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Northernmost capital in continental South America / WED 12-7-22 / Six-time M.L.B. All-Star Mookie / It might say "Scam Likely"
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
Constructor: Karen Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Easy? (6:30)
THEME: Words that mean different things in different languages
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: MRES (G.I. food packs) —
- Vintage car, in German ... or veteran, in English-- OLD TIMER
- High school, in Danish ... or building for indoor sports, in English-- GYMNASIUM
- Competition, in French ... or agreement, in English-- CONCURRENCE
- Plywood, in Dutch ... or theater with several screens, in English-- MULTIPLEX
- Vacation, in Swedish ... or half of an academic year, in English-- SEMESTER
Word of the Day: MRES (G.I. food packs) —
Some of the early MRE main courses were not very palatable, earning them the nicknames "Meals Rejected by Everyone," "Meals Rejected by Ethiopia" (during the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia), or "Meals Rarely Edible." Some individual portions had their own nicknames. For example, the frankfurters, which came sealed in pouches of four, were referred to as "the four fingers of death." Although quality has improved over the years, many of the nicknames have stuck. MREs were sometimes called "Three Lies for the Price of One ... it's not a Meal, it's not Ready, and you can't Eat it."
• • •
Anyway, let's talk about this puzzle. The theme is not my favorite type... I'm always disappointed when there's no revealer. This was sort of "collection of things that have a thing in common, but you didn't know what that thing was." I was hoping I'd put in one of the answers and be like "Oh yeahhhh, I remember learning that MULTIPLEX meant plywood..." (or whatever) but nope. I basically said "Huh, okay" five times and that was the puzzle.
I wonder if I would find the double meanings more impressive if I hadn't just watched Richarlison's bicycle kick but to be honest there is very little that can impress me after that. That's not the puzzle's fault. My bar has been set impossibly high.
I'm very intrigued by the layout of this puzzle! Those stacks in the corners and the four pyramids of black squares are what I'd associate with a themeless puzzle. Kameron Austin Collins is always busting out the pyramids. This layout is probably influenced by the central answer which is 11 letters long-- it forces a lot of blocks into place. I think my favorite non-theme entries were SAMOSA and SWOOSH. What about y'all?
Bullets:
- [Six-time M.L.B. All-Star Mookie] for BETTS-- I KNEW THIS ONE!! ATTENTION FOLKS! THERE WAS A BASEBALL CLUE THAT I, MALAIKA HANDA, KNEW THE ANSWER TO! BOW DOWN, PLEASE!!!
- [Tooth holder] for JAW-- I had "gum" and then I had "saw" for sooo long
- Little EVA, who sang "Locomotion"-- Let me tell you, I made it through this whole freaking puzzle and was like "Aww man was it really only men??" and then got to this clue and was like "Phew!!"
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82 comments:
See, is that so hard? Just make a nice puzzle with cute clues and a theme that makes you say, "hm, how 'bout them apples."
Not to sound dismissive as I apparently did yesterday, but all six or seven of the the nice ladies and fellahs filled in with crosses even though I only knew OATES, ASHE, and KASEM.
This was a positively wonderful adventure. More like this please.
And it's been way too long since the last Malaika MWednesday. Keep MWednesdays MWedding. Except we gotta remind her soccer is stooooopid.
Uniclues:
1 Church pot luck.
2 Start thinking, "This class is dumb."
3 Where babies come from.
4 Why I love going to my Indian gramma's house.
5 Struggling with the idea you are not required to answer a phone just because it's ringing and the number you are staring at is local.
6 Dad's brother dressed nattily.
7 Answer to: "Which one of you would mind running up that hill with a couple of tourists?"
1 GYMNASIUM FEAST (~)
2 ENRAGE SEMESTER
3 RAISED LOVE TAP
4 ELDER'S SAMOSA
5 CALLER ID ORDEAL (~)
6 UNCLE SERGE (~)
7 SHERPA SAYS, "ME"
This was fairly quick for me (5:08) but had the same (non)reaction to the themers. Zero “aha” moments. After shrugging at the first one, I just ignored the other languages and filled them in based on the English halves of the clues, making the whole thing kind of a dud. I mean, moderately interesting to learn of these ported words that have totally different meanings elsewhere, but the way it was done was not really any more memorable than someone just telling me those things.
Hi Malaika. I can't see your bicycle kick goal video here in Canada, but I'm sure it's epic. I just watched a replay of Portugal trouncing Suisse, though. Me too for knowing Mookie BETTS. And hands up for having SAW before JAW.
