Dissolute man, from the French / TUE 12-6-22 / Bellicose humanoid of Middle Earth / "Girl in Progress" star with a line of cosmetics / Portrayer of the nurse Marta Cabrera in "Knives Out"

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Constructor: Ross Trudeau and Wyna Liu

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: Crossword Lady Ladder — it's basically a word ladder, where one letter changes at each "rung", only here the "word" that's changing is a three-letter woman's first name. Because of their vowel-consonant-vowel structure and short length, the first names that make up the ladder tend to appear in crosswords a lot:

Theme answers:
  • INA GARTEN (18A: The Food Network's "Barefoot Contessa")
  • IDA B. WELLS (22A: Civil rights leader who co-founded the N.A.A.C.P.)
  • ADA LOVELACE (29A: Mathematician regarded as the first computer programmer)
  • ANA DE ARMAS (35A: Portrayer of the nurse Marta Cabrera in "Knives Out")
  • AVA DUVERNAY (47A: Director of the miniseries "When They See Us")
  • EVA MENDES (54A: "Girl in Progress" star with a line of cosmetics)
  • EVE ENSLER (59A: "The Vagina Monologues" playwright)
Word of the Day: IDA B. WELLS (22A) —
Ida B. Wells
 (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Wells dedicated her lifetime to combating prejudice and violence, the fight for African-American equality, especially that of women, and became arguably the most famous Black woman in the United States of her time. [...] In the 1890s, Wells documented lynching in the United States in articles and through her pamphlets called Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in all its Phases, and The Red Record, investigating frequent claims of whites that lynchings were reserved for Black criminals only. Wells exposed lynching as a barbaric practice of whites in the South used to intimidate and oppress African Americans who created economic and political competition—and a subsequent threat of loss of power—for whites. A white mob destroyed her newspaper office and presses as her investigative reporting was carried nationally in Black-owned newspapers. Subjected to continued threats, Wells left Memphis for Chicago. She married Ferdinand L. Barnett in 1895 and had a family while continuing her work writing, speaking, and organizing for civil rights and the women's movement for the rest of her life. (wikipedia)
• • •

Sam Spade consoles Iva Archer on her
exclusion from this puzzle
On the one hand, there's a weird whimsy to this theme that I kinda like. I mean, it's fun to say their first names in quick succession, and there's a kind of insidery winky thing going on where the puzzle is showing you All The Same Names It Always Shows You, Every Day, but this time the names are in a carefully curated and crafted arrangement. It's a crosswordese parade, or maybe a crosswordese flash mob—same old faces, only suddenly there's a dance routine and everyone is moving in precise order. Plus, they've got fancy dress on (i.e. they appear in full-name, not just the usual three-letter first-name, versions). On the other hand ... well, the puzzle is showing you All The Same Names It Always Shows You. So, I guess your feelings about the puzzle are going to depend on whether you see the theme as a dazzling new dish or reheated leftovers. I thought it was cute, though it wore a bit toward the end. I didn't catch the word ladder angel until the end, when I was trying to make sense of the themer logic, i.e. why these names, why this order, what about UMA Thurman and UTA Hagen, etc. The one thing that didn't work for me was EVE ENSLER, which is a real clunker, especially as the final themer, considering she's the only one out of terminal-A rhythm. I guess you could see her name as putting an emphatic final exclamation point on the name series ("INA IDA ADA ANA AVA EVA EVE!"). And that seems a reasonable reading. But when I was actually solving, my brain made that record needle scratch sound. I wanted them all to be tra-la two-syllable names ending in "A." But instead we get one syllable (the only such answer). And an "E" ending (the only such answer). Again, it's all a matter of taste. That finale is either rhythmically perfect or jarringly out of sync ... or else you didn't even notice. Anyway, there's a basic thoughtfulness and cleverness and creativity here that I mostly enjoyed. It's also at least ... plausible? ... that the puzzle isn't just a word ladder, but one with specific thematic content. I mean, it goes from INA GARTEN ... to EVE ... so ... if it helps to read that progression biblically, why not go ahead and do that?


The fill made me wince maybe a little more than it should. Some of it was because of improbable plurals (AMNIOS but *especially* EASTERS ...), but most of it was from a slight excess of crosswordese (ECOLI and ENEWS and EELIEST *and* EERIE **and** EPEES, etc.), as well as abbrevs. I have just never liked or heard people actually use (specifically CRIT and VID). In a theme this dense (seven long names!), it's probably hard to keep your fill whistle-clean throughout. There are a number of longer Downs, but none of them ELEVATEs the fill quality much. They're mostly solid, though there's a mild dreariness to the sheer number of preposition-ending phrases (SNARL AT, STEAM UP, KNEEL ON), and a definite dreariness to RATLIKE and BEATDOWNS (the latter of which is both the most original bit of non-theme fill and the most violent and depressing). The theme is the thing today, and as I say, it mostly delivered for me. Oh, I almost forgot "WELL, DUH!" Was that a high point for me? Well ... yes. 


