, a lover of punnery with a twinkle in his eye. Remember his last puzzle, just under a month ago, a Thursday rebus with the revealer INBOX ZERO, and the rebus squares were NONE, NIL, AUGHT, and ZIP? And today, not only wordplay in the theme, but also in the cluing, see DELI, ORE, CUSS, and especially [Straight poker?] for TINE.
Wordplay wins me over every time. Throw in SORKIN and ARETHA, who do as well, and once again crosswords have brightened my day.
I liked the quintuple schwa-train: HORA / BAMA / ARETHA / ERA / FORMA. And the OR sextuplet: HORA / OAR / UNBORN / STORY / SORKIN / ORE. Plus, I liked having a theme where I had a shot at figuring out the reveal before uncovering it, a skill I’m weak at – and I happily did get as far as knowing it had to do with kicking.
This grid is narrower than usual yet it filled me with a wide inner grin, Adam. Thank you for making this!
Agree with Rex that the puzzle is just so-so and just not fun. LEK and all other obscure foreign currencies? Blech. I might remember the word now because of LMS's info about it. Or maybe not. Because...Albania. ECOCAR? And I guess this is on me: "Occam" I know. OCKHAM I've never heard of. Added a whole lot of time to my solve trying to work that out.
Also, I was 32D about 32A. Well, not that bent out of shape, but...no. Just no. At this point in our history, just don't go there.
Some of the PPP is defensible such as SHANE (even though it is from 1953), SORKIN and AVEENO, which all get a pass I suppose.
The rest of it is interwoven with a little too much that borders on fringe/trivia/obscure/nonsense for my tastes - ECOCAR, OCKHAM, MRAZ, LEK, . . . AIS, as well as some pretty groan-worthy cluing such as “Straight poker?” for TINE and “UN-gerrymandered” for REDREW - is it impossible to redraw and gerrymander a voting district simultaneously? I don’t know why the NYT so consistently accommodates this type of approach - many other quality Xword publishers (LAT, for one) seem to steer clear of this type of stuff with ease.
Who knew there was so much kicking going on? Lovely puzzle even with a fussy southwest, or maybe because of it.
I kind of hate it when people refer to Cleopatra as Cleo. Don't know why I want to defend her. Maybe I worked for her 30 reincarnations ago.
I don't think I've ever heard the word JAPES before. Maybe in a crossword but never in real life. I don't think I like it either, but nobody's asking my opinion so I'll stew over it.
I'm planning on reading the cellos vs celli discussion again today. And the first to say cellipodes will win a prize.
The idea behind the theme is really good, it's execution is in order of excellence:
1 KANGAROO - along with koalas, they're the best, but yeah, what @OFL said, they hop. I just like the word.
2 ROCKETTE - who's going to argue with long synchronized legs?
3 FOOTBALL PLAYER - Ug.
4 UNBORN BABY - ew, use something else!
Uniclues:
1 As a kid, she was known as spaghetti legs McGee. 2 Dude exaggerating his Australian Uber ride adventure. 3 When you say ___ aloud into your phone's voice-to-text converter, you get "Harry's salad." 4 Cirque du Soleil performer sends photos home. 5 It's why they are. That's why they're called that.
1 RAMEN ROCKETTE 2 KANGAROO DROVE 3 ARIES SOURED 4 LOOK MA, UP IN ARMS! 5 GREAT, IN THE ZONE (~)
I did not get a KICK out of this one - and I typically like this constructor. Goofy grid that restricts the fun - there’s just not much here. Liked UP IN ARMS and IN THE ZONE. My wife likes MRAZ’s syrupy love songs - I like the letter string.
Lots of unfortunate 3s and 4s - AIS, RUER etc drag this one down. JAPES is crossword only.
I couldn't tell where all those themers were going either, and the revealer was in the right place, so all's right with the world.
Agree with OFL on ECOCAR. I have yet to see this in the wild, or even in advertisements.
"Running by the pool" is a perfect clue for NONO, is we just spent most of the summer pointing that out to a certain four year old, who could not contain her excitement when getting to the big slide again. Couldn't really blame her though.
Mr. MRAZ? OK.
I really thought Hamlet mentioned something about Yorick's JAPES, which is how I thought I knew that word, so I looked it up and I was thinking of "gibes", I suppose. At least they're in the same family. Another example of being quite certain of something I've misremembered.
Fine Tuesday, AW. Another Winner, if you ask me, and thanks for all the fun.
Wondering why there’s a Sue Grafton cover in today’s write-up? Looked for connection but no luck. But, a pleasant surprise as I was one who mourned when Ms. Grafton passed before the Z book was published. Just curious.
Birdie! Good* in comparison to Wordlebot’s report that average solve today is 4.1. *Once again the top onelook.com “most common” word for row 3 guess was correct. That’s now 5 for 6 since l began this count.
as I recall from my derelict youth, projectiles from a pellet gun were "pellets, whereas, BBs were projectiles from a BB gun--they were different types of ammo--anyone else?
This is a good Tuesday. Easy enough, but some fun, clever clues (like time) and a vocab expander. My only quibble is that I share an Rex's aversion to that once lovely phrase "unborn baby" which is now the mantra of forced birthers.
An actual sit back and think Tuesday. Enjoyable being in the ZONE and maybe taking a second or two and wonder how to correctly spell MRAZ. LOOK MA it's a ROCKETTE staring up at the FOOTBALL PLAYER and wondering what relation they might enjoy. Instead of a pondering taking up too much of my time, I decided to reminisce about New York City and watching a Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall. ROCKETTEs dressed up as candy canes; everyone actually happy....and there was SNOW outside gently falling.... I left my dreaming and ventured on...coming to a halt at UNBORN BABY. I still didn't know what door to pick. I went from pleasant memories to maybe not so sure. But then I saw ROO playing with ARETHA...I see an OCKHAM sans a razor...a DELI filled with yummilicious LOX from Mr. Smith and felt that maybe the reveal would be a GREAT surprise. HERES THE KICKER actually brought on a smile. Clever....DOI like it? Yes, IDO.
Great start up north, moved smoothly down and ended at AT-AT (an unknown for me).
LGA before JFK.
Saw the ROCKETTEs back in '68 before heading off to Europe.
Will be re-watching SHANE today.
Thot 'DROVE' sounded off for 'Piloted'; after-solve, connected it with 'spearheaded', so all was good.
Fun adventure; liked it a lot! :)
@jae
Over 4 hrs in on Croce's 742; just the SW to suss out. 🤞 The NW was a real bear, even tho the 'oxide' was a semi-gimme (save the last letter). ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
LOOKMA CLEO and Will OCKHAM (with whatever spelling) dancing the HORA UP IN (each other's) ARMS and all TOYS TORY ruling the UK were pretty pretty. The queenly death and the JAPEy new PM with the vacant smile of the posssesssed. Give me the DELI SECT instead.
