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Relative difficulty: Definitely skewed "Challenging" (***FOR A MONDAY!***)
Theme answers:
- HINGE UPON (17A: Be determined by)
- MATCH POINT (25A: Critical moment in tennis)
- TINDER DRY (37A: Extremely flammable, as vegetation)
- BUMBLEBEES (50A: Fuzzy buzzers)
Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Slayer's final lineup comprised Araya, King, drummer Paul Bostaph (who replaced Lombardo in 1992 and again in 2013) and guitarist Gary Holt (who replaced Hanneman in 2011). Drummer Jon Dette was also a member of the band. [...] Slayer released twelve studio albums, three live albums, a box set, six music videos, two extended plays and a cover album. Four of the band's studio albums have received gold certification in the United States. Slayer sold 5 million copies in the United States from 1991 to 2013, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and over 20 million worldwide. The band has received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one in 2007 for the song "Eyes of the Insane" and one in 2008 for the song "Final Six", both of which were from the album Christ Illusion (2006). After more than three decades of recording and performing, Slayer announced in January 2018 that it would embark on a farewell tour, which took place from May 2018 to November 2019, after which the band disbanded. (wikipedia)
• • •
Aha, here it is: C.C. Burnikel did this theme, with very similar theme answers, three years ago in the LATXW:
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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| [screengrab from crosswordfiend.com] |
There's nothing wrong with duplicating a theme—people come up with the same ideas, independently of one another, all the time. My point is that it's a bit ho-hum at this point, and today's NYTXW version doesn't do anything particularly original with it. It's a fine idea, but pretty run-of-the-mill in terms of both concept and execution. The real revelation here is that, if I did this C.C. Burnikel puzzle three years ago, as I suspect did, then I have, in fact, heard of HINGE ... I just immediately forgot it and have literally never heard anyone refer to it ever irl, and so three years later, I'm back to never having heard of it again. Oh, wait, this is that "designed to be deleted" dating app I've seen horrible ads for on Hulu???? I still do not get the concept. At all. Like, delete your dating app, don't delete your dating app, what the hell is this self-destruct feature? Is dating really this hard now? [Rhetorical question]
Notes:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld - EXALT (52D: Laud) — realizing that this is a bad kealoa* for me, in that EXALT, EXULT, and EXTOL are all wadded up in a gooey ball somewhere in my brain and I have awful trouble prying them apart.
- IRENE (35D: Adler in the Sherlock Holmes canon) — the adversary so nice her name is crosswordese twice (IRENE & ADLER). I remembered her first name was crosswordese but I forgot which one (I tried ILENE) ("Come on! ILENE!?").
- BIEN (4D: Good, in Guatemala) — to me, BIEN is "good" (actually "well") in Grenoble, not Guatemala, so I had BUEN here ... I know BUENO is a thing. I'm guessing BUEN ... isn't.
Have a nice Monday. See you tomorrow.
*kealoa = short, common answer that you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Loved, loved this one. Pretty contemporary, very femme-skewing.
ReplyDeleteRex - There’s no way that Sarah’s referencing “SLAYER” the 1980s metal band here. Think “Buffy the Vampire SLAYER”. Thus pairing nicely with 66D’s STAKE.
The clueing on PENDANT and WING were also great. Really nice to see clues that I can actually recognize and understand. Goes nicely with yesterday’s MANI and HONEYS.
Lots of fun, would like to see more like this - theme repetition or no.
Any puzzle that comes out of the gate with BEHEADS and DEAD MAN has lost me already. Kind of casts a pall over the rest of the solve.
ReplyDeleteThere was a dish with pasta sauce,
ReplyDeleteAioli was it’s name-o
A-I-O-L-I!
A-I-O-L-I!
A-I-O-L-I!
Aioli was it’s name-o!
Isn’t HINGE the App with the slogan, “Best place for ACUTE girl to meet a DEADMAN”?
GHOST ( in the sense of not replying to) brings to mind contractors and tradesmen more than yearned-for romance and dating apps. That may speak to my age and pitiful station in life. As they say, the problem with porn movies is that they give youngsters a false sense of how easy it is to get a plumber to come to your house.
Do 5 Portuguese kings beat 5 NY drag queens? Only RuPaul knows for sure.