No real difficulty today if you solve crosswords regularly (grid is 16 wide, so if it played a little slow, maybe that's why). Name themes are often real dicey for segments of the solving population, depending on what field / era the names are drawn from, but as I say these names should all be super-familiar to the daily gridder. The fill didn't seem tough at all, and the cluing was pretty transparent. The toughest part for me was trying to navigate the vowels in DUVERNAY. I first put it in as DUV-RN-Y. Thank god for fair crosses. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

103 comments:

Conrad 5:48 AM  


@Rex: Funny, just this morning I received an email referring to videos as "VIDs". Maybe it's not as unused as you think.

OffTheGrid 6:09 AM  

Well that was different!

Liked Sudden forward thrust under The Vagina Monologues. Had C_IT for 21A and held my breath until I read the clue.

JNKMD 6:19 AM  

Amnios is the term in common use for amniocenteses.

jcal 6:26 AM  

If I am not mistaken Rex omitted one interesting aspect of the puzzle - all the full names are women. I don't know how common that is. It's certainly refreshing

SouthsideJohnny 6:33 AM  

PPP theme, and seven of them ? ? ? Nice exacta - a slog and a snoozefest at the same time. Next.

Joaquin 6:44 AM  

Even though I have never heard of some of the ladies, IDA managed to get 'em all. ANA I didn't find as many nits as Rex found. INA word (or more), I'm usually on Ross's wavelength.

Dan H 6:44 AM  

I liked it a lot less than you… too many peoples names- and I didn’t get the word ladder angle (or angel lol) till you pointed it out. Plus pool divisions are the lanes. Pool dividers would have been a better clue.

Anonymous 6:47 AM  

It’s right there in his first theme comment

Anonymous 6:57 AM  

kind of surprised this one got through in this state, esp for a team-up on a tuesday. crosswordese names paired with crosswordepees
plural EASTERS on RCA, ROUE on EELIEST, RATLIKE, UVEA... EMIR on AREEL and AMNIOS... eesh

LANELINES sounds like a made-up term you use when you don't know what the pool floaties are called...you know those...lane lines. Apparently that's the name they sell by though, so I guess I learned something new.

Anonymous 7:03 AM  

It took me extra time today to geta all those names from the crosses, but finally managed it. Mostly a PPP slog.

kitshef 7:05 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
kitshef 7:08 AM  

@jcal - I don't know if Rex posted an update early this morning, but in the writeup I see he mentions that aspect twice in his first paragraph.

Anonymous 7:10 AM  

THEME: Crossword Lady Ladder — it's basically a word ladder, where one letter changes at each "rung", only here the "word" that's changing is a three-letter woman's first name.

Anonymous 7:13 AM  

Solved this one with the patented @okanaganer method: reading just the down clues and ignoring the acrosses. Or trying to ignore them. Couldn’t help noticing the names of the heroic Ida B. Wells and Ada Lovelace. The other women are not quite in the same league (in my book) but welcome nonetheless. Especially glad to see this theme in a month other than March.

Anonymous 7:14 AM  

The theme brought to mind something that makes me laugh no matter how often I hear hear it - a witty play on three letter first names.
https://youtu.be/WdagPyHgfFg

kitshef 7:22 AM  

Could easily have DNF’d in the SW with the unkown ULTA and TAMARI and the bizarrely clued DESKS and STEAM UP.

Nice job of increasing the obscurity of the names as you progress down the puzzle. INA, IDA and ADA, household names. ANA, AVA and EVA – I don’t really know them but they appear often enough in crosswords to familiar. EVE a complete WoE.

Several of what I would call ‘crosswordese clues’. Things I would not normally get from the clue given, but where an identical or very similar clue has appeared often before, like those for E COLI and CRIT.

Laura 7:24 AM  

Not much fun today...the themers we're largely women I had never heard of, and we're so much of the puzzle. Didn't plan to spend that much time on a Tuesday. Should have solved it down only, and I wouldn't be carping. At least I learned of Ida B Wells, who is a "ought to know" name and historic figure.

Gary Jugert 7:40 AM  

Lordy, t'aint no Tues-ing this week. A truck bed full o' folks I don't know and enough crummy crossers to send me off to Go-ogle.

So who we got:

INA GARTEN is a nice lady cook on TV and I did know her since my wife likes Food Channel.

IDA B WELLS is a nice lady I think I recognize.

ADA LOVELACE is a nice lady you only need to know if you do crossword puzzles.

ANA DE ARMAS is nice lady who is on TV and a a crossword starlet.

AVA DUVERNAY is another nice lady and starlet of one sort or another.

EVA MENDES is yet another nice lady and starlet. Phew-ee this is getting interesting.

EVE ENSLER is a nice lady who wrote a play. Yawn. Obviously she's the most suspicious one of the lot.

So those are a bunch of randomly selected women put into a puzzle perhaps to give us a library of crosswordese-y peeps. Why? I dunno. Somebody will surely suggest these are people we really really should know if we don't wanna look dumb 'cuz they're super famous. We only know them because we have to know them in Crosswordville.

I'll feel special all day today knowing India is good at cricket, probably taught to them by British invaders.

I like ACR going DN.

EELIEST? Really? Tragic. And EASTERS with an S? Maybe rethink the whole corner. I am not going to go look up cryptologic because I bet this'll be the first and last I'll ever use it. DESK as a computing platform isn't even dad-joke groan-able. Never heard of TAMARI, but when you're writing a puzzle of this caliber it seems sensible you'd stir in some Asian cooking ingredients.

