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Flying Cloud of old autodom / SUN 9-4-22 / Syrup brand since 1902 / Like toum or agliata sauce / Forest between Champagne and Lorraine / Cousin of kvass / Pastoral skyline features / Place to wear muck boots / Comedian Wyatt of Problem Areas / Homebrewer's sugar / Fashion house whose logo is two interlocking C's / Middle Van Pelt child in Peanuts / Marketing experiment comparing two variants
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Constructor: Tracy Gray
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- 39A: *Went out of control (RAN RAMPANT) / 24A: Big huff? (PANT)
- 35A: *Mount Everest scaler (EDMUND HILLARY) / 22A: N.F.L. Hall-of-Famer Yale ___ (LARY)
- 60A: *"Cinderella" meanie (EVIL STEPSISTER) / 79A: One of seven represented in the Pleiades (SISTER)
- 73A: *Lateral-breaking pitches (BACKDOOR SLIDERS) / 95A: Sounds of hesitation (ERS)
- 80A: *Glide down from above (PARACHUTE IN) / 109A: Article in Aachen (EIN)
- 114A: *Portrayer of Scrooge in 1951's "A Christmas Carol" (ALISTAIR SIM) / 84A: ___ card (SIM)
Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish character actor who began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his death in 1976. Starting in 1935, he also appeared in more than fifty British films, including an iconic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol, released in 1951 as Scrooge in Great Britain and as A Christmas Carol in the United States. Though an accomplished dramatic actor, he is often remembered for his comically sinister performances. (wikipedia)
• • •
Never heard of an ABTEST at all ever. This is a NYTXW. I pray it does not catch on. If you're going to debut fill, it should be cool, and I'm guessing that even if you knew what an ABTEST was before you solved this puzzle, you did not think it was cool, nor do you now think it's cool. APTEST, a thing. ABTEST, oof, shoot it into space.* Also fit for space-shooting: NO EAR (94D: Lack of musicality). TIN EAR, a thing. NO EAR, no no. This has appeared four times in the Shortz era, two of those times from this constructor. Weird. Is RYE BEER real? (17D: Cousin of kvass). I've only ever seen it in crosswords (17D: Cousin of kvass). All the beer I've ever seen / drunk has been beer beer. Apparently there is such a thing as Rye IPA, or ... [drumroll] ... RYE-P-A. So that's fun. Everything else in this puzzle was pretty familiar. As I indicated earlier, never heard of the N.F.L. Hall-of-Famer LARY. I know Wyatt CENAC well (53D: Comedian Wyatt of "Problem Areas") but that didn't stop me from spelling it CYNAC the first time. Oh, and I thought the Potala Palace was maybe in TULSA (78A: Potala Palace city => LHASA). Not really familiar with CLAM BEDs, though the concept is vaguely familiar (85D: Place to wear muck boots). Tried to do a google image search and you know what I got?:
I'm guessing these are not where muck boots are worn (though if that's your thing, more power to you). I think I've said all I have to say about this one. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*[addendum: mea culpa for suggesting ABTEST was not a thing; it is, in fact, a thing—a singularly dull thing I hope never to encounter in my grid again, but nevertheless, a thing]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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115 comments:
I doubt that many regular solvers will forget the ASTERS/butterflies link after repeated lashings (ROPEWORK) by the NYTXW on the subject.
A surprising Malapop when I mistakenly entered SIOUANS for 33A (Some Six Nations members), only to have it re-emerge as SIOUAN at 92A (Crow language family).
I’m writing this before reading Rex, but I’m thinking that he’ll gripe a bit because two of the circled entries, CHUTE and SLIDE, work only as one-way devices (down), while the other four, RAMP HILL STEPS and STAIRS, work as either Ups or Downs. That would be quite a nitpick, but I’m really hoping that he can pull it off.
Is BUSES the opposite of aBUSES?
The theme was too easy to pick up the first time it occurred, but I still thought this was a great execution of a difficult constructing concept and a very fun Sunday. Thanks, Tracy Gray.
A-B Testing is a legitimate and not obscure concept in marketing and product development so I don't understand the hate for it but to each their own I guess.
Is theme a bit passe? I guess. Was it a bit too simply employed? Fair. But I found more than a modicum amount of enjoyment in filling the themed clues.
What I'm absolutely despondent about was that another weekend has passed without a NYT puzzle posing even a modest challenge.
Thu/Fri/Sat once was a prestige-worthy "trifecta" for those who successfully nailed all 3 puzzles, and featured some of the most talented construction to be found.
More recently, it feels like the editorial team has decided everyone gets to go home with "A for effort badges". Thank god the archive is intact for when I'm looking for a real challenge.
I agree with Rex that it didn’t take long to figure out the trick. First entries were ERR, ON ORDER, ALA, LES and bam. There was Sir HILLARY. I smiled and looked forward to uncovering the others. Terrific Sunday offering, Tracy, you ASTERS-planting, SOD laying landscaper, you!
Kept looking at the word LUMP and thinking that you could call it a “speed LUMP” in addition to a speed hump or a speed bump. So then you have to wonder what’s up with stuff that ends in UMP. Bump, hump, lump, mump(s). That final UMP could indicate an unwanted, unwelcome, pernicious growth that needs to just go away forever.
BEE-EATER – insectivore. BEEf-EATER – carnivore. BEEfy EATER – sumo wrestler. Ok. Enough.
@Zed – HASN’T - I noticed too late your most excellent question about how sentences *can* end in HASN’T if it’s an auxiliary and not a possessive. But what about this poser – it has to be negative. So you can’t say, *He HASN’T eaten, but I’ve. Nifty thing to chew on.
Look. As much as I’m a like wow-man-anything-goes-hippy linguist, I do notice when people All. The. Time. decide to use whom thinking it makes them come across as more learned. I enjoy my private little joke that they’re not all that and the bag of chips that they think they are and am on full alert for the He asked she and I. . . (or whatever) that’s on deck. But then I immediately understand that I try to show off my bag of chipsery, too, and people have their own private jokes at my expense. Group hug.
[Side note – On long car trips, I’ve stopped pointing out to my daughter that the line from Should I Stay or Should I Go - “…don’t know whom I’m supposed to be. . .” should be who if you’re gonna be a pedant about it.]
[[Second side note –
Give the money to whomever needs it.
Or
Give the money to whoever needs it.
Which one you gonna go with? I know the answer ‘cause I called Mr. Parcels, my college English teacher, a long time ago (pre google) about this. If there was ever a grammar snob, it was Mr. Parcels. ]]
“Sound of an ungraceful landing” – back in Lilburn, Georgia, Tori S. and I would try our best to do stomach drops on C. Coker’s trampoline and not grunt the landing. This was terrific fun. Too bad cell phones have obliterated such innocent pastimes.
“Reason to do a stupid human trick” – hmm. How ‘bout having started off the evening with a couple Bombays, switching to red wine, and then polishing off four Benedictines. Suddenly I could do that floor worm dance dealie. Or so I thought.