Really a wonderful, sweet debut, Sarah Sinclair. Thanks, and hope to see more from you.
Medium. I hit a bumpy patch in the SE where CATSPAW, WING and @Rex TINDER DRY did not come easily. Plus, I only knew TWO of the APPs, but then I’m several decades beyond dating.
ReplyDeleteI too did the C.C. LAT puzzle and I have zero memory of it (think about it, what would the inside of your brain be liked if you remembered every puzzle you ever did, every meal you ever ate....). Anyway, I liked this one, nice debut.
@bocamp & pabloinnh - Croce’s Freestyle #748 was pretty easy for a Croce. For me it was around 2X last Saturday’s NYT by Natan Last. Semi-keeping up with current events helped me in the SW.
HINGE got a spate of publicity during the 2020 democratic primary because it was where Pete Buttigieg met his husband Chasten.
ReplyDeleteWow yes tough for a Monday. Trying my typical Monday method (looking at Down clues only) made it v-e-r-y slow, and I was mostly blanked in the upper left. Then I accidentally saw the clue for 1 across, and that finally broke it open. Still took 40 minutes!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteNever heard of HINGE or BUMBLE but I'm kinda old, so...
Several dead ends: POP for RAP, RENTERS for TENANTS, SPUR then PROD for GOAD, GNAWING for DAMMING, EWW for ICK. And REFUGEE before EMIGREE... but early on I tried EMIGRE which didn't fit... still don't like this spelling (female expat?); didn't even consider it again til I had the initial E from BEL as mentioned.
@egsforbreakfast said "the problem with porn movies is that they give youngsters a false sense of how easy it is to get a plumber to come to your house". Too funny, and too true! Every time we have a problem, every plumber on our list has retired or moved to Antigua.
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0, very few words to get, and very quick 80 seconds to pg!]
This was a good one. These dating apps are 5-10 years old by now too, not really new! Let’s see GRINDR though!
ReplyDeleteBeing married for as long as I have been, no need for DATING APP. Child bride here, suitcase in one hand a bag of pampers in the other. Tinder was the only one I had heard of, but the rest came easily with the downs.
ReplyDeleteEasy Monday rating from this camp.
I tried the @okanaganger method for this one. I had a few times before and never got much over half done. This one about 80% before resorting to crosses. fAllguy for CATSPAW and carlos for PEDROS did not help the cause. Did that last one's clue necessarily demand a plural answer? Conversely I solved his EMIGRE problem by deciding to add an S because that clue didn't seem to demand a non-plural answer. giving me SsT for the cross. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteTINDER DRY. DRY TINDER yes. But you should keep your TINDER DRY. There I said it. A bastard cousin of powder I guess.
I think ‘cause I had already seen the theme, TINDER DRY went right in no prob. TINDER’s the one that pioneered the deal of swiping left, right? And the swipees are in your AREA? So like you can swipe right and potentially be meeting face to face in moments? Jeez Louise.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun to look at other entries as potential DATING APPS. LUNGE AT, ANGST, STOOP TO. . . I think a good one for people my age would be just Settle. Settle for that guy who thought it’d be so swell and original to have a profile picture of himself holding a big ole fish he’s just caught. Who confesses that he likes to keep fit and values honesty. Nah. Swipe left, swipe left, swipe left. If I were to dabble in this world, I’d be looking for irreverence.
Rex – great coinage of keoloa. I would add the problematic aver/avow pair.
The clue for EGG ON should be tweaked to stipulate that said behavior is questionable. Your friends don’t EGG you ON to continue your exercise regimen or low sodium diet. They EGG you ON to careen down Big Hill sitting on a skateboard while wearing roller skates. (True story)
I like the truncation of merchandise to merch. In a few decades, merchandise will sound like luncheon, delicatessen, and gymnasium. I was in Chapel Hill on Saturday and bought a TEE that reads “NOT TODAY, COACH K” with the 81-77 score of his last home game and Tar Heel defeat in Cameron Indoor Stadium. See ya, buddy. (I got it for Mr. Burch - our custodian and fellow Carolina fan - and was calling it my Burch Merch all day.
“School figure that might be weighted” – mine, as a freshman. Landrum’s food at GSU was just too good and too plentiful.
I’ll leave you with this challenge: say TOY BOAT three times really fast.
