Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (***for a Monday***)
THEME: HANG IN THERE (58A: "Stick with it!" ... or a hint to the answers to the starred clues) — places about which you might say, "yeah, you can (literally) hang in there": Theme answers:
CLIMBING GYM (17A: *Indoor bouldering locale)
COAT CLOSET (11D: *Room by the foyer, often)
ART GALLERY (27D: *Place to buy a painting)
MAN CAVE (37A: *Male equivalent of a she-shed)
Word of the Day: RAGLAN (40A: Kind of sleeve that extends to the collar) —
A raglan sleeve is a sleeve that extends in one piece fully to the collar, leaving a diagonal seam from underarm to collarbone.
It is named after Lord Raglan, the 1st Baron Raglan, who is said to have worn a coat with this style of sleeve after the loss of his arm in the Battle of Waterloo.
The raglan mid-length sleeve is a popular undergarment (worn under the jersey) for baseball teams in MLB. (wikipedia)
• • •
Is a closet a "room"???? How big are y'all's closets, anyway? Never in my life would've thought to call a closet a "room," but I guess it's got four walls and a door, so maybe you can lawyer your way into a justification. Anyway, "room" definitions aside, I thought this was a remarkably clever theme. Take a familiar phrase, do some wordplay, shazam! If you can pull it off, it's golden. Gotta get a themer set that works *and* that fits symmetrically, but if you can tick all those boxes, you're good to go. You're not done though. You still gotta build a grid that you can fill cleanly, and then, you know, fill it cleanly. And this one's as clean as a whistle. That's two exceptional Monday puzzles in a row. Good stuff. True, I tend to blow through the Monday too quickly to notice whatever the heck is going on with the theme, and that was true today as well, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the gimmick once I'm done and properly paying attention. I've never heard of a CLIMBING GYM. Really really wanted CLIMBING WALL, which I've definitely heard of. But apparently they have whole "gyms" filled with things to "climb," who knew? Well, besides a bunch of you, I mean. The COAT part of COAT CLOSET feels arbitrary, but you gotta make your answers symmetrical somehow, and if COAT works, it works. HALL CLOSET feels like more of a thing to me, but maybe the idea is that a COAT CLOSET really brings home the idea of "hanging." Whereas who knows what you've got in your HALL CLOSET!? Shoes, board games, yoga mats, bowling balls ... you can't hang those!
MAN CAVE remains one of those gendered things that makes my skin crawl a little. Like, what does your little playroom have to do with your manhood, exactly? And she-shed is somehow worse? Like, did you really need an equivalent concept? Women should have caves and men should have sheds and people should have their own rooms if they want, whatever, gendering rooms is bizarre. Not sure I'd've gone with INS when "IN" is already "IN" the revealer, but two-letter prepositions are pretty innocuous, as dupes go. It was just BISCUIT Week on "The Great British Bake-Off," so the British word for "cookie" was fresh on my mind. I was just watching "The Rockford Files" before I came upstairs to solve, so that's probably how I would've clued (James) GARNER if I'd been given the chance. There's not much room for stand-out non-theme fill today, but as I say, the grid is so smooth it hardly matters, and anyway BOLSTER and DEMOTAPE and DOGSAT are plenty nice. No real sticking points today besides the theme answer stuff I already mentioned. Oh, "PINCH ME!," forgot to mention that answer—also a good one. I would say a PEAR is very-much-not round, so that clue was weird (56D: Not-quite-round fruit), but I still got the answer easy enough. OK, PEACE out, see you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Congrats to constructor and wonderful human being Brooke Husic on completing the Berlin MARATHON yesterday!
i'm not a huge personal update sharer but 4.5 yrs ago an orthopedic surgeon told me i might never run again b/c of an injury, last year i had two (2) foot surgeries for that same injury, and today i ran the berlin marathon (WR courtesy his GOATness @EliudKipchoge) ❤️🩹 pic.twitter.com/W83MYXv7uI
Medium. I once knew RAGLAN but need a cross or two today, plus I always blank on spelling BISCUIT, and I got fooled by the OVATION clue. Cute, smooth and solid, liked it a bunch and Jeff at Xwordinfo gave it POW.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #746 was tougher than last week’s for me. Lotsa tricky cluing plus some semi-obscure names. Good luck!
Advice to Sancho Panza: Grab your BURRO and get your ASS to a CLIMBING GYM. And while you’re at it, go on a LOCAL diet.
I assume that many will comment on the fabulous Janis Ian who is not a character on Mean Girls. Is there a connection? Is it just random that a Mean Girls character has this name. It seems unlikely that a new movie would have a character named, for example, Joan Baez without some intention. Sorry for my ignorance. I don’t mean to LEAPAT IAN. I’ll look it up so that by the time I’m crucified as an ignoramus by the commentariat I will not actually be ignorant. [I Wikied it before posting. The connection between the Janis Ian’s is quite intentional. So don’t flail me].
At the risk of forcing Z-sympathizers to abandon this blog, I’ll ask if a congratulatory gesture to a newly pregnant woman might be called an OVATION?
I’ve got to congratulate Brooke Husic on her marathon. I didn’t know anything about your hardships, Brooke. But you are a fantastic constructor! I also forgot to congratulate Rex on yesterdays 16th birthday. Your blog is what motivates me to get out of bed and start my day.
I liked this puzzle a lot. A theme that hangs together but isn’t repetitive or predictable is a real Monday accomplishment. Thanks, Margaret Seikel.
Rex, you haven't heard the term CLIMBING GYM? If I type "climbing" into Google, it's the fifth suggestion (right after just "climbing", ironically) and CLIMBING WALL is nowhere to be seen.
Anyway, did this by only looking at the down clues and all went well except for the upper right where I had AIDE but nothing else. Finally COAT CLOSET saved the day but I agree with Rex it's not usually a room (walk-in closets are, but I bet only the one percenters have one near their foyer). And the themers really helped fill in some blanks with the crosses.
I just thought of a new clue for OMEGA: Greek letter that looks like headphones.
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0; QB streak now at 12 straight, a new record! Last word was a 7er.]
Hah! HANG IN THERE. How many times have I given this anemic encouragement to someone going through a hideous time. Read between the lines, and it can mean Man, this is really awful and I feel so bad for you and I don’t think this will end well but I’m at an utter loss as to what I can do to help and I really have to go now.
I had never heard of a CLIMBING GYM, either. The best part of my solve was by far finally understanding the HANG part of MAN CAVE. At first I was like, What do they hang in there? Dart boards? Wet socks? Baseball caps? I just shrugged and went on and about 10 seconds later it hit me. Nice.
Ok, people. The country club where I worked had a COAT CLOSET right off the foyer, and it was a full-on room. Well, actually now that I think about it, we called it the cloak room, so I guess the flap can continue. I did poke around - most definitions call a closet a “small room,” but it does feel weird.
IAN is timely; Floridians, batten down the hatches.
Kinda fun to have BATS hanging down over in the southwest. Do bat houses have little hanging rods inside?
PETA – I’ve always loved the quote, The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
The clue for FORT reminded me of my childhood in Chattanooga, when Joann H and I were constantly making plans to build a fort somewhere so we could have a war against Davey M and Eric N. That these forts never actually were built mattered not one bit. As long as Davey and Eric knew about their impending demise and began scrambling with fort plans of their own, all was well. Obviously, this was before social media had been invented; nowadays kids can orchestrate the demise of their friends from the safety and comfort of their own couch.
