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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- ALFRED NOYES (24A: English poet who wrote "The Highwayman") (no & yes)
- POOR RICHARD (30A: Early American pseudonym) (poor & rich)
- FACE THE MUSIC (37A: Accept imminent punishment) (them & us)
- HEART OF ROMAINE (68A: Caesar salad ingredient) (to & from)
- FIX BREAKFAST (98A: Scramble some eggs, say) (fix & break)
- ENDODONTICS (107A: Branch of dentistry that specializes in root canals) (do & don't)
- KARLA BONOFF (114A: Noted songwriter behind Wynonna Judd's "Tell Me Why" and Linda Ronstadt's "All My Life") (on & off)
- ROUTINE (46D: Same old, same old) (out & in)
- PANDORA (55D: Her name is Greek for "all-gifted") (and & or)
Karla Bonoff (born December 27, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter. While Bonoff has released a number of albums, she is primarily known for her songwriting. Bonoff's songs include "Home," covered by Bonnie Raitt, "Tell Me Why" by Wynonna Judd, and "Isn't It Always Love" by Lynn Anderson.
Most notably, Linda Ronstadt recorded several Bonoff songs, including three tracks on the 1976 album Hasten Down the Wind ("Someone To Lay Down Beside Me", "Lose Again" and "If He's Ever Near"), which introduced Bonoff to a mass audience, and "All My Life", a 1989 duet with Ronstadt and Aaron Neville. (wikipedia)
["I got something to give you / That the mailman / Can't deliver..."]
• • •
The other moment where I felt my specific specialized knowledge was a kind of superpower today was a moment many of you probably shared as well—it was the moment my crosswordese knowledge finally paid off in a big way with ALFRED NOYES! Does anyone outside of inveterate crossword solvers know that guy? Not sure, but knowing old whatshisname sure helped today. I somehow got FACETHEMUSIC first, and couldn't do anything with "THEMUS," but then ALFRED NOYES went in and I remembered that Sunday puzzles have titles and ... that was that. Theme sorted, right ... here:
- 28A: Persian ___ (rugmaker's deliberate mistake) (FLAW) — so ... just [Mistake], then? (such a weird clue—see also 75A: Flying ___ (martial arts strike) (KNEE))
- 89D: Meeting with a dead line? (SEANCE) — is "line" supposed to have genealogical significance? Like bloodline? Because in a SEANCE you're communicating with your relatives? Or is the "line" like a "telephone line," i.e. you use it to talk (to the "dead")? Probably the latter.
- 70D: One who gave us all a lift? (OTIS) — in that he gave us (i.e. the world) the elevator, sure
- 47D: He set a Guinness World Record in 2014, reporting for 34 consecutive hours (AL ROKER) — well that's pre-Katrina so I cannot conceive of why Al would be on air for that long ... oh, looks like it was some kind of fund-raising dealie for the USO.
- 118A: ___ Martell, "Game of Thrones" princess (ELIA) — you can "GOT" the clue all you want, but it's still crosswordese to me
- 90A: Norman or English king? (LEAR) — So Good! My fav clue of the day! I teach literature from the period of British history that contains both Norman and English kings ... but here the "Norman" is famed sitcom creator and producer Norman LEAR. "All in the Family"! "Sanford & Son!" And then there's "Maude!"
- 52A: Bird associated with bats (ORIOLE) — because of the Major League Baseball team the Baltimore Orioles, I assume
- 72A: It's over here (END) — definitely the answer I spent the most time staring at confusedly. Couldn't make sense of it. I think if "the" had been in front of END I would've understood it sooner (when you come to the END of something ... "it's over")
Speaking of the END: see you tomorrow.
P.S. about 49D: Northernmost N.B.A. city, on scoreboards (TOR)—POR and MIN would like a word ...
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Fun fact, despite the whole “we the north” mantra and the latest #nytxw, the Toronto Raptors aren’t actually the most north NBA team @NytReview @rexparker https://t.co/879EHekVPK
— Luke Scholefield (@lukescholefield) September 11, 2022
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Speaking for myself, a nice little ego booster that proved enchantingly entertaining to soothe yesterday's thoroughly dispiriting surrender ;)
ReplyDeletere: The Highwayman
ReplyDeleteReaders of Mad #95 also had a leg up on this clue!
Your comment about early '80s pop reminds me that one of the local variety hits stations runs one of Casey Kasem's American Top 40 countdowns from the 1980s every Sunday morning. We're the same age, so for me it's a nice nostalgia kick once per week and I always try to catch it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Solved in a good time with no lookups. Good puzzle
Easy-medium. Just about right for a Sunday, neat theme idea and not too much junk. Liked it.
ReplyDeleteI think I knew ALFRED NOYES before CWs, but at my age I can’t really be sure.
Yeah, most of Canada is north of the US lower 48, but southern Ontario (with its large population) is pretty far south. Toronto is the same latitude as central Oregon, so definite error in the clue. (The short lived Vancouver Grizzlies were the northernmost NBA team ever, I guess.)
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I watched a mini-reality-series in which real people try to escape the "authorities". It was kinda neat, but the main thing I remember is that one of the women escapees was named English King. Seriously, first name English, last name King, a woman. Can't remember the name of the series, though.
