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Pioneering journalist who helped expose McCarthyism / WED 9-28-22 / Margarine whose ads once featured a talking tub / Team that signed to join the Big Ten in 2024 / BTS's V Suga and RM e.g. / Clergy house / Word that commentators may extend to five or more seconds
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Constructor: Jeff Stillman
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- WILLIAM [H.] MACY (17A: "Fargo" actor)
- ALFRED [E.] NEUMAN (20A: Mad magazine symbol)
- EDWARD [R.] MURROW (58A: Pioneering journalist who helped expose McCarthyism)
- CHUCK [E.] CHEESE (62A: Rodent with a restaurant chain)
Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe for the news division of CBS. During the war he recruited and worked closely with a team of war correspondents who came to be known as the Murrow Boys.
A pioneer of radio and television news broadcasting, Murrow produced a series of reports on his television program See It Now which helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, Bill Downs, Dan Rather, and Alexander Kendrick consider Murrow one of journalism's greatest figures. (wikipedia)
• • •
The bigger, much bigger, problem is the fill, which is consistently weak despite two pairs of cheater squares (these are the black squares that do not change the answer count, the ones added to a grid solely to make filling easier—today, see the black squares after STAR and CARB, before CLAY and ROMP). It's a fairly dense theme, so I give the puzzle a little leeway where shorter junk is concerned, but there's an awful lot. Cheater squares should be used if they get you from iffy to smooth, but these appear only to have gotten the grid to iffy. Not sure why I'm seeing AHME and ALII and UPC CNET SSE, then AHS (when we Already Have an AH in AHME!? Such an easy fix, too ... baffling); then ISAY DAW SYS in one unfortunate clump, then that INLA LAALAA stack, my god, and then NRC YOHO (you use a cheater square and all it gets you is ... YOHO!?). Working my way through this grid was kind of a chore, with very few interesting or even smooth patches to brighten the journey.
I'm not sure about this COMMON SENSE clue (9D: Not standing in an open field during a lightning storm, say). I mean, yeah, that sounds like a bad idea, but I think COMMON SENSE would tell you to seek shelter under a tree and that is *definitely* the wrong thing to do. People died in DC this summer for that very reason. I distrust people's ideas of what COMMON SENSE is. But I suppose on a literal level, yes, COMMON SENSE does say come in (into a building) out of the storm, you weirdo / golfer. Not finding it easy to make LET and [Gave the OK] mean the same thing. That is, I'm trying to find the sentence where I can swap them out. I LET her = I gave the OK *to* her ... hmmm ... "Gave the OK" can just stand on its own, where LET is a transitive verb ... I'm sure there's a way to get them to line up perfectly, but the clue just feels off to me right now. Possibly coffee will help. To that end ... see you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Bonus Content: here's the first page of the MAD paperback pictured above:
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98 comments:
I liked the theme a lot more than @Rex did. I finished, realized that the missing initials spelled HERE and thought "Cute." The fact that middle initials were missing didn't bother me at all. My only non-typo overwrite was at the very beginning, 1D: Sum (up) before SEW (up), EASES-ly corrected.
Since I dispatch the fill-in-th-blanks first, my solving path doesn't go west to east, north to south. Early on, I saw that CHUCK E CHEESE wouldn’t fit and glanced up to make sure it’s Wednesday. Shrugged, left it blank. A minute later I ran into the same problem with WILLIAM H MACY, so I figured it out the deal, no prob, even the fact that the missing letters spell HERE. Cool. Too bad the reveal couldn’t have been plural INITIAL(s) HERE, but that’s not the phrase. I’ll take it.
Right after I guessed UCLA, I got IN LA and thought, hmm. Then LAA LAA fell. Go big, or go home, right?
“Sound at the door” – if I’m lucky enough to have my planning, I cover the little window on my door, sit at my desk, inhale my lunch, and ignore any RAP. If they need me to run cover a class, they can email or text me. Or page me. So far, whatever issue it was that brought someone to my door has been resolved. The few teachers who never call in sick pay a very dear price for those who don’t hesitate to “take a little break” from the stress.
RAIN “gear” before RAIN WEAR – bet we’re legion this morning. The change in pronunciation caught my eye. Maybe one word was firmly in place before spelling started to be really fixed. . . maybe the Great Vowel Shift can be blamed. . . maybe my 5th period is somehow involved.
“Work” the room before READ the room.
I cheerfully and regularly flout the breakfast test, but I tell ya – the portmanteau BACNE is tough. Silent prayer of thanks that so far that’s the only in-the-language dermatological portmanteau that has stuck. Go back and change CARB to “cars” and see what I mean. Hellooooo Gold Bond.
“How some regrettable actions are done” – for me, one was ON A boast. I was running around telling everyone I was gonna drop from Mrs. May’s tree limb after school. Everyone knew The Limb. No one had dared. At the appointed time, I climbed up, scooted out, and carefully lowered myself. It was at this moment, looking down, that - as they say on TikTok - “She knew. She had f**ed up.” I bet I hung there for three minutes, the small crowd of spectators yelling up at me to “Turn loose!” I finally got too tired and had to drop - it felt as if my ankles exploded into my knees. But I had to stand, hop around, and insist it didn’t hurt. It would have been smarter to eat a spoonful of mud.
Horrible puzzle. Junky fill and a dull theme, vague or slightly off clues. BACNE is a disgusting word that I hope never to see again.
