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Component of some high-tech dog collars / SUN 1-29-23 / Crew supervisor on a merchant ship / Lotta money / Hindu embodiment of virtue / Modern-day groundskeeper / Fast line at the airport, informally / Office PC set-up / Fish with a long snout / NFL positions that sound like a fast-food chain / Byproduct of composting / Portmanteau invitations / Website overseers in brief / Parent who's fluent in emojis and slang maybe
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Constructor: Rich Katz
Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging
[update: some solvers seem not to understand that the *clued* phrases are wacky / nonsensical—so, for instance, there is no such thing as a DUAL IPA ... but there *is* such a thing as DUA LIPA. As clued, the answers are nonsense, but if you *move the space* to its proper place, you get a real thing, which I have put in parentheses after each themer, below; sorry for not being a better explainer]
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: DUA LIPA (116A) —
Well, there are certainly a lot of them. This was definitely hit or miss for me, with the hits only kinda hitting and misses really missing. The concept is super-basic, so the resulting wackiness needs to be absolutely loony and super-inventive, or else all you've got is corniness and groaning. Here are the reparsings I really liked: GOO DEARTH, ASP ENTREE, PARKA VENUE. The rest of them, I was various degrees of lukewarm on, and ... well, as I say, there were a lot of them, so that's a lot of lukewarmth. Most of the respaced answers involve drastic repronunciations (e.g. D.E.A. THEATER, DUAL I.P.A.), but there's stuff like STARCH ART and SEAT RIP that don't really do anything along those lines. Not surprisingly, I like those listless ones less. I lost a lot of my good will toward this puzzle with the utterly gratuitous Harry Potter clue on SUPERB OWL (which is a tiresome, tiresome bit of wordplay to begin with, esp. this time of year, did we really need to bring the work of the Word Ambassador of Virulent Transphobia into the mix? I submit we did not). And then the puzzle lost *all* of my good will when it bafflingly went to the Harry Potter well Yet Again (actually, this time it had to go to that well ... Death-Eaters exist only in the HPU, afaik). I know many (most?) solvers aren't as put off by the author of those YA wizarding books as I am, but what I do here is talk about exactly what it was like to solve this, and what it felt like, exactly, when I hit HP ref no. 2 was "**** you" (pretty sure I said this aloud). I'm just tired. I'm tired of bigotry and bad-faith arguments and I'm tired of my friends' kids being the targets of hatred. I'm just tired. So ... yes, my [Extreme vexation] was real. But again, the theme concept itself has some potential, and that potential is occasionally realized. And, as I say, once again, there is a lot of it.
Last thing: for people who contributed via snail mail to my fundraising earlier this month, the first batch of thank-you cards (pictured above) have gone out this week, so look for those. The cards were a little delayed at the printers, so we were about a week or so behind, but the first week's worth of cards and letters have been replied to, and the rest will be coming shortly. It's been a joy, as usual, to get your cards and letters, which (predictably, sweetly) have been rather cat-heavy this year. Here's a small sample of stuff I've received:
Theme answers:
- LOO MOVER (24A: *Shipper of British toilets?) (loom over)
- MOANA BOUT (44A: *Big fight for a Disney heroine from Polynesia?) (moan about)
- SEAT RIP (18A: *Embarrassing pants mishap?) (sea trip)
- STARCH ART (7D: *Painting of potatoes, e.g.?) (star chart)
- ASP ENTREE (11D: *Main course featuring Egyptian snake meat?) (why couldn't the asp be the one eating the entree? That's nicer / goofier) (aspen tree)
- GOO DEARTH (88A: *Shortage of slime?) (... is this supposed to be the Pearl S. Buck novel "The Good Earth"?)
- PARKA VENUE (38D: *Iditarod, for one?) (Park Avenue)
- SUPERB OWL (77D: *Terrific messenger at Hogwarts?) (this didn't have to be a Harry Potter clue, it really really didn't ...) (Super Bowl)
- DEA THEATER (43D: *Staging of a narc sting?) (Death-Eater is, sadly, yet another Harry Potter thing, sigh)
- EVENT ALLY (79D: *Friend in a competition?) (even tally)
- DUAL IPA (116A: *Brew that's both bitter and fruity?) (Dua Lipa is a pop singer)
- CAT CHAIR (109A: *Rest spot for a tabby?) (catch air)
 |
| [Rest spot for a tabby named Alfie?] |
Dua Lipa (/ˈduːə ˈliːpə/ (listen) DOO-ə LEE-pə, Albanian: [ˈdua ˈlipa]; born 22 August 1995) is a British and Albanian singer and songwriter. Possessing a mezzo-soprano vocal range, she is known for her signature disco-pop sound. Lipa has received numerous accolades, including six Brit Awards, three Grammy Awards, two MTV Europe Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, two Billboard Music Awards, an American Music Award, and two Guinness World Records. "No Lie" and "New Rules", each have over 1 billion views on YouTube, with "New Rules" having reached over 2.8 billion views. [...] In 2019, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for her Silk City collaboration "Electricity". (wikipedia)
• • •
EVEN TALLY and SEA TRIP don't feel so ... much like things. I mean, I can imagine both, but their standaloneness feels mildly weak, at least. Actually, SEA TRIP, fine, it's a thing. It's just meh. EVEN TALLY, less of a thing. The puzzle was tougher than many Sundays have been of late, for me, and part of that difficulty was definitely related to the theme. Despite understanding the conceit quite well, I still had trouble parsing some of the answers, and in the south, where two themers cross, in a very small and sequestered section that also involves yet another "?" clue and Diane Sawyer's "real first name" (!?!?!), I felt like I was in real trouble for a bit. Didn't help that the near-nonsense EVEN TALLY was in this exact section. Unsure about RAMA (99D: Hindu embodiment of virtue), thought STYLE was SHAVE (119A: Do some barbering on), no idea about MIL til I had a couple crosses (113D: Lotta money), and then COOL MOM!?!? (113A: Parent who's fluent in emojis and modern slang, maybe). She's cool ... Because of ... emojis? And slang? What year is it and who is saying this in anything but the most ironic fashion??? I got through this, but I know who DUA LIPA is. Lord help you if you didn't.
The KARMA joke is awful, why use it? (114A: "Your ___ ran over my dogma" (classic dad joke)—hey, it's your joke, own it, don't blame it on some generic "dad"). MISDO hurts my eyes, as does BIOGAS, as does the awkward olde French crosswordese EN AMI. I think KCUP POD (29A: Modern-day groundskeeper?) and TSA PRE (37A: Fast line at the airport, informally) are supposed to be "cool" because they are "new" but they made me screw up my face in distaste. "New" doesn't necessarily mean appealing. Take RFID TAG (99A: Component of some high-tech dog collars). Please, take it. No way am I getting this if I didn't stumble on RFID just a couple days ago in a different puzzle. I didn't like it then, and I don't like it today, mainly because ... again, just because it hasn't been used before doesn't mean it's good. A jumble of letters in an acronym where most people can't actually tell you what the letters are for? (yes, congrats, you know what the letters are for, pat yourself on the back, but look, RFID is no DEA, it's not IPA, no EPA ... it's not even OAS, which ... why would you aspire to create new fill that is like OAS in any way? No one's ever excited to see OAS) (RFID stands for "radio frequency identification," btw ... see, BTW, *that's* an acronym where people know the parts!). Shoving a bunch of abbrs. into longer phrases does make for somewhat hard-to-parse answers, but it doesn't necessarily make for elegant or entertaining fill. I think my favorite answer was PROMPOSALS (3D: Portmanteau invitations). It's a good portmanteau, and if you have known any teens in recent years, then you know PROMPOSALS are very real. Didn't exist when I was young, but my (now former) high-school-teacher wife has been witness to many of them (to be clear, she's a former high-school teacher, not my former wife; I'd write a more elegant sentence, but what fun would that be?).