I struggled with the ending of ENDODONTICS until my teeth ached. I tried --IST and --ISM (ENDODONTISM... some weird religion?).
[Spelling Bee: Sat 0, my last word was a 6er. In the first 5 seconds I tried PHILADELPHIA just cuz it fit, and it looked neat; I knew it was a proper noun.]
Me too!
DeleteWhat with HEART OF ROMAINE and FIX BREAKFAST, they could have continued the comestible vein with CUT THE MUSTARD and POUTINE. And maybe BEEF STROGONOFF (just claim it's a variant spelling).
ReplyDeleteI found this puzzle kind of boring once I figured out the gimmick, which was right away.
Remember this? It was in the Top 10 at the same time as Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein".
Persian flaws are deliberate (not just mistakes) - the idea being that only God could make something perfect, so the weavers would incorporate flaws.
ReplyDeleteAppreciate this comment. An artist friend of mine once traveled to Iran to arrange the weaving of some rugs he had designed, and I learned about the Persian FLAW. I thought it was fascinating, and had somewhat forgotten about it over time. Love it when clever clueing on a common word can spark these moments of trivia.
DeletePhil Ochs does a terrific version of The Highwayman.
ReplyDeleteI saw the clue for TOR and entered TOR, but then I thought huh? Surely Seattle is north of Toronto, not realizing Seattle doesn't have an NBA team. But Minneapolis and Portland are both well north of Toronto.
ReplyDeleteAs others are reporting, the theme was pretty apparent. I saw the title and circles and figured it’d be opposite words side by side. This kind of trick just floats my boat. I enjoyed every minute of teasing out the themers. Fun to imagine other possibilities: Where there’s smoke…, as it stands, what do you mean?
ReplyDeleteAside from the double natickish crosses KARLA/OBVERSE/MEGAVOLT (I was thinking “jolt” or “bolt” there), it was smooth, albeit slow, sailing.
Rex – same thought on parsing BEGEM as BEG’EM. If you can slap BE onto a word so that it means affect something with whatever, I have to reconsider words like begin, as in I need the bartender to begin me again - another Bombay up, please. Mom can belong an anecdote like nobody’s business. People want to begun teachers so that we can defend our kids.
11D DO FOR had me thinking of how different it is in the past tense. This I need you to DO FOR me, or I’m done for.
I know I’m in the minority of solvers who enjoy name clues like the one for NELL. I distractedly wrote in “Elle” before I noticed the problem. Alternative clue for 87D: Name hidden backward in “ballet slippers” (or “wallets”).
Loved the sneaky-sneak shout out to the theme, 53A “Place side by side” OPPOSE. I looked at its symmetrical counterpart and got a congrats from Derrick that I spotted it: CHEERS! Hah.
I have a problem with the clue for SWEAR AT. A resident expert on the matter, I’m sworn at all the time. It’s a FLASH-in-the-pan moment, benign. Being “cuss(ed) out” is much more unsettling; it’s loud, spectacular, threatening: You f***ing bit**! This is f***ing bull sh**. F** you!. It’s weird – when I’m cussed out like this, I get very calm and just step into the hall to summon a BMT or security person. Being sworn at, on the other hand, triggers me sometimes. I remember at the end of a particularly trying day, this guy "Johnny" swore at me from the back of the room. That was it; I was done. I stopped whatever it was I was doing, grabbed a pen and paper and walked back to him. Our exchange went something like this:
Me: I have to apologize, Johnny. I’m old and hard of hearing. Did you call me a bit**? Or a fu**ing bit**? Or maybe it was fu**in without the G? I want to get it down exactly as you said it.
Everyone got quiet; this was An Event in my cowardly-led classroom.
Johnny: I didn’t say anything.
Me: Oh. So let me get this straight. You’re willing to cuss me when I’m far away, but afraid to do it when I’m standing right in front of you?
Johnny: [no response]
I’m not proud of this; I didn’t mean to snap like that; it just came out of a day rife with too many challenges. Here’s the weird thing – after that, he was very pleasant to me. I was so regretful that I had shamed him, starting a full-on war. But it was the opposite. I still regret it, though.
Wanted “breath” for that “moment of inspiration.” I’m going through one of those phases where I can’t seem to take that one, complete, satisfying deep breath. I’m sure it’s a mental thing brought on by stress. Just google Turning Point Academy and click on “news” at the top.
Katrina was 2005, I’m confused?
ReplyDeleteThank you, came to the comments to correct this, too. Bizarre mistake on Rex’s part.
DeleteThe mass media and certain politicians in the late 60/early 70s used to disparage the women's liberation movement by referring to it as "women's LIB." The gay rights movement was disparaged in the same way, "Gay Lib." Taking it further, some opponents used to call us "women's libbers."
ReplyDeleteThe usage was taken up by casual observers and perhaps even some on the sidelines who now say they were "part" of the women's movement. But anyone actually involved back in the day never used that term to describe our movement.
The "lib" usage might not carry the same tone these days but it still rankles.
Thanks Shirley! I was definitely rankled by that answer. Note to old-guy constructors and editors: Women's “lib” is not something actual women say. Find a different clue. (I guess we should count ourselves lucky that the clues for bra and era didn’t refer back to those crazy days when the gals thought they deserved equality)
DeleteEnjoyable solve, but the NW corner stymied us. We finished only with the help of Prof. Google. We did not know ALFREDNOYES or the Chiffons' hit, shame on us.
ReplyDelete"...ANDOR...": Yes, I've always accepted these as a sort of opposites. I think it's true in grammar, and it's true in logic. In a sense, but I've never questioned this.
I've always believed - having seen this clue in other puzzles, too - Toronto (TOR) was the northernmost NBA city. How about that! Not so!! Thanks to the puzzle community for pointing this out. Remember the Trivial Pursuit question that poses, "What country is directly south of Detroit?" - and it's Canada, that little bit of it (Windsor) that wraps itself south of Detroit. There are of course may trivia games, but does anyone play Trivial Pursuit anymore? Ours is gathering dust on a shelf.
One problem with the NBA clue is that the correct answer, pOR, shares two letters with the erroneous TOR, so works with APPOSE and PAAR, so you sit and wonder what the heck 'poed pigeon' is. Perhaps this was intentional, and the editor incorporated a Persian flaw. Which ... I feel like if it is intentional, it is not a mistake.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
DeleteI think "IT'S OVER HERE" for "END" meant "IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE," as opposed to "FINI" in French, for example. If that's the explanation, then a comma after the word "over" for the sake of clarity was needed. If that isn't what the clue meant, then maybe someone can come up with an explanation.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle, but easy for a Sunday. I assumed (apparently wrongly) that Toronto was farther north than Portland.
The “here” isn’t referring to here as in America or the English language, the “here” is the answer to the clue: END. Where is it over? At the END.
DeleteThe opposite of “A and B” would be “A nor B”, i.e., “not A and not B.”
ReplyDelete@Anon 12:12 AM: Or Mad #328, which gave us "The Information Superhighway-Man."
ReplyDeleteI liked it and liked the write up. Even if the writeup repeats them/us instead of noting the correct no/yes. Nothing more to say when I find the puzzle as enjoyable as today's.
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed the theme for a change. Was imagining how difficult it was to find the words/phrases with the opposites imbedded - and with the right number of letters and other requirements imposed by the theme constraints.
ReplyDeleteOf course there we a few rough spots, such as NEREID and TEEVEES (which sure looks like a made-up word to me, lol - although the dictionary I consulted [charitably, in my opinion] characterized it as a “nonstandard spelling”). I pretty much only see the word Mountebank in CrossWorld and can never remember what the heck it means - and the fact that I don’t know what a SHAY is didn’t help.
I suspect that if most Sunday puzzles were similar to this one in quality and content, a lot of us would be happy campers.
Cute idea here - just too much of it. If you need to go to ENDODONTICS for fill - I think it’s too late. Slick enough that I filled it nearly straight thru without pause. Oddly I did forget the current VPs last name initially and the ERASMUS x PANDORA cross caused some confusion.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Rex on the pleasant obscurity of KARLA BONOFF. Here she is as part of Bryndle
NEREID, DIORAMA, OLYMPUS make a wonderful stack. Looks to be a q and z away from a pangram. Don’t really know the NBA anymore so I’ll leave the geography lesson to others.
There’s always the great STELLA Blue - but today we’ll go with STELLA Kerouac
Enjoyable enough Sunday solve.
Guess I'm an outlier here. Thought the whole thing too easy and the theme just made it even less challenging, especially with the circled squares. Leaving them out would have added a small element of fun, with maybe just starring the theme clues. And an example of how less is more...
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to Derrick's puzzles, always: "That is so cool!"
ReplyDeleteAll his themes are inventive and fresh. I don’t want to be a spoiler, so I won’t say anything about them, but if you want to be bathed in some eye-opening creativity, tackle his puzzles (both are Sundays) from 1/30/05 and 5/2/04.
I like how the today’s theme answers are symmetrical – very elegant – and the puzzle gave me enough rub to satisfy my brain’s work ethic. During the solve, I’d fill in a patch here, be stuck in a patch there, and carom about the grid, going from empty space to empty space, until they shrunk, and finally disappeared.
There were a lot of double-E’s. I especially liked the FEE/LEE/HEE fest in the SE corner, a bit below TEEVEES. Also memorable was the extraordinary willpower I needed not to look at the keyboard at [It shares a space with #].
Thank you for using your gifted and fertile mind in the service of crosswords, Derrick. I love your quirky, and yes, cool puzzles, including this beauty today!
***** SB Alert *****
ReplyDeleteGot a chuckle as I entered TEEVEE into SB today and was informed that it is “not in the word list”. I guess they consider it obscure - but obviously, there is generally not very much that is “too obscure” for the Shortz crew (although in this case, WS may have a valid argument).
Shot myself in the foot right off the bat by writing in He's THEONE without thinking about it, which of course went nowhere. I was thinking of "Easier Said than Done", by The Essex (tell him, he's the one...). And of course I know He's SOFINE, right down to remembering what a mess George Harrison got himself into by pretty much reproducing it for "My Sweet Lord".
ReplyDeleteThen I filled in ALFREDNOYES by just reading the clue, but did not see the No/Yes dichotomy. That kind of a start. My Mom won a prize in high school for reciting "The Highwayman", so that one was around the house forever.
Smooth sailing after that without many holdups. Was pleased to remember that Tom Jones was a WELSHMAN, and remembered the name KARLABONOFF, although I couldn't tell you any of her songs.
