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Savory rice cake of southern India / SUN 12-4-22 / Gotcha more informally / Andy who voiced Gollum in Lord of the Rings / Slangy thing that's dropped in a serious relationship / Syd tha onetime hip-hop moniker / Where Wells Fargo got its start / One-named collaborator with Missy Elliott on "1, 2 Step" and "Lose Control" / Red animal in 2022 Pixar film Turning Red / Questionnaire character assessment that might ask What is your idea of perfect happiness / Denim jacket adornment
Sunday, December 4, 2022
Constructor: Gustie Owens
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- SHARES AN ACCOUNT (23A: "A lover of gossip, the Netflix user ...")
- HAS ALL THE JUICY DETAILS (41A: "The smoothie bar worker ...")
- SPILLS THE TEA (59A: "The Boston Harbor worker ...")
- STIRS UP DRAMA (72A: "The cooking show contestant ...")
- AIRS THEIR DIRTY LAUNDRY (89A: "The athlete in the locker room ...")
- WANTS TO HEAR MORE (114A: "And the up-and-coming trial judge...")
Americanah is a 2013 novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for which Adichie won the 2013 U.S. National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.[1] Americanah tells the story of a young Nigerian woman, Ifemelu, who immigrates to the United States to attend university. The novel traces Ifemelu's life in both countries, threaded by her love story with high school classmate Obinze. It was Adichie's third novel, published on May 14, 2013 by Alfred A. Knopf. A television miniseries, starring and produced by Lupita Nyong'o, was in development for HBO Max, but then was later dropped. (wikipedia)
• • •
I really thought AMERICANAH was AMERICAN (space) AH, like ... maybe the protagonist's family name was AH, or maybe it was about a dentist, or both, I dunno. Surprised we saw this title before we saw the author's name (ADICHIE), which seems like it would be very grid-friendly (i.e. easy to work with if you're a constructor). The only other thing in the grid I flat-out didn't know was IDLI, which was just a series of random letters to me (31D: Savory rice cake of southern India). I have tried so hard to tuck away rafts of short fill related to Indian cuisine (ATTA, ROTI, NA(A)N, LASSI, DOSA, CHAPATI ... the last of which I haven't seen yet, but I'm ready!). But IDLI caught me off-guard. Crosses are fair, so ultimately no problem, but that definitely slowed me down but good. SEED for ARIL also really, really put a wrench in the works. Oh, and RUNS OUT for RUNS DRY, oof (11D: Gets fully depleted). I kinda resent the clue on PROUST. I just looked up this "questionnaire" and I still don't actually understand it. It sounds banal as f***. And yet it comes from PROUST's own notebooks? And is used by interviewers? Yeeeeesh. Would've liked the clue to have been ... PROUSTier. Or mentioned anything even vaguely PROUSTy. Seriously, this "questionnaire" ... why ... is it? "Favorite color"? Sigh. What are we doing here? These look like the questions to the least revealing interview of all time.
Bullet points:
- 22A: "Gotcha," more informally ("I'M HIP") — Is it? Is it "more informal." I think "more quaintly" or "more bygonely" might work, but "more informally" feels factually untrue. You don't get much more "informal" than "Gotcha!"
- 63A: Denim jacket adornment (PATCH) — really struggled with this one. No idea what the context is. Is it ... a biker? What year is it? Is this an iron-on PATCH? I guess I just don't see denim jackets much any more, and if I do, they're somehow PATCH-free.
- 85D: Syd tha ___, onetime hip-hop moniker (KYD) — if it's "onetime," maybe you should respect that and move on to other KYDs ... like Thomas! Everyone loves revenge tragedies, right? Right!?
- 102D: Nightmarish address, for short (ELM ST.) — "Nightmarish" because of the movie "A Nightmare on ELM ST." ... which you've probably figured out by now.
- 103D: Slangy thing that may be "dropped" in a serious relationship (L-BOMB) — not everything has to be a "bomb." F-BOMB, L-BOMB ... sigh. I really wanted this to be TROU (literally the only time I have ever wanted the answer to be TROU)
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114 comments:
Same problem as Rex with SERKIS crossing shakasign. No way I would get that one. Otherwise okay, a little harder than the usual Sunday for me but enjoyable. Got the theme right away in the NW corner but had to work for the rest. Good puzzle.
Easyish. I ambled through this and never hit any true rough spots. AMERICANAH, SERKIS, PROUST (as clued) and IDLI were WOEs but were fairly crossed (I did know SHAKA). Fun breezy amusing Sunday that mostly worked, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did. A fine debut.
RE: Older puzzle are tougher. I’ve been slowly working my way through the Shortz era archives and have finally finished all the Fri. and Sat. puzzle. So, I recently started printing out the Thursday puzzles starting with Jan. 1994 just after Will took the reins. So far I’ve hit two adage/quip/quote type puzzles. The Jan. 6, 1994 by Arthur Palmer, is a bear. IMHO it is a terrible puzzle that @Rex would eviscerate and that would have no shot at being published today. The adage is dumb and the fill isn’t much better. That said, if you want a challenge give it a shot.
The wiki article about the Proust questionnaire inexplicably left out one question: Do you prefer EL BOW, L BOMB or EL GRECO?
Definitely a WASPY TRUSTFUNDS XANAX SPA vibe to this one. I actually started to put in White for 70D (Like some old-money Americans) until I realized that it would be false unless “all” was substituted for”some”. WASPY got us out of that bind by excluding Catholics.
I’m not sure that (78D) Wearing down is a good clue for CORRODING. When it’s a wearing process, it seems more like eroding. CORRODING feels more like a chemical decay or deconstruction process.
This was a tougher than usual Sunday for me. A good many of my problems came from unknowable crosses, as pointed out by Rex. I was surprised when I got the happy music. Anyway, congrats on a fun and challenging debut, Gustie Owens.
Hardest puzzle of the week by far. Just a lotta names; finished with errors but I didn't really care. At 23 across I had (seriously) STARTS AN ACCOUNT and for "Goal of some criminal justice advocacy groups" NO JAIL. I really wanted SCRUM for 4 down "2nd or 3rd stringer" but NO MAIL just didn't seem like a major criminal justice issue.
But really "Sneeze guard" == ELBOW? Surely you would use your SHOULDER, Or even BICEP, unless you are a contortionist. How on earth do you get your elbow quickly in the way of a sneeze? I've tried and I can't do it.
"Actor Channing" used to be "Actor O'Neal". First name, last name, whatever.
[SB Sat 0, last word this classic SB special.]
You know how you're about to go on a rampage and scream and jump up and down and stamp your feet and wail about the unfairness and stupidity of it all, but then it turns out your beef was all a lie made up in your useless noggin and you think, "phew, glad I kept my mouth shut" -- just me?
I was so mad at this puzzle over halfway through because those theme answers could have been just about anything and you needed lots of crosses to suss them out and since it's a Sunday there's just too many of everything except the words you really need, and there are actresses you don't know, and writers you don't know, and singers you don't know, and hand signs you didn't know have names, and more Asian cooking ingredients, and sheez it's going badly and you're ready to fall in line with several of our disgruntle-able members of our commentariopode and whine like the dime we wasted on this fine example of the end of civilization was our last dime.
But then I completed the first themer (finally) and was all "that's cool" and then OHO the rest was a raucous joy to whip up into victory.
I also realized I can look up actresses, writers, and singers like I do any other day because I've been given Shakespeare and Bach and have no need for any other entertainers.
I'm guessing at this moment we're preparing for another generational discussion (yawn), but I hope we actually talk about a solid puzzle that required some hefty worthwhile work, a little cheating on more recent arty-farty stuff, and has so little junk in that sea of words we should all save a few bucks aside in case we ever meet the author and we could afford to buy her a nice cup of tea.
I did take time to read the lyrics to "Bodak Yellow" and I must say I grew as a person with each subtle nuance in her elegant lines of wisdom.
Uniclues:
1 The guy with a cable wire running out of his basement window, across his side lawn, through the rose bushes, over the leaning wooden fence, and down into his neighbor's basement.
2 A box of handmade soaps in various scents ideally used to wash her mouth out.
3 Nightly diary entry describing my cat.
1 SHARES AN ACCOUNT BEAST
2 IDEAL CARDI C.S.A.
3 TWO A.M. STIRS UP DRAMA.
Generally I'm very happy with the Sunday NYT puzzles, unlike Rex, but not today's. IMHO, the theme isn't particularly clever, which would be OK if the fill were fun and fair. Instead it was often obscure, e.g., IDLI, PROUST questionnaire, etc. and also replete with Naticks. How can the constructor (and editor) think it's OK to pack into one small corner SERKIS, SHAKA, AMERICANAH, CSA (not Civil War clued) all crossing one another? It was a solve that for me took 2x the usual time, very little of which was enjoyable.
@Rex, idli are unique and delicious. You really ought to try them. They're South Indian, like dosas. Looks like you might not be able to get them in Binghamton, though.
Agree with Rex's critique and then some. The SHAKASIGN/SERKIS natick is unforgivable. C'mon, Shortz, do some editing, will ya?
I thought everyone knew Andy SERKIS from Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, and now (brilliantly) the Star Wars series Andor.
I really enjoyed enjoying a Sunday. It's been a while. The theme had a classic feel and was pretty clever. For me the cluing was a mix of hard and easier. Just when I would become a bit flummoxed along came a softball to keep me going. And I might have sought a bit of help now and then.
DNF because of the Shaka/Serkis cross. Oh well.
Medium+ Sunday here overall but the SHAKA/ SERKIS crossing at the K killed my solve. K would have been my 18th guess. I had blindly hoped that the puzzle SHAt A SIGN but it was not to be.