If you don't know BTS by now, I don't know what to tell you. You'll be seeing this K-Pop supergroup in puzzles for a long, long time to come so just store the info away now (98A: Seoul singers?). I had "OH, NICE" before "OH, NEAT" (a totally arbitrary phrase that I somehow don't hate) (42D: "Wow, super!"). If you are waiting for me to explain the AEIOU clue (2D: Series of trade discounts?), here goes: AEIOU is a "series" of letters (namely, the vowels) that appear, in order, in the phrase "trade discounts" (you are welcome). The End.
Well, not the end, one announcement: it's time once again for the very popular Boswords online crossword tournament. Go on, try it. You know you're curious. Here's the deets from tourney organizer John Lieb:
Registration is now open for the Boswords 2023 Winter Wondersolve, an online crossword tournament which will be held on Sunday, February 5 from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern. Solvers can compete individually or in pairs and will complete four puzzles (three themed and one themeless) edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to see the constructors, and for more details, go to www.boswords.org.
If you're good enough to solve a Sunday puzzle, you're good enough to participate in this tournament. Have faith in yourself! Rope your mom / son / daughter / dad / friend into competing with you in the pairs division! You'll have a good time.
Last thing: for people who contributed via snail mail to my fundraising earlier this month, the first batch of thank-you cards (pictured above) have gone out this week, so look for those. The cards were a little delayed at the printers, so we were about a week or so behind, but the first week's worth of cards and letters have been replied to, and the rest will be coming shortly. It's been a joy, as usual, to get your cards and letters, which (predictably, sweetly) have been rather cat-heavy this year. Here's a small sample of stuff I've received:
That last pun is so baldly, blatantly bad that I laughed out loud. That's the way you do it. Anyway, you are all very kind. Note: a few of you have written things like "sorry this is late ..." and I'm here to tell you There Is No Such Thing As Late. Anything you send me, any time you send it, is exactly on time. That is all. Goodbye for real now.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. New Kitty, aka Ida, is healing up and settling in to her life as super-lowkey floof queen:
Save And Share :
135 comments:
The themers were uneven, but GOODEARTH genuinely made me laugh and that buys a lot of goodwill. I would have preferred fewer “?” cluster, since all of the theme clues were also of that variety. It did feel a little harder than a usual Sunday, maybe because I couldn’t get a foothold in the NW, but once I got going in the NE (thanks MAHOMES), the rest flowed fairly easily.
HARRY POTTER IS #1! Two clues from the number one runaway best selling series of all time. SYFY is running the movies right now and the SUPERB OWL and those dreadful DEATH EATERS are on my TV. Go HEDWIG!
Exactly what I expect on Sundays. Too much work, but this had plenty of comedy and only a few clunkers. I thought the theme was cute.
Uniclues:
1 Send Coast Guard to arrest drunken boaters.
2 Snarky tweet after FDA bans marinara skincare.
3 Third legs' aches.
4 Ears alerting brain extension office it'll need to dredge up its high school Spanish lessons.
5 Comfy retro-style pod makes galaxy exploration groovy.
6 When Karen goes Karen and ends up drinking decaf without knowing it.
7 Ate chocolate.
1 ISOLATE BEERY SEA TRIP (~)
2 ADIOS LASAGNA SPRAY ON
3 BODS MOAN ABOUT RELAYS
4 "NEURONS, I HEAR SENORES" (~)
5 AAH, SPACE TRAVEL VAN
6 COOL MOM "IN A MOOD" KARMA (~)
7 BLOAT URGES BOLSTERED (~)
This was a bittersweet solve for me. Sweet because reparsing crossword answers via SPACETRAVEL is pretty much what I delight in doing in my comments every day. (I can almost hear commenters murmuring, “oh, so that’s what @egsforbreakfast is doing every day. I had no idea.”). Bitter because all of my work for today was already done by the thoughtless constructor.
My taste generally runs to poor dogs. But today I thank and congratulate Rich Katz for a fine debut.
I drink my share of beers, but also as a former brewer, I can confidently say that neither ALE TAPs nor DUAL IPAs are a thing. You can have a tap or a beer tap, and there are numerous varieties of IPAs, but dual is not one. (Googles: ok there are some commercial beers with that name, but that’s not the style name.) Please don’t just make up words.
The term “K cup pod” is redundant. The “K” is for Keurig, the brand name of the coffee maker, and the “K cup” is the cup for that coffee maker that holds the grounds. Some other coffee makers of this type do call their containers “pods”, but not Keurig.
I got through this with just a vague idea of what I was looking at, and faith that DUALIPA was correct! Went to xwordinfo and found that it was another debut puzzle! That is fantastic.
Despite getting trapped on what was for me a natick, LILA/LCD I think with a bit more patience I might have resolved this one. That aside, I think this puzzle is about as good as we can expect for Sunday NYT. The theme was entertaining, obviously required a lot of work, and even some of the fill was witty. Unfortunately for me, I had never heard of a K cup pod and so just stared and stared at that answer, but understanding a posteriori what it is, the clue was very witty wordplay, and I 'm only sorry that my ignorance kept me from appreciating it. I hope we see more from this talented constructor!
Easy-medium. LeD before LCD and BOt before BOD were my major stumbling blocks. I only figured out the theme after I finished. Cute and clever, liked it. Nice debut!
RAMA/RFIDTAG was the death of me. Everything else was correct. UGH. Did you watch the recent Elton John concert livestream from Dodger Stadium? Dua Lipa was a guest. Thought she was faab.
I had no idea what this puzzle was about when I started it, and I had only VERY slightly more of an idea when I finished it.
And I *truly* have no idea what many of the clues have to do with "space travel" - which is b/c they DON'T have ANYTHING to do with actual "space travel" as most people would understand that phrase.
To me, the whole thing feels like a weak & misleading theme that's bizarrely (and poorly) clued & carried out. I'd like back the time I wasted on this one; definitely not worth it. Not clever, just forced (like Cinderella's shoe on her stepsisters' feet).
Like @Rex, I felt a few of the themers weren't "thingy" enough but some of the others were right on the funny. Only major overwrite was at 18A before I understood the theme, SEAm RIP before SEA TRIP. The crossing themer, STAR CHART, not only corrected the error but gave me the theme.
For some reason DEA theater/Deatheaters/ DEA Theater made me smile most of all as I I was doing the puzzle. In retrospect no idea why.. Though I did not get a big laugh out of any of them it was super entertaining figuring out the theme answers.
I noticed that Goo Death and Good Earth both can be a Shortage of slime. None of the others worked that way
Did not like dual ipa because never head of Dua Lipa and it doesn't sound fun and...
Hey Rex Since you know what promposals are how about 'splainin? I cannot imagine.
I really didn’t understand the theme while I was solving, and I didn’t try to pick up on it because I really wasn’t interested in it. I just used my crosses to solve and made it a challenge (or less if a challenge, depending on one’s perspective). Today’s puzzle was a little worse than a lemon but definitely better than a cigarette butt in the bottom of a glass. Maybe a sandwich, or a lovely piece of cantaloupe, served up with a big bite missing from it?