I know I’ve told this story before, but, speaking of Davey. . . I was really, truly a SLY kid. Once I was sitting in my backyard on the swing with a bowl and spoon Mom had thrown at me as she kicked me out of the house and locked the door. (I exaggerate, but not much.) I was stirring dirt and water together when Davey came around the corner. This calm came over me, and I knew exactly how to play it. Davey led off:
That’s not chocolate. Me: [deep unwavering gaze into Davey’s eyes and speaking very slowly]. You’re right, Davey. It’s not chocolate. Davey: Is that chocolate? Me: No. Davey: That’s chocolate! I want a bite! Me: It’s not chocolate, Davey. Davey: Give me a bite!
I did, and he ran home crying. He went on to Duke and is a doctor now.
@egs. OVATION. HAR! But that got me to thinking (always dangerous), why do we congratulate women for being pregnant or having a baby, or men who have become fathers? There is no accomplishment here. It's a natural function. We don't congratulate people for breathing or eating. Not being snarky here. Just an observation.
My favorite clues from last week (in order of appearance):
1. Washer dryer? (4)(5) 2. Something not to look after? (4) 3. Not in bounds (3)(4)(2)(1)(4) 4. You'd prefer to have service in it (6) 5. Final participant (6)
The best news of course is learning the privileged elite of Crosslandia have entire rooms next to their foyers for coats. I am looking forward to hanging my opera cape in mine of the future, but first I feel I must find the passion to p-shaw loose use of ELVISH and ELVEN. (The stuff that works y'all into a tizzy!)
Pinch Me Tins:
Pretty little OPAL, a fierce and loyal LOCAL, moved to Manitoba to sip her milk in Boba. The "TOUCH UP tea shop" there, she called her FORT LAIT LAIR. She'd ride her BURRO "BOLSTER" (ALAS what an ass!) then take a TRAM up to the BALTICS to gobble up -- or maybe down -- BISCUITS like they're Triscuits (She used her triceps dontcha know.) The GIST of this was to upholster the she-shed she called a MAN CAVE. (Cuz sheds 'r' fer suckers SLOTTED in sass). She hoped to OPT OUT of her SUITE URGE to opt in to Motel OMEGA with the cute bodega near the OCEAN with a DOG named Dave. In her mental MARATHON she manufactured "PINCH ME TINS" in AUTO ARM RESTS for ART GALLERIES, and all the anti-SOBER patrons with senses a-TILT and tax-eaten salaries could listen agape to DEMO TAPES and hear their lives wilt then ERODE on the road.
Uniclues:
1 That which follows the sound of a body thudding on concrete. 2 Ironic holy meal. 3 For some, 2 pm to 5 pm every day. 4 The unassailable belief life is going to work out just fine with a belly full of spaghetti. 5 Liberal arts professor assuring students the poem is better than it seems.
I got stuck using States as the Monoply Ave. I consider that set the purples, and the first one someething else - like Blue Violet. Learned raglan today which was nice.
Learned what RAGLAN means - no surprise that I didn’t know something about clothes or fashion cuz pretty much everything else I know about those two topics I learned from CrossWorld (or watching Miranda Priestly). Could have done without the L.A. TAR pits reference (one step above a random county in Some State, USA) - but Monday crosses came to the rescue. Was also confused at first about how MAN CAVE fit in with the themers and finally had the aha experience.
Actually fastest Monday this year. Cute theme - elegantly tight and well filled. Like the horizontal and vertical themers. HANG IN THERE is an apt revealer. No issue with MAN CAVE.
The BISCUIT x BALTIC cross was cool as was the BURRO/ASS combo. Not drunk is a little obtuse and GAD is a little unfortunate.
Zipped through this too fast and got to the revealer, which I didn't see coming, yay, and then went back to try to figure it out. The thing is I missed the stars (asterisks) by the Down clues entirely and thought two themers was pretty thin, even for a Monday. My bad. I blame this on doing the puzzle without my reading glasses.
Hand up for CLIMBINGGYM?? Around here we have climbing walls, and that's it, that's the list.
I have heard COATCLOSET forever, but it may be regional.
M&A has a wealth of possibilities in the moo-cow department today. I'd vote for La Brea ___Pits, with the accompanying helpful geographical description.
Very nice Monday indeed, MS. Muy Smooth and thanks for all the fun.
Now to find Croce and the New Yorker Monday (the hard one). Ah, the joys of retirement.
I've never seen "Mean Girls" and I'm old enough to have had a Janis Ian (the singer) album--the one with her big hit "At Seventeen" on it. Encouraged by @egsforbreakfast, I went to Dr. Google, who sent me down a rabbit hole of "Mean Girls" fan blogs, all of which sounded like this:
"Anyway, if you've ever wondered where Janis Ian (portrayed brilliantly by Lizzy Caplan) got her very unique name and personality, it wasn't just because Tina Fey is a creative genius: Fey ACTUALLY got the name from the real singer-songwriter Janis Ian, whose hit song, "At Seventeen," is ACTUALLY playing in the background of a scene in the film. The song itself ACTUALLY kind of mirrors Ian's struggles as a social outcast." [caps mine]
Not sure I can ever forgive Meghan Morris or @egs. My brain is still twitching.
Oh--and yes, @LMS: cloakroom, right? Amazon and Wayfair both accept "coat closet" as a search item and then display wardrobes, armoires, "portable clothes closets," rolling garment racks, and lockers. Bit of a stretch. A very fine Monday puzz, nonetheless.
Piazza, square or marketplace in an Italian town or city. The word is cognate with the French and English “place” and Spanish “plaza,” all ultimately derived from the Greek plateia, “broad street.” The most celebrated Italian piazza is that designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
Pizza has a long history. Flatbreads with toppings were consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. (The latter ate a version with herbs and oil, similar to today's focaccia.) But the modern birthplace of pizza is southwestern Italy's Campania region, home to the city of Naples.
@OffTheGrid - yes, but not compared to an apple, orange, blueberry, grapreruit, grape, peach, melon, cherry, plum, etc. Bananas (and their plantain brethren) are the rare exception that is even less round than a pear.
Amy: Rex, how was the movie? My last condo had a walk in closet. Current condo, about the same size as the former, does not. Very happy with more actual living space. A surplus of storage area encourages the accumulation of Too Much Stuff. Zippy Monday. Very interesting info about Mean Girls and Janis Ian. Thanks!
Love a Monday with some crunch and sparkle. And a perfect 'aha' reveal when the GAD cross was my last entry before the jingle.
Another hand up for thinking wall before gym. @LMS I generally appreciate PETA's aims, but honestly if we could substitute 'children' for 'animals' I'd be much more on board, or at least agree the statement was true. Also firmly believe the middle seat gets both armrests - lol, guess today's puzzle triggered several pet peeves, as I don't much care for mancaves or shesheds either. But a fun start to the week, especially after yesterday's slog.
Like most Monday puzzles, I appreciate they can be solved in less time than a late week puzzle. So thumbs up from me today.
The coat closet in the Hudson Museum (Yonkers) is a walk-in. The one whee the NY Philharmonic plays was a quite large walk-in. (I say large because I will not be at the reconstructed one until next month.) While patrons are often required to drop off their coats at a station, the closets themselves let the attendants walk around in them. Seems odd to me that associating closets with rooms threw some people, who I guess avoid places like museums. Granted, such places may not be by a foyer.
The metaphorical use of hanging in MAN CAVE didn't bother me, mainly because I hadn't noticed that MAN CAVE was a theme answer. But in any case, you could argue that while the other three themers all refer to some sort of suspension, the suspension takes place in very different ways, so we really have four different senses of the word. Good enough for me at least.
Lots of minithemes here: Shakespeare plays, baldly clued foreign words and letters, among others. (Meaning, I can't think of any more.)
I no longer have a Monopoly set, but I'd say BALTIC Avenue was lilac. But then, I'm a bit colorblind.
Well, that was a lovely start to the week. Come here and find out about yet another way that Brooke Husic is a more accomplished, better human being than I. Great.
