.png)
Research university adjacent to the CDC / FRI 12-23-2022 / Language that gave us "cummerbund" / Novel purchases that everyone's talking about? / Palio di ___, annual Italian horse race held since the 13th century / "The Daily", to pick a popular example
Friday, December 23, 2022
Constructor: Brandon Koppy
Relative difficulty: Easy(ish); SW seemed to be a bit harder, but nothing too tricky, and footholds abound to help you get into all parts of the grid
Word of the Day: YOUNG MC (Co-writer of Tone Loc's "Wild Thing" and "Funky Cold Medina") —
Marvin Young (born May 10, 1967), better known by his stage name Young M.C., is a British-born American rapper, singer and actor. He is best known for his 1989 hit "Bust a Move". His debut album Stone Cold Rhymin' found international acclaim; however, subsequent albums have not reached the same level of success. Young has also appeared in film in acting roles and cameo appearances and has appeared in several television programs.
• • •
Once again, Christopher filling in for Rex, and wishing you a happy Festivus! Time for the airing of grievances; I got a lotta problems with this puzzle, and now you're going to hear about it. Was hoping for another banger puzzle, which would've been a Festivus miracle. As it turns out, didn't like this puzzle anywhere near as much as yesterday's puzzle; kinda expect certain things out of freestyles (and especially those with 70+ words), and this one just didn't have that.
A lot of the long fill didn't quite vibe with me—I know FLOAT TANKs more as "sensory deprivation tanks", the L in RETINAL SCANNER feels weird to have, DANCE TUNE feels pretty green painty in a "does anyone actually say that" way, and stuff like TISSUE SAMPLE, CANNIBAL, and all the sevens (save YOUNG MC) are much more neutral than an asset to me. Nothing god-awful in the short fill, but still more DAG DSL OYS GTOS ITIS OHSO ROUE MYOB MYMAN etc. stuff than I care to see in a a puzzle like this. And almost two thirds of the entries are five letters or less, so that, plus the relative lack of good long answers that landed for me, meant I didn't really enjoy solving this.
One of the few things I did enjoy was STARING CONTEST, both because it's the best answer in this puzzle but also because the clue was one of my favorite. At first, it brings to mind images of sore losers crying, and doesn't really narrow down what the game could be. Then, I was convinced that this was a misdirect, and "tears" was supposed to rhyme with "bears", not "beers", and so I was trying to think about games that involved ripping. Didn't help that the quinceañera clues had me thinking of piñatas. Finally saw (heh) STARING CONTEST, and had a nice aha moment about why there'd be tears. Makes perfect sense in hindsight, provides a journey before solving, and I wish more clues were like that.
On the other hand, didn't really like the clue for MUST-READS [30D: Novel purchases that everyone's talking about?]. Just doesn't feel right in a way I can't quite put my finger on; like, even allowing for some hyperbole, "everyone" is definitely way too over the top, especially since this is very much a subjective thing—a must-read for who? De gustibus, etc. etc.; one reader might get lost in Sylvia Plath, another might tell Sylvia Plath to get lost. Don't get me wrong: I'm all for reading; I just don't think this clue quite works as is. And honestly, my first thought on reading this clue was that the answer would involve audiobooks in some way, and if AUDIOBOOKS had actually fit in the grid, I'd've plunked that down so fast.
"sing for the moment", from "the EMINEM show" (10D); warning for some language, but in general it's one of my favorites from the album
In other news, currently going through a bit of a COLD SPELL [11D: Follower of an arctic blast] here; as I write this, it's currently eight below with wind chills down to -35 (and at this point, it makes very little difference as to whether you use Fahrenheit or Celsius). Fun weather if you're inside, maybe not so much if you're out running, and tbh, the hard part about that is getting through all the snow, between the people who haven't cleared their sidewalks off and the wind blowing all the snow back onto the sidewalks that have been cleared. (I've already cleared mine twice, once while it was still snowing (a Sisyphean task if there ever was one), once after, and I can see that it needs a third clearing already.)
Anyway, stay warm, drive safely in the snow, etc. etc., and again, happy Festivus!
Olio:
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Olio:
- OLAF [4D: Character in "Frozen" who...] — stopped reading the clue there, because I don't particularly care for this franchise (and having to sit through 21 minutes of "Olaf's Frozen Adventure" before getting to see "Coco" counts, imo, as a Geneva Convention violation) but also because basically all the important "Frozen" characters have four letter names, so you really just wait for crosses to tell you which of Anna Elsa Hans Olaf Sven it is.
- IRIS [52D: Good name for...] — stopped reading the clue there, because I don't particularly care for this kind of cluing angle and find it lazy and hackneyed; if you're gonna clue it as a name, then clue it as an actual person / character with that name. (In general, one of my biggest complaints about Will Shortz / the NYT is that they seem to go out of their way to clue names as anything but a person with that name, and this seems especially true for female names.)
- TESSIE [43D: "Technicolor ___", nickname for Lucille Ball] — sure, pure YEKIOYD trivia, and I'm not sure how you get "Tessie" from "Lucille" (also, the comma is not part of the nickname and therefore does not belong inside the quote marks, and I will die on this hill)
- ASTERISKS [58A: Things not good to have next to one's records] — cf. the cheating cheaters at 5D
- TAR [37D: Pine ___ (baseball player's grip enhancer)] — We would also have accepted [2022 film starring Cate Blanchett]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Save And Share :
114 comments:
It’s going to be a long, triple-virus winter, so make sure you have TISSUESAMPLE for all of your runny noses.
Invitation to a cheap introvert’s party: BYOB and MYOB
I’d pay my BOTTOMDOLLAR for a piece of that ASSET. But then, that’d be the LASTLEG of FLESH I could afford.
For 37D “Pine _________” I wanted DINOSAURBONEPRESERVER but it wouldn’t fit. Eventually got TAR from crosses.
If you don’t like canned retinals, don’t buy a RETINALSCANNER.
Some primo cluing today, and a super clean grid. I disagree, but respectfully, with most of Christopher Adam’s clue criticisms. Thanks for a great Friday, Brandon Koppy.
Medium. Very solid with a bit of sparkle, liked it quite a bit more than @Chris did.