The clues for FBI and TINE were good too.
UNBORNBABY was a kick in the pants. Good thene. Simple tight and clever.
MRAZ can go TATA in his ATAT. At least I can hope I won't like him.
How to overclue: 39D : “Respect” singer Franklin. *“Respect” singer* OR *Singer Franklin* would have worked just fine. This is Mondaying a Tuesday puzzle. I didn’t like LEK.
Hey All ! My cousin, the KANGAROO, made an appearance. I'm named after the ROOSTER, hence RooMonster. In case you cared. (Doubtful...)
Did see the 14 wide grid. Sparks of brain activity. Almost had to be, as there are two 14 Themers, plus the middle one which has an even-numbered count. Easier to go 14 wide, than look for another Themer, and have a convoluted grid.
I gave up trying to LEK for women. They either like you, or not. No amount of show-off-ness will change that. Just sayin'.
In defense of KANGAROOs, they do have as a defense a kick. They balance on their tails, and boot away. I hear it's quite a powerful kick.
Couple of MAs for @M&A, LOOKMA, FORMA. There's a BAMA, too.
Agree BBS are for BB guns, pellets are for pellet guns.
This puzzle Tuezzed just fine and not much to say.
For those that don’t associate KANGAROOs with kicking think again. Pulled this little tidbit off the interweb: Kangaroos have muscular hind legs that can exert a kick force of about 759 pounds
Yikes!
Had to laugh at @Rex’s comment about how some old folks might think Jason MRAZ might be fresh fill. I’m old for sure and I am familiar with him but hadn’t really given much thought to whether it’s fresh, stale, or obscure. If any of the older folks amongst us watched the Emmys last night and previously thought Lizzo was obscure (who has been in at least one NYT PUZZLE) I guess they might have changed their minds.
IN THE ZONE for this harmlessly cute Tuesday. Rex is right, @LMS is in fine form, @Lewis mirrors my solve and the AQI is under 200 to make Idaho air almost breathable again: Life is Good (as my tee tells it).
I liked the KICKER theme and thought the Buffalo Bill clue was absolutely brilliant. SIN before BAN. No idea on AIS or JAPES. MRAZ and OCKHAM seemed pretty tough for a Tuesday.
Completely stumped by 29D. Why on earth would you clue BBs as projectiles from a pellet gun? They’re not the same thing.
TOY STORY made me wonder if there’s ever been a Pixar film that didn’t launch a franchise.
I think Rex captured well the slight feeling of clunkiness I got from this puzzle. RUER, UNBORN BABY (I'm trying to think of a plausible scenario where I would actually use that phrase), AIS. Even DO I doesn't quite land for me, as the phrase DO I? would most naturally come after the question "DO you want some ice cream?" -- remove "do" from the question, and it sounds like you're answering a question that wasn't quite asked. I think the clue needs some workshopping.
JAPES reminds of Portnoy's Complaint, with the protagonist's frequent imaginings of what life must be like behind the goyische curtains, Gentile children having good wholesome fun, like piling into jalopies and getting into "jams", saying "Jeepers" and pulling JAPES.
Must be that I never looked closely at the Qantas logo. I remember Qantas using a different marsupial in their advertising: remember this?
I did the NONO as a teen and ran on a pool deck and found out why you don’t do that (one reason). If one foot misses the deck and ends up in the pool, you fall into the pool, your body scraping the concrete edge as you go down into the water. Bathing suit ripped and a bit of blood in the water, but it could’ve been much worse.
Adam is a brilliant puzzle constructor who helps push what puzzles can do to exciting conclusions. He's one of those constructors who is in the select category of people doing really cool work.
This was a bad puzzle by Adam's standards. Too much crossword glue and it comes off as unfinished. I suspect he knows it wasn't great and it's evidence that the NYT games group tends to glaze their eyes when they see certain names on bylines (cough...Haight...Chen...cough).
It doesn't matter though that this puzzle wasn't great, but rather that it took the spot from someone who is new to constructing whose life may have been changed by the byline. The NYT gets more submissions than ever. The NYT Games subscription is bringing in a crazy amount of money for that paper. They should stop wasting the space on puzzles from people who just simply didn't do a good job.
The reveal really did work as a KICKER for me, and I enjoyed the laugh. Lots of fun otherwise, too, with the punny clues. I agree with @Rex about the slight weirdness of UNBORN BABY, but I did like the cross with post-delivery UP IN ARMS.
Help from previous puzzles: MRAZ. No help from previous puzzles: LEK - there's something about LEKS and leus that resist retention.
@Loren, thank you for that video. Hysterical.
@Lewis, my thought at seeing the constructor's name was, "Adam Wagner? I think I like him." Thank you for reminding me why. Creativity and wit for a really good Tuesday.
Medium-tough. I got bogged down in the middle, plus Soap before SHOT. The theme seemed a tad arbitrary...e.g. football teams only have two kickers at most. (FWIW the recently drafted punter for the Bills was just released in the wake of a gang-rape lawsuit). I liked the reveal and the long downs but add me to the “a bit meh” group.
A very cute theme with a lot of variety, a lot of density, and a perfect revealer. And I also like the sly, misleading way that FOOTBALL PLAYER was clued. Though I would venture to say that only two players out of 22 on a football team ever kick the ball. And I'm sure that someone else has said it by now. I'm late to the blog this morning.
ATAT is the oddest name for a combat vehicle I've ever heard, but I just checked and it's right. Everything else, even the names I've never heard of, went in smoothly thanks to the crosses. But I thought this had more resistance than most Tuesdays, plenty of imagination, and I liked it a lot.
Headline from this morning's NYT online edition: Fatal Kangaroo Attack Is Said to Be First in Australia in 86 Years
The victim's wounds included a broken jaw and other head injuries. And, in April, a woman in Queensland was kicked to the ground [by a kangaroo]and stomped on while she was playing golf.
TTrimble, The phrase unborn baby is used all the time to help underscore the horror of abortion. LMS is of course correct, the person in the womb is a baby. No need to modify it. But because there is a grave need to protect it, the phrase unborn baby is sadly quite necessary.
Gunner, Not in this country.
J. Shipley. The fact there is no Grafton title with a Z is one of life's great sadnesses. in the immediate wake of her death, her family recognized that fact and said that for them, the alphabet will always end at Y.
Learned Jason MRAZ from eldest granddaughter years ago, and have managed to remember him ever since.
