.png)
Order for a birthday party or wedding reception / TUE 12-13-2022 / Ways to escape a dilemma / Ab-toning exercise / Words after get or sleep / Leftover morsel
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Constructor: Julietta Gervase
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: Theme answers are flowers, clued wackily
Theme answers:
- BABY'S BREATH (20A: What might smell of Gerber products?)
- WOLF'S BANE (33A: The third "little pig," with his house of bricks?)
- GOLDENROD (40A: Award for a champion angler?)
- LADY SLIPPER (50A: Object found by Prince Charming after the clock struck midnight?)
Word of the Day: PINYIN (44A: Chinese transliteration system) —
Hanyu Pinyin (simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音; pinyin: hànyǔ pīnyīn), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese form, to learners already familiar with the Latin alphabet. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, but pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written in the Latin script, and is also used in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The word Hànyǔ (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語) literally means "Han language" (i.e. Chinese language), while Pīnyīn (拼音) means "spelled sounds".[1]
• • •
***HELLO, READERS AND FELLOW SOLVERS IN SYNDICATION*** (if it's mid-January 2023, that's you!) How is the new year treating you? Well, I hope. Me, uh, not great so far (COVID, you know), but I'm 95% better, and was never terribly sick to begin with, so I have every reason to believe things will turn around for me shortly, thank God (and vaccines). Anyway, it's early January, which means it's time once again for my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. Every year I ask readers to consider what the blog is worth to them on an annual basis and give accordingly. I'm not sure what to say about this past year. This will sound weird, or melodramatic—or maybe it won't—but every time I try to write about 2022, all I can think is "well, my cat died." She (Olive) died this past October, very young, of a stupid congenital heart problem that we just couldn't fix (thank you all for your kind words of condolence, by the way). I'm looking at the photo I used for last year's fundraising pitch, and it's a picture of me sitting at my desk (this desk, the one I'm typing at right now, the one I write at every day) with Olive sitting on my shoulder, staring at me, and making me laugh. It's a joyous picture. Here, I'm just gonna post it again:
I love the photo both because you can tell how goofy she is, and how goofy she made me. Her loss hurt for the obvious reasons, but also because she was so much a part of my daily routine, my daily rhythms and rituals. She was everyday. Quotidian. Just ... on me, near me, being a weirdo, especially in the (very) early mornings when I was writing this blog. She took me out of myself. She also made me aware of how much the quotidian matters, how daily rituals break up and organize the day, mark time, ground you. They're easy to trivialize, these rituals, precisely because they *aren't* special. Feed the cats again, make the coffee again, solve the crossword again, etc. But losing Olive made me reevaluate the daily, the quotidian, the apparently trivial. In a fundamental way, those small daily things *are* life. No one day is so important, or so different from the others, but cumulatively, they add up, and through the days upon days you develop a practice—a practice of love, care, and attention given to the things that matter. If you're reading this, then crossword puzzles are undoubtedly an important ritual for you, just as writing about crosswords for you all is an important ritual for me. It gives me so much. I hope that even at my most critical, my genuine love for crosswords—for the way my brain lights up on crosswords—comes through. I also hope that the blog brings you entertainment, insight, laughter ... even (especially) if you disagree with me much (most? all?) of the time.
 |
| [man, I really wear the hell out of this red fleece...] |
How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar):
Second, a mailing address (checks should be made out to "Rex Parker"):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)
I had fun making this puzzle (thanks to Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty for proofing it for me!). For non-snail-mailers who want to solve the puzzle, don't worry: I'll make the puzzle available for everyone some time next month. Please note: I don't keep a "mailing list" and don't share my contributor info with anyone. And if you give by snail mail and (for some reason) don't want a thank-you card, just indicate "NO CARD." Again, as ever, I'm so grateful for your readership and support. Now on to today's puzzle...
• • •
Hello hello! It's Rafa here filling in for Rex Parker. Sometimes when I finish solving a puzzle I think: This puzzle was great, but it wasn't for me! This puzzle was very much in that category! When I finished solving, I couldn't quite figure out what the theme was so I googled the theme answers and realized they were all flowers. Aha! The fact that I knew 0/4 of these flowers says a lot more about me than about the puzzle, but unfortunately it did make it so the theme didn't feel quite satisfying during the solve. I wonder if I'm a flower-illiterate odd-one-out, or whether this theme eluded others too ... let me know in the comments!
As for the theme clues, they felt like a bit of a mixed bag to me. WOLF'S BANE was my favorite -- fun and evocative and just the right amount of wacky. BABY'S BREATH felt a bit weaker because it seems like "baby's breath" could quite plausibly be a phrase used to describe ... a baby's breath. So the wackiness didn't land as nicely.
 |
| According to The Internet™, these are some Viking runes |
Luckily, though, there was plenty of other fun stuff in the grid: HOUSE PARTY, EVIL GENIUS, PAST LIFE, PINYIN, etc. I appreciated the clue echo on RAGER and HOUSE PARTY, as well as the fun trivia in the clue for ANTEATER. The fill was mostly clean but there were a few dings like SHER, NEHI, CIRRI. (I have only ever seen or heard of NEHI in crossword puzzles and just found out 30 seconds ago it's pronounced "knee high" -- FYI if that's also news to you.) A "ding" in the fill is subjective thing, but one metric I like to use when thinking about fill for early-week puzzles is: Is this something solvers would reasonably have encountered outside of crossword puzzles? Of course, we all live wonderfully diverse lives, but have any of you had a conversation about CIRRI clouds?
 |
| Check out these CIRRI clouds |
Not much else to say about this one! Nice and mostly smooth early-week debut.
- HANOI (45D: Home to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum) — I have been to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in HANOI!
- AREA (8D: Word with gray, play, or Bay) — This was a fun clue for AREA. I've lived in the Bay AREA for 9 years and appreciated this angle.
- SAUL (47A: Title role for Bob Odenkirk in a "Breaking Bad" spinoff) — My confession for today is that I haven't watched a single episode of Breaking Bad! I feel like there's too much to catch up on and I never have the willpower to start it, but everyone always tells me it's worth it. One day...
- ETTA (54A: James in both the Blues and Rock & Roll Halls of Fame) — My good friend and longtime crossword solver told me recently she only just realized all the clues about this Jazz star James were about a woman named Etta James and not about some dude named James Etta! So this is a PSA to anyone else who mindlessly fills ETTA thinking it's some dude.
[Follow Rafa on Twitter]
Save And Share :
94 comments:
Hi, Rafa – thanks for filling in! I’m not much of a flower person, either, but I did know all of these. And yeah – run, don’t walk to your nearest streaming service to binge Breaking Bad.
I’ve often felt bad that BABYSBREATH has such an odd name, but I guess it’s better than, say, WOLFSbreath. I did a brief Google dive into flower names and found a bunch that could pass as a Shakespearean insult hurled at an enemy:
Be gone, you Swamp Lousewort, you Humped Bladderwort!
A pox on you, Bastard Toadflax and your Mad Dog Skullcap of a father, too!
Out of my sight, you Cheeseweed Pussytoes!
Viper’s Bugloss! Scurfpea!
Whoa.
LILI crossing PINYIN is tough. This actress lives in the Los Angeles AREA, right? Is she the LILI of Long Beach or the LILI of the Valley?
Mom and I live in a neighborhood whose streets are all named after flowers. Some wise guy named our street Alyssum. You can imagine, right? Ms. Smith – let me make sure I have the right address. You live on Asylum Place, right? Sigh. Hey – at least it’s not Salvia Place.
Has anyone ever tried to give NEHI to a grasshopper? Asking for a friend.
KISS and that two-foot-long tongue. . . So yesterday this guy came past me, on his way to search (alternative school, kids with ankle monitors and court dates. . .), with a KISS tee shirt on. I asked him if he was a fan, and he was not. He just happened to have that shirt. I helpfully told him about Gene Simmons’s seven-inch-long tongue. He smiled. But wait – there’s a prequel. . . this guy is not one of my students, so I don’t know him. More often than not, he wears sunglasses, but not in the bone-head-I-wanna-be-a-school-clown kind of way. At least this is what my spidey sense was telling me. He’s always alone, always quiet. Last week I found myself in the hall with him – just the two of us, and he had his sunglasses on. So I went for it, Question – why do you wear sunglasses so much? He looked down at me (this tall guy with long dreads dipped red at the ends), seemed to take my measure, and said, I cry sometimes. I was stunned. I said, Oh wow. Right? I bet you feel kinda protected, kinda like you’re in your own little room? He nodded, Yeah. Like that. I told him, I totally get it. I cry a lot and would love to feel that kind of safety. I usually just tell people I’ve been sneezing. But I sure wish I could wear your sunglasses sometimes. We nodded and communed in our appreciation of his sunglasses. Jeez Louise, don’t judge these kids - they’re just doing their level best to play the cards they’ve been dealt.
Alrighty then. Julietta – fun puzzle full of flowery language! I wonder what flowers were left on the cutting room floor. L’IL AC (personal unit for a hot bedroom?)
Hi Rafa! The flowers may skew old; I knew all of them by name as they popped up, even if I can't recognize them in the wild. But you have been to Hanoi, and I have definitely not! My roommate in college 38 years ago had ETTA James albums so thanks Rob for that.
I mainly know NEHI from Radar in MASH asking for a "grape Nehi" in the bar.
I believe one RUNE survives today in Icelandic, as the letter þ (thorn). Another thing I know about Iceland is that because of patronymic naming, their authors may be difficult to find in the library. For instance in my local library, Arnuldur Indridason is found under the letter A (see this Wiki).
Typeover: for 31 down "Lost traction" SPUN before SLID.
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0, my last word was this oddball 5er.]
I did not know ANY of these flowers so my experience completely mirrored our guest blogger’s.
@Loren, you are a TREASURE (all teachers, in fact). My most sincere appreciation and respect to you 🙏🏼. And I love your stories! 💕
Medium. I tried NUgget before NUBBIN and agile before LITHE which made that section tougher than it already was. PINYIN was a WOE and LILI was a vague memory from a previous puzzle. Cute theme with a couple of fine long downs, liked it but I wasn’t fond of SHER.
@Rafa - Like @lms I’m not a flower person but I did know these and, as she urged, both Breaking Bad and Saul are very much worth the effort (Saul was just nominated for a Golden Globe)...and don’t forget to watch the movie “El Camino” on Netflix if you want to know what happened to Jessie.
Nice debut.
HUGE natick at PINYIN / LILI / NEHI. I don’t know any of those names so it was just any vowel for both of the slots in pinyin (lali , loli, even luli seemed reasonable) bc PANYON, PONYUN, PINYAN, etc could have all been reasonable answers. other than that, smooth puzzle with little to no hiccups.
Thank you, @LMS. From now on I shall address all my enemies as "Scurfpea".
I absolutely *LOVE* reading your comments. Thank you for so diligently adding them most days!
I know you’ve said previously that your job is getting harder due to silly administrative/logistics things, but thank you so much for all you do for kids. As a pediatrician, I’ve come to understand that kids’ behavioral challenges are almost always the result of something unconscionable that’s happened to them. Not because they’re “bad kids.” Thanks for loving these ones!
Etta James's birth name was Jamesetta Hawkins, so your friend wasn't entirely off-base.
This one takes the CAKE! What a beautiful puzzle. Not a SCRAP of drek. And only five 3's. I would not have been surprised if this had been Jeff's POW pick. @LMS, I had a NEHI-grasshopper joke queued up. Guess I gotta get up earlier. Does anyone else remember when Shirley Maclaine won the PASTLIFE time achievement award at the Oscars?
Never heard of LADYSLIPPER as a flower before. Though NEHI was COKE as in Classic Coke otherwise known as the only Coke since New Coke was such a dud.
I expect that "CIRRus clouds" come up in conversation in my life at least several times a year. The plural form CIRRI, never. But it's a perfectly good plural form for a reasonably common word. So not sure if that makes it crosswordese or not?
Naticked at LILI/PINYIN.
In a puzzle about plants, PULSES should have been clued as 'legumes'.
First letter of BABY crosses CRIB
First letter of WOLF crosses WERE
First letter of LADY crosses EARL
First letter of GOLDEN crosses … CLOG?
Even a man who is pure of heart,
and says his prayers by night,
may become a wolf,
when the wolfbane blooms,
and the Autumn moon is bright.
Don’t see the cloud clues in enough Xwords to have committed them to memory yet, so CIRRI crossing CIARA was just out of reach.
I started doing the WaPo and a few other puzzles on a daily basis a while ago, and they unfortunately get carried away with PPP and esoterica from time-to-time as well, but in my experience I have rarely seen sections like today’s central east with two proper names (LILI, SAUL) crossing items like PINYIN and NUBBIN. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so I guess it may be why the NYT can be very special for some, and leave others in full-blown head-scratch mode.
I guess I'm just the opposite - I figured out Baby's immediately (though I admit I was thinking of J and J more than Gerbers and so was trying to find Baby's bath or something. And once i hit baby's breath - I though†, aha! flowers. So it was totally a snap - or should i say snap dragon.
One minor note - for all you vampire fans, Dracula - and presumably his relatives - all hate wolfsbane. Bela Lugosi gets to pronounce it in his first Dracula movie with his wonderful orotund Hungarian accent - always one of my favorite bits.
[Van Helsing takes three hypnotised steps towards Dracula but soon steps back, resisting Dracula's hypnotic power over him]
Count Dracula: Your will is strong, Van Helsing.
[Van Helsing reaches out for his crucifix as Dracula looms toward him]
Count Dracula: More wolfbane?
Van Helsing: More effective than wolfbane, Count.
Count Dracula: Indeed.
[Dracula lunges towards Van Helsing. Van Helsing holds up the crucifix. Dracula snarls and turns away. Van Helsing, in triumph, puts away the crucifix]
Never heard of WOLFSBANE or NUBBIN,so I got a DNF. Otherwise I thought it was fairly easy. Oh, well...I got to genius in the Spelling Bee, a nice consolation prize.
Apart from CIARA and the mysterious PINYIN/LILI cross, this one filled right in. BABYSBREATH I know because when I buy a rose for my wife I'm always asked if I want BABYSBREATH with it. I'm not sure if GOLDENROD is a flower or an allergy trigger, but I suppose it can be both.
Having HOUSEPARTY and RAGER in the same puzzle makes me wonder what kind of Christmas our constructor is planning.
@LMS- The guy who runs our faculty/ex-faculty blog is looking for suggestions to complete the phrase "Teaching is". My first thought was "Teaching is vastly underappreciated" and reading your wonderful stories always confirms that. Thanks for sharing.
Just right for a Tuesday, JG. Jolly Good, and thanks for all the fun.
Thanks, Julietta, and thanks, Rafa! Pleasant puzzle and a nice write-up to go with it. Rafa, I never watched Breaking Bad either, but I sure did lap up every second of Better Call Saul. I’m also not into plants but I guess I do like them when they have wacky clues.
I knew they were flowers but Wolfsbane was the bane of my solving experience today! Breaking Bad is GREAT but very violent. I had to stop watching due to nightmares.
That NUBBIN/PINYIN cross is magnificent to me, those words being so playful. Not only that, but today, after looking them up, I learned what they mean. I also learned the length of an anteater’s tongue, and, after looking it up, that wolf’s bane is highly poisonous.
My brain loves having its work ethic satisfied by filling in a grid, and it loves being amplified with new kernels of knowledge. Today’s puzzle, then, greatly happified my brain, and by extension, me.
Adding to the joy was the lovely CRIB/BABY cross, the heavy CLOG balancing the delicate SLIPPER, and the West Side Story connection with TONYs and JETS (not to mention our constructor’s first name).
Julietta, what a lovely debut (congratulations!) with its bouquet of beautiful-sounding theme answers, with humor thrown in. Simply lovely, is my oPINYIN. Thank you for this!
You can't have a single cirri cloud. They're cirrus clouds; cirri is the plural. My wife and I used to fly soaring gliders, so we knew a bit about clouds. Cirrus clouds indicate stable air, not good for soaring. Cumulus clouds (plural: cumuli) are a sign of thermal activity and good soaring, until they get so big that they produce thunderstorms. But yes, we talked about such things.
I think the singular "cirrus" is usually used as the adjective--so "cirrus clouds," not "cirri clouds."
I’m normally not taken with these punny themes - but this one was cute. Makes me think of my mom and my wife. Liked all of the themers. The overall fill was fine - AERIE, CREPES, LITHE all solid. A long time friend has been using PINYIN for years trying to teach me Chinese. You must be so LONELY.
Doesn’t the EVIL GENIUS always get outsmarted in the end? Never heard NUBBIN. NEHI was grape or orange.
Enjoyable Tuesday solve. It would have been cool to add a little ZEST and use plants like family jewels, penis cactus or stiffcock etc. Then there would definitely be Something on my mind
Our commentator today is young, and I am old, so we had very different experiences with this puzzle. The flowers were all gimmes for me, and the beach sodas of my very young youth were NEHI grape or orange, pulled dripping out of a large metal ice chest, always provided to the store or gas station by Coca-Cola. On the flip side, RAGER and HOUSE PARTY are still mysteries to me, and I got them only from the crosses.
PINYIN? That's a tough word for a Tuesday, especially crossed with the name of an actress from a TV show aimed at teens, no? I got PINYIN only because the only female name that fit was LILI. Also a stumper: 10D. "Am I" went in and stayed in too long.
But props where due: Very nice, fresh cluing throughout.
Like Rafa, l had no idea these are flowers! This, despite a lifetime of buying flowers for girl friends, then my wife, and now my pregnant daughter! Guess l now gotta find some of those baby’s breath!
"That NUBBIN/PINYIN cross is magnificent to me, those words being so playful ..." Oh boy, that's a guy who can see the bright side of anything! To me that crossing is a sign of desperation from the creator of this bottom-of-the-barrel puzzle... "with two proper names (LILI, SAUL) crossing items like PINYIN and NUBBIN." You hit this nail on the head, SouthsideJohnny.
I was in the same boat with BREAKING BAD until a few months ago. I haven’t seen most of the “prestige tv” “antihero” shows (MAD MEN, BREAKING BAD, THE SOPRANOS). But I always had to pretend like I really was going to watch Breaking Bad to avoid lectures and disappointment from friends.
I finally watched it and it’s decent. I don’t regret watching it. But I’d say you aren’t missing much.
Plant person here. I have yellow LADYSLIPPER (a beautiful native orchid and wish I had pink moccasin flower too) and WOLFSBANE (although I call it monkshood. It often blooms into November.) in my garden. BABYSBREATH I leave to the florists. GOLDENROD of course pops up in the road ditches and the swamps and meadows. The MUSE'S Viper's Bugloss is a sticky but a beautiful flower which use to grow along the RR track until they upped their spraying. Love all those flower names she mentioned except the Scurf Pea which I will have to look up and see if I know it by another name.
Did not know CIARA LEVAR NUBBIN. PINYIN I remembered after 5 crosses.
Mastermind has the same # of letters as EVILGENIUS and I was thinking the villain might be implied by the oft-used phrase criminal mastermind.
Cirrus in terms of clouds n an adjective ...no plural.
THe picture id os Cirrus clouds not cirri.
Cirri, in the plural, is biologic term for hairlike filaments.
Yup, knew all these flowers. Here’s what I know without looking anything up. BABY’S BREATH is often used in wedding bouquets – i.e., the flowers the bride carts down the aisle with her. WOLFSBANE is used in movies and TV shows to repel werewolves (much like garlic is used for vampires -- although several posts above suggest that vampires aren't crazy about WOLFSBANE either). And, btw, I also noticed the word WERE crossing WOLFSBANE. Coincidence? I doubt it. GOLDENROD was once believed to aggravate allergies but that dubious distinction has largely passed to ragweed, and GOLDENROD is a fantastically bee-friendly flower, of which I have many in my garden. (Wasn’t I recently talking about this?) LADY SLIPPER is an orchid, the resemblance of which to a shoe I could never quite see, and I think there’s something about luring and trapping insects for pollination. There. That’s the sum-total of my botanical knowledge – and I know you’re all the richer for it.
I liked the puzzle and found it pretty easy. 1A was a CAKEwalk; the whole NW corner had the AURA of child’s play and gave me not one EENY bit of trouble. I think my only write-over in the whole grid was at 10A: nerd for WHIZ.
Whenever I see CIARA, which we do with increasing frequency, I always think of this one-named singer from the past. CIARA and Charo do have something in common: exhibition of body as integral to musical performance.
Does anybody watch Riverdale? It’s the strangest combination of the Archie Comics characters and the forces of EVIL. There is some humor in it, but it takes the vanquishing of the dark side pretty seriously. No doubt that Breaking Bad and Better Call SAUL are much better shows.
I once wrote a short story whose main character was called PAT DRY. This is so long ago that I can’t remember much about it or why I chose that name, and – dammit – I couldn’t find the story this morning to check. But, oddly, I think there was also an EARL in it, and those two answers are cheek-by-jowl in this puzzle.
[SB: I almost felt like I was playing SB this morning with the appearance of CIRRI and EMCEE. In the real SB, my -1 streak continued on Sunday and Monday. And both words were should’ves – my brain is shrinking to the size of a NUBBIN.]
Two commenters beat me to the correction re: CIRRI vs. cirrus. We are a pedantic bunch, aren’t we?
Hmm, JNKMD may have overstated. Dictionaries do agree that "cirrus" as a cloud is a noun (the adjectival form being "cirriform") but there is disagreement re: the plural. Dictionary.com says the plural is "cirrus" ("cirri" for the biological meaning), while M-W and some other sources say the plural is "cirri" for all meanings.
I got PINYAN but almost found myself cancelled as a LADYSLAPPER when I assumed LILA instead of LILI.
Cirrus definition
noun
1. cloud forming wispy filamentous tufted streaks (“mare's tails”) at high altitude, usually 16,500–45,000 feet (5–13 km).
"long strands of high cirrus stretched across the eastern sky"
I knew LADY SLIPPERS, but only because when I was a kid in the 60's on Long Island, they were considered a rare wildflower and we found one a few times in the woods. I can remember I think yellow or blue?
It's funny how crossword puzzles can bring back a memory like that. I can't say that I've ever seen one here in Georgia nor thought about them at all in years.
I'm only 2 years doing crosswords but I'm amazed at how fast now I shove in words like ETTA HONE EDEN NEHI ARE SO etc. Not even a thought. There are so many and maybe because I only do the NYT, they seem like they are always clued the same way.
Hey All !
Heard of three of these flowers, but LADY SLIPPER was a new one. I know LADY FINGERS, ala the scrumptious dessert thingies. Still knew they were flowers. C'mon @Rafa, haven't you ever bought flowers for someone? 8 out of 10 bunches have BABYS BREATH.
CIRRI is a SB word I remember to play all the time. I was always missing it, so amazingly enough, I committed it to memory.
I've been watching Scrabble matches on utube lately (a weird obsession I've discovered), and hoo boy, some of the words these Scrabble players know is ridiculous and astounding. This one word was something like AUEAO (not what it was, but something equally implausible), and a player tacked on a Z at the end! And the announcers we're like "Oh, yeah, great play. It was sitting right there in plain sight." OK, sure.