I liked the inclusion of NO BAIL conceptually but it reads technically untrue. It’s really NO monetary BAIL. NO BAIL would suggest defendants remain incarcerated pending trial.
I really disliked 114a. What is an “up-and-coming judge” anyway? I am to believe a judge would want more hearing time because of their interest in gossip? Yikes.
@KenFreeland: What you said.
Also, what Rex said.
Dull from start to finish alas.
As I was typing in IN OR (“…out?” Question a pet), I was literally walking to the kitchen to answer the scratch at the back door, and by the time I got settled on the couch, she was whining to go out again.
I knew Andy SERKIS - the multi-blockbuster actor whose real face no one has ever seen - but I still struggled in the NE. I wasn’t seeing LIBEL or LASSO, with their ambiguous/clever clues. I wondered if the “hang loose” hand gesture originated in Bangladesh (dHAKA SIGN?). I also had RUNS out instead of RUNS DRY for a while, which led to the Aztecs cultivating orchids instead of DAHLIAs.
I liked the theme - the answers were chuckle-worthy, and I didn’t notice the inconsistencies Rex pointed out. I am guessing some won’t like that the locker-room athlete AIRS THEIR DIRTY LAUNDRY instead of his or hers, but it’s clearly a non-binary athlete. I have a non-binary colleague at work and we dealt with the bathroom situation by putting a sign on one that said “All gender with urinal” and a sign on the other that said “All gender without urinal.” My colleague just alternates them to avoid committing to a gender. But we also have a gym and men’s/women’s locker rooms for the whole building, and I’m not sure how a non-binary person deals with that. It’s harder to hide the body parts there.
HEMI/dEMI/sEMI - classic kealoaulu.
As for the PROUST test, I followed Rex’s link, and the test is more interesting than he makes it out to be. Rex only noted the question about one’s favorite color, but most of them go a lot deeper than that, about one’s aspirations, evaluations of one’s moral strengths and weaknesses, and so on. And it’s interesting to see PROUST’s answers - often confounding, as you might expect. A modern version of the test would still make an interesting parlor game It just needs a good app!
Cashed in my chips early on this one and moved to a different table. Didn’t even make it down to the equator and bumped into two PPP-crossings (ILHAN x TATUM and CARDI x CIARA), and then stumbled onto the NW with its AMERICANAH SHAKASIGN SERKIS and SISI. That’s when I decided to see if I could find something a little more palatable elsewhere.
It's a dang big cake that measures baking soda in tablespoons.
The theme just didn’t hold up for me for the entire big grid. By the time SPILLS THE TEA came up I was over it and solved the rest with crosses. Overall fill was exceedingly easy for a Sunday. As a surfer I see a lot of SHAKA SIGNs and FLANNELS - nice entries. I like the C cross. URGE Overkill.
Watched parts of the Two Towers yesterday - I’ll watch hits and pieces whenever it comes on and loved Andor - so SERKIS was a gimme although I understand the obscurity. I had no idea on IDLI or MOIRA but crosses throughout the entire puzzle were fair.
I’M HIP with @egs on CORRODING missing the mark. Editing team can’t help themselves with the French entries.
I’M Going to the WEST
Enjoyable solve - but probably should have been condensed into an early week puzzle.
This was fine, and congrats to Gustie Owens on her debut puzzle!
I agree about some of the PPP crossings, and also with the number of standard crossword stuff (penne ALLA vodka, ARIA, SPA, etc.). I had no issues in particular with the theme, which would've be impossible to suss out if one went strictly with "acceptable" (by Rex's standards) answers.
Happy New Month, all!
This was one of the easier and more enjoyable Sundays in a while for us. No musty old-guy sports references (no Bobby ORR in sight), and the culture and literature answers felt fun, current, and mainstream. Noting that the constructor was part of the NYT Diverse Crossword Constructors Fellowship cohort. My wife and I solve together, and we are queer BIPOC millennials, so maybe something there?
Oh, the theme made me smile, especially that judge that wants to hear more, but today I think what I liked most was how engaged my brain was in filling in this grid. There were a handful of answers out of my knowledge, to sweeten the pot, but what was especially juicy were the clues that could go in different directions, such as:
[Like a dream scenario]
[Hang loose]
[Draws out]
[Sweat spots]
[It’s designed to catch bugs]
To name a few. I had to tune the world out, don my work boots. I had to get cracking – literally. I have a brain that adores hard work – it wants more, more, more, until it gets tired (and then it wants to take a nap). Most thorny crosswords don’t take it to exhaustion, but rather to exhilaration, and boom, that’s just what today’s workout did.
Along the way there were lovely-sounding words, like DANGLE, JILT, SATIN, IDLI, DAHLIA and SCRUB and even a kealoa moment (where two or more viable answers are possible even with part filled in) – “Is it AGAPE or AGASP?” Plus that glorious clue for TWAS: [What comes before the night before Christmas?]
Exhilaration spiced with beauty, a most lovely Sunday. Gustie, congratulations on your impressive debut, and thank you for this!
