TV political drama known for its walk and talks / TUE 1-3-23 / Bird in Tootsie Pop commercials since 1970 / Epitome of slipperiness / Multitasker's browserful
Constructor: Margaret Seikel
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: "MOVE FAST AND / BREAK THINGS" (17A: With 55-Across, modern principle of start-ups) — "THING" is "broken" in two, with "TH" on one side and "ING" on the other side of three long theme answers ... I confess I have no idea how the "MOVE FAST" part factors in: Theme answers:
"THANKS FOR COMING" (23A: Host's farewell phrase)
"THE WEST WING" (34A: TV political drama known for its "walk and talks")
"THAT'S SURPRISING" (48A: "Never would have guessed it!")
Word of the Day: MEG CABOT (3D: "The Princess Diaries" author) —
Meggin Patricia Cabot (born February 1, 1967) is an American novelist. She has written and published over 50 novels of young adult and adult fiction and is best known for her young adult series Princess Diaries, which was later adapted by Walt Disney Pictures into two feature films. Cabot has been the recipient of numerous book awards, including the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, the American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, the Tennessee Volunteer State TASL Book Award, the Book Sense Pick, the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, the IRA/CBC Young Adult Choice, and many others. She has also had number-one New York Times bestsellers, and more than 25 million copies of her books are in print across the world. (wikipedia)
• • •
So I am going to move now from blaming my possible blogging impairment on jet lag to blaming it on illness (and also still somehow jet lag). I was on the couch all day watching movies while my wife was in bed all day just sleeping with the cat (who was Extremely happy with this development, thank you very much—nowhere he'd rather be than curled up next to "The Lady," which is what he, that is I-doing-his-voice, calