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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium ("Medium" due almost entirely to ECHINODERM)
Theme answers:
- "IF I'M BEING HONEST..." (17A: "Truthfully...")
- RESERVE ONE'S SPOT (36A: Secure a seat at the table, say)
- "... AND MAKE IT SNAPPY" (54A: "Hurry up!")
An echinoderm (/ɪˈkaɪnəˌdɜːrm, ˈɛkə-/) is any member of the phylumEchinodermata (/ɪˌkaɪnoʊˈdɜːrmətə/). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers as well as the sea lilies [...] Adult echinoderms are found on the sea bed at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7,000 living species, making it the second-largest grouping of deuterostomes, after the chordates. Echinoderms are the largest entirely marine phylum. The first definitive echinoderms appeared near the start of the Cambrian. (wikipedia)
• • •
The fill was a little heavy on some crosswordesey names like MRT and MORT Sahl and ALEK Wek and AHAB and B'NAI B'rith, and then ASP EPEE EERIER OLEO ... there's more of that short repeater gunk than I would've liked to see, especially in a grid that isn't thematically dense. I liked LAID EYES ON and GIGGED and (weirdly) BOYO, but HOVERBIKES somehow left me cold. I should like it, but it felt like forced whimsy to me. Strange how some answers just rub you wrong. Rubbing me really wrong today was HIPPY-DIPPY—really not into these insulting phrases. We're making fun of people's ears yesterday, we're insulting their alleged "New Agey"-ness today. Bah. The clue on GO BALD is also kind of insulting. Like, Mr. Clean? Did he GO BALD? Is that part of his back story? Are there pictures of a lushly maned Mr. Clean somewhere? Also, his pate looks shiny in a way that suggests craft, care, and polish. If he had like a receding hairline or a bald patch at the back, then yeah, OK, I could maybe agree that he had "gone bald," but he doesn't, so he's not at all an appropriate example for GO BALD. [Lose hair] or [Emulate old tires] or something like that works better (and seems less "tee hee" / jokey as well). You've already got one (balding?) "MR." in the grid (MR. T!), do you really need another? Also, still not into SOT. Never gonna be into SOT. Not into making people with alcohol use disorder into figures of derision. SOT is crosswordese—that should be enough of a reason to try not to use it any more. On the other hand, I would use BARFLY, but I'd clue it as the movie of the same name, and anyway, BARFLY sounds whimsical and not necessarily bad. Whereas SOT ... it's hard to dress that one up. Anyway, no excuse for ALEK OLEO SOT all hanging out in one teeny tiny corner. Grid should be (Mr.) cleaner, for sure.
The clue on PAIL was terrrrrrible (1D: Item on a bucket list?). The "list" part makes absolutely no sense. PAIL is synonymous with "bucket." What's is this "list" stuff?! Is it "a list of synonyms"? Truly ill-advised attempt at wackiness there. ECHINODERM seems like a cool word but yeesh it is technical in a way that put it way, way off of Tuesday-level difficulty for me. If you give me ECHIN-, I've got ECHINACEA and then I'm all out of ideas. Nothing wrong with it, but it stood out starkly against the backdrop of otherwise broadly familiar terms and names. I don't think I've got anything else to say this morning, except that I guarantee you that "GENES" is an exceedingly uncute response to "Why are you so cute?" Just say "aw thanks" and move on. Anyway, you'd probably actually say "Good GENES." Otherwise, it will sound like you're attributing your cuteness to your pants.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Did no one on the editorial team see the TOW dupe (it's in the grid *and* in the clue for GARAGE—4A: Tow truck destination)? Easy enough to rewrite that GARAGE clue. It's easy to have dupes like this when you're constructing. You go blind after a while and can't really see your own grid straight. That's What Editors Are For.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
ReplyDeleteECHINODERM was a total WOE, but gettable from crosses. My one hang-up only tripped me up briefly: I didn't know how to spell GINGKO. It didn't help that I didn't remember the model ALEK WEK, whom I know only from crosswords, but apparently don't know well enough.
Definitely tougher if you don’t know dative, terp or hondo lol.
DeleteYes, the Echinoderm/Dative cross did me in!
DeleteA Tuesday themeless. Awesome!
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred seeing HIPPYDIPPY clued as [like George Carlin’s weatherman]. But maybe I’m showing my age.
ReplyDeleteAlso ginkgo is spelled wrong...!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Thought I was crazy
DeleteYes..how did that happen?
DeleteI had to look it up—I guess both ways are acceptable.
DeleteI'm having trouble getting past 19D. It's such a lazy clue that it's almost offensive.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not so easy if you don’t have your readers on and can’t make out what damn symbol it is … and you’re like …. That cant be a one.
DeleteUnlike Rex, I get a kick out of non-consecutive circled square themes. I ate this up! Wowser. To get three in-the-language(ish – RESERVE ONE’S SPOT, ahem) phrases - all 15s - that have the right letters in the APT (!) order. . . Nice!
ReplyDeleteTook me forever to spell GINGKO (Hi, @Conrad) because I was confusing it with ginseng and hence was wanting some kind of ENG in there. Ginseng, GINGKO biloba, St John’s Wort. . .HIPPY DIPPY supplements to ward off all kinds of maladies. But who am I to be sanctimonious, considering that I used to eat flea killer for thicker hair.
“Pond” before SAND. Defensible.
I liked the SPAWN/GENES cross. I guess if you’re not talking biology and ECHINODERMS and stuff, SPAWN isn’t a warm fuzzy word. A nice, normal mom begets her kids. The grumpy tentacled pod-mom on the spaceship SPAWNS hers. And those puppies REARM if you lop one off.