@TTrimble (10:06 AM)
Koala was my first thot, but got KICKEd out by the KANGAROO. Thx for the un'bear'able vid. :)
@jae
Got it! maybe the most satisfying Croce yet (4 1/4 hrs of joyful labor). See you next Mon. :) ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Had a nice text chat with my 34 year old BORNBABY just now from my campsite in Tofino (hi@ Okanoganer). It’s a very isolated surfing-oriented enclave on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island.
NONO right next to NOSHOT? I guess NO’S HOT.
I think 48D DOI is a close relative of Homer’s “D’oh”.
Does a Spanish Jewish wedding have una HORA HORA?
Off to kayak. Thanks for a nice Tuesday, Adam Wagner.
I took Latin in JHS/HS, and was told that it's always a Hard-C. But how do we know?? It's a dead language for 2,000 years. Except for the Guy With The Beanie.
There are countless blooper reels out there (YouTube, I'm sure) with some idiot attempting to box a 'roo, and getting kicked into the middle of next week for his trouble.
I LEK-ed it ok, AISuppose. Got a few kicks out of it, here and there. Did have some sorta no-knows: MRAZ. OCKHAM. LEK. AVEENO. Maybe AIS and ATAT, but they kinda came to me in a weird mandavision episode.
staff weeject pick: AIS. Primo, desperate answer/clue pairin. Must remember to STOW that away, for future runtpuz usage. some fave fillins and such: FOOTBALLPLAYER/INTHEZONE. [Go Vikes.] LOOKMA. [Now awaitin LEKMA.] SORKIN. CUSS clue. [Calls out to M&A for a future CUSSword puz.] DEFORM & FORMA. BAE/BABY.
@Muse darlin & @RP: M&A had sleep-trouble after gettin up at 4:30am to lose some used pinot grigio. Laid there with future xword themes clankin around in my brainpan for a coupla hours. Next thing I knew, I woke up and it was 9:30am. Had to limit self to one xword solvequest, this mornin, to get back on "schedule". Sooo … that was the kicker, so to speak.
My Aussie cousins sent us a stuffed Kangaroo with a Joey in her pouch just yesterday. It came from the Sydney Topanga Zoo. I had sent them a bunch of Atlanta Braves merchandise a few months back. My cousin loves the Braves, he watches all the games from his home in the Outback. The Australians love American baseball hats too. The whole family of my other cousin, is always wearing Yankee hats. He says they are so comfortable. G'day and I like when I get a smile or happy memory from a word. UNBORN BABY also made me cringe. Good old Lindsey now calling for a National Abortion Ban. I wrote late yesterday that the blank wordl posts do indeed contain hints. We can tell if it is a word with a lot of possible rhyming words like Crone, prone, drone , when all 4 squares are filled but first letter isnt.You wouldn't guess TIBIA when you see that kind of pattern. A totally blank first word can tell you there aren't any common vowels. I've posted my wordl before, but won't anymore and I think we need to not do it. A lot of people have asked. You cab say I got it in 3 today but we don't want to see your grid.
At first the puzzle was fun, but it got tedious. They shouldn't allow TV stations, ugh! Who cares what station shows Succession whatever that is. Yesterday's puzzle was more fun.
Well, either Mr Wagner is prescient, or he & Will rushed this one through, but the most recent Death by Kangaroo occurred yesterday down-under, making this the most timely of all tribute puzzles.
RE: Lek In fify years of birding and thirty-secn of hunting I've never heard lek used in reference to woodcocks. Google produces some results but I remain skeptical. Lek is to my knowledge an area on the ground where birds display to attract mates. Woodcock displays occur exclusively in the air. In North America anyway, sage grouse and prairie chickens are famed for leks. Timberdoodles? Nah. Fun fact, the fantastic noise you hear in a woodcock's descent isn't a vocalization but the result of air passing through their feathers. Do yourself a favor, and late Winter, or very early next Spring, find a patch of open woods with small successional growth even a soggy field surrounded by a wet wood and at sunset wait for the woodcock. You'll fall in love with the timberdoodle. Guaranteed.
I must disagree with just one point in your write up, Rex. The phrase “unborn baby” is not “perfectly fine” because it’s not an actual BABY until it’s born. Prior to that, it’s an embryo and then a fetus. The use of the term “unborn baby” is entirely in a creation of the anti-choice/anti-abortion movement. It belongs NOWHERE in a NYT xword, or anywhere else for that matter.
well, we knew from the outset that rex would be displeased with UNBORNBABY, so that was pretty predictable.
I liked the puz, enjoyed the theme, just wasn't a fan of LEK (a bit esoteric for a Tuesday) and RUER, which just felt forced. Otherwise, this was a fair bit under my usual time.
Not sure why my last few posts haven't appeared, unless I've been banned? Which is entirely possible. Interested to see if this makes it to the blog
@Gio: OMG!!! That psycho tyrant wants a national ban now?? I had not heard. All I can say is he just galvanized a whole bunch more voters to show up in November. I agree with you 100% about the Wordle posts. Even without any discussion, it still gives an indication of what to expect. And sometimes it’s so obvious you can’t help but see it when you’re scrolling by.
@Gio. Ok, you can sometimes spot patterns but you never know the letters so I can't see it helping. A solver still has to dig through it. And it's pretty well acknowledged that Chance is often in the mix.
Mods, Why are the only posts you allow on one side of the unborn baby question? I posted something in defense of the term, but it was spiked. Perhaps that decision was made in error. Or perhaps upon reflection, you'll reconsider and take your thumb off the scales. Anon 1:35's post is meritless. We all know what an unborn child is. It's baby. This is not controversial. Or political. And the he proof is in every day language and actions. We ask to pat baby bumps, buy gifts for baby showers, show our babies' sonograms. I understand that some people--apparently you-- like abortion. But surely any reasonable position can withstand scrutiny and debate.
Fairly easy puzzle, though I'd never heard of JAPES or OCKHAM. MRAZ was easy for me. His name is unusual and memorable. One album was called Mr. A to Z.
In Latin Caesar is pronounced like Kaisar in English. I entered CZAR first which seemed logical given the clue.
Ok, but what are the letters that are rhyming or commonly side-by-side? Use your head. I don’t even post my Wordles here, but these complaints are ridiculous.
@Anon 1:35 Good thing we're here to augment your knowledge. Here's some video of the lek based portion of the woodcock's mating display. It reminds me of my own as a teen, i.e. pathetic and not likely to generate any real action, but it's there nonetheless.
I first heard of LEK years ago in an Ethology class. The species that was used as an example was some kind of deer, maybe an elk. The males would compete in an arena of sorts and the females would each have a station on the periphery of the arena and the males who did the best in the competitions would be more likely to be well received by the females. Darwin thought this kind of what he called sexual selection could be found in many species.
The human in her belly sounds off too. Word games.
I considered MRAZ as body builder Mister Arizona.