Uniclues:

1 "Could use more salt."
2 "There were too many bikinis."
3 When you hear, "Boooooo," and then get murdered.
4 Holidays with my family.

1 BERATE INA GARTEN (~)
2 SNARL AT STEAM UP
3 EERIE BEAT DOWNS (~)
4 RATLIKE EASTERS

Barbara S. 7:46 AM  

I somehow didn’t notice the theme until I’d finished and then looked back to find it. All those names were familiar, either from life (e.g. AVA DUVERNAY) or from crosswords (e.g. ANA DE ARMAS). EVE ENSLER is an outlier, though, in that she has changed her name to V. From Wikipedia:

"After publishing her book The Apology in 2019, where she described sexual and physical abuse by her late father, the author stated she wished to distance herself from the surname he used and expressed her preference to be called by the mononym V."

I know some people dislike PPP*-based themes on principle. I don’t feel that way and tend to just take them on their merits. I thought this one was solid and the names suitably familiar. Parenthetically, I tried briefly to make an equally long word ladder out of men’s names, either 3-letter or 4…and got nowhere. I don’t know if it’s possible with any old men’s names, let alone with the full names of well-known people.

No sweat on 1A or in the tiny NW corner. In fact, no sweat anywhere really. At first I misread the clue for 7A as [Common “word” for shoe trees] and thought huh? But I came to my senses pretty quickly. On the nitpickery front, I wasn’t crazy about AREEL. And, like @Dan H, I wondered about [Pool divisions] being LANE LINES. I’d say the LINES are pool DIVIders, the LANES are DIVISIONS. Question: What’s with DESKS as the answer to [Some computing platforms]?

*PPP: Popular culture, product names and other proper nouns.

[SB: yd, 0. It took me forever to get that pangram. Not an unknown word, but one I don’t use from one year to the next, and with a somewhat unusual configuration of letters. I was mildly annoyed they wouldn’t accept UGLI, as in fruit.]

Anonymous 7:47 AM  

EELIEST and EASTERS--especially EASTERS--are unforgivable. And Ross Trudeau should know better.

OTOH, it was great to be able to fill in the name of one outstanding woman after another, even if, as Rex pointed out, some of them have been inducted into the Crosswordese sorority. Amazed to read a commenter say she had "learned of Ida B. Wells" in this puzzle. Wells has been in hundreds of crosswords, but should also be known as one of the giants of the civil rights movement and a hell of a journalist.

Anonymous 7:53 AM  

For some reason CABBIE was the hardest word for me to get. Slowed that corner down a lot.

Wanderlust 7:53 AM  

I knew all of these women, and not just from crosswords, so it was pretty easy for me. Some of them, especially the pioneering black journalist IDA B WELLS and the pioneering computer programmer ADA LOVELACE, are quite admirable. I think the final answer, EVE, having no A at the end works because a true word ladder ends (I think) on a word that shares no letters with the first one. Harder to do, obviously with words of more than three letters.

The symmetry of the women’s names, along with the requirement to change one letter at a time must have made this very difficult to construct. You couldn’t have put in AVA Gardner instead of AVA Duvernay, for example.

I agree that the fill was pretty blah or cringey, but that’s probably unavoidable with so many long theme answers.

Nice clue for DUVETS.

Anonymous 7:57 AM  

Took me a surprising while to fix a typo since I didn’t know ROUE and had ANA DE ALMAS instead of ARMAS which kept looking “fine”.

Anonymous 7:58 AM  

I agree 1000%! And I was definitely SNARLing AT STEAM UP.

A poop load of Naticks in this puzzle.

GAC 8:06 AM  

This was a quiz, not a crossword puzzle. No fun at all for me. Wouldn't have been any fun even if I knew a lot of the names.

Anonymous 8:11 AM  

Ida and Ada, of course. The rest? People magazine types? Never heard of ‘em.

Anonymous 8:15 AM  

Amy: like this a lot, especially the word ladder aspect. Cleverly constructed. And yes, I voted. Now await this evening and the results. 🤔

burtonkd 8:18 AM  

@anon 7:14 - nice share, I was afraid it would be Letterman hosting the Oscars with the less funny "Uma, Oprah". Some ideas are eternal, it seems.

@Gary - The British Invaders also taught the whole world football, thus the current World Cup competitors from the entire globe.

Puzzle theme - Women whose first names I can't be 100 percent sure I remember correctly.

I would have found this easier on a later day of the week. Today I was thinking "it could be x but not on a Tuesday...oh, I guess that was it"

Lewis 8:21 AM  

I slapped in some of these names, the ones that reside within arm’s length in my memory. Others, living in some of the eelier regions, were rekindled after a few crosses. Only one was a total stranger, and I was happy to be introduced to her.

I was also happy to be introduced to the meaning “dissolute”, a word I’ve heard before but never bothered to look up until after this puzzle.

Pleased to see the theme-echoing INDIA, first name of another accomplished crossword-staple woman. Pleased to see EASTERS in the East, and the grid’s eight double-E’s. And pleased to see that two of my favorite answers – WELL DUH and BEATDOWN are NYT answer debuts.

What an amazing idea for a theme – a word ladder based on the first names of accomplished women. Brilliant, and buttressed by the incredible serendipity that such a set of names could be gathered.