Oh dear ... I have BACNE staring at me the entire solve and I am supposed to accept it like a boy in a hardware store with blue hair... "Just don't say anything," I tell myself, "it's the way of the world these days."
A few months ago I decided to enjoy every puzzle after listening to the heart-rending misery of so many on this comment section. The lachrymose turmoil over letters in squares seems at times the purview of an embarrassing social privilege, so I thought, "Well I spent 12¢ on purpose for this puzzle, let's keep our emotions squarely in line with the purchase price. Let's look for the good." It's usually easy to find.
All this is back story to my sad dilemma of being rather disappointed in this one. It's kinda fun to go into a blinding rage, convince myself there's better ways to spend time, or better puzzles, knowing full well I'd need to change my way of solving.
I like having the app. Otherwise, I'm required to wander the net looking for web puzzles on those infernal e-interfaces. It's all too much and I'm not going back to paper and pen like a barefoot hillbilly stabbing a cat fish with a sharpened twig.
So HERE we are.
Of all the words in all the gin joints, the missing initials spell... drumroll... "HERE!"
Blah.
And I love a really tortured clue now and again, since I know the delightful chorus it will provoke among our commentariopode, but there's way too many here. It'll water down our COAT CLOSET invective. The northeast was particularly gruesome.
I am writing this prior to 🦖 postıng, so we'll see if he'll help me see the positive side of this one. He's known for finding the silver linings.
Just Boo:
MIO, ESPOSA, OLE crossing NEONATE.
ALII, SSE, LAALAA, NAY, ELI, ALA, TIC, AFR, ISP, POL, AHS, NRC, UPC, ESO, DAW, SYS... it's too many. I am confident most puzzles with this kind of dreck are rejected, so why did this slide through? The strength of the theme doesn't outweigh this slush.
There's some good stuff here:
RECTORY, ANY NEWS, HOLLA (my favorite), OASIS (great clue), ROMP, ON A DARE, ALIASES, but it's not great stuff.
Okay, off to sing some SOLs... DO RE MI, dontcha 'no. HOLLA.
Uniclues:
1 Preacher's wife in Uruguay.
2 British cheerleading try-out judge explains the level of enthusiasm they're looking for.
3 Comment from one avoiding TMI with fingers in both ears, but is finally ready for the truth.
4 Price tag on galoshes. (By the way, I just learned a single rain shoe is in fact a galosh.)
1 RECTORY ESPOSA
2 "IN L.A. PEP," I SAY.
3 "LAALAA! ANY NEWS?"
4 RAINWEAR UPC (~)
Omg, you begin with a PPP theme so you know it’s probably going to be somewhere between an uphill battle an a total slog. Add in a bunch of stuff that, well you know . . . like OLE, MIO, AHME, BACNE, ESPOSA, ALII, TRE and ESO - at this point we’ve completely gone off the rails. Then just stick a knife in it with a Teletubby like LAALAA. YUK !
The theme was clever. The missing H didn't bother me but when I had to put in ALFREDNEUMAN* with no E, I mentally protested. I avoided the revealer and finally saw that middle initials were omitted with intent and they spelled HERE. What I could have done without were Teletubbies, BACNE, MIO, ENO, and HOLLA (not a word).
*When my kids were young we named our cat ALFRED(E)NEUMAN. We called him Alfie. (I think maybe @Rex's cat is Alfie)
I thought BACNE was dispositive of steroid use.
PARKAY was a gimme to this old-timer. But HOLLA? Jesus H Christ!
Liked the puzzle a lot. Learned a new word BACNE; means back acne?! Hope not to see it again. My major problem was remembering the MAD guy as ALBERT.
I think the big guy was off with the INITIAL rant but I do agree on the overall fill. Theme is fine - cute for a Wednesday. As an engineer - attorneys who depose me are never CIVIL. Gear before WEAR also.
LAA LAA? and other trivia didn’t help. It’s always midnight on the OASIS for me.
We never ate margarine but I always liked the “mantequilla” commercial for PARKAY.
I will DARE is redemptive but for today like Rex I’m looking for some COMMON SENSE
Odd solve - but pleasant enough.
I agree that the fill is horrible and the revealer is off the mark.
Also, IN LA? How is that an acceptable answer? How is that any better than, say, "In Mooselookmeguntic"? I might be ok with "in Rome", clued as "When ___". Actually, no. That sucks too.
And I have no problem with with most slang but BACNE and HOLLA? Even Google had a problem with those two. Anyone here familiar with either?
There is a scene in Fargo was when Frances McDormand gets out of the police car and leaves the door open, and the car makes that ‘bong bong bong’ noise. For me, that was the high point of the movie. (I have really, really disliked every Coen brothers movie I’ve seen.)
The high point of this puzzle was not having to guess ESPOSA or ESPOSo.
FH
Is UPC 'proof of purchase'? I think not
I saw the Fargo movie when it came out in 1996 and then saw the Netflix DVD a few weeks ago. I had probably seen it once or twice on TV in the interim. The DVD story is different from the version I had seen before. The woodchipper scenes were re-edited, I believe.
Kind of liked the theme but not enough to forgive the record number of Terrible Threes. Thirty of the pests.
Thought it was fun. Brother was a MAD fan, so I knew it was ALFRED E, puzzled over no initial, got it at MURROW. Which meant RAINWEAR went right in.