How is honey “boo?” Jim
Amy: agree with @jae today. Just meandered along, enjoying the theme and cluing. Congrats on the debut!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
I thought everyone knew Andy SERKIS from Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, and now (brilliantly) the Star Wars series Andor.
Also Andy SERKIS was CGI'd to play the gross-looking villain SNOKE in Star Wars The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi,
too many proper names. A slog.
Can anyone explain how 28A "Defense of a history paper" is FORTRESS?
I knew SERKIS but I thought he was the guy they rigged up with all the CGI stuff so he could do Gollum's slinky movements. Oh well.
Hardest one for me to see was WASPY, which it shouldn't have been, because nearby Woodstock VT makes all kinds of most New Englandy for this or that town, and it's just full of old-money types, and their school nickname is the WASPS. Because of course it is.
Liked this one OK, enough challenges to be interesting, and thought the themers were fine. IDLI? I guess.
Solid Sunday, GO. I Got Over a couple of rough patches. Thanks for all the fun.
I’m not one to just throw the term Natick around wildly and with abandon, but this was a super-mega one of historic proportions for me. That K in the SER_IS/SHA_A cross could have plausibly been at least, um, 40 or 50 other letters. In a more clever or entertaining puzzle I would probably have ignored or forgotten about it, but not in this one, which I generally found flat and sloggy, or (for me) having too much unknown pop culture.
I smiled at the clue/answer for 1A. Then I had to wade through a sea of difficult proper names and unimpressive puns, and my next smile did not come until red PANDA appeared at the bottom. I adore red pandas.
The people for whom CARDI B is going to be a problem has a very high overlap with the people for whom CIARA is going to be a problem.
Andy SERKIS also did the motion caption for the Peter Jackson version of King Kong, which is where I initially encountered him. He also appears regularly on lists of highest actors with the highest lifetime movie gross.
Thx, Gustie, for a NEATO Sun. puz! :)
Med.
Slow, but steady progress from start to finish; no hangups.
Clever theme; liked it a lot.
@Son Volt, pablo, et al
Very easy Sat. Stumper for a welcome changeup (just n. of 30)
On to the Acrostic.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Andy Serkis is the subject of Oscar snub complaints every year he does a motion capture role in a movie. He has had major roles in some of the biggest movies of the past 25 years: The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, the Planet of the Apes movies, The Force Awakens (first Star Wars movie in 18 years), the new King Kong movies, Black Panther (as a human), and co-stars as a human character in what many critics have called this year’s best television show (Andor). My wife who is not up on pop culture recognized him immediately after setting him on screen. You might not like modern movies or superhero movies or Star Wars movies (I’m lukewarm on them and I haven’t seen many of the above), but the man is not obscure.
I didn't finish because I quit when I got to WASPY, which is not a word, but yet another example of the NYT simply making things up. I was already irritated because Wells Fargo started in NEW YORK CITY, but WASPY broke my back.
Puzzle felt as exclusive and old money as Barnard College
@okanaganer, CDC now recommends sneezing into your elbow. It's what all the cool kids do. But the inside of your elbow so you don't have to contort.
The Naticky Northwest was a challenge. I came up with IMHIP early but took it out several times because I couldn’t make anything else fit with it and because the clue was a little off. Ended up having to look up having to turn to Google.
I mean, I got it by guessing, but agree with Rex and everyone else that the Shaka/Sirkus/Americanah cross was ridiculous and maddening. The rest of the puzzle was no fun. Weak them and a slog.
I’m with those who found the theme pallid and the puzzle tough. But I was glad of the challenge after such an easy week, and I know not every theme will rain sparkles. It took me a long time to get even one theme answer, so grasping the theme was delayed until I had at least half the grid filled in.
How did I do at 1A and in the NW corner? I wish I’d got FINS right off – I’ve seen Jaws enough times to know. I spelled ILHAN Omar’s name wrong (with a double L) and got caught up in the NO jAIL/NO mAIL/NO BAIL conundrum, so none of that helped.
Elsewhere, I also had RUNSout but, strangely, CARDI B got me out of that jam. I wouldn’t expect the name of a rapper ever to lead me to enlightenment, but I agree with Rex that her level of fame penetrates even the rap-ignorant. I was lucky enough to know SERKIS from LOTR. I remember being sufficiently interested in how the Gollum character was created that I went down the “motion capture” rabbit-hole and saw behind-the-scenes footage of Andy SERKIS, sporting a catsuit covered with reflective markers, scuttling around the set. But that NE corner was difficult anyway because of AMERICANAH, SHAKA SIGN, I’M HIP and CSA (which I know as the Canadian Space Agency, because of work my husband has done).
Other trouble spots: Ohio for OAHU, L-wOrd for L-BOMB and hook for SMEE. At one point I was trying on “pASses THE JUICY DETAILS” (the second S of pASses seemingly confirmed by the edible part of a pomegranate being “seed”). Like Rex, I didn’t know IDLI, so the last letter of pASses could well have been another S. That area was a mess for a while.