Loved the Young MC tidbit-- the Dust Brothers being the through-line there for the Tone Loc album as well as his "Stone Cold Rhymin'" and the Beastie Boys classic "Paul's Boutique" (which IIRC has some genesis in tracks that went unused by those prior two albums). I'm a bit out of my crossword rhythm but I liked this one.
You are wrong about the comma. And what a weird hill to die on. I agree, I'll often move the comma outside when slacking or otherwise chatting colloquially (for what I believe to be clarity 🤷♂️). However, it would be upsetting to see an upstanding publication such as the NYT not follow proper style guidelines in something they publish.
https://style.mla.org/punctuation-and-quotation-marks/
I am with you all the way on the comma outside the quotation marks. We shall die on that hill together. I’ll bring snacks.
Chris – Thank you. I despise overthinking where to put the punctuation mark vis-à-vis the end quote mark and am too impatient/apathetic to look up the ridiculous rules every time. That’s why I just go back and put stuff in italics. But I’m with ya, MY MAN on where to put that period. Heck, I think we should just adopt the British conventions on all this and call it a day.
Love the word hennery because -ery is my favorite suffix. A connery could be a prison, amirite? I like that, in addition to denoting a place, -ery can be tacked on to indicate a kind of behavior – jackassery, quackery, etc.
The YOUNG MC/MOMOA cross was brutal for me.
FEELS SEEN is a terrific entry. Isn’t that what we all want? I dunno – I guess it’s a double-edged sword. A true MUST READ is David Sedaris’s tour-de-force, his essay called Repeat After Me, in which he says, “I’d worried that, in making the movie the director might get me and my family wrong, but now a worse thought occurred to me: What if he got us right?” Now that I think about it, I don’t think I want to be truly SEEN.
I was today years old when I learned that it’s not cumberbun. Oops. Speaking of which, URDU crosses HINDUS. I imagine that in addition to all the Muslims who speak URDU, there are a bunch of HINDUS who speak it, too.
Also – dig the symmetry in STARING CONTEST and RETINAL SCANNER. Nice. And with CANNIBAL in the grid, it’s hard not to revisit TISSUE SAMPLE. And shudder.
EEL – in that Dragon Roll: I was watching You’ve Got Mail with Mom yesterday, and when Meg suggests to her boyfriend that they eat sushi, I was reminded of how we were so swept up in the sushi craze a few decades ago. Then I daydreamed about all the creperies that popped up in the ‘70s. . . and when were we all obsessed with fonduery? The ‘60s? Today you can’t watch a gathering on any Real Housewives episode and not see the elaborate board of cheese, prosciutto-cum-flower, olives, blah blah. Mom can never, ever remember the fancy word for that display.
I didn’t know the Plath quote, so I had “flash” first. But this spawned “dance tuna” and I was reminded of that kids’ craze a few years ago with the baby Great Whites dancing around, all up in their, well, their shark-cutery. Hi, Mom.
Christopher, a well writ review, and I hope the authorities track down that madman who blogged using your name last week! (kidding)
@Loren, I remember the bagel craze of 20 to 30 years ago... we even had Great Canadian Bagel shops. Nowadays no one here has decent bagels except Tim Horton's.
I seemed to get the last word first on all the long answers: ----- TANK, ------ SAMPLE, ------ DOLLAR, ----- TUNE. So many possibilities for that first word! But then I had EMU ----- and I swear, I typed in NESTS more than once. Which may be why they put that word in the clue.
"Arctic blast" leads to a COLD SPELL... indeed! Today our high temp was -18 C (0 F), which is actually colder than our previous record low temp for this date: -16 C! Jeez, I'm nostalgic for the heat dome.
[Spelling Bee: difficult day today and didn't have the mental energy to even try it. Currently pg -14 (that's minus fourteen!), nuff said. Maybe call it a "snow day".]
Phew, those marquee longer answers... yawn. I guess STARING CONTEST is a hoot.
ASTERISKS is sweet.
OHSO is an honorary member of the OHO club.
Things I'll bet money the constructor had to Go-ogle. Are you ready to write a puzzle like this?
ASTI: You know your 13th century horse races, eh?
EMORY: You just happen to know which school is near any random government office?
YOUNG MC: You know him, huh? Last charted in the US at #66 in 1991. You know him and we should too?
YOYO: You know rappers AND yoyo trick names? Do you? And Disney characters?
ASTROS: You're such a huge sporting fan you know the names of expansion teams in the mid-60s?
MOMOA: Well, with a hunky bod like his, we're almost required to know him, but his first name? You know that?
SEAMUS: Of course you have all three Back to the Future films memorized. Who doesn't?
HOSEA: Minor prophets are also in your wheelhouse?
URDU: You help local Urdu speakers find jobs on Saturday?
LIEV: You not only watch Ray Donovan, but you know its B-list cast?
I call malarkey on those.
Uniclues:
1 That single dude at the tapas party asking too many questions about your personal life, maybe.
2 The party where everything tastes like chicken, spicy chicken, but very chicken-y nonetheless.
3 The not-rare-enough disease where those afflicted want white rappers to be preserved like dinosaurs.
4 Our local weatherman talking about windchill temperatures rather than the real temperature.
1 FIESTA CANNIBAL
2 CANNIBAL FIESTA (~)
3 EMINEM TAR-ITIS
4 COLD SPELL ABUSE
Oh, I liked it just fine. I was convinced it was OPTICAL SCANNER, and tried to bargain with myself that OCCUR for “Happen periodically” was just some slightly off cluing.
I appreciated that this puzzle was an equal opportunity PPP purveyor - while the YOUNG MC and MOMOA cross was a gimme for me, Technicolor TESSIE was before my time and gave me a little trouble.
Some nice symmetry for me in the Plath and Dickinson quotes occurring a couple days apart.
Hope everyone snowed in stays warm, hope those of us bracing for the ice and snow to come do too.
I happened to be in Siena about a week after seeing the Bond movie "Quantum of Solace", which featured the famous horse race. So "Siena" was a gimme for 5A ... until it wasn't!
They hate us cause they ain’t us. As an Astros fan and on behalf of all Astros fans, eff off.
I finished without any cheats, but only because I guessed M for YOUNGMC/MOMOA. If that hadn't brought on the happy music I'd have asked Sergey and Larry.
Had DANCEmovE for DANCETUNE at 56A because I think of a "jig" as more a dance than the tune you dance to. I guess it's both.