I’ve learned over many years that the NYT crossword will consistently crackle with creativity and press my happy button – as today’s did. What a remarkable cadre of constructors and editors, including the sterling pair that made today’s sterling puzzle. Thank you, Ross and Wyna!

pabloinnh 8:23 AM  

So, "Let us now praise famous women". Or sort-of famous women, at least to me. Some good crossword first names with some unknown last names here. Most fun was seeing the word laddder aspect of it all.

SW corner last to fall, had VEE, which begat COVERS, going nowhere, tried SHEETS, nope, and then finally DUVETS. Thanks a lot, ULTA. You're no help at all.

RATLIKE always makes me think of Bruins winger Brad Marchand, also know an "the little ball of hate", which is less than a wonderful nickname, but there it is. B's finally lost at home last night in a shootout. Still an impressive run.

Interesting construction, you two. No more EASTERS please, though. Not Real Tough or Way Lovely, but fun enough, RT and WL, so thanks.

Son Volt 8:36 AM  

Ladder theme is played but like that it revolves around these strong women. Problem is the non-name sections of the puzzle are just bad and don’t do the themers justice.

Yesterday we have an elegant looking grid - today a blob with those ugly corner blacks. The EELIEST x EASTERS entry may the single worst cross we’ve ever seen with CHI x CCS a close second.

I did like BEATDOWNS and AMALGAM.

The name theme is TV Guideish - but that’s ok - these people deserve the props. Surprised as I typically welcome both these constructors - but this was a poor showing.

Local Hero

Anonymous 8:39 AM  

I just dropped by the comments to see if there were any men speaking dismissively about accomplished women, and you, sir, did not disappoint. (I mean, you weren't the only one, but calling the brilliant Oscar-nominated director Ava Duvernay a "starlet" really did it for me)

MarthaCatherine 8:54 AM  

DNF without looking up two names at the last minute. Never heard of Ms deArmas; heard of Ms Duvernay but because I had "relo" for 38D ("Take up a new residence") I couldn't finish without Googling. Plus "12" as a clue just could not break through for me.

Then there's 50D (Chest bumps?). Had --BS and booBS wouldn't fit. And it just could not be niBS, could it?!?!? Finally got it after my Google cheat, but I was nonplussed for a nanosecond or two.

Loved the clue for DESKS.

Kent 8:56 AM  

Clever theme that was well executed. I have a hard time knowing my Ana from my Ava from my Eva, let alone remembering how last names are spelled, so it added a pleasant level of challenge to the usual crosswordese.

Anonymous 9:01 AM  

Fast, fun, perfectly tuned Tuesday. Caught the ladder theme early on, so was able to pre fill them a bit. EVE ENSLER was the only name I didn’t know.

Prefab 9:19 AM  

The names were relatively easy for me, although I struggled a bit with the spelling of AVA DUVERNAY. It was that TAMARI-flavored snarl in the SW that made this the slowest Tuesday puzzle of the year for me. "DECKS" looked right for computers; in fact, it is a term used by gamers to describe their computers. And so I had "CLEAN UP" as something you'd do to make a movie R rated (as opposed to X-rated or NC-17). And of course the famous beauty supply shop "ULLA" and the soy sauce "TANARI." Made sense to me!

mmorgan 9:43 AM  

I found this cute, involving all well-known women (at least to me), and a word ladder that didn’t call attention to itself with a dumb revealer. I was dreading the dumb revealer and was pleased it wasn’t there! I was kinda hoping for some kind of thematic progression (e.g., from some other time of day to EVE), but maybe be that was too much to ask for — unless Rex is correct about the biblical possibility.

D’Qwellner 9:50 AM  

Agree. I guess it shows that women have to struggle with male biased answers most of the time. I hadn’t heard of half of the women before and I got Naticked a couple of times, especially because I also don’t speak French. Worst Tuesday ever for me. Happens I guess.

pabloinnh 9:54 AM  

Enjoyed Erik Agard's New Yorker today. PPP skewed youngish but gettable.

andrew 10:01 AM  

A no fun Tuesday of names I kinda knew but Ada vs. Ida is a Loa/Ken to me.

To make matters worse, you preempted my Ina Garten Davida joke. INAPET now!

RooMonster 10:05 AM  

Hey All !
The ole brain decided to see the Ladder Theme, amazingly enough. It helped me get EVA MENDES, who is a name and person I know of, but didn't know as clued. Crossed by the dastardly 39D clue, (Covers for a king or queen?) Had sheETS first, changed it to crownS, back to sheETS, then erasing it completely. Then I was thinking of a Royal-sit-in, ala a temp replacement in case said king or queen wasn't available. But couldn't think of a word to describe that. Add in the sorta-kinda heard of TAMARI sauce (really wanting TAtARI, though), and that corner held me up for quite a while.

Finished With aLTA (thinking ALTA Beauty) and DaVETS. Got the Almost There, hit the ole Check Puzzle, saw the A crossed out, said, "Of course, dummy! It's DUVETS!" Stop naming your similar products similarly! 😁 Alta, Ulta, Dangta.

INA-GARTEN-Da-Vita, baby...

AVAs last name went through about 63 different spellings until I nailed it down. A gaggle of double-Es in South, VEE, EERIE, EPEES, AREEL, EVEENSLER, EELIEST, KNEELON, plus LEE in the center. That has to be an EE record. @Lewis?