Nothing but plaudits for the puzzle, above and beyond the musings about coat room/cloak room/coat closet, and was there really ever such a sizeable population of cloak, rather than coat, wearers among those with separate areas in their house to require a cloak room rather than a coat room?
well... because most humans haven't evolved much past the time(s) when the globe was under-populated, 99.44% of the globe's population were subsistence farmers (I'm talking to you Red States), armies were always being raised and decimated, and thus breeding was of primary concern.
well... thanks a lot! I guess I haven't done a game since before then. the only other change I remember, much earlier IIRC, was the elimination of the metal tokens for plastic ones.
A superlative Monday puzzle, with it's clever theme, lovely layout, and wealth of fun-to-write-in answers. What can HANG? Things - coats, artworks - and people, in two different ways; I enjoyed that joke. More pleasures in GARNER, RAGLAN, BISCUIT, BOLSTER, TOUCH UP and PINCH ME. OVATION seems like a good word of the day for this one.
Autos = CARS What to call a knight = SIR "Much ADO About Nothing" Follow as advice = HEED Faces a pitcher = BATS
Well, duh, now. You don't say. Cluing like this, even on a Monday, sets my teeth on edge. If I'd wanted to, I could have planned NASA's next space venture at the same time I was solving this puzzle.
Rather a pleasant puzzle. The solve was very smooth and the answers were fresh. I'll keep an eye out for Margaret Seikel.
The Rockford Files, eh, Rex? I remember it, but I consider myself too young to know whether that was a good show. Wouldn't have figured you for a Me TV watcher. (Lemme see: I would watch an old Columbo, and also Quincy, M.E. but only ironically.)
@Anonymoose I'd say "congratulations" can be used for more than just recognizing an accomplishment. Noun: words expressing praise for an achievement or good wishes on a special occasion. (And who knows: maybe getting pregnant did take a concerted effort on the happy couple's part!)
Fun puzzle. Couldn’t figure out the theme while solving. Looking at GYM, CLOSET, GALLERY. and CAVE, i thought it had something to do with different kinds of places, but couldn’t see how they were connected. So, when i got to the revealer, it was a satisfying aha.
Is a closet a room? I have a friend who once lived in a studio apartment and used her closet as a place to sleep, so I’m sure she thought of it as a room. After being “in the closet” for a couple of years, she came out as gay and married her girlfriend. Now she lives in a big house with a master bedroom.
Worked in a counterclockwise direction starting in the NW, CLIMBING my way back to the GYM.
As for 'I before E, except after C', the mnemonic I learned was 'neither financier seized either species of weird leisure'. At the time, I think I/we believed these were the only exceptions. lol
RAGLAN was a WOE; needed all the crosses.
Built lots of FORTS: wood, cardboard, 'snow', blankets over chairs, but 'pillows'?? Didn't think of sofa cushions, but, yes, I guess that works for 'pillows'. 🤔
Fun exercise; I HuNG IN THERE all the way. PEACE out!
Thx @jae; on it! 🤞 ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
As you all know, I write my first comment without looking at any other comments. Now that I read the other comments I see I'm a real outlier today. Most of you quite liked this. And while it's hard for me to understand exactly why -- other than an admittedly admirable lack of proper nouns -- I must bow to the Wisdom of the Crowd and assume that I'm missing something.
There was a LOCAL ITALIAN who DOG SAT for us. Everyone knew him because he'd ride his BURRO while eating a BISCUIT out of a TIN. One time we caught him peeking in the COAT CLOSET in my husband's MAN CAVE. WE asked him why...He said HANGING IN THERE was an OIL of GARNER...an ITEM that needed no TOUCH UP. He said he would sit in the ARMCHAIR and feel the URGE to ADO. He'd tell us that It needed to HANG in an ART GALLERY where one could SECRETE IDYLL and feel at PEACE. We called our friend, PEAR, at the CLIMBING GYM ART GALLERY on BALTIC Ave. He yelled "PINCH ME"...the OIL NERDS just REDID the RAGLAN room! You need to ! "Why you SLY little APE" said the ITALIAN who DOG SAT for us and rode a BURRO while eating a BISCUIT. "I didn't TILT MY CAP nor ACT like ALLS well that ends well." " I did BOLSTER the IDYLL OIL in your COAT CLOSET, and now, SIR...I'm the one who needs the standing OVATION!" I had the URGE to LEAP AT his SlOTTED PEAR SHAPED ASS...but would HEED my SOBER self. I didn't call PETA on him( even though he fed our DOG some of his ITALIAN BISCUIT)... I had to HANG IN THERE because my RULE of thumb was PEACE. Because I'm not a SLY APE, I bequeathed him the OIL of GARNER HANGing in the CLIMBING GYM ART GALLERY on BALTIC Ave. ALAS, In this ERA of LIES, the BATS in the Belfry had to be LAIT to rest. They were...and ALLS well that ends well....Happy feet.
Cute MonPuz theme. Thank heavens MIKEPENCE was not a themer. Nuthin much left old M&A hangin, in this rodeo. Only sorta no-know was RAGLAN.
staff weeject pick: GAD, they were all pretty day-um respectable little ones, today … sooo … GAD. Nice weeject stacks in the NE & SW, btw. fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Like pizzas and piazzas} = ITALIAN.
fave longer stuff: PINCHM&E. TOUCHUP. MARATHON. BISCUIT. BATS also hangin around [yo, @Muse darlin].
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Seikel darlin. Primo job. Rest of the week could still be real good, even tho this puz got the POW, on account of it settin a high bar to hang on. Sooo … 58-Across, folks.
Had an English instructor (HS or college; don't remember) who bitterly mused that English (American version, even more so) is a language only of exceptions. Drives civilized humans from other languages over the edge.
Knew a recent immigrant from Latin America (don't recall which country, and before it was anti-American to be here) who called it 'Coal-got-tay Tooth-pahs-tay'. Much chuckling was had by all.
Nancy, you're absolutely right. An absolute dud. Another reminder that Jeff Chen's POW is meaningless in terms of solving enjoyment.
For those if you who enjoyed it, God bless you. It would seem that you get fun out of filling all those blank squares with letters. I need some mental stimulation.
I know what it means to hang in a man cave but it is not the same kind of hang as in the other theme answers. Grew up in the South. People call the closet by the front door , in the entry, a coat closet. When you came to house to “call” your coat was put there. Also it was where family coats were kept — a handy place to grab a coat when going out in the cold.
TTrimble: "I'd say "congratulations" can be used for more than just recognizing an accomplishment. Noun: words expressing praise for an achievement or good wishes on a special occasion."
Yes. We congratulate people on their birthdays! (Though not in so many words, in English.) It's an example of something completely matter of fact, but a milestone.
For some reason my solve was ultra-slow this morning. Perhaps that COATCLOSET was a HANG up. OTOH, though my house doesn't have such a closet, lots of older houses do, right next to the foyer, though I grew up calling it the hall. It's where you grab a parka or raincoat before going out in the weather.
We did have, maybe still do have, a CLIMBING GYM. My oldest daughter was a regular there, in high school, and ended up working there one summer. I was never tempted to try that sort of CLIMBING. On the other hand, I went often, as a child, to the La Brea TAR PITS. There was a neat museum next to the PITS that featured the dinosaurs and the like that had been found there. Next door is the County Art Museum. Both are on land that was once part of Rancho La Brea. And in the old days, La Brea Boulevard was Restaurant Row, in LA. Lawry's was there, and a real favorite with me.
To any of you who rely on Chef Chen's POW to determine what *you* like or should like . . . . . you do realize it's all subjective, right? No reason to get in a tizzy.
Surprised a few of you had never even heard of a climbing gym. Why, there's even one in Johnson City, which is just outside of Binghamton . . . . .
Thought today was just a lovely little gem.. Easy peasy, but hey it's a Monday.