Only other major overwrite was @okanaganer EMUnestS before FARMS at 19A.
I did not agree with some of C 's comments but I love his energy. I enjoyed this one. It was interesting. 39A CLUE BROUGHT THIS TO MIND
I did not notice the comma error but it is an error, the really nitty kind, but I think it shows how thoroughly Christopher studies the puzzle.
-40C = -40F
BOTTOMDOLLARs are what you pay for a BBL.
Let me try that link again. 39A CLUE BROUGHT THIS TO MIND
I can’t remember when Lent ends, now I have to know Eid al Ftir?
I had a staring contest with Jason Momoa that was so intense I scanned his retinas. And yet somehow I still didn’t feel seen.
I don't know -- DANCE TUNE to me doesn't sound green paint so much as old-fashioned, as befits "jig". Googling for it to confirm this impression, I discover a vendor where I can buy Morris DANCE TUNEs by Gustav Holst. Yes, that might qualify as old-fashioned. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!) Replace TUNE by "song" or "music", then it would sound a bit more up to date.
Not sure I understand ASTERISKS. Is this "records" as in record-setting, but the asterisk means the record has to be qualified in some way? I'm not sure I get LANCES either. What sort of lances are we talking about -- the ones used to lance boils? I'm thinking medieval lances ought to be good for more than one use, but what do I know. Probably if you're only doing target practice with one of those quintain thingies, they should last a while.
Oh, I see: you might be fancifully described as a RETINAL SCANNER if you were in a STARING CONTEST.
I can barely keep up with @LMS: CANNIBALs putting out TISSUE SAMPLES on a charcuterie board. What an amazing thought. However, Loren: thanks a lot for linking to the hour-long shark doo-doo-doo dance tune. My mind conjures Malcolm McDowell strapped in a chair being forced to listen to the whole thing, unable not to watch, while they periodically put eyedrops in. Man, you don't know the full meaning of RECUR until you've watched that sucker for any length of time.
I think I want to FEEL heard more than to FEEL SEEN. Is FEELS SEEN actually in the language?
I'm not sure how much this puzzle FLOATs my boat either, but I am enjoying y'all's comments. YO, @egs dude, thanks as always for the tushie samples.
SB: yd -1, dammit. Missed this. By the way, @okanaganer, you were right about that compound word being my last (from yesterday's report).
So fresh and bright, with eight NYT debut answers, the smallest of which is eight letters – actually, almost 40% of the puzzle is fresh answers – wow! That’s farmer’s market versus grocery store freshness. Those debuts included my two favorite answers, FEELS SEEN and STARING CONTEST.
Sufficient resistance to satisfy my brain’s workout ethic. One guess: the cross of YOUNG_C and _OMOA, but “M” was inferable. No great stuckness overall, but several return-to’s to keep the brain motivated.
And sparks galore. EDGE perfectly placed on itself. The triple-double in FEELSSEEN. The cross of FEELS SEEN and STARING CONTEST. The triple cross of CANNIBAL FLESH SESH, with the echoing LAST LEG.
Thus, a most entertaining offering. Brandon, so good to see you again so soon, after your WORLD CUP puzzle the end of last month (with VUVUZELA and GOOOOOOOOOOOOAL). Thank you – this was a beauty!
Loren Muse Smith - your comments are always a joy to read. I alway feel like I’m reading a passage from James Joyce. Your jokery boasts great delivery which belies a mastery of wittery. Thank you!
Thx, Brandon; a perfectly fine Fri. composition! :)
Med.
Basically a top to BOTTOM solve, but had to come back to the NW to finish FEEL SEEN / STARING CONTEST.
Wanted INK, but forgot that 'toner' is powder – I were confuseded; and, ShAMUS required some patching up, as well.
Always seem to have trouble recalling EID:
"Eid al-Adha commemorates the Quranic tale of Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice Ismail as an act of obedience to God." (Al Jazeera)
Currently going thru a bit of a COLD SPELL in Vancouver, BC, altho probably not as severe as most of you are experiencing. Have been donning my toque early morns. Y'all stay warm and safe! 🥰
Got 'Ray Donovan: The Movie' queued for later today.
Remember DAG Hammarskjold from the '50s:
"Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld … was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. As of 2022, he remains the youngest person to have held the post, having been only 47 years old when he was appointed." (Wikipedia)
Fun challenge today; just the right amt of resistance! :)
I see a John Forbes Cryptic awaits for a Sun. battle!
Currently working Quiara Vasquez's 'What We Do in the Shadows' (Crucinova - Dec. 15)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Retinal is correct in this context. There is an L. That’s not optional.
Not a mention for "calve"? Such a great word!
Lewis -- is that your work in the LA Times today? If so, bravo -- it's terrific. Especially enjoyed 1D.
"the comma is not part of the nickname and therefore does not belong inside the quote marks, and I will die on this hill)"
Sorry, that's the rule for British usage. In American Standard English (as per, e.g., Chicago Manual of Style and AP Style), the comma goes inside.
I liked this one. Thanks, Chris. Played easy, except for the very hard NW corner. Good thoughts, egsforbreakfast.
Good Friday. A bit of bite and some nice clues. A few proper names that were downers, but crosses were all OK. RETINAL SCANNER and STARING CONTEST are a nice pair of long entries.
Nice review today from Christopher Adams, though I disagree bigly with his view that things should be clued as Names Of Famous People when possible. E.g. all love to Howard DEAN, DEAN Moriarty, and Harry DEAN Stanton, but I much prefer the college clue we got today.