I can’t even say it once!
DeleteSurprised at the challenging rating. seemed average to easy to me. Now the clue for wing totally stumped me, but it filled in by crosses so I only became awaareof the answer (which still sort of stumps me) from a moment above.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at the clue for 1D. Grim, yes, but that 's why it was funny.
Got tinder dry from a few crosses. Like it.
"Bumble" is a daring app? what would anyone sign up to bumble a date?
I'd heard of tinder, and Match sounds like a dating app, but the other wo were new to me.Don't much like the term "updos" and dont see why they woul be wedding styles, But liked most of the words and phrasesiin this puzzle. I did try to put stake in at 46A, but when it was too short slayer fit right in and then sake came up at66A
Cool.
WEll, goodnight all.
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ReplyDeleteJust out of curiosity: was it a unique idiocy of mine or a common and understandable mishap to read the clue for 43D as "Necklace danger" and to keep wondering what the heck this might be?..
ReplyDeleteReally liked this one, despite the fact that, like many others, I'm 'way past DATING APP age and have never heard of three of them. (Thanks, @Joe Dipinto, for that bit of trivia on HINGE.)
ReplyDeleteLoved the clue for 29A, loved the change-up in cluing for 42A, and felt right at home with eyeliner and necklaces. And no problem with TINDER DRY. Sadly, with the increase of western wildfires, I've now become familiar with that description.
It was less than a month ago that I posted the three things I need from a Monday puzzle to make it enjoyable. I don’t remember the exact wording, but basically:
ReplyDelete1) All the theme answers should be familiar;
2) Don’t patronize us. I know it needs to be easy but there should be some challenge, too;
3) There should be no Naticks.
Today, two of the four theme entries are unfamiliar (HINGE and BUMBLE).
And most of the clues are insultingly easy. I mean, ‘state known for potatoes’??
Not sure about the Natick angle. I think MAISEL and AIOLI are both well-known enough to prevent one, but not certain.
Anyway, fails on two of three at best.
Nice puzzle, especially for older guys like me. Not too much contemporary lingo.
ReplyDeleteAgree, Rex. Thanks. TINDERDRY ain’t a thing. And CATSPAW???
ReplyDeleteVery fine puzzle, Sarah Sinclair; thank you. Knew none of the dating apps (I'm 88), but had no trouble solving this one in (for me) a short time. I thought it a lively puzzle, and could chuckle, not recoil, at BEHEADS and DEADMAn.
ReplyDeleteThere's the Hinge dating app and there's also an unrelated Hinge health app focusing on back and joint pain, which I imagine has caused confusion at some point.
ReplyDeleteOh, a high-quality Monday, not a flash-and-forget, but rather, rife with lovely moments, such as:
ReplyDelete• MINTY, TOY BOATS, and BUMBLEBEES, which brighten the grid.
• That inspired clue for EIEIO, which is far superior to the typical [Farm refrain] or [Farm letters?]. It is easily the best clue I’ve ever seen for this answer.
• Lovely answers, such as HINGE UPON, NO SWEAT, and UTOPIAN.
• Sweet crosses, like the related abbreviations EDU / PHD, and the dark BEHEADS and DEAD MAN.
• Symmetrical palindromes EYE and AMA.
Plus, I learned a new meaning for CATS PAW, not to mention the names of several dating apps (the kind of dating I’m far more interested in these days is the “use by” variety on packaging).
This was a fun, smart puzzle that kept me involved throughout, and a very promising debut. Thank you, Sarah, for this treat, and I hope you keep at it!
@Lewis 7:40
Delete😁😆😄 "use by" dating! Made my morning!
I was fortunate in that TINDER DRY at least sounded plausible to me. The Spanish text message clue is confusing - does one actually text Ay dios mio - or would you text ADM ? If so, wouldn’t the “Spanish OMG!” Be ADM? The world would be a better place if Shortz and his editorial team focused on creating puzzles with real (English) clues and answers, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteApparently EIEIO is too juicy for constructors to abandon completely, but boy oh boy we sure do get some creative attempts at finding new ways to clue it from time to time.
I’ve heard of TINDER, I think, but none of the others. (I find it hard to believe that people actually use these things, but I guess they do — just not in my world!). Never heard of CATS PAW used that way. But nothing slowed me down here at all — I suspect my time was a normal Monday for me. And I think I liked it more than Rex did.