That’s a sadly revealing quotation from Leonardo [“ART is never finished, only abandoned”]. As you probably know, he left a scad of unfinished work behind, notably the St. Jerome (Vatican), the Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi) and everyone’s favorite, the Mona Lisa. Modern scholars of a certain sort are always trying to diagnose him (and every other dead artist who acted strangely – hmm, all of ‘em?) The most popular theories are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), resulting in unbridled perfectionism. For some period in his later life, Leonardo seems to have had paralysis in his right hand and/or arm. Speculation about this is based on a portrait of him by a later artist and a journal entry by someone who visited Leonardo a couple of years before his death. It’s known that he was able to draw with both hands, but even if he were painting with his left, the right hand’s inability to hold a palette would have been a problem. It’s tempting, but ultimately futile, to posit a neat solution for Leonardo’s (and everyone else’s) foibles and inconsistencies. But we merrily do it anyway.
[SB: The last 3 days, all -1: my least favorite result. Two of my misses were just dumb, yesterday’s was a word I didn’t know, but should have? Not sure – it certainly doesn’t come up in daily conversation.]
Did anyone else have "A LEG" as the answer to 88A (Words after break or shake)?
Hey All !
After reading 15D clue ("Hang loose" hand gesture), I literally did the gesture with my own hand, saying, "There's a name for this?" as I turned it back and forth. Thankfully DAHLIA was pretty much a lock, as I was thinking it might be SHAKe SIGN. Haven't heard of Andy SERKIS either. Isn't there an Andy Sudakis, or something like that?
Not even my toughest section, which for some reason was the STIRS UP DRAMA (the DRAMA area) little spot. Deciding twixt TAX CODE or TAX COst, with really really wanting A LEG for IT UP.. DRAMA oddly tough to see, and PAW/WASPY oddly clued. But finally decided to throw in PARTD (what else could it be?), plus AMOUR, seeing DRAMA, and being bang boom, that section fell. However... Almost There! Argh! Turns out, I had Bae for BOO (32A). SACRE BLEU!
Is KFC really a Big name in wings? Sure, a big name in chicken, but not the first place I think of for wings
Thought about NO kilL for NO BAIL. Neat symmetry with NO HELP. Wondering where FORT RESS is. (Joke, relax. 😁) HOSE DOWN and IT UP. LBOMB? Maybe MBOMB. Which might be followed by an FBOMB.
"Jane, will you marry me?"
"F@#! no!"
/scene
So a nice puz Gustie Owens. Debut? Haven't heard the name before, but I'm bad with names. Plus I haven't read y'all yet.
When scary noises are verboten? BOO TABOOS
*Shuffles away*
Five F's (with one in the first block!) *Pounds chest twice in the "respect" manner*
RooMonster
DarrinV
It's a type of "defense" (i.e. defensive structure) that might be mentioned in a history paper.
Who wrote the Blossom Dearie song? Was it Stan Frieberg? Hilarious!
The final theme answer, that the up and coming judge wants to hear more, intentionally shifts from spreading gossip to hearing it; as indicated by the "And" in the clue. I liked it. And no, @JJ, it doesn't mean the judge wants to hear juicy gossip. Its a play on words.
Idli are delicious, as are chapatis. My favorite is paratha, which I have yet to see in a puzzle. There is a challenge for someone. Yum.
The Proust questionnaire is quite fascinating to Proustians because Marcel answered it twice about 8 years apart, with changed answers. It was a 19th-century parlor game, something akin to magazine quizzes or listicles headed "which personality type are you?" And of course the questions and most peoples answers would have been boringly banal, but Proust is always a cagy master of self-revelation. So it's well worth looking at AFTER you've finished "Remembrance of Things Past"
Of all the ways to clue SCRUB why use a sense many hard-working but less able non-starters view as derogatory?
Andy SERKIS is increasingly well-known and respected. It’s on you for not knowing him.
Don’t know anything about psychology, but the Proust Questionnaire is the back page feature in Vanity Fair. I won’t pretend I got it without the crosses, but recognized it after it dropped in.
APB...Is Loren Muse Smith okay? Missing her witty offerings up here in Prince Edward Island...
I guess this was about wheelhouse. Andy Serkis is a household name in our home, as we are big fans of both LotR and Planet of the Apes. Not as widely known as Cardi B, but certainly fair game for a Sunday, and a remarkable actor.
Also, Americanah won the National Book Award in 2013 and was incredibly popular where I come from. I had a boss at the time who purchased copies for everyone in the office and ran a little book club. Chimamanda Adichie is an excellent writer.
If, as the comment section seems to suggest, these are not well known folks at large, then kudos to this puzzle for introducing two truly fantastic artists to the NY Times puzzle crowd.
PPP crossing PPP crossing PPP.
PU!
My own PPP response: “That’s too much, man!”
Waspy is most certainly a word.