Random notes:
Did see the 16 wide grid. Kind of an odd puz, Name Theme. WAY for Custom a stretch. Got a BEAT DOWN in that SE corner. An AMALGAM of stuff.

No F's (enough to SNARL AT)
RooMonster
DarrinV

Nancy 10:06 AM  

Two of the crossword types I dislike most are proper name-based puzzles and word ladder puzzles. So how did the constructors get me to enjoy this puzzle so much?

Well, for one, all the names were fairly crossed. And then the crossword-friendly first-name-based word ladder was quite amusing -- almost like an "inside joke" for cruciverbalists.

Most important, the puzzle had more crunch than most Tuesdays -- something for which I'm always grateful.

This was a lot of fun, Ross and Wyna. And btw, Wyna, your own first name came so close to working:)

Alice Pollard 10:06 AM  

EELIEST? LANELINES? hated this one, women or not

bocamp 10:18 AM  

Thx, Ross & Wyna, for a fine Tues. challenge! :)

Hard.

Good start in the top 1/3, but all downhill from there.

Had sUp before BUS; qUilT before DUVET, both of which caused havoc in those areas.

Eventually got it all sussed out. :)

Enjoyed the battle! :)

@jae, pablo, et al

One of the easier Croce's yd (just under 50). The NE alone took as long as all the rest. See you next Mon.! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏

Whatsername 10:28 AM  

The idea of honoring seven notable women in a puzzle is laudable. Doing so on a Tuesday with seven proper names - some of them relatively obscure - is questionable. For me as a veteran solver, It was harder than usual because I only knew about half the themers, but for a beginner this would have been a nightmare and very discouraging. Cleverness in the three-letter word ladder, YET that was no help at all with all those last names still there to be figured out.

Tuesdays are supposed to be gettable but IMHO this one would not have been anywhere close for most new solvers. And let’s not even talk about EELIEST, AREEL or EASTERS. Seriously let’s not.

egsforbreakfast 10:33 AM  

I loved the shout outs to INA GARTEN, IDA B WELLS, ADA LOVELACE, et al. But let’s don’t ignore the more obscure women like ECO LI, ANI MAL, IBI S, EMI R, EPE ES, ELE VATE, UVE A and AMA L GAM. I’m still working on how they fit in the word ladder, but I’ll let you all know when I’ve got it.

Is there a name for a guy who can fuse two pieces of metal? WELLDUH.

What do you call a nylon that only goes to the bottom of the thigh? KNEELON.

I have lotsa cat-love, and no RATLIKE.

On Saturday we had NOR (‘Easter preceder). Today we have AND (36D) EASTERS (44D). I assume that IF, OR, THEN and NOT EASTERS will follow shortly.

I liked this puzzle and didn’t think about the word ladder aspect until reading xwordinfo. I think @Nancy kinda nailed why I enjoyed it — it seemed almost like an inside joke for the crossworld. Thanks, Ross T and Wyna L. I always feel a spark when I see your names at the top, and I’m never disappointed.




pmdm 10:34 AM  

I tend to dislike Ross's creations and this one maintains the streak. Yes, it was a PPP fest that felt more like a quiz than a puzzle. Maybe an interesting group of women (although I care not if a person's claim to fame is acting - usually).

Some of the entries I thought were pretty bad. Eeliest? Ugh.

Ross's puzzles seem to me to aim at a certain audience. I am just not part of that audience. Since all persons should enjoy the puzzle at least some of the time, I think it was good to run the puzzle. That doesn't mean I shouldn't complain if a puzzle is not aimed at my tastes.

Anonymous 10:35 AM  

DNF for me. As an on again off again crossword solver these names didn't all jump out at me. I knew some and figured out many but one or two eluded me.

I had SHOUYU for Japanese soy sauce, thinking it was along the lines of a "winter in France" type of clue, but the DUVETS cross clued me that it wasn't right. I'd never heard of TAMARI so I had to get that with crosses.

Sad to say the epitome of simplicity ABC didn't come to me until I got everything around it. Probably a common crossword clue but see my opening sentence.

Diego 10:36 AM  

I’m with OFL on this one, nice curation and amusing. The Queens of Crosslandia rule!
Thought the fill was fine, no more clunky than most dailies.
Kudos to the constructors for a trippy Tuesday.

Anonymous 10:38 AM  

"You know all those people you have trouble remembering day to day? We're going to put them all in one puzzle for you!"

Ellen 10:42 AM  

Lit Crit is the commonly used shorthand for Literary Texts, Critical Methods, a Columbia University course that has been taught for ages (and periodically criticized in NYC for having a syllabus full of dead white authors). I only know this because The New York Times revisited the criticism. The shorthand always felt off to me, because I took a class called Crit Lit in high school

Bob Mills 10:45 AM  

I have a pretty good vocabulary, but I've never heard of a DUVET. Even if I had guessed that "kings and queens" referred to beds, I still wouldn't have figured it out.

Clever idea for a theme, but too many of the women were unfamiliar. I got a DNF, which is unusual for a Tuesday.

JanetG 10:50 AM  

https://www.eveensler.org/

Also, she doesn't use that name anymore

mathgent 11:04 AM  

Trudeau is good at constructing woke crosswords, not good at making entertaining ones. Only three red plus signs in the margins. And sloppy -- 26 Terrible Threes.

