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Wretched hive of scum and villainy per Obi-Wan Kenobi / WED 10-26-22 / James who plays Professor X in film / Greiner so-called Queen of QVC / Quaff of gruit and wort in days of yore / Sound emitted by methane emitters / Leopold's partner in 1920s crime / Autonomous household helper since 2002
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
Constructor: Simeon Seigel
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (a bit poky ... might be the oversizedness ...)
Theme answers:
- MARK / ET RE / SEAR / CHER (18A: Patsy + French "to be" + Singe + Pop queen = Sales wonk)
- MAST / ER ST / RATE / GIST (27A: Boat pole + Old "once" + Pace + Essence = Chief planner)
- BRAN / FORD / MARS / ALIS (46A: Fiber source + Auto make + Red planet + Boxing family = Noted jazz saxophonist)
- READ / ILY A / VAIL / ABLE (61A: Interpret + Hockey's Kovalchuk + Colorado ski town + Fit = On hand)
Mos Eisley is a spaceport town in the fictional Star Wars universe. Located on the planet Tatooine, it first appeared in the 1977 film Star Wars, described by the character Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness) as a "wretched hive of scum and villainy".
A notable scene set in a seedy Mos Eisley cantina crowded with numerous alien races made a particular impact on audiences. Location filming for the spaceport took place from 1975–76 in Tunisia, with interiors filmed at Elstree Studios near London. (wikipedia)
• • •
There's only one interesting themer, and the only long answers in the puzzle at all are themers, and even those you've demanded we see as fragments, i.e. more ordinary short fill. Wait, I take it back, there are longish answers in the NE and SW corners. "THAT SUCKS" is probably supposed to be a highlight, and if that's how you felt, great. I have nothing against it, and in this grid it looks positively radiant, but it didn't AMUSE me the way I think it was probably supposed to. The least amusing longer answer, though, was MOS EISLEY, which I parsed as MOSE EISLEY, mostly because I thought it was a person. I saw "Star Wars" in the theater seven times as a kid. I remember the cantina scene very, very well. MOS EISLEY? That name left no trace. I guess it's part of the (gag) extended "Star Wars" universe, "Mandalorian" and what not. Sigh. This feels like way, way too deep a cut for a Wednesday. But again, as with THAT SUCKS, at least it's trying. The rest of the puzzle ... if it was trying, it wasn't trying to be fun to solve.
MCJOB AROAR SOAMI TODOS ... do you not look at those banks on either end and think "I gotta do better"? I know from experience that trying to put 5s in those positions (connecting one grid-spanning themer to another grid-spanning themer) is very, very difficult. Your initial and terminal letters for those 5s are all fixed in place. So maybe just getting out alive is the best you can do. But it's rough through there. And as I say, it's not like there's a ton of great stuff waiting for your elsewhere. I thought this played a little tough in places. Three kealoas* slowed me right down (SOAMI (not SODOI) and NOODLE (not NOGGIN) and RHONE (not RHINE)—I realize that I should probably know my RHONE from my RHINE but ... oh well). I have no idea who this "so-called" LORI is. Feels like a "Shark Tank" thing which means I will remain forever ignorant. Memo to all cluers of LEO(S): the Obama angle has been done To Death. He's the only president whose sign I can tell you off the top of my head. I'm actually stunned to see all these other presidents in the clue, because Obama is the only pres. I've seen clued this way (OK, not the only—looks like you've got about three Clintons in the database ... against eight or so Obamas). Took me every cross to get / understand MAR (45D: Tag, key or chip, say). Great clue ... for a Friday or Saturday. :) I leave you today with this (great) song about James MCAVOY, whom I know only from this song. Enjoy!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*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.
P.S. I'm getting a lot of mail asking me to explain the clue on MAR (45D: Tag, key or chip, say), so here goes: the words in the clue are all verbs; if you tag something (a wall, say, w/ graffiti) or key something (a car, say) or chip something (a cup, say), you MAR it.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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107 comments:
I am continually impressed by 0FL‘s standards for crossword construction. Would that every puzzle, every day had the type of dazzling, interesting answers we all delight in. Unfortunately, that would leave few publishable entries and a lot of white space on the puzzle pages most days.
We should keep hoping for better, but let’s not get discouraged when *decent* puzzles (like this one) don’t quite achieve five star status.
There have always been aspects of Star Wars knowledge that existed outside the films themselves, so to speak--kids like me learned the names of most of the bounty hunters from Empire via their toy packaging, for instance. That being said, "Mos Eisley" is referenced explicitly in the original Star Wars, Obi Wan naming it right before he provides the description quoted in the puzzle.
I watched Star Wars, I didn't read it. So I knew the wretched hive but I spelled it MOSs ISLEY. Why not? Even when I got it right (after not getting the happy tune) I parsed it as MOSE ISLEY. Other overwrites were ALL yOURS before reading the 38A clue and terN before LOON at 39D.
Hey, "Mose Isley" reminded ME of the Isley Brothers and I went down that spectacular rabbit hole for an hour last night.
Market Researcher and Master Strategist. Doesn't get any better than that for me. Loved it. Loooved it.
Struggled in the SW where names crossed names resting atop movie trivia. Branford Marsalis, Lori, Nate, McAvoy, Alva, and Dr. No (meet Dr. Am). Didn't help that I always thought the name was BraDford, and threw in TBSP for Dram and Noggin for Noodle.
But some of that was my own denseness and Ampler forgetfulness and the solution was Readily Available in the crosses once the ol' Noodle warmed up.
I tend to agree with today's first poster, BeerWithMe and look on the bright side:
-Nice to see Ilhan Omar, MLK and our fellow monster-blogger in the grid.
-36a is kinda cute, but fails the breakfast test..
-Plenty of intetesting uniclue possibilities (apologies to @GaryJugert):
1 & 7a: Hoover Commission verdict?
16 & 17a: Baby albatross?
23 & 24a: Result of a Comedy Nobel Prize?
52 & 53a: Latin teacher's question to students?
Have a great day, everyone.
Once I got the first long answer I knew the rest of the puzzle would be a joyless slog. I came very close to not even bothering to finish it. The revealer, as it were, was totally superfluous. I had no idea of the star wars dude. But crosses there were fair. Not a fan of this at all
I thought this played relatively easy for a Wednesday. First, this was about the easiest NW (for a Wednesday) that I can remember for some time. Thus I had MARK, and then knew the French ETRE (Monday easy), and then voila! had the first themed answer MARKET RESEARCHER and it's off to the races. A rare zoom-zoom whoosh-whoosh for me, whee!
All the themers were READILY AVAILABLE, I mean READILY solvable.
The fill seemed really routine (SERB, KNEE, COHO, even the odious BEER ME) if you do these puzzles with any regularity, as we regulars here do. Even the kealoas were no big deal: either fill in as much as you can, or wait for the crosses, or a combination thereof. It'll get done, if no Naticks get in the way.
(Challenging, Rex, really? Are you timing yourself again and found it slower than your usual breakneck pace, is that the issue?)
The only really slow spots for me were MAR (clever cluing) and MOSEISLEY (no idea, actually). The cross of MOSE ISLEY with MCAVOY seems potentially Naticky.
Yes, I know LORI Greiner (yes, Rex, Shark Tank). I've sort of hate-watched that show more than I like to admit; those sharks are pretty awful people in general. Or at least they play awful people on TV. I really don't get the widespread appeal of bullies, the type we seem to elect to high office regularly these days. Ugh, let me get off this subject, tout de suite. Too depressing.
AM/FM, LOON, OBEY, PLIE, SEND, ... the fill fills itself.
I like OAT above BRAN. It sounds like the seed of a premise for another theme, I don't know what exactly. OAT BRANFORD...
Anyway, a busy day awaits. Sure hope this comment gets through.
Yeah, Moss vs Mose got me. Also I wasn't sure or aware of a moot court. Lesson learned.
Come on, no comment on ROOMBA and THAT SUCKS as the first two answers? With crossings of HOSE and UNCLOG (though I guess Roombas don’t have hoses). I don’t have one but if I did, I’m sure I’d regularly be down on ALL FOURS trying to UNCLOG all the chewed-up pieces of Annabelle’s dog toys. When I come home from the grocery store and set down the bags, she goes into them nose first, not looking for meat but for whatever cloth “indestructible” wonder I have brought for her to destroy in seconds.
SO AM I isn’t just a kealoa, it’s a kealoaulumeahaenuuiwo…. Not just SO AM I, but As Am I, So Do I, As Do I, Me Too, And Me. All of them work equally well for “ditto.” That section was the only tough part for me. I mostly ignored the short 4s in the themers and
looked for the long phrase/name as it started to appear from crosses. I put in MASTER STRATAGems without looking at the clue(s). That led to Me Too and then a lot of frustration.
Not my favorite puzzle but I certainly liked it more than Rex did.
MOSEISLSEY crossing MACAVOY is totally ridiculous. Double sci fi movie Natick; the only actor I know whose name starts like that is Daniel McAvor; tried Avon as well. For non-cult members, MOSEISLE_ could be anything; he best tries I had were N, R, T and S. Terrible end to a bad, boring puzzle.
I'm with Rex on this one. Four grid-spanners looks like potential fun, but in order to figure them out you have to treat them each as 4 fours -- including ERST, ETRE, ILYA, etc. That's 16 "extra" fours in a grid otherwise crammed with threes and fours. The whole thing was a slow and painful slog for me.
Easy Wednesday as the NW was done in a jiffy and no erasures until NOGGIN for NOODLE.
Had all of MOSEISLEY in place and kept checking the crosses to see if what had produced this Scrabble rack could possibly have been a mistake. Didn't think so, and left it and OFL agreed with me, so some vindication, but still, huh?
A MOO and a MOOT and a ROO (again!) and I've been to Arles, which is how I knew the RHONE from the RHINE, but otherwise the whole thing felt pretty workmanlike. The revealer was more of an oh., than an aha!.
Nice enough Wednesdecito, SS. Somewhat Simpler than what I was hoping for, but thanks for some fun.
I’ll give the theme a pass - it made sense, wasn’t overly cryptic, and (importantly) it stayed out of the way. It seemed to me like the puzzle ran out of energy a bit in the SW with MCAVOY, DRNO, ALVA, NATE and whatever a MOSEISLEY is. It got a little crowded with all that trivia down there.
Rex (and others) seem to desire a theme that is really tight, snappy and often grammatically correct - I just want the theme to be kind of mellow and laid back - almost like it is an adjunct (or a bonus) while solving and not the main event. That appears to be more so the case today. Gimmick-lovers may have to wait for Thursday this week.
I'm not a "Star Wars" fan so I could not for the life of me figure out where I went wrong on 68A. Finally, I gave up and went to Wordplay to find my error (I solve on paper). I was absolutely gobsmacked to find my answer - MOSEISLEY - was right.
How does MOOT apply to "practice courts"? A clever puzzle, but with some bizarre cluing.
Just ignored the themers and relied on the crosses. Took a look after finishing and said, “Huh, curious.” Not my cup of tea.
The best part of all this? Listening to Mose Allison. Thanks for that, Rex!
Goofy looking grid - basic premise. Agree with @pablo - this played a little too straightforward and soft - not sure about Rex’s take. I knew MOS EISLEY cold so that helped - but not much else piqued my interest. please hear me OHIO.
I’ve never actually said BEER ME - but have enough interaction with my sons’ friends to have heard it often. Like the play between THAT SUCKS and HOLE IN ONE. I may be crazy as a LOON but something seems amiss with including both AMPLER and REAIRS in the same puzzle. Never heard MCJOB or MCAVOY.
BRANFORD and Jerry killing it
Less than enthralling - but a pleasant solve.
Lots of creativity went into trashing this one. Iflatly disagree. This puzzle had lots of amusing clues , minimal words I see everyday, and a unique theme on a Wednesday! What more could I ask . I had a lot of solving enjoyment even more sophisticated solvers were blase or bored.
Solving the themers was a different kind of puzzle than usual, but that's another plus.
Coming up with those four long answers that consist of four four-letter words strikes me as being a remarkable, brilliant feat. Since I don’t know how one goes about creating a crossword puzzle, this is a very naive view, I’m sure. . I do agree that solving it was uninteresting. Certainly not challenging.
After the first themer, I just got some of the letters of the subsequent ones and then went right to the right side of the equals signs and didn’t bother with the component parts. Quicker and less painful that way. Hand up for MOSE ISLEY (I saw the first Star Wars movie a hundred years ago, and none of the others, and remember little of it. Some cool special effects for the time, I guess.). The kealoas held me up a bit, as did the M in MAR — my last letter. Very clever construction but not a lot of fun for me.
Phew-ee MOSE ISLEY felt like a random string of letters. I'd long forgotten the name of the town, if I ever knew it, even though the scene is one of the few redeeming moments in the entire franchise. Crossing it with McAvoy left me guessing on the final square.
I tried to grok each themer without crosses, but was unsuccessful. They're using uniclue 2.0 (amusement) and I'm still running 1.0 (notsosmart). They're amazing clues.
My name is: Long Nosed Fish + Spanish "And" + Wine Vessel + Governmental Science Contactor. Gar-y Jug-ert. It's fun -- do your name. (ERT is a bit of a let down. Shouldn't that be a word for something in crosswordese?)
Had a lotta THAT SUCKS, but never a HOLE IN ONE. Have had many McJobs and thanks NYTXW constructors for reminding me regularly how the elite view my station in life.
Uniclues:
1 Theoretically all of them.
2 Tell jokes at Det Andre Teatret.
3 Clean villainous belly button.
4 Singing Kris Kringle takes a break from his banjo.
1 ROOMBA THAT SUCKS
2 AMUSE OSLO
3 DR. NO NAVAL OPS
4 OPRY SANTA NAPS
Didn’t we just do essentially the same puzzle trick on Sunday? Surprised no one has mentioned that.
Kudos to @Sun Volt for the link to BRANFORDMARSALIS sitting in with the Grateful Dead. For those not in the know: This performance was completely unplanned and unrehearsed. Branford didn't know the first thing about the Grateful Dead before this night. But once they launched into an extended improv it sounded like he'd been playing with the band for years. What a delight to listen to Branford and Jerry chasing each other around.
Simeon is tricky and inventive. Two of his four NYT puzzles had words in black spaces, and remember his last one, three weeks ago, where five times, two vertical words abutted, and you had to read them as pairs of horizontal letters going down (10/6/22)?
Today’s was easier to crack for me than his other puzzles, and that’s why they were Thursdays and this is not. But today’s theme was certainly inventive. Are you kidding? Four 4-letter words that equal a 16-letter in-the-language phrase? I found it fun to break the theme answers into fours and see how few I needed to fill the whole answer in. It was like getting a normal answer with as few crosses as possible.
Cluing was inventive also, wordplay with a twinkle in the eye, like those clues for FTD, PAD, MOO, and PLIE, where Simeon took plain words and turned them into an occasion.
I OO-ed impressively at the grid’s six double-O’s, and I liked the echoing PRY/OPRY, and MOO/MOOT.
As a verb, NOODLE, means to improvise and think creatively – a most appropriate answer to show up in an SS puzzle. I love the crackling energy of your puzzles, Simeon, and may there be more up the pike – please? Thank you for this one!
@ Bob Mills:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moot_court
I also think Mose Eisley was gettable and in the general pop lexicon.
Not amused by the 68A/48D cross.
Solid puzzle, I'd say. Finished this one in a hair over 10 minutes. Definitely on the easier side for a Wednesday. I understood the theme intuitively and holistically before grokking the particulars.
Hard to imagine someone seeing Star Wars in the theater seven times and still somehow whiffing on MOS EISLEY, but except for the Trekkies, people just weren't insatiable lore fiends in those days like they are now. Still, it's far from "extended universe" knowledge. Matter of fact, it's about as basic-universe as it gets. It would still be a thing if that had been the only Star Wars movie, and Obi-Wan explicitly name-drops it. I suppose it and MCAVOY could qualify as a Natick—if, that is, you've somehow managed to avoid learning anything about the past 15 years of superhero cinema.
I thought this was a pretty good theme, though I agree with OFL that it was very choppy with a lot of short fill and pretty bland fill overall. I didn't experience any of those kealoas. I'm not a star wars nerd, but I think of the Mos Eisley cantina as common knowledge. Just thinking about it has gotten the song stuck in my head.
This was kinda meh. It would have been more interesting if the four spanners had had something in common. Otherwise, as Rex said, just lots and lots and lots of four-letter fill, and isn't that what we all crave more of?....
MOSE EISLEY? Not in a million years. Once I undid the NOODLE/"noggin" (Sorry--but "noggin" is the better clue there) mistake, and threw in a Y to make MCAVOY because it looked right, the crosses gave it to me, but I had no idea whether it was correct.
"Au Revoir, Mes Enfants"--one of my favorite French movies ever. Oh, it's "LES Enfants?" Memory is such a fragile thing.....
No idea on MOSEISELY but got it from the crosses. No idea on that particular MCAVOY, either, but once had neighbors with that name so plunked it in once I got the V.
Didn't love this. I actually did not bother with the 4 word part of the clues, just the summary. So basically themeless. And easy, at that.
It would be more interesting if the 4 words were *not* in order, an anagram, which is what I thought it would be, and without the summary clue, although that would require the themers to have some other relationship than "sixteen letter answers made up of 4 4-letter words". But that would not be a Wednesday.
tbsp before DRAM. And did we not on Sunday have a very similar theme? With better cluing?
@ Bob Mills (7:41 am)
Moot Court is an extracurricular competition in law schools (and even in cioleges and high schools) where simulated cases are tried. It's practice for future ligators
I still don't get the MAR clue....
The problem with this sort of puzsle is that, with just a few crosses, you don't even have to pay attention to the "fours;" the spanning crosses are gettable on their own. The "fours," then, become merely a curiosity after the fact. Nice to see and clever to contemplate, but not part of the solving experience.
THATSUCKS is vulgar and does not belong in the NYTXW. Spelled VAIL as Vale and that messed me up for a bit. Never saw Star Wars but I get most of those SW related clues but I never heard of MO/MOS
Hey All !
16 wider, plus huge corners. There's a couple of positives, Rex. I think the fill came out great, considering the wide open spaces that were navigated. Plus, there's a ROO in the center, which is always great in a puz. 😁 (Plus my college degree in 1A, ROO MBA)(Har)
Happy Simeon knew MOS EISLEY, because I sure didn't. If I were constructing this puz, that SW corner would've been different.
Nice theme as an excuse to get an oversized grid in. Lots of theme stuff to work around, four 16 letter Themers, plus the Revealer in the middle. So the icky fill that Rex doesn't like gets a pass from me, as that's a lot of fixed in place letters to work around.
@pablo
I found a Kandinsky-esque version of your name in SE:
_OP(S)
ABL(E)
Best I got.
So a pretty interesting idea. Interesting the constructor didn't resort to Blockers in the UNCLOG/NOODLE Downs. Could have easily put in two in each one, and reworked the fill, but instead, steadfastly decided to have large open corners. Bravo, SIR, here's hoping you have some hair left.
Two F's
Two ROOs
RooMonster
DarrinV
I liked it— probably because it didn’t require a lot of brainwork on. this rare rainy morning. So I agree with noth
Lewis and Signoff Our.
Maybe I’m in the minority, but I rather enjoyed today’s puzzle. I didn’t remember the name of Mos Eisley, but easily solved it with the crosses.
Although I have to say that I’m not sure I get why “fusses”=TODOS or why MEMOS are “sticky.”
This cute stitch-a-theme puzzle offered a superabundance of help and the answers were all obvious, not hidden. I was so tired last night when I solved it that I finished the top by filling in enough of the downs, which for their part seemed super-easy, to see the first two grid spanners cluelessly, in a Wheel of Fortune kind of way, checking against the bits after the equal signs only when done.
For the bottom part, I clued up and solved the last two themers by stitching the four parts together.
All in all a fun bedtime story and I dropped off to sleep with one answer completely unknown and unparseable – MOSEISLEY – and let it be. (Morning @Conrad, @TTrimble, @colingally, @dan, @pabloinnh, @SouthsideJohnny, @Joaquin, @mmorgan, @Gary J, and, whew, @Smith who called this one out. And that's in only a few hours of posting time!)
@Wanderlust 7:18 am – Thanks for pointing out the aptness of those first two acrosses. Had completely missed it. Don't have a Roomba but I've seen those YouTube videos of cats hopping on and blissfully riding around without a care in the world. I think my two cats would stay a respectful distance and smirk.
I guess that Rex wants to fill up the space even when he has nothing to say.
Don't know zilch about either Obi-Wan or Professor X, so I Naticked on the MOSEISLEY/MCAVOY "Y" cross. I figured that a "wretched hive" probably equals a place, so I had the MOSE ISLEs for my answer -- giving me James MCAVOs. Well Y not? (Pun intended.)
Other than that, liked the puzzle well enough. It was mostly easy, but hard in the mid-section where ALL FOURS was especially well-clued. I had ----OURS and wanted PUB TOURS and later on ALE TOURS for the crawl, but couldn't make either one work.
I could have filled in all the themers without help other than BRANFORD MARSALIS -- so for him, I was grateful to have the four extra clues given.
Someone will explain to me why "regards" = APPLIES TO, yes?
My nits notwithstanding, I found the puzzle diverting enough to be pleasurable.
I liked piecing together the long answers, and tried not to see the definition until I got the short solutions. They were fun and easy to get, and I thought Rex might like the similarity to cryptic crossword style, but no.