No idea: Teletubbies. Definitely not in my kids' experience. Don't know names, colors, etc. But reduplicative names are popular with kids so the second LAA not a stretch.
@someone
UPCs replaced box tops ages ago as proof of purchase.
Two things.
A: 8D does not pass the breakfast, brunch, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, supper, midnight snack, or binge eating test. I almost DNF'd just so I wouldn't have that word starring at me. As delicate as Rex's tummy has sometimes been, I thought he'd have something to say about this.
Two: Someone please explain how any square is a "cheater" square? If the grid is symmetrical, it works. "black squares that do not change the answer count, the ones added to a grid solely to make filling easier" explains nothing for me. How can one tell if a square has been added? How do those particular squares make the answers any easier? How would a lesser or greater number of black squares in those spots change the solving experience? Doesn't that depend on the nature of the clues? Maybe I'mma feel ridiculous...
Last: Distinguished, dignified, learned, respectable, no-nonsense Edward R. Murrow's real name is EGBERT. I no longer feel so bad about Martha.
@Joaquin 7:50 AM
If Jesus H. (initial HERE) Christ was down on Broadway at our beloved wreck of a used book mall doing a signing of "his" book at a little cardboard table, I'd probably stop by and pick one up even though I'd have no intention of reading it since I read it in Greek in grad school and gotta say it wasn't the page turner you'd hope. I'd imagine we'd chat as he wrote, "To Gary, All you need is love, J.H.C." Hopefully we'd share our thoughts on fishing, wine making, and the modern glory of sliced bread. Honestly, he'd be a fun resource on zombie lore. As I walked away, I'd give him a Hang 10 sign since I play ukulele and am a bit of an Hawiianophile, and say, "Holla." I think he's prolly that casual.
Well, you can't say this puzzle doesn't have a sense of humor. There's something about putting CHUCK E CHEESE in the same group of themers as EDWARD R MURROW that's pretty funny. I guess that ALFRED E NEUMAN would be the link that connects them?
Of course I don't watch commercials and I thought it was CHUCKy CHEESE. If I thought about it at all. And I have no idea who LAA LAA is.
My biggest writeover was ABS before CAN for the sixpack. Bet when I go back to check, many of you will have done the same thing.
I was IN CA before I was IN LA.
Normally I hate puzzles based on proper names, but I kinda liked this one. Probably because, with the exception of CHUCK E, they were all names I knew.
Another hand way up, btw, for having never heard of BACNE. A cutesy portmanteau for a condition that I imagine would not be amusing at all for anyone who suffers from it.
On the challenging side for me but that’s OK, I accepted it fearlessly. I liked the concept a lot and and was delighted at the missing initials being spelled out tHERE in the revealer. No problems with three out of the four themers but EDWARD tripped me up, primarily because of that SW corner. Had IN CA before LA, INCH before ARCH, could not see the SILENT P and had no idea on the curly Teletubby. (There’s one named LAALAA? I knew there was a reason I never watched.)
Then on the opposite end I had RAIN GEAR, not WEAR, so for a long time MURROW looked like MURDOG which I knew was wrong but I was desperate. And then there was HOLLA messing up the middle. Huh?? Who says that? ABS before CAN, STALLS before STANDS. I don’t get the clue for 34A. How does a commentator extend the word GOAL? Anyone? You know who could an answer that in a heartbeat? Z.
I will never - N.E.V.E.R.- understand UCLA being in the Big Ten. LET’s just throw in The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff while we’re at it. And BACNE is gross.
Hey All !
@LMS
Ouch! Terrible place to get some ACNE!
Nice ROMP through the puz. First Themer realized was CHUCK CHEESE, although, started with CHUCK E CHEES, running out of room. Hmm, says I. Then went back to ALFRED NEUMAN, having enough letters in the crossers for it to be anything else. Realized the middle INITIALs we're missy, said my "Aha", and continued on. Never went back to see the INITIALs spelt out HERE. *Whah whah*
@MarthaCatherine 8:45
I'll try to extrapolate further -
Cheater squares, as in the ones in the first Across row, after STAR and CARB, are called that because if you took them out, and had another white square in its place to be filled in, would not change the number of answers in the grid. Regular black squares are for word splitting, and would affect the total number of answers. Example, if you take out the black square after STAR, you still would have one Across answer, STARS, maybe, and one Down. SSILO (in this case, not a thing, I know, but using it for an example). So answer count stays the same. Now let's say you took the black square away after 36D, that would make 36D a longer answer, but eliminate 57D beneath it. So you go from three words (36D, 51A, 57D) to two words. Hopefully that makes sense.
Anyway, enjoyable enough puz.
C NET, C NET run. Har.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
So annoying, this repeated complaint that the revealer (or whatever) is boring because the words used, paperwork and contracts are about boring things. Stop already.
*Paperwork* is boring, but the WORD "paperwork", cleverly used in a crossword, is NOT boring.
I thought "Initial HERE" was neat and I didn't even notice the H.E.R.E. until reading this (thanks!).
So words like "meeting" or "taxes" or "homework" should never be used either?
How about a revealer of UNIVERSITY PROF LECTURE? haw.
I thought this was hard, and I didn't like a lot of the cluing. I never would have thought COMMON SENSE was the right answer for the lightning clue, because my mind also went straight to the people who died in DC this summer for trying to shelter under a tree, rather than be in the middle of an open field, which would have actually been safer. Trees attract the lightning as the tallest things around, and the lightning courses through them and around the surrounding ground. The best thing to do when your alternatives are open field or under a tree in the open field is to crouch as low as you can in the open field away from the tree. Reading this clue, I thought the answer would be something like, ONLY THING YOU CAN DO SOMETIMES, or BETTER THAN UNDER A TREE.