Still no GOT knowledge and ELIA is supposed to be the pen name of Charles Lamb if it's in a crossword that I'm doing.
Agree with the observation that BEGEM is awful and should go sit with the A Team, ATILT, AROAR, and all their kin.
Very nice Sunday indeed, DN. You probably Don't Need me to tell you what a pleasure this was, but I will anyway. Thanks for all the fun.
An extremely entertaining puzzle. A "I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Thing!" puzzle. This is the descriptor I give to those Sunday puzzles that I embark on late Saturday night, often fairly tired, with the intention of doing just a teensy bit of it before I go to bed. Only I can't put it down. "Just one more clue," I say. "Just one more." And before you know it, I've finished.
ReplyDeleteThe theme was both clever and fun. And in two instances it was a help in getting the answer. To a lesser degree in HEART OF ROMAINE. I mean I've heard of heart of lettuce and hearts of palm, but I've never heard HEART applied specifically to ROMAINE. But that one would have come in on its own. KARLA BONOFF was very different. I wouldn't know her if I fell over her, so the ON/OFF embed was of real value.
I had guessed that POOR RICHARD would have been the original impulse behind the theme, but Derrick says it was ALFRED NOYES. So you never know. A wonderful puzzle, Derrick. More in the future, please.
NOYES — nice! And only last night the moon was a ghostly galleon, and the road a ribbon of moonlight.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for the solution to yesterday's made-up Phrazle from @albatross and fedaturing @Joe D. (Wondering if you solved it, Joe?)
ReplyDeleteAfter my ignominious failure yesterday to figure it out, I need to show you that I'm still alive and kicking, Phrazle-wise. Joe's first answer to your poser, @albatross, didn't utilize my own technique of letter distribution and therefore wasn't all that much help to me. Here's what I can do when left to my own idiosyncratic process:
Phrazle 291: 2/6
⬜🟩🟩🟨🟨🟨⬜ 🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩
Amy: solid Sunday, very pleasant. Extra geographic note: To get to Canada from Detroit, go south.
ReplyDeleteI, too, thought this was a nice palete cleanser after yesterday’s proper spanking. My only nits are that so many of the themers were inside proper names: AlfredNoyes, PoorRichard, KarlaWho?; and I guess Pandora, but I was so proud of myself for figuring that one out by using my limited knowledge of Latin roots, so I like it a lot more than the others. Also, brain kept veering off to Alfred E Neuman at ALFREDNOYES so I kept wanting to put some sort of middle initial in there. Like @LMA, also wanted breath at ‘moment of inspiration’, and like @okanaganer, thought only of ENDODONtistry, which just wouldn’t fit! At 74A (Works a wedding perhaps), I wanted ushERS but knew that that terminal U would probably not fly for 62D. My 87A (Horse drawn carriage) was a drAY before SHAY. HEARTOFROMAIN said no one ever. The Only acceptable HEART OF____ is artichoke! And palm, which is always a treasure to find on one of my fave shows “Naked and Afraid”. I love that these people are willing to be so miserable for my entertainment. And then the developments with the longer/group scenarios are actually pretty impressive, imho.
ReplyDeleteAnd at 28A (Persian ____), I really wanted stitch. In fact my Crafter’s group had just talked about that last Monday as one of us was unraveling a knitted project to go back and fix a FLAW, so it was still fresh on my mind. Having only recently learned to knit, I am still in awe of the many members of our group that actually recognize a FLAW, and fearlessly “Frog”* to go back to correct it. Or, about all the techniques one can use to hide such a FLAW or fix it in situ. *Frogging: to undo a knitted or crocheted item. Comes from the statement: “Rip it, rip it, rip it, til you get it right.” These gals have a sense of humor to go with their sense of artistry and their talent. And they are too kind in accepting me. While they are creating sweaters and cardigans and baby booties and purses and totes and what not, I’ve knitted 3 scarves and am currently working on an afghan, which, so far, is just looking like one big scarf. Ah well. Small steps. Small steps.
This was also one of the first times that I just ambled around the grid in no particular order or sequence. Just seemed to pick a letter of interest from an answer and followed that to here and there. This made my solve experience feel much longer and sloggier than I’ve ever experienced in a Sunday because I then had to go back and fill in random holes here and there. Didn’t affect my time significantly, but it made it feel longer. I finally get OFL’s occasional comments about Sundays being tedious with so much to fill. But, in general, I could have a puzzle like this as my Sunday standard every week.
@LMS, inre swearing/cussing. Your story reminds me of howmy parents taught me that one resorts to that language when one is frustrated/upset/emotional and hasn't a better way to communicate. When my nephews tried to resort to swearing a few times while staying with us in their pre-teen/teen years, I would take a deep breath, and then say something like, "So you are unhappy. Lets find a better way to state that. Did you mean you don't like the chores I just assigned you or the rules of this household (etc.)?" A few times this was just met with more foul language, but it did develop into actual communication and they got much better at stating their opinions. My youngest (now 30) and I still have a regular phone chat about what's going on in his life, to suss out his feelings, or just discuss a TEEVEE show we are both enjoying.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteNo one else noticed the grid is 22 wide? Really rare for me to be the first at anything here. I'm a PST-er, so here it's 6:55 as I write, in NY it's 9:55, so usually everything is spoken for before my comment posts. So, YAY ME on the over-sized grid revelation! 😁
Neat puz, the ole brain was sillily stuck on seeing THEMUS as THE-MUS. I was like, "Huh? Are those opposite Greek letters?" Good stuff. Caught onto the theme rather quickly. Helped in filling some unknowns. Convincing myself that ALFRED NOYES was the inspiration for this theme. Cool name.
Never knew APPOSE was a thing. Really wanted to change that A to an O, but oPPEASE is definitely not a thing, so kept my A. Some good cluing in here, too.
@Gill
We need a story today. It's been too long!
F-tastic NE!
Twelve F's (As Rodney Dangerfield said in the movie "Ladybugs" [which is a rather funny/cute movie] {paraphrased, mind you} The F finally gets some respect!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Loved that Rosie clip - thanks for starting my day off with a big smile Rex!
ReplyDeleteThx, Derrick; very 'Attract'ive Sun. offering! :)
ReplyDeleteMed.
Good start in the NW, altho didn't know the NOYES part of ALFRED. Had DIaRAMA, so thx to the NO YES themer for patching up that area.
ERMA / IRMA; always a kealoa for me. NEREID looked better than NiREID.
Didn't know ELIA, so thx to Jim MCKAY for the 'A'.
New to me are LUPE, ENDODONTICS & CARLA BONHOFF. Thx for fair crosses. :)
Love the clue for PAINTER.
Fun solve; enjoyed the adventure! :)
Off to work on the NYT' Acrostic.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Anything Linda Ronstadt sings can’t be all bad. Nice to meet Karla Bonoff.
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. To be sure, cross at 105D / 118A was a Natick for me, since I know neither from GOT or sports. Both ELIe/MCKeY and ELIA/MCKAY seemed plausible. Since my "solution" encompassed the correct possibility, I'm not awarding myself a DNF on this one.
ReplyDeleteJust before the endodontist was going to start working on me, his assistant placed a tissue in my left hand. She called it the "white flag," and said I should wave it if I feel any "discomfort." I thanked her and said, "Won't the screaming tip him off?"
ReplyDeleteI knew the Highwayman by Alfred Noyes because the great Phil Ochs set the poem to music on his second album.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteFor people of a certain age, “The Highwayman,” by Alfred Noyes, was standard fare for junior high school or so.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first poems I recall studying as a serious literary object
“The road was a ribbon of moonlight” taught us the meaning of metaphor
Felt a little meh about the premise of the theme but it was well executed which made it enjoyable. Don’t know how KEY = “development” in cryptography. Seems like a reach to clue it cleverly. Other than that very enjoyable Sunday puzzle. Especially enjoyed the Karla Benoff reference.
ReplyDeleteSWAT AT "aim for". He's SO FINE, he's a rebel. DOlt, DOdo, DOPE, what's with all the idiots starting with DO?
ReplyDeleteI got the theme, finally, at POOR RICH though I first tried to rearrange it (mentally) into RICHer OR POORer. Guess I've been to too many weddings lately.
R[OUTIN]E is actually the first theme answer I filled in but didn't spot the opposites.
Now that I see ELIA Martell's full name, I remember who she is, but needed most of the crosses. I'm sure everyone loves that clue/answer pair :-).
TEPEES and TEEVEES and IGLOOs. I thought a hangout for some remote workers should have been DENS but it didn't fit. SERAPE for a rancho wrap when TORTILLA didn't fit.
My husband made up a joke that involved saying "Pa didn't know her but MANURE" but it doesn't really make sense as a punchline.
My fave clue of the day: "One who gave us all a lift?" for OTIS. Nice
Derrick Niederman, I see that Sunday puzzles are your specialty. Thanks!
Great Sunday crossword and I birdied the Wordle. Sure hope the rest of my day goes as well.
ReplyDeleteCHEERS!
Wordle 449 3/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Never have I ever seen "MDSE" before, but apparently it's an abbreviation for "merchandise." I was sure I had a bad letter there.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhile frequently translated as "In praise of folly" it is more correctly "The praise of folly." The point is that it is a personified "folly" that is doing the praising, not someone praising folly.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI flunked geography but I got TOR right. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
“A Song of Ice and Fire” Princess would be a better clue for ELIA, since I’m not sure she’s even mentioned in the HBO show. I wonder how many show-only fans were left puzzled. She is an important character in the book series, but still a tad obscure for a crossword, being long dead by the time the action of the books takes place.
ReplyDeleteTeedmn@10:54
ReplyDeleteSome old grade-school ditty ended:
She lived down by the barn and all the horse MANURE.
Rex asks: "ALFRED NOYES! Does anyone outside of inveterate crossword solvers know that guy?" Answer is: "obviously not." Going the other way, who outside of professional astronomers knows that NEREID is a moon of Neptune? All this compounded by the fact that I had heard the term DIORAMA, but could not recall seeing it in print, so thought DIaRAMA the more likely spelling.
ReplyDeleteFor me this naticky situation was insurmountable but I have found peace in the realization that a puzzle that requires trivial knowledge for its completion it is FATALLY FLAWED, so why reward it with any effort, when the end result can only be a huge fly in the ointment? It belongs in File 13, and that's right where I sent it. Vengeance is mine!