Fill in this puz is quite clean. Just a couple of Abbrs., TPS, PBJS. SHER is the worst thing in here. Nice one, JuliETTA.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Shouldn't it be LADY" 'S" SLIPPER? And I'm sad for those who haven't seen them. They grow wild in the swamps, well, did when I was a kid who spent all summer in the woods and swamps. Now I mostly just ride my bike on the paved trails.
Exactly avg time, so I guess medium. Wanted glassSLIPPER but it didn't fit. No idea LILI but since PINYIN was a gimme she didn't cause any problems.
Biggest slowdowns were plunking in crumb at 5A and nerd at 10A (the latter while thinking, not this tired stereotype again) but checking the downs took care of both quickly (and much prefer WHIZ for brainiac!).
Equally obscure, but Radar O'Reilly's favorite drink in the TV show MASH was grape Nehi.
It seems that Nehi sold some of its soda in "knee-high" bottles but I never saw one of these giants when I would sometimes buy their drinks in the forties. At about that time, they decreased production of Nehi with their many fruit flavors and upped the bottling of Royal Crown Cola, which had become very popular. Amazon is still selling Nehi in orange and peach flavors.
Cleanup on Aisle Yesterday: Anon 11:20 I have absolutely no idea of how dozen got into that sentence. The sentence was accurate without the dozen, and I can't even explain it away by claiming l hyperbole. I've found 4 deer dead from arrow shots over the past several years, and while that's horrific, there's no way several dozen people are to blame. I plead temporary insanity due to my abhorrence of people who bait the deer with timed distribution of corn right in front of their customized tree stands and video monitoring to alert them of when the deer show up every day, then are too lazy/incompetent to make sure the deer they shoot at least die as peaceably as possible.
On to today - A Tuesday that didn't tuezz. A miracle these days. Well done Julietta.
PINYIN/NUBBIN? GMAFB on a Tuesday
Eeny-weeny? really?
Gee, Rafa was the perfect choice for commenting on this winner.
I have this totally crazy and unsubstantiated theory that LMS is actually the alter ego of Rex Parker, who now that I think about it is also an alter ego of sorts. Yin and Yang, darkness vs joy, teacher of youth vs teacher of the befallen, I can see how this would be a fun project. Also LMS carefully spelled WHOA the preferred Rex Parker way. Anyone care to weigh in?
The crossing of EARL and GRATE makes me imagine a new and improved type of tea. I guess it should actually be Earl Great!
I’ve encountered CIRRI a lot. While cooking, I frequently find myself saying things like, “Hey CIRRI. Timer six minutes.”
The final row (starting 63A) sounds like a distilled down scene of melodrama: KISS ….RESTS…..SLAP. You’ve Got Mail!
This puzzle was fun and pretty and cool and …. In short, it had more PULSES than minuses. Really a nice, flowery debut. Thanks, Julietta Gervase.
Did not notice LILI crossing PINYIN because the latter was a gimme for me. Many eons ago I tried to learn Chinese, sadly it did not go well because I have no ear for the tones.
I knew all the flowers which helped considerably. Got stuck in the NE for a while could not see OUTS, thought we'd be spicY, but already had HONE. WHO eluded me for quite a while as well.
Wolf's-bane is gorgeous but very toxic so I don't grow it. Baby's breath is not native so I don't grow it, but it's a useful plant for flower arrangements. I have goldenrod, but it's - ahem - a little agressive. I have to SLAP it back from time to time. Lady's slippers are lovely, but endangered. Our native plant sale has them propogated from cultivated ones (you can't take them out of woods), but the only time I bought one it died. Apparently they have a less than 5% transplant rate. My aunt's property is partly wooded and she has a beautiful patch that has been there forever.
I read Dracula this summer (and Frankenstein too!) but, hanging head, have never actually seen either of the classic movies.
I know Breaking Bad and Better call Saul and any number of shows are good, but I really am not a fan of spending too much time with anti-heroes.
Like many I only know NEHI from MASH and crosswords.
I thought I learned that answers shouldn't appear in any clues in a crossword. I avoided HOUSEPARTY because "party" was in the first clue and I thought that wasn't allowed. Am I wrong?
Professor Snape]: “What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?“
“I don’t know,” said Harry quietly. “I think Hermione does, though, why don’t you try asking her?”
[Professor Snape]: “For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren’t you all copying that down?”
WOLFSBANE made me laugh out loud when it clicked.
SHER was raw sewage. If I never see that again, it'll be too soon.
Didn't know LILI offhand but it was fair enough with crosses.
I'll cautiously agree that PINYIN is somewhat of a tough nut for a Tuesday but also perfectly fair game in the "you really ought to have a wide swath of general knowledge if you want to throw down with the NYTXW" sense. I'm fairly baffled by the idea of straight-up DNFing/Naticking on any part of LILI/SAUL/PINYIN/NUBBIN, but people contain multitudes, I suppose (or perhaps more accurately, a lack thereof).
PAST LIFE, EVIL GENIUS, and HOUSE PARTY all touched my happy button.
Overall liked it.
I nominate “Fer SHER” as the Worst Clue and Answer of the Year.
The flower theme was cute, especially WOLFBANE, but the puzzle could have used a revealer and was abloom with crosswordese that left it slightly wilting in the end.
And I fer sher dont no nuttin bout no pinyin nibbins.
What a fun-filled Tuesday wordplay puzzle! It required some thinking -- WOLFS BANE really perplexed me for a while since I couldn't remember much about that third little pig that was of any help -- and it provided quite a bit of amusement too. Once I had BABY'S BREATH and WOLFSBANE, I did think: Aha!!! Flowers!!! And that's when the somewhat elusive LADYSLIPPER went in. LOST SLIPPER???, I'd been wondering.
Way above normal Tuesday difficulty I thought, what with NUBBIN (whassat???) and PINYIN. Which is a good thing. Really enjoyed this a lot!
A superb primo Tuesday....I especially like the four corners of CAKE WHIZ and KISS SLAP. I will name them flowers after me.
I knew all of these flowers because I knew them. When Mom lived in a Spain in a town called Algorta, Her Saturday stroll through the Plaza was to stop and chat with "La señora que vende flores." She'd always buy something pretty. Every week, she'd have a vase filled. Always. Favorites were the Spanish Bluebells, some Lantana, a Valencia Red Rose and a few scattered Red Carnations thrown into the bunch. But I digress....Am I talking PINYIN here?
Speaking of PINYIN...did any other put in PIDGIN? I'm not even sure what a transliteration system is. NUBBIN sounds like a nice name to give a horse crunching on the WOLFS BANE.
I should've done the inane stories I invent every Monday on today's puzzle. I'd go crazy with BREATH,BANE,ROD and SLIPPER. If @JD were still around, she could have fun with a new law office.
Yes....this was ZESTY yummy and I liked it all.
@Loren...Great post today. Your Shakespearean insults made me think of your banana splat. Remember?
Frank Stokes: Creator Of The Memphis Blues
Nehi Mama Blues
by Frank Stokes
When a man take the blues, he walk to the river and sit down
When a man take the blues, he walk to the river and sit down
If the blues get too heavy, he'll jump overboard and drown
'Cause a man take the blues, he walk to the river and sit down
Get's turned by a Nehi mama, and he turned right sure around
My mama wonders what's going on, mama since I left town
Now it's east and west, north and south
Why, the Nehi women have done turned me out
So they can Eagle Rock me, they can stop me
Upon the things that I used to do
I got the Nehi blues mama
Don't know what in the world to do
Ah, now it's T for Texas, T for Tennessee
Them is a-mighty bad letters for to stole away from me
'Cause she can Eagle Rock me, they can stop me
Upon the things that I used to do
I got the Nehi blues mama
Don't know what in the world to do
Now down on Third Street, the corner of Beale
Why, the Nehi women have got a terrible feel
'Cause they can Eagle Rock you, they can stop you
Upon the things that you used to do, I got the Nehi blues
Don't know what in the world to do
Now, papa got to singing, my folks got to crying
For Nehi women, stays on my mind
So they can Eagle Rock me, they can stop me
Upon the things that I used to do
I got the Nehi blues
Don't know what in the world to do
Now little batch of posies, laid on my door
The Nehi women keep me, everywhere I go
'Cause they can Eagle Rock me, they can stop me
Upon the things that I used to do
I got the Nehi blues mama
Don't know what in the world to do
I got the Nehi blues
Don't know what in the world to do
Nehi as in knee high dresses. The lyrics seem a bit awkward but are smooth as silk in Sokes vocal. See also Blind Joe Reynolds.
LADYSLIPPER and LADYS SLIPPER both used. The latter probably more common. Call it an omission of inconvenient
possessive (OoIP) if you want. I actually tried glasSLIPPER and thought I missing a third S, but if it is a compound wouldn't you drop an S, oh it's a themer, doh.
Thx, Julietta, for the aromatic Tues. bouquet! :)
Hi Rafa; good to see you again; thx for your take! :)
Med.
Fairly smooth solve, with a lucky guess at the LILI / PINYIN / NUBBIN crosses (all learnables, along with CIARA).
Currently watching the first episode of 'Riverdale' with LILI Reinhart as Betty Cooper. I see that Mädchen Amick plays her mom, Alice. Amick was a fave as Shelly on 'Twin Peaks'.
NUBBIN:
"… something (such as an ear of corn) that is small for its kind, stunted, undeveloped, or imperfect" (M-W)
First acquainted with LEVAR Burton from the series, 'Roots' in '77.
Sure, SHuR, SHER.
It was a colorful and fragrant stroll thru the park today! :)
@jae, pablo
Easy Croce yd (under 1 hr.); NE was the toughest sector. See you next Mon.! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
A poem by Ted Kooser, from Winter Morning Walks.
Horsetail cirrus miles above,
stretched all the way from Yankton to Wichita.
I stoop on the road, small man in coat and cap,
tying his shoe.
A curled, brown leaf lies on its back,
lifting its undistinguished edges
into the glory of frost.
Missing the classic Rex crosswordese rant list today, so I'll provide it:
ONIT AURA EENY CIRRI SHER ORO NEHI LILI ASYET ETTA
Though as I made it, I realize most of the bad crosswordese is actually down clues, I wonder if that is a construction function (what's your junction...). CIARA step aside please.
Also didn't like how we had single box access into two corners, both of which with two words "HOUSEPARTY" and "EVILGENIUS", especially with spicy/ZESTY in the NE.
@bocamp-Agree with your take on the NE. Some unknowns, some hard to parse. Thanks to @jae for giving us something in common to work on.
I really wanted AARDVARK.
I loved it - the winning combination of the lovely flower names + the crossword moment of joy at catching on to the theme with the wonderful WOLFSBANE (after being distracted by a possible "raucous social gathering" theme). After that, GOLDEN ROD was easy, and LADY SLIPPER should have been, except I was sure it needed to be possessive - so that one went cross by cross, post-LADY. I thought the long Downs were very good, too.
Do-over: bliniS before CREPES. No idea: CIARA, SAUL, LILI . Welcome back to the grid: AERIE - seems like it's been a while.
@kitshef 7:05 - Thank you for those crosses. About CLOG...the first three letters of GOLDENROD in reverse...and now I'm out of ideas.
BLINI is plural you soulless, capitalistic pigs. One BLIN, 2 or more BLINI. There's no such thing as BLINIS.
Puztheme had a nice, flowery smell to it.
fave extra scents: HOUSEPARTY. EVILGENIUS. PATDRY. PASTLIFE. ANTEATER. TRUCK. CIARA/CIRRI.
tough patches: NUBBIN/PINYIN/LILI. CIARA.
Another debut constructioneer today. Gettin lots of em, lately nowadays. Cool to get so much new blood with newly-twisted ideas.
staff weeject pick (of only 5 choices): TPS. Better clue: {A patchy bunch of tnts??}.