On NO EAR – Back in the day, Dad and I would talk every morning about the puzzle. There was this one day he was disgusted by some obscure entries . . .Now how the hell am I supposed to know all those damn French kings? I got 'Leroy' but I never heard of him. (He was pronouncing LE ROI) And how the hell do they expect me to know who Pablo Casals is? And “French words describing how roast beef is often served.” More damn French. And that opera. Tosca. How the hell am I supposed to know that, too? But I did get NO EAR - I was pretty proud of that.
He was pronouncing NOIR. You’ll have to excuse his French.
Well, you know how it gets when you do too many crosswords -- stuff makes no sense, but you keep moving because you assume it'll eventually clear up...
Today I'm 3/4ths done before I even notice the ramps and slides and hills connect all the stuff that seemed wrong. We often talk about how crosses save the day, but on this puzzle the crosses made things seem even weirder.
Researched a few starlets. I knew George, Alice and Alec, ya know, cuz they're famous, but didn't remember AISHA's name, but I knew her face, same with CRAMER. I've heard CENAC's name on our comedy radio station, but couldn't grok it, and KEIRA seems like an obvious spelling I couldn't think through. I would think LARY would be in a lot more puzzles.
As for the non-people part of the puzzle, it was another Sunday. Not nearly enough funny stuff, way too much blah stuff. A few highlights include LOOMS LARGE, GALOOTS, TELECASTS, PUNK BANDS and CILANTRO.
I do know what an ABTEST is. Marketing "control group."
Didn't help to look up Six Nations. If I'm planning on learning nothing about football, baseball or hockey, I suppose it'll be even longer before British rugby makes it onto my radar.
Lots of mayhem around things I don't know, but I'm not gonna go read up on it all. It's too much. Words filled themselves in.
Third ASTERS lately. Are you feeling like those flowers should be Disney princesses?
BRATWURST keeps coming up in my life for some reason. The last time I ate it was probably 40 years ago. The universe seems to be encouraging me to go get some and give it a modern whirl.
JOLLY Roger is the name of one of the websites I run for ukulele and it's a delight to find it in the puzzle today. I will post my grid on that site for awhile.
Uniclues:
1 Computer chip components planning your demise. {No, not all of them.}
2 Over perfumed poet.
3 Casino game they'd like the big spenders to think is special just for them.
4 The best place to be when the weather gets mean.
1 DEEPLY EVIL S-BUSES
2 CHANEL-HOT DREAMER
3 DEAREST VIPS ROULETTE
4 RYE BEER STORM SHEDS
As an old geek, I must object to "early computer acronym" for MSDOS as being about thirty years anachronistic. ENIAC--now there's an early computer acronym. MS DOS didn't come along until the 1980s.
@The Brooklyn Accent 12:45 AM Ha! ENIAC was my first guess! MS-DOS seems way too modern and sorta still in use. Good call.
#Team Whomsoever
That’s one awesome video Rex posted. I feel like it should be the opening song at every HS Dance ever.
@Brooklyn Accent - MS-DOS is closer ENIAC than it is too us. Well, I guess MS-DOS is probably still hanging around, but ENIAC was completed in 1945, MS-DOS debuted 36 years later. It has now been 41 years since the debut of MS-DOS.
LOL at Rex’ CLAM BEDs.
Otherwise an uneventful Sunday solve.
Easyish. Once I caught on to the theme this went pretty quickly. Clever and fun and definitely worthy of POW from Xwordinfo, liked it a bunch!
At first, I thought I might be getting smarter, but I think Rex is right, the last three days have been pretty easy. If I can forge through Friday, Saturday and Sunday without a cheat, we’re talking easy. Didn’t even consult my puzzle partner for assistance. He’s despondent.
Got the theme early with the title and EDMUND HILL ARY, the rest just fell into place.
Fun puzzle that didn’t tax my brain. Thanks Tracy.
Well Rex may have been familiar with this comic KEIRA but I've certainly never heard of him, and right next to him KEIRA. Who knows this stuff? Who wants to? PPP central also included AKC, whatever that is, and BACKDOORS, whatever THAT is. All I ask is if you MUST use PPP in your cluing spread it around, don't just go chunking it all in one section and make matters hopeless. Is that asking too much? Apparently, Will Shortz thinks so...
Generally an easy puzzle, but I still had to run the alphabet at AK_/_ENAC. Fortunately the answer came up early. After the success music, I wondered if AKC might be some official abbreviation for the Knights of Columbus. Anyone else taken to Natick on this cross?
@The Brooklyn Accent et. al.: You're right. The clue should have read "Early personal computer acronym."
Minor trouble in the NW (again!). Didn't know what to use for the exfoliants x places at 1A/1D, didn't know the "Mad Money" host. But I know RETINA all too well, having had detachments in both of mine (one permanent). My backpackers ate muesli. Hand up for @egs SiouanS before SENECAS at 33A, but I figured it out before I got to the "real" SIOUAN at 92A.
A/B Test has come up once a week in my life for the last ten years. It is a completely routine concept. You know what I haven't heard of in 30 years? The AP Test.
Let's see how many likes this version of support for ab test gets. Im with you and I'm surprised a tech savvy Rexter has missed out on this till now. As more people transform into personal brands attesting will become more and more prevalent.
I'm thinking BACKDOORSLIDERS should have been in yesterday's DIRTY MINDED puzzle.
This is how to Sunday! I was onto the theme early. It was helpful and fun. The rest of the puzzle gave me a battle.
MS-DOS (29D) was introduced in 1981, a full 36 years after ENIAC, the first programmable electronic computer, was introduced. By 1981, such modern day computers (descendants of ENIAC) had become ubiquitous in businesses, academic institutions and government agencies.. MS-DOS is hardly, then, an "early computer acronym."
The clue ought to have read: "Early personal computer acronym."
Maybe Rex would have liked the B version of the puzzle’s clues better? ;)
Got the theme at Hillary and thought it was going to be really incredible because Hillary climbed that "Hill." Was quickly disabused of that silliness. Never heard of Lary, Backdoor Slider, Maltose, Nasties, Rye Beer, Side Issues, and Cenac, and saw proof once again that it's Julep not Julip but I'm sure I'll forget.
Little known fact, Alfre Woodard has a twin named Imfree. Imfree Woodard. It's true.
I'd say 'He hasn't eaten but I've' and I can't understand why it's wrong. Unless he's eaten and I haven't?
Would someone tell the Captcha people that a viaduct is not a bridge.
@Rex. Tracy Gray addresses your question about the beginnings and endings of the theme answers.
As others have noted, A-B testing is a common procedure. I also thought MSDOS was too recent to be deemed "early."
Back in seminary BACKDOORSLIDERS didn't mean baseball I tell you what.
Have a blessed Sunday.
American Kennel Club.
I think AKC means American Kennel Club
Re: 51A
And to think that in some countries these dogs are eaten.