Be fruitful and multiply is perhaps no longer the best survival advice. You could even argue it cheapens human life.
On the other hand it might be the best way to ensure family survival in "third-world countries". Is there a less or more condescending phrase available?
I got a hint from someone's Wordle chart once or twice. One was because they had mentioned their favorite starting word previously and another time one it was someone who had mentioned they use a word from the previous days NYTXW. I happened to remember what word it was likely to be.
Both times I played it straight cause who cares.
But I do enjoy trying to guess other folks guesses when I have already done the puzzle.
Today's puzzle weakens @Gio's argument a bit because blanks on the first word and 2 common vowels, but not the most common consonants.
If you are really upset about hints that are you can't keep your eyes off of do the damn wordle first. Or ask Rex to rule and tell him to follow his own rules.
Note to mods: I am going to post this later than 1130pm so the chance of a spoiler is near 0. Wordle 451 3/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟦🟧🟦⬛⬛ 🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧
The interesting thing here is despite the zip on the first word and after the second word there was only one word left. Just a matter of finding it. Negative info baby.
Having insufficient Star Wars knowledge, I thought 40-Down was NOSHOw crossing AwAT, so I Naticked on that. (BTW, 44-Down could just as easily describe "Gerrymandered" as "Un-gerrymandered.")
I read Rex’s review and I feel the same as he does. A bit tough for a Tuesday mostly because of the NW corner and the names OCKHAM and MRAZ. Took me quite a while to figure out INTHEZONE. ECOCAR sounds off - an electric car that runs on power derived from coal-fired generators is not any better for the environment as a gas powered car. Aside from all that, there’s nothing really bad about this puzzle, but there’s nothing really GREAT about it either.
I had the same reaction as @loren above. Wait, these are theme entries; the revealer clue lists them. What in...? And then, even working the south from left to right and getting HERESTHE___, I still was wondering. A moment--aha for sure--later I had it. Then I felt dumb.
It's a good grid, flows well. I didn't have any trouble filling it in, so a straight "easy" there. Good job with a nicely hidden theme. Birdie.
BBGYY YBGYB GGGGG
Another bird; 3 of them + an eagle in the last nine. Heating up.
@Anonymous 11:36am: I was an altar boy back when the mass was still in Latin, and also studied it in high school. In church Latin the c is soft, but in classical Latin the c is hard. Back in the day, Latin was the universal language of Europe. You might only speak your native tongue, but if you were educated, you studied Latin.
Wow, disagree strongly with the Jason Mraz sentiment. I'm probably one of the eldest millennials (depending on where you draw the line, born 1984) and Mraz is right in my wheelhouse. The heaps of semi-known people from before and after my time I have to deal with in average xwords feels ridiculous so often that I am very happy to see him.
(Maybe I'm biased because I do very much like much of his music and have seen him in concert. 😂 But, any others around my age group with me?)
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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87 comments:
Rex – “I really have no business being up this late but I couldn't sleep so ... here I am.” I feel ya, man. Welcome to my world.
I had FOOTBALL PLAYER and UNBORN BABY and was mystified. Counted the letters in ROCKETTE and dismissed it as a themer. I love being mystified. Love it. Couldn’t for the life of me see any connection. When I finally relented and looked to the reveal, I was like Ok Adam – you got me. Hah! Good one!
Rex – I felt weird with UNBORN BABY, too, but I’m not sure it’s ‘cause of all the anti-abortion stuff going on. Maybe. Somehow calling it anything other than a “baby” makes me feel uncomfortable. Fetus isn’t any better. I guess when you’re the recipient of all the kicks, you just say My baby’s kicking. Not My UNBORN BABY’s kicking. I hear a a woman say that, and I’m double-checking to make sure she’s not some kind of lunatic. I have to say that I infinitely prefer referring to it as “baby” and not the name it’s already been given. Asking how little Madison is doing when she’s still in utero makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. But I’m a Capricorn. I once went to a baby shower that culminated in each of us having to approach the soon-to-be mom positioned in the middle of our circle and address her stomach by name (Owen), saying something welcoming to him. I may have had more awkward moments in my life, but that one ranks way up there. I’m uptight and I own it.
I laughed when I saw the BABY/FAT cross:
Me: I can’t get into any of my clothes ‘cause I haven’t lost my BABY FAT yet.
Them: Aww. How old is your baby?
Me: Four. Years.
Hey RUER. TSAR called and wants his ELL back.
Adam – sly little tertiary theme material with the clue “give the boot.” Nice.
3D’s clue could have been, “Words shouted before a trip to the emergency room.”
LEK – this is also a verb or noun describing the rituals some male animals perform to attract a mate. I watch it all the time in class. (I think I learned this word here.) Studied up on it and casually dropped it into a conversation with my then vet-school daughter in my never-ending quest for her to think I’m smart. I think I said something about all the lekking Mom and I see at the bird feeder. She had no idea what I was talking about and had never heard the word. Sigh.
I tried to find a clip of birds lekking, but man oh man are they boring. Instead I’ll link this one. He may think he’s lekking, but she’s having none of it. (Watch at least to the 1:20 point.)
Wonder why his name is William of OCKHAM, but his theory is spelled Occam’s Razor. I guess the simplest explanation is that someone just misspelled it, and it stuck.
“Put in the overhead bin, say” – STOW. Actually it’s not that simple. First you have to stop every couple of rows, study the numbers, study your boarding pass. Rinse and repeat five times. Then stop. Careful final consideration of boarding pass. Put carry-on-that-shouldn’t-be-a-carry-on down so that you can rifle through it for God knows what. Shove it into overhead and then take it back out for your neck pillow. I’m pretty sure I was behind you at a salad bar last month.
I got a kick out of the theme! Didn't see it coming, then: ohh! Kickers.
Fun fact: the newsletter for the region of our family cabin is the North Shuswap Kicker. I'm not sure why it has that name.
Re LEK... 12 years ago my best friend, out of the blue, decided to take a leave of her comfortable teaching job in Canada and move to... wait for it... Albania. I read up on that country, and panicked, cuz it wasn't pretty. I read a scary book, and read about the Canon of LEK (particularly the section on blood feuds). I tried unsuccessfully to dissuade her. She went anyway, taught for 2 years and did fine; had a blast, met great people, traveled etc. I'm such a worrier.
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0; last word this 7er. QB 6/7 days.]
A biologist who studied KANGAROOs would be a KANGAROOer. If she later had regrets, she would be a KANGARUER.
Theme was a little meh. Fill also meh. But if we’re going to draw the line at Jason Mraz there are a lot of names tha will never be in this puzzle. Which might be ok. Maybe it’s two-hit wonders week since yesterday we had one of the Sugarhill Gang’s two hits from 40 years ago.