I guess I’m the only person who didn’t know that @nancy writes their comments before reading any of the others. So, I am exception to that statement they made about everyone knowing their practice. . Also didn’t know they were a rocket scientist. Shame on me!
It's funny what stops you in your tracks and what doesn't. I didn't turn a hair at a CLOSET being called a room (even though my own closets are all quite diminutive), but I said aloud "GADding isn't aimless!" I think GADding often has quite specific aims -- widespread, intense socializing or, in the case of travel, seeing as much as possible in a limited time. There's undoubtedly superficiality to GADding, but that's different from aimlessness. I have heard of CLIMBING GYMS but was stopped by "bouldering" in the clue. I don't know rock climbing lingo, and was interested that bouldering eschews ropes in favor of "only your climbing shoes and a crashpad to break your landings." Ouch! I think I'll take up spelunking. And, to rev up the nitpicking to the next level, I think SLOTTED needs an "in" [Found a place for on the schedule]. Mind you, that would pile onto INS and HANG IN, so maybe not.
I had two overwrites: RotE before RULE (I guess I was thinking about committing the RULE to memory and reciting it) and "crux" before GIST (when I had nothing else in the center). I thought the revealer was spot on -- I didn't mind more than one inflection of HANGing. And I liked the horizontal/vertical interlace of themers and revealer. Pleasant puzzle, fun solve.
Oh, and TILT-A-Whirl brings to mind a number of woozy trips down the midway. OK, OK, TMI.
@Tale Told By an Idiot (yesterday): I'm glad you're back here and back to better health.
[SB: 0 yd. My last word continues @okanaganer's culinary theme.
Fun Monday! There have been several makeup clues recently, and I’m here for it. Is it sick and wrong that I wish one of the theme answers was GALLOWS or similar?
Rex, Your Cali upbringing has let you down. Again. The closet at the end of our foyer was called the coat closet and nothing else. An earlier posted noted he was from the South but having grown up in the Mid-Atlantic and lived in New England, coat closet is a common term in many placed above The Mason Dixon line.
Cloak rooms are indeed the ones described by @LMS. My daughter made crazy tips working the one at The Met during her Starving Actor ERA. And she loved to describe the lavish things she secured for the lavish people.
On the other hand, and although technically defined as a COAT ROOM, I personally have never had one off my foyer or anywhere else that didn’t turn into the junk room where we hang coats. Mine is full of coats as well as my hanging collection of knitting needles, a four drawer filing cabinet full to the brim of “important stuff”, and the floor holds boots and cat carriers and god only knows what else. Shameful admission of the day. Sometimes I feel that I substitute this blog for the confessional. Whew; shameful admission number two.
Smooth, tight theme, excellent Monday. And I only know Brooke Husic as one of my favorite constructors, but send my personal and very sincere congratulations on her marathon finish. Very impressive.
In the midst of my teen years (long ago), a distant cousin in California mailed our family my father's diary from his teen years in LA. It was pure gold for a teenaged son, to read about his dad going parking to "neck" with a girl at the La Brea TAR Pits. Made my dating life considerably easier.
Nice puzzle; we called them COAT CLOSETs all my life and thanks to our passion for colloquial shortcuts in American English, I'd say the MAN CAVE is a literal location to HANG IN.
@Joaquin 3:58 - Z is living his life quite normally, but without the presence of the NYT crossword in it, which he no longer wishes to support financially or otherwise.
I once had a MAN CAVE. It had a pool table and some GYM equipment. I loved to HANG OUT there. The rest of the house was furnished and decorated by my partner and was her she castle with a walk-in CLOSET big enough to swing a couple of baseball BATS in.
Isn't 14A BURRO ("Donkey used as a pack animal") and 38D ASS ("Stubborn animal") the same creature, i.e., a donkey? In my world the epitome of a stubborn equine would be a mule. An internet search of "stubborn as a" has mule first with bull, ox and goat showing up before donkey.
I join those who would like more difficult, challenging clues in early week puzzles, but that's an editorial decision to attract noobies. The theme was tight and the grid admirably clean--deserving of an OVATION really---so it was just the thing to welcome xword newcomers into the cruciverbial congregation.
Hi @nancy and @egsforbreakfast, I am Anon. @ 1:12. .Sorry if. I offended y’all with my comment. Let me explain. I am a longtime fan of the NYT xword and just within the past 5 or 6 months have read this blog. I have found the comments particularly interesting, They can be quite clever and indeed educational ; however, . I found the comment by @nancy to terribly pompous. So, I zipped off my comment .I shouldn’t have done so and apologize especially to @nancy. I was definitely wrong. Please accept my sincere apology.
I didn’t mean to be funny with use of “they.” I used that form because I do not know @nancy .
Recent empty nester. I post this from my MAN CAVE, which includes a reclining chair, a big screen TV, a wet bar with a fridge, and a nearby toilet. My wife has the she-shed, i.e. rest of the house lol.
Yes there are Bats hanging in the extreme SE. And yes @Anoa people as old as us would hang out places. Sometime in the 70's or 80's I guess they began just to hang or be hangin'. But those BATS would still hang in a bAtCAVE or even a bAttreE. For BATCAVE we need only trade ANN for ANT and make up a charity event consisting of the 24 hour hitting marathon called BATATHON. Which then forces us to change the hanging BATS to hanging HATS and of course HOLSTER. Then all we have left is the unique in crossword history: The Double-LAIT Problem.
Damn damn damn. I don't know how you constructors do it. My HATS and BATS off to all of you.
Agree with @Nancy. Several clues made me cringe. The grid and fill were decent enough. The clues? Blame the editor.
@Anonymous 6:54 PM Regret after the fact of one's posting is a familiar feeling, so don't kick yourself too much. (The "they" pronouns in particular should not be cause for said kicking, but in @Nancy's case, I think you're safe with she/her/hers.) All I'd say is that Nancy tells it like she sees it without any pomposity. You can agree or disagree, and I don't think she would ever hold it against you.
As I see it, she's complaining about the cluing, and it's never clear to me how much of that is in control of the puzzle "designer" (constructor). I get the impression that a lot of that is on the editorial side. Nancy, as a constructor herself, would have some insight into this. But a lot of today's answers, as such, were nice I thought.
got the first two down themers and was sure it was all going to be literally hanging up and down clues so a tad disappointed — also found it duller than Rex did, a first !
Nice and neat. A perfect Monday offering. I think Rex is missing something in his review about 11D. Room in this case is about space not an actual room - like a living room e.g. Unless you’re Sara Jessica Parker a closet is usually not a room. But it can be a space which offers room for your coats and other things. It’s a SLY double-meaning that appears to have gone over his head. Nice one for newbie solvers. Standing (and/or sitting) OVATIONs go out to Margaret Seikel.
--> It has a theme that remains well hidden until the revealer puts it all together, plus that revealer is a bang-on, in-the-language phrase.
--> Its fill is free of desperation. Symmetrical downs pair off nicely: One might hear an ITALIAN OVATION at La Scala; here's a DEMOTAPE of my MARATHON. (Just kidding on that last; I can't even walk that far.)
--> SLY clues for OVATION and PINCHME spice things up a bit, while still fitting Monday ease.
--> It wasn't so easy that I'd escape without a writeover: had petSAT instead of the more specific DOGSAT.
In honor of My EAGLES remaining undefeated, give this one an eagle.
Wordle birdie; eagle wannabe but for a wrong either/or guess:
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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81 comments:
Medium. I once knew RAGLAN but need a cross or two today, plus I always blank on spelling BISCUIT, and I got fooled by the OVATION clue. Cute, smooth and solid, liked it a bunch and Jeff at Xwordinfo gave it POW.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #746 was tougher than last week’s for me. Lotsa tricky cluing plus some semi-obscure names. Good luck!