I got the first themer and was thinking "what the %*%(*???" Then all the other themers made sense. Then I finished the puzzle and was still thinking: "what the %*%(* was that first themer about???" After some research, evidently Germans use "oldtimer", the english phrase, to describe classic cars. Now I know! It's actually an interesting theme, if a bit odd.
[Spelling Bee: Tues 0; I hadn't really noticed but I'm on a bit of a streak. QB 5 days straight, and 8 of the last 9 days!! What a change from the end of November when I had QB only once in 9 days.]
Medium-tough for me. I think I just hesitated a lot plus reading and processing the theme clues took a SKOSH of effort. @ Malaika me too for sAW before JAW but that was it for erasures (other than tracking down a typo).
Interesting idea, liked it, learning new stuff is good.
Malaika – I bet you were wanting 6D clued as soccer great Mia? Although I’ll tell ya – Jon HAMM is so handsome it hurts.
I really enjoyed learning these cross-language meanings. GYMNASIUM was the only one I already knew. (pronounced with a hard G, by the way.) I’m reminded of the time this shy, retiring, sweet foreign exchange student from Spain came up to my desk during a test, looked around furtively, and very carefully whispered, I need a rubber. That *&%$ will wake you up. I helpfully told him that in the US, he should ask for an “eraser” from then on. Then I showed him the Google translate for rubber, and he turned all kinds of red.
I spent a bit sniffing out volunteer themers in the grid. Seems that ANY can mean “year” in Catalan. And if you drop the English requirement, LOS means something different in German from what it means in Spanish.
I was reminded of this startling sign in Sweden. If you read the article, you’ll find an even more startling sign: slutspurt. Wowser. Where do you even start with a gem like that?
I also learned that trombone means “paper clip” in French. And if you give someone a bad gift in Germany, you’re giving them bath poison. Hah.
CALLERID is pretty much a dook. The symposium was ok, but the keynote speaker was a little callerid, if you ask me.
That ingredient in some holiday cookies? GINGER? I love gingerbread cookies that are burnt on the bottom, and I’ve come to understand that this is A Thing, that other people like them that way, too.
Karen – your clue for WIN – “when doubled. . .” and you crossed it with WIN! So it was a WIN/WIN construction feat. Well played.
Me, too, for “saw” before JAW. I was today years old when I learned that people don’t bite down on anything; when we bite, our lower JAW comes up to meet the unmoving top JAW. I’ll pause while you make a few bite motions to check.
Ok. So here’s why I might spend some time in front of a mirror: I’m not PREENing but rather dealing with the ultimate glasses annoyance – lopsidedness. In my opinion, you lose a lot of power and presence if your glasses are all lopsided. Right?
I have to take issue with the clue for ORDEAL. Flying commercial is *always* an ORDEAL. In fact, it’s a descent into hell. Speaking of which. . . I’m starting to look at airfare for the Crossword Tournament the last weekend in March. Those of you who don’t want to go because you think you’re not good enough to compete. . . it’s not at all about the competition – I’m always in the lower half of the pack and could not care less. The weekend is about hanging out with cool people and being starstruck when you see guys like BEQ and Patrick Merrell. Peter Gordon. Robyn Weintraub. I even had my picture taken with Patrick Berry a few years ago. If you work up the courage to go but are afraid you won’t know anyone, email me – I’ll invite you into our little group of stalwart attendees. You’ll have an absolute blast.
Essentially a themeless Wednesday. The foreign references in the "theme" clues are irrelevant. Remove them with no consequence. I liked it and used only the English part. Seen this way it's really a very neat puzzle.
Fun fact, the linguistic term for this kind of thing is "false friend", which is itself a calque from the French "les faux amis". I thought it was fine, if a little bland. Pretty quick, just got hung up at the end thinking it was ScOSH/cASEM.
I read the clue for 16A, realized that -- as @Shza noted -- you could solve with just the English part of the clue. So I ignored the clues for the long acrosses and solved it as an entertaining themeless.
Delightful, non junky puzzle. Only hang up was in the SE corner. Didn’t know EVA, KASEM, or OSHEAS so parsing through there was not the prettiest. Knew CHINUA but was not confident on the spelling. Ingredients found in this puzzle would make for an interesting FEAST: SAMOSA FRY, HAMM, GINGER SMEAR, MRES, OATES. Sounds somewhat post-apocalyptic.
Mostly easy, but with some tricky crosses, viz. MRES and REY, and FAM and FRY. Finished it by guessing well.
Enjoyed having a nice, well-behaved theme that just sits in the background, doesn’t cause any trouble and lets the rest of the puzzle do its thing.
Very interesting that there are usually several individuals a day who call for more female PPP entries, which I think is totally backward - please just reduce the male names. In fact, just doing away with PPP altogether would be the ideal.