Yay! also for the clues for PAD and MAR.
I figured MOOT had something to do with legal jargon; MOaT didn’t make sense. (No idea on LORI or MCAVOY) As far as MOSEISLEY, I had Mars Isley at first. Hey, it’s in outer space!
All this comment about MOS EISLEY! It was easily inferred from the down crosses; so what if I never heard of it?
A very male puzzle. LOEB, JON, BRANFORD MARSALIS, DR NO, MLK, ARTHUR, ROSS, LEOS (all male leos), SANTA, MCAVOY, ALVA, NATE, YSL; vs. OMAR and LORI.
Otherwise, very easy and fairly enjoyable.
Enjoyed this one, but didn’t find it particularly challenging. All the PPP was gettable with crosses. MOO made me chuckle. And nice to see Omar and MLK side by side.
This APPLIES TO your question, i.e., it's in regards to it.
Enjoyed the parsing spree and the revealer and some of the fill, such as ROOMBA, BEER ME, and THAT SUCKS. Didn’t like the Star Wars reference crossing the Professor X actor at that fatal Y which for me was a T, thinking that perhaps Obi-Wan was talking about a small island named MOSE.
Now I’m going to go out and try to get those methane emissions out of my mind.
Wordle 494 3/6*
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
In general agreement with Rex today. When I saw the first theme clue, my expectations dropped significantly. From there I proceeded pretty much the same as he described, just filling in enough downs to see what appeared to make sense in the cross. After finishing, went back to see how each one parsed out. For me that was easier and less of a headache than trying to figure out each segment of the clues working across. Not my cup of tea but a perfectly good Wednesday if that’s the sort of thing you’d like.
@mathgent: Following up on the Fargo discussion yesterday, I was wrong about the fence scene. It was only shown the one time when he buried the money in the snow. Towards the end there were a couple of shots with very snowy highways but not that one. And I still was not able to determine what hotel Marge checked in to.
Easy and fun, starting off with the stellar announcement ROOMBA: THAT SUCKS (Hi, @Wanderlust 7:18). I'll concede that ONE didn't really need to read ALL FOUR of the components to get the theme answers, although I enjoyed parsing them, and that the grid was replete with auto-fill-ins for those who've been doing crosswords for a zillion years. But that made for a pleasurably quick outing.
It was at the entrance to MOS EISLEY that Obi-Wan SWAYED the stormtroopers into believing, "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
@JD 6:47 - Thank you for the meeting of Dr. No and Dr. Am (Descartes?)
I feel like I might have been micro-dosing LSD or something this week, as I think the last three days have all been respective PRs for me. I solved today’s pretty much by the stitch together method and just never seemed to have to stop and think. I’m a bit worried about Rex’s cognitive state if he’s indeed seen Star Wars 7 times and was flummoxed by MOSEISLEY. Not only is it very specifically mentioned by OWK (as he is referred to by absolutely no one), but it is still often referred to as a simile. “Like the bar scene on MOSEISLEY.”
My first thought on solving was that it was kind of a weekly reader version of Sunday’s quite difficult and well-disguised theme. I was surprised when I went to xwordinfo and Jim Horne could come up with few other good possibilities through programming.
I basically agree with @Lewis that this was a really nice effort. Thank you, Simeon Siegel.
I always like it when the theme revealer actually helps me solve the puzzle, so knowing I was only looking for 4-letter words enabled me to go back and fill a couple of empty spots. My kids went to school with Wynton MARSALIS' kids so I knew the second half of that one, but despite many attempts to learn to like jazz, I just don't. I do get why it's fun to play though!
@Karl Grouch 7:03 AM
The Comedy Nobel Prize is good!
I loved trying my hand at ALL FOURS. My AMUSE Bouche button was pushed to my delight. I even danced a little ROOMBA.
When I penned in MARK ETRE SEAR CHER, I squealed in delight...just like a child. I couldn't wait to go find the other nuggets of gold.
The names did (sort of) give me reason to get up from my comfy chair and walk around. How or why that clears cobwebs is a mystery...but it works.
When you really like a puzzle that SUCKS UP memory juices, then perhaps a little rest does the trick. I wanted to finish this one with a triumphant smile...It worked.
Like the rest of the crew, I came to a halt at MOSEISLEY. Not knowing NATE at 57D and that his name ends in E, I toyed with every letter of the alphabet. I guessed correctly; happy feet ensued. I even clapped when OMNI came back for a third time in a row. Perhaps MOOT will join him at the SALLOW Inn
Bravo and more.
@GaryJug....HAH!. Your parsing name made me laugh out loud......We should name a bar after your....
Get your $399.99 Lego kit here
mos eisley cantina
Wow! Very clever!!!!
The name MOS EISLEY came to me immediately, and I haven't seen a second of the "extended" Star Wars universe (or any Star Wars film in a number of years). I'd argue that the quote in the clue is famous, and the name really is not a deep cut. That being said, it's a made up name, so there's no way anyone should reasonably be expected to spell it without most or all of the crosses, so maybe not a great crossword answer.
This definitely dragged a bit. I don't think it was the size of the grid, just that the theme clues were a long jumble of words and hard to quickly parse.
Sorry, "that sucks" is crude, rude, and improper in civilized society.
Can anyone explain FTD to me? Google is not helping.
Thx, Simeon, for the Wednes. Stumper! :)
Tough.
Even without the dnf at MOSE ISLEs, this one was definitely from another world for me. Way off S.S.'s wavelength.