Bouquets to Rex for the picture of Sam Spade comforting Iva Archer. Brilliant.

jae 11:06 AM  

Medium-tough. I knew all the theme women but was iffy on some of the spellings. Delightful word ladder progression with some fine long downs. Liked it.

tea73 11:09 AM  

I thought this was quite a clever word ladder, much more interesting than the usual ones which just seem dumb to me. I did not know was ANA Celia DE ARMAS Caso though I've seen both Knives Out and Blade Runner 2049 which apparently she was also in. I also did not know EVA MENDES (born Eva de la Caridad Méndez). I haven't seen her in anything including the ads.

@Gary Jugert "AVA DUVERNAY is another nice lady and starlet of one sort or another" is a pretty dismissive way to describe an accomplished producer of such moves as Selma and A Wrinkle in Time.

Agree with others that EELIEST crossing EASTER was bad.

I did notice that EVE did not have two syllables, but I think I'm okay with it.

Terra Schaller 11:12 AM  

https://youtu.be/1plPyJdXKIY

Maybe . . . 11:14 AM  

I'm pretty surprised none of the other folks in Rex's English department ever mention LIT CRIT. I'm not in academia myself, but English professors I know have talked about it.

GILL I. 11:14 AM  

Ay frijoles! First time in aeons/eons that I had to call my know-it-all neighbor. Most of the names listed here were seen by me in the wild. INA GARTEN was my first entry because, well, I watch her cooking show. The rest, from IDA on down to the last, I had to guess at the spelling. Then I get down to that Vagina lady. I don't read things about vaginas. I heard about her but I didn't know her name. EVEENSLER sounds just about right for a name discussing what no one wants to discuss. She was my one look up and I will forget the name as we speak.
OK...so let's get to the puzzle. I actually liked it. Tuesdays are getting better and I want that. I had problems here and there but I took my time and the LUMEN in my brain would turn on. Here were my problem areas:
I've never watched 20 questions. My wrong answer was WHO AM I...
CRIT sounds like an abbrecvition for critter.
WATTS instead of LUMEN.
LANE LINES and EASTERS felt like the cherry on top of my sundae needed it's pit to be removed.
So, I get serious. I did lots of erasing but it was oddly enjoyable . I like Ross Trudeau puzzles and now I'm going to like Wyna Liu puzzles as well.
This was certainly different and it was worth my time.... Should I be interested in EVE ENSLER?

Anonymous 11:19 AM  

Jberg here—DNF at SVU/Mendes. I liked the word ladder, but a revealer would have improved it.

25 years ago EVE ENSLER would have been more famous than any of them, except maybe IDA B WELLS. I’m getting too old.

Carola 11:24 AM  

I liked the puzzle a lot, seeing it as a lovely meld of word ladder and tribute puzzle; and liked it even more after @Rex pointed out the joke of the crosswordese and the final punctuation mark of EVE. Love seeing the women shine in their full (name) glory.

Joseph Michael 11:27 AM  

Not a fan of word ladders and this one added to the aggravation by making all of the themers names. [grr]

Film and video are two distinct media, so a “film” is not a VID. EPEES have blunt ends so they’re hardly “stickers.” And there’s only one EASTER. I wouldn’t normally nit pick such things, but this puzzle put me in a BAD mood and I feel like complaining.

On a positive note, at least SNL alum Kevin KNEELON got a shoutout.

Geezer 11:30 AM  

There's international cricket?


I knew only IDA B WELLS. Didn't matter. Pretty neat puzz.

Anonymous 11:33 AM  

If you don’t know the word DUVET, then I’m afraid your vocabulary isn’t as good as you may think.

Also, this puzzle kind of stunk.

Anonymous 11:44 AM  

Terrible Tuesday. I didn’t know most of those women (maybe I should) and the crosses didn’t help. I mean, if you don’t know the name, and you get tripped up on one cross, you’re dead.

old timer 11:47 AM  

I am of course thinking about "The Pastor's Lament", a lovely work by a judicious poet of my acquaintance:

I have preached on many EASTERS
To an audience of feasters
Thinking only of their roasted ham.
But if we want to eat like Jesus
There is just one thing to please us
A lovely minty tasty leg of lamb.

OFL picketh too many nits today, methinks. AMNIOs exist, and with them the eternal question, "Do I want to know if it's boy or girl?" LIT CRIT was commonly used by English major types when I was at Stanford in the early 60s. And this former swim dad and assistant referee at meets is very familiar with LANE LINES, which is exactly what everybody calls them. I don't want to BERATE our beloved leader, but there are times he reaches too far for something to complain about.

I was delighted to finally discover the three-letter word ladder. And isn't @Rex always complaining about the scarcity of women in the puzzles? Here, every themer is a woman, and many of them are quite famous.

ULTA is a total mystery to me. And STEAM UP is not what a studio guy would probably say. He'd (or she'd) almost certainly say "Sex it UP".

Anonymous 11:47 AM  

I agree

Tom T 11:48 AM  

Sloggiest of slogs.

Gary Jugert 12:08 PM  

@egsforbreakfast 10:33 AM
Go getta bucket. You are on fire.

Lewis 12:15 PM  

@roo -- It is a healthy collection, but I don't know if its a record, sorry to say.