I neither read nor had any interest in Harry Potter; however, Harry Potter-themed clues appear often enough in crosswords that I appreciate the occasional primer I received today. I’m not knocking the series or the fans, but to me, Harry Potter is Crossword language (like the answer to “Singer di Franco”).
After filling in each theme answer, my brain did the bit of gymnastics required to see both interpretations, belted out a “Hah!”, and, for an instant, shook its head with amazement at our goofy language and the pleasures it can bring.
After this happening a dozen times, I felt catered to, pampered. Here’s this constructor doing his darnedest to make me happy – and succeeding!
I was also impressed at a grid that had 12 theme answers – symmetrical, no less – plus a reveal, without it coming across as awkward in the least, an embodiment of GOO DEARTH. On a debut, on a Sunday!
Thus, feel-good all around for me, and feel-good for Rich on this accomplishment. So very-very nice to start the day with a warm glow. Thank you, sir, and congratulations!
DNF the NW corner after flying blind through the clunky clues and "if you say so" reveals. At one point I thought "space travel" meant leave a space bt words. but no...and BARK AVENUE felt like a better answer. On to Wordle.
Still mystified by 116A. Dua Lipa is a person, clued as a "Brew that's both bitter and fruity?".
34D: I'm not Impressed.
Yup, that explains yet another Sunday. No good flow, no fun reveals. Just a lot of groans, and getting stuck again and again with cruddy ? clues. Even after high hopes for the theme, it was just MEH.
Thanks for explaining "trade discounts"
This was the funnest Sunday in a long, long time. @Rex picked 3 fav's. I had picked those 3 and also SUPERBOWL, which @rex hated on (mostly because of the HP/JKR connection). That's as far as I want to go into that kerfuffle. I had barista for groundskeeper-didn't quite work anyway so being wrong was ok. We just had KCUP I believe. Adding POD seems superfluous but whatever. Clever enough clue in any case. Not a nit, but I did notice that in some of the theme entries 1 letter was shared and in others 2 letters. I had a good time.
I got the theme pretty quickly at ASP ENTREE/ASPEN TREE, and filled in the revealer right after. Unlike some puzzles where knowing the theme lets you fill in all the themers right away, I needed crosses to get each of them. I agree that GOO DEARTH is the wackiest/best. Next best were LOO MOVER, STARCH ART and PARKA VENUE.
I also noticed the over-reliance on Potter stuff, unnecessarily for SUPERB OWL. I once kinda shrugged at JK Rowling’s transphobia but she is so relentlessly cruel about it, that I now completely agree with Rex and would no longer read or watch any of her stuff (and I loved the original books and movies). Here’s Rowling when asked if she regrets turning large audiences away from her work: “I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly.” Don’t give her any more money!
Like Rex, I struggled with the south center. I filled in RFID TAG last and was sure it was wrong. But it wasn’t. I struggled for a hilariously long time on TEASED HAIR. The clue completely fooled me, and I was seriously believing that bees built their honeycombs out of some kind of hair. How embarrassing.
Unlike RFID TAG, I knew what a KCUP POD was, and I thought “modern-day groundskeeper” was the best clue in the puzzle. “Impulsive sorts” for NEURONS was second.
I have watched some of the the ever more wild PROMPOSALS on YouTube, and I wonder if - like the ridiculous gender-reveal stunts - they are going to start wreaking some real havoc. Like everyone here, I follow @Loren Muse Smith’s truly heroic tales of teaching troubled kids, and I wonder if PROMPOSALS are a thing at her school, or do they exist only at rich, suburban white schools? I am guessing the latter.
Looking back over the puzzle, I notice that it has only one proper name of a real-world man (Patrick MAHOMES) and seven of real-world women, including three I love - MAYA Rudolph, ALISON Lurie and AIMEE Mann. Nice!
When I first figured out the theme, I like this a lot. Then, some clues and answers came up kinda meh, and I started losing some enthusiasm. We spent EONs trying to figure out there the space was moved on KCCUPPOD, since with a "?" this looked like a themer... Not! Perhaps should've been clued as "Modern-day 'groundskeeper'" or similar.
I didn't know DUA LIPA, but my wife did. And, IPA's don't have to be DUAL to be fruity and bitter - many IPA's already are both, without the DUAL.
I'm still flummoxed by portmanteaus every time. Every. Single. Time. (Sigh.)
No matter. Still fun to do, and congrats to Ricos Gatos on his NYT debut!
Agree with the big guy that the themers here needed to be off the rails to succeed - they weren’t. We’ve seen permutations of this trick so many times - today the theme is so dense that the resultant flat ones are in sore thumb territory and create a slog. The overall fill is generally fine with some glaring exceptions. The beloved quaking ASPEN makes the entire grid for me.
ALISON
Sudsy subtheme - with ALE TAP, DUAL IPA and whatever BEERY is. I’m not a huge MAHOMES fan but he is good - should make for an exciting watch later. I had a COOL MOM - never owned a cell phone.
Lost Angel SALOON
I’ve always disliked the kiddie lit reference so prominent in the NYTXW - I couldn’t care less about the author’s leanings. Rex’s EZ Pass is an RFID TAG - the disparagement is weak.
A Sunday slog no doubt - but there were some highlights.
Rest in guitar power Tom Verlaine - easy to see your influence on the GOOD EARTH
I'm pretty sure "cool mom" is an allusion to Amy Poehler's line in Mean Girls. I got it right away as my daughters watch this movie dozens of times.
Just to provide an opposing view, did not enjoy this puzzle at all and Rex does a great job of noting why that might be the case. Oh well.
I admire the time and effort that Rich Katz had to expend to construct this puzzle.
No complaints from me about this very fine Sunday morning diversion. Hope to see more from Rich.
Enjoyed this one more than Rex. Terrific debut and I look forward to more!
New kitty's nose looks a little better.
Have you ever tried to write a Rex column? It's super hard! Amazing that he does this each day, with such levity. Here was my first-ever attempt to channel him (my challenge was to try to guess what he'd write):
There was some cleverness and freshness here -- ironically including BIOGAS, but also TSAPRE (see what I did there?) and also RFIDTAG, KCUPPOD, COOLMOM and PROMPOSAL (so glad I had kids to teach me that one) and it was fun to have a lot of themers. But there was some questionable fill: MISDO and AEIOU seem particularly forced (I'm still not sure I understand that last one). And one of the themers seemed like an unforgivable NATICK - it tripped ME up anyway (I didn't know Dua Lipa; sorry to her loyal fans. And a "dual Ipa" is both bitter and fruity?? Um, o.k.; I'm afraid I was behind on the BT's as well…I'm getting old…). I had SEAMRIP instead of SEAT RIP (SEA TRIP??) for the longest time. Also, two themers were related to Harry Potter but the others weren't so…what's up with that? And isn't SUPERBOWL one word with no space to travel? In all, the experience was a mix of good and bad – and not *quite* an EVENTALLY. It was a bit more something to MOANABOUT. And that's what we do here at Rex Parker does the CROSS WORD.