Spent a great deal of time trying to locate my error, and finally hit on the 'Y'.
Needless to say, I didn't know James MC AVOY.
Other unknowns: JON, MOOT, BRANFORD, LORI, FTD, LOEB.
Never did get a HOLE IN ONE (came within a few inches, tho). ⛳️
Enjoyed trying to parse the themers without needing any crosses.
Good workout! :)
@jae, pablo
Success with Croce's 754; just n. of 2 hrs., so in the med. range. See y'all next Mon. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Just cluing the 4x4s without saying what they equal would have made the puzzle more fun. Like the old Concentration TV game show, put the rebuses together to form something. It may have made it more a Thursday, but fine.
Instead, it just felt dumbed down.
Except for the surprisingly hard (out of nowhere) MOSEISLEY/MCAVOY cross. That just added a strange degree of difficulty for a simple and otherwise fair puzzle.
I agree with all the things Rex said, although it bother me less than it did him. I also found it on the east side, but that may be because I was familiar with Mos Eisley. I don’t remember it from the movie directly, but I can sort with enough geeks that it’s now burned in my brain.
I figured out the theme unusually quickly. So that also helped.
I might also be bothered less, because I was just remembering how, in the past, it was usual (or not unusual) to see a clue with “var.” and all you knew is that a word was misspelled and you didn’t know how.
It was infuriating.
Another clever one from Simon Siegel. The one @Lewis mentioned (10/6/22) nearly did me in. Even with the grey spaces (practically a neon sign), it took me way too long to figure it out. Today though, nothing to “figure,” just a memory/trivia test to see if the solver can get the pieces of the long theme answer. Because my mother invented this as a “car trip game,” I found it easy and rather delightful.
This took me back to family vacations. My dad was a teacher and my mom a social worker/teacher. Both professionals but neither highly paid. Dad worked a summer job for the public school system receiving all the textbooks, tossing the ones that couldn’t make it another year, repairing those they could, ordering replacements and sorting, counting and stacking for return to the schools (back when public schools issued the books to the students and collected them at the end of the year). This huge task for a huge school system took place all in a 4 - 5 week period in an un-air conditioned high school gym. The thankless job paid for a 2 week family camping vacation.
We hitched up our tiny travel trailer and hit the road. Of the three kids, I loved it and my older brother and younger sister hated it. Not the trip so much as the cramped sleeping situation, and the long periods in the car. I get that. Mom had to be the referee. Three school age (and growing) kids in the back seat of a smallish car (an aging Ford Fairlane 500) got cramped, and of course nobody wants to ride in the middle!
To keep the loud and occasionally physical (my sis was a stealth pincher aptly nicknamed “Clutch”) altercations to a minimum - especially later in the day - Mom invented games, usually word or language games. She taught English after all. One of the games she called “Skeleton Words.” It worked exactly like today’s theme. Competition could get fierce. We played for a variety of different prizes, all valuable and designed to appeal to each of the three of us, for example: time in the front seat, exemption from dishes, place in the upper bunk (sis and I had to share and the “inside” spot next to the wall was uncomfortably tight especially as we got fully grown. In fact, if it was an “i side night” for me, I used to take my sleeping bag outside and sleep on the picnic table if we were out of “bear territory” in Michigan’s U.P.
I hadn’t thought about these trips for years, and today’s puzzle reminded me of Mom’s prodigious skill in managing cranky kids. I was very good at word games and this theme was right up my street and the puzzle more Monday for me than Wednesday. I’m aligned more with @Lewis than @Rex on this one.
Like @Nancy, I figured the place must be either MOSE ISLEt or the MOSE ISLEs. I finally looked up the actor (from a different series of fantasy films) and saw that the magic letter was Y. So, by my self-imposed standards, DNF. Sigh.
The theme answers are basically what the world of cryptics calls "charades," except that in a cryptic puzzle the clues would be combined with the definition in a way that seemed to have an unrelated surface meaning. They had to simplify it so solvers not used to cryptics could figue out what was going on, but the result was a certain degree of boredom.
Also, while it would not have been a good charade, I really wanted to find some sort of 'marketing diva' at 18A, but I couldn't work it out.
I don't think a sticky note is ever a MEMO, but close enough for crosswords. What really bugged me though was the idea of an ATM as a "Bank drive-thru convenience." Not for me. First of all, they are designed with the idea that they will mostly be used by people driving pickup trucks, so the slot to insert the card is way over my head. And if I actually want to stick my card in, let alone punch my code in on the keypad, I have to fold my left-side mirror back to have any hope of getting close enough. I can usually park my car, walk inside, use the ATM inside the bank, and get back to my car while the person using the drive-in is still fumbling with the controls.
It was nice to see David Beckham bending his KNEE up top, and some ballerinas doing the same thing in a PLIE down below.
It was *interesting* to stare at MOS EISLEY and wonder what on earth... I remember the cantina scene in Star Wars but that's about it. (And I read it as MOSE ISLEY, thinking it might have been an unknown-to-me role in the movie.)
BRANFORD MARSALIS was the only one of these I used the clue to fill in; otherwise they went in with enough crosses. But I did enjoy going back and reparsing the components (which is where I finally found Rex's ERST that I had missed the first time around.)
NOggin before NOODLE made up my main holdup. Thanks, DR. NO, for being so helpful in clearing that up.
Simeon Seigel, thanks for a new theme style.
Puztheme was a smidge plain vanilla, but it did have a cool revealer tacked on. Also liked the bonus meta-themer of three hidden/semi-hidden MOOs.