Masked and Anonymous 12:22 PM  

Verrry interestin …

1. 16 x15 grid, so they could splatz semi-known ANADEARMAS into the middle row.
2. Seven themers! All names. On a TuesPuz. Mighty feisty. Also, coulda maybe just had five names, since U could go directly from INA to ANA and skip IDA & ADA. But, hey -- the more the merrier.
3. UMA & UTA, where art thou?
4. Fillins got tasty-desperate, at times … due to all them themers, I think. faves: CRIT. ULTA. EELIEST. TAMARI. AMNIOS. VID. AREEL. ENEWS. LANELINES. EASTERS. A couple of these might be more M&A no-knows than Ow de Sperations, I'd grant.
5. INAGARTEN ain't quite INAGARDEN, as a lady-ladder terminal to pair with EVE. Close, tho. And cutely desperate, sooo … yep, ok.
6. Tough solve at our house, cuz M&A ain't good at rememberin names. ADA was my only gimme. Usually the last names for these oft-puz-honored gals are provided in the clues.

staff weeject pick: AKA. Apt name for a dentist gal? Yeah, didn't think so.

Could EASTERS have been adjusted to be EASTERN, somehow? KNEELON --> KNEELER. RCA --> REA. Or somesuch? Then you could have that there reverse-themer-meat {Mens ___} clue for REA. Or not.

fave clue: {12}.

Thanx for gangin up on us, Ross and Wyna folks. Verrry interestin.

Masked & Anonymo6Us


verrry weird:
**gruntz**

Anonymous 12:26 PM  

Obscure names. No fun. I expect better from Trudeau.

Teedmn 1:14 PM  

I knew all the names except one, but not necessarily as clued - haven't seen any of the shows listed except for INA GARTEN's (which I don't know if it's still on the Food Network.)

The one name I didn't know was ANA DEARrAS. Yes, that's where my DNF occurred. I looked at the clue for 38D and wrinkled my nose - "Take up a new residence" for rOVE? Well, I guess...Har.

Thanks, Ross and Wyna for an interesting WAY to do a word ladder.

Blue Stater 1:19 PM  

Worst Tuesday evah, I think: full of obscurities, made-up plurals, blah blah, as OFL has pointed out in detail. Not acceptable on any day of the week, but particularly this early.

Anonymous 1:27 PM  

Ellen,
Some criticize Columbia's Lit Crit syllabus; others cherish it.
But I'm sure the Times is right: today's trans identifying queer ally of color author of the month will surely be read two millennia later just as Homer is, right?

Anonymous 1:31 PM  

EELIEST eluded me. Yuck. Also had swimlanes instead of LANELINES. RATLIKE also not great, but after switching VET to GIS made more sense. Enjoyed the ladder.

AnonymousSteve 1:37 PM  

I swam competitively for 15 years. Pool lane dividers were always called 'lane ropes'. Never 'lane lines'.

Anonymous 1:39 PM  

And I, for some strange reason, would not hail a taxi in NYC and say "Thanks, cabbie!" to the driver 😬

Anonymous 1:58 PM  

I gotta say that characterizing Ava DuVernay as a nice lady and starlet is hilarious, inaccurate and dismissive all at the same time. She is a director of some of the most incisive and penetrating films. ‘When They See Us,’ ‘13th’ and ‘Selma’ are all riveting. It’s like calling FF Coppola a ‘Hollywood Hunk.’

okanaganer 1:58 PM  

Names are always my weak spot, but happily it's Tuesday so the crosses are easy enough. Of course Ms Lovelace was a gimme; the others definitely not.

When I read the clue for 50 down I thought "surely it's not TITS?" It was only 2 letters off.

[Spelling Bee: yd 0; I got the pangram early but my last word wasn't obscure at all.
@Barabara S, dbyd my annoyance was IODIDE not being accepted. Why is IODINE okay but not IODIDE?]

J.W. 2:30 PM  

Easy enough. But I'm good with names and I actually keep up with pop culture from the last 30 years. I guess I'm just some kind of freak.

Chris 3:02 PM  

Perhaps in the olden days when we went from mainframes to desk tops, some referred to them as 'desks' but I don't recollect that.

Anoa Bob 3:18 PM  

This got off to a promising start. I use to Watch the Barefoot Contessa on Food Channel, not so much because of her cooking---a little too heavy on saturated fats for me---but more because she was completely charming and entertaining. INA appears regularly in grids and I wonder why it usually gets clued as a partial (something like "Pig IN A poke") rather than as the lovely Ms INA GARTEN.

Alas, that promise was short lived. I recognized a couple more names and then my solve hit a brick wall. Not only no recall but no recognition either for the rest of the names. I was AREEL and had to CONCEDE that this puzzle was not for me.

I have never seen a plural grid entry that couldn't be rationalized. Are there such things as BEATDOWNS, DESKS, DUVETS, EASTERS, AMNIOS and EPEES. WELL DUH, of course there are. The question is why the plural instead of the more basic singular.

The reason is because the singular versions are too short for their slots and tacking on Ss is an easy and convenient way to boost their letter counts and fill up extra space without adding much of interest or value to the puzzle. In those last two examples the Ss fill up 20% and 25% more space. Do they add a commensurate amount of value? WELL DUH, of course they don't.