Signed,
E.Digby Baltzell ( musty old and worse, white guy)
Decades of puzzle solving have entrained me to be exquisitely sensitive to the need to match plurals, tenses, languages, degree of formality, etc. between clue & entry. And now suddenly “an” athlete has “their” dirty laundry. No. Just no.
Unbelievable, the amount of whiffing on SERKIS I'm seeing here. He's famous enough, one should be getting him without crosses. In fact, if anything, the clue underplays his contributions to that role. He also did the motion capture for it, and he did it so well that that was kind of his thing for a while. Others have covered him well enough so I won't go on. Otherwise, agreed about that NE corner.
Surprised I haven't seen anyone drop their monocle over having SEX in their Sunday puzzle.
55A KFC for "Big name in wings" kind of irked me. The clue brought to mind buffalo wings, which if they do do those, I can only imagine they're trash. KFC would be more known for legs, breasts, or thighs, I imagine.
Overall, fairly tough for a Sunday, I'd say. And far better than last week's.
They/their can be singular, particularly when gender is not specified… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
They/their can be singular, particularly when gender is not specified… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
Shouldn't the editing for a crossword be more precise with *an* athlete who AIRS *THEIR* DIRTY LAUNDRY? In spoken language they/theirs for an undetermined gender or a non-binary gender is fairly common and inclusive, but isn't the crossword held to a higher grammatical standard?
Fortress like you wrote a term paper about a knight in shinning armor attacking a castle or watch the guns of Navarone
Singular they appears even in Shakespeare. It first appeared in English in the 1300s and was not even considered an error until the 1700s, and even then only by [gag] prescriptivists. If you can't come grips with it, you're literally over 700 years behind the curve.
Is OLDWEST (54D) a place??? I think “midwest”, for example, is a place, & “oldwest” is more of a time and place!
I was wondering the same thing. Does anyone know her in real life?
An ear is not a musical talent, though it is a musical asset. Unless, one supposes, your ear actually does the playing of an instrument if one plays by or with an ear.
I’ve certainly heard of Honey Boo Boo, but I don’t understand how honey means boo.
Probably my best time ever for a Sunday. Go figure.
I knew AMERICANAH and other stuff in the SERKIS/SHAKASIGN neighborhood and, so, navigated that maze with relative ease.
Congrats to Gustie (like the name) on the debut!
As Sundays go (low bar), this was less sloggy than many, and I enjoyed a chuckle here and there.
I’m sorry, but “corroding” is not “wearing down”.
Andy Serkis is the most famous CGI actor out there (LOTR, Planet of the Apes, last Star Wars) and has also done standard acting in big movies for Marvel and DC.
Agreed. Great actor whether or not you can see his face.
DNF because of the Natick at SERKIS and SHAKASIGN. It’s a clever theme. But it drops down a mark from a B to a C because of the Natick. Great debut puzzle so congratulations to Gustie. Although, it’s too bad the NYT editing team didn’t bother to polish up the cluing a bit and to smooth out some of the rough PATCHes.
s
Andy SERKIS is well known throughout huge swaths of nerd-dom which, let’s face it, Venn diagrams well with many crossword solvers. He was a gimme for me. And the little pinky-thumb waggle thing had to have some obscure name assigned to it, so SHAKASIGN is as good as any, I suppose. Now I know.
Blog theme today is "Naticks and Nits"
@BOO??? people - I'm WASPY and I call one of my dogs BOO, even though her name is Beaux. I was conflicted with the choice of BOO, as she's black and BOO as sweetheart is AA dialect, but my heart is pure and I'm never around anyone, so I'm unlikely to offend. If I ever get caught and do offend, I'll say it's short for Boo-Boo and swear it's because she abets on raids of picinic baskets.
@Anon 10:14 - You're thinking of Dave Frishberg, and yes.
Mild humored SunPuz theme. M&A always prefers a funny SunPuz theme, and this one gave it a try. I reckon my fave themer was the SPILLSTHETEA in Boston Harbor one. It's historic. But not a real knee-slapper, I'd grant.
yep. Debut-word extravaganza SERKIS/AMERICANAH/SHAKASIGN/CSA was a BEAST, all right. Already well-shrieked-at, by the Comment Gallery. M&A would also toss in IDLI & KYD/ADAMS as names of mystery, at his house. They do not rate L-BOMBs from the M&A.
staff weeject pick: AHH. OK, OK -- that's enough of this spa sound muck. Someone's gotta put their foot down, and demand different definitions for these two AHH/AAH SCRUB-level fillins…
* AHH has been used 47 times in the ShortzwordPuzs. AAH has been used 128 times. Clearly AAH is the preferred pick. The AMERICANAH, if U will.
* Let's call AAH "Popular spa sound". Or, for clues like 36-D, clarify it better, as in: {"That feels extra-preferred good!"}.
* Let's call AHH "Spa sound variant". Or, for clues like 36-D, clarify with: {"That feels variantly good!"}.
QED.