Cute theme - I just figured with all the harm that huge center diagonal imparts on the overall fill - it would figure in more prominently. Big band ARTIE again. Liked to see SENECAS, GALOOTS and GARLICKY. ASTER week. Classifying Bad Brains as PUNK is too restrictive. They got their name from the great ones
I like Righteous RYE from Sixpoint - Rex it tastes just like the bread. Pair it with some BRATs and have at it.
Wanted BEAR Claws and BEEfEATER - I’m a gin and doughnut guy. Learned about pistachios. Side eye to HOARSER and the BEAR dupe.
The SILOS
Well built - but typical Sunday solve.
Talk about good-news-bad-news. Here Tracy made a puzzle, clued it, sent it in, and the NYT team said they really liked the theme *except* for one answer. Which meant re-doing the entire grid – a Sunday grid, mind you – because with those diagonal answers everything is connected, and of course, she also had to make a new set of clues (and this puzzle has 144 words!). You have my sympathy and my admiration for your persistence, Tracy.
And my gratitude. I learned the meanings of the colorful BEAR CRAWLS, CLAM BED, BACK DOORS, and the mysterious and memorable “toum”. I had a corner in which I was stuck and had to abandon, only to return later and fill in – and when that happens it always warms my heart. I liked the triple-e in BEEEATER and the host of long-e words in the grid, plus the sing-song BAR / BEER / BEAR. In fact, there are two bears (one shy of a Goldilocks) in BEARCRAWLS and BEARER.
I love how the STAIRS and STEPS and other ups and downs have landings. That gave me a grounding feeling. And I, who love all forms of oats, enjoyed seeing two oat answers. I also like that black-square barbell going practically from corner to corner.
The cluing and answers had plenty of spark to keep the solve bright, and that doesn’t always happen on Sunday. So much to like today. Thank you, Tracy, for everything you put into this – twice!
It's still amusing that we are further away from MS-DOS than MS-DOS was from ENIAC.
Since you often comment about people’s names in the puzzles that give you the Heebie Jeebies I wanted to say CHANEL was a nazi sympathizer. She sold out completely once they invaded Paris and became a mistress/helper/etc. It’s pretty disturbing how rampant her name is in the XW
Rex's comments on the puzzle structure gave me a wee headache, but I'm a solver, not a constructor, and I loved this puzzle. The clever theme helped me enjoy the solve, which was fairly easy beyond the themers.
Never heard of AB TEST, but it was easy to get and a welcome relief from AP TEST. Never heard of RYE BEER either. Or BACKDOOR SLIDERS, even though I'm a baseball fan and know about "sliders" that don't come from White Castle. @Anonymous 6:31: I wish I knew what you meant when you wrote, "As more people transform into personal brands...," because it sounds ominous and I feel I should be prepared.
I understand, and sometimes experience, the frustration that arises when extremely obscure names pop up in puzzles, usually Fridays/Saturdays. But I don't understand why anyone would throw a fit over KEIRA Knightley, a very well known actress who is currently working, or Wyatt CENAC, a "Daily Show" stalwart and also still working. (Yes, I misspelled his last name too on first pass). To me, these are exactly the kind of clue that should be in crosswords. You know what shouldn't be in crosswords? Golf clues. (Actually, I'm fine with them, even though I never know them except for TEE and IRON and ARNIE. I know that people like golf. I don't know why, but I know they do.)
I will be partial to any puzzle that includes ALISTAIR SIM. He is the apotheosis of Scrooge and his version is the best of all the "Carols" and I will hear nothing to the contrary so there!
Wordle 442 3/6*
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Usual crapshoot on 3. Must be my lucky week!
Funny name, Chutes and Ladders. Where l come from, it’s Snakes and Ladders. Made for much more interested board graphics.
Familiar to me ≠ Familiar
But can we all agree that neither is a scintillating answer? One is a grift and the other is used by grifters (using A/B TESTing doesn’t make one a grifter, but some of our biggest grifters use it).
Surprised people are getting naticked at AKC (Cenac is well known in certain circles, but that’s more understandable to me). Would a doggier clue have avoided the natick? I like the clue, but the connection to the American Kennel Club is a sly one.
@JD - BACKDOOR SLIDER and PARACHUTE IN are also related to the direction of the letters, but then the other ones are not. I’d have preferred that either the direction was related to all the themers or none of them.
Regarding MS-DOS, let me suggest that “early” is pretty adaptable and just because something might have been earlier doesn’t mean the answer wasn’t early. And, yes, adding “personal” to the clue would have made the answer more obvious, but maybe you missed the “puzzle” part of “crossword puzzle?”
@ Anonymous 8:09am
However far away from MS-DOS we are, it is never be enough.
For me, at least, I worked out the dog aspect of AKC, but thought it was AKA for American Kennel Association. Since the down clue was some person I've never heard of and it's a last name, which means that basically all sound and letter combinations are possible, that was no help.
This is why I hate name trivia clues to begin with, but especially last names. I have a last name where, if you missed the third letter, it could be literally any hard consonant, and there's a much better known one with the wrong consonant in that spot.
I entered AKC immediately. What’s wrong with me?
@LMS - that 4th Benedictine will do it every time (sigh)
Had ASCII as my old computerese and was stopped by a few others.
But overall this seemed like a return to Nytxw standard of Sunday being clever, pretty challenging and fun. Can see why Jeff Chen gave it his POW!
Love the comments re: ENIAC vs MS-DOS. Which then evolved into PC-DOS. Made me think about how when growing up I thought The Wizard of Oz movie was made eons before I was born (16 years) and was “old” … I wondered if some of my younger colleagues (let’s say 25 years old) think of Star Wars as “old” (20 years before they were born)
Isn’t MS-DOS a combo initialism/acronym ? Or has acronym evolved to include initialisms also? The company I work for has an online index of so-called acronyms… probably 90% are initialisms. Drives me crazy.
@egs
Let me disabuse you of that notion right away. ;-)
@Gary Jugert
Get yourself some BRATWURST right away. With some German mustard on the side. Serve it up with potatoes roasted with
bacon and onions. You've been missing out.
@LMS
Laugh and a half at "Suddenly I could do that floor worm dance dealie. Or so I thought."
The puzzle was relatively easy (not quite an absolute cinch for me -- don't know CENAC or ALFRE, for example). Theme solved after pondering that weird EDMUND with an H on the end... oh.
Oops -- gotta go.
Another NYT stunt-grid!
Hey All !
Neat puz. Agree with the easy assessment, but that's OK by me. Liked the long diagonal line of Blockers in the middle.
Took me a second or two to realize that the ends of the "Ups & Downs" were just stand-alone words. I was using the diagonal in those at first, ala 24A was RAMPANT instead of just PANT. Worked with HILLARY, also. But, finally saw it was just a stand-alone word.
Not terrible fill considering the diagonal-workaround. Some nice longer words, and open spaces which I'm sure Tracy has less hair trying to fill cleanly.
Very well done, Tracy. Different, fun to solve, bonus that the "Ups" are words that mean "go up", and the "Downs" are Down words. Sure, a couple could be used both ways, but that's no nevermind to me.