I didn't like other cluing either. I don't think of HOLLA as a casual greeting. People don't usually say "holla" to each other as a greeting. They say "holla at someone" to refer to saying hi to them. I don't like the "bill blocker" clue. NAY is just a down vote, but one NAY doesn't block a bill. There need to be enough NAYs to do that.
Just ugh, I thought this puzzle was a chore.
I made a mistake, but my mistake resulted in a better puzzle idea. I got the revealer but I had LIT instead of LET for "gave the OK."
I read the revealer as Initial HIRE.
I read the word HIRE as meaning HIGHER. I looked at WILLIAM MACY and if you noticed the H in the word ahead is right on top of the M in MACY. Sort of works with ALFRED E NEUMAN too as there is also an E 2 rows higher.
That would have been a good puzzle. Lit as in Green Lit. I did this after I'd fallen asleep, which is why I thought Hire was Higher.
I got got by this one hard because I assumed, even after the revealer, that the initials would be in a rebus. Agreed with your comments on the fill, which was pretty uninteresting for the most part.
It’s hard to be upset with a puzzle that has CHUCK (e) CHEESE in the fill. Except when all three of the other theme fill answers are old white dudes. Come on.
NEwMAN before NEUMAN, but I knew somehow it was spelled a bit differently. HOLLA??? BACNE?? are these made up words. Other than that, I liked the puzzle. Medium for me
(And before someone gives me a hard time about ALFREDNEUMAN… he’s from the 1930s; that dude is OLD!)
Thank you, @Roo. That helps a lot. I still don't think I would ever recognize a cheater square, though.
And Egbert is still a funny name.
I liked the theme, but was annoyed by the revealer answer INITIAL HERE because the whole point was that the initials were *not* here. I guess the H.E.R.E. makes it sort of work, but I didn’t realize that’s what was going on until I read the blog post today. I hesitated at ET ALII—I only knew ET ALIA. I put OHS instead of AHS initially (ha) because I thought there couldn’t possibly be an AH ME and an AHS in the same puzzle. As for BACNE, I thought it was a fun answer even though it denotes something less fun!
Am I the only one who had rainCOAT before wear?
Guess it all depends on the order in which one solves.
Susan B. Anthony must be wondering why there are no women represented in the theme. Maybe J.K. Rowling could write a book about it or Mary J. Blige could turn it into a song.
Clever puzzle which for me was far from easy due to all of the names. I wouldn’t know a LAALAA talking to a PARKAY Margarine Tub if I were sitting across from them on the subway. Disagree with Rex’s reaction to the revealer. I thought INITIAL HERE pulled it all together quite nicely.
I guess the people who posted early thought it was easy. This took me a long time. I figured early on that there was something with initials going on, so I put in hoWARD k smith for the journalist, based on having most of WARD. This made the bottom third difficult to get.
Thx, Jeff, and HOLLA! H E R E's to a great Wednes. puz! :)
Hard. (Thurs. time)
Troubles right off the bat; never got a groove in this one. Way off JS's wavelength.
Got started with RAP, ELI, CIVIL, PIVOTS, SOL & SILENT P; the rest of the puz was hunt and peck.
Had iamb & inCH before ARCH; ADLIB before ADHOC; MUse before MULL; coAt & gEAR before WEAR.
Knew UCLA, but it didn't help with the crosses until later in the game.
Owned a few AGATE shooters in my marble playing days, so that was one of my few gimmes.
BACNE was new.
Unfortunately, too many have tried to use trees as shelter during lightning strikes, so not COMMON SENSE for them. :(
Only got the theme post-solve; very cute and clever.
Loved this mid-week battle! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
😂
Different theme mcguffin twist. Like different. Revealer is fine, as is, in my book. INITIAL H,E,R,E is described as a "hint" to what's missin from the themers. Certainly works, at that level.
Knew all 4 themers, at our house. That always helps the cause.
A few scattered no-knows: ESPOSA. LAALAA. HOLLA. BACNE [inferable, tho]. UCLA in the Big 10.
Day-um ... the University of Illinois Math Dept. just called; they have designated "16" to now be officially known as a "big 10".
Always good to learn new stuff, tho. Especially that there crucial Teletubby info.
staff weeject picks: ISP, UPC, ASL, ESP, NRC, SSE, SIM. Initials, there. honrable mention to AFR & SYS.
Primo weeject stacks in the NW, NE, SW, & SE, btw.
Some rare faves that didn't need initializin: ANYNEWS. COMMONSENSE. PARKAY. ONADARE.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Stillman dude. Cool puz idea.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
I liked how the constructor turned a dull phrase and attendant memories of slogging through pages of initialing into something fun. Like @OffTheGrid 7:40, I accepted WILLIAM MACY without pause; it was ALFRED NEUMAN that elicited my "Wait a minute." Then the reveal went right in - loved it. Although....It would have been an extra treat if Wile E Coyote could have provided one of the Es.
Do-overs: abs before CAN (hi, @Nancy), RAINcoat. NEwMAN. Help from previous puzzles: ON A DARE. Finally no fake-out: SILENT P.