ReplyDeleteMy five favorite clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. A bit hit might break it (3)(3)
2. Tool for closing a window (6)(3)
3. You might catch this when seated with other people (5)
4. Final four? (8)
5. M_U_H? (6)(2)(5)
TOP TEN
ESCAPE KEY
MOVIE
HORSEMEN
WORDLE OF MOUTH
@Lewis 7:49 AM. I especially liked your favorite clue #3 - because *cOVId* fit not only the clue but a full 3 crosses! I originally put that in thinking it can’t be … and it wasn’t.
DeleteOverall fill was decent - theme and mindless revealer fell flat. I liked the BEHEADS x DEADMAN cross. The use of DAMMING was odd. AIOLI is a neat string and a usual suspect in the Bee. LUNGE AT is apt after watching the latest episode of Rings of Power.
ReplyDeleteSONIC Youth
Pleasant enough Monday solve.
Hey, I almost missed it, so I hope you didn't, but if you did, it will be worth clicking on yesterday's blog and reading @CDilly52 3:56 PM. It's a wonderful story about the impact puzzling can have in life and why an easy puzzle might bore you while bringing elation to someone else. Thanks for a great post.
ReplyDeleteToday's crossword is also great. It's kinda violent with pirates, icebergs, dead men, slayers, grass fires, bumblebees, beheadings, stakes, ghosts and vampires. I guess it's October, eh? Maybe we better be nice to this constructor.
I didn't fight with this one like 🦖 pretended he struggled, but he's been kept away from sleep with blue birds and migrating Red-eyed Vireos.
Never heard of CATS PAW used like that. My cat uses his paw to punch me in the face when I am ignoring him and doing a crossword on my phone.
Gonna Take More than a POTATO:
You might be a pirate's MATEY
or a zombie dog from Haiti
you could be a GHOST
afloat in a TOY BOAT
or BEHEADED in IDAHO.
It's all a schtick
a SONIC ICK
a MATCH POINT trick.
Life will EGG you ON
and it will HINGE UPON
being GOADED into death
or having MINTY breath.
Sometimes the ANGST
is a wooden STAKE
sledgehammered through
your vampire heart,
sometimes it's an ICEBERG
doing its icy part.
They'll LUNGE AT you
there's no DEBATE
until you date fate
like stirred-up AIOLI
and play with a CAT'S PAW
and play an NYT puzzle in the raw.
Trust your metaphor and learn to sing
buy some Red Bull and ride their WIIIING.
Uniclues:
1 Can you call this life you're living... living?
2 Unrepentant ax murderer.
3 Apianophile. (crosswordese on steroids)
4 Sporting a small suitcase full of converters, the new arrival holds her breath and pushes forward hoping to dry her hair.
5 Meet and raise the pesos.
6 Xenophilius Lovegood's necklace, in a way.
1 DEAD MAN DEBATE
2 NO SWEAT SLAYER (~)
3 INTO BUMBLEBEES (~)
4 EMIGREE PLUGS IN
5 AMP PEDRO'S ANTE
6 UTOPIAN PENDANT
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ReplyDeleteWouldn't the NYT have a database of every puzzle published in the USA, so Will and staff would have entered bumblebee or hinge and found that a strikingly similar puzzle was already published? This seems like plagiarism to me.
ReplyDeleteEasy puzzle, maybe MERCH could be a dating app!
ReplyDelete21 seconds off my best time for a Monday. Started with Downs and filled almost the entire grid on the first pass, so didn’t see the themers or reveal until I was done.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 1:33 Grindr has been around more than 10 years, too, so I presume your point was not Grindr’s comparative freshness among apps?
Agreed, this was not a usual Monday. Not hard, but not Monday level.
ReplyDelete'Tinder dry' is absolutely a thing. I didn’t even think twice about it.
As for 'bien,' it normally means 'well' in both Spanish and French: muy bien / très bien. It only means 'good' in certain contexts. For instance, in French C'est bien or Elle fait du bien (It's good, she does good [things, deeds]). So that clue jarred a bit. As with Rex, I also thought 'bueno' immediately but knew it didn’t fit.