Awaiting@Gills story. Lots of good words today.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Went clockwise around the center and then spiraled in. Once again never heard of half the names, but they filled OK. Hesitated at HASN’T because there was no indication of a contraction in the Clue. And wondered what type of BAND the never-hear-of Bad Brains would turn out to be. Agree on NOEAR just being all sorts of wrong. Two BEARs (5D and 98D), but in different senses, so I guess that’s OK. Lots of beverages with JULEP, BEER, ALE and the MALTOSE to make it, (some Johhny WALKER?...on the ROCKs?), and KARO syrup.
And just couldn’t see CLAMBED til the bitter end of crosses filling it. In my life, I wear muck boots to, wait for it…, muck the muck out of the barn stalls. I don’t associate beaches (the presumed locations for these clambeds). Like @Rex, googled to see if that is in fact where one finds clams and, like OFL, got pages and pages of beds in the shape of clams before a video of scuba divers under sea. I sure hope they don’t try wearing muck boots while diving!
Never heard of a BEEEATER, but wow are they pretty! Have to admit that at first I thought it was deriving its color, not its name, from the insects it ate (like flamingos). Doh
Seems like this was a very nature-loving puzzle with the kittens MEWing (19A) above AKC dogs PANTing (24A); CILANTRO, GARLICK and ASTERS (with their STOMAs) for the WASPs; and the WASPs for the BEE EATER (circle of life, baby); all of them living in the ARGONNE forest maybe with a RAT, a BEAR, and ANTS; a SILO stretching to the SKY on the rural horizon where we will seek shelter in a SHED when the STORM comes; of course, our CLMABED visited by EELS under the sea; EDMUND HILLARY scaling his ROCK mountain; and hikers with their OATBARs hiking through it all.
Very enjoyable vibe. Liked it very much. Didn’t even need the theme, but it was a nice touch.
SUTURE is not a surgical seam. You use sutures to close the incision. That's really poor editing . . . again. To have that near NASTIES, ASTERS and BEARERs makes for a terrible corner. NASTIES? Who says that?
And I'm with Rex on the ABTEST. Sounds like a measure of fitness rather than something used in marketing.
I'm also reasonably certain that Yale LARY and ALISTAIR SIM are not people the author knew before writing this puzzle. Should they be in the puzzle if the constructor is looking them up? Bah. Humbug.
Yes, sleigh drivers need REINs but don't they need "snow" also? Or so my grid showed for a long time. I didn't GREET with an elbow bump, I just wanted to "say hi" for an "eeNsiE" MINUTE. I used my "loofas" to SCRUBS the "STOny" STOICs.
This was a very nice Sunday puzzle. Tracy Gray always delivers and her Sundays ROCK.
I thought Rex would be glad that at least some part of the theme answers worked as a stand-alone word but I was wrong. I loved the CLAM BED pix though, har.
Wordle 442 6/6
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⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Too many available alternatives! Phew.
Didn’t catch on to the whole hill/stair etc theme even though I solved all of them … it would definitely have helped in the SE where Alistair Sim was a complete Natick. And don’t get me started on Stamos!
Rex make s few good points but he’s overlooking the enjoyability factor. This one was fun to do. Much better than most Sunday offerings of late. Jeff Chenn awarded it Puzzle of the Week. I’m with Jeff on this one.
So annoying when @rex is so dismissive of people he doesn't know. Today it was Yale Lary. Yale Lary is indeed in the Hall of Fame. He was also on multiple Pro Bowl teams. He had three major roles for the Detroit Lions. (FWIW-FRANK Lary was a noted pitcher for the Tigers.)
From nflhof.com.
Detroit Lions fans recall Yale Lary in many different ways. Some remember him as a superb right safety, a key cog in Detroit's fearsome defensive platoon in the 1950s and 1960s. Others will tell you he was one of history's truly great punters. Still others say it was his breakaway ability on punt returns that set him apart from all the rest.
In reality, each assessment is correct because the multi-talented Texas A&M product did all of those things superbly well during his 11 years with the Lions.
PS - ABTEST was bad. But so was the Natick formed by AKC-CENAC. A bit of junk is forgiveable but that one is just too unfair for most solvers. I got it anyways but ALAS I’m pretty sure some did not.
Why the hell would anyone bother to figure out how many years between one computer deal and another, and then want to tell everyone about it ? Now "backdoor slider", that is a concept worthy of discussion.
"As more people transform into personal brands" ?
@Z, 8:;37, re. your first paragraph, how about a clue as to what you are talking about ?
**Wordle post warning**
My solve was different from NYDenizen and Trina. I had a 4 and it was the ONLY possibility. I love when that happens.
Wordle 442 4/6
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Tracy's comments, available at xwordinfo and NYT Daily Wordplay Column, are worth reading. A MUSTREAD in fact. Ha!
Boy, did the clam bed/muck boots bring back a nightmare for me. When I was a lad, Thanksgiving weekend was duck hunting weekend in the salt marshes in the Atlantic City estuary, a major clam/oyster bed and haven for migrating water fowl. My father, brother and I would leave after dinner on Thursday to hunt Friday & Sat morning (up at 3 to be in the boat by 3:30 to be waiting for dawn by 4). Actually, just being in the salt marshes at dawn in late November was worth the 3AM wake up time, it's as beautiful an instance of nature as any other. Also, by noon you could pick up clams or oysters from clam or oystermen out there harvesting while you were wondering where all the damned ducks were. Clams or oysters on the half shell, just pulled up from the muck at the bottom of the marsh are miraculous.
One year we were out, and after the morning rush of no ducks or geese, we went further to the interior of the marshes than usual. Tides in estuaries are odd, as the incoming tide has a tortuous path to the interior, and a tortuous path to exit to the sea with the outgoing tide. You and pay attention to the nominal tide timing, but that really has little to do with the actual events in the backwaters. We got stuck what had to be a extraordinarily low tide at a time we didn't expect. Trying to get back, we broke shear pin after shear pin on the prop by hitting rocks/logs/god-knows-what on the bottom. Probably clams. When we were down to our last one, we had nothing to do but get out and drag the boat. I had hip boots, as did my father. My brother had only calf high muck boots. When you stepped into the water, your feet sunk in to mid-calf in the muck, then another half foot of water. So, my father and I dragged the boat, my brother sat in the boat, doing nothing. Not even bailing. I offered to let my brother use my boots when I needed a break, but he "couldn't get his feet in" even though his feet were only 1/2 size larger than mine, and my feet had plenty of room. After an hour or so, my father gave out - he was a desk worker with a 2 pack/1 quart a day habit, and extended hard physical work was beyond him. So I dragged for hours. We finally got to a channel, put the last shear pin in, and were home free. Until we got to the fork in the channel. I said go right, my brother say go left. My father was shot, so he agreed with my brother, because my brother was the golden child and I was "who knows what's really up with him" Pete. Well, 1/2 knot into the left channel it started disappearing, and we sheared off the last shear pin. Back into the water for Pete. We finally got back to the channel by 6, started down the right path and fortunately some other laggard came motoring by and towed us in.