I was initially puzzled by the clue for EYE (regard) - scanning the definitions in M-W landed me on “gaze at” for “regard”, so learned something new on that one.
Malaika:
The goal was a scissor kick, it is different than a bicycle kick.
The scissors kick is a way of kicking a ball at waist or chest height.
The bicycle kick is used to kick a ball above standing head height.
Alas, I did not know the spelling of SKOSH or KASEM, so submitted with a ‘c’ at that cross.
‘Sheeran and Sullivan’ is a great clue for EDS. Anyone from 9 to 90 is likely to know one of them.
In addition to Malaika’s ‘gum’ and ‘saw’, I also contemplated ‘cog’ for my tooth holder. It’s an intriguing little clue that I enjoyed spending time with.
Another 10 to 12 minute Wednesday, including a coffee refill. What the hell is going on with the NYTXW -
Got a new keyboard and can't figure out how to get the question mark, among other stuff. Many keys have 3 options and I'm lost. Parentheses are also a problem,obviously. I bet @Z could have helped me.
“Flying commercial is such an ORDEAL” has a real White Lotus vibe about it.
Delightful puzzle, delightful Mwednesday. And @Coniuratos taught me a great new word: calque. Joy abounds!
I like the pinwheel feel of the grid design, that ATTICS is right on the top, and that trio of three-letter body parts (EYE, EAR, JAW).
And I love the theme because I love running across English words that mean something completely different in other languages (Hi, @LMS!). When I lived in Germany, I learned that “gift” in German means “poison”, for instance. Hah! And in a quick bit of research, I just found out that “smoking” means “tuxedo” (French), “schedule” means “rooster” (Dutch), and “farmer” means “jeans” (Hungarian).
I don’t know why I love this phenomenon, but I do, and so I found today’s puzzle to be most charming. A LOVE TAP of thanks to you, Karen, for conjuring this!
Our family spent only a brief amount of time in Sweden (during a Baltic cruise), so we didn't see what @LMS saw, but we did see "byggutfart" which is fun if you've never fully grown up. Then my smarty-pants wife, the adult in the room who speaks German, had to ruin it all by making the connection with Ausfahrt which means "exit" (words with "fahren" in them generally have something to do with driving). Either way, in the presence of a byggutfart, it sounds like you'd best get out of the way.
(@LMS, sorry, but I didn't get what you're driving at with "callerid" -- although I did learn at last what a dook is, in crossword slang. Anyway, Google is no help because for page after page, it insists on parsing it as CALLER ID.)
The theme was fun, although OLDTIMER is clearly a borrowing and repurposing from English (I mean, it's gotta be), and that somehow detracts in my book. Also, that meaning of GYMNASIUM isn't restricted to Denmark. I've mainly seen it in connection with Germany. While I'm picking nits: the fill seemed a little choppy, especially around the middle with all those three-letter across answers above and below CONCURRENCE. The down fill fared better.
I wiffed on SWOOSH, thinking whOOSH which is that thing that Rex is always doing, but that got fixed pretty quickly. In general I had a much easier time with this than yesterday's, because I'm really not good at remembering names.
Cute misdirection for ATTICS.
Have a good day, y'all!
I first thought of Shea for Queens stadium eponym (now gone), having enjoyed many Mets games there in my youth. Realized that Ashe was the (tennis) stadium name that fits the clue, but delighted that the constructor crossed it with O'Shea's casino. Nice.
The Story-ATTIC connection is practically crosswordese.
Finished in a reasonable time, fairly zippy Wednesday, but that MRES/SERGE crossing is a little rough. That was my last blank square. Stared at it, tentatively entered an R (essentially a guess) and was surprised to find the puzzle complete.
I didn’t understand the point of this theme in solving. It’s cool that the constructor got all of these to fit, but it doesn’t affect my solving experience at all. Why include these extra clues if you don’t need them? I was waiting for a revealer or something and nope. Reading the NYT blog about it, they made her take out the revealer, so not the constructor’s fault. But I don’t get the point of it as it is currently constructed.
A bilingual twist on our too often seen homophone theme. I guess it makes it a little more interesting? Attractive grid and well filled - no pushback filling it.
Liked LOVE TAP and SCOFFS. The TWIN x WIN cross was awkward and don’t care for SKOSH.
Knew most of the homophones - I can remember a discussion at German restaurant years ago about the very different meaning of “gift” in German and English.
It seems like the traditional M-F paradigm is slowing eroding. Either way an enjoyable solve.