Let's have more Sundays like this one: interesting, challenging, no stretchers, no mistakes (that I could see).
ReplyDeleteYep, I tweeted the Raptors a couple years ago when they kept claiming "we the North," letting them know the Portland Trailblazers are the northernmost team in the NBA 😀😀😎
ReplyDelete@Joe Dipinto - I do remember. What does it mean, though, that at the conclusion of the video YouTube thought I needed to know about gum disease?
ReplyDelete@LMS - I think that's a fine strategy. The natural result of swearing at someone is that they will be angry. It's okay to be angry. And you conveyed that message, "I'm angry," in a measured way that conveyed "don't do this, it is not okay," but also without blowing out it of proportion. It stayed between you and him and the people he involved. That last part is probably why he's fine with you. He knows on some level if he screws up you're going to hold him accountable but you're not going to over-react.
@Gary Jugert - I was going through the Spam Folder and found two comments from you from Friday there. I posted them now. This happens periodically, we are not quite sure why. But it wasn't anything you said, just Blogger being Blogger
ReplyDeleteThank you for the note. I worried I'd violated some code of conduct. But, to be fair, Blogger might just agree with several grumpies here that what I post should be treated as spam. 🤔 I appreciate your efforts at confronting the challenges you must face daily around here.
DeleteI’m calling Natick at ELIA/MCKAY. It could easily be ELIE/MCKEY. I happened to guess right at first, but made a mental note to come back to that one if the app told me something was wrong when I finished. (I came across KEY later, but I’m not sure that would mean ruling out MCKEY.)
ReplyDeleteBig Karla Bonoff fan. Saw her perform 2015ish in Rochester, NY, and loved that she closed with "The Water Is Wide," always the final song in my nightly lullaby repertoire
ReplyDeleteI'm highly amused by the complaints about ALFRED NOYES and NEREID. Different strokes for different folks and all that. If I have to deal with rappers whose names follow no known linguistic principles, you have to accept some basics of classical scholarship.
ReplyDeleteA few clever clues. 🤗👍🏽🤗
ReplyDeleteBut mostly another
SUNDAYSLOG despite
🦖s BLOG
Theme - 🥵 🥶 = 🫤
NOTAGOG
(so what? with so many 😎 opposites.)
🫤🦖🦖🦖🫤
Pretty darn clever, comin up with all them imbedded opposites. Theme wasn't very humorous, as M&A personally prefers in his SunPuz solvequests, but liked it anyhoo. fave themer: (FIX/BREAK)FAST.
ReplyDeleteLeast fave themer: ALFRED(NO/YES), only becuz I didn't spell DIORAMA right. Had DIERAMA at first, and ALFREDNEYES was close enough to fool m&e. But then the shaded letters were NEYES, which didn't especially bark out the theme mcguffin, at first.
Still luv the DIORAMA word. Wish I'da got to have a diorama project in grade school to work on. Did get to draw some weird jungle scenes, at least.
staff weeject pick: ESS. Gotta darn near be @Anoa Bob's POC poster child entry, here.
fave entries: The interweavin OLYMPUS/DIORAMA/TRAPDOOR group. Very primo.
As others have mentioned, 22x21 puzgrid size. More for yer moneybucks. 147 words/worth, so to speak.
Thanx for the S(pain/fun)ding, Mr. Niederman dude. Gets the real(good/bad)ge award. [har - yeecats, are those ever scrap-pile themer examples]
Masked & Anonym007Us
easier than snot:
**gruntz**
Longtime reader, first time commenter, if only to point out that Lear is most certainly NOT an English king... he's a mythological British/Brythonic king (i.e., Welsh, Cornish, Breton). Even in the play, he's king of Britain—just ask the Scottish or the Welsh whether there's a difference. The English have already co-opted Arthur; I feel like I have to say something here to give the Celts their due.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually surprised I'm the only one with this complaint.
Great write-up today, @Rex! The puzzle was tougher than "easy" for me today, but managed it in under an hour and got the happy music with no errors.
ReplyDeleteI also stared at EN_ (It's over here) for a long time, made worse by the fact that I wrote in Jack PArR quickly on my first pass through, leaving me _RN_ORA for the "all-gifted" Greek.
Loved "Norma or English king?" and hated BEGEM (but loved Rex's BEG 'EM, so it was worth it).
How? How does a news organization like the NYT ever think Toronto is further north of Minneapolis or Portland? A simple look at a map makes it obvious, assuming they know which way is north. I know it’s a crossword puzzle, not news. But basic fact checking is imperative in their business.
ReplyDeleteWordle 449 3/6*
ReplyDelete⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Birdie, too!
For the past 3 games, the top of the Most Common list on oneword.com has given the correct Wordle solution. This is with 50 or more legitimate candidates, as reported by Wordlebot! Will continue following and reporting it here.
@Nancy 9:41 – I saw the solution before @Albatross deleted the post. I mentioned last night that I probably wouldn't have figured it out anyway.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember the line "hitch old Dobbin to the shay" in the song "Put On Your Old Gray Bonnet"?
ReplyDeleteWhat I do remember is the One Hoss Shay by Oliver Wendell Holmes, father of the jurist and the best known essayist of his time.
DeleteTake it from this old timer, Holmes is still an amusing read.