Moral of the story - muck boots are worthless, on your feet or anyone you may need to rely on.
Oh, ABTEST is only an anodyne buzzword for marketing morons who get scared if you mention statistics at all.
Anon 10:08 - As almost always, saying "this word has one and only one specific meaning" is wrong. SUTURE is 1a) the actual thread, 1b) the process of using said thread, 2a) any joining of parts, and 2b) the actual line that the union of two parts forms
@LMS WHO
A lovely example of an intricately constructed puzzle that leaves the solver with plenty to do and much to figure out. Yes, there are the tiny little circles that I so often complain about, but you can't just ignore them -- you have to figure out what they're doing there and what they're leading to for the answers to make any sense.
I always know when I'm enjoying a puzzle, and especially a Sunday, when I have to put the puzzle down for some reason and then am chomping/champing at the bit to get back to it. This was one such occasion. Not that hard, but not too slam-dunky either.
One brief aside for the "They may be hidden behind paintings clue". If everyone in Puzzlandia knows that WALL SAFES are to be found there, so, I should think, would the thieves.
A very nice job, Tracy. It must have been a bear to construct.
This was sort of like yard work—worked up a sweat, but it was a good, enjoyable, rewarding workout.
Enjoyed figuring out the theme and wandering around the grid - the crossword stuff actually seemed pretty easy (maybe T-W ?), which seems to be the consensus today.
Wasn’t in the mood to parse together a lot of the trivia just from crosses so leaned on Uncle G pretty heavily for stuff like LARY, KEIRA, CENAC, WALKER, unagi, BATIK, ALFRE and AISHA - all of which are so far from my wheelhouse that they could be in a different country. I did get the (what I believe is) Spanish math test at least.
Seeing Tracy Gray's name at the top meant starting the puzzle with happy anticipation, and this one had the elegance, creativity, and constructing skill that I'd expected. I thought the three-part theme answers were a marvel. And there were so many fine long Downs, too. Really a thing of beauty.
This was one of the easier Sunday puzzles but I enjoyed it.
Classic Rex. I don’t know this thing therefore it’s not a thing.
Isn’t z always belittling people who didn’t do,a quick search before maying an erroneous claim?
Wonder why he’s quiet on that but more than we
Come to parrot Rex’s opinion that AB test is boring. And imo, if there’s a bigger grift in this country than public schools and their bloated administrations, I haven’t found it.
And in some countries other sentient beings are eaten.
@Nancy, I agree with your comment re: WALL SAFES and that they are obvious to thieves. My Dad was paranoid about being broken into even though we lived in a mostly crime-free rural small town. He had an alarm on the garage-into-the-basement door that we never turned on because it was too annoying, and he put in a WALL SAFE in the basement where he kept some of his (in his mind) more valuable coins. He hid it behind one of his least artistic paintings, a vase of roses, that was on hinges. When he and Mom sold the house, he left it behind. I assume he told the next owners about the safe and gave them the combination. But when they moved and sold the house, the next owner (who knew Dad) called him up asking what the combination to the safe was. By that time, 20 years had passed and Dad had no idea. So who knows what lies in that vault in that southern MN basement? Probably the same thing as in Al Capone's vault.
Confusing chef Alice Waters with author Alice WALKER made the NE a BEAR CRAWL of a solve for a while, but the correct Alice finally stepped into place and all was well. Except for AKC (huh?) crossing CENAC (who?).
When a Sunday puzzle doesn’t consume too much of my morning, I’m a happy solver. So for me this was just about right in its level of difficulty. Liked the up-and-down theme but agree that it would have been more elegant not to end up with that PARAC. Unless you’re willing to settle for something like Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.
The word GALOOT always reminds me of Jean Harlow. No one could say it like she could, ya big galoot.
Thx, Tracy; first-rate Sun. puz! :)
Med.
Had my 'ups' & 'downs' on this one, with a careless dnf at SIOUiN / LETiT. Finally discovered the blunder after the fact. :(
Wasn't 100% sure of the LARY / ARGONNE cross.
Sad to say, I just can't recall 'Yale' LARY. Used to spread out my football cards on the bedroom floor on rainy days in the 50's but, ALAS, don't think I had his. :(
Tenzing Norgay & EDMUND HILLARY are featured in 'Beyond the Edge' (on AMC). Excellent movie! 🏔
JOLLY good adventure this morning. :)
Nice, easy NYT' Cryptic today; good one for anyone who's new to cryptics. It also has a connection to today's xword.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
@JD
Since you're blue, you can bypass the "I'm not a robot" box and just hit the "Publish Your Comment" box and your post will go through.
Amen to all that!
@Anonymous 10:08: "I'm also reasonably certain that Yale LARY and ALISTAIR SIM are not people the author knew before writing this puzzle."
For a movie buff, or even a casual watcher of Christmas movies, ALISTAIR SIM is a familiar name. The 1951 A Christmas Carol is commonly recognized as the best movie adaptation, and he's commonly recognized as the best Scrooge.
On a separate note, A/B TEST[ing] isn't just a marketing term. It's used in probably every major online social media platform, when there are end-user design choices to be made: roll out both, for different samples of users, and analyze how they affect the so-called user experience (UX).
I really had fun with this puzzle because I actually figured out the theme and used the knowledge in my solve. I imagine there are people who would have had problems with the PPP. It’s not like I actually knew Bad Brains and Bikini Kill were but still very inferable from my “knowledge” of typical PUNKBAND names (plus a few crosses).
I guess I would consider ENIAC an ancient 🤣 computer acronym so MSDOS went in with no problem. Hah! I became quite adept at one point “futzing” with DOS commands (due to the lovely DOS for Dummies book) so I could free up RAM for computer games. @Sioux Falls, I was unaware that MSDOS morphed into PC-DOS but it makes sense.
@anon 10:08, like you, I thought SUTURE was just plain wrong but I was surprised to see the M-W 2b definition to be: the seam or seamlike line along which two things or parts are sewed or united. It just goes to show ya learn something every day.
A little late to the game this week, and sorry I missed last week (working).
I liked this puzzle a lot.
Love Rex's CLAMBEDs as well, LOL.
Happy to see George TAKEI this week. I'll be leading a discussion of his graphic novel ("They Called Us Enemy" - about how his family was interned during WW2) in a book club in a couple of weeks.
@MkB (8:46) -- Having solved the actual puzzle earlier, the rest of my solving day will consist of trying to figure out what your last name is -- based on the intriguing but incredibly vague clues you have provided. I'm quite sure I'll end up with a DNF:)
(Maybe it's a MAC/MAK thing?)
But I agree with you wholeheartedly @MkB, about the unfairness of obscure trivia names and especially obscure trivia last names. So if your own last name is such a problem, please don't record any pop albums or star in any forgettable Netflix movies or do ANYTHING AT ALL that would tempt a future constructor to put your name in a puzzle. Do we have a deal?