Puzz was clever and fun. Uproar over bacon ridiculous.
BACNE???
p.s.
Please stay safe, Judith O. darlin and all U other sweet Florida folks.
M&Also
Like others, I broke into a sweat at 8d, but enjoyed most of the grid because of theme/reveal. I have always been thankful that my parents used a different INITIAL instead of opting for a “Jr” designation on my birth certificate—another reason to appreciate Jeff’s contribution to Crossworld. Have to agree with Rex’s quibbles and LMS’s (ouch) insights as usual, but boy howdy did @Gary Jugert have a lead off homer! And he followed it up with enough hits to make me wonder if he’ll complete the cycle…..JHC indeed?
I loved this, fun and fresh for a Wednesday and lightly clever. Just knew Rex wouldn't like it but had to check that the curmudgeon spirit was in full force - and yup, grumpy gripes abound! 🙄
Enjoyed the theme and they way it was executed. No real problem with the reveal. Fill was mostly meh though. Ok for a Wednesday
Like Nancy tried abs before CAN. Hate BACNE.
Figured out the theme with ALFRED NEwMAN. (Which slowed me down. I blame it on Paul (Blue Eyes) Newman.) The theme felt a little flat, but props for spelling out HERE with the missing letters.
I had RAINcoAt, and RAINgEAR before RAINWEAR. Did not remember MURROW's initial and for longer than I would like his name. I'm a little too young to have been around for the McCarthy hearings, but I did see the movie, which if I recall correctly, starred cigarette smoke.
"COMMMON SENBSE is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have." -René Descartes
@Anonymous (8:30) UPC threw me at first too, but I surmised because it’s usually printed on your receipt.
@MarthaCatherine: Did not know that about the former Egbert. That is unfortunate but I think yours is a lovely name.
*Terrible* puzzle, but what else is new. Worst ones: BACNE, LAALAA. Sort of stand-alone Naticks. Again, for the umpteenth time: run the puzzles through the NYT copydesk and you'll avoid junk like this. Unless junk is the point, which seems increasingly likely.
I didn't have enough stubby fingers to continue counting the WOES heaped on me.
I found this annoyingly difficult.
First thought was "can this be a rebus?"...How does ALFRED spell his name?... I didn't know WILLIAM MACY...
Holy fried okra on a chunk of CHEESE....not only did all the threes give me the agita angst, my BACNE was acting up.
I guess you can say that people who live IN LA live in LAA LAA land. Dear lord, I'm making myself groan.
@Gary Jug 7:30...You're in fine form this AM....Please continue...
Great theme.
But...I am on vacation on the west coast and was actually eating breakfast when I filled in BACNE. Suffice to say, it didn't pass the test we like to refer to.
Easy. MUse before MULL was it for erasures. Clever/amusing theme, liked it more than @Rex did, but he’s right about the fill.
@Whatsername: Mwah!
I had a weirdly difficult moment when I persistently substituted John C. Reilly for WILLIAM [H.] MACY for god knows what reason. Unlike @kitshef, I'm a big fan of Coen brothers movies (and a bit taken aback by his emotion), and I can picture Mr. Gunderson perfectly, but I seem to have trouble with names. Every semester I have to download a bunch of new names into my cerebellum and then I jettison them forthwith when the semester is done, which, I know, isn't wise.
BACNE, that's a new one. I've watched enough Dr. Pimple Popper to be pretty inured to the thought of acne; it's more the CYST removals that make her so compelling (it's a primate grooming thing). I wonder if @LMS watches. Speaking of the viewing habits of @LMS, a new Bachelor in Paradise has started and I know you're watching, sister. Sadly for me and mia ESPOSA, newly empty-nesters, much of the fun of watching has departed and now it's up to me, not the kids, to invent nicknames and crazy back stories for all the contestants. My wife CHUCKles appreciatively, god bless her.
My grandfather just missed in life, having turned down a journalist job that went to EDWARD [R.] MURROW instead.
The puzzle did not exactly gladden me. Sort of like how that mild-mannered PARKAY tub just wound up annoying all those people who were fooled into thinking it was butter. Kind of a oddball product name to pull out for a crossword, no? First time?
A tough Wednesday for me, even knowing all of the names (though not necessarily worrying about the missing middle initials until I got to the rodent chain.)
Am I the only person who had no idea CHUCK E was a rodent? I've never been to one of those restaurants and hence am unacquainted with the logo.
I mucked up a number of short entries which added to my difficulties: @Nancy's ABS (thinking abdominals come as a set so it was okay to be plural with a singular clue), A-OK for 3D, even though when I tried making the A-OK sign, it looked nothing like an R. NEA before NRC, and wearing a RAIN coAt.
Is "slicker" a regionalism? I was going camping once with friends and reminded them to bring their slickers. I got a really funny look from one guy and had to prove, via the dictionary, that slicker meant raincoat. I grew up in far southern Minnesota; he grew up in St. Paul, a mere 100 miles away. So was it a dialect difference or just a strange lacuna in his experience? I guess I should start polling people :-).
Thanks, Jeff Stillman, for an engaging Wednesday puzzle.
Hand up for RAIN COAT.
Seeing ALFRED (E) NEUMAN reminds me of one particularly nice Mad item... they took features (eye, ear, etc) from photos about a dozen very famous people and collaged them to make a shockingly good likeness of him.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, QB streak now at 14! Pleased that I remembered this goofy 8er.]