M&A does get an important service, from each and every one of the [printed off] NYTSunPuzs, tho. They give M&A a real good Eye Test. So far, M&A can read all the clues and puzgrid numbers, *without* glasses. Soooo … please allow old m&e to express my continuin gratitude, to all them itty bitty SunPuz characters. And no … M&A don't wear them contact lenses, either. Nuthin, Boo.
I second the emotion of concern for the whereabouts of Master Commenter [not a Judge Cannon appointee, so it's a valid title] @Muse darlin. Hopefully she is distracted by somethin wonderful, like an all-expenses-paid vacay to the Bahamas, or somesuch. Or maybe to Jyllinge in Denmark; M&A's all-time fave vacay place.
Thanx for the slightly humorous and slightly feisty SunPuz [with 4 ?-marker clues, that I recall], Ms. Gustie darlin. And congratz on yer fine debut. Next time go with IDLE/ESS, tho [Does then raise the question of how to clue AHS, unfortunately]. And maybe skip any flea serkis hi-jinxes, if there's a non-desperate way around em.
Masked & Anonymo10Us
caution: even Dan Feyer would have trouble with this here shameless runt:
**gruntz**
I actually liked this quite a bit more than yesterday. I feel like the constructor and I were more in sync. It helped that I read AMERICANAH a few years ago and rewatched the Lord of the Rings trilogy a few weeks ago so Andy SERKIS was fresh in my mind. I usually dislike it when they do rappers in a puzzle but CARDI B is extremely popular and recent (and the only woman to win the rap Grammy) so that seemed fair. I have never heard of Syd the KYD but it was easy enough to get from crosses. I would also be fine if they retire Syd from the puzzle.
So we're all (except for one person earlier in this comment thread) going to roll over and accept PARTD?
No. I refuse. This aggression will not stand.
Quite a party going on in the upper east side, with [ALLA] vodka, XANAX, DANGLE and SEX!
This was a challenge and like Rex I'm not certain about some of the thematic answers being "gossipy" but there's wide interpretation here for crossword constructors. The "Shaka" cross nearly did me in, but go ahead and google "shaka sign" and go to "images"- you'll see exactly what most of us think of as the "hang loose" gesture. So, semi-obscure but not at all unfair; you expect to run into new things in grids all the time. This was a more than decent first-ever Sunday puzzle and far better than recent efforts from some veterans! Also, folks (and I am Gen X), if you don't know some of the lingo or artists mentioned in this puzzle, it's not about you, so do please spend some effort in catching up to how different generations communicate.
i’m not waspy and i loved boo and all the other nonwaspy slang
That balancing SERKIS act at the cross of SHAKA SIGN and 29A was the only thing that had me worried today. Otherwise, this flowed smoothly.
In the Down Home program that I use to solve Sunday puzzles (thanks @r.alphbunker!), some symbols don't translate well. The ellipsis and colon I see when I look at the theme clues on xwordinfo look like this, …"} , in my version. It feels like the puzzle is swearing at me. :-(
Some nice clues, such as "Defense of a history paper? for FORTRESS, "Gets in the loop? for LASSO, "Suddenly says, "I don't" to, say" for JILTS (considered "baLkS there).
Gustie Owens, nice Sunday puzzle. Congratulations on your NYT debut, impressive!
+1 to SHAKASIGN / SERKIS / AMERICANAH / IMHIP with other weak fill right next to it... BEAST (the noun) doesn't exactly line up with Savage (noun), and Savage (adjective) is better with BEASTial. Plus two ? clues in that corner too. Without the omnipresent OPTS to make LASSO gettable, that corner is just a disaster.
Why should inclusiveness be considered a lower standard? Language evolves. That's the higher standard.
Fun fact about Andy Serkis - when he and Lorraine Ashbourne eloped in 2002, her parents disowned and disavowed her. I can understand, as who wants a daughter who ran away with the Serkis?
Also Black Panther. This guy is in everything, and he is always so good.
As another BIPOC millennial, I felt the same way. I'm a little surprised people here are gatekeeping what they consider mainstream enough for a Sunday Times puzzle. I've spent years solving puzzles about obscure actors and athletes I've never heard of without complaining.
Honey as in “sweetheart”, “darling, “bae”
Surely thou jest..... So in order to do todays shitty puzzles , one has to be bred before 1990 or some such date... When everyone gets a medal and if u dont like ot youre cancelled... What a farce..these so called big blue puzzle creators are ...
Me too! Always worry when I don’t see her.
I did. Slowed me down quite a bit
Lol. Professor at Penn who coined the term. He’s been dead for years
We love words. What’s the opposite of “waspy”?
Slight quibble with "Gotcha" clueing for "I'm Hip." "Gotcha" in today's parlance means "I fooled you." A better (modern day) equivalent of "I'm hip" is "I get you."
Yes! Until it didn't work.
Boo is of Southern origin, from "beau" and expanded to apply to men or women.