UNCLE Jerry
I guess it was interesting to learn those words had other meanings in Northern European languages (was that some kind of mini-theme? Intentional or accidental use of just those geographically close countries/languages?), but I think I’ve already forgotten them. I did know GYMNASIUM, but from a visit to Hungary back in the 80s (Magyaral, not Danish).
Quite a breeze and most enjoyable! Like @Lewis, I love words that mean different things in different languages. I knew GYMNASIUM from German, but the rest I had to get from the English. Haven't encountered LOVETAP in a long time. Nice to see it!
Over in the NYTXword comments section, there was a raging debate about whether flying commercial is, in fact, an ORDEAL. Believe it or not, quite a few people argued that it wasn't. Clearly, they have been taking the train. Or enjoying the relative comfort of a Greyhound bus.
As for @LMS's signage link, I well remember the day in my high school German class when we learned the word "fahrt." Every boy in the class snickered. Every girl in the class rolled her eyes. Herr Morris remained stoic; you could tell he'd been down this road before.
Congratulations, Malaika, on knowing a baseball clue. Unless the answer would be PELE or HAM, I don't think I could do as well in soccer.
Two big mistakes slowed me down. Didn’t read the Casey in the Hall of Fame right - assumed it was Railroad Hall of Fame (?) so entered Jones. Which worked for LOVETAP but cost some time - an easy KASEM once I reread.
And mistyped SAYSME as SAYyME and when wondering why I didn’t get the victory box, eyeballed the answers. BETTY seemed fine (for BETTS), took several minutes to find the SAYyME, SAYyou goof.
Outside of that, easy to ignore the international theme and stay in the USA! USA! lane…
Agree, Rex, on this theme.
Played easy for me. I disregarded the so called theme.
@TaylorSlow - I would make a distinction between flying commercial domestically, which can be an ordeal, and internationally, which is a joy. International flights still have leg room, meals with wine, and entertainment.
You really needn't know any languages to solve this puzzle. Just stick to the English definition provided and you'll be fine.
But I did wonder how, for example, you would say OLD TIMER in German? "Alte"-something-or-other, I suppose. I had similar questions about all the other themers, but then, like the late Gilda Radnor, I said: "Oh, well, never mind."
SWOOSH. Is there any other logo in the world, any at all, that's "iconic" the way SWOOSH is? In it went -- SWOOSH -- as did most of the rest of the puzzle.
@Mathgent is going to hate this. There seems to be a record number of what he likes to call "the terrible threes".
A pretty ho-hum Wednesday solving experience, I thought.
I had the ScOSH/cASEM problem, too. Would Rex call that a Natick?
Someone on the Wordplay Blog posted this fascinating link about the woman who designed the Nike logo. You may think that she died poor and unappreciated, but she didn't.
Easy Wednesday here. Did the SAW/JAW thing, never remember CHINUA, and made a dook out of CALLERID (hi @LMS), but otherwise a nice run down a beginner slope.
For folks who only used the English part of the clue to come up with a themer, I'd say that was a very good idea, unless you speak the other language. Ahem.
Re Mookie BETTS--it's impossible to read any off-season news about the Red Sox without encountering some version of "Why did we trade Mookie BETTS?", usually followed by the observation that the team ownership/management are a bunch of idiots. This is I suppose why I find it surprising that he could be unknown to anyone. New England provincialism at its finest.
Nice Wednesdecito, KS. Kept Smiling as I solved. Always interesting to find some new amigos falsos. My favorite one is Spanish is still "constipado", which refers to having a stuffed-up, um, nose. Thanks for all the fun.
SERGE/MRES/REY yuck.
Old timers may recall that no one skewered the airline industry like comic Alan King. It was relentless and high profile (e.g., on the Ed Sullivan Show). He was sued over his act by Eastern Airlines - a godsend!
Here's what he said about it:
“When I made fun of Eastern Airlines on the Gary Moore Show, their chairman, [former World War I hero] Eddie Rickenbacker, sued. To this day, when I see a World War I movie, I root for the Red Baron. At the preliminary hearing, the judge laughed and threw the case out. He had flown Eastern.
A separate quote of King's that I like, and that should be part of every symposium on Black-Jewish relations was:
“There’s a charm, there’s a rhythm, there’s a soul to Jewish humor. When I first saw Richard Pryor perform, I told him, ‘You’re doing a Jewish act.’ He said, ‘I know.’”
Re: bicycle kick
Some bad info up above. Contrary to an above assertion the height of the ball when struck is not material. In fact. most bicycle kicks are struck well below head height.
The key difference is the kick is rearward. True, the ball necessarily goes over the strikers head, but the acrobatics of the kick mean that your head is about waist high when you strike the ball.
Scissors kicks are struck from the side.