I've a great respect for EDWARD 'R' MURROW.
Put me down as a Coen bros. enthusiast. Both MACY and Freeman played Lester Nygaard to a tee. Door to Door is my fave MACY film.
Also, an ALFRED 'E' NEUMAN fan back in the '50s and '60s.
Lots of visits to CHUCK 'E' CHEESE in the '80s. Used the party room once for my Little League team parents' meeting. Afterwards, watched 'The Natural'.
🙏s go out to all Floridians. God be with you!
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Could it be that even @Lewis can find no redeeming qualities in this piece of dreck? Really, who is making the editing decisions these days ? This is an insult.
I know several LAWYERs and most of them are unfailingly CIVIL, sociable even.
BACNE with a STY on top of a CYST? AH ME, I SAY NAY.
There were some nice touches in this one but for me they were overshadowed by the forty black squares and thirty(!) 3-letter entries. Here's the list copied and pasted from xwordinfo.com: AFR AHS ALA ASL CAN DAW ELI ESO ESP ISP LET MIO NAY NRC OLE PEP PER POL RAP SAP SEW SIM SOL SSE STY SYS TAI TIC TRE UPC.
My issue was not with the theme but much of the fill. Rex points this out. Puzzles should avoid duplicate words, e.g. ah and la when used in the context of the grid.
@Teedmn - You're not alone; I, too, had no idea that Mr. Charles (CHUCK) E. CHEESE is a rodent. Just another good reason to never go into the place.
@Gary Jugert
Comedy = Anything funny said about anyone else's religion.
Blasphemy = The same thing said about MY religion.
Generally an easy fill, but I still couldn't finish because of EDWARDMURROW. Between PARKAY (never heard of it) and NRC (more embarrassed to not have heard of this one) and the uncertainty over RAINWEAR/RAINgEAR, I was guessing it might be a variation of Murdoch. Murdog?
@bocamp- Macy’s character in Fargo was Jerry Lundegaard. Agree that both he and Martin Freeman were excellent.
I got to 17A, muttered "how am I supposed to know that?," and then realized that I did. Unlike the other three themers, I don't associate him so strongly with that H. I use a middle initial myself, but if someone calls me by my other two names, it seems fine. ALFRED (E) NEUMAN, though, is another story. I had marked it as something to complain about, until I got to the revealer. Once I understood the theme, I liked it.
But let's all pause for a moment and send kind thoughts toward Wile E. Coyote, who must be feeling terribly depressed at his exclusion. It's not his fault he's a letter too short--and for that matter, he would have fit in the center, though that would have given us HEERE --- perhaps spoken by the same announcer who prolenged GOAL. (OLE!)
@teedmn - To me, a SLICKER is indeed a raincoat, but only if it's yellow and shiny. (And RAINcoat is what I put in, as well.)
OTOH, I call a RECTORY a parsonage. Is that just denominational? Regional? Or do the two words mean different things? Beats me.
The Big Ten started to lose its meaning when they let in Penn State; but adding UCLA and USC is even worse, as it undermines the meaning of the Rose Bowl. You kids get off my lawn!
@Anonymous (2:52 PM)
D'oh! of course! I just finished watching the series, so had Nygaard on my mind. Thx for the correction. :)
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Coulda added George W Bush, but then you’d need the revealer to be INITIALWHERE. Response to a vague contract directive. Anyway, putting “W” in the puzz would have likely drawn a Rex Rant, so let’s leave good enough alone.
I went to uncle G post-solve to see what was out there about What, me worry? The phrase, as all you oldsters know, was Alfred E Neumans by-line. Turns out that the band “Portugal. The Man” has a single out called What, me worry? I’ll wait til the last Tuesday in October for Clare to tell me who “Portugal. The Man” is.
I think that our constructor must be the Wizard of AHS.
I wanted ANYspel as the answer to “What’s the latest?”
I liked the puzzle despite some clunky fill. Thanks, Jeff Stillman.
Agree. Total trainwreck. Not fun at all. Felt like a chore.
@Gary Jugert:
My Pappy's most used, and I suppose thus favorite, expression of exasperation is, as you might expect, "JHC!!!". fully spelled out, of course. IIRC, nobody knows what the H stands for.
It was Marx (Karl, not Groucho, I don't think) who opined that religion (any variety) was the opiate of the masses. Today's prosperity Gospel, which promises Pie in the Sky today (and not wait for Judgment Day when the believing live in Heaven, aka Sky) to all who believe, but, oddly enough, only the preachers live in mansions with gold faucets. Imagine that.
I rather liked this, and smiled to myself as the H E R E appeared. I also loved the COMMONSENSE clue but possibly that's because I am a curmudgeon.
Can someone explain to me why GOAL takes 5 seconds?
The H stands for Hung.
Rare mid-week comment here: I found this difficult, although I was OK with the theme.
The minutes ticking away, then finally completion... G-G-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-A-A-A-A-A-A-L!!!
Was hoping that with Z gone, our narcissistic insufferable Anonytroll would lose interest. After all Z is his enemy number 1.
I guess not.
The reason for the loud elongated cry of GOOOOOOOOOOOAL is wake up the spectators.
@Anon - Just to bypass the theology discussion, I'm offering the following to settle the Red-eyed Vireo discussion.