As dumb as I was yesterday, that's how smart I am today.
Wordle 442 2/6*
🟩🟨⬛🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Kinda basic theme idea, but very well-executed. Also, pretty easy, due to the fill smooothness. The way a SunPuz oughta be. Coulda been perfecto, if somehow the theme had a bit more built-in humor.
30 weejects! A day-um goldmine of em, to whomever [yo, @Muse darlin] luvs respect for the cute little wordlets. How to staff pick just one out above all the rest? This puz's biggest challenge. Clue-wise, the best of the weeject hoard appear to be:
* TSK = {Judgy sound}. Judgy. har
* AMP = {One for the roadie}. Cutie.
* TAT = {Pic on a pec, say}. Creative.
* ERR = {Say "Whomever did this …," say}.
M&A is gonna go with ERR, on account of it brings up some usage questions:
1. Shouldn't whomever be whoever?
2. Shouldn't the comma be placed after the closin quotemark?
3. Shouldn't one of the "say's" be discarded as superfluous?
Potential triple-R ERR! Staff pick winnerrr.
Some interestin debut words: ABTEST. PUNKBANDS. WALLSAFES. BEARCRAWLS. Plus a few that were themers: EDMUNDHILLARY. EVILSTEPSISTER. PARACHUTEIN [M&A fave … seemed to have just a faint hint of Ow de Speration].
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Gray darlin. Only thing missin was GALLBLADDERSURGERY.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
**gruntz**
I had fun doing this puzzle with my mother over zoom, but the number of proper names (by my count, twelve) and the AKC/CENAC natick were nearly enough to ruin the experience. This puzzle would have been far better had the constructor worked to avoid all the proper names. The puzzle does raise some profound questions, such as: Is it primarily backpackers who snack on oat bars? If a tennis match is either two or three sets, is a two-set match notably short? Does a roadie only set up a single amp?
@Anonymous 10:08--You don't know who Yale Larry was? For shame!!!! Especially since the Lions are this year's team on HBO's hard Knocks.
Peter P
I call BS on your story. Why on Earth were you getting on the water Thanksgiving weekend at 3:30 AM. Dawn isn't at 4 AM in the third week of November in NJ. It isn't at 5 either. Or 6 for that matter. It's around 6:45 AM at that point of the year. Assuming the rules for hunting migratory birds are the same or similar to say, upland birds, you can hunt 1/2 hour before sunrise. That puts your very first second of legal hunting at 6:15. So I ask again, why were you were in a boat at 3:30?
And why would you wear muck boots to duck hunt? If you're in a boat, you're floating not walking on anything. And if you were to walk in the water for some reason, why on earth wouldn't you be wearing either hip boots or waders to avoid precisely the problem your fantasy describes?
Also, what estuary? West creek? Tuckerton? More South? Brigantine aka Forsythe? Somewhere else?
I won't even bother to ask what kind of boat. But I will ask you to describe a Barnegat sneak.....
This was a mostly easy solve with a user friendly theme that was almost eager to give itself away. Being a Sunday there were the usual sticky spots in the grid. CENAC and LARY had to come from the crosses. The crosses were also needed for the last two letters of ALFRE.
I have to wonder if CENAC is in the puzzle to make up for ENIACs absence. That's one hell of an acronym looking name.
Both LARY and SIM look much too short. Given the usual cluing you see for SIM I find it amusing that there were real SIMs before there were SIMs.
yd pg -4
Yale Lary was a defensive back and (sometime) punter for the Detroit Lions. But the clue was meaningless if one caught on to the theme and knew who Sir Edmund Hillary was. That was the problem with this puzzle for me; once the starred clues were figured out, the definitions of the related words meant nothing.
MSDOS is an "early" bit of computer code only if you were born yesterday. "Early" computer code is from the 50s, may be (if you stretch) the 60s. MSDOS was born in 1980 as 86-DOS (some say just QDOS, 'Quick and Dirty Operating System'), which Gates purloined (court said so) and sold in 1981 as MS-DOS.
If you think the PC is the beginning of computers, you've got a problem.
for those who care (not many, I'd imagine) 32bit Windows will run MS-DOS programs today. with some support programs, you can run those MS-DOS code on 64bit Windows.
for some number of iterations of Windows (which ones are lost to time) were just lipstick on a pig; the real O/S was still MS-DOS. for some number of later iterations of Windows (ditto) contained decreasing amount of MS-DOS code. don't recall when Windows became a fully independent codebase (not the first version that didn't require DOS to be loaded first), but it wasn't that long ago.
if you can still run MS-DOS programs, is it still early?
Had to laugh at Rex's comment about clam beds.
I once did a cheat on "Mexican boys". Guess what I got on that Google search!!
A three letter abbreviated organization like AKC could have been clued a bit more fairly considering the double Natick with CENAK and KEIRA. I was able to get KEIRA with no problem but C of CENAK was never going to happen and the 'sizable registry' clue just made me think how much stuff couples score when they get married.
@Anon 12:56 - Why on earth would you question it? What had I to gain by making up a story that was rather boring to anyone but the participants?
We stayed at a friend's house in Tuckerton, our launch point was somewhere in Brigantine, it was over 50 years ago, so I may be off on some of the details. There's a huge salt water marsh inside the barrier reef there. It took quite some time to get to an area well enough outside the Federal Wildlife preserve, find a place with no one around set up the decoys, camoflauge the boat and be quiet for a long enough time to let every thing settle before sunup. Was it 4:00 rather than 3:00? Possibly. As I said, it was 50+ years ago, and it's not really a relevant part of the story. And why would you wear knee high muck boots? Because you have to get in the damned boat, which involves walking in the ankle deep water it's floating in. And you have to get out of the boat and walk on the marshes to find the duck that maybe you've shot. There's really no reason for the hip boots except for a bad situation. As my brother never had any specific need for hip boots, why should he buy them?
The boat was basically a skiff (but with a square bow) my father built. The day after, Saturday, we just went to drive around the National Wildlife Refuge, then lunch at the Oyster Creek Inn, then home.
As I've answered your questions, please answer mine: What is so damned wrong with you that you would take time out of your life to call me a liar, when you know absolutely 0, none, nada, nil, facts about the situation I described?
Thank you. A/B testing is beyond common. Not even remotely obscure. I can't imagine anyone either in business or under the age of 40 (barring perhaps non high school graduates) not knowing the term.
Yeah, MS isn't an acronym and I use a variant of DOS at least a few times a week (need to use DosBox or Boxer these days, depending on which computer I'm at) as do many, many people in the business/corporate world who do more than email, memos, social media, and databases. (Actually a lot of corporate databases still require it, but that's another story). The program I need it for was written in FORTRAN (also not an acronym), which is still used for certain interesting things (such as astrophysical modeling--ask NASA). [This is not to say contemporary Fortran programs need DOS, just to point out there're a lot of "old" things still in use...]
Had hemis before ttops because, you know, the Chrysler Cordoba and Subaru Brat both came with t-tops but no car with a hemi was anything other than a muscle car.