NONO, NOSHOT made me think of THIS OLDIE
A football player might mean a soccer player in which case all of them are kickers at one time or another, Rex.
@lms: Your OCKHAM/Occam theory is the simplest. Let’s go with it.
Watching LEKking manikins is one of life's great joys.
Rex's "I just did not share this puzzle's idea of fun" sums it up for me.
In other news, competed in a crossword competition of a sort for the first time yesterday, in our regional Senior Olympics. Took gold in my age range (which I will not specify), I think by prioritizing accuracy over speed. Worst Natick was PAI (town in northern Thailand) crossing SPLINE (device for drawing curves).
Video of manakin lekking
Adam’s a wordplayer, a lover of punnery with a twinkle in his eye. Remember his last puzzle, just under a month ago, a Thursday rebus with the revealer INBOX ZERO, and the rebus squares were NONE, NIL, AUGHT, and ZIP? And today, not only wordplay in the theme, but also in the cluing, see DELI, ORE, CUSS, and especially [Straight poker?] for TINE.
Wordplay wins me over every time. Throw in SORKIN and ARETHA, who do as well, and once again crosswords have brightened my day.
I liked the quintuple schwa-train: HORA / BAMA / ARETHA / ERA / FORMA. And the OR sextuplet: HORA / OAR / UNBORN / STORY / SORKIN / ORE. Plus, I liked having a theme where I had a shot at figuring out the reveal before uncovering it, a skill I’m weak at – and I happily did get as far as knowing it had to do with kicking.
This grid is narrower than usual yet it filled me with a wide inner grin, Adam. Thank you for making this!
Agree with Rex that the puzzle is just so-so and just not fun. LEK and all other obscure foreign currencies? Blech. I might remember the word now because of LMS's info about it. Or maybe not. Because...Albania. ECOCAR? And I guess this is on me: "Occam" I know. OCKHAM I've never heard of. Added a whole lot of time to my solve trying to work that out.
Also, I was 32D about 32A. Well, not that bent out of shape, but...no. Just no. At this point in our history, just don't go there.
Some of the PPP is defensible such as SHANE (even though it is from 1953), SORKIN and AVEENO, which all get a pass I suppose.
The rest of it is interwoven with a little too much that borders on fringe/trivia/obscure/nonsense for my tastes - ECOCAR, OCKHAM, MRAZ, LEK, . . . AIS, as well as some pretty groan-worthy cluing such as “Straight poker?” for TINE and “UN-gerrymandered” for REDREW - is it impossible to redraw and gerrymander a voting district simultaneously? I don’t know why the NYT so consistently accommodates this type of approach - many other quality Xword publishers (LAT, for one) seem to steer clear of this type of stuff with ease.
Who knew there was so much kicking going on? Lovely puzzle even with a fussy southwest, or maybe because of it.
I kind of hate it when people refer to Cleopatra as Cleo. Don't know why I want to defend her. Maybe I worked for her 30 reincarnations ago.
I don't think I've ever heard the word JAPES before. Maybe in a crossword but never in real life. I don't think I like it either, but nobody's asking my opinion so I'll stew over it.
I'm planning on reading the cellos vs celli discussion again today. And the first to say cellipodes will win a prize.
The idea behind the theme is really good, it's execution is in order of excellence:
1 KANGAROO - along with koalas, they're the best, but yeah, what @OFL said, they hop. I just like the word.
2 ROCKETTE - who's going to argue with long synchronized legs?
3 FOOTBALL PLAYER - Ug.
4 UNBORN BABY - ew, use something else!
Uniclues:
1 As a kid, she was known as spaghetti legs McGee.
2 Dude exaggerating his Australian Uber ride adventure.
3 When you say ___ aloud into your phone's voice-to-text converter, you get "Harry's salad."
4 Cirque du Soleil performer sends photos home.
5 It's why they are. That's why they're called that.
1 RAMEN ROCKETTE
2 KANGAROO DROVE
3 ARIES SOURED
4 LOOK MA, UP IN ARMS!
5 GREAT, IN THE ZONE (~)
@kitshef: Huge congratulations! Especially given that impossible, to me, cross you mentioned. The ol' grey matter is still working! Bravo/a!
I did not get a KICK out of this one - and I typically like this constructor. Goofy grid that restricts the fun - there’s just not much here. Liked UP IN ARMS and IN THE ZONE. My wife likes MRAZ’s syrupy love songs - I like the letter string.
Lots of unfortunate 3s and 4s - AIS, RUER etc drag this one down. JAPES is crossword only.
LOOK what they’ve done to my song MA
Not too much spark early this week.
Har!
I couldn't tell where all those themers were going either, and the revealer was in the right place, so all's right with the world.
Agree with OFL on ECOCAR. I have yet to see this in the wild, or even in advertisements.
"Running by the pool" is a perfect clue for NONO, is we just spent most of the summer pointing that out to a certain four year old, who could not contain her excitement when getting to the big slide again. Couldn't really blame her though.
Mr. MRAZ? OK.
I really thought Hamlet mentioned something about Yorick's JAPES, which is how I thought I knew that word, so I looked it up and I was thinking of "gibes", I suppose. At least they're in the same family. Another example of being quite certain of something I've misremembered.
Fine Tuesday, AW. Another Winner, if you ask me, and thanks for all the fun.
“Caesar” is itself a title, not a name. Properly pronounced Kie-ser so it sounds like “kaiser” another title besides “tsar” derived from it.
Wondering why there’s a Sue Grafton cover in today’s write-up? Looked for connection but no luck. But, a pleasant surprise as I was one who mourned when Ms. Grafton passed before the Z book was published. Just curious.
It wasn’t great. It’s not just you. And ATAT? I have not heard of that.
Wordle 451 3/6*
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Birdie! Good* in comparison to Wordlebot’s report that average solve today is 4.1.
*Once again the top onelook.com “most common” word for row 3 guess was correct. That’s now 5 for 6 since l began this count.
as I recall from my derelict youth, projectiles from a pellet gun were "pellets, whereas, BBs were projectiles from a BB gun--they were different types of ammo--anyone else?
This is a good Tuesday. Easy enough, but some fun, clever clues (like time) and a vocab expander. My only quibble is that I share an Rex's aversion to that once lovely phrase "unborn baby" which is now the mantra of forced birthers.
An actual sit back and think Tuesday. Enjoyable being in the ZONE and maybe taking a second or two and wonder how to correctly spell MRAZ.
LOOK MA it's a ROCKETTE staring up at the FOOTBALL PLAYER and wondering what relation they might enjoy. Instead of a pondering taking up too much of my time, I decided to reminisce about New York City and watching a Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall. ROCKETTEs dressed up as candy canes; everyone actually happy....and there was SNOW outside gently falling....