Advice to Sancho Panza: Grab your BURRO and get your ASS to a CLIMBING GYM. And while you’re at it, go on a LOCAL diet.
I assume that many will comment on the fabulous Janis Ian who is not a character on Mean Girls. Is there a connection? Is it just random that a Mean Girls character has this name. It seems unlikely that a new movie would have a character named, for example, Joan Baez without some intention. Sorry for my ignorance. I don’t mean to LEAPAT IAN. I’ll look it up so that by the time I’m crucified as an ignoramus by the commentariat I will not actually be ignorant. [I Wikied it before posting. The connection between the Janis Ian’s is quite intentional. So don’t flail me].
At the risk of forcing Z-sympathizers to abandon this blog, I’ll ask if a congratulatory gesture to a newly pregnant woman might be called an OVATION?
I’ve got to congratulate Brooke Husic on her marathon. I didn’t know anything about your hardships, Brooke. But you are a fantastic constructor! I also forgot to congratulate Rex on yesterdays 16th birthday. Your blog is what motivates me to get out of bed and start my day.
I liked this puzzle a lot. A theme that hangs together but isn’t repetitive or predictable is a real Monday accomplishment. Thanks, Margaret Seikel.
Rex, you haven't heard the term CLIMBING GYM? If I type "climbing" into Google, it's the fifth suggestion (right after just "climbing", ironically) and CLIMBING WALL is nowhere to be seen.
Anyway, did this by only looking at the down clues and all went well except for the upper right where I had AIDE but nothing else. Finally COAT CLOSET saved the day but I agree with Rex it's not usually a room (walk-in closets are, but I bet only the one percenters have one near their foyer). And the themers really helped fill in some blanks with the crosses.
I just thought of a new clue for OMEGA: Greek letter that looks like headphones.
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0; QB streak now at 12 straight, a new record! Last word was a 7er.]
Breathe there a solver with soul so dead
Who hath never on a Monday said,
"Read the %#&^%#@ clue"
Spent way too much time trying to understand [Indoor boRdering locale].
A good time despite my own idiocy.
Hah! HANG IN THERE. How many times have I given this anemic encouragement to someone going through a hideous time. Read between the lines, and it can mean Man, this is really awful and I feel so bad for you and I don’t think this will end well but I’m at an utter loss as to what I can do to help and I really have to go now.
I had never heard of a CLIMBING GYM, either. The best part of my solve was by far finally understanding the HANG part of MAN CAVE. At first I was like, What do they hang in there? Dart boards? Wet socks? Baseball caps? I just shrugged and went on and about 10 seconds later it hit me. Nice.
Ok, people. The country club where I worked had a COAT CLOSET right off the foyer, and it was a full-on room. Well, actually now that I think about it, we called it the cloak room, so I guess the flap can continue. I did poke around - most definitions call a closet a “small room,” but it does feel weird.
IAN is timely; Floridians, batten down the hatches.
Kinda fun to have BATS hanging down over in the southwest. Do bat houses have little hanging rods inside?
PETA – I’ve always loved the quote, The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
The clue for FORT reminded me of my childhood in Chattanooga, when Joann H and I were constantly making plans to build a fort somewhere so we could have a war against Davey M and Eric N. That these forts never actually were built mattered not one bit. As long as Davey and Eric knew about their impending demise and began scrambling with fort plans of their own, all was well. Obviously, this was before social media had been invented; nowadays kids can orchestrate the demise of their friends from the safety and comfort of their own couch.
I know I’ve told this story before, but, speaking of Davey. . . I was really, truly a SLY kid. Once I was sitting in my backyard on the swing with a bowl and spoon Mom had thrown at me as she kicked me out of the house and locked the door. (I exaggerate, but not much.) I was stirring dirt and water together when Davey came around the corner. This calm came over me, and I knew exactly how to play it. Davey led off:
That’s not chocolate.
Me: [deep unwavering gaze into Davey’s eyes and speaking very slowly]. You’re right, Davey. It’s not chocolate.
Davey: Is that chocolate?
Me: No.
Davey: That’s chocolate! I want a bite!
Me: It’s not chocolate, Davey.
Davey: Give me a bite!
I did, and he ran home crying. He went on to Duke and is a doctor now.
@egs. OVATION. HAR! But that got me to thinking (always dangerous), why do we congratulate women for being pregnant or having a baby, or men who have become fathers? There is no accomplishment here. It's a natural function. We don't congratulate people for breathing or eating. Not being snarky here. Just an observation.
Nice Monday puzzle. Jeff's POW, in fact.
“Man cave” is a common phrase people know, one that gently pokes fun at manly men. No need to be humorless about all the things :)
My favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Washer dryer? (4)(5)
2. Something not to look after? (4)
3. Not in bounds (3)(4)(2)(1)(4)
4. You'd prefer to have service in it (6)
5. Final participant (6)
BATH TOWEL
LEAP
ONE STEP AT A TIME
TENNIS
TESTEE
Zippy little Monday. Only had four hang ups. Har.
The best news of course is learning the privileged elite of Crosslandia have entire rooms next to their foyers for coats. I am looking forward to hanging my opera cape in mine of the future, but first I feel I must find the passion to p-shaw loose use of ELVISH and ELVEN. (The stuff that works y'all into a tizzy!)
Pinch Me Tins:
Pretty little OPAL, a fierce and loyal LOCAL,
moved to Manitoba to sip her milk in Boba.
The "TOUCH UP tea shop" there,
she called her FORT LAIT LAIR.
She'd ride her BURRO "BOLSTER"
(ALAS what an ass!)
then take a TRAM up to the BALTICS
to gobble up -- or maybe down --
BISCUITS like they're Triscuits
(She used her triceps dontcha know.)
The GIST of this was to upholster
the she-shed she called a MAN CAVE.
(Cuz sheds 'r' fer suckers SLOTTED in sass).
She hoped to OPT OUT of her SUITE URGE
to opt in to Motel OMEGA
with the cute bodega
near the OCEAN with a DOG named Dave.
In her mental MARATHON
she manufactured "PINCH ME TINS"
in AUTO ARM RESTS for ART GALLERIES,
and all the anti-SOBER patrons
with senses a-TILT
and tax-eaten salaries
could listen agape to DEMO TAPES
and hear their lives wilt
then ERODE on the road.
Uniclues:
1 That which follows the sound of a body thudding on concrete.
2 Ironic holy meal.
3 For some, 2 pm to 5 pm every day.
4 The unassailable belief life is going to work out just fine with a belly full of spaghetti.
5 Liberal arts professor assuring students the poem is better than it seems.
1 CLIMBING GYM ADO
2 SLY NERDS SEDER
3 SOBER MARATHON
4 ITALIAN PEACE
5 IDYLL OVATION
I got stuck using States as the Monoply Ave. I consider that set the purples, and the first one someething else - like Blue Violet. Learned raglan today which was nice.
Either MAN CAVE is an outlier in that it uses a completely different meaning of HANG, or I don't get it.
Bizarre clue for PEAR, which is I'd say less close to round than most fruits.
RAGLAN on a Monday!
Agree! The others use the literal meaning, but MAN CAVE uses it metaphorically, right? Nonetheless, a fun puzzle overall :)
Learned what RAGLAN means - no surprise that I didn’t know something about clothes or fashion cuz pretty much everything else I know about those two topics I learned from CrossWorld (or watching Miranda Priestly). Could have done without the L.A. TAR pits reference (one step above a random county in Some State, USA) - but Monday crosses came to the rescue. Was also confused at first about how MAN CAVE fit in with the themers and finally had the aha experience.
A PEAR seems close to round when compared to a banana. Hope that helps.