Happy October to all.
Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clue for today's grid:
ReplyDeleteThirty-nine of the seventy-six clues in this puzzle (5 letters, answer below)
Fairly typical Monday solve. Felt like it took a little longer, possibly influenced by deciding to solve it on my phone (in which case, I have to expand the grid and only see small sections at a time).
Hand up for unfamiliar with CATSPAW and most of the DATINGAPPs.
Answer to HDW clue:
DOWNS (begins at the 38D square, moves to the SE)
I thought this was a really good Monday, with the DATING APPS incorporated into interesting phrases and the grid enlivened (well, skipping BEHEADS x DEAD MAN) with verb phrases - LUNGE AT, PLUGS IN, STOOP TO- and with TOY BOATS, UTOPIAN, and the wonderful CAT'S PAW. Easy here, except for going wrong at "floeS" before BERGS.
ReplyDeleteBUMBLEBEES: I'm lucky to share a flower garden with them, and enjoy it when we're both out there working. Favorite moments are when they do a deep dive, almost disappearing, into early spring trillium or later spring iris and emerge covered in golden powder. Yay for the pollinators!
I loved today's puzzle! Finally, one that speaks directly to my everyday experience.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone complaining that TINDERDRY isn't a thing, but everything was so easy that the answer just wrote itself and I didn't really have to think about or question it. Also agree with Rex that the clue on BEHEADS was a bit dark. But overall I thought today's puzzle was a blast.
Not only an impressive Monday but a debut at that with a theme that newbs and boomers both could get. I have to say though, that as a woman of a certain age who’s never personally used a dating DATING APP, I don’t think I would have been very INTO it. The first time I got GHOSTed, I’d probably go LUNGE AT the guy with a STAKE. A sharp one. Dudes - and ladies - show some common courtesy. At least leave a bad text message. “I’m sorry I can’t. Don’t hate me.“
ReplyDeleteI found this enjoyable and above average in every way. Nice going Sarah!
According to the Tic Tac website, there are currently eight flavors available - only two of them are mint
ReplyDeleteOld and long=married and have only a slight familiarity with APPS in general so much of this was news to me. Live and learn.
ReplyDeleteI do know Match.com, as my younger son, after several failed attempts, met his lovely wife by using that APP, which led to the world's best granddaughter and her little brother, who is only four months old but showing equally great promise.
OFL is not alone in his buen/BIEN dilemma. My first take on BIEN is "well" so I wrote in "buen" which is the shortened form of "bueno" before a masculine singular noun, and there's today's Spanish grammar lesson.
Surprised that TINDERDRY is so unfamiliar, as I have heard it often and wrote in in instantly. WING, OTOH as clued, was news to me, as my familiarity with eyeliner and its uses is about equal to my APP knowledge.
So a nice Mondecito, SS. Splendid Start, congrats on the debut, and "fuzzy buzzers" has to be my favorite clue in a long time. Thanks for all the fun.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteWhere's Farmers Only? Or Plenty of Fish? Har
Nice puz. I suppose since CC's puz being in the LAT instead of the NYT, makes it OK to have a repeat. Maybe the editors only search their own files. Who knows. Not me. Why am I talking to myself?
TOY BOATS could be a rich-people-APP. CATS PAW...
Do beavers go DAMMING with faint praise?
AND SO, I'm outta here
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Much more interesting than most Mondays. Grown-up fill, no junk. I solved it as a themeless and enjoyed it thoroughly.
ReplyDeleteThx, Sarah, for a challenging early weeker! :)
ReplyDeleteMed++ (somewhere between Tues. & Wednes. time)
Found this one somewhat unHINGEd and STOOPing a bit ToO low for my likes; maybe better saved for Halloween week. 👻 🏴☠️
NO SWEAT, tho, I'll take the UTOPIAN TOY BOATS and BUMBLEBEES any day. :)
Thx @jae; on it! 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
BEL was a Prince who always needed fresh air. He felt like a DEADMAN when his cousin, Boleyn, would LUNGE at him and yell: "There's a GHOST who BEHEADS the SLAYER of PENDANT." She would GOAD him knowing he was PRONE to ANGST. She even put BUMBLE BEES in his ANODE AREA...it was DAMMING. When she covered his TOY BOATS with MINTY IDAHO TEA, he finally left...