Thanx for the primo bouquet, Ms. Gervase darlin. And congratz on yer bloomin debut.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
One of the advantages of being a certain age is that I remember when the capital of China was Peking, and the head of the Chinese Communist Party was Mao Tse-Tung. Then we switched to the PINYIN system of transliteration, and the names changed to what they are today. That said, if I hadn't been constrained by length and crosses I'd have gone for ping-ying.
I did know all the flowers by name, although I've no idea what WOLF'S BANE looks like. In my youth, we were taught a poem by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) that began "The GOLDENROD is yellow, the corn is turning brown..."
LADYSLIPPERs are wild orchids. There's a big park south of Boston called the Blue Hills Reservation, a wonderful place to hike and commune with nature; it has a native population of pink ladyslippers. About 20 years ago, it began to have deer as well, with deleterious effects on the vegetation. Finally the state decided to allow limited deer hunting on specified days each fall. Two years later I started to see ladyslippers again every May.
@Loren, there's a major road in Hartford CT named "Asylum Street." I searched for it just now (wasn't sure if it was "street" or "boulevard" and discovered that several New England cities have streets with similar names. I imagine they date back to the mid-19th Century, when asylums (and prisons) in peaceful rural settings were thought to have curative properties. See the fascinating book by David Rothman, "The Discovery of the Asylum." People were proud that their community had this modern innovation.
Collusion? Today WSJ 15A "Word after Bay or gray" Of course not, but this happens so, so often.
When I was typing my comment late last night I wanted to mention my favorite local wildflower. I could visualize it but couldn't for the life of me remember its name. Now in the morning I've got it: Queen Anne's Lace!
That would be a challenge to fit into the grid.
@pabloinnh (11:53 AM)
Right on! 😊
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
@LMS I LOVED your Shakespearean insults. Most of hose plant names I'd not heard. I'm still chuckling.
Not sure I'll go back to read the rest o the comments. Maybe had my fun for the day.
Flower theme—cute. I guess you have to be a gardener (which I am) to know these. It also helps to be of a certain age to know about Etta James and Nehi soda. And no, we don't commonly talk about 'cirri' clouds. We usually just use the term 'cirrus.' Ever study any Latin? 'Cirri' is just the plural of 'cirrus,' and while technically it should apply when we're speaking of clouds, plural, it seems to have fallen by the wayside (like all those flowers). Lately I have become a bit disenchanted with the NYT puzzles. Way too may rapper artist and pop culture clues for my taste. I've gone back into the archives and am working the puzzles from the 90s and up. Am now on 2002. So much more clever and satisfying to work! Like the dinosaurs, my generation will soon be gone, along with with a lot of other things of value.
I think Better Call Saul was better than Breaking Bad. If I were on a desert island and had to choose between having them, it would be Saul.
It's very sad day because I opened up this morning's puzzle excited to get going on it, and then I found out I already did it last night before bed. One, that means I'm super tired. Two, that means I'm losing my mind. Three, that means I have no recollection of the puzzle whatsoever. So let's go see what was in it.
Holy crud, the more I look at this, the better it gets. HOUSE PARTY + RAGER = my life. AERIE + LITHE are both on my favorite words list. EVIL GENIUS hanging around with WOLF'S-BANE in a menacing fashion. PAST LIFE sitting there as a ghostly apparition. Love it.
I think the last time anybody used the word WHIZ for brainiac was 1920. Also, cluing baby's-breath as actual baby's breath is, um, EW. I like the flowers in the theme. Whoever put themselves in charge of naming flowers is killing it. Most of the time when you are LONELY, you're not seeking company, you're sitting there hoping somebody finds you. Learn to play guitar and you'll never be lonely again and you'll hope nobody ever finds you lurking in the basement trying to make sense of the dots on the page.
Cute seeing SIT UP in the singular. That's how many I do of them.
PINYIN crossing LILI. Woof. SHER is even more woofy.
Uniclues:
1 Expert at finishing the last piece.
2 My single-strand updo.
3 Passengers wresting the microphone from the flight attendant who fancies himself a comedian.
4 How most dates go for me.
5 Noggin on the surprisingly wise bad guy.
6 The annoying feeling you've done this before only way better than you're doing it now.
1 CAKE SCRAP WHIZ
2 LONELY HAIR (~)
3 JET'S EMCEE COUP (~)
4 KISS -> RESTS -> SLAP
5 EVIL GENIUS KNOB
6 PAST LIFE PULSES
I tried to comment earlier, to say this was as first-rate a puzzle as I have seen in a long time. A little tough for a Tuesday, but no worries. So now I read the comments, and learned:
(1) @LMS is an excellent teacher, and if ever assigned to a regular class, would be absolutely worshiped by the A student crowd, with her fantastic knowledge of grammar, words, and I suspect a lot of other things.
(2) I was going to post about drinking NEHI when my cousin and I used to go watch trains in a beach town near Santa Barbara. But no, it was in one of those Coca Cola ice boxes where you had to slide the bottle out, pull it up, and open it with the gizmo. It was in a gas station a block from that same cousin's house. And both his mom and my own avoided sugary pop, except for ginger ale, essential for (a) cocktail parties and (b) giving to sick children.
Love that NEHI blues song.
(3) Hands up for knowing all the flowers. Of course if you visit any florist for a bouquet, you see BABYS BREATH.
(4) A HOUSE PARTY is only a RAGER if the HOUSE belongs to a fraternity. Otherwise, all the HOUSE PARTies I've been to are tame, behavior-wise, and usually musical, with fiddles and banjos and such. Though even there, some folks have a bit too much and the sea shanties can get too raucus, and some of the songs can get a bit racy.
Youngish solver so pinyin and nehi did me in. A blind guess got me the finish so I didn’t need to look it up.
Never have I ever seen Cirri in the plural so was stumped until I got enough crosses for Ciara (who somehow escaped my mind but I knew I knew it). Cumulus, stratus, cirrus as cloud types were drummed so hard into us in grade school so I couldn’t figure out how to squish one into such a short answer.