I went to University H.S. ( near UCLA) with Karla Bonoff. I recall being in the same French class. I saw her in concert many years ago. Bought her album too. Glad she made it! BTW my husband answered that clue!
ReplyDeleteShelley (Hewitt) Simrin
From smooth and easy to complete dead stop. I got dummer (dumber?) as the puzzle moved along. Who thought up the spelling of dumb? They're dumb.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't help Jim NANTZ is exactly the same number of letters as MCKAY and I was sure it was right forever.
The worst cheat was MEGAVOLT and I await our the assessment of engineering community here to learn if it's a thing.
SHAY was another sticking point because everything horse-drawn has a different name. They're like boats. For me it's boats and buggies and the nuance of a more refined sorting hasn't led me to study up. I did see Titanic and it's turned me against becoming a boat fan. We did have horses when I was a kid and I will never be a fan of anything related to that as a result. Sheesk they're a lot of work.
Always thrilled for an OHOH appearance.
Women’s LIB? Really? 1970s much?
I'm not sure where Karla Bonoff is "noted," but I'm glad our constructor believes she is.
Uniclues:
1 Mostly anybody who comments on a crossword blog about how much they hate fantasy and sci-fi clues, its arcania, and everyone associated therewith.
2 Updated schedule for explaining Southwest art.
3 Testudine in a small display says you're great.
4 Monks mocked mainly for meandering.
5 Titan's obligations to the staff bringing him lunch for all eternity.
1 WOLFMAN-PAINTER ENEMY
2 A NEW TAOS HELP-ME DAYS
3 DIORAMA TURTLE EXTOLS
4 GO-FREE FRIARS TROLLED
5 ATLAS ROUTINE PAYROLL
Neither OR nor NOR are logically the opposite of AND -- the opposite is in fact NAND, as they have opposite truth tables: an AND expression is only true when both its inputs are true, and a NAND expression is only false when both its inputs are true
ReplyDelete@unknown 206
ReplyDeleteSure do. See also "The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay". by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Age occasionally has its advantages.
wrt to TOR, there's geography and then there's political geography, in which case, Toronto Raptors, being from the country North of the USofA, would be the northern most team. it's a stretch.
ReplyDeleteBartender: What’ll it be, Mr. Kowalski?
ReplyDeleteKowalski: STELLA!!!!
APPEASE APPOSE
TEPEES ATOLLS
Let’s call the whole thing off!
Wakin’ up still a bit inebriated:
SHAY I TOED MYSELF. You OTTER FIXBREAKFAST.
Who the heck is KARL ABONOFF?
Very fun, easy Sunday. Thanks, Derric Niederman
About half of all U.S. states have some land area north of southern Ontario.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous (1:08 PM)
ReplyDeleteWelcome aboard! thx for your observations! :)
___
Relatively easy Acrostic today; fun solve. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Very good for a Sunday, mainly easy but a few sticky spots for me - LUPE/PEI/(ISR) felt a bit Naticky, and not knowing KARLA or ALFRED slowed me down.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised no one has mentioned having TAOS and TAO in the same puzzle. They are clued to have different meanings, but took awhile for me to put the second answer in because I thought it would not be allowed. Would READING (Pennsylvania) be allowed in the same puzzle as READINGS (from a book)?
Alfred Noyes - yes, "The Highwayman" was one of the poems in our high-school curriculum, back in India.
ReplyDelete@Nancy
ReplyDeleteFriends here watching NFL, recording tennis and still haven't gotten back to today's puz. Working on the SE corner.
My challenge for you was in response to the damage done to your wall.
It went 3 5 2 3 3 2.
I do not know when I can get back today. I think Joe got the colors correctly. If not maybe some one else can help but I am not sure the work will be worth the reward anymore. If you want Joe to tell you I sure he will. Otherwise it is probably tomorrow. My best to you.
A.S.
Oh Rex, Rex, BEGEM and bedazzle do NOT mean the same thing. BEGEM is something you do to an object; bedazzle is what you do to an observer. If you BEGEM your jacket, you may possibly bedazzle those who see you wearing it.
ReplyDeleteExcellent puzzle, I really enjoyed the theme; but I do have to point out that some of the answers are better than others. First, the top-notch ones split the opposites across the words in the answer, as with 'face THE MUSic' or 'hearT OF ROMaine. The middle tier consists of opposites eoncompassed in a single word, e.g. pANDORa.' But at the bottom are POOR RICHard and FIX BREAKfast, where on of the opposites is simply a word in the answer.
The note says the constructor's first NYT puzzle was published in 1964; fittinly the same year 'He's SO FINE" was released.
Not the puzzle's fault, but I have to deplore the decline in standards for naming celestial bodies. Time was, a single body was named for a single mythical figure. So what's with NEREID? There were at least 50 of them.
His first puzzle was published in 1983, not 1964.
Delete@bocamp
ReplyDeleteAgree with you about the Acrostic but I had a real struggle trying to figure out the second and third words and fitting them in context, which was obvious eventually, but sheesh.
FWIW the architect I.M. pei is the NYT W favorite architect, Zed had mentioned that 3 letter architect almost always means Pei. So that took care of Isr and Lupe.