ReplyDeleteAND SO....
BEL simply wants a MATEY he could DANSE with. Maybe find some BERGS with ASIAN UTOPIAN TENANTS that won't put an EGG ON his ANGST.
He BIDES his time.
His MAIN FIX was an EMIGREE named MAISEL. She was A CUTE little AIOLI with a PHD in EDU. She would always LEI down in the TINDER DRY WING of the EIEIO motel. She had some CATS that would PAW her left EYE. That was her clue to sing some RAP. She PLUGS IN the USB and does a UTOPIAN DANSE just for BEL.
Everything now will HINGE UPON MAISEL finding a perfect MATCH. A POINT he would not DEBATE.
NO SWEAT she would coo as she PLUGS IN her DATING APP. She tells BEL she won't STOOP TO to any PENDANT who is ANTE PCS. She tells him to take a SIP or TWO of some SONIC while she peeks at the APP.
"BIEN DIOS" she yells..."There is a CARGO BAY full of UTOPIAN TENANTS. They want to RAP and DANSE with you." BEL felt an EXALT overcome him. He put his ANGST behind him. No more GHOST to fear.
He was no longer a DEADMAN walking.. He no longer feared a STAKE would plunge his heart...all of this because of...."The Marvelous Mrs. MAISEL.
AND SO....There is a DIOS after all.......
@GILL I. 10:29 AM
DeleteI struggled with GOAD and couldn't use PRONE, and you drop them both in a phrase! Who's the boss? Yer the boss. Nice work and hilarious as always.
TINDER DRY is unfamiliar??? We hear in New English had a fairly dry summer, and all the weather critters kept mewling that the forests were just that. Keep your powder and tinder dry.
ReplyDeleteSurprised how many did not know the term CATSPAW. There's a wonderful cyberpunk novel by Joan D. Vinge with that title. I raised an eyebrow at TINDERDRY, but box was not going to work. It was easy enough to suss out though. I did not know HINGE either or at least did not remember that Pete B. met his sweetie there. In any event I think I had all the apps by the time I made it down to the revealer without realizing what the them was. Did anyone else really want a rubber ducky in their bathtub?
ReplyDeleteSuper easy. 3/4 of the answers came on first reading of the clues. Only write-over was BuEN.
ReplyDeleteWell there's my whole family right at the top of the puzzle, so of course I'm predisposed to like it. It did have its points, but the cluing got a little boring. Like "Ballet, e.g., in French." I felt the same way about PENDANT, which is just French for dangler, but I see others liked it-- so maybe it's just me.
ReplyDeleteHere in Boston we have Spanish speaking people from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia, Panama, and even Spain, and they all say things a bit differently from each other. I have certainly heard BuEN, so I went with that. I have heard 'esta bien' (I think there should be an accent there), so that's OK too.
@albatross, I wanted EMIGREs too, but to my ear "many an ex-pat" is singular; plural would be "many ex-pats." I did need most of the crosses before I saw that it was feminine; that one's entirely my fault. Kudos to Ms. Sinclair for reminding me.
I've never used a dating app, but I love reading advice columns (doesn't everybody? It's a great way to feel superior!), and they come up there a lot. Didn't know HINGE, but once I saw MATCH and TINDER I could see where we were going. Coincidentally, my copy of today's Times arrived with the Arts section (where the puzzle is) nestled inside the Business section, where today's front page story is about how people in China, isolated by the pandemic, are using dating apps just to make new friends.
I also learned a new meaning of PRONE. Since it also means lying flat, i.e. either face-down or face-up, it's a bit confusing. I think the latter meaning is implied when Cleopatra (apocryphally) says to Antony, "I am not PRONE to argue."
@LMS - There is such a dating site, only it's called Lowere Expectations. Also, avoid competitive fishermen. There was a pair caught cheating in a fishing contest in Lake Erie (they stuffed lead weights down the fish's mouths to jack up their catch weight). Watching the video of them being caught, one might assume that all fishermen are either cheats or foul mouth Neanderthals who believe people who cheat at fishing contest should be beaten until permanently disabled or dead, depending only on the stamina of the beaters.
ReplyDeleteThe forests out on the west coast are TINDERDRY, and causing a lot of problems. They're always called "a TINDER box" when they want a noun, TINDERDRY when looking for an adjective.