Actually fastest Monday this year. Cute theme - elegantly tight and well filled. Like the horizontal and vertical themers. HANG IN THERE is an apt revealer. No issue with MAN CAVE.
The BISCUIT x BALTIC cross was cool as was the BURRO/ASS combo. Not drunk is a little obtuse and GAD is a little unfortunate.
On RAGLAN Road on an autumn day
Enjoyable Monday solve.
Zipped through this too fast and got to the revealer, which I didn't see coming, yay, and then went back to try to figure it out. The thing is I missed the stars (asterisks) by the Down clues entirely and thought two themers was pretty thin, even for a Monday. My bad. I blame this on doing the puzzle without my reading glasses.
Hand up for CLIMBINGGYM?? Around here we have climbing walls, and that's it, that's the list.
I have heard COATCLOSET forever, but it may be regional.
M&A has a wealth of possibilities in the moo-cow department today. I'd vote for La Brea ___Pits, with the accompanying helpful geographical description.
Very nice Monday indeed, MS. Muy Smooth and thanks for all the fun.
Now to find Croce and the New Yorker Monday (the hard one). Ah, the joys of retirement.
@kitschef -- think "hang" as in"hey bruh, whaddaya doing tonight -- we should hang."
Fast and fun. Just what the Monday ordered!
I've never seen "Mean Girls" and I'm old enough to have had a Janis Ian (the singer) album--the one with her big hit "At Seventeen" on it. Encouraged by @egsforbreakfast, I went to Dr. Google, who sent me down a rabbit hole of "Mean Girls" fan blogs, all of which sounded like this:
"Anyway, if you've ever wondered where Janis Ian (portrayed brilliantly by Lizzy Caplan) got her very unique name and personality, it wasn't just because Tina Fey is a creative genius: Fey ACTUALLY got the name from the real singer-songwriter Janis Ian, whose hit song, "At Seventeen," is ACTUALLY playing in the background of a scene in the film. The song itself ACTUALLY kind of mirrors Ian's struggles as a social outcast." [caps mine]
Not sure I can ever forgive Meghan Morris or @egs. My brain is still twitching.
Oh--and yes, @LMS: cloakroom, right? Amazon and Wayfair both accept "coat closet" as a search item and then display wardrobes, armoires, "portable clothes closets," rolling garment racks, and lockers. Bit of a stretch. A very fine Monday puzz, nonetheless.
Piazza, square or marketplace in an Italian town or city. The word is cognate with the French and English “place” and Spanish “plaza,” all ultimately derived from the Greek plateia, “broad street.” The most celebrated Italian piazza is that designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome.
Pizza has a long history. Flatbreads with toppings were consumed by the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. (The latter ate a version with herbs and oil, similar to today's focaccia.) But the modern birthplace of pizza is southwestern Italy's Campania region, home to the city of Naples.
@OffTheGrid - yes, but not compared to an apple, orange, blueberry, grapreruit, grape, peach, melon, cherry, plum, etc. Bananas (and their plantain brethren) are the rare exception that is even less round than a pear.
Amy: Rex, how was the movie?
My last condo had a walk in closet. Current condo, about the same size as the former, does not. Very happy with more actual living space. A surplus of storage area encourages the accumulation of Too Much Stuff.
Zippy Monday. Very interesting info about Mean Girls and Janis Ian. Thanks!
Love a Monday with some crunch and sparkle. And a perfect 'aha' reveal when the GAD cross was my last entry before the jingle.
Another hand up for thinking wall before gym. @LMS I generally appreciate PETA's aims, but honestly if we could substitute 'children' for 'animals' I'd be much more on board, or at least agree the statement was true. Also firmly believe the middle seat gets both armrests - lol, guess today's puzzle triggered several pet peeves, as I don't much care for mancaves or shesheds either. But a fun start to the week, especially after yesterday's slog.
Like most Monday puzzles, I appreciate they can be solved in less time than a late week puzzle. So thumbs up from me today.
The coat closet in the Hudson Museum (Yonkers) is a walk-in. The one whee the NY Philharmonic plays was a quite large walk-in. (I say large because I will not be at the reconstructed one until next month.) While patrons are often required to drop off their coats at a station, the closets themselves let the attendants walk around in them. Seems odd to me that associating closets with rooms threw some people, who I guess avoid places like museums. Granted, such places may not be by a foyer.
At one time peoples homes were taxed by the number of rooms they had and closets were considered rooms and that may have led to the use of armoires.
Hey All !
Well, if you have a CLIMBING wall in your MAN CAVE, then it meshes.
Nice puz, Jeff's POW. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the week. Clean fill, which is always nice.
@LMS
Got a chuckle out of your P(OPT)ARTS. Your mud/chocolate story seems to be missing a bit twixt running home and being a Doctor. 😜 Har
HANG IN THERE, y'all. It's only Monday. PEACE out, ya NERDS.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
The metaphorical use of hanging in MAN CAVE didn't bother me, mainly because I hadn't noticed that MAN CAVE was a theme answer. But in any case, you could argue that while the other three themers all refer to some sort of suspension, the suspension takes place in very different ways, so we really have four different senses of the word. Good enough for me at least.
Lots of minithemes here: Shakespeare plays, baldly clued foreign words and letters, among others. (Meaning, I can't think of any more.)
I no longer have a Monopoly set, but I'd say BALTIC Avenue was lilac. But then, I'm a bit colorblind.
A nice start to the week.
This was everything a Monday puzzle should be. And I completed it in just a few seconds under my average Monday time. Thanks, Margaret!
the proper term, which couldn't be used with the clue as written, is CLOAK ROOM. used to was that politicians cut their deals in such places.
Well, that was a lovely start to the week. Come here and find out about yet another way that Brooke Husic is a more accomplished, better human being than I. Great.
Nothing but plaudits for the puzzle, above and beyond the musings about coat room/cloak room/coat closet, and was there really ever such a sizeable population of cloak, rather than coat, wearers among those with separate areas in their house to require a cloak room rather than a coat room?
@Anonymoose:
well... because most humans haven't evolved much past the time(s) when the globe was under-populated, 99.44% of the globe's population were subsistence farmers (I'm talking to you Red States), armies were always being raised and decimated, and thus breeding was of primary concern.
Oh, and by the way, BALTIC Avenue has been brown since 2008, which makes me wonder how long this puzzle has been in the queue.
@kitshef:
well... thanks a lot! I guess I haven't done a game since before then. the only other change I remember, much earlier IIRC, was the elimination of the metal tokens for plastic ones.
I know it's annoyingly pedantic, but "La Brea Tar Pits" always grates on me, as it translaes to "The Tar Tar Pits."
A superlative Monday puzzle, with it's clever theme, lovely layout, and wealth of fun-to-write-in answers. What can HANG? Things - coats, artworks - and people, in two different ways; I enjoyed that joke. More pleasures in GARNER, RAGLAN, BISCUIT, BOLSTER, TOUCH UP and PINCH ME. OVATION seems like a good word of the day for this one.
Autos = CARS
What to call a knight = SIR
"Much ADO About Nothing"
Follow as advice = HEED
Faces a pitcher = BATS
Well, duh, now. You don't say. Cluing like this, even on a Monday, sets my teeth on edge. If I'd wanted to, I could have planned NASA's next space venture at the same time I was solving this puzzle.
This is Jeff's POW???!!! Good grief!!!
Rather a pleasant puzzle. The solve was very smooth and the answers were fresh. I'll keep an eye out for Margaret Seikel.
The Rockford Files, eh, Rex? I remember it, but I consider myself too young to know whether that was a good show. Wouldn't have figured you for a Me TV watcher. (Lemme see: I would watch an old Columbo, and also Quincy, M.E. but only ironically.)