Speaking of EHINODERMS, I would call that cross with HONDO a bit of a natick for us non-sciency solvers.
Rex - when I filled in 56D, I gave a dutiful side-eye to the clue for GARAGE, but I kept it moving. No biggie. I think that kind of dupe is something I learned here that I’m supposed to get all upset about. Honestly, no biggie, IYAM.
What with the theme, I kept seeing BOYO as some kind of modern texting lingo like, say Bet On Your Own. Better Outwit Your Opponent. Butt Out You Orangemonsterdirtbag.
SAND/ENDGAME. I recently saw a TikTok that said, When I was a kid, I thought that quicksand was gonna be a much bigger problem than it turned out to be, and I was immediately transported back to my childhood and the certainty that quicksand would be my demise. Whew.
Hondo is an ICONIC Western, not science-related at all
DeleteHondo is an ICONIC Western, not science-related at all.
DeleteGreat Radiolab episode about how earlier generations were obsessed and petrified of quicksand … while current generations barely know about it.
DeleteGingko is a mis-spelling. Correct is ginkgo biloba. Seems a careless error even editor missed,
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia: “Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko (/ˈɡɪŋkoʊ, ˈɡɪŋkɡoʊ/ GINK-oh, -goh) also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree…”
DeletePerhaps Ginkgo *more* correct, but either way it’s a misspelling of a transliteration of the Japanese “gin-kyo” so…
This is my first comment after years of enjoying the nyt crosswords and Rex’s blog. As the founder of my company “Ginkgo Planning and Design”, I was so happy to see Ginkgo in the crossword until I realized it was misspelled. This typo is not acceptable!
DeleteThe Mr. Clean ad! Years of reading this blog just came to fruition. To now imagine that one scrubs out the spots on one's floor and is driven to mad longing at the idea of doing it with Mr. Clean! Why just the other day I said to no one in particular, "Exactly how does one Reserve One's Spot to discuss over dinner the end of civilized society as we know it when all the restaurants are closed on Mondays?"
ReplyDeleteToday I learned Latin has no Native grammatical case and there's no such thing as an Echinonerm. What a maroon.
Loved “What a maroon”; harkens back to Bugs.
DeleteMajor, inexcusable editing fail. There is no such thing as GINGKO biloba. It’s the plant’s scientific name, so there are no alternate spellings. It has to be GINKGO. If it has been clued as ‘smelly street tree’, you could weasel your way into it being a variant. But on a Tuesday even that would need to be indicated in the clue.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wikipedia, GINGKO has become a "common alternative spelling". That's good enough for Will Shorzt and crew.
ReplyDeleteThe scientific name, which was used in the clue, is GINKGO biloba. There is no alternative spelling of the scientific name. This was an editing error, plain and simple.
DeleteCluing ONE with the numeral is so lazy that I actually kinda liked it. I can just hear the constructor saying, “ Aw f—- it, i got nothing.” And this puzzle was really lacking in wordplay and misdirection clues, which are my favorites.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I liked the theme a lot, and if I weren’t so lazy myself I might try to come up with some others. I hope more alert people here do so.
Why is there a question mark on the clue for AHAB - is there any other whale captain in all of CrossWorld? Bizarre. Took a hard pass on the clue trying to bait me into thinking about Latin stuff and was just willing to fill it in via crosses - until I got to that cross with what is supposed to be ECHINODERM - will concede a one-square dnf on that instead of running the alphabet on a foreign language clue.
ReplyDeletePoor BEAVIS. Butt-Head is kind of a cool name, but who wants to be called BEAVIS for heaven’s sake. I was also (mildly) surprised that the TOW dupe made it to the final cut. This is the NYT though, so definitely not a shocker, lol.
I didn't know that GINGKO was wrong. Now that I do, I agree that this was sloppy editing.
ReplyDeleteMy answer to why are you so cute? Would be why are you so nosy? But I just hate that diminutive term.
ReplyDeleteThe middle themer just doen't seem to fit like the other two do. When you ask in your invitation to RSVP, you're asking for a response. That's literally what it means. It doesn't mean reserve, it means respond. Other than that, a pretty boring puzzle for sure.
ReplyDeleteCute theme I guess - not a lot of depth and doesn’t really show it’s face during the solve. With only three themers - I would expect some shiny non-theme material. We get some here - HOVER BIKES, LAID EYES ON etc but there is also plenty of glue like Wrong ‘em BOYO
ReplyDeleteBig guy feeling all emotional lately - maybe the BALD, SOT and HIPPY DIPPY hit home? I don’t necessarily like the frivolous use of SOT so much in the puzzle either. Had to dig deep in Brother Simeon’s class from 40 years ago for DATIVE - definitely not early week fill.
Central Park is loaded with GINGKOs - if you’re walking through in the next couple of weeks you’ll see the adventurous type collecting the stinky fruit that @kitchef aptly calls out.
LADIES from Town
Enjoyable Tuesday solve.