Yeah, man, the SW. Groan. I was chugging along just fine until I hit the La Brea Tar Pit of the SW. For starters, I didn’t get either FEMA or IRIS. My tenuous grasp of the endless parade of American acronyms let me down over FEMA, and for a while I was toying with SPCA (which, if I’d thought about it, is a rescue rather than a relief org.). And IRIS – well, my brain just refused to think through the commonalities of flowers and eyes. And then, in my wisdom, I put in MySTerieS for MUST-READS which, apart from not being a good match for the clue, led to all sorts of grief. At one point in my struggle, I looked up the Lucille Ball answer so I had TESSIE in place, but for the longest time it didn’t help because of the havoc wreaked by MySTerieS. It meant that the co-writer with Tone Loc started with YOy, which was odd but, as I didn’t know the name anyway, who was I to say? Could there be a place named eENO near Tahoe? (Maybe where they fish for EELS?) I don’t know the geography of the area. The quinceañera answer looked like it was going to end with RSTA, but I have only crossword-puzzle Spanish, so who knows. [Wipe] had to end with ISE – arise? noise? raise? poise? huh? The real kicker, though, was skirts ending with EIS. That seemed a bridge too far to even contemplate so I deleted MySTerieS and went back to those acrosses starting with 46A. Ah, RENO! Ah, FIESTA! Ah, ERASE! Ah, MIDIS! Double-Ah-Ah, MUST-READS!! It’s all so simple when you haven’t sabotaged your own solving efforts with one horrendous mistake.
Apart from that, I liked the puzzle a lot more than Chris did. It wasn’t super-whooshy but it was solid and satisfying. You’ll be glad to know that my usual NW stumbling block was a piece of cake compared to the SW. At 1A I didn’t get OH SO right off. (Did anyone?) But among the downs, SEOUL and OLAF came quickly, and when I saw that 1A [Really, really] was __SO, the correct OH SO rapidly suggested itself. I didn’t know that EMUs were FARMed, and I’m now picturing a vast herd of gangly, high-strung, nervous Nellies, hissing and flapping at the slightest provocation. I know what to do – stick them in the FLOAT TANK! @Loren got a shudder from CANNIBAL and TISSUE SAMPLE. I got mine from the thought of retrieving LANCES for a second use. But, in a completely different context – wow, I love the passage “the gorgeous errors of FLESH.” Thank you, Sylvia Plath.
[SB: yd, 0. @okanaganer, I strongly support your choice in having an SB-lite day. It recharges the synapses and the ganglia.
I’m mildly peeved that SB doesn’t accept GLAMP. I know it’s a goofy portmanteau, but it’s been around long enough that I feel it should have made its way onto the word list. Got a chuckle that MALAPOP was spellable, but I know its usage is restricted to our own local area.]
I don’t enjoy puzzle reviews that assume the reviewer’s idiosyncratic areas of knowledge or ignorance, are universal. A jig, or gigue, is indeed a dance tune. And no, the comma doesn’t go outside the quotes. It may not be logical, but it’s the rule.
Thought this was a swell Friday. CA didn't seem to like some clues and answers because they were things he doesn't like. and did he miss "melting" in the OLAF clue? Really?
@T Trimble-I was having some trouble with ASTERISKS too, then I thought of baseball and Barry Bonds and his all-time home run record, complete with an ASTERISK.
I'll always feel out of some kind of loop when I hear about some celebrity who has done lots of pop culture stuff of which I am unaware. YOUNGDMC is today's example, one of those "filled entirely from crosses". BOTTOMDOLLAR, OTOH, I know from the famous "Lipstick on Your Collar"-Bet your BOTTOMDOLLAR, that you and I are through, Cause lipstick on your collar, told a tale on you. Sometimes it pays to have studied the classics.
A lot of this felt fresh to me, and thanks to @Lewis, I can see why. Great Friday, BK, and may you Be Known as a Master Constructor. Thanks for all the fun.
Today's SB-haven't finished yet, but the pg was a real spelling test.
Amy: like this more than Chris. Any Thurday without a rebus starts out in front of the start line. Clues are rather clever. And still chuckling at Dance Tuna and Shark Cutery.
Nice puzzle. When is Rex back?
Hey All !
Nice themeless. Got hung up in NE. Had to Goog for HOSEA. Couldn't come up with it, kept having OSHEA in the ole brain. EMORY was tough to get (for me). Wanted TIara first for TILDE, further confounding me. But, after cheat, bam, finished.
Fast FriPuz for me, considering NE hang-up.
Too bad, so sad @Chris didn't like it. Stop solving if you get no pleasure.
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Not following the superhero genre, the initial Aquaman I thought of was Vincent Chase on Entourage. Who took that role for the money so he could do his small indie flops (Medellin, anyone?)
Then I remembered the Depp/Heard trial (and Johnny’s taped derision of the one big movie role she had - “Aquamaaannn!”) and remembered MOMOA. So watching hours upon hours of HBO and Court TV has certainly paid off!
@LMS 12:47
Shark-cutery😁😆😊‼️
Made my morning! Gonna get a plate ready for this afternoon's deep freeze
Who the hell is "Marty" [6 Down]?!!
of course you would enjoy Thursday’s puzzle better than Friday’s. I think that is true in 99% of any given week. Thursdays give us rebuses, tricks, great construction and AHA moments. Fridays are themeless and more difficult. YOUNGMC/MOMOA was brutal for me but I guessed right. And I could not name an EMINEM song if my one depended on it. Did anyone else get Tomorrow from Annie running through their head with BOTTOMDOLLAR?
Decent puzzle. I wasn’t overly enamored with some of the longs - RETINAL SCANNER, STARING CONTEST and TISSUE SAMPLE are a little pedestrian. Did like FLOAT TANK and CANNIBAL. Ronny and the Daytona’s.
EMU FARMS? The ASTI x SEAMUS cross was dirty. The Pogues.
@Lewis - wonderful puzzle today - really like the revealer and the connection to its location.
Enjoyable Friday solve.
SEAMUS
@Gary 1:18am (really?)
Re 16A: The CDC is hardly "some random government office"! By now (COVID and all) you probably know it's in Atlanta. So is EMORY. I couldn't place either one on a map of Atlanta, but I thought the answer was easily inferrable.
Re 20D: minor prophets *are* kind of xwordese, but our pal HOSEA has shown up fairly frequently lately. Remember him, and Amos.
Re 34D: don't know the guy and did Google him.
The rest of your list consists of things that are either inferrable or fairly crossed!
It's Friday, after all.
@BarbaraS
👋👋 for GLAMP and MALAPOP! Tried both.
Anonymous MetroGnome said...
Who the hell is "Marty" [6 Down]
In Back to the Future 3 , the one in the wild west, Marty's ancestor is named Seamus.
Thought of DATED or DELED for 1-Down. Never considered OFFED. Had OCCUR instead of RECUR, which convinced me that OPTICALSCANNER was correct instead of RETINALSCANNER. So...a DNF.