[THANKS for the explanation of AEIOU; would otherwise have gone to my grave clueless]
Most of this was very easy and very fun — I really enjoy groaner-themers like these — but the upper NE and the bottom middle ate me up. I got several answers without understanding them at all, such as AEIOU and I’d never heard of DEATH EATERS. Yeah, stuff like BIOGAS and RFIDTAG and KCUPPOD were on the drekky side, but overall I had a real fun time. Even though I’d never heard of DUA LiPA, I was able to get DUAL IPA. If getting it means writing in the correct answer even without understanding it…
Oh, and I didn’t realize that only the themers had asterisks — I thought it was all the clues with ?’s, so that messed me up for a while.
And oops I meant NW!
Yay! for PARKA VENUE. Also RIGAMAROLE, STARCH ART, ASP ENTREE
I didn't know PROMPOSALS were real, so I found the word amusing. Now I know they're a thing - sigh.
@Gary Jugert —-Cheers for #5! Still chuckling.
A dual ipa is not a term but a double ipa is a beer that is often both fruity and bitter.
Get used to RFID. It's become a pretty ubiquitous tech.
Liked the theme, although a couple of the themers did not feel like strong standalone phrases e.g. CATCH AIR and especially EVEN TALLY. But the ones that worked worked well, and had some humor to them. A better-than-average Sunday.
Well, I just thought this puzzle was the most fun I've had with a Sunday puzzle in a loonng time. "PARKA VENUE" will live in my head every time I go into the city (My husband, who is a pun lover but not a crossword puzzler, offered DOGS LED when I told him the clue for that one :) There was enough difficulty in the fill to make this last awhile and enough delight and humor in the themed answers to make the time worthwhile. The revealer made sense and I thought the whole thing was consistent and hung together well. My only complaint is AEIOU, I thought that was a pretty obscure clue (didn't get it until I read Rex's explanation, tysm) I am amazed that this is Mr. Katz's first contribution and will very eagerly look forward to his next effort. Thank you! Happy Sunday everyone!
Nice!
I drink a lot of IPAs, and I would have finished up in the bottom if I'd ever had a DUALIPA. I've had lots of double IPAs, but just couldn't see it with DUAl. That and not knowing what an RFIDTAG is made a fine mess of things. Thank goodness for Clare or I wouldn't have known BTS either. And also a good thing that we just had KCUP, or I'd still be stuck there too.
Interesting concept that ran out of gas. This one falls into the "every great art movement destroys itself" category for me. Death by self imitation, in this case.
Congrats on the debut, RK. I Really Kinda liked most of it, and thanks for a goodly amount of fun.
GOO DEARTH and DUAL IPA both got a laugh from me - a rarity on a Sunday, and worth it. On the other hand, WTF is an RFID TAG?
I'm feeling a little bad for early solvers, like Anonymous 1:49 AM, where a themer flew right over their heads. Of course there's no such thing as a "DUAL IPA". It's a wacky reworking of the name of a pop singer, DUA LIPA, by moving a typographical space over one. Wait, Rex already explained all this. (Anon, you may have a point about ALE TAP, but I wouldn't really know.)
Toughish -- increased my recent solving time by maybe 30% -- but I really liked this puzzle. Sure, maybe you groaned a bit at some of the dadly wordplay. (Not sure why Rex is kvetching at "dad joke", as in the clue for KARMA. Dad jokes are acknowledged things. The louder the groan, the more Dad succeeded. Admit it, they're kind of sweet.) But given the premise of the theme, I don't see much to MOAN ABOUT. Even the ones where the pronunciation wasn't altered except for the space, like STARCH ART, were not absolutely trivial. Same for CAT CHAIR. (Yep, every cat needs his or her own chair. Or sofa.)
GOO DEARTH is utterly fantastic. You can never have enough GOO on hand. Also ASP ENTREE, which was my first themer. LOO MOVER is suspiciously suggestive of a bowel movement ("excuse me honey, hold that thought, but I need to have a loo mover").
Agree with Rex's review for the most part. RFID TAG crossing RAMA is the kind of dirty pool they play in Natick, MA. TSA PRE also seems lame. (Some shortenings are just so stupid. Yesterday I heard "low e" for "low energy". How much time are you actually saving that way? Especially after someone asks you to explain what "low e" means. "Big d e" is coming soon to a THEATER near you.) I can understand Rex's FATIGUE over the fascination with all things Harry Potter. DEA THEATER was a WOE for me until I read his explanation. Does this ELEVATE my appreciation of the themer? MEH.
LILA? Okay, if you say so.
I like "grabs a bite" more than GETS A BITE. If you don't like EVENT ALLY, what do you think of EVENS CORE ("flattens one's tummy")? Hey, don't shoot me -- I'm just a Dad who has only rarely tried XW construction.
SB: 0 for yd. My last word has burned me many times in the past. I have trouble remembering what it means. A type of sea cow? A Taco Bell offering?
Definitely a case of sensory overload aka Theme FATIGUE today - sorry, just too much of a decent thing. The Crossword stuff was actually pretty good, but it just felt like I was being asked to parse together too many crosses for too few “aha’s” or “that was really cool” moments. When your theme entries get to DUAL IPA and multiple Harry Potter kludges, you know you have really over-scraped the bottom of the barrel.
I don’t know what has happened to the NYT editorial team over the past month or so, but it has not been a good start to 2023 for the Crossword department at the Old Gray Lady.
Early on when solving saw the RIP in seat rip and death in Dea theater and thought it odd that they would publish a puzzle about death as the final frontier! 😂
Amy: liked this more than Rex, but one of my favorite running chums was a punster so am an easy mark. Hope the games are good today. Always a treat to see Alfie; Ida clearly establishing her queendom. 🐺🐈
",,,the *clued* phrases are wacky / nonsensical"
Excuse me? Nonsensical? Wacky? Rubbish!
Just who do you think will be delivering all those Portaloos (Brit for Portapotties) for the millions of folks filling the streets on May 6th for King Charles' coronation if not loo movers? And without those loo movers, what will Harry and Meghan use when the older brother tosses them out of the palace and onto the streets? Do you seriously expect Meghan to apply her lip gloss in public for all to see?
My Gosh, without loo movers, I can't even imagine what the streets of London will be like on the morning of May 7 once the crowds clear and go home. Indeed, what would our world be like if not for loo movers?
Yes, loo movers around the world are little recognized and appreciated, but to call them wacky and nonsensical? Perhaps in upstate New York they are thought of that way. But, if that's what you all think, I suggest it is you , Micheal, as well as your elitist university cohorts, who are the wacky and nonsensical ones.
Now.... moving on to that cradle of civilization Egypt. Clearly, Michael, you have never had the pleasure of dining on an asp. But, alas, that's for another post.
Hey All !
How do you like the mapples? (them apples) Who knew you could make a SunPuz out of reparsing Long answers? I've been doing that in these comments for years! Missed the boat on that (dang boat needs to wait.)
Took a sec to figure out what in tarhooties was wanted, as I thought for a bit that there was an extra letter that need to be skipped over , ala a "SPACE". Got PARKA VENUE, and in my ridiculous brain, said, "Oh, is it PARK VENUE with an added A? Are we getting extra random letters in the Themers? Maybe they'll spell something in the end." Thinking PARK VENUE was something outdoorsy, like a Play in the Park. After getting one or two more, finally cottoned onto the reparsement angle.
DUALIPA got a chuckle here. I've heard of said DUA LIPA, although haven't heard any of her songs. Isn't there also a Kat, or somesuch out there? Not up on modern rap, hip-hop, whatever the crazy kids are calling it nowadays.