Wow! An actual bona fide mistake, involving a word that’s in common everyday usage in at least four fields in which nomenclatural accuracy is a value: medicinals, paleontology, horticulture and botany. Scientifically, the tree’s name is Ginko biloba Linnaeus (1761), meaning that the guy who came up with the system of naming the world accurately and spelling those names consistently HIMSELF declared this the correct and only acceptable spelling a long damn time ago. “Gingko” is profoundly misspelled, if there’s such a thing as profundity in spelling. A lioness hath whelped in the streets, buttercups are buzzing after the bees, and the NYT Crossword really actually misspelled a word…
ReplyDeleteHard to not get a DNF when Ginkgo is misspelled, notwithstanding common incorrect spelling..even spellcheck doesn't abide gi
ReplyDeleteIt’s an ingenious idea for a theme. A wow idea. I’m assuming it’s never been done before, because if it had been, Jeff Chen would have said so in his blog (and he didn’t). Finding theme answers to this theme – and theme answers of lengths that would work in a symmetrical crossword grid, is equally impressive. This is a tough theme to find answers for, IMO. In fact, I just wrung out my brain trying to think of an in-the-language theme phrase for IMO with nada results.
ReplyDeleteSo double props for concept and execution to Dan!
I‘d like to add one more prop, a turbo-prop, actually, for persistence. As detailed in his notes, Dan made this puzzle five years ago, and had it rejected twice. Yet he went back to the drawing board, and here’s the puzzle today. That’s a long journey to stick with, and bravo, sir! The things we do for love.
I liked the O-train in the grid: OLEO / GINGKO / BOYO / HONDO / MILO / PESO. I also liked the images engendered by the outfit suggested by opposite corners – CAPS and TIES.
But the star for me today was the brilliant theme, Dan – WhaT Greatness! Thank you for this!
Was anyone else fuming at 54 down? Are we just playing hangman now?
ReplyDeleteI would, but it is a Tuesday. So… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Delete"Gigged" ? And Rex liked it.
ReplyDeleteCaptains Bildad and Peleg are also in Moby Dick.
ReplyDeleteIs there a botanist or taxonomist in the house? I thought the International Code permits “alternative names,” and that GINGKO would qualify.
ReplyDeleteNice to see Tuesday puzzles becoming more difficult. Great theme.
To person who wouldn’t watch “Power of the Dog” based solely on the preview: Take a look at List of Accolades for the movie. Might change your mind.
Funny, ECHINODERM is one of those words I almost knew and recognized when I had it filled in, when you say, oh yeah, that's it, but not aha! Nice word.
ReplyDeleteHello ALEK. I'll try to remember your name.
I refuse to call 1 for ONE a "clue". It's an instruction. Write this in the blank. I mean, really.
Today I learned GIG can now be a verb, which I guess is a time saver. Instead of "we've got a gig tonight" I can say "we're gigging tonight", but I don't really see the improvement.
I used to have students write about The World of Tomorrow (El mundo de manana) when we were learning the Future Tense. I read lots about flying cars, but interestingly enough, not one mention of a HOVERBIKE.
Nice Tuesdecito, DS. I Did See the gimmick right away, and it was fun finding how you'd pull it off again. Good stuff, for which thanks.
We are watching Babylon Berlin so REARM popped right in. One theme of BB is the Schwartze Reichswehr's secret REARMing of Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. It's an amazing show, was the most popular ever in Germany when it debuted in 2017, and leads to a lot of googling about Weimar Germany. Plus I get to imagine my 25 yo Oma with her 2 yo son and Jewish husband shopping at KaDeWe and being largely unaware of impending doom.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise the puzzle was fine. Seemed like smooth sailing so it was a surprise to see it took a minute over avg (per NYT APP). Knew ECHINODERM. German and Russian also have DATIVE cases (in English we use prepositions for making nouns dative, but we do have some dative-y pronouns).
Searched for images of HOVER BIKES to see if they had two wheels, which they don't. Seem like small HOVER craft to me.
ReplyDeleteHappy that I saw all those BOY-O-BOY-O-BOY answers with ending O's and thought, "I'll bet @Lewis mentions those!"
Had an enormous GINKGO tree in the front of my childhood home. When its leaves all turned vivid yellow in the fall, many people would stop to take pictures, and this was long before we had phones that weren't plugged into outlets in our homes.
And @Rex, I would suggest the Mr. Clean answer is not about involuntary baldness, but about someone choosing to GO BALD (ALA "GO large" or go home) as a "fashion" choice.
11D/21A is a *major* Natick. That plus the GINKGO goof add up to a major editing fail. Why am I not surprised?
ReplyDeleteHONDO crossing ECH… was almost a Natick for me. The only letter of ECHINODERM I wasn’t sure about was the O. I’m old enough to remember John Wayne movies but did not remember HONDO. Really got stuck in lower left corner due to 54 down. The “(felicitously)” threw me off. I had ED for “leg up” and drew a total blank.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness I actually knew echinoderm or nATIVE would've been the end of this one. Also hung up with Mars or Jupiter being reD and that cutesy reply wouldn't come to me. Don't really think of reserving a spot at the table as RSVPeeing, but the other way around works sufficiently well to earn, well, it's seat at the table.
ReplyDeleteGinkgos are beautiful in the fall, and the spelling issue got me reading up on the oldest trees in the world, so a perfect Tuesday.
Would like the theme answers even more if none of the circled letters touched each other. That would be ridiculously easy in AND MAKE IT SNAPPY by simply circling the 2nd P in SNAPPY. But there is no easy fix for IF IM BEING HONEST.
ReplyDeleteGood grid for A-S-Ps. The ASP at 35D shares its A with a Hidden Diagonal ASP, and there's a frontwards SAP in 61A and a backwards SPA in 10A.
And, of course, the S-A-P in ASAP.
Hard to get past the misspelled GINGKO and the awful clue (1) for ONE. Where are the ediotrs???
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteNice theme idea. Someone mentioned GINGKO as an acceptable alt. spelling. Kind of like WOAH for the correct WHOA. I guess being too lazy to correct a wrong gets others to write it the same way, and before long, if you write it correctly, others think it's you that's wrong. Weird. (Weered? Har.)
Anyway, nice TuesPuz IN TOTAL. Could be a mini story in the Themers.
"Honey, make some dinner reservations now! IF IM BEING HONEST, RESERVE ONES SPOT, AND MAKE IT SNAPPY!"
Then they jump on their HIPPY DIPPY HOVER BIKES, and LAID EYES ON a ECHINODERM.
I'm no @Gill...
Off topic (sort of), had anyone noticed that the Mini is now done by various people, and being edited by Joel Fagliano? Scoop, anyone?
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I'm a cranky old man, but seeing TOW both as an entry and as part of clue doesn't bother me in the least.
ReplyDeleteGINKGO, FFS!
ReplyDeletehand up for nATIVE. Agree, 54D and 19D they basically gave us the answer. I’ve got Bette Davis Eyes in my head now.... great song though
ReplyDeleteYou can argue that GINGKO is merely a variant spelling (certainly the less common one) in day-to-day use, but in a standard-bearer like the NYTXW, it's a misspelling, full stop. That should not have gotten through at all. Between that and having ziPS initially instead of CAPS, I was briefly wondering who the heck would ever praise someone by saying "zONkRATs!"
ReplyDeleteI somehow pulled ECHINODERM from way deep out of the recesses of school memory. Great word, if a bit clinical.
I didn't even notice "1" until I got here. That's fairly appalling. So is 54D—agreed with Amy on that one.
If it weren't for the okay theme, this one would belong squarely in a Dell book of easy large-print crosswords.
Thank you, 34A. My four years of Latin in high school finally paid off.
ReplyDelete"Non-consecutive circled squares have always been one of the most unappealing crossword tropes for me."
ReplyDeleteMe too, Rex.
I also didn't know ECHINODERM -- nor HONDO, for that matter. And I wasn't at all sure whether the futuristic mode of travel would be a HOVER thing or a MOVER thing. (MONDO could have been John Wayne title role.)
PS. I'm scared enough of BIKES that stay on the ground. In NYC they're completely out of control and have become by far the biggest danger in my life. God help us all if they're going to be HOVERing in the sky someday.
I really hope that it will only happen after I'm dead. Even if it's only five minutes after I'm dead.
As long as you stay on the ground they’d be safer for you up there!
DeleteThx, Dan, for a SNAPPY Tues. puz! :)
ReplyDeleteMed+ (Wednes. time)
Pretty much on the right wavelength for this one, except there must have been an EERIE 'ghost' HOVERing over ECHINODERM HIPPYDIPPY BIKES, bc they needed all the crosses. 👻
Nevertheless, a fun & challenging adventure. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
@Joe DePitno (7:12) - Nicely done
ReplyDeleteYup, seemed like solving a themeless. A particularly easy themeless, I thought – lots of Monday cluing – until I hit ECHINODERM. But [Bud]/PAL, [Tow truck destination]/GARAGE, [Puts a lid on]/CAPS, [___ carte menu]/ALA – at first I thought this was Monday redux. I’ve never been able to spell GINKGO (have I ever needed to?), so completely missed the error. Like @okanaganer, I despise sports team nicknames, but I have a grudging liking for the TERPs. There’s something sweet about naming your big, hulking football players after turtles (terrapins). Feel nostalgic for my Latin-learning days (A+!), so enjoyed DATIVE. Some good old Spelling Bee words here: ICONIC, OLEO, GIGGED. As for the theme (when I eventually discovered it), I’m always impressed by the kangaroo word or, in this case, kangaroo phrase concept, probably because I can never think of any and they’re clever. RESERVE ONE’S SPOT didn’t particularly bother me (I know Rex hates the use of “one” as a personal pronoun and finds it stilted), but I did notice the duplication of ONE in 36A and the much-maligned 19D. For some reason SPAWNS always makes me think of horror movies, but I know fish SPAWN perfectly benignly. (Apologies to my fisheries-scientist father.)
ReplyDeleteIn a classic example of the antics of my ridiculous grasshopper brain, GOBALD made me think of:
Hitler has only got one ball
Goering has two but they are small
Himmler has something sim’lar
And poor old Goebbels* has no balls at all.
* Pronounced, of course, “Goballs.”
Think of these lyrics sung to the tune of the Colonel Bogey March, which was used so effectively in the movie Bridge on the River Kwai. In fact, the makers of that film wanted to use these words (devised by British soldiers early in WWII), but thought they’d never pass the censors so opted for the whistled version instead.
ONE too many, but who’s counting? About as much fun as a Tuesday allows. Off to xwordinfo and New Yorker grid. Hand up here for recommendation of Power of the Dog as noted above.
ReplyDeleteAnother day, another male puzzle. Not as bad as yesterday. Today: 13 male fills and clues; 6 female fills.
ReplyDeleteHere I thought the puzzle had finally taught me how to spell the name of that tree, only to come here and learn that the puzzle is wrong! GINgkO it is! (See @Joe Dipinto above for the definitive explanation -- nice one, Joe!)
ReplyDelete@Loren, now you've got me wondering if I know what SPAWNS means. I thought it was what female fish do -- push out a lot of unfertilized eggs to be inseminated later--but maybe it's any birthing of large numbers quickly (ASAP, as it were). I'll probably never know.
Finally, I'm picking up from some comments that there is an answer ONE, clued as "1," somewhere in this answer, but I sure can't find it!
Post-finally, HOVERBIKES -- yes, semantically, they should have two wheels. But I'd allow the term as long as they are propelled by pedaling. You'd have to pedal pretty hard, IMHO.
Ha! Finally a good day to be an invertebrate biologist!! I was surprised and delighted at ECHINODERM and thought, hmm but that's going to pass off Rex...
ReplyDeleteThis certainly did fill the bill for a Tuesday crossword and theme but the duplicate clues and the “tow”/TOW dupe kind of took the shine off for me. And 9D crossed with a misspelled supplement, a Latin term and a very dusty old movie is really a little too much for a Tuesday IMHO. Considering that ECHINODERM is a word I’ve never seen before in 20+ years of NYT crosswords, that had to be a bit of a crusher for new solvers.
ReplyDeleteIt’s interesting that GINGKO looks more correct than the actual proper spelling GINKGO and apparently is now considered acceptable. I can fully understand how that happens with many words in the evolving of our everyday language. However something which is an actual scientific name and not really subject to interpretation - the fact that it’s been misspelled so many times that now the wrong way is considered right - well that just strikes me as plain laziness.
I thought this was hard for a Tuesday! I've never heard of an echinoderm before. Also never heard of "gig" used as a verb before.
ReplyDeleteThe 'correct' spelling GINkgO was a mistake from the get-go, being based on a transcription error (according to Wikipedia; apparently it was a slip for ginkyo). Plus -- well, this is IMHO, because I'm no linguist -- it seems awkward to pronounce (a voiced 'n' followed by an voiceless 'k' followed by a voiced 'g') if you stick to that spelling and follow ordinary pronunciation. I'm truly unfussed by the 'wrong' spelling GINGKO, and would gladly adopt that instead.
ReplyDeleteECHINODERM: "The name echinoderm is from Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος (ekhînos) 'hedgehog', and δέρμα (dérma) 'skin'" (Wikipedia). I wondered for a moment whether the word "echidna" (for a cute little critter; it's in the GENES, you know; looks like a miniature hedgehog) had a similar derivation. But apparently not: Echidna was a figure from Greek mythology, half woman, half snake. Weird.
MAKE IT SNAPPY I'll always associate with BUGS BUNNY, or more exactly with Yosemite Sam. See, e.g., round about 2:40 here. Seems an old-timey turn of phrase.
Rex made me laugh (as he often does) with his comments on GO BALD. And he's right: Mr. Clean with his gleaming skull is a head shaver, no question. There's that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is dating a thirty-something dude who shaves his head, and she sees an old photo where he is sporting a lush mane and she wants that instead. But when he tries growing his hair back for her, she is at first delighted by the "nice seedlings" that have begun to sprout, but then observes that his hairline has apparently receded from where it was in the photo. Whereupon he rushes to the mirror and cries out in horror, "Oh my God! I'm going bald!"
I can never keep it straight, when to write GIBES and when to write "jibes". I got it wrong the first time.
Wait, what's with this "brainy oddball" bullshit? Rex didn't pick up on the put-down? Please: NERD has finally earned its rightful place as a neutral descriptor. Let's try to keep it that way, and not regress to the dumb Poindexter stereotypes of yore, that guy the jocks love to give wedgies to.
Gee Rex, I didn't think it was insulting to insinuate that Mr. Clean had gone bald. As a cartoon character I doubt he will take offense!
ReplyDeleteMy bugaboo was to clue hippy dippy as new age. Hippies are old timey, like the 60's man. I call new age stuff "woo woo". Is anybody with me on that?
Also gingko/ginkgo was tough to figure out crossing Alek. At first I thought the name must be Oleg to fit with the "g".
Got echinoderm immediately by asking my husband the biology teacher. That's allowed, right?
All in all a fun time.
My take wasn’t that he found GO BALD to be offensive, it’s just oddly clued. Exactly like you said: Mr. Clean is a cartoon character, and the drawing has always been bald. If the answer was “(be) BALD” that would make more sense. But to say that to emulate Mr. Clean is to GO BALD implies that Mr. Clean also (went) BALD, which then implies that he once had hair. Which doesn’t make any sense for a corporate logo. I think they covered their bases by clueing it as “…in a way.” But it gave me pause, as well. Conversely, a better clue might be “Become like Mr. Clean, in a way,” putting the evolution on the reader, not the fictional character.
DeleteWordle 486 2/6*
ReplyDelete⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
onelook script: ??is?,//e????-ra
Please stop publishing your onelook.com script. It gives away too much about the solution to the day's Wordle. Or wait and publish the script the following day.
DeleteOr how about just keeping Wordles out of this NYT crossword blog?
DeleteMedium. craft > Board > BIKES was it for erasures, and no WOEs (I finally know that Wek’s first name is ALEK and that Nixon in China is an OPERA) except of course ECHINODERM.
ReplyDeleteSolid Tuesday with some excellent long downs. Liked it.
Agree with some of 🦖s nits
ReplyDeleteBut nevertheless a tightly themed, clever 🧩.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
On an error occurring so often that it eventually becomes an alternative (ala gingko), David Sedaris tells a story about a French dish that Americans typically mispronounce when ordering it in restaurants. He lived in France long enough to know the correct pronunciation, and ordered it correctly. The waiter, seeing that Sedaris is American, in confirming the order asked, “So you want [xxx]?” using the common American mispronunciation. And Sedaris realized that his correct French was being “corrected” by the waiter to the incorrect Americanization.