Otherwise an average Friday puzzle in terms of difficulty. Well constructed, i thought.
Charcuteries?
Some rules are worth remembering, takes the guesswork out of writing. So go ahead and “die” on that hill. Really??
I liked it, too. Those who said they liked it more than Adams are forgetting that he thinks almost all the NYT crosswords are garbage. Rex, please cancel his contract. Not because he disagrees with me. Because he's boring.
I protest, 57 down is PHDS
Thank you, @Son Volt! (For those wondering what he was referring to, I have a puzzle in the LA Times/Washington Post today. And if you're interested, just Google "Los Angeles Times crossword" or "Washington Post crossword".)
Re: LMS's shark-cutery, fans of the Washington Nationals are well aware that "Baby Shark" was the team's theme song during their 2019 Championship drive.
Gerardo Parra chose it as the song to be played for his at-bats because one of his kids liked it, and it caught on. Fans would do a baby-shark bite gesture with their arms. And a baby shark was part of the championship ring design.
First, about that awful YOUNGMC/MOMEA cross: I never filled in the M and I'm still pronouncing this fiendishly difficult puzzle "Solved!"
Tha's what I do with all Naticks I Natick on. Make of it what you will.
As for everything else: this was a "Keep the faith" puzzle as, with nothing at all filled in in the NW, I went elsewhere...and then elsewhere some more. I think my first entries were HINDUS/HOSEA.
There are EMU FARMS? I didn't know that. Lucille Ball is from my earliest childhood years and I watched "I Love Lucy" but I never once heard her referred to as "Technicolor TESSIE". I guess that was only in the movies? I needed lots of crosses for RETINAL SCANNER, MUST READS and STARING CONTEST.
Why do you end up in tears in a STARING CONTEST? If you do, why would you ever enter one in the first place? I actually mis-interpreted "tears" to rhyme with "cares" and was looking for some sort of SHREDDING CONTEST or PINATA BATTLE or PILLOW FIGHT.
The best clue/answer in the puzzle is ASTERISKS. I had a lot of fun thinking about what sorts of records might have ASTERISKS attached.
"Highest score in our 8th Grade on the SATs"*
"Best cake-baker in Wichita, Kansas"**
*Everyone else was out sick that day
**Everyone else brought in a pie
Well, you get the idea.
Leaving aside the unfortunate cross at 33A/34D, this was a challenging and interesting puzzle that I enjoyed -- once I'd finished it.
Enjoyable to solve, just tough enough overall and with one "Can I finish?" corner, for me the NW. I liked the variety of the long answers and their varying difficulty levels, e.g., the easy COLD SPELL v. the challenging FEELS SEEN. A big thank you to @Loren and @Lewis for the happy and the gruesome grid parallels and crosses. I also liked CALVE under LAST LEG.
For those on the Hill of Commas, I found this article interesting: "Why do periods and commas go inside quotation marks in MLA style?". I was actually surprised that there's a reason, having previously filed the rule under "arbitrary and capricious" (which, however, doesn't keep me from strictly following it).
Do-over: LAST Lap. Help from previous puzzles: SEOUL, OLAF. Help from going to see "Dune": MOMOA. Biggest laugh: being expected to know Marty McFly's great-freat-grandfather's name. Other unknowns: YOUNG MC, TESSIE.
EMUFARMS? I guess there probably are 😀
This puzzle was fine, even without knowing most of the names. I did know Momoa - not from Aquaman, but Game of Thrones. And memes.
TISSUESAMPLE is much more breakfast suitable than the first SAMPLE I filled in. It seems this could have easily been a themed puzzle to do with eyes, with RETINALSCANNER, STARINGCONTEST, FEELS SEEN. And not too hard for a theme day, imo.
@Loren - Thanks for your Lorenery.
@Gary Jugert - when you list it like that, it looks like a ridiculous amount of trivia! And I thought this was a word game…
@Lewis - loved your puzzle's theme in the LA Times.
Have you read Andy Martino's book? Very entertaining. So I guess if you don't get caught until after you get your ring it's all good.
Absolutely outside. Have died on that hill.
This was an OH SO enjoyable Friday puzzle that made me work for the win without having to trudge through a lot of trivia.
Favorite answer: STARING CONTEST
Least favorite answer: SESH (again, NYT? really?)
Most macabre juxtaposition: CANNIBAL over DANCE TUNE
I love your posts Christopher and glad you are back…and YES…5D deserves more than one ASTERISK !!!
Two Naticks for me: EID crossing LIEV and YOUNGMC crossing MOMOA. Fortunately, my best guess was correct in both cases, but I see no other objections in the comments. Maybe I’m totally out of touch with things these days!
strongly agree with punctuation outside quotation marks.
As always, I'm bursting with curiosity about Lewis's puzzle in the LAT today. I know it will be really, really (OH SO) good because Lewis's puzzles are always OH SO good! And while it's hard for an impatient person like me to wait for Lewis's printed-out version to come to me via snail mail, it's a lot better than trying to solve it online -- an experience I find about as enjoyable as walking on a bed of nails. After I receive it and do it, I'll get back to y'all. Congrats, Lewis.
@Barbara S -- I also thought MYSTERIES before MUST READS, but didn't write it in because I didn't like that opening"E" where RENO goes. And I love your concept of "I only have crossword puzzle Spanish." That's all I have too -- only maybe a little less than that. As for TILDE -- I had the most annoying Senior Moment today as I wondered "what is that thing that sits over the N in Spanish words and enables you to know the difference between "years" and some unprintable word spelled mostly the same way like maybe "asses?" It took me forever to remember TILDE.
The Sylvia Plath quote reminds me how much I hate Sylvia Plath and why. Your mileage may vary.
@MetroGnome – Marty McFly is the character played by Michael J. Fox in "Back To The Future".
Yeah right, I love his writing. I hope he has a regular spot like Malaika. It’s fun to read and lively.
-Brando
Thank you, @Nancy. I was wondering whether to give myself credit for this one; I thought it was probably YOUNG MC, but I never wrote in the M. But following your example, I'll take the win.
It was a struggle, but that's what we're here for, right? I'll take it.
If you want to get really technical, a particular jig, say "Morrison's Jig," is a DANCE TUNE. But jig, as clued is a musical form, as well as a dance. I went with DANCE step, which helped me avoid ABUSE.