I left my dreaming and ventured on...coming to a halt at UNBORN BABY. I still didn't know what door to pick. I went from pleasant memories to maybe not so sure.
But then I saw ROO playing with ARETHA...I see an OCKHAM sans a razor...a DELI filled with yummilicious LOX from Mr. Smith and felt that maybe the reveal would be a GREAT surprise.
HERES THE KICKER actually brought on a smile. Clever....DOI like it? Yes, IDO.
Thx, Adam; the KICKER is: I loved your puz! :)
Easy-med.
Great start up north, moved smoothly down and ended at AT-AT (an unknown for me).
LGA before JFK.
Saw the ROCKETTEs back in '68 before heading off to Europe.
Will be re-watching SHANE today.
Thot 'DROVE' sounded off for 'Piloted'; after-solve, connected it with 'spearheaded', so all was good.
Fun adventure; liked it a lot! :)
@jae
Over 4 hrs in on Croce's 742; just the SW to suss out. 🤞 The NW was a real bear, even tho the 'oxide' was a semi-gimme (save the last letter).
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Hope we say TATA to the ATAT.
LOOKMA CLEO and Will OCKHAM (with whatever spelling) dancing the HORA UP IN (each other's) ARMS and all TOYS TORY ruling the UK were pretty pretty. The queenly death and the JAPEy new PM with the vacant smile of the posssesssed. Give me the DELI SECT instead.
The clues for FBI and TINE were good too.
UNBORNBABY was a kick in the pants. Good thene. Simple tight and clever.
MRAZ can go TATA in his ATAT. At least I can hope I won't like him.
If the 2001 computer were the answer instead of the clue at 47d...
the grid would feature HAL & OATS.
How to overclue: 39D : “Respect” singer Franklin.
*“Respect” singer* OR *Singer Franklin* would have worked just fine. This is Mondaying a Tuesday puzzle. I didn’t like LEK.
@J. Shipley - Rex is playing off of AIS from the puzzle with Grafton's A IS for Alibi
Hey All !
My cousin, the KANGAROO, made an appearance. I'm named after the ROOSTER, hence RooMonster. In case you cared. (Doubtful...)
Did see the 14 wide grid. Sparks of brain activity. Almost had to be, as there are two 14 Themers, plus the middle one which has an even-numbered count. Easier to go 14 wide, than look for another Themer, and have a convoluted grid.
I gave up trying to LEK for women. They either like you, or not. No amount of show-off-ness will change that. Just sayin'.
In defense of KANGAROOs, they do have as a defense a kick. They balance on their tails, and boot away. I hear it's quite a powerful kick.
Couple of MAs for @M&A, LOOKMA, FORMA. There's a BAMA, too.
Agree BBS are for BB guns, pellets are for pellet guns.
FAT is a fun Weird Al song.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
This puzzle Tuezzed just fine and not much to say.
For those that don’t associate KANGAROOs with kicking think again. Pulled this little tidbit off the interweb:
Kangaroos have muscular hind legs that can exert a kick force of about 759 pounds
Yikes!
Had to laugh at @Rex’s comment about how some old folks might think Jason MRAZ might be fresh fill. I’m old for sure and I am familiar with him but hadn’t really given much thought to whether it’s fresh, stale, or obscure. If any of the older folks amongst us watched the Emmys last night and previously thought Lizzo was obscure (who has been in at least one NYT PUZZLE) I guess they might have changed their minds.
IN THE ZONE for this harmlessly cute Tuesday. Rex is right, @LMS is in fine form, @Lewis mirrors my solve and the AQI is under 200 to make Idaho air almost breathable again: Life is Good (as my tee tells it).
I liked the KICKER theme and thought the Buffalo Bill clue was absolutely brilliant. SIN before BAN. No idea on AIS or JAPES. MRAZ and OCKHAM seemed pretty tough for a Tuesday.
Completely stumped by 29D. Why on earth would you clue BBs as projectiles from a pellet gun? They’re not the same thing.
TOY STORY made me wonder if there’s ever been a Pixar film that didn’t launch a franchise.
I think Rex captured well the slight feeling of clunkiness I got from this puzzle. RUER, UNBORN BABY (I'm trying to think of a plausible scenario where I would actually use that phrase), AIS. Even DO I doesn't quite land for me, as the phrase DO I? would most naturally come after the question "DO you want some ice cream?" -- remove "do" from the question, and it sounds like you're answering a question that wasn't quite asked. I think the clue needs some workshopping.
JAPES reminds of Portnoy's Complaint, with the protagonist's frequent imaginings of what life must be like behind the goyische curtains, Gentile children having good wholesome fun, like piling into jalopies and getting into "jams", saying "Jeepers" and pulling JAPES.
Must be that I never looked closely at the Qantas logo. I remember Qantas using a different marsupial in their advertising: remember this?
I did the NONO as a teen and ran on a pool deck and found out why you don’t do that (one reason). If one foot misses the deck and ends up in the pool, you fall into the pool, your body scraping the concrete edge as you go down into the water. Bathing suit ripped and a bit of blood in the water, but it could’ve been much worse.
Anonymous said "'Caesar' is itself a title, not a name."
It's both, and it was a name first. The title derived from Julius's cognomen.
Anonymous said, Caesar is "Properly pronounced Kie-ser so it sounds like “kaiser”
Not in English it isn't.
Those giant walking robot things in Star Wars. This word used to appear in the puzzle as often as OREO.
Adam is a brilliant puzzle constructor who helps push what puzzles can do to exciting conclusions. He's one of those constructors who is in the select category of people doing really cool work.
This was a bad puzzle by Adam's standards. Too much crossword glue and it comes off as unfinished. I suspect he knows it wasn't great and it's evidence that the NYT games group tends to glaze their eyes when they see certain names on bylines (cough...Haight...Chen...cough).
It doesn't matter though that this puzzle wasn't great, but rather that it took the spot from someone who is new to constructing whose life may have been changed by the byline. The NYT gets more submissions than ever. The NYT Games subscription is bringing in a crazy amount of money for that paper. They should stop wasting the space on puzzles from people who just simply didn't do a good job.
The reveal really did work as a KICKER for me, and I enjoyed the laugh. Lots of fun otherwise, too, with the punny clues. I agree with @Rex about the slight weirdness of UNBORN BABY, but I did like the cross with post-delivery UP IN ARMS.
Help from previous puzzles: MRAZ. No help from previous puzzles: LEK - there's something about LEKS and leus that resist retention.
@Loren, thank you for that video. Hysterical.
@Lewis, my thought at seeing the constructor's name was, "Adam Wagner? I think I like him." Thank you for reminding me why. Creativity and wit for a really good Tuesday.