ReplyDelete@TJS. I thought GIGGED was the ugliest answer today. But like you said, @Rex liked it. Huh!
ReplyDelete@Stix. I think the host wants responses for planning purposes. So if you respond "yes", you are in a sense reserving a spot. A little thin, though, I agree.
I don't care for that type clue, 54D(Missing letters in "??propria?e (felicitously)/APT), either, but I'm afraid they are not going away.
I liked "1" because I didn't trust it. I waited for a cross. UNO seemed a possibility. Waited on 1A, too. Coulda been mAc.
Wordle 486 2/6
ReplyDelete⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I only posted this because it looks exactly like NYDenizen 11:15! How often does that happen?
@Wanderlust from last night: “Ambivert” is brilliant. I really like that. One who goes both ways as the occasion calls for.
ReplyDelete@doghairstew: I had the same thought about HIPPY DIPPY. I can remember George Carlin doing his HIPPIE DIPPY Weatherman schtick 50 years ago. But I’m thinking there may be a different definition between the two spellings. A quick Google search leads me to believe the PIE spelling has to do with 60s and bellbottoms while the PPY is more modern day slang. 🤷🏻♀️
@LMS - The terrific "Stuff You Should Know" podcast you turned me onto here did a show about Quicksand, explaining its rise and fall in popular culture.
ReplyDeleteI solved the puzzle ignoring the circles, then said "brain, you've got 30 seconds to figure this out or move along". Glad I did!
When I got to 21A I thought to myself, "Yikes. I've been misspelling this my entire life." Of course, I've been spelling it "gheencho". Oh well ...
ReplyDeleteThe Circles are always a crowd-pleasin theme element. Especially them "non-consecutive" ones. Don't seem to bother m&e at all, but, hey -- de busta gut. Speakin of French …***
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: ROI. French. M&A don't know much French, so French words annoy his solvequest far more than The Circles do. Woulda been cool if Roy Rogers, King of the West, had pulled a Kanye and renamed himself Roi Rogers.
Liked the theme idea. Makes U wanna play a "Find the Apt Initialism" game. Example:
WAY TOO ZEALOUS.
[Find the apt initialism in there.]*
some fave stuff: ECHINODERM [knew it! Got it off the ECHI+? !]. WIENER & GOBALD symmetric duo [They probably got a TV drug commercial for that condition]. EUROPE.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Schoenholz dude. U have a neat intialism in yer name, btw.**
Masked & Anonymo1U
test solvers said this pup was "ghastly":
**gruntz**
p.s.
* = YOLO. [You Only Live Once]
** = HOL. [Har Out Loud]
*** yeah, I know ... de gustibus is actually Latin.
Yeah....This would've been a fun whimsy tale....(Hi @Roo)...I mean I'd certainly ride my HOVER BIKE to the HIPPY DIPPY bar and eat me some ECHINODERM with the best of them....
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoyed a Tuesday. It has underserved "bad rapiness" printed over its brows. I'm glad Dan persevered and go his puzzle printed.
Everyone's fighting over GINGKO but my fight is with WIENER. Do I use the "I before E" thingie? Can't you also spell it WEINER? Am I thinking of that politician who sent the world pictures of his nethers? I'm a terrible speller...
I wanted to marry either Roy Rogers or John Wayne. I've seen all of Wayne's movies (or so I thought) but I couldn't remember HONDO. I didn't GO BALD trying to remember his Western but it kinda made me mad that I'd have a DNF on the red-headed step sisters day of fame. I guessed wrong.
It was exciting to finally come to the end and wonder what the circles meant. When I saw the IMHO, the RSVP and ASAP, I actually clapped and exclaimed BRAVO.
Hope I have as much fun on Wed.
My GINkgO biloba helps me remember to say CONKRATS, ALEG on your great GENES!
ReplyDelete37D could have been clued “With 45A, prepare to break a peace treaty, perhaps”. ENDGAMES REARM.
And who didn’t love the old PBS series, “ONE, Claudius”?
BTW, aBout That avoWal? Not as good as those in the puzzle, but best I could quickly come up with.
Great theme idea. Fun puzzle all around. Thanks, Dan Schoenholz.
So much to love with HIPPY DIPPY setting the standard for what made me laugh in this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI kinda wish the first letter was H then the cross would have been HAIL / HAL and then the right angle uniclue could've been, "Open the pod bay doors."
I lost track of how many ways I spelled (spelt) GINGKO, and fashion model Wek was doing me no favors. CAPS vs TOPS added to the joy.
Had to read 🦖 to figure out why those circles are there. Hm. Blah.
When it's late at night and I'm feeling self-destructive, few things rival the "take your life into your own hands" experience like a WIENER from 7-11.
All these years of crosswording and I don't think I've ever seen BOYO, but boy does the DATIVE drop me solidly into grad-school confusion. If I remember correctly, classical Greek has an unknowable number of verb tenses. You can fit the first 70 or so into your brain, and then the "you should just go get a job" part of your cerebrum takes over.
In order to emulate Mr. Clean, you have to BEBALD, not GOBALD. This is no time for amateur hour or beginners. We've got dirty things people. Oh, and you should probably get to the gym.
One of the benefits of not being royal is waking up in the morning is more than enough of an irritant. No need to hide a pea under 27 mattresses. Just open your eyes and let the "well, not dead yet" take over.
I think I have also discovered today that I have jives, gibes and ribs all conglomerated in my noggin into one idea.
I used to play a game called Second Life and they have hover bikes in there. I have to admit I really would like to have one in real life. They're useful and you never end up in a simulated hospital, unlike my experience with bikes in this damnable plain of self consciousness and breakable bones.