When we say "everyone's reading it," we don't mean that everyone is reading it, of course, just that it's popular, the talk of the town, and therefore a MUST READ if you want to appear au courant. The clue was fine, IMO.
@TTrimble and others -- when Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in one season, he broke Babe Ruth's record, but he did it in a longer season so that it wasn't a fair comparison. I haven't actually seen the record book, but it was commonly described as having an ASTERISK next to the listing.
@Loren, you have outdone yourself.
@John T. Vian--are you commenting on a different puzzle? There is no 57-D in this one.
Surprised no one has preemptively answered or even asked about the meaning of MYOB; so I must be grossly out of the loop. Someone help?
-Brando
Twas a good one. Clever clues. Interesting answers.
SW easiest, fastest corner for me.
Medium to almost challenging.
Haha almost direct opposite of Adams review. Imho possibly trying (too much?). That 🥾 size… if it fits….
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🥾
It was six below here this morning and a great excuse to sleep in so I’m solving late. I doubt anyone needed a reminder today that a COLD SPELL follows an arctic blast except the arctic part hasn’t left my neck of the woods yet. I found the puzzle a bit of a slog and quickly grew weary of the copious trivia clues. All those capital letters just kind of took the wind out of my sails.
I’ve watched every single I Love Lucy episode probably a dozen times in my life and have read books about the program and about Lucille Ball herself, plus watched a recent documentary but have never heard of her referred to as Technicolor TESSIE, with or without a comma.
Just curious. Is that TAR from the La Brea pits? Asking for a friend.
Now off to LA to see what Lewis is up to today.
@LLewis-Nice one! Thanks for more fun on a blustery day.
Forgot to say earlier that I wanted The Eighth for "Hennery", but it didn't fit.
Totally agree with the comma going outside the quote marks. And yes, I know the style manuals put commas (and periods) inside the quote marks. Doesn't change the fact that they should be place as logic dictates.
I note that one of the referenced style guides says the reason is that is looks better typographically in American English, while British single quote marks look okay with the comma or period outside the quotes. So, proper style is dictated by type setting aesthetics? Really?
My opinion: People would rather have RULES than be asked to use LOGIC. So the style gods give us rules. I will join you on that hill!!
WAY better puzzle than yesterday. Fun, lively, fresh. I especially liked how the constructor slipped a Tom Brady clue in there (58 Across: Things not good to have next to one's records). Tom Brady is the Lance Armstrong of the NFL (both have "won" 7 titles, both have been caught cheating on numerous occasions), and it was nice to see this constructor finally stick the * next to Brady's "records." Now if we can just sneak a Bill Beliicheat clue in tomorrow and a Cheatriots clue on Sunday, it'll be a very merry Christmas!
Gotta likethEM U-FARMS.
Like @Muse darlin and others, went into no-know name overload at YOUNGMC/MOMOA. Blew a fuse and turned into some sorta version of Christopher Adams on a heavy pub-crawl/solvequest.
fave stuff included: EMUFARMS. COLDSPELL. BOTTOMDOLLAR. STARINGCONTEST and clue. CANNIBAL. Less-MOA.
staff weeject pick: EID. Better clue for folks not up on their Muslim festival names: {Online pseudo-name??} = E-ID.
Thanx for the themeless fun, Mr. Koppy. Nice 14-letter seed entries.
Masked & Anonym007Us [who recently turned 76, so the warranty is kinda runnin out]
**gruntz**
Back to the future movie
@egsforbreakfast and @LMS made me laff out loud. So witty.
I might have figured out the M in YOUNG MC if I hadn't overlooked the rather obvious error of MoST READs instead of MUST READS. That gave me YOONG _ C and ignoring that the clue seemed to be looking for some rapper-type, I tried to come up with a Korean name. Then ran the alphabet, then gave up and hit Reveal.
All sorts of self-inflicted wounds in the NW:
Had soSO for 1A (Really, really)--thought the constructor was turning one meaning of so-so (blah) into another ("That cake is SO, SO tasty!")
Wrote in rolFiRaS at 19A--truly dumb mistake since the clue asked for places
Misspelled SEOUL--twice!
But eventually go all that straightened out--only to "die on YOUNG MC's Natick hill". (Yes, I did put the period after the quotation mark--which is incorrect.)
Loved the puzzle, Brandon! That was a lot of fun. Just 18 minutes for us (Father/Son team) so not too tough. Did anybody else have sLeepmAsK before FLOATTANK? That seemed like an easy hole to fall into.... Seoul saved us. Thanks for a terrific puzzle! -RICK
@Brando
"Mind Your Own Business"
@Anonymous (11:45) MYOB = Mind Your Own Business
@Lewis: I’m emailing you with details but thoroughly enjoyed your puzzle. A unique approach to that particular trick with perfect placement of the revealer. The highlights for me were the feline references and the dearth of proper names. Another great job!
How many years does it take to update crossword dictionaries?
Should be: "Broadband inits. in 1990s" for DSL
@Lewis
What a lovely puzzle today in LAT!
Note to @Lewis - Congrats on a very cool puzzle today!
Agree
Pretty tough puzzle, but very well done, I thought. My first mistake was to write in "occur" instead of RECUR. Which ended up giving me optical SCANNER instead of RETINAL. I also had COLD SnapS instead if SPELLS. And OYS/YOYOS took forever. That whole section was tough due to the MIDI/Mini kealoa, and missing the now obvious FIESTA. Also wrote in lap before LEG, after LAST.
I just left the M square blank at 34, not knowing Aquaman at all.
Now I had no trouble with a jig being a DANCE TUNE. Did you know there are two kinds of jigs? Your basic 6/8 tune, nearly universal in Ireland, but also your slip jig, which is 9/8, and very popular in Northumberland -- but also an Irish DANCE TUNE option.
As for our commentator: Even when he keeps a civil tongue in his mouth, he is abysmally wrong much of the time. That said, I laughed at his suggestion that having to watch a long stretch of a Frozen movie violates the Geneva Convention.
@Nancy (11:31) Try this link. I was able to print Lewis’ puzzle without any problem.
What a great week for us solvers. Two Nancy’s and a Lewis!