And, this awful but truly confusing, bu lots of people call bicycle kicks scissor kicks because they are a form of scissor kick. ( Some folks use the term chilena, but no one around here. Maybe someone Gill knows from her way back past)
Hey All !
"A themeless WedsPuz?" was my thought at a first grid-glance. Four of @M&A's Jaws of Themlessness is a themed puz. As @LMS is won't to say (she said it today, AAMOF (As A Matter Of Fact [why is that not an initialism?]{or is it?}), that s#!* will flat wake you up.
So, are each Themer pronounced the same in each language as in English? Or are they just spelled the same. Mül-type-leeks? Speculating. I'm a one-language knower. Either too lazy or too small a brain to learn another language, although I always thought it'd be cool to be multi-lingual.
@Lewis has me noticing double letters lately. Thanks. 😁 A few EE's ala YesterPuz, a few TT's today. Couple of LL's.
Kinda cool to have a themed puz in a themeless grid. Nice open corners. Boatload of three's in the center, 14 in five rows! Only 2 in the Downs, so a normalish count. Can picture @mathgent losing it in the center!
Had heard of Mookie Wilson, but Mookie BETTS is a new one. Maybe I'll change my name to MookieRoo.
Nah.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Andrew 8:42. I’m curious about just how extensive the Railroad Hall of Fame might be. Have you visited?
Seems like there must be some good dialog among the troops concerning MRES and mysteries (Mr. E’s). I always liked the Mr. E meat they served in my grade school cafeteria. In fact, now that I think about it, I believe that Wednesday was Mystery Meat day. I think they called it Swiss Steak.
Mini theme in the center. Checklist for a PREENer: EAR, JAW, EYE, WOW!
i doubt that there are many solvers who could attack this puzzle from the non-English side of each themer. Most all of us solved in English. But I still found it really interesting, especially OLDTIMER and MULTIPLEX. A very good use of a very few minutes. Thanks, Karen Steinberg.
I have to say I thought the theme was extremely clever and enjoyable. Like a few here, the only one I “knew” was GYMNASIUM. And post-solve I got on Google translate, and sure enough “plywood” = MULTIPLEX. Wow. Also, IMO, for the most part the threes weren’t “terrible” but we will see if @Mathgent weighs in on this today.
@LMS, I LOVE your avatar today! First, I understand it (sometimes I look and go…hmmmm…I can be dense) and second, I agree!
As someone who did not wear “real” (not readers) glasses until I was 57, I appreciated the SMEAR entry. If I am anal retentive about anything, it is keeping my glasses crystal clear and once (sometimes twice!) a day I have a Dawn dish soap routine. Before my husband got his cataracts removed (I can’t wait!) his glasses were atrocious…it’s like…doesn’t this BOTHER you!? Well, I quite often would take on the cleaning task myself before we’d go out…like a party or whatnot. 🙄
I love your Alan King/Eastern Airlines anecdote, @Liveprof. The "I always root for the Red Baron" aspect of it is hilarious and it also reminds us that long before air travel was acknowledged to be an ORDEAL, it was already an ORDEAL.
The editorializing involved in the clue for ORDEAL pleased me no end. Never before has any industry been so eager to make its customers miserable. Years ago I plopped "I hate to fly" into Google Search and was taken to a site called "airlinerage". I heard it in my head as (almost) rhyming with "air lineage" and it was weeks before I realized that the site was called "airline rage".
There were many, many outraged members of the flying public -- with absolutely horrendous stories to tell -- to be found on it.
I am embarazada to say that I don't know how to spell cASEM and ScOSH. The K's got me good. Other than this WEE misfortune, it was a breeze.
Like most everyone, I just ignored the foreign and went with the English. Well that was different.
I was wondering if CHINUA is a misspelling of the French Chinois...a person from China or a mesh sleeve....Mind does tend to wander in opposite directions.
Ah, yes...to fly in ORDEAL class or save your frequent flyer miles and up-grade. I spent half my life (or so it seemed) on an airplane. In my days, it was enjoyable. I remember flying from SFO to LAX on PSA for $30.00. They even served peanuts free of charge. President Carter deregulated all the airlines; it was intended as an economic boost but ultimately it cause a ton of chaos. Airfare wars began and there was a lot of secret meetings between airlines execs related to price fixing. It wasn't fun...but, and that's a big BUT...inflight service was darn good. Maybe United had an airfare slightly higher than DELTA but UA would throw in free cocktails and have better leg room...and the beat went on until.....today.
I haven't flown in many years despite having a stand-by pass. IT IS an ORDEAL. Too many ugh's to mention but the worse is allowing the airlines to give us practically no leg room and charging the passenger for absolutely everything. They seem to go out of their way to make us as uncomfortable as possible and they don't care. No regulation! Foreign flights are a different story...most offer some really good service...I'll take the train, thank you.
Well a puzzle that gets you to reminisce is fine by me...so there's that!
Actually, that was the goal of a dissolute man.
I do enjoy the passing and how the forwards settle the ball. They don't panic, they don't wait too long, they are in the zone and they aim, just enough.
As for the NYTCP
I needed a workmanlike, easy puzzle after all the names in yesterday's.
Not sure why I could not get Samosa.
I was a bit sad that I knew they meant swoosh.
I flew through this in record time and found it far SKOSH easier than yesterday. In fact the two really should’ve swapped days, SAYS ME ANY way. I learned a few things though and always find that a little added bonus. Can’t wait to go to the ACE hardware store and order a few sheets of MULTIPLEX, just to see the looks on their faces.
The voters in Georgia have finally reached a CONCURRENCE on their senate candidate, which some journalists are spinning as a rejection of the one who likes to JAW a LOT. Would that be a WIN-WIN? Sorry but I was so inspired by LMS’ avatar.
I enjoy the idiosyncrasies of language so this puzzle worked for me. I especially liked its lack of a word ladder. Highlights include:
* The SWOOSH factoid
* The existence of the word SKOSH (Arigato, Japan)
* LMS’s avatar
Thanks Malaika & Karen for sharing your somewhat pedestrian efforts. Keeps us all on the path set by the US soccer guys whose efforts was the best we had on that day. Was it a Wednesday?
Thx, Karen, for a very smooth Tues. composition.! :)
Hi Malaika, good to see you, as always; thx for your take on today's offering. That goal was, indeed, a WOWing feat to behold! ⚽️
Easy-med.
SWOOSHed thru this one!
Too bad HAMM wasn't clued as Mia (hi @LMS), esp given the cross with SWOOSH, and the CONCURRENCE of the World Cup.
Couldn't recall Mookie's last name or Achebe's first, but crosses saved the day. Somewhat familiar with both, and will try to remember their full names.
Have CHINUA Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' ebook on hold.
GYMNASIUM: As @LMS points out, a hard 'G' (also, with a schwa at the 'A').
"The Danish gymnasium offers a 3-year general academically-oriented upper secondary programme which builds on the 9th-10th form of the Folkeskole and leads to the upper secondary school exit examination (the studentereksamen). This qualifies a student for admission to higher education Preparatory, subject to the special entrance regulations applying to the individual higher education programmes." (Wikipedia)
GYMNASIUM is also part of the Netherlands' and Germany's highest secondary ed. programs.
Love the word, SKOSH (use it on occasion):
"The word skosh comes from the Japanese word sukoshi, which is pronounced "skoh shee" and means "a tiny bit" or "a small amount." The Japanese word was shortened by U.S. servicemen stationed in Japan after World War II. Later, in the Korean War, a small soldier was often nicknamed Skosh. In civilian-speak, skosh can be used by itself as a noun or in the adverbial phrase "a skosh"." (M-W 'Did you know')
Arthur ASHE is a fave. Would love to be able to watch the relatively new doc, 'Citizen Ashe' but, alas, it doesn't seem to be available (even to rent) in Canada. Looks like it can be viewed in the States via HBO Max.
@Nancy (9:30 AM)
Thx for the link re: the Nike SWOOSH; I had no idea. Good to know that Carolyn Davidson was eventually well-compensated for her iconic design. Didn't realize that Phil Knight had been an asst prof there in '69. Coincidentally, I spent part of the fall SEMESTER at Portland State in '65.
A LOVE TAP for this puz! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Thanks Nancy! Ain't it the truth.
Just last summer a much-anticipated visit from my new grandson in Michigan (to NJ) was botched by a canceled flight. When my wife and I went out for Thanksgiving last month, we drove (9.5 hours each way) to avoid flying.
This WedPuz has the lotsas!
Lotsa fun facts (that M&A learned about here) in the theme.
Lotsa all-weeject rows (#6,7,9,10) -- and in column #8, too boot.
Lotsa Jaws of Themelessness in this here themed puzgrid.
Lotsa cool fillins, includin: CULTURE. JOURNAL. SHERPA. TWIN/WIN. LOVETAP. SWOOSH & SKOSH.
Lotsa fun clues. fave: {Scrooge McDuck vis-a-vis Donald} = UNCLE. Nice ode to Carl Barks's work. [Should be spelt $crooge, tho.]
staff weeject pick: JAW. Splatzed right on top of one of em. 74-worder, so almost would qualify for themelessness.
Nice FEAST of OATES & HAMM, in the NW, btw.
Thanx, Ms. Steinberg darlin. Very enjoyable solveconcurrence.
Nice blog subbin, Malaika. Had a primo vuvuzela vibe to it.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
Actually I enjoyed the puzzle, unlike yesterday's where I knew only one of the people who were the "theme" answers. I am hardly ever helped by the so-called "revealer" anyway. Maybe that's a difference between a true crossword devotee and someone like myself who is able to finish only easy puzzles such as this.
This theme was so botched. OLDTIMER might be a term some old timers in Germany use for vintage cars, but it’s clearly an English phrase. Germans also call cell phones HANDYS. Not a German word, just German usage of an English word.
GYMNASIUM by contrast is a Greek-Latin mashup (right?) that people in many northern countries use for a more academically oriented high school (as opposed to technical schools). Germans use it in this way too. I’m guessing SEMESTER is a similarly borrowed word.
CONCURRENCE is a legit French word (Konkurrenz auf Deutsch).
OLDTIMER cannot be considered distinctly German in any respect. It’s not like all the others where the same exact word has different meanings when used in differeng languages. So weirdly annoyed by this.
I’m tempted!
What’s the point of the foreign definition ? A disappointing Wednesday.
@LMS and @Lewis: As strange as those French definitions may seem, they make sense....although with a bit of imagination. "Trombone" means "paper clip", because the elongated oval kind of paper clip resembles a trombone. "Smoking" means "tuxedo" because it is actually short for "smoking jacket" (which I guess a lot of French wore when they dressed up & lit a cigarette).
Terrible Threes. Twenty-six yesterday and 24 today. Editors have discarded the "fewer-than-20" rule. Why not have a crossword with all threes? You could have a 15x15 with 96 of them.
To all those from yesterday who complained about Ava DuVernay, as in "how the hell am I supposed to know her", she now has her very own ice cream flavor called “Lights! Caramel! Action! directed by Ava DuVernay” from Ben & Jerry's. Yes, she's that famous.
The posted video calls it a scissors kick.
I echo @Anonymous 7:39: not only an interesting "learn something new" theme, but also the bonus of "calque" from @Coniuratos. With my background in German, OLD TIMER and GYMNASIUM were both old friends, and I used the hint from Konkurrenz to correct CONCoRdaNCE. The others were new to me and fun to discover. Post-solve, MULTI CULTURE popped out at me.
Help from previous puzzles: SKOSH, KASEM. No idea: BETTS.
Technical DNF here, as I had cASEM and Scosh instead of Kasem and skosh. The latter, I think, I have seen before. Other than that, a very easy puzzle.
But of course I am here to thank Ms. Steinberg for honoring me in this puzzle. OLD TIMER went right in. Though I have no idea how OLD TIMER can be a German word.
@mathgent, so today (I THINK) I learned that you consider ALL threes terrible. 😀
Am I the only one annoyed by people that feel the need to announce how quickly they solved a puzzle by posting their completion time? Great, you're smarter than me. Here's your milk and cookies. I enjoy this blog and love reading everyone's assessment a given puzzle, but this one point gets under my skin. Sorry, rant over. :)
Reporters at the New York Times are going on strike tomorrow, dec 8. If you would like to support, don’t engage with any nyt platforms tomorrow (including crossword, wordle, spelling bee, etc). https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/06/media/new-york-times-union-negotiations-reliable-sources/index.html
https://twitter.com/amandahess/status/1600547516059045890?s=20&t=VZWM60GAAgTzUbN0m2oX-g
Beezer (1:58). Yes, all threes are terrible. They are the crabgrass of crossword grids. They starve out some lovely long blooms.
Re Nancy 9:00
Great to be reminded of the immoral Gilda Radner and her classic “never mind” character Emily Litella.
Thanks for causing me to look at the avatar LMS posted today.
Brilliant! And I too agree.
FWIW the German word means fat, but is a cognate of thick, which at times is also an apt description of the avatar subject!
I can see your argument that "Oldtimer" is an outlier. But it is an outlier only because it is the only word whose ultimate source is English. Oldtimer is a German word. It is no less a German word than "concurrence" is English. Which was like so many English words was of course "borrowed" from the French, letter for letter.
Karen Steinberg’s clever perspective and exquisite clues for some of the more frequently used words elevated this Wednesday to the realm of the special for me.
Additionally, the grid shape itself was whimsical yet thoughtful. Nobody enjoys those “islandish” grids with the four corner shortish stacks and no way to flow through the grid. At first glance, my brain gave me the “uh-oh” thought, but upon just a few more seconds of observation, the sprinkling of three letter words above and below the central word CONCURRENCE literally and artistically brought the entire grid design together. Sheer genius!
This puzzle had such unusual cohesiveness of thought. Rarely do I feel that the constructor deliberately includes the grid’s shape and design in the overall construction process. Today’s delightfully playful design, delightfully intellectual (“hey, look at these words in different languages”) theme, and fresh clues for familiar words is one of the most artistically and intellectually enjoyable puzzles in ages. Thank you Karen Steinberg!!
As I said above, Oldtimer is no less a German word than "concurrence" is English. Concurrence was borrowed letter for letter from the French, like so many other English words. How are they different?
Yikes, @Apron (2:15 p.m.)! The reporters are striking tomorrow???!!! You can't have a newspaper without reporters, can you? Will there even be a NYT in print tomorrow? Can I even live without a print edition of the NYT?:)
I'm going off to check your alarming alert online right now.
Aren’t the subject and verb mismatched in “airs their dirty laundry” as pertains to “the athlete”?
🦷 I had JA_ so I confidently wrote in JAR 🦷
@Liveprof: Great comment! Alan King: also great.
@CrimsonDevil: I don't think Emily Litella was "immoral," but maybe the whole story remains to be told....? (I know it was a typo. Just messin' with you!)
Ummm... the NYT reporters are asking us not to access NYT platforms including Wordle and the crossword. How are you (we?) thinking about this?
Aha. It's just going to be a 1-day strike. Yay!!! No biggie.
Although I'm sorry it's happening on a Thursday -- so often my favorite puzzle day.
@GJ - I think what I think. You think what you think. There is no collective thought. For the record, on Twitter RP says he’s not going to do the puz tomorrow if no agreement is reached so don’t know whether or not he’ll make an explicatory post.
I was delighted when I hit the first themer, OLDTIMER, having been a fan of a computer game originally published under that title (when localized for release in the U.S. It was renamed Motor City, which simulates running an automobile company in the early decades of the industry.
I had long wished for someone to come along and modernize and improve upon it…and lo and behold, an independent game developer (a fellow fan of both Oldtimer and a similar title, Detroit, that came out around the same time) has recently done so. (His game is called GearCity, for anyone who might be interested.)
Loren, here in Canada we all used rubbers in grade school. Either on the end of the pencil or those nifty oblong ones with the slanted ends.
OLDTIMER CULTURE
My UNCLE SCOFFS at THEBAR,
SAYS, "This ORDEAL is a trap,
we ELDERS know where we ARE,
not LOSTTO ANY LOVETAP."
--- GINGER OATES
I was skeptical about OLDTIMER so just for fun I ran it through the google German-English translator. Lo and behold, up came antique car on the English side. So, its a little bit of an outlier in that it is a repurposed a phrase borrowed from another language but I like it just the same. What I didnt like is NOES, MRES, REY, ETS, AOL, SCI etc. Can somebody please explain 49D? EVA (Mendes) from yesterday makes another cameo appearance. I had to guess between a C or a K for the KASEM-SKOSH crossing. Guessed right. Yay, SAYSME.
Q - What job did Daryl and John have before they got their big break?
A - They were haulin’ oats…
Funny: when I first heard 50-across, my brain instinctively spelled it "scoche." The first occurrence of it in crosswords (I've seen it now at least three times) took me by surprise, but so be it: SKOSH. Anyway I knew KASEM so it didn't matter.
I too wondered "Themeless?" upon seeing the grid. The theme, with English equivalents inclu[e]ded, is too easy for a Wednesday; without would have made it probably too hard, but I think a better puzzle.
Cool that JAW (-s of themelessness) appears.
Majestic corners are paid for by a central crunch that even looks painful. Still it was fun to do, and no fill to ENRAGE. Birdie.
Another Wordle birdie that should really have been an eagle. Started with the only viable choice from yesterday's grid, cEDAr--which immediately led me to SEDAN. Unfortunately, just as I was about to type that in, I thought of mEDAl and deemed that word more likely to be right. *sigh* Talk about your eagle putt lipping out...
TheFogMan: ETS = Educational Testing Service.
I couldn't do anything with the SE, not knowing skosh, kasem, osheas, or eva, and not remembering sherpa or samosa.
Oh so many times I have seen the ETS logo whilst in school - Thanks, @Martin, for filling @Spacey in.
Hard to believe that those "theme" words are the same in both languages.
Fewer names than usual, so I was happy!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Just yesterday I was reading about antique cars, and saw that in Germany one was called an old timer. I find that EERILY amusing.
Shout out for all the ELDERS ! Perhaps wisdom, but definitely not the energy of the youngers.
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