We were SO close to an OREO today. ALAS.
Uniclues:
1 Ernie's little dog. (Ehem, don't go there.)
2 Every male baby boomer according to every male baby boomer.
3 Floats through the air with the greatest of ease.
1 EL'S WIENER
2 GO BALD GOD
3 ACES HOVER BIKES
@jberg
ReplyDeletere: ONE
See 19D
Never commented before, came just to see the complaints on the GINGKO spelling - really got thrown there.
ReplyDelete@Gill I.
ReplyDeleteThe way I remember it is that people from Vienna spell their city WIEN (pronounced like "veen"), and hence WIENER, like Frankfurter or Hamburger or for that matter Berliner (Ich bin ein Berliner -- "I am a doughnut").
But yeah, you see weiner a lot too. There's a restaurant near where I live that advertises "red hot weiners" as their specialty, which invariably irks me: they don't know how to spell their own featured item? (Yeah yeah, language changes, prescriptivist descriptivist blah blah blah.)
And yeah, that politician Anthony Weiner pronounces his name "weener": good God, man, why did your family choose to go that way? You could have gone closer to a German pronunciation: "wye-ner". The word pronounced like "weener": that's slang for penis since forever, and now you've gone and cemented that association even further.
@JD 6:51 LOL
ReplyDeleteI thought today's puzzle was quite lovely, and I particularly enjoyed the three themers that spanned the grid. Hat's off to the constructor!
ReplyDeleteI've read everyone's critiques of the editing (two TOWs; the misspelling of the tree; etc.) but none of them bothered me in the least.
HOVERBIKES are real, and you can buy one now. Well, you can place an order. If you have $500k to spend on a HOVEBIKE. Then it may get to you sometime. A couple of years or so. Further all they seem to do is hover. It's not like you can hop on yours and fly into Manhattan. Even if you could move laterally, you're not allowed to go over 10' in altitude, so watch out for trucks. And rivers. And trees. You'll probably piss off the geese, so be sure to wear a Tyvek suit and face mask lest they shit upon you. And those guys in diesel pickup up trucks with their exhausts modified to emit rancid black smoke on demand? They won't roll coal on you. Nope, they like rich people who waste their money.
ReplyDeleteAnyone here have an opinion on GINGKO / GINKGO? Asking for a friend.
The cultural center of this puzzle was a BALDGUY named MORT complaining about kids these days with their BEAVIS and butt-head cartoons and all that [j]IVE. I'm old and pretty bald and I found this puzzle to be dated. Also, an IMHO prefix has nothing to do with IFIMBEINGHONEST, except to the extent that they're just weasel phrases to mollify those your about to offend.
HOVERBIKES are real, and you can buy one now. Well, you can place an order. If you have $500k to spend on a HOVEBIKE. Then it may get to you sometime. A couple of years or so. Further all they seem to do is hover. It's not like you can hop on yours and fly into Manhattan. Even if you could move laterally, you're not allowed to go over 10' in altitude, so watch out for trucks. And rivers. And trees. You'll probably piss off the geese, so be sure to wear a Tyvek suit and face mask lest they shit upon you. And those guys in diesel pickup up trucks with their exhausts modified to emit rancid black smoke on demand? They won't roll coal on you. Nope, they like rich people who waste their money.
ReplyDeleteAnyone here have an opinion on GINGKO / GINKGO? Asking for a friend.
The cultural center of this puzzle was a BALDGUY named MORT complaining about kids these days with their BEAVIS and butt-head cartoons and all that [j]IVE. I'm old and pretty bald and I found this puzzle to be dated. Also, an IMHO prefix has nothing to do with IFIMBEINGHONEST, except to the extent that they're just weasel phrases to mollify those your about to offend.
Where are the editors??? Serious misspellings like GINKGO (!!) should not happen. Period. Heck, the computer should have spotted this one! The puzzle as a whole was just ok. Not hard and doable but nothing exciting. Just Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteWhat caught my attention was AND MAKE IT SNAPPY. My sweet Gran, who was the strongest and most loving person I have ever known. She rarely raised her voice; was a person of authority who made you want to be with her and as a child to please her. And when I didn’t she never yelled, never struck me, never had to. Her disapproval made me feel like a squashed bug. Or worse.
But she did get frustrated. We all had our chores and knew Gran wanted them done. We didn’t grumble too much because when everyone contributed their share, she made us feel included, important and appreciated.
But I was a handful. Stubborn and opinionated and determined to to do things my way. And often doing things my way slowed the trains, and one thing I learned from the very Germanic half of my family, they liked the trains to run on time.
This makes me laugh now, but back in the day, when my obstinate need to do things my way pushed poor Gran to the limit, she would check on my progress, make suggestions on technique to increase my work efficiency, knowing that most likely, her loving suggestions would fall on deaf ears. She would finally clap her hands to get my attention, say, in the loudest voice I ever heard her use but which did not rise to the level of a yell, “Carol! Finish up please, AND MAKE! IT! SNAPPY!” Then she’d shake her head and give me “the look.” That was all it took because the thought of really disappointing her was simply too much.
My own daughter had a tendency to become easily distracted in her own chores by whatever “story” seemed to have arisen in her mind as she worked through the task at hand. It’s amazing to literally see oneself in a child. Her resolute determination to finish things on her own terms so reminded me of me that I found myself harking back to Gran (as I often do to this day) and I’d just shake my head and ask, “Would you please MAKE IT SNAPPY?”