For 9 down, I had the L from PEEL and the C from CALVE and confidently wrote in DOORBELL CAMERA. I hung onto this stubbornly for quite a while. Although I guess nowadays they're not considered so hi tech.
Why does staring contest end in tears?
@Gary I knew 9 out of 10 of those of the top of my head (all but the horse race) but sure, if you don’t know them, then nobody else must.
@Gary
I do know the name of yoyo tricks.
I do know ASTROS is a common and useful crossword entry and Colt 45s is likely connected to a Texas city.
I know HOSEA is as useful as ASTROS more than I know the order of the minor propheteers.
I am just as likely to know JASON from Momoa as I am to know MOMOA from Jason.
I was verbally abusing a TV weatherfolk for showing the windchill map instead of the temperature chart as I was reading your post.
I am doing my part to pull down the wall of stagnant illogical thoughtless nonsense that keeps punctuation inside the quotation marks.
Get thee to a "malarkery".
@Lewis
Edifying LA Times puz; 'twas a beaut! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
@Whatsername -- I don't own a printer.* I must rely on the kindness of strangers -- or in this case Lewis's kindness.
*Reasons I don't own a printer:
It would take up half my beautiful (reproduction) Georgian desk. (A desk I "stole" at auction for $300 in June 1995, btw, when all the dealers were out of town and I was the sole bidder.)
Printers are butt-ugly as well as big and, living as I do in a 1-BR apt, my laptop sits on my living room desk. I don't want to turn my LR into a glorified office.
I would be buying yet again one more gadget that I barely know how to use -- if at all.
@Lewis
Loved the puzzle. Thanks for the fun.
@Nancy. FWIW, these days you can buy a Wi-Fi enabled color printer for $60. It needs no physical connection to your computer. We keep ours in a closed cupboard and open the doors to take out what we’ve printed (the printer needs power, but no other physical connection to anything). We even subscribe to an ink service whereby HP is notified automatically (via internet) by the printer when ink is getting low, and they send whichever cartridges are needed. All at a considerably lower cost than in stores.
I know that you fancy yourself a Luddite in these matters, but setting this up is easy and the manufacturers offer very good customer support if you need help. Also, you somehow once got a modem/router set up for your computer. If someone helped you with that, perhaps they would help with a printer as well. Take this all for what it’s worth.
@gary I knew 9 of 10 of these of the top of my head. Just because you don’t know something, doesn’t mean it’s not common knowledge. I’m really not sure how you could solve or construct crossword puzzles (or generally be aware of the general culture over the past 40 years) and go 0-for-10 on these. Also you seem to confuse “know every detail about” with “are aware of.” Not sure if that’s intentional ignorance or hyperbole or what.
ASTI: You know your 13th century horse races, eh?
I don’t.
EMORY: You just happen to know which school is near any random government office?
There’s been a minor news story the past three years about some sickness. You might have missed it. Anyway, the CDC is heavily intertwined with this university and this illness.
YOUNG MC: You know him, huh? Last charted in the US at #66 in 1991. You know him and we should too?
Yes, I have followed music within the past 40 years. Bust a Move made multiple appearances at parties in my youth. And the Tone Loc sings both charted in the top 10.
YOYO: You know rappers AND yoyo trick names? Do you? And Disney characters?
I’ve never done a yo-yo trick in my life, but Rock the Baby is one of the most famous ones. Frozen made over a billion dollars at the box office, and anyone who has spent time with a child in the past decade has been forced to watch it multiple times; it wasn’t some small, art-house film.
ASTROS: You're such a huge sporting fan you know the names of expansion teams in the mid-60s?
This is general knowledge to even casual baseball fans. Also, a gun-based name is pretty likely to be a Texas team (and Rangers, Stars, Mavericks, and Cowboys don’t fit, while the Texans are a relatively recent expansion team).
MOMOA: Well, with a hunky bod like his, we're almost required to know him, but his first name? You know that?
This guy’s been in multiple multi-hundred million dollar movies, as well as commercials over the past decade. He’s one of the leads in a huge series of comic book movies (which I haven’t seen, but again, they’re ubiquitous). He’s not obscure.
SEAMUS: Of course you have all three Back to the Future films memorized. Who doesn't?
You don’t have to memorize a movie to know one of the main characters. How exactly do you experience movies? And again, this is a wildly popular movie franchise. Wildly.
HOSEA: Minor prophets are also in your wheelhouse?
I’ve done at least three NYT crosswords in my life, so yeah, this has come up.
URDU: You help local Urdu speakers find jobs on Saturday?
Not sure how cummerbund, jobs, and Saturday intersect here, but again, if you’ve done three NYTXWs, you’ve seen this.
LIEV: You not only watch Ray Donovan, but you know its B-list cast?
He literally plays Ray Donovan on the show called Ray Donovan. Presumably if you’ve watched the show (I haven’t, but it was one of the biggest shows in Showtime history), this is a gimme. As a solver, all you need to get this is Schreiber.
A delightful puzzle, Lewis! Very clever conceit! The suspense was killing me as others were happily doing it today and so, rather than wait a week or more to tackle it, I said to myself:
"How bad can solving on a screen be, Nancy? I mean really! You're making much too much of a fuss."
So I bit the bullet and went to the website. The process? Squares were down when I wanted them up. Squares were right when I wanted them left. Letters were erased where I wanted them kept. Letters were kept where I wanted them erased. I was using the puzzle scrolling arrow when I should have been using the entire page scrolling arrow, so the wrong half of the screen was being revealed. And of course, always, always, always the screen was highlighting the Across answer when I wanted the Down and vice-versa. I spent half my time searching and the other half erasing and replacing letters.
How bad was the process for me? As you know, I never time myself but the LAT app did it for me. Online, this puzzle took me 39 minutes and 29 seconds to complete!!! Wow!
Now this is a very clever and enjoyable puzzle, Lewis, but as we both know: it is NOT a 39 minute and 29 second puzzle. I don't think there have been many puzzles in my entire life I've spent that much time on.
Next time I'll fight against my own curiosity and wait for the printout. I've learned my lesson. I'll solve with pen and paper as God intended -- even if it means waiting for weeks.
But congrats anyway, Lewis. Am I letting you know in time to save you postage?
@Lewis: Dude. Great puztheme idea. Darn smoooth fillins, too boot. Nice U-count. Enjoyed it.