Luved the apt symmetric(al) placement of MOSEISLEY & THATSUCKS. Lost precious nanoseconds, when I thought I was almost done. Knew MCAVOY, thanx goodness.
staff weeject pick: Sound emitted by methane emitters. Wanted SSS or PFT. Maybe AHH. Yeah, I guess MOO also begrudginly works, tho.
{Golf shot + fat ass + wrongdoings + scheme + stir} = PUTTRUMPSINSIDEAJAIL. Sorry, the JAIL "four-word" kinda got left hangin there, at the end. But M&A feels sooo much better about the puztheme mcguffin's future possibilities, now.
Thanx for the jigsaw puztheme, Mr. Seigel dude. 16-long, on all four(s) of the themers … pretty cool.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
p.s. Startin to get excited, about anticipatin all them upcomin NYTPuz Halloween-related themes that are no doubt about to pour out upon us … !
**gruntz**
Ummm, so what?
The total clue-answer is in the last part of the clue. Took a few fills to figure out all the + s. So for me unnecessary verbal gymnastics.
Some otherwise clever clues.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🤗
I
@jberg
Thanks for responding yesterday, and sorry for the delay in thanking you!
Re MEMO: one way to look at it is that it's short for "memorandum", which from the Latin pretty much literally means "something to be remembered". From that point of view, a sticky note could well be a memo: a memo to self, rather than say a group email sent from the boss. What's that fancy-schmancy French phrase, an aide-mémoire? (Not really le mot juste here, but maybe close enough.)
Came here to read the Mos Eisley hate. Was not disappointed.
I also had a rough time with "tag, key, or chip, say". I had "-ar", and car tag and car key make sense, but not car chip. I only got the "m" from "memo". To Anonymous who still doesn't get it, you can mar something by tagging it (spraying with graffiti), keying it (scratching a car with a key, for instance), or chipping it. Pretty tough, I have to say, especially for a Wednesday.
Like @Greg in Sanibel, after the first themer filled in I thought these could have been left over from Sunday's phrases that can be broken down into short words that have nothing to do with each other or with the longer phrase from which they come. And the phrases themselves don't relate to each other except in a sterile, bloodless, computational way.
Like Sunday's, this one definitely took some programming chops to do a computer search of a gazillion phrases of a given length that can be broken down into, here, four four-letter words. The result for me, though, is about as interesting as reading binary software code. Kind of cold and heartless without any humanizing connection to tie it all together in my book.
0011101000110101? 0011_1010_0011_0101. 00000!
Isley crossing McAvoy seems to have ruined the puzzle for others as well. I had Mose isles, with McAvos - seemed possible. "That sucks" is my reaction to clues like those..... Agree with Rex here, and did not like this one, especially annoyed at a DNF on a Wednesday.
Note to Rex: A couple of weeks ago you removed one of my posts without anyone having seen it. Good for you! I am very glad you were the only one who saw it. I went too far in expressing my detestation for a public figure whose name appeared in that puzzle.
Thanks, @johnk. I actually did think of that explanation after I posted -- for all the good THAT did.
I'm probably not the only one here who does the puzzle and then wonders what Rex's reaction will be. I figured he'd dislike this one... like I did as well. There's no 'there' there. My Mexican wife is always interested in the puzzles, the 'trucos' (tricks) and how long it took me. I told her (correctly) that Rex would probably hate this one, so I was delighted to translate his opening sentence for her. 'Quisiera poder decir algo positivo sobre este crucigrama' (We both cracked up)
@jberg. AMEN! to your comments about ATM's. I have the same problem with our library's drive up book return. At the bank I use, the ATM is at the end so there's room to stop a couple of feet away. I get out out of my car(a real car, a sedan, not a pickup or SUV) and do my transactions standing up.
The words in the clue are all examples of MARring something. You can "tag" a wall with graffiti, "key" a car, or "chip" a tooth. It's difficult because your brain categorizes those words as nouns at first, then the light comes on and you realize they're verbs. A pretty clever triple misdirect, in my opinion.
I think you missed the point of this blog if that’s what you’re taking away from it …
@johnk - I don't mind somewhat obscure answers when they are inferable by crosses but, like several others here, I'd argue it's not inferable if you don't know who James McAvoy (which I didn't) and there are several letters that plausibly could fit on the end of MOSEISLE- and MCAVO-. It thought perhaps McAvon or McAvot? I cheated and looked up the actor.
The silly thing is I literally just watched the first Star Wars on Sunday with my daughter and MOSE EISLEY meant absolutely nothing to me. Guess I need to pay more attention. Not the seventh time I've seen it, but fourth or fifth. I know the quote. The cantina scene is iconic. Name of the planet? No idea.
As in "moot court" in law school where students practice trying cases. As a retired lawyer, I leave to say it is unfair or not.
Let me add my strong annoyance at MOSEISLEY crossing MCAVOY. So Natick it's Framingham!
Villager
My parents had similar jobs and a Ford Fairlane but my parents had only 2 kids so that made it a little easier. Road trips in the Northeast. We did stay in motels though. You had better car games!
Puzzle was easy until Star Wars /McAvoy. Seen the first one many times, but not in 30years. Don't
remember details like that. Don't know McAvoy. Settled on r because too lazy to run the alphabet. I have many references to the "cantina" in Star Wars but NOT the town name.
I am happy I am not the only one who hates the drive throughs. I can see the utility if you have young kids, but otherwise....