Twas a lot of violence in the puzzle, what with the beheadings, vampire killings, sword fighting and all. You'd think that the crossword puzzle would be one place where they wouldn't conflate sex and violence, but I guess not.
EIEIO is almost inexcusable.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle just zipped along, after getting by 1D. So here is a short excerpt from a little song, famously sung by Stanley Holloway, and written in 1934 by R.P. Weston and Bert Lee.
ReplyDeleteIn the Tower of London, large as life
The ghost of Ann Boleyn walks they declare.
Poor Ann Boleyn was once King Henry's wife --
Until he made the Headsman bob her hair!
Ah yes! he did her wrong long years ago
And she comes at night to tell him so.
With her head tucked underneath her arm
She walks the Bloody Tower!
With her head tucked underneath her arm
At the Midnight hour.
Along the draughty corridors for miles and miles she goes.
She often catches cold, poor thing, it's cold there when it blows,
And it's awfullly awkward for the Queen to have to blow her nose
With her head tucked underneath her arm!
OFL’s nitpicks were off today (see comments above re: slayer, tinder dry etc.) And I agree with many here that it felt fresh, (virtually) junk-free, and flowed. I’d say it’s an impressive debut. Plus, good to see more women appear lately!
ReplyDeletePRONE = Face down
ReplyDeleteSupine = Face up
Twixt all the Britishisms and music folks here no one mentions "with er Ed tooked underneath er arm," nor even "enery the eight I am I am"
ReplyDeleteOTTS.
@jae-Thanks for the Freestyle heads up. I'll give it a shot.
ReplyDelete@New Yorker xworders-Really liked today's Anna Shechtman offering and found the "challenging" description accurate.
I love the Cleopatra "quote" but it's ambiguous in terms of what "prone" means. "Prone" is face down, "sUPine" is face up.
ReplyDeleteThis fill must really be in my wheelhouse, because I had a better than average Monday time. Dating app story: Within the first year that Tinder came out, I was a lecturer in math at a state university.
ReplyDeleteFor an ice-breaker on the first day, I asked the students to say their name and what they were doing when they were on their phones in class. Most people said Instagram or texting or something like that. One guy said "Tinder" and everyone laughed. At that time I had no idea what Tinder was. Cue fake "I'm in on the joke" laughter that probably didn't fool them. Well, if you can't be "cool", you can at least be un-boring and get a good story out of it!
DEADMAN. BEHEADS. GHOST. Vampire SLAYER. Vampire-vanquishin STAKE. 200-EYEd scallop. day-um. This puz would feel right at home, with our FriNite Schlock-flickfest. thUmbsUp.
ReplyDeleteHavin been well-married for over 46 years now, I can't claim much know-ledge of DATINGAPPs. Do remember hearin about TINDER, probably from past xwords. Sooo ... the theme mcguffin was able to stay well-hidden, until the revealer's appearance. Probably slowed the solvequest down a bit for m&e, compared to the younger puzmongers.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Apt vowels missing from this phrase: TH_ L_TTL_ K_DS'S S_NG} = EIEIO. har. Also admired how the BERGS clue tossed in the "Icy" word, to make sure that clue mooed extra well.
staff weeject pick: GMO. Better clue tho: {Texter's "Holy woc!"??}.
no-knows: Most datin apps. GMO. MAISEL. BIEN. DIOS. PEDROS/DANSE, sorta. TINDER-DRY was ok inferable, plus it made it into the Official M&A Help Desk Dictionary [unlike GMO].
Thanx for the puzdate, Ms. Sinclair darlin. And congratz on yer nice, slightly hauntin debut.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
The top half of the puzzle seemed too easy even for a Monday. The bottom half was slow and my overall time was much longer than I expected. TOY BOATS was not obvious. Could have been TugBOATS for all I knew. And like many here, I did not guess DATING APP, as my last date was back in the late 70s, when I met my wife and quite literally fell in love the first time I saw her.
ReplyDeleteTINDERDRY pretty much describes the vegetation around here at the time of our big fires. True today, too, although there is not a lot left to burn.
BUMBLEBEES went right in. Some places, they are called hUMBLEBEES.
I had "break" POINT before the even more vital MATCH POINT.