Medium-tough. I got bogged down in the middle, plus Soap before SHOT. The theme seemed a tad arbitrary...e.g. football teams only have two kickers at most. (FWIW the recently drafted punter for the Bills was just released in the wake of a gang-rape lawsuit). I liked the reveal and the long downs but add me to the “a bit meh” group.
A very cute theme with a lot of variety, a lot of density, and a perfect revealer. And I also like the sly, misleading way that FOOTBALL PLAYER was clued. Though I would venture to say that only two players out of 22 on a football team ever kick the ball. And I'm sure that someone else has said it by now. I'm late to the blog this morning.
ATAT is the oddest name for a combat vehicle I've ever heard, but I just checked and it's right. Everything else, even the names I've never heard of, went in smoothly thanks to the crosses. But I thought this had more resistance than most Tuesdays, plenty of imagination, and I liked it a lot.
“Caesar” is itself a title, not a name. Properly pronounced Kie-ser so it sounds like “kaiser” another title besides “tsar” derived from it.
Headline from this morning's NYT online edition: Fatal Kangaroo Attack Is Said to Be First in Australia in 86 Years
The victim's wounds included a broken jaw and other head injuries. And, in April, a woman in Queensland was kicked to the ground [by a kangaroo]and stomped on while she was playing golf.
HERESTHEKICKER indeed!
TTrimble,
The phrase unborn baby is used all the time to help underscore the horror of abortion. LMS is of course correct, the person in the womb is a baby. No need to modify it. But because there is a grave need to protect it, the phrase unborn baby is sadly quite necessary.
Gunner,
Not in this country.
J. Shipley. The fact there is no Grafton title with a Z is one of life's great sadnesses. in the immediate wake of her death, her family recognized that fact and said that for them, the alphabet will always end at Y.
@Loren. The LEK Is also the place where the competitive displaying happens. Look for woodcocks for dramatic performance. @jberg
Learned Jason MRAZ from eldest granddaughter years ago, and have managed to remember him ever since.
@TTrimble (10:06 AM)
Koala was my first thot, but got KICKEd out by the KANGAROO. Thx for the un'bear'able vid. :)
@jae
Got it! maybe the most satisfying Croce yet (4 1/4 hrs of joyful labor). See you next Mon. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Had a nice text chat with my 34 year old BORNBABY just now from my campsite in Tofino (hi@ Okanoganer). It’s a very isolated surfing-oriented enclave on the Pacific side of Vancouver Island.
NONO right next to NOSHOT? I guess NO’S HOT.
I think 48D DOI is a close relative of Homer’s “D’oh”.
Does a Spanish Jewish wedding have una HORA HORA?
Off to kayak. Thanks for a nice Tuesday, Adam Wagner.
@7:53
I took Latin in JHS/HS, and was told that it's always a Hard-C. But how do we know?? It's a dead language for 2,000 years. Except for the Guy With The Beanie.
There are countless blooper reels out there (YouTube, I'm sure) with some idiot attempting to box a 'roo, and getting kicked into the middle of next week for his trouble.
Agreed. Different
Wordle KICKEd me around today. AVG. is about 3.9. I have more 3's than 5's and more 2's than 6's.*
Wordle 451 6/6
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*Thanks for caring.
I LEK-ed it ok, AISuppose. Got a few kicks out of it, here and there.
Did have some sorta no-knows: MRAZ. OCKHAM. LEK. AVEENO. Maybe AIS and ATAT, but they kinda came to me in a weird mandavision episode.
staff weeject pick: AIS. Primo, desperate answer/clue pairin. Must remember to STOW that away, for future runtpuz usage.
some fave fillins and such: FOOTBALLPLAYER/INTHEZONE. [Go Vikes.] LOOKMA. [Now awaitin LEKMA.] SORKIN. CUSS clue. [Calls out to M&A for a future CUSSword puz.] DEFORM & FORMA. BAE/BABY.
@Muse darlin & @RP: M&A had sleep-trouble after gettin up at 4:30am to lose some used pinot grigio. Laid there with future xword themes clankin around in my brainpan for a coupla hours. Next thing I knew, I woke up and it was 9:30am. Had to limit self to one xword solvequest, this mornin, to get back on "schedule". Sooo … that was the kicker, so to speak.
Thanx for all them kicks, Mr. Wagner dude.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
My Aussie cousins sent us a stuffed Kangaroo with a Joey in her pouch just yesterday. It came from the Sydney Topanga Zoo. I had sent them a bunch of Atlanta Braves merchandise a few months back. My cousin loves the Braves, he watches all the games from his home in the Outback.
The Australians love American baseball hats too. The whole family of my other cousin, is always wearing Yankee hats. He says they are so comfortable.
G'day and I like when I get a smile or happy memory from a word. UNBORN BABY also made me cringe. Good old Lindsey now calling for a National Abortion Ban.
I wrote late yesterday that the blank wordl posts do indeed contain hints. We can tell if it is a word with a lot of possible rhyming words like
Crone, prone, drone , when all 4 squares are filled but first letter isnt.You wouldn't guess TIBIA when you see that kind of pattern. A totally blank first word can tell you there aren't any common vowels.
I've posted my wordl before, but won't anymore and I think we need to not do it. A lot of people have asked. You cab say I got it in 3 today but we don't want to see your grid.
At first the puzzle was fun, but it got tedious. They shouldn't allow TV stations, ugh! Who cares what station shows Succession whatever that is. Yesterday's puzzle was more fun.
Well, either Mr Wagner is prescient, or he & Will rushed this one through, but the most recent Death by Kangaroo occurred yesterday down-under, making this the most timely of all tribute puzzles.
RE: Lek
In fify years of birding and thirty-secn of hunting I've never heard lek used in reference to woodcocks. Google produces some results but I remain skeptical.
Lek is to my knowledge an area on the ground where birds display to attract mates. Woodcock displays occur exclusively in the air. In North America anyway, sage grouse and prairie chickens are famed for leks. Timberdoodles? Nah.
Fun fact, the fantastic noise you hear in a woodcock's descent isn't a vocalization but the result of air passing through their feathers.
Do yourself a favor, and late Winter, or very early next Spring, find a patch of open woods with small successional growth even a soggy field surrounded by a wet wood and at sunset wait for the woodcock. You'll fall in love with the timberdoodle. Guaranteed.
An oar is not a lookalike to a paddle. Also you can’t row a canoe but that’s another discussion.
I must disagree with just one point in your write up, Rex. The phrase “unborn baby” is not “perfectly fine” because it’s not an actual BABY until it’s born. Prior to that, it’s an embryo and then a fetus. The use of the term “unborn baby” is entirely in a creation of the anti-choice/anti-abortion movement. It belongs NOWHERE in a NYT xword, or anywhere else for that matter.
well, we knew from the outset that rex would be displeased with UNBORNBABY, so that was pretty predictable.