Easyish. NE and SW were slightly tougher than the rest. MOSEISLEY was a major non-inferable WOE, fortunately I knew MCAVOY or, as several of the commentariat have pointed out, that would have been a Natick.
Cute theme, liked it a bit more than @Rex did. It was interesting to read Simeon and Jim discussion at Xwordinfo about the process of coming up with suitable theme answers.
Beautiful reminiscence!
Florists’ Transworld Delivery
@ Rich Glauber Telling your wife that Rex will hate a puzzle is not expert forecasting. It's kind of par for the course!
I agree that he certainly sets a high bar. Me? Knowing how hard it is to construct just a mundane puzzle, let alone [1] a theme, let alone [2] three spanners . . . . And [3] no real junk fill?
I'm going to say Well done! to today's constructor.
Anonymous said at 12:20PM
“Can anyone explain FTD to me? Google is not helping”
Florists™ Telegraph Delivery Association
Founded in 1910 as the Florists™ Telegraph Delivery Association, FTD® became the country's first flowers-by-wire service.
Thus they are company making (floral) arrangements.
@CDilly 12:41 – What a wonderful summer car-trip story! Thank you for sharing it.
I took offense to THAT SUCKS. Not a fun expression by any means. Not happy to see it.
Then why not in regards to. Very annoying clue
For many years I resented that there had to be a "Star Wars" reference in every single NY Times crossword puzzle. But since Will & the gang have decided that Super Mario Bros. is a cultural phenomenon on the level of Shakespeare and Beethoven, "Star Wars" doesn't seem all that bad.
Correction to some comments above: Mock Trial is the activity (typically either collegiate or law school) that simulates a trial. Moot Court (traditionally less common at the undergraduate level but growing) simulates appellate argument, which is a very different critter.
On a rather different note—I also saw Star Wars seven times in the theater! (Pretty sure my record on any other film is twice, unless a three-peat snuck in there somewhere.) Add me to the list of those who find it inconceivable to be so flummoxed by Mos Eisley in such a situation. But maybe that’s just too wheelhouse a subject for me to judge rightly.
As for the puzzle overall? Decent. I have few raves and also few complaints. Got stuck in the MOO PAD MEMO spot there on the right for a good while, caused my final time to be over a minute slower than my Wednesday average.
I don’t know whether the cross-reference highlighting glitch in the app—where it will erroneously light up the same-numbered down along with an intended across—is the result of a programming bug or sloppiness in setting up the individual puzzles…but I saw more of it in this puzzle than ever before. Dear responsible parties: I find your lack of attention to detail…disturbing.
James McAvoy has been in dozens of non sci-fi films as well as on the stage in London. The Last King of Scotland, Atonement, Becoming Jane, Atomic Blonde, .....
Same experience. Y was one of my last guesses
Is it me or are these puzzles are more riddles and puns than knowledge.. or am I from another time :(
Um, Beckham bends the BALL—its arc—not his KNEE. I can’t believe no one caught this.
Really, really hated the clue for KNEE. We seem to be in a Uniclue trend in puzzles lately.
Naticked by the 68/A and 48D crossing. Went with MOSEISLET thinking it was an island Obi Wan Kenobi had visited. Wrong. Had no idea who James MCAVOY is. I didn’t mind the theme. But it could have been better if the four long aswers all had something in common other than the four-letter, four-word structure. It started off that way with the first two long answers being professions. But then the next two long answers are stand alones. There needed to be a common link. They wasn’t, so this one gets a C+.
EDIT - Last line: There wasn’t not They wasn’t.
SIR David Beckham bent his knee when he received his OBE. (Look it up colonials).
No one else 'triggered' by Ilhan Omar's name cropping up so often lately? I mean, one can only take brotherly love so far...
Fellow stormtroopers, this is not the droid you're looking for. Move along.
No, really, what OFF said, mostly. A slog of a theme, a "Huh? Well, OK, I guess, there are four little words inside each themer" revealer, and, OMG, an AROAR sighting, one day after I ranted about it. I kind of take that personally. Bogey.
Wordle birdie that should've been an eagle: BYBBY, YYYYG!, GGGGG.
MCJOB TODO
THATSUCKS THAT LORI lost her MARKET,
she'd READILY AMUSE ME SO I'd pay her.
I AM ONE who RODEIN TO park it,
and SWAYED her TO be a MASTER OBEYer.
--- SIR ARTHUR MCAVOY
Do you have a ROOMBA THATSUCKS? Do they actually SUCK or just sweep up. Enquiring minds want to know. I am one of those few that can say I've had a HOLEINONE, 25 years ago with a persimmon 4 wood. Now I play that same hole and hope I can hit a titanium 3 'wood' to the green 175 yards away. Time has made it harder TODO, SOAMI getting old? Wrote over NOggin and RErunS.
Wordle bogey due to 3 shots at GGGBB.
Would love to play a round of golf that was ALLFOURS except for a HOLEINONE.
As I went thru this, I knew @Rondo might mention his HIO. Something to always remember.
For want of a name (d*!%!) I'd have a perfect score, but not a hole in one. I had one hole in this puz.
Diana, AKA the Lady in Waiting for Crosswords
AHA! @Foggy was in the same fog as I was today. That one little "T"
T? tee? Are we back to golf?
D, LIW
Kneedless to say this was the best themed crossword puzzle ever. Four gridspanners made up of sixteen parts. What's not to love?
Signed: Wordloving Nerd
Ps: this is your vaccination shot for all who have seemed to have caught the crossword puzzle flu bug on this blog. I blame Rex.
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