I think of them as plurals of convenience (POCs), kind of like non-nutritional filler, so to speak, taking up valuable room in a limited space information display matrix.

Uma DaGooma 3:50 PM  

I'm with Southside. A PPP nightmare. Only knew 3 of the 7 and didn't bother to finish the thing - so a tough Tuesday here. Pffftgh.

Anonymous 3:58 PM  

For chrisake! DESK is a "platform" to set your computer on. Jeesh!

GreenCarol 6:49 PM  

Agree with many nits, but … as for not knowing all the gals … let’s take the opportunity to learn about women in history, ok?

I'm just saying... 7:11 PM  

Horrible puzzle. All those names of people I never heard of and 3 letter words. Just terrbile.

Anonymous 7:38 PM  

No revealer on the theme. Tuesday should be friendly to people who don't see all the proper name crosswordese. EELIEST ROUE is just awful especially since WILIEST is a kealoa there. My UVEA was AREEL with how awful this puzzle was for people not experts in proper names generally, this is not a women in history issue as much as a "too many proper names with no revealer to help out" issue. Just terrible.

Doug 8:44 PM  

Oh my God, did you really just call this a "woke crossword?!?" Because... it had women's names? Jesus tapdancing Christ, the comments today are really something.

TAB2TAB 9:13 PM  

Yikes, one of the worst name-fests in recent memory and in an effort to fit as many names as possible, caused almost everything else to be sludge as well. While some of the names ring a bell, none were in my wheelhouse... at all. The last names are not common last names and were un-inferable in places, with some crosses (ROUE??) Great that is championing and bringing (more) awareness to women, and glad that I learned about them. I can't help but wonder what Rex's write up would have looked like if it had featured 7 men.

dgd 9:14 PM  

The clue is using the word "platform" literally as something you put a computer on. People on this blog call this type of clue a misdirection. I fell for it initially until Imacs didn't work!

MexGirl 9:40 PM  

If you care for women, at all and in any form, you should be interested in The Vagina Monologues and Eve Ensler.

The comments from some of the men in this forum today are appalling!

Anonymous 10:56 PM  

Comments that the names were "PEOPLE Magazine types" and "obscure" and "none were [sic] in my wheelhouse."

It's so interesting when misogyny shows itself without those displaying it even being aware.

All of you who think these names are obscure or just celebrities, take a minute to look them up. Increase your world view.

Anonymous 11:23 PM  

The iffy fill seemed to be bogged with iffy clueing, which took me out of the little theme a bit. But love the INA GARTEN to EVE observation. Good catch.

tea73 2:34 PM  

@Nancy Germans say Oldtimer (one squooshed together word pronounced like English) specifically to refer to old cars. As in "Ist ein Auto mit 25 Jahren ein Oldtimer?" I lived in Germany for five years, I'll confess I don't remember knowing that, but I've forgotten so much German I might have known it.

I loved this puzzle, but I really like learning foreign languages though I have no gift (Begabung) for them. My favorite was learning not to say you were full after a meal in France "Pleine" means pregnant. Much laughter ensues.

@Loren Muse Smith that was indeed a great little avatar!

I knew KASEY was spelled with a K, but I'll confess I'd have spelled his last name with one too.

I considered mAW before JAW.

@bocamp I am learning Japanese in preperation for a trip to Japan over Christmas. Just learned 少しSukoshi and thought it sounded like SKOSH. Cool.

spacecraft 11:17 AM  

@anonymous who "expected better from Trudeau:" Why?

DNBTF on this one; slogged through the north half since I did know WELLS and LOVELACE, but from the center down it was a morass of unknown PPPs and awkward fill. I just decided it wasn't worth it.

After seeing the completed grid, my new assessment is: It wasn't worth it.

Wordle par.

Burma Shave 11:36 AM  

AREEL WAY

You WERE an ANIMAL, HON,
to STEAMUP AND ELEVATE,
I CONCEDE a LESSEN WELL done,
you MADE a MOVE I can't BERATE.

--- KEN LEE

thefogman 1:49 PM  

I really liked this one. The Wonderkind does not disappoint. Nor does Wyna Liu. My only nit to pick is EELIEST. Presumably some things can be eely. And other things can be eelier. But few things are the EELIEST.

Diana, LIW 2:25 PM  

As noted by @Foggy, this was not the EELIEST puzzle ever produced. Now everyone: "WELL DUH."

Except for the names it was fairly easy, and even then I was able to finish with the crosses in place.

Diana, LIW

Diana, LIW 2:29 PM  

And...I might add that I did know IDABWELLS and ADALOVELACE - but certainly not a celebrity chef.

Lady Di

Anonymous 2:59 PM  

I found this puzzle Monday easy. The hardest part was remembering some of the ladies' last names and their spellings. Fortunately, the crosses were mostly very easy.

rondo 4:48 PM  

I knew most of the names, especially EVAMENDES, yeah baby. Figured out one or two others. Picked up on the word Ladder right away. CLEARS in the corners.
Wordle bogey.

Anonymous 9:11 PM  

Late to the game & don’t usually comment as I get the NYTXW locally 30 days behind. FWIW although I found it challenging for a Tuesday I liked the puzzle. My wife on the other hated it straight away and abandoned early. Just my $.02 folks, but maybe a puzzle can just be a puzzle rather than everything having to be us vs. them bloodsport. Cheers.

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