It's late in the day, but I'm surprised there hasn't been more complaining about IMHIP (what on earth does that have to do with "gotcha"?) or CSA (never, ever heard of it).
Also, like others, never ever heard of SHAKA. Wasn't sure whether it was Serkis or Sertis.
Villager
The theme was mildly diverting and the solve was pleasant and not too taxing. There were two possible Naticks and I guessed one correctly (CARDI/CIARA) and I missed one (SHAvA SIGN/SERvIS.) But even if I'd missed both, I was prepared to call this a "Solve!" As long as I'm not playing for the $250,000 First Prize, a Natick here and there never upsets me.
Another Sunday where I got all the themers by filling in the the down clues. Went back at the end and looked at the clues for the themes. Sigh…..
IDLIs are my favorite South Indian food. Must defend 🛡🤗 🛡 them! (Also, bc I make them here-USA).
Maybe IDLIs are the reason I liked this puzz… or maybe it was SPILLSTHECHAI ?
Agree with 🦖’s crit AND enjoyed it also.
🙂🦖🦖🦖🦖🙃
You can see Andy Serkis' face in 24 Hour Party People, people.
There are not enough LOTR fans here and it shows! I found this puzzle to be easier than most sundays. Only unknowns were ARIL, IDLI, and ADT. I used to be a big CIARA fan; she sang “My Goodies.” Not very good, in fact. I get that this swayed heavily into “younger” trivia (i.e. obvious for anyone under 40), but I much prefer this to most of the grids that rely on crosswordese. This was a super clean grid for a Sunday, and a fun solve!
Agreed. I’m normally the first to complain about a lousy puzzle, but todays was awesome. I think it was easier for millennials though. LOTR, CIARA, IM HIP, LENO, Syd tha KYD. All trivia he’s, but all within my wheelhouse. Not a clunky puzzle like most sundays.
I actually love this clue. I work in healthcare and deal with so much Medicare and other insurances and I can really nerd out when I start talking about this stuff. I filled it in without crosses!
Is this an age-related thing or a regional one? As an older mid-westerner, I've only seen SPILLS THE TEA in the NYT puzzle. Here it's "spill the beans". I'm drinking tea at this very moment; the cat just jumped up and I almost spilled it, so I almost used it in the literal sense, though.
I must be thick as a brick in my old age but anyone PLEASE explain “FORTRESS”…. Ive only seen it mentioned 2x and not explained at all…
Can anyone explain “fortress”??? Been doing these since the 90’s but must be slipping…
With all the PPP complaints, it’s almost as if these NYT crossword solvers never read the other sections in the paper. Andy Serkis, Cardi B, Schitt’s Creek have all been covered extensively in the Art & Leisure section over the years, as has Americanah in Book Review. Read the rest of paper, y’all!
That’s “E. Digby Baltzell the THIRD,” old bean …the ultimate in waspiness
To be fairer, the clue should have been “IN a history book.” The “of” is clunky and forced.
My Dad, a lifelong, in-pen puzzle-solver, would have turned 90 years old today and I wish every day he were still alive. Which makes it all the more astonishing that I’m GLAD he wasn’t here on Sunday to see this mess of a puzzle. Even I, not quite at the old-fogey stage of crosswording that he’d be, am sad over how lazy the editor has become and by what (some of) the constructors get away with these days. Hope the puzzles in heaven are the best, Dad!!
Finally finished this Wed. Did anybody comment on the presence of "CSA" in the grid? I'm pretty much only familiar with this as an abbreviation of the term Confederate States of America, something about which I do NOT want to be reminded.
TWO A.M. AMOUR OFFER
MOIRA ADAMS SHARESANACCOUNT of NOBAIL,
and SPILLSTHETEA ABOUT her mama,
THEJUICYDETAILS of THREE EUROS IN jail . . .
but who WANTSTOHEARMORE DRAMA?!?
--- TORI TATUM
Yeah the SERKIS/SHAKA cross was a poser, but my words after shake or break were ALEG, not ITUP. So that held things up for quite a while. I've eaten Penne ALLA vodka at a nice Chicago restaurant, so gimme. I've seen quite enough of ILHAN Omar.
Wordle par.
Hey @Rondo - hand up for ALEG. My grandparents used to say this to each other (shake a leg) in Finnish!
The rest of the puz was kind of a fill-in-the-blank test that I had studied well for.
Diana, LIW
@ghostoflectricity 6:39pm:
Community
Supported
Agriculture
Buy from your local farmers!
Has been clued this way before, but it still took me too long to recall the initialism.
Two points:
Shaka stands alone in my experience (visiting in the islands) — no need to say sign (though apparently Wikipedia does say Shaka sign).
As I don’t see how it is gossip to talk about oneself, I interpret 89A as describing the athlete dshing about teammates.
So many issues with this puzzle already noted so precisely by the commenters. WASPY was especially egregious in modern-day liberal-speak, revealing both religious and racial bias.
And DRAMA associated with cooking ? And DETAILS associated with smoothies? STOP!
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