I liked the puz, enjoyed the theme, just wasn't a fan of LEK (a bit esoteric for a Tuesday) and RUER, which just felt forced. Otherwise, this was a fair bit under my usual time.
Not sure why my last few posts haven't appeared, unless I've been banned? Which is entirely possible. Interested to see if this makes it to the blog
Tried just slapping down words today, moving as quickly as possible, and got:
Wordle 451 5/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
@M&A: “I LEK-ed it okay.” 🤣
@Gio: OMG!!! That psycho tyrant wants a national ban now?? I had not heard. All I can say is he just galvanized a whole bunch more voters to show up in November. I agree with you 100% about the Wordle posts. Even without any discussion, it still gives an indication of what to expect. And sometimes it’s so obvious you can’t help but see it when you’re scrolling by.
I've just started dating a new woman. We have an unconceived baby. We'll probably have lots of them.
@Gio. Ok, you can sometimes spot patterns but you never know the letters so I can't see it helping. A solver still has to dig through it. And it's pretty well acknowledged that Chance is often in the mix.
Mods,
Why are the only posts you allow on one side of the unborn baby question? I posted something in defense of the term, but it was spiked.
Perhaps that decision was made in error. Or perhaps upon reflection, you'll reconsider and take your thumb off the scales.
Anon 1:35's post is meritless. We all know what an unborn child is. It's baby. This is not controversial. Or political. And the he proof is in every day language and actions. We ask to pat baby bumps, buy gifts for baby showers, show our babies' sonograms.
I understand that some people--apparently you-- like abortion. But surely any reasonable position can withstand scrutiny and debate.
Fairly easy puzzle, though I'd never heard of JAPES or OCKHAM. MRAZ was easy for me. His name is unusual and memorable. One album was called Mr. A to Z.
In Latin Caesar is pronounced like Kaisar in English. I entered CZAR first which seemed logical given the clue.
Rex, where’s the Alive and Kicking video??
Ok, but what are the letters that are rhyming or commonly side-by-side? Use your head. I don’t even post my Wordles here, but these complaints are ridiculous.
@Wordler: Totally agree. So long as Poppa is ok with our occasional musings, that is.
it seems the Mods have spiked more than 3 hours of comments. one might wonder who's ox is being gored, and the Mods Don't Play Dat.
I'm not sure what you're so proud of, @wordler.
Wordle 451 2/6
🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Cute
@Anon 1:35 Good thing we're here to augment your knowledge. Here's some video of the lek based portion of the woodcock's mating display. It reminds me of my own as a teen, i.e. pathetic and not likely to generate any real action, but it's there nonetheless.
I first heard of LEK years ago in an Ethology class. The species that was used as an example was some kind of deer, maybe an elk. The males would compete in an arena of sorts and the females would each have a station on the periphery of the arena and the males who did the best in the competitions would be more likely to be well received by the females. Darwin thought this kind of what he called sexual selection could be found in many species.
The human in her belly sounds off too. Word games.
I considered MRAZ as body builder Mister Arizona.
Be fruitful and multiply is perhaps no longer the best survival advice. You could even argue it cheapens human life.
On the other hand it might be the best way to ensure family survival in "third-world countries". Is there a less or more condescending phrase available?
I got a hint from someone's Wordle chart once or twice. One was because they had mentioned their favorite starting word previously and another time one it was someone who had mentioned they use a word from the previous days NYTXW. I happened to remember what word it was likely to be.
Both times I played it straight cause who cares.
But I do enjoy trying to guess other folks guesses when I have already done the puzzle.
Today's puzzle weakens @Gio's argument a bit because blanks on the first word and 2 common vowels, but not the most common consonants.
If you are really upset about hints that are you can't keep your eyes off of do the damn wordle first. Or ask Rex to rule and tell him to follow his own rules.
Note to mods: I am going to post this later than 1130pm so the chance of a spoiler is near 0.
Wordle 451 3/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟦🟧🟦⬛⬛
🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧
The interesting thing here is despite the zip on the first word and after the second word there was only one word left. Just a matter of finding it. Negative info baby.
Star Wars reference. AT-AT is an All Terrain Armored Transport. Oh, did anybody else want to fill in 40 down as NOSHIT?
Having insufficient Star Wars knowledge, I thought 40-Down was NOSHOw crossing AwAT, so I Naticked on that.
(BTW, 44-Down could just as easily describe "Gerrymandered" as "Un-gerrymandered.")
I read Rex’s review and I feel the same as he does. A bit tough for a Tuesday mostly because of the NW corner and the names OCKHAM and MRAZ. Took me quite a while to figure out INTHEZONE. ECOCAR sounds off - an electric car that runs on power derived from coal-fired generators is not any better for the environment as a gas powered car. Aside from all that, there’s nothing really bad about this puzzle, but there’s nothing really GREAT about it either.
TOPICS FORMA
ANNE, THE ROCKETTE, SOURED on liquor,
NOSHOT for her, NO,NO, not maybe,
"LOOK,MA, long STORY, HERE'STHEKICKER,
I won't DEFORM my UNBORNBABY."
--- CLEO SORKIN
I had the same reaction as @loren above. Wait, these are theme entries; the revealer clue lists them. What in...? And then, even working the south from left to right and getting HERESTHE___, I still was wondering. A moment--aha for sure--later I had it. Then I felt dumb.
It's a good grid, flows well. I didn't have any trouble filling it in, so a straight "easy" there. Good job with a nicely hidden theme. Birdie.
BBGYY
YBGYB
GGGGG
Another bird; 3 of them + an eagle in the last nine. Heating up.
Didn't get the KICKER connection until pretty much done, so that part well-done I guess. Some of the fill not GREAT.
Wordle par.
@Anonymous 11:36am:
I was an altar boy back when the mass was still in Latin, and also studied it in high school. In church Latin the c is soft, but in classical Latin the c is hard. Back in the day, Latin was the universal language of Europe. You might only speak your native tongue, but if you were educated, you studied Latin.
It seemed easier than Monday's was except for those two names that @Foggy mentioned. I always seem to have the best luck with long answers!
Diana, LIW
Wow, disagree strongly with the Jason Mraz sentiment. I'm probably one of the eldest millennials (depending on where you draw the line, born 1984) and Mraz is right in my wheelhouse. The heaps of semi-known people from before and after my time I have to deal with in average xwords feels ridiculous so often that I am very happy to see him.
(Maybe I'm biased because I do very much like much of his music and have seen him in concert. 😂 But, any others around my age group with me?)
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