Evil cross at the C of MEDOC/KCUPPOD. Well, unless you know your French wine regions (obviously I don't, add something else to the ever growing list of stuff I don't know.) Had K_UPPOD, scratched the head, and threw in a R. Clue was a highly successful misdirect, as all I could think of was lawns. Is a KRUPPOD a new lawn mower maker? Then tried an N for the hell of it, finally started running the alphabet. Hit on the C, and head slapping ensued.
But I won't MOANA BOUT it further.
RIGAMAROLE fun to see. ALE TAP? Sure... Still trying to figure out what SPACET RAVEL is...
(Har, joke...)
YesterBee -1, Argh! An 8er I miss every time. Was blown out of the water the other day, missed around 20. Oof! Some days are diamonds, some days the ole brain takes a vacation.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Rex, you are killing me with that recent edit. The floofinator, as I am calling her in my head, is a looker by golly. I'm smitten.
@SouthsideJohnny
Even if DUA LIPA's pop music isn't the cuppa of you and the Asbury Jukes, she is, how shall we say... fetching. I'll let you check out Google Images for yourself. The young lady knows how to market her brand, that's for damn sure.
This weekend's acrostic I found harder than average. (In stark contrast to last time's zoom-and-whoosh.) @bocamp, what do you think? (I could ask @Joe D, but I'm afraid he will have found it trivial.)
Agree to both
The themers: some were a good laugh, others felt forced. I got killed by putting SYSadS instead of SYSOPS. Otherwise flew through the rest.
Absolutely zero clues here who or what DUA LIPA may be, and the crosses were generally not a lot of help. Unlike that 2016 rapper who was closed the other whom I had also never heard of.
The gimmick was... a gimmick. GOO DEARTH was not as bad as the clue suggested, and I did like CAT CHAIR.
In any event, another meh(!) Sunday #NYTXW.
Deeply grateful to Rex and to @Wanderlust for explicitly naming how horrific and dangerous Rowling's transphobia is. Her hatred is virulent and prolific.
Fair warning - about to get a bit heavy for a Sunday... As a trans person who has lost too many trans friends to depression and other causes of premature death, I ask those of you who persist in the fandom to consider what it means to privilege your literary tastes over condemning a major contributor to the culture of violence against my (and surely, some of your) people. And yes, I was an HP fan before the transphobia showed its face, like many other queer and trans folks, making it sting even more. But I don't think you can separate a living artist from their artwork - anytime we uncritically platform or celebrate Rowling or her work, we miss an opportunity to shrink her sphere of influence. The only HP-related cluing I'd accept might be something like "unrelentingly transphobic author."
Otherwise, yep, yet another day this week of firmly agreeing with Rex and many of you. I found the wide range in the quality and cleverness of clues to be the most challenging part of the puzzle, where sometimes I'd consider a groaner of an answer only to realize it was actually something quite witty, or the reverse. To be clear, I'm here for groaners and dad jokes (though not this particular one), I just found it hard to find a rhythm with the cluing - maybe that was intentional? I dunno. Loved parts of this, groaned at others. Here we are.
@P. Morgan. Entertaining post. I imagine there will be many wheelie bins (one of my favorite British words) along side the portaloos.
Worst puzzle of the year. Surprised you didn't ding them for the non-sensical 2nd-answer pairings. Lazy, for a Sunday. Also: "beery"??
As for HP, don't blame the books. They're actually really wonderful for children and I'd hate to see fewer clues or discussions or readings of them purely because of their author's personal stances. I get that things make you think of things and that's part of the blog, but you should know the good that the books bring to kids, year after year, not only on the literary front, but as social-emotional touchstones. Be a little kinder to the fiction, Rex!
Can you love a puzzle and find it addictive -- while at the same time absolutely loathing (and not understanding at all) two of the answers? Sure you can.
If a constructor is playful with language and gives me lots to do and to think about, s/he'll keep me wanting to figure out this answer and then want to immediately move on to the next one. Which is what happened with this puzzle. Because the theme is dense, I had a puzzle within a puzzle almost every other minute and therefore it was never a Sunday slog.
But I do have real complaints. Having written in my usual ?AMA Hindu answer (it's always one of the AMAs), I got to the ?FIDTAG answer and stared at it blankly. What on earth? I guessed right on the R, but don't expect me to be thrilled about it.
And what on earth is DUALIPA? DUAL IPA and DUA LIPA? DUALI PA (right across the river from Natick MA?) None of them mean anything at all to me. Pure gibberish, I'd say.
Things here that really should have been changed, I'd say. But all in all, a most enjoyable solving experience anyway.
Thx, Rich; fun Sun. puz! :)
Med.
Enjoyed solving this one last nite, but not sure I fully grok the theme. Yes, SPACE is said to be 'The Final Frontier', but other than moving the SPACE to make two unique phrases comprising each themer, I don't see any commonality involving SPACE, TRAVEL, 'Final' or 'Frontier'. 🤔
Probably overthinking this one, and missing something obvious. lol
In any event, a worthy construction and worthwhile challenge! :)
Looking forward to reading @Rex and the commentariat.
On to the NYT' Acrostic; will get back to you @TTrimble.
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@pablo, Son Volt: had an embarrassing misfire on The Sat. Stumper at the 45D / 64A cross. :( Otherwise a relatively easy solve at 2x NYT Sat. level. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Had to reparse gAMA/gFIDTAG to RAMA/RFIDTAG to get the happy music (though perhaps a GFID might be "Global Fido Identification").
Still surprised when the happy music played, because I was unaware of DUA LIPA and, although DUAL IPA seemed right, I could not make any sense of submitting those letters to SPACE TRAVEL--D UALIPA? DU ALIPA? DUALI PA? DUALIP A?
Harder than usual Sunday, not a fav, but enjoyed the journey.
Kirk Cameron yesterday.
Jk Rowling today.
Here’s hoping for a “FDR agency of 1933” (NRA) tomorrow!
“Asp-Burgers” screwed me up for while. “Kcuppod” reminded me of “PIN number.” Rigamarole was nice.
A so-so puzzle with a few chuckles undercut by the odious Rowling references.
Congrats on the debut.
I initially answered “Sign unlikely to have been written by the person it is attached to” as “toe tag.” Oops. Fun puzzle, overall.
@bocamp. I related the title by thinking of the theme answers as a letter (or2) being the final part of the first word and the front(ier) of the second in the re-parsing. And the 'space' holding the letter 'traveled' from one word to the other. A stretch maybe but it scratched my itch.
Rex -- BTW is not an acronym, it's an initialism. It's only an acronym if the initials form a new word (like NATO). If they are pronounced simply by saying the letters (like FBI), it's an initialism. (I learned this a few years ago and trot it out eagerly every chance I get.)
This would’ve been a lot more fun if I’d grokkked it, but I was (inexplicably) stuck thinking in terms of outer space.
Only nit: I don’t see how IDITAROD is a venue. To my knowledge, it’s an event; its venue is the Alaskan wilderness. It leads the solver onto a different thought path, although crosses made it easy to see that Iditarod was the answer.
Great Sunday I really enjoyed it. Thanks to to messrs Katz and Shortz. I really get a kick out of Rex’s JK Rowling (She Who Shall Not Be Named) faux outrage too. It’s really adorable. Cheers.
I only know DUA LIPA because our band played one of her songs in the Palm Springs Pride Parade last November. Tricky syncopation for a marching band!