Roggenbier is a real thing, yes. Rex shows his landlocked upbringing through his confusion about how clams are harvested as well. That's what low tide is for, man.
The circles and puzzle name told me what to expect, so that wasn't any kind of kick.
Okay puzzle, not terribly involving for me. More fun to come here and be reminded about the world of ancient computing the kids know nothing of (so they can pretend using toys built on boomers' inventions makes them smarter, eh? Such is life; Plato wrote about that stuff...).
I also picked up on the theme right away and that made the rest of the puzzle a bit too easy for me; marched right through the grid without much resistance.
Any Sunday sized grid will be a BEAR to construct. And then to have to completely reconstruct it later to make an editor requested change makes the degree of difficulty akin to the 13th Labor of Hercules.
One measure of that fill challenge is the sheer number of plurals of convenience (POC) that were needed to get it done. They are all over the place starting right out of the gate with SCRUBS, SPOTS, COBS, MEWS, BROTHS, SENECAS, GALOOTS, UBERS and so on.
There were several of the uber-useful two for one types where two entries get a letter count boost from a single S, such as at the end of 35D UBER and 61A EVIL and at the place where a two for one is most likely to be found, in the lower, rightmost square.
The ones that stood out the most to me were the several long entries that needed some POC assistance to fill their slots. A partial list includes BEAR CRAWLS, WALL SAFES, PUNK BANDS, SIDE ISSUES and PARTIALS. Even one of the themers, BACKDOOR SLIDERS, needed a POC boost to fill its slot.
Most of the POC Committee members are away for the holiday but I'm sure they would give the grid a POC assisted (if not POC marked) rating. Whether or not the overall puzzle quality justifies such a heavy reliance on the POC device is another question. I think a good argument could be made either way on that SIDE ISSUE.
The AC ending was commonplace for early computers: ENIAC (Eckert and Mauchly); EDVAC (von Neumann and colleagues), EDSAC (Wilkes and colleagues), UNIVAC (see ENIAC), and perhaps others. In science fiction, this gave rise to names like EPICAC (Vonnegut) and Multivac/Microvac/.../AC (Asimov).
What I find funny is that for EDVAC, EDSAC, etc., the AC stood for Automatic Computer or Automatic Calculator. As for ENIAC, the first computer of its kind? Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.
It's "I don't know WHO I'M supposed to be"
Thank you for this. I will think of the Knights now every time I watch Westminster Kennel Club dog show. I live for joys like this.
@ Pete. Despite Anon 12?56’s comment, I Loved your muck/boat story!!! I had a similar experience towing a canoe out of the Little Platte with hubby happily in the ‘boat’ while I, for some reason I can’t remember, had to wade through the muck, towing him and the craft. I didn’t even know about the existence of muck boots, nor waders, and such back then. All I know is that all that much swirling about one’s legs is a most unpleasant experience! Thanks for reminding me that ‘muck’ exists outside of barns! And hope that your brother got his just desserts some day and that you can hold your head up high as an upstanding person! I’ll go boating with you any time, and we can share the towing duties… as if that would happen since I would hope that neither of us would be so unprepared and directionally challenged as those on the trip you described! Oh, and that before dawn start time, that’s way past my current abilities.
Agree with @Pete. Anon was way out of line.
@Sioux Falls:
only one nit to pick. Gates got QDOS from Paterson/Seattle Computer to fulfil a contract he had already made with IBM to supply an O/S for the IBM PC. while Micro$oft at the time was a systems programming house for microprocessors (among the first to make a UNIX not called UNIX), they didn't have what IBM wanted for this runt machine, so they got, through subterfuge, QDOS and re-sold it to IBM which called it PC-DOS; for obvious reasons. whether Gates knew and/or did it on purpose, the M$-IBM contract didn't include any exclusionary clauses wrt to ownership of QDOS; iow M$ was free to sell it anywhere. Jackpot!!! thus the world of IBM/PC clones was born; you could run all those PC-DOS programs on any clone (well almost). until Lotus 1-2-3 came along there wasn't much demand for any PC or O/S for same. 1-2-3 changed all that by being written only in 86 assembler and MS-DOS. Bigger Jackpot!!!
so, PC-DOS came first then MS-DOS. M$ also would build, for a fee, a version of MS-DOS that would only run on your machine; Radio Shack was (most?) notorious for that gag. didn't work.
I'm always a bit annoyed by Rex's tendency, when encountering an answer he is not familiar with, to insist that it's "not a thing," or that it's mind-numbingly dull. It speaks to a profound arrogance and lack of curiosity, IMO, and does a disservice to those of us who are interested in that thing, and also to those of us who quietly endure fill that we find not-so-scintillating (in my case, most of the sports-related answers). Do better.
I love it when Sunday NYT puzzles are fun! Thought I got it at PARACHUTE, then discovered the whole new level involved when IN appeared, and I circled into treasure search mode. On xwordinfo Tracy regrets the loss of such possible playful appearances as “parachute pants,” but all the themers are gems and the fill on the whole is a delight. For me there was no dreaded Natick in sight that wasn’t gettable from crosses (BEARCRAWLS/SENECAS, KEIRA/CENAC/LINUS).
Learned a new way to clue EELS, a challenge akin to cluing another regular, “oreo,” which is on vacation today, leaving us its young cousin, REO. 10A’s “Cookout chuckouts” is tuneful for COBS. Learned Iran produces pistachios, to apparent excess even. Knew the Brit “bangers and mash” and it was easy to imagine the German version at 112A. Wondering about “mash” in German? It’s Kartoffelbrei, reminiscent of a favorite breakfast my dad used to cook on Sundays, matzah brei.
32A’s LOB and 43D’s TWO SET reminded me that tennis is on because only a few days ago I discovered the fun of watching it on TV. All I’d known of the lingo were ad in and ad out and that love means zero, gleaned mostly from crosswords. Now I was determined to find out what the scoring meant. Three sets, not games; games make up the sets that make up the match. It’s still so hot out that I’m back to decluttering the house, deciding what to keep, what to donate, and what to trash accompanied by tennis commentary. The downside of all this education is pausing to watch. Often.
I saw Nadal’s racket bounce up and hit his nose. YIKES. After Serena’s amazing play in round 2 against the number 2 seed in the world and her steadfastness in round 3, the commentators were talking about the longest match ever, at Wimbledon in 2010. I went in search of details and read a lovely tale about this incredible match here.
So I am becoming a tennis-ophile and hope in future I will be able to ace any tennis crossword clues.
@Loren 12:26 am – Wonderful word ladder for BEE-EATER!
Three completely unfamiliar things in the west doomed me:Bad Brains, Bikini Kill, and Wyatt CENEC (or possibly CENEC Wyatt). So I wound up with DEarLY crossing CaNAC and rUNK BANDS.
Our Y got new weight machines and I had trouble with the AB machine causing me to hunch over and strain my back so today I asked for an ABTEST and they showed me how to reset the range. No lie!