ReplyDeleteMe I am terrible remembering spelling of names and I forgot about Stella, I spelled Karla's name Karli. So that was my dnf.
Anyway, Pei should be in one's memory bank.
49 D. Northernmost NBA city, on scoreboards is MIN. Not TOR.
ReplyDelete@jberg - to bedazzle means something quite different these days.
ReplyDeleteSome are complaining the puzzle was too easy; I thought it was a perfect Sunday: clever theme that was well-executed, relatively easy or at least smooth solving, some equally clever clueing (and some just tricky enough to have to circle back a few times), and the more trivial answers gettable on the crosses. Perfect. I know I don’t want to spend my whole Sunday fighting with a puzzle. This was fun.
ReplyDeleteFIX BREAKFAST was most fun and made me BEdazzled at this little phrasing GEM I hadn’t ever noticed before.
Anyone else know ALFRED NOYES from Loreena McKennit putting The Highwayman to song? Or was I the only teen in the 90s who was introduced to the poem that way and just loved the drama of it all? Either way, I highly recommend a listen.
Enjoyable Sunday solve. Glad to see others had fun as well.
Cluing shower for LIGHT RAIN is wrong. A shower is rain of relatively short duration. The rain can be heavy, light, or something in between!
ReplyDeleteJoe emailed me with the answer, @albatross. I've been tied up with tennis too and didn't pick his message up until just now. The statesman/antique store aspect was highly intriguing and perplexing to me and the connection to my wall is adorable. A cute puzzle that I never would have gotten. Thank you for dreaming it up.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"Put on your old grey bonnet, with the blue ribbon on it, and WE'LL HITCH OLD DOBBIN TO THE SHAY."
ReplyDeleteI grew up hearing “The Highwayman” read aloud at home- I can’t look at a full moon when a storm is coming in without thinking of “ghostly galleon tossed about clouds seas.” Enjoyed the puzzle and Rex’s giddy pleasure at knowing both Karla Bonoff and Alfred Noyes. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteLove this! Me too, too the entire comment. In my dad's day, poetry like this was taught in school
DeleteKarla Bonoff came to UDel in 1979. I was a fan since then!
ReplyDeleteThe Highwayman is a terrific poem. Noyes also wrote The Barrel Organ.
ReplyDeleteKOINSLOT888 SITUS SLOT TERBAIK DAN TERPERCAYA
ReplyDeleteDAPATKAN BONUS" DAN EVENT MENARIK
💎 KOINSLOT888
💎 WEBSITE SLOT TERBAIK
I'm surprised that OFF passed over the "deliberate" mistake in the FLAW clue: "so then just mistake." Surely he knows that all true Persian rugs contain a FLAW somewhere, "so as not to offend Allah." For only He can create perfection.
ReplyDeleteI gloomed onto this theme right away, as I remembered ALFREDNOYES from junior high. How DO those things stick with me? I had never thought of the name as a juxtaposition of opposites, but rather as a homonym for "noise." Still the visual hit quickly.
Agree that ANDOR is a problematic opposite, but we can forgive that one. The one that gave me the fan-tods was MAKEBREAKFAS--OOPS! Oh come on, that HAS to be it! Where's that other square? This can't BE! But then finally XANADU bailed me out and FIXed everything.
Nice, easy (except for SE) grid, with not one but TWO of my very favorite DODs: GEENA Davis and Teri GARR. I guess Davis gets the nod today because she helped me with some crosses down there. Fun solve; birdie.
And here's another:
BYBBY
YGBBG
GGGGG
I'm glad that OFL got his P.S. in there about the northernmost NBA team. Toronto is south of the 45th parallel while both Portland and the Twin Cities sit pretty much directly on it. Actually, I live further north than most of Canada's population. Just because Toronto is in Canada doesn't make it further north. Verifiable by looking at a map, or a globe. Another example of slipshod editing.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise fairly easy.
I have no idea from what deep recess of my time-addled brain the name Karla Bonoff surfaced...but surface it did. (And this was before I'd looked at the theme).
ReplyDeletePerhaps because it's such a 'neat' (dating myself again) name? Sort of like Lotte Lenya? If I'd been challenged to say what she was famous for, I might have guessed that she was a German chanteuse (sorry for the language mish-mash) in the dying days of the Weimar Republic.(Another tie-in to today's puzzle and to Lotte Lenya).
For whatever reason, I love her name. And had she married Boris Karloff, she'd be Karla Bonoff Karloff - a regal name if ever there was one!
ANEW TIRADE
ReplyDeletePOORRICHARD had a HEARTOF gold,
LASTMONTH KARLA PLEADS TO take IT,
"IAMWOMAN, IT's no TRAP", she TROLLED,
"HELPME, RICH, I'll FIX or BREAK IT."
--- ALFRED "ATLAS" HARRIS
Very very close. But then...MAKAY crossed ELIA. What can I say. Name that name.
ReplyDeleteDiana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
And I'm further north than @Rondo! (no, not in Alaska)
ReplyDeleteLady Di
Best Sunday puzzle ever. Many aha moments. Only one complaint. I know I'm swimming upstream but can we please exclude rappers from the puzzles ? This one thankfully included only one, I think. Beautiful construction - challenging at times and educational at times, and surprising at times. What more can one ask ? Excellent work Derrick N. ( and Will S.)
ReplyDelete