I think BIEN is used to mean GOOD when good is correctly used as an adverb. “ The cake looks good! “ “¡ El pastel se ve bien! “
ReplyDeleteBUEN is an adjective, usually .
I got married pre-dating app, but I completely forgot to bear in mind the theme as soon as I got DATING APP. Pretty usual Monday time for me (though at 6-and-some-odd minutes, that’s slow for many of you).
ReplyDeleteSLAYER!!!!
ReplyDelete@GaryJug 1:40. You're not so shabby either, amigo.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I can GOAD you into a Fandango Tango. Just don't leave me lying PRONE with EGG ON my face !
Toy boat, toyee boit, toyee boyt.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that stumped me about this puzzle was Rex’s rating of challenging. I’ve never heard of Hinge or Bumble but pretty much found this to be ‘read and write’ easy. (And I’m definitely not as accomplished a solver as many in this blog.)
ReplyDeleteI kind of liked the macabre slant today with DEADM[e]N and BEHEAD[ings]. And GHOSTS wandering around. Plus SLAYERs in the mix with STAKES to vanquish the vampires.
Oh, and if Rex was more in touch with his California roots TINDERDRY would not have been unfamiliar. Unfortunately we have a plethora of ways to describe “dry” here these days. (And I think it’s commonly a forest IS a TINDERBOX v the trees ARE TINDERDRY. Noun v adjective.)
@GILL I.:
ReplyDeleteme lying PRONE with EGG ON my face
that would have to be one sticky egg, defying gravity and all that!! :)
@Gill
ReplyDeleteAnother classic! Keep 'em comin'!
RooMonster Cracked Up Guy (In more ways than one...)
Dang! Rex actually had to think on this one.
ReplyDeleteBuen is the word “good” in Spanish when coming before a masculine singular noun. (Es un buen chico.) “Bien” is an adverb. To my eyes, this is a frustrating mistranslation.
ReplyDeleteThe ONLY dating app I ever use is "Rex Parker Does The NYTimes Crossword Puzzle"
ReplyDeleteRex -- you don't know "tinder dry" because you don't live in California where everything is "tinder dry" all the time. Common expression out here...
ReplyDelete@egs
ReplyDeleteI have been getting laughs with your porn movie joke all day.
@jberg
I agree with you about the 2D being singular just as 27D should be plural. Just strrrrreeeetttcching to make my answer fit. PEDRO is the name of 5 kings. Many means more than one. Neither works unless you squint with borth eyes really hard.
@GILL
Nice story. I wish you had used used EIEIO AIOLI or maybe maybe a PHD in EIEIO music theory.
Hoping Rex’s “ Come on! ILENE!?” was an intentional reference to the song “come on Eileen”
ReplyDeleteIt’s ACUTE little Monday puzzle. Even better if you are familiar with all of the dating apps, which I was not.
ReplyDeleteNot all that much challenge here. Not knowing the DATINGAPPS just turned the revealer INTO sort of an aha moment, but was not the cause of much slowdown. Even TINDERDRY was readily inferable. My biggest "Huh?" moment was my last word in. Who would guess that eyeliners are WING-shaped? My thoughts go out to the poor scallop who uses that!!
ReplyDeleteA little bit fudgy on some of the fill, The EIEIO crutch especially, but a cool--if macabre--mini-theme with GHOST, BEHEADS, SLAYER and DEADMAN. Just in time for (or in syndicats' case late for) Halloween. Give it a birdie...
...just like BBBBY, BGGBB, GGGGG.
@Burma Shave is currently suffering an internet outage. Found an alternate solution for today. This past weekend’s verses will post when service is restored.
ReplyDelete. . . AND NO WING MAN
NO DATINGAPPS for NAT, AND why?
He’s SO DAMMING IN D PENDANT.
Let A MATCH be made EYE TO EYE,
ANDSO be IN A TENANTS.
--- IRENE MAISEL, PHD
I thought this puz had a little more bite to it than most Mondays. I see OFL agrees. Have never even seen any of those DATINGAPPs, but knew a few from ads. Tomorrow's puz may be easier!
ReplyDeleteOh. Oh.. I get it. Duh.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I solved the puzzle without solving the trick. tee hee
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords, not looking for a date