Knew baby’s breath but otherwise had a hard time discerning which of the other clues were theme answers. Thought it might just be about apostrophes so Golden Rod didn’t register at all haha. Otherwise pretty smooth solve today
@SSmith1046am
You are not wrong exactly but the Nytcw has been ignoring the rule with increasing frequency. So do not depend on it.
Commenting late, complicated day. But did the puzz last night and enjoyed it mucho. Knew all the flowers, which helped.
Loved Rafa’s write-up and LMS’s priceless narrative, esp the sunglasses story. What a teacher—and advocate—she is! Plus, a hilarious storyteller.
@bocamp & pabloinnh - Ditto on the NE. I tried at least two different answers on the “raised eyebrows” clue.
I found this puzzle super easy except for Lili and Pinyin. One comment. If you’ve never hear Etta James sing, go to youTube and listen. She’s classic like Ella Fitzgerald, Sassy Vaughn, and other jazz singers.
I came here just to see rex's complaint that three of the flowers were in a possesive form, and then there was GOLDENROD.
I too thought PINYIN a little tough for a Tuesday, but overall today skewed a hair easier for me in general.
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one who had a hard time with nubbin, pinyin, and Lili. Anyway, nehi was my favorite when I was a kid, especially fruit punch. It’s just fizzy sugar. What’s not to love.
@RAFA, I enjoyed your write-up. I am in the "This puzzle was for me" category.
Yes, I do talk CIRRI now and again. They remind me of the Northern Lights in the form of clouds. I take them to mean rain in a day or two.
I made a tincture from our meadow GOLDENROD, chopping up the top stem, leaves and flowers, packing them into a small Bell jar, and topping it off with vodka. Over the next six weeks the goldenrod infuses the vodka. Then into a little vial. 4 or 5 drops under the tongue, good for the kidneys they say, and "hopeful and strengthening." In accord with its golden color, if you credit the ancient doctrine of signatures.
Our state flower is the Showy LADYSLIPPER. For many years, we had Ram's Horn LADYSLIPPERs near the door of our cabin, on a lake about an hour west of Duluth. Very delicate, always a surprise even though you know it's there.
Then there's WOLFSBANE (a/k/a monk's hood, see @Aabatross shell 8:23,honorable mention to @Harry Potter 10:26). Culpepper's Herbal (17th c.) notes that while most forms are poisonous, he kept "Wholesome WOLF'SBANE" in his shop:
"This plant is under the government of Saturn [e.g., don't try this at home]. The shoot only is used, and that not often. However, it is said to be very serviceable against vegetable poisons. A decoction of the root is a good lotion to wash the parts bitten by venomous creatures but it is not much regarded at this time, and should be cautiously kept out of children's way, for there is a farina in in the flower, which is very dangerous if blown in the eyes; the leaves also, if rubbed on the skin, will irritate and cause soreness."
Also keep it away from wolves.
I knew they were all flowers, fwiw. After the second theme answer, it made the next two easier.
Nehi could also be clued as "no" in Hindi, which imo is less obscure than the soft drink!
Insults made laugh. I once lived on Bigonia Drive in the Keys. This caused a lot of wacky problems because various companies tried to spell it correctly and their mail would not be delivered. Often it would get misdirected way before it reached the local post office. Whoever named the streets in my neighborhood was a jokester. There were several mangled flower names. Most people didn't notice. Who knows how to spell Pointsetta Drive anyway?
I have been a loyal reader of this blog (and an annual donor to Rex) for many years, and I am deeply appreciative. Today I briefly step from the sidelines onto the playing field to say: a major press should collect Loren Muse Smith's posts and publish them. Nothing makes me laugh (or, sometimes, cry) harder.
Yes! I scan the comments every day to find and read hers.
I whole heartedly agree.
Agree!!!
Late but with MASH being one of the most popular TV shows in history and with Radar's poison of choice being NEHI, how obscure can the answer be?
And the question is not whether anyone has offered NEHI to a grasshopper, but whether a bartender has ever made a kid's drink with NEHI and called it a grasshopper rather than a Roy Roger's or Shirley Temple?
Most of my working life was spent at a flower wholesale company, so all of these were familiar. We knew BABYSBREATH as Bristol Fairy, and so forth. Well, WOLFSBANE we didn't handle because it's too poisonous for commercial use (except in a few rare varieties from which medicinal substances are derived). It's pretty though.
Learned a new thing: PINYIN. I wonder, is there a pinYANG? Just askin.' Filled in the first I as a guess; cross was someone I didn't know but LILI seemed fer SHER the right answer (subsequent search elevated Ms. Reinhart to DOD).
Hand up for recognizing NEHI as Cpl. O'Reilly's beverage of choice.
Grid is less than ideal; corners boxed off rather severely. Loads of 4's & 5's. Fill is therefore also less than ideal. Long fill is better, with EVILGENIUS leading the way. Par.
Par also on Wordle.
PINYIN, LILY and NUBBIN were all new to me so I had to guess right for both the I and the N in PINYIN. Had SLIp before SLID so that made GOLDEMROD tricky to solve since I didn’t clue in to the theme until I completed. A bit challenging for a Tuesday. Bravo to Julietta Gervase for a well-crafted NYT debut puzzle.
LILI not LILY
BABY'S URGES
LILI had the HOTS for TONY,
at a HOUSEPARTY THEY RAN off to bed.
Now WHO says that THEY"RE LONELY?
He'll SLIPPER a KISS, the REST'S getting BRED.
--- SAUL RENO
WOLFSBANE is a flower? I guess that's just another reason why I'm not a gardener.
Awww - see @Rex and his kitty. Reminds me of the way my kitties help with crosswords. Another reason why I have kitties - and crosswords!
Had a touch of trouble for a moment or two in the NE, but then one thing led to another and - ta da - I was done.
Diana, LIW
PS - I had NiBlet before NUBBIN. NUBBIN means NUBBIN to me.
Today's inkfest was 'crumb' before SCRAP; been getting one per day lately. I only know WOLFSBANE as something having to do with a werewolf in an old movie.
Wordle bogey.
Post a Comment