You really need to get over your Harry Potter hatred. Hate on Rowling all you want but you need to separate her work from her. The novels all have excellent messages of tolerance and courage. They have the added bonus of being hated by evangelicals.
Like a SEAT RIP that produces BIOGAS this puzzle really stunk. I find grids built on dad jokes to be insufferable so this was torture from beginning to end.
There's no such thing as a DUAL IPA. I've never heard of DUA LIPA or an RFID TAG so at least I got some puzzling out of this mess. KCUPPOD was the last thing to go in and I was just glad it was over.
Seeing as how TARN is in today's puzzle could W.S. please walk across the hall and remind Sam Ezersky that it's a common word and the SB ought to include it. Speaking of which...
yd -0
Rex’s blog did not come up this morning for some time. Now it’s back. I liked this one, mostly. Yeah, there were a few clunkers, but with twelve themers there are bound to be a few groaners that stretch things a little bit. Bravo to Rich Katz (the affluent feline?) on his NYT debut. Good job.
I enjoyed parsing the actual phrases vs. the clued phrase in this theme. Sometimes they helped me (LOO MOVER) and sometimes I had no clue until it was all filled in (EVENT ALLY). GOO DEARTH was my favorite - there's a vegetarian restaurant in St. Paul (Roseville, actually) by that name so I didn't need the Pearl S Buckley reference to enjoy it.
Almost all of my erasures happened in the west central portion. ___OGAS wasn't giving me any compost byproducts, and I was considering tOtS as small figures. It was only when I really thought about what a narc does and got 43D that that sector came together. We have a compost barrel and I don't think there's discernable BIOGAS happening, just GOOD EARTH.
M-W claims that RIGAMAROLE is the less common variant of RIGMAROLE. I don't think I've ever seen it in the wild as the single A version. Regional?
Apropos of nothing, we just had a visit from a pileated woodpecker to our suet feeder. Always a joy to see, especially on this semi-frigid morning.
Rich Katz, congratulations on your debut and thanks for the clever puzzle.
BOTS made enough sense for me for 41A, and since Will likes dated slang, "tea theater" made sense going down, so I concluded that there must be such a thing as a teat heater that goes on a milking machine.
STARCH ART definitely the best thing in this puzzle, with RIGAMAROLE in second place.
Our younger son made a PROMPOSAL to his gf about 10 years ago that involved digging something up from our garden, but that's all I know. They broke up when he left for Tisch.
Since I'm not at home had to do this on my phone, which means I got notified that it took 32 minutes.
Not looking forward to acrostic on phone, bleah.
+1 for TARN is a word! And should be allowed in SB
yep. {Shortage of slime?} definitely made M&A's themerquest #1 slot.
Didn't know PROMPOSALS or BTS. Didn't understand the BODS clue, so BODS/BIOGAS was kinda tough to get a bite of, at our house. Lost precious nanoseconds.
Speakin of themers: Sooo … DEATH EATER is a thing? Is it a schlock flick thing?
One longball answer that ain't a themer sure coulda been. It's clue woulda been somethin like this:
{* Movie part of the Latvian matriarch character?} = * [see footnotes]
staff weeject pick: BTS. M&A should really know this by now, as it's been in the puzs quite a few times. It just will not stick. If only BTS stood for somethin more intuitive than BangTan Sonyeondan.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Katz dude. And congratz on an entertainin debut.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
p.s. * = RIGA MA ROLE.
**gruntz**
@OffTheGrid (11:32 AM)
Well put! Yes, now I see how 'final' & 'front' come into play as the letters TRAVEL thru SPACE to create new words/phrases. Stretch or not, I think you absolutely nailed it! :)
@TTrimble
As I only look at the first clue, in this case, A. Close close (2 wds.), I have to try to make some sense of it in order to test possibilities in the grid. Still working on it. 🤞
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
There are quite a few anons today who don't seem to understand the theme at all (or maybe it's all the same person.) The whole point is that the wackily clued phrases are not real phrases.
I really liked LOO MOVER, GOO DEARTH, AND PARKA VENUE. However, not knowing that DEATH EATER is a thing totally spoiled that one for me.
I guess my recliner will become a CAT CHAIR on Wednesday when my sis's boyfriend's cat comes to stay. Evidently she sleeps about 23 hours a day (the cat, not my sister).
[Spelling Bee: yd 0; my last word was this 6er. TTrimble, for some reason your last word is usually one of the first ones I enter. And puzzlehoarder and Smith, totally agree on TARN.]
Is anyone else finding it really hard to solve the Acrostic in today’s NYT magazine?
All I have to say about Mahomes is
WHO DEY!!!
DUA LIPA won the Best New Artist Grammy in 2019. She is Albanian. Interestingly, Mother Teresa was also Albanian but she didn't win Best New Artist. Bob Newhart won that year (1961).
@bocamp
IMO, A Close close is the best clue/answer in today's Acrostic.
Terrible idea, @Rex, to go on and on about the Harry Potter author. Her initial comments about trans folks struck me as the plain-vanilla, "Biological men shouldn't play on girls' sports teams", which a vast majority would agree with. She's said more? If so it didn't get in the papers I read, and now, a few of your readers are going to look her up online and discover what truly ugly things she said (or maybe didn't say). Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing.
Instead of Rowling ranting, OFL might have mentioned another possible answer to DEA agent antics, a "seek ruse". I had a case once where the Feds actually paid for a pot shipment from Mexico, clearing the air lanes for the pot flight, buying the dope, and actually grabbing part of the load to sell illegally (hey, the agents know all the dealers who would buy wholesale and sell retail). Yeah, even the pilots, who were 100% guilty, were acquitted, because the jury was totally disgusted with their antics).
But speaking of Sea Cruise, a beloved song of my youth, my admiration for the song and singer totally vanished when I saw the dumb clip OFL posted. Good song, good voice, and absolutely no ability to put it across in person.
Whew. This was a slog for me. It took me way too long to catch onto the “trick” of the theme for it to be much fun, and once I did catch on, the answers were just okay. KCUPPOD got under my skin (they’re just Kcups!). Also I didn’t know Precheck at the airport was TSAPRE. We call it “the Precheck line”.
The most fun I've had on a Sunday in a long time. With LOO MOVER, I saw what was going on at the frontier between words (like @Rex at first, having not seen the reveal, I thought the "final" of the puzzle's title referred to the last letter of, say, LOOM, that got moved to to the other side of the border; thanks to him for making me appreciate SPACE TRAVEL - plays on words abound!). Anyway. I loved seeing how quickly I could get the rest (easiest: CAT CHAIR; hardest: GOO DEARTH). I loved the double challenge of figuring out the wordplay in the theme answers and finishing the regular crossword.
@Rich Katz, thank you for this treat!
@T Trimble FWIW I thought the Acrostic was a bear. Hardest one for me in a long time.
*STILL* no idea what a KC CUP POD or KCUP POD or KCUPPOD or whatever the f*ck it is, is supposed to be. And what the hell is a "PRE" ("TS" or otherwise)??!!
So is there some secret underground little pamphlet that is circulated among crossword creators that designates some rarely-used "words of the week"with a challenge that they be incorporated into their puzzles. If so, this week one of them seems to be "promposal" - a word I do not recall ever seeing in a puzzle, but was used in both yesterday's WSJ and today's NYT.