This paper discusses the feeding behavior as the Vireos migrate. Spoiler - they stock up on fruits & berries for energy first. As this paper specifically focused on their southward migration, and anticipating denials from The Anon as to its relevance, I contacted one of the authors to be assured they gorge on berries on the way north as well. Discussion is as follows:
Hello Phil,
Certainly, while "mainly" insectivorous, vireos eat berries a lot. During migration their diet is full of berries. Just search Google as "red--eyed vireos and berries" and click on images and you will see many photographs form random people showing their images of vireos eating berries.
Regarding the paper you mentioned about red-eyed vireos, migratory vireos in the fall they are seeing often with their bills stained of red, as they keep eating berries during stopover.
I hope this information is useful. Feel free to email if you have further questions.
Saludos
Tony Celis
Antonio Celis-Murillo, PhD (he/him/his)
U.S. Geological Survey
Eastern Ecological Science Center
Chief of the Bird Banding Laboratory
(formerly the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center/Leetown Science Center)
12100 Beech Forest Rd. Laurel, MD 20708
Phone: 217-979-7265 (teleworking)
________________________________________
From: Pete XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2022 3:32 PM
To: Celis-Murillo, Antonio
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Migrating Red-Eyed Vireos
This email has been received from outside of DOI - Use caution before clicking on links, opening attachments, or responding.
Dr Acelis-Murillo
I saw your name as a co-author of a paper, “Stopover behavior of Red-eyed Vireos” and I was hoping you could help me settle a life & death internet argument I’m having with a know-it-all amateur ornithologist.
In a comments section of, of all things a crossword blog, a woman mentioned that she regularly sees red eyed vireos in the spring migration feeding on holly berries near her house. The know it all told her she was absolutely wrong, that they only eat insects high in the canopy, because the insects are a much better food source. I tried to explain that migrating birds need energy, not protein, and while the eg producing female needs protein, and food-gathering adults need protein for them and the young, migrating birds need quick and easy energy, i.e. berries. I too was absolutely wrong. Hence my interest in the paper, i.e. when the birds finish a night of migrating they are very apt to fill up on readily available fruits.
I’m right here, no? The woman who says she sees them in Oklahoma in the spring eating berries is quite probably correct, no?
Thanks for indulging me in this.
Pete
I'm sure CDilly will be getting her apology promptly.
@Anonymous 4:18PM said to The Cleaver:
In Catholic churches, one often finds the name of Jesus Christ piously represented by the Greek contraction IHC XC, where the C represents the late-Classical form of Sigma. This is known as a Christogram (in Greek Orthodox usage, the preferred Christogram is ICXC). In partially Latinised form, the IHC component is rendered JHC or JHS. This is the origin of the interjection, which seems to imagine that H is Jesus' middle initial, and Christ his surname, rather than his title (ho khristos: the anointed.
Well, friend, this tells us much: that you are a plagiarist, inasmuch as you lifted this directly from a reply given by one John Bennett of Glasgow, Scotland, without having the common decency or courtesy of acknowledging where credit is due. The reader may verify this by clicking on this link.
Further comment seems superfluous, except I'd say you should probably take a hard look in the mirror from time to time.
Sorta easy for Wednesday I guess, but I did have a problem or two with might be the easiest part to many—the upper far right. Couldn’t think of CAN, of all things.
I enjoy the comments very much.
TTrimble,
Huh? I claim no authorship. Merely expediting Cleavers ridiculous assertion that no one knows wher the h comes from.
And of course, you don’t address that at all. As I posted, accurately, the provenance of that H in that crummy phrase is well known.
@Pete 5:44 PM
OMG! 🤣🤣🤣
It’s not goal that takes 5 seconds but ¡gooooooooooool! when shouted in Spanish by a Telemundo soccer announcer.
The main thing I have to contribute to the JHC discussion is that the habit Claire on Outlander has of including “Roosevelt” as well really adds something to the expression.
(I’m not one to be loose with the holy name myself, mind, and there are certainly cases where something gets gross enough that polite but firm objection is called for. But as a general rule, I take a very dim view of pearl-clutching as an evangelistic strategy.)
(Also, if one finds JHC intolerable, I highly recommend avoiding learning too much about popular expressions in just about any romance language.)
@Gary Z: Apparently the more vociferous Anony-moti have elected you the new @Z. You must be so proud. 😂 Better watch out though. I think Pete’s trying to steal your thunder.
@Pete (5:44) Bravo! 👏 I almost fell out of my chair laughing. That post alone was well worth the time it took me to come back here and refresh comments. Despite the dogged reiteration of the debate, I’d say you have now successfully proven the validity of the red eyed vireos’ berry eating habits. Let us all give thanks.
A plagiarist AND a world class ornithologist! That's very impressive!
@Anon - Your assertion is that Vireos only eat berries when heading south? The title was "stopover behavior.. " not "stopover behavior when heading south". Did you miss the part of the email chain where I specifically talked about the appropriate food for refueling for another day's marathon flight? You saw how that was discussed in the paper? The head of the Bird Banding Lab at USGS said "Certainly, while "mainly" insectivorous, vireos eat berries a lot. During migration their diet is full of berries" and you dispute that? The eat berries during migration, north, south, and for the very confused, east & west. Is it that much of a narcissistic insult to your ego that you can't even admit when you're wrong about the feeding habits of birds when presented with authoritative proof that you're wrong? You have the co-author's number, give him a call and try to convince him that Red-eyed Vireos never eat berries while heading north. Report back, and I'll check with him to see how well you did.