@Anonymoose
I'd say "congratulations" can be used for more than just recognizing an accomplishment. Noun: words expressing praise for an achievement or good wishes on a special occasion. (And who knows: maybe getting pregnant did take a concerted effort on the happy couple's part!)
Fun puzzle. Couldn’t figure out the theme while solving. Looking at GYM, CLOSET, GALLERY. and CAVE, i thought it had something to do with different kinds of places, but couldn’t see how they were connected. So, when i got to the revealer, it was a satisfying aha.
Is a closet a room? I have a friend who once lived in a studio apartment and used her closet as a place to sleep, so I’m sure she thought of it as a room. After being “in the closet” for a couple of years, she came out as gay and married her girlfriend. Now she lives in a big house with a master bedroom.
Thx, Margaret, you RULE! :)
Med.
Worked in a counterclockwise direction starting in the NW, CLIMBING my way back to the GYM.
As for 'I before E, except after C', the mnemonic I learned was 'neither financier seized either species of weird leisure'. At the time, I think I/we believed these were the only exceptions. lol
RAGLAN was a WOE; needed all the crosses.
Built lots of FORTS: wood, cardboard, 'snow', blankets over chairs, but 'pillows'?? Didn't think of sofa cushions, but, yes, I guess that works for 'pillows'. 🤔
Fun exercise; I HuNG IN THERE all the way. PEACE out!
Thx @jae; on it! 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
As you all know, I write my first comment without looking at any other comments. Now that I read the other comments I see I'm a real outlier today. Most of you quite liked this. And while it's hard for me to understand exactly why -- other than an admittedly admirable lack of proper nouns -- I must bow to the Wisdom of the Crowd and assume that I'm missing something.
This architect has no problem with COAT ROOM, when was the last time you wore a cloak? (Outside of a Halloween party.)
I just can’t with the Mancave rant…������
There was a LOCAL ITALIAN who DOG SAT for us. Everyone knew him because he'd ride his BURRO while eating a BISCUIT out of a TIN.
One time we caught him peeking in the COAT CLOSET in my husband's MAN CAVE. WE asked him why...He said HANGING IN THERE was an OIL of GARNER...an ITEM that needed no TOUCH UP. He said he would sit in the ARMCHAIR and feel the URGE to ADO. He'd tell us that It needed to HANG in an ART GALLERY where one could SECRETE IDYLL and feel at PEACE.
We called our friend, PEAR, at the CLIMBING GYM ART GALLERY on BALTIC Ave. He yelled "PINCH ME"...the OIL NERDS just REDID the RAGLAN room! You need to ! "Why you SLY little APE" said the ITALIAN who DOG SAT for us and rode a BURRO while eating a BISCUIT. "I didn't TILT MY CAP nor ACT like ALLS well that ends well." " I did BOLSTER the IDYLL OIL in your COAT CLOSET, and now, SIR...I'm the one who needs the standing OVATION!" I had the URGE to LEAP AT his SlOTTED PEAR SHAPED ASS...but would HEED my SOBER self. I didn't call PETA on him( even though he fed our DOG some of his ITALIAN BISCUIT)... I had to HANG IN THERE because my RULE of thumb was PEACE.
Because I'm not a SLY APE, I bequeathed him the OIL of GARNER HANGing in the CLIMBING GYM ART GALLERY on BALTIC Ave.
ALAS, In this ERA of LIES, the BATS in the Belfry had to be LAIT to rest. They were...and ALLS well that ends well....Happy feet.
Cute MonPuz theme. Thank heavens MIKEPENCE was not a themer.
Nuthin much left old M&A hangin, in this rodeo. Only sorta no-know was RAGLAN.
staff weeject pick: GAD, they were all pretty day-um respectable little ones, today … sooo … GAD. Nice weeject stacks in the NE & SW, btw.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Like pizzas and piazzas} = ITALIAN.
fave longer stuff: PINCHM&E. TOUCHUP. MARATHON. BISCUIT. BATS also hangin around [yo, @Muse darlin].
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Seikel darlin. Primo job. Rest of the week could still be real good, even tho this puz got the POW, on account of it settin a high bar to hang on. Sooo … 58-Across, folks.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
@bocamp:
these were the only exceptions. lol
Had an English instructor (HS or college; don't remember) who bitterly mused that English (American version, even more so) is a language only of exceptions. Drives civilized humans from other languages over the edge.
Knew a recent immigrant from Latin America (don't recall which country, and before it was anti-American to be here) who called it 'Coal-got-tay Tooth-pahs-tay'. Much chuckling was had by all.
@Nancy. I doubt you missed anything. Some people like more crunch on Monday, that's all. Those who commented on difficulty thought it was easy.
Nancy, you're absolutely right. An absolute dud. Another reminder that Jeff Chen's POW is meaningless in terms of solving enjoyment.
For those if you who enjoyed it, God bless you. It would seem that you get fun out of filling all those blank squares with letters. I need some mental stimulation.
I know what it means to hang in a man cave but it is not the same kind of hang as in the other theme answers. Grew up in the South. People call the closet by the front door , in the entry, a coat closet. When you came to house to “call” your coat was put there. Also it was where family coats were kept — a handy place to grab a coat when going out in the cold.
TTrimble: "I'd say "congratulations" can be used for more than just recognizing an accomplishment. Noun: words expressing praise for an achievement or good wishes on a special occasion."
Yes. We congratulate people on their birthdays! (Though not in so many words, in English.) It's an example of something completely matter of fact, but a milestone.
For some reason my solve was ultra-slow this morning. Perhaps that COATCLOSET was a HANG up. OTOH, though my house doesn't have such a closet, lots of older houses do, right next to the foyer, though I grew up calling it the hall. It's where you grab a parka or raincoat before going out in the weather.
We did have, maybe still do have, a CLIMBING GYM. My oldest daughter was a regular there, in high school, and ended up working there one summer. I was never tempted to try that sort of CLIMBING. On the other hand, I went often, as a child, to the La Brea TAR PITS. There was a neat museum next to the PITS that featured the dinosaurs and the like that had been found there. Next door is the County Art Museum. Both are on land that was once part of Rancho La Brea. And in the old days, La Brea Boulevard was Restaurant Row, in LA. Lawry's was there, and a real favorite with me.
I just love it when a whole paragraph of my Monday Dishonorable Bulwer thoughts gets lost in crossword nethers.
To any of you who rely on Chef Chen's POW to determine what *you* like or should like . . . . .
you do realize it's all subjective, right? No reason to get in a tizzy.
Surprised a few of you had never even heard of a climbing gym.
Why, there's even one in Johnson City, which is just outside of Binghamton . . . . .
Thought today was just a lovely little gem.. Easy peasy, but hey it's a Monday.
I guess I’m the only person who didn’t know that @nancy writes their comments before reading any of the others. So, I am exception to that statement they made about everyone knowing their practice. . Also didn’t know they were a rocket scientist.
Shame on me!
It's funny what stops you in your tracks and what doesn't. I didn't turn a hair at a CLOSET being called a room (even though my own closets are all quite diminutive), but I said aloud "GADding isn't aimless!" I think GADding often has quite specific aims -- widespread, intense socializing or, in the case of travel, seeing as much as possible in a limited time. There's undoubtedly superficiality to GADding, but that's different from aimlessness. I have heard of CLIMBING GYMS but was stopped by "bouldering" in the clue. I don't know rock climbing lingo, and was interested that bouldering eschews ropes in favor of "only your climbing shoes and a crashpad to break your landings." Ouch! I think I'll take up spelunking. And, to rev up the nitpicking to the next level, I think SLOTTED needs an "in" [Found a place for on the schedule]. Mind you, that would pile onto INS and HANG IN, so maybe not.