This is not an uncommon phenomenon. Earlier this week the same rarely used word (can't recall what it was, exactly) was in both the NYT mini and the "maxi" on the same day.
Could it be that there Is there a constructors' deep state that is out to mess with out minds?
Absolutely hated this puzzle. Enjoyed and appreciated the post on it.
And no, it’s not that I didn’t understand the theme. It’s that the theme itself was pure nonsense. “Goo Dearth” is at least sort of funny, but “Aspen Tree” has no connection, meaning, or logic behind it.
I just think there’s a difference between thoughtful themes and lazy ones, and the vast majority of this felt like shoehorned wackiness that was decided after the fact.
If I get to the point where I wish a puzzle were over with, it is.
I don't do the acrostic. Is JC66 2:19 post a spoiler?
Kerouac (at least in his later, booze-besotted years) was a raving anti-Semite and racist. Robert Lowell raped his first wife and then memorialized the incident in his poem "The Mills of the Kavanaughs." Saul Bellow, by many accounts, was a racist. And we won't even get started on Ezra Pound. Pablo Picasso's egregious treatment of women was legendary. Moving on to other art forms (and away from the "guy thing" trope), both Bette Davis and her bete noir Joan Crawford were accused by their daughters of horrible abuse, both mental and physical. (Alice Walker's daughter made similar accusations). It's very likely that the R&B singer Dee Dee Warwick (Dionne's sister) sexually abused Whitney Houston when Whitney was a girl. And so on, and so on, and so on.
So -- How many books, movies, songs, or paintings are we now forbidden to allude to because of the less-than-stellar personal lives of their creators?
At MetroGnome. KCUP(PODS) are little sealed containers of coffee used in Keurig coffee makers. Not a flyer so can't help you with TSAPRE.
I definitely liked this more than Rex did. I also made a couple of the same errors early on ("ohnice" for "OHNEAT" & "shave" for "STYLE"). Once I had the aha moment with the them, a lot fell into place. Most of my errors were due to brain farts. I have no idea who DUA LIPA is which caused an issue with DUAL IPA, though I should have gotten that from BLOAT but it took a while to accept because of my biggest mistake. I got so stuck on "Loo Lover" for 24A because I liked the idea of "shipper" being a misdirect but I couldn't parse where the space would move to. The cross with PROMPOSAL didn't help at all due to my status as the father of two boys, one whose small school didn't have a prom and the other who went as part of a group. Still found it fun.
As for the Harry Potter stuff, I refuse to let my disgust for the author affect my love for the books. They will always have a place in my heart as my wife literally read all of them to our boys and they also got my oldest son interested in reading again after it was nearly destroyed by a very poorly implemented curriculum in first grade. I'm able to divorce the art from the artist because a lot of things I really enjoy, and some that I even love, were created by people I later found out were real assholes and worse.
@Wundrin' 3:32 PM
No. Fear not.
@Wundrin' – no, JC66's post is not a spoiler. It's one of the clues, which are there for all to see.
I haven't had any time to work the Acrostic so I am going to start in on it now.
Applause to @Jeremy 11:31 for Toetag!
One of the funniest shows of recent times, at least in its first season, was The Detour, created by the progressive Jason Jones and Samantha Bee. They made light of those who always ascribe hateful intent to often benign comments.
This scene, at an insanely racist restaurant called Conquistadors (where Aztec women twerk), shows how we now brand everything as racist (or various types of “phobes”) regardless of context or intent.
https://youtu.be/c2c9NjeeY30
Script:
Take that thing off your head. Don't you realize how offensive that is?
Don't distract me. If I dunk this guy, I win this really cool hat. Just gotta hit the little chink in the armor.
Wow. Are you kidding me with that sh¡t?
Hey, buddy. Do not talk that way to my son.
You mean your racist son? Oh, sh¡t, no. Oh, sh¡t, yes. No, no, no. No, no.
H-he was... He meant... Yeah, what? N-not... Oh, yeah? Yeah, say it, man. I'm not gonna say it in that context. Well, you shouldn't say it in any context. It's racist.
Please, do not call my son a racist.
The racist doesn't fall too far from the racist tree.
Okay, hey, you're wearing armor. That's the one time you can use it. It's the expression.
What about weakness in the armor? That's an expression.
No, it's not. You could say, "opening in the armor."
Yeah, you could.
People don't.
What about "hole"? A hole. "Hole" is great. "Hole" doesn't involve you... Oh...
Spouting a dictionary-defined racial slur, which apparently your father hasn't taught you is what racists do.
[Touchscreen clicking] Yeah, okay, and the first dictionary definition of that word is...
Oh, great, you're that guy?
"A narrow opening or crack, as in... in someone's armor."
@TTrimble, thefogman, et al re: the acrostic
Found it med +; thx to a laughable blunder, which took forever to discover. 🤣
@JC66
Agreed; loved that clue/answer! Was thinking along different lines, so took a few well placed letters to finally get it. Well worth the effort! :)
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
@MetroGnome
Robert Lowell raped his first wife and then memorialized the incident in his poem "The Mills of the Kavanaughs."
I was struck by this. Is this a consensus view on the poem? I did a little googling but didn't find any confirmation.
So -- How many books, movies, songs, or paintings are we now forbidden to allude to because of the less-than-stellar personal lives of their creators?
Well, I think the answer is zero. You can allude all you like, and Rex can voice his displeasure at JKR and HP constantly being alluded to. (I agree with you that just because, say, Wagner was antisemitic doesn't mean we can't discuss his music on its own merits. A work of art is in the world and outlives its creator.)
Loved “parka venue”. The rest were kind of meh
So...I thought the Acrostic was pretty straightforward. Not sure what would have caused problems. I don't think clue F is exactly on target for that answer, though I suspected it was what they wanted.
Does anyone do the Every Second Turn puzzle (upper right corner in the print version)? It's kind of fun, but I'm having trouble figuring it out today.
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for feeling the same way about the harry potter clues as I did. I do the puzzle each day with my girlfriend, who is trans, and it really bummed us out and soured our mood to run into those two clues. It wasn't just that it was two harry potter clues, it was also that they were both quite forced and fannish, like it was requiring me to play along or something. Didn't help they were both in the same zone. Nice to see that we're not the only ones who hated it!
Wow just wow about JKR. I must live in a cave or under a rock - had no idea about her heinous beliefs. But I also enjoyed watching my daughter ravenously read the HP books, wait for each next one to come out, and reading them to my younger son (back then) and enjoying them myself. Best to separate love of the literature from disgust with the author
Just jumping in to echo Mr. Parker's dismay at She Who Must Not Be Named. As a writer, I know there is a distinction between an author and their work, and I have loved the books, but in the face of So Much Vitriol and life-endangering legislation toward trans kids, it's hard to see the reference and not be dismayed. Thank you for at least creating awareness and moving the needle at least a little bit. Death Eaters, indeed.
Absolutely hated this puzzle. Too many bland fills or strange clueing. The theme was apparent immediately ( too apparent) but after that …. Sorry - sysops??? Really? RFID tags?? And if you clue for British toilets ( pl) the answer should really be as well. Liked good earth and kcuppods however. Some ingenuity there
@Joe D
I've never known you to consider an Acrostic difficult, ever, so I figured you would say that. :-) My earlier comment was based on the fact that I considered it a foregone conclusion that you would find it straightforward, because you always seem to find it so, or even easy.