You're a lawyer right (only a lawyer would try to obfuscate things to the degree you do to avoid admitting error)? You thus know the absence of citation in your "H" post constitutes plagiarism. Further, copying & pasting from the internet on any random subject without attribution can make some people think you're just a bull-shit artist trying to appear to be an expert on everything. Just saying.
Also, you may recall that your only stated dispute with Gary J was regarding Christ's disposition, not the number of commandments he made. I don't give a damn what you think Christ's disposition was.
@Blog Goliard
Two expressions I learned while living in Montreal for a spell: Sacrament! Tabernak! It's really fascinating stuff. See especially the section "Use".
@6:59
Well... I guess you didn't have the foggiest idea either until you stole it. He He. Not that I mind all that much, mind. This is, after all, just a crossword blog, not a Roman Catholic Seminary.
Opposite problem! Too much trivial naming game either way.
In California HOLLA was common but only in phrase form: “holla atcha boy” Missy Eliot’s most well known song “getcha freak on” incorporates the word but otherwise it was difficult to parse. Had a decent time with the Teletubbies answer but the rest was unsolvable. Majorly disliked this one. Are they getting worse?
@Anon 9:53 - Yes, I know #1, and for the record I also know #2. Alas, you make #2 impossible for me, as your rudeness and arrogance rile me as no one else ever has. Also, as you presumably strive to follow it, you should know that being an obstinate ass is not the way to go. One of my principles is that when you're wrong, admit it. You might want to try that. Your neighbors would appreciate it. If one of your neighbors says something along the lines of IIRC blah blah blah and you know blah blah blah to be incorrect, it's ok to correct them, but not to tell them they're stupid for being wrong. They already admitted the potential for that, there's no need to rub their noses in it.
And, again, read what I actually wrote and you'll find most of your petty points are not germane to the conversation.
+1 for raingear -> rainwear @Loren Muse Smith. Great minds think alike?
SCAN, like its cousin peruse, is an autoantonym, meaning to read carefully or to read casually. Yes, I just made up autoantonyum.
I know of dank weed, not of dank hops. I don't drink, but I doubt that if I were to that you could force me to drink anything that prided itself on being dank. I personally don't believe that SNAZZy ever went out in public without its trailing 'y', and I don't want to know in what seedy back rooms of low-rent bars it decides to drop it.
Because I'm a near hermit, I at most MAKE an [brief] appearance. I never MAKEACAMEO because a CAMEO implies that someone is waiting for you to show up. No one waits for me to show up. I gave my wife ACAMEO once, but that's a different thing.
I'm waiting for someone to show up, the upteenth person to give us a quote to remove two ash trees. They're on my neighbor's property, but are dropping branches on my house. Unfortunately, people who remove trees around here are booked for months, and are the root cause of our nationwide inflationary trend, as they are getting about $3k per large tree, at least twice what it was before all the ashes died.
Bay Area people might want to wander over to 20th &Vermont Sts (Potrero Hill) in San Francisco next Easter Sunday from 2-4 PM for the annual (returned in 2022) BRING YOUR OWN BIG WHEEL event. That is if you’re interested in seeing dozens of (mostly) costumed adults tear down the ‘crookedest street in SF”. (Some assert this block of Vermont is ‘crookedest’ in SF vs. Lombard; IDK but it is crooked.) Kids allowed too — there’s actually a beginning 45 minutes set aside just for kids since the main event can be pretty hair raising even though they do have straw (or hay?) bales along the sides of the street.
Not sure how to embed links or attach photos but a c/p of this should ‘go to’ some photos & videos of past events: https://images.rove.me/w_1920,q_85/s52maenzv3stml4dk8ph/san-francisco-bring-your-own-big-wheel.jpg
THANK YOU! I was stumped.
Rex is seeking perfection in every puzzle which is both admirable and frustrating. Sometimes good enough is good enough. Yes, it would be better in an ideal world if the missing letters H, E, R and E were at the begining of the themers. But they aren’t. The puzzle is still worth printing and solving in spite of it not being perfect in every way. My main beef is that 58A isn’t as recognizable as the other themers. That, and the presence of quite a few three-letter words - a few too many acronyms, foreign and abbreviations. But it was easy and fun to solve. Consequently, ISAY this one rates three STARs out of five.
Up above, @Iodsf mentioned the Big Wheel Race in San Francisco. I looked it up and it’s pretty funny…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PvC-CvOBpt8
SAP RAP
"ANYNEWS on what he'll WEAR?"
"AHME, NAY, ISAY he's dense."
"A CIVIL suit, ONADARE?"
"ALFRED NEUMAN's COMMONSENSE!?"
--- CHUCK MURROW
Aight, clever theme with missing INITIALs forming a word...but the word is HERE, not exactly a thrill. Only slightly better than THERE. Nor does the revealer provide a scintilla of excitement: it's something printed on countless forms you have been coerced to fill out. The paint is still drying.
Now we come to the "fill." It's in quotes because it isn't very filling. Chief among the offenders is SILENTP, which is what I want my dog (if I had one) to do on this type of entry. I won't list 'em all, but it's pretty bad. I gotta give props to Mr. NEUMAN, though the conductor of the same name must be getting annoyed by now. Bogey.
The Wordle game is picking up a bit:
BYYYB
YYGBB
GGGGG
A couple dozen threes will hurt the fill. But what, me worry?
Wordle bogey.
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