I had two overwrites: RotE before RULE (I guess I was thinking about committing the RULE to memory and reciting it) and "crux" before GIST (when I had nothing else in the center). I thought the revealer was spot on -- I didn't mind more than one inflection of HANGing. And I liked the horizontal/vertical interlace of themers and revealer. Pleasant puzzle, fun solve.
Oh, and TILT-A-Whirl brings to mind a number of woozy trips down the midway. OK, OK, TMI.
@Tale Told By an Idiot (yesterday): I'm glad you're back here and back to better health.
[SB: 0 yd. My last word continues @okanaganer's culinary theme.
I’d say that the most celebrated Italian piazza is Piazza San Marco of Venice, being that it’s actually, y’know, in Italy.
@M&A Grim ref to the former VP!
Fun Monday! There have been several makeup clues recently, and I’m here for it. Is it sick and wrong that I wish one of the theme answers was GALLOWS or similar?
[SB: yd, @Barbara S that was my 2nd last word.
Mon.: 0, no foods today. My last 2 words. QB streak now at 13 straight!]
I may be many things, Anon 1:12, but a "they" certainly isn't one of them. What an odd, odd, odd comment.
I had assumed "Bouldering" was made up under crossword license. Sad to know it's a real term.
@Nancy 2:48 pm. Perhaps FAE?
Just kidding’ around. I have no idea what the Anon was doing either. It probably thinks it’s funny.
Rex,
Your Cali upbringing has let you down. Again. The closet at the end of our foyer was called the coat closet and nothing else. An earlier posted noted he was from the South but having grown up in the Mid-Atlantic and lived in New England, coat closet is a common term in many placed above The Mason Dixon line.
Cloak rooms are indeed the ones described by @LMS. My daughter made crazy tips working the one at The Met during her Starving Actor ERA. And she loved to describe the lavish things she secured for the lavish people.
On the other hand, and although technically defined as a COAT ROOM, I personally have never had one off my foyer or anywhere else that didn’t turn into the junk room where we hang coats. Mine is full of coats as well as my hanging collection of knitting needles, a four drawer filing cabinet full to the brim of “important stuff”, and the floor holds boots and cat carriers and god only knows what else. Shameful admission of the day. Sometimes I feel that I substitute this blog for the confessional. Whew; shameful admission number two.
Smooth, tight theme, excellent Monday. And I only know Brooke Husic as one of my favorite constructors, but send my personal and very sincere congratulations on her marathon finish. Very impressive.
In the midst of my teen years (long ago), a distant cousin in California mailed our family my father's diary from his teen years in LA. It was pure gold for a teenaged son, to read about his dad going parking to "neck" with a girl at the La Brea TAR Pits. Made my dating life considerably easier.
Nice puzzle; we called them COAT CLOSETs all my life and thanks to our passion for colloquial shortcuts in American English, I'd say the MAN CAVE is a literal location to HANG IN.
I was off for a couple of days so I may have missed it, but ... has the whereabouts of Z/Zed been determined?
@GILL I. 11:26 AM
LAIT to rest. 🙃
@Joaquin 3:58 - Z is living his life quite normally, but without the presence of the NYT crossword in it, which he no longer wishes to support financially or otherwise.
Thanks, @kitshef. Guess I missed the announcement.
I once had a MAN CAVE. It had a pool table and some GYM equipment. I loved to HANG OUT there. The rest of the house was furnished and decorated by my partner and was her she castle with a walk-in CLOSET big enough to swing a couple of baseball BATS in.
Isn't 14A BURRO ("Donkey used as a pack animal") and 38D ASS ("Stubborn animal") the same creature, i.e., a donkey? In my world the epitome of a stubborn equine would be a mule. An internet search of "stubborn as a" has mule first with bull, ox and goat showing up before donkey.
I join those who would like more difficult, challenging clues in early week puzzles, but that's an editorial decision to attract noobies. The theme was tight and the grid admirably clean--deserving of an OVATION really---so it was just the thing to welcome xword newcomers into the cruciverbial congregation.
Hi @nancy and @egsforbreakfast, I am Anon. @ 1:12. .Sorry if. I offended y’all with my comment. Let me explain. I am a longtime fan of the NYT xword and just within the past 5 or 6 months have read this blog. I have found the comments particularly interesting, They can be quite clever and indeed educational ; however, . I found the comment by @nancy to terribly pompous. So, I zipped off my comment .I shouldn’t have done so and apologize especially to @nancy. I was definitely wrong. Please accept my sincere apology.
I didn’t mean to be funny with use of “they.” I used that form because I do not know @nancy .
Recent empty nester. I post this from my MAN CAVE, which includes a reclining chair, a big screen TV, a wet bar with a fridge, and a nearby toilet. My wife has the she-shed, i.e. rest of the house lol.
Yes there are Bats hanging in the extreme SE. And yes @Anoa people as old as us would hang out places. Sometime in the 70's or 80's I guess they began just to hang or be hangin'. But those BATS would still hang in a bAtCAVE or even a bAttreE. For BATCAVE we need only trade ANN for ANT and make up a charity event consisting of the 24 hour hitting marathon called BATATHON. Which then forces us to change the hanging BATS to hanging HATS and of course HOLSTER. Then all we have left is the unique in crossword history: The Double-LAIT Problem.
Damn damn damn. I don't know how you constructors do it. My HATS and BATS off to all of you.
Agree with @Nancy. Several clues made me cringe. The grid and fill were decent enough. The clues? Blame the editor.
@Anonymous 6:54 PM
Regret after the fact of one's posting is a familiar feeling, so don't kick yourself too much. (The "they" pronouns in particular should not be cause for said kicking, but in @Nancy's case, I think you're safe with she/her/hers.) All I'd say is that Nancy tells it like she sees it without any pomposity. You can agree or disagree, and I don't think she would ever hold it against you.
As I see it, she's complaining about the cluing, and it's never clear to me how much of that is in control of the puzzle "designer" (constructor). I get the impression that a lot of that is on the editorial side. Nancy, as a constructor herself, would have some insight into this. But a lot of today's answers, as such, were nice I thought.
Some puzzles I love and some I don’t, but I don’t fall onto a fainting couch or post three times or take offense if others disagree.
PS, I liked this one 😉
Agree!
got the first two down themers and was sure it was all going to be literally hanging up and down clues so a tad disappointed — also found it duller than Rex did, a first !
HEED URGE
MY MANCAVE's A LAIR,
A NERD'S GALLERY where
SUITE ANN showed me a PEAR
to TOUCH just HANGIN'THERE.
--- SIR ERIC GARNER
Nice and neat. A perfect Monday offering. I think Rex is missing something in his review about 11D. Room in this case is about space not an actual room - like a living room e.g. Unless you’re Sara Jessica Parker a closet is usually not a room. But it can be a space which offers room for your coats and other things. It’s a SLY double-meaning that appears to have gone over his head. Nice one for newbie solvers. Standing (and/or sitting) OVATIONs go out to Margaret Seikel.
EDIT - Make that Sarah (with an H) for SJP…
This is a good puzzle. Here's why:
--> It flows. Nothing choked off.
--> It has a theme that remains well hidden until the revealer puts it all together, plus that revealer is a bang-on, in-the-language phrase.
--> Its fill is free of desperation. Symmetrical downs pair off nicely: One might hear an ITALIAN OVATION at La Scala; here's a DEMOTAPE of my MARATHON. (Just kidding on that last; I can't even walk that far.)
--> SLY clues for OVATION and PINCHME spice things up a bit, while still fitting Monday ease.
--> It wasn't so easy that I'd escape without a writeover: had petSAT instead of the more specific DOGSAT.
In honor of My EAGLES remaining undefeated, give this one an eagle.
Wordle birdie; eagle wannabe but for a wrong either/or guess:
GYBBB
GGBGG (rats!)
GGGGG
Easy puz.
Wordle par.
Bummed no World Series tonight.
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