So it is “a thing.” In fact, it apparently isn’t going anywhere either. Just this past July, as my kids, my son-in-law’s folks and I were gathered for a trip from the cabin in to Traverse City, we were still without my granddaughter. Her dad grumbled that “She wanted to change her shirt . . . again.” My daughter just shook her head and called out “Landon, time’s a wastin’. MAKE IT SNAPPY, please.” And so it goes.
Rex is a bit inconsistent about the duplicated TOW issue. September 5, 2010: The grid had ARK in a clue and ARKS as an answer, and Rex declared this "no biggie."
ReplyDelete[101A: Summary of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? (INDIANA RECAP) — uh, ARKS is in the grid (89D: Torah holders). No biggie.]
@TTrimble -- Way back in P.S 6, there was a boy named (I'm changing his first name to protect his identity) "Sam" Heyman. He pronounced it as I assume his family did: HIGHman. Which probably wasn't especially embarrassing in 2nd Grade but was destined to become more so as the years passed.
ReplyDeleteWe all graduated in 8th Grade (we were the last 8th grade graduating class as it became a K to 6th grade school) and I didn't run into "Sam" until a number of years later. "OMG," I said, "aren't you Sam HIGHman from P.S.6?"
"It's HAYman now," said Sam. And I'm thinking: Not a moment too soon.
@smith: I’ll bet we we’re using the same (very popular) seed!
ReplyDelete@MLGJax. I agree on the onelook.com script but NYD is allowed.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 3:59 - Why is NYD allowed - It totally gives away most of the solution while it adds nothing to the discussion?
ReplyDelete@TTrimble 1:07. While I don't think I'm a doughnut/donut, I looked up to see if WIENER/WEINER were interchangeable...well, we know the English language, no?
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that my WEINER would be pronounced "why-neer". If my name were such, I'd make sure no hot-dog was involved.
@Nancy's Hayman/Hyman makes me glad my last names isn't Assmann nor Aycock. Oh...I also found Bracegirdle and Clutterbuck...
@Nancy
ReplyDeleteCan't say I blame him. Good for him! May the good name pronounced "hayman" thrive and prosper.
Wonder what it's like growing up with the name Hyman?
I can't really talk: my own first name, begins with a T, is something of a goofball magnet and whoever bears that name in a movie is almost never a sympathetic character. Either a doofus or some preppy entitled sort. There are quite a few names hilariously lampooned by George Carlin here, and yep, mine is there, you bet your sweet bippy!
The other day we had TRITT, which reminded me of all those Palin kids' names that sound like Tritt or Twit or Trig or Twig or Train or Track. Ahem.
To whom it may concern: my first comment today described an echidna as like a miniature hedgehog, but now I've learnt I got it backwards. Echidnas are significantly larger than hedgehogs. Whew, glad to get that off my chest.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very funny George Carlin bit, @TTrimble. And you also have my sympathy because I think I've guessed your name.
ReplyDeleteBut it could be so much worse. After all, it could be Herbert or Hubert or Herman or Horace or Irving.
A rather common work misspelled in the crossword? Lord, even Spelling Bee would have rejected it!
ReplyDeleteWhy am I supposed to know about Alek Welk other than to do crossword fill? This is just dumb.
Just to clarify.
ReplyDeleteWein in German is pronounced vine and means wine. Weiner as a name is derived from someone who makes wine.
Wien in German means Vienna and is pronounced veen. A wiener is a Vienna sausage, i.e., a hot dog.
Villager
12 hours later and my ire has abated enough that I'm able to look at the rest of the puzzle. Like GINKGO, echinacea is another common herbal remedy. Echinacea and echinoderm share the same 'echin-' root, which means "sea urchin" in Greek. The 'disk flowers' (the part in the middle) of an echinacea flower look a lot like a sea urchin.
ReplyDeleteNow, back to my outraged letter campaign.
BETTE PAGE GENES
ReplyDeleteSo I LAIDEYESON those LADIES
BEINGHONEST AND happy,
AND HIPPY BARB'S IN her 80s;
ENDGAME'S to still MAKEITSNAPPY.
--- MR. MORT WIENER
Hand up for HOVER craft/board. Shoulda done that one in pencil. And wow, @Pete, you say HOVERBIKES are REAL? How would such a thing even be practical? I gotta look this up. [Looks it up] Well I'll be doggoned. Another new thing learned.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize it was a no-no to have the same word ANYWHERE in your clue list that appears in the grid. That's being way too fussy, IFIMBEINGHONEST. Who even notices these things?
As for ECHINODERM, if you watch any of the Attenborough shows, Animal Planet or the like, you probably know that one. HIPPYDIPPY? Let's just say all the crosses were fair. This puzzle was a little out there, but okay. It gets us from Monday to Wednesday. Par.
Wordle bogey. Could've guaranteed a par with a throwaway guess for that fourth letter, but I made two bad stabs and got stung.
@johnk: That was only two lines; at least it's short.
It’s fine but a bit thin. One more themer and possibly a snappy reveal would have made this one a W̶I̶E̶N̶E̶R̶ winner.
ReplyDeleteAll was easy apple pie until I got to the Latin. I took Latin in high school - poor Mrs. Gambrill, standing in front of the class and getting ignored in many languages.
ReplyDeleteBut...I still finished it all correctly. Mrs. G could be proud.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
National Lampoon magazine used to have those blow-in cards announcing that "You may already be a WIENER" showing a cartoon figure of a hotdog.
ReplyDeleteEZ enough puz.
Wordle birdie.