Full disclosure of ignorance: I'd not heard of the answers to I. and R. Nor to J. tbh; it helps to be a musician I guess. I would not have gotten the answer to O. unaided. The answer to H. took a while because the word I kept wanting to substitute for the first word begins with the same letter. I found K. tricky. The clue to A. I agree was nice, but the answer was not immediately apparent before the answer-quotation dialectic kicked in a bit.
I didn't find the puzzle a killer, but I did find it above-average in difficulty.
---
Ach, the poor 49-ers. Not that I have a dog in the race.
Thank you for explaining that one. I had no idea what that one was about!
I have a niece who has PTSD from the horrible bullying and other abuse she received when she was a young man, and from when she first transitioned. Every time another bigot gets on their high horse and spouts out their vitriol, if it gets past her defenses it sends her into a depressive black hole. So yeah, fuck JKR & all the politicians who are trading on LBGTQ+ bigotry. They can just shut the hell up. Trans people exist, they are only doing what is necessary to live their lives in a meaningful way, they are hurting exactly no one, and if you are anything but a bigot you can accept that without comment.
If you are a bigot, that's fine, but everyone should point that out as loudly and as often as possible until you learn to keep it to yourselves.
I’d love it someone here would provide a link that supports the notion that JK Rowling is a bigot. I’ve looked around and couldn’t find any evidence of this claim. Thanks in advance.
I would add that there is no DEARTH of claims of JKR bigotry just no evidence to back them up. ta
I deeply enjoy ADIOS LASAGNA SPRAY ON and this is is going to give me giggles at odd times this week.
Happy National Puzzle Day to those who celebrate!
@Fred
As for why people are accusing JK Rowling of anti-trans bigotry, I think you could start with the link that Rex provided. Here it is again.
I'm not an expert on this topic myself, but there are people on this blog who I think are. This blog is much more active in the morning (as measured by US Eastern time) than the evening. If you had posted earlier, you might have gotten a larger response.
If I understand it correctly, Rowling doesn't think there is a meaningful distinction between sex and gender, and she wants to sound warnings about alleged dangers of trans activism. The first runs counter to how the (vast, I think) majority of trans folk view their own experiences as lived from within, i.e., is denying the reality and legitimacy of their experiences. And this is received as anti-trans bigotry. Worse, from the perspective of the trans community, she is also opining from a position of power and influence and privilege.
Anyway, I don't plan on continuing the discussion past this point, because as I said, I don't feel particularly qualified. But I do think it's important to listen carefully and retain an open mind, particularly toward those who are most directly affected by her assertions.
@TTrimble 6:30 – Not true; I don't always comment on the Acrostic, but there was one recently that I was getting nowhere with and eventually gave up on.
In fact, today it sounds like I had almost the same experience as you. Only B and T were immediate gimmes. Like you, I wouldn't have known O. K took quite awhile to see what they were going for. I didn't know I and R, though I'd *maybe* heard them once before. I had something else in mind for J but realized it would be wrong, so I had to wait until I got the first letter to figure it out.
But my initial guesses helped me see several likely words forming in the quotation, and I got a smooth back-and-forth going on, and never got stuck and never had a writeover. That's what I meant by "straightforward"— not that I knew all the bottom answers right off the bat.
I was proud of guessing Q and S right away though. I liked those clues. :-)
@TTrimble - sorry, I now realize you were referring to your 9:38 post, where you mentioned me at the end – somehow I missed that, which is weird because I remember reading the rest of the post.
I can see where this grid would get all sorts of different reactions.
While I found a bit of weakness in some of the cluing, the puzzle proved to be a light, breezy romp. My brain totally plugged into the theme, with a fairly rapid fill through 2/3 of the grid, and just a little extra traction needed to fill out the remainder.
All in all, I find it to be an impressive construction.
Thanks for showing Ida twice today. She looks right at home watching Alfie on the CAT CHAIR from her perch in the basket of the cat tree across the room. And clearly is comfortable with you!
Earlier today as I was medicating my cat Pip in the hopes of clearing up her hideously runny nose, I told her that she seemed a bit better today. I also told her how much I hoped that Ida, whom we haven’t met but about whom we care very much had healed well - especially her nose! She obviously is doing quite well. Her sweet little pink nose is cute as a button.
The puzzle was a Sunday style classic. I marvel that constructors are able to think of so many theme answers for these kinds of endeavors. Well done! For me, the good news was that the non-theme fill flowed very nicely and had some excellent word play, making the solve go smoothly. I agree with @Rex that not all the theme material hot the sweet apot on the clever meter, but overall I enjoyed the solve, especially since I only started it 30 minutes ago!
Mr.Steinberg, Beautiful creative construction!
Michael, Always thank you for your good observations……we missed the pairs of i’s”
Thank you. I was tripped up by the addition of “pod” to “kcup” and then annoyed when I figured it out. You provided some support for my frustration - “pod” doesn’t really belong there.
@TTrimble --
Just saw your query. In his definitive biography of Lowell, "Lost Puritan," Paul Mariani discusses the incident, and Lowell's use of it in his poem, in depth.
Hah! I love Rex's parsing of "Final frontier". I'm looking forward to the day when I can use the word "fronty" in a sentence.
That AEIOU clue was just brutal and unnecessary
The KCUPPOD clue doesn’t really work without a ? though. It’s a play on the word groundskeeper.
Can anyone explain the clue for ROYALWE? I get sovereign relates to royal but I don't fully understand the connection here.
One Harry Potter reference could have been avoided by changing 41A BODS to BOSS and then cluing 43D as something like "movie on a cruise" to get SEA THEATER (seat heater). I like that better.
Sorry for chiming in late but I only did the puzzle today.
Royalty refer to themselves in the plural, as in: “We are not amused”.
Aloha would have been a more apt answer to 21 across. Both CIAO and ALOHA are used as both hello and goodbye whereas ADIOS not so much.
DNF. Couldn't get most of the west, or the deep south. I certainly hope the Super Bowl will be better than this collection of unknowns.
Wordle par.
Off to the pub, where I'll be rooting against MAHOMES. 'Til tomorrow.
TART GETS URGES
PAULA's COOLMOM, MAE, will DAREME,
INAMOOD of ENTENTE devout,
MAE TEASED ME OSO BEARly,
WE have GOOD RELAYS to MOANABOUT.
--- DAVE MAHOMES
Never met a RFIDTAG.
@Foggy from yesterday - you're correct. I got your message mixed up with someone else's (on the meeple matter).
Off to the Puppy Bowl, and then the gym. Mr. Waiting will watch the other game. I may stop by for a commercial or two.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
I'm thinking MAHOMES and SUPERBOWL in this puz might portend something.
Quite a RIGAMAROLE to figure out the themers. MEH. AIMEE Mann, yeah baby.
Wordle par; starting with SUPER got me nowhere.
Me too on the AEIOU clue.
@Carrie W -- see Baader-Meinhof
Dual IPA. Dua Lipa. The spacing of two words
A few too many esoteric answers. Never heard of RFIDTAG even though I have 3 dogs. LILA is kind of an outlier. Not good on boy bands but I guess BTS is fair. They are super popular and I had never heard of them. Got everything though with the help of the crosses. Last section solved was the southeast. What a bear. Rex was spot on with his analysis. Especially about Harry Potter. If there is never again a Harry Potter clue, nor a Game of Thrones clue I'll survive.
Yes, redundant, but if you take " K-Cup" as a brand name, it works.
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