@Pete Loved your story. Have a brother like that, too. Ignore anon trolls.
I thought it was weird that the first part of the themers could not stand alone. Imagine, though, the work involved in making each diagonal word start in the row below or above and having stand alone words both at the beginning and the end...
PS: I'd never heard of a floor worm dance (LOL your comment about this, @Loren 12:26 AM) and on Googling I came across this clip from the Graham Norton Show of Michael Fassbender showing Jessica Chastain, Diane Keaton, and Kevin Bacon how to ace the worm, and in a suit no less!
@Euclid. Really? I was not born yesterday BUT I’d like to think I’m relatively intelligent. If a clue says “early civilization” do you diss people for not answering Maya and instead putting in Aztec? Should I have known Eniac was not just a wacky name and an acronym? Possibly. But I’m 67. Under your theory the majority of our population was born yesterday. Perhaps you were born in the Stone Age. “Early” as a descriptor is not “beyond the pale” in my mind.
Looked like a fun puzzle, had a good start going and then ran into CILANTRO, and had to stop, as I have an allergy.
If I could have kept going I would have said that I knew Yale LARY and know very well what a BACKDOOR SLIDER is and how I thought CLAMBED was the past tense of CLAMB, but none of this was possible since I just couldn't go on.
Nice job, probably, TG. Looks like you're a Theme Genius, but in the future, you can put in the NRA or even Mr. Amin, but please leave out the CILANTRO.
Thank you.
Appropriate ending to your post considering Alistair Sim played Scrooge.
The actor is well known by people who like classic movies, though. I think it is fair for a Sunday.
Remember that the first computer programmer was a woman, Lady Adam Lovelace, in the 1840s, for Babbage's (virtual) Analytical Engine. Much later, IBM was created by TJ Watson after leaving NCR Corp whose products, cash registers, can be considered early computers, going back to the 1880s
Clammimg is a big thing in Southern New England, As a kid, we routinely searched for clams-the most popular being quahogs- in shallow water, in the middle of summer, in bathing suits. But if you are doing it commercially in all kinds of weather, you most definitely need something like muckers!
Longtime clammer here. If you wear muck boots clamming near me, you’ll end up with an empty basket. Gotta go barefoot!
Forgot to mention that a local organization runs housing for AA people called ALFRE, which is all I see when faced with that combination of letters
@Anonymous (7:19)
I once wrote a popular science book about computing and discovered that there’s considerable debate about what should be considered the very first computer (whether general- or special-purpose, whether electronic or not). There's ENIAC, but there are at least half a dozen other candidates, some with strong claims, including the Analytical Engine (by Babbage, but not operational until the 1990s), the Zuse Z3 and Z4 (electro-mechanical rather than electronic, by Zuse and colleagues in Germany); the Atanasoff–Berry Computer in Iowa (special-purpose and not programmable); and the Colossus Mark 1 and Mark 2 in the UK (special-purpose, by Flowers, Turing, et al. at Bletchley Park). We tend to say that ENIAC was the first computer, but what we really mean was that it was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer; sometimes we add that it was programmable, but that was only by physical rewiring. Awkward.
The NCR cash registers you mention would considered special-purpose calculators rather than computers, though they obviously have influenced how we think about computing.
Hysterical!
@TJS - My parenthetical wasn't enough?
@Pete - As I've answered your questions, please answer mine: What is so damned wrong with you that you would take time out of your life to call me a liar, when you know absolutely 0, none, nada, nil, facts about the situation I described?
I assume that's rhetorical...
@Beezer - Nice comparison. Basically, the "early" fooled lots of experts and it seems they want to blame the clue rather than acknowledge they were tricked. TBF, "early" is pretty ambisexual.
@11:17 - "Not a thing" and similar phrases are opinions. Akin to "not crossworthy," both shorthand for not known widely enough to be in a crossword. This is different than saying an answer is "wrong" or a clue is "wrong." Personally, I think A/B TESTing is a thing. And also just as interesting a thing as AP Tests, i.e. not interesting.
But that's not what I shake my head at repeatedly. Someone runs across a clue/answer pair. It looks wrong to them. Before exclaiming, "it is wrong," I suggest they do a quick search on uncle google. Maybe it's a usage they're unfamiliar with. Maybe they know the technical meaning but it is in the language with a different meaning. Maybe it is something they do know but just didn't occur to them. Almost always the clue/answer is fine. Personally, I try to remember to go one step farther and ask here how that clue/answer works.
FWIW - Rex recanted on "not a thing" today (but not on it being a boring answer).
@Zed - Yeah 99.8% rhetorical, but I held out faint hope that we could get insight into the thinking of someone who would take time out of their life to question the validity of a tale that was, at its core, "several yahoos go duck hunting and almost get stuck in the swamp". You wouldn't want that?
@Anon Nothing I've said was wrong. I didn't specify sunrise time, you did. I didn't say anything about NWR rules, except that we had to be sure to keep out of the NWR. We stayed at a family friend's house in Tuckerton, and launched the boat at a lot we had access to, which was in Brigantine. That's why we traveled from Tuckerton to Brigantine. We also traveled from Brigantine back to Tuckerton that night. Because we wanted to go to sleep. My father did what he could because as a 40yo man with his two sons in the boat, that's what decent men do. I did what I could. My brother didn't. Everything about this story was true.
You however, haven't explained the source of your obvious personality disorders.
Rex, thanks for including the inages you found of Clam Beds…best laugh I’ve had in a long time!
Tracy's puzzles are always top-notch, fun with smiles on solvers' faces if no sweat rings in their armpits. And her clues? Those are what set her apart, because she never settles for 'good enough' ...
Count me in the Glad to see ABTEST … but I’m in marketing and so this was far from obscure. I suspect many entrepreneurs who aren’t schooled in marketing per se, eg the millions who aspire to land on Shark Tank, are aware of it. Though in the hyper-algorithmic era where advertising on Google and Facebook especially enable a business to test dozens if not hundreds of variables, the “AB” aspect of AB testing is already kind of quaint. A throwback to direct mail marketing.
Certainly not the WURST puzzle on a Sunday. Had its ups and downs.
I finished it - now have to check it and re-check that yo-yo theme. Some rather intriguing connections... My face was the EVILSTEPSISTERS. Couldn't see how that was going to fit in - hah!
Lambo added his MEWS
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Those stepsisters had me going for a while in the center: couldn't figure out the adjective. Wanted UGLY; no, WICKED; doesn't fit...even tried TWIN. And yet after, EVIL seems so stupidly easy...brain works weird anymore.
Other than that it was easy, once I learned to flatten out the endings. I had an extra, annoying -ARY across the top (summit?) of the NE for a while, in addition to the second line, where it belonged.
I've seen worse Sundays; par.
YBGBB
GGGGG! Eagle!!
CREEP IAMB
NO NASTIES SIDEISSUES in it,
'TIS the DREAMER iin the mirror,
EVILS ARGONNE in a MINUTE
with HOT STEPSISTER KEIRA.
--- LORD LINUS WALKER
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