Great job.
M&A
@egs, 12:24AM. My RETINALS also thought they would be assisted and kept operational or st least fresh if I got the CANNER! Weird how one’s brain plays tricks.
Thank you so much, M&A!
This was B quality Friday fare for me. As a themeless Friday, it wasn’t as sparkly as I’d like, but it wasn’t awful. Kind of a “Goldilocks” feeling. Not too hard, mot too easy, just right - but not quite.
After yesterday’s fabulous Thursday, I was really hoping for a knockout. I solved so late yesterday, I thought it was futile to post. I did winder why my NYT app failed to give me the yellow ROUNDABOUT dots. After I finished and wandered over here, I was so disappointed that there was graphic I didn’t get. As soon as I figured out the trick (early on) I hoped to get a graphic 😢 Oh well. I had so much fun sussing out all the directional clues.
Actually, all of the weekday puzzles have been better than average (Monday) all the way through exceptional (Thursday), and I truly had my hopes up for a spectacular themeless Friday. Alas.
I enjoyed this mire than Christopher though. The longer answers were fun. Like others, I don’t think of a sensory deprivation TANK as anything other than exactly that so FLOAT TANK threw me for a bit. Really liked TISSUE SAMPLES although it made me wish O could find a place to procure some, gratis. Seems I have moved from wicked assertive allergies to sinus infection and I should buy stock in Kimberly Clark as many tissues as I’m using! Yeah, those tissues.
Little side eye to DANCE TUNE because I would just say that a jig is a DANCE. Whether one means the act of dancing its accompanying music is derived from context, but it’s not a big groaner, just a nit.
Thanks to fair crosses, YOUNG MC didn’t cause trouble. However, that genre just isn’t my jam and every time I see rap genre clues I get a bit nervous.
Only real hang-up was the first quinceañera clue. My solve path led me through the FIESTA, so I was still looking for a Spanish word for a component of said FIESTA (as Brandon Koppy intended); score a big one for the constructor.
Things I liked: clue for ASTERISKS (what you don’t want by your records); the “desperation zone” LAST LEG and BOTTOM DOLLAR in the same neighborhood.
All in all, a more than serviceable Friday but not quite A level for me. I look forward to more from Brandon, though; lots to like.
Not sure I see where you are going with this. All clues/answers should be known to everyone? And fwiw I’m not nearly as adept as most solvers on here & I knew most on your list of grievances (exceptions being ASTI & HOSEA) without need for Google.
Enjoy the challenge my friend :)
'ends in tears'. Think retinal tears.
@Lewis
The next time you have a puzzle published, I'm going to wait until you acknowledge M&A's kudos before posting mine so I get me own personal thank you. 😂
@Lewis
So glad I checked back here and was reminded about your puzzle. I really enjoyed it. Favorite clue was [Good vibrations?] and loved the answer!
I will agree with the blogger that a lot of the short fill was kind of meh.
But I liked the puzzle overall.
Are there really EMUFARMS? That was the only answer where you could tell the constructor was stuck and struggling, but it didn't bother me.
I just felt that the guest blogger had a consistent negative tone which was a tad unnecessary. Unless he felt that he had to outdo (or match) rex, which is also not necessary. I did sympathize with his snow-shovelling woes. We've all been there!
Surprised at the number of comments about EMU FARMS. There were thousands of such farms, and millions of emus, in Texas at one point. The emu trade never really took off, though, so now there are fewer farms and a lot of free-range emus - because of course, if you import a foreign animal and can't turn a profit, you just let 'em loose.
YOUNGMC c/w MOMOA= NATICK.
@Lewis
I thought your puzzle was super tight and clean -- a lot of craftsmanship on display there. Freshness and vividness like in 34D and 4D, and the theme was clever. Thanks so much!
@jc66, @barbara s, @t trimble -- I'm so happy you enjoyed my LAT/WAPO puzzle, and thank you for your kind words!
@Gary - I knew 9 out of 10.
@Lewis - I just finished your LAT puzzle while watching the news. I’m with @Nancy, delightful and clever and much more fun than the news!
I quite liked it, and found it took me about half the time as usual, despite the fact that on my first pass through I only filled in two answers, EMORY (I knew it and CDC were both in Atlanta) and HOSEA (I learned the minor prophets at church as a kid—there’s a song). I had all of the right half completed before getting much in the left half, so that was quirky.
Christopher, glad to see you bring it down dramatically. You have good things to say, but they get buried in the extreme tone. Then we are all talking about the manner in which you said it, not what you actually said.
Ty
Had opTIcALSCAN before RETINALSCAN which bogged me down in the NE corner for quite a while. Not too many OYS (or veys) - not much to kvetch about. A decent, challenging but fair, Friday puzzle. Nice job BK.
PS - Also had ocCUR before RECUR because I had opTIcALSCANNER before RETINALSCANNER. You can get really stuck when you’re so sure of your wrong answers…
@lms: Loved your "shark cutery!" Gave me more laughs than the puzz did.
First thing: too many rappers. Well, at the Space station, ONES too many, but two--and one of them being EMINEM? Gotta be a deduction.
The other would RECUR at a natick: square 34. I have a _OMOA down and a YOUNG_C across. Already thought the down was wrong somewhere. What to put in there? Dimly aware that some rappers put -MC at the end of their names (presumably because they are also DJs), I went with the M. Good God, is there really a name MOMOA out there? Must be, because there it is. Go figure.
A plethora (or in one case Plath-ora) of PPPs abound, most of which I did not know--though I did know LIEV and that was a big help. This one was too uneven to be a pleasant solve: obscure unknowables next to gimmes. It was jarring. Triumph points for the challenge, but I'm afraid a bogey.
Wordle bogey also when I absurdly guessed lORRY instead of WORRY. Well, I don't, as a rule. Might be why I'm still kicking at 82.
Tee hee. One letter wrong. I was wondering what a FLESs was - har.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
YOUNG SEOUL
TESSIE and I had ONE SESH,
IT can RECUR, but I MUST call her,
for a SPELL ABUSE the FLESH
on MY LASTLEG and BOTTOMDOLLAR.
--- DEAN SEAMUS EMORY RENO
Fairly straightforward puzzle, except the bizarre northwest. Mostly quite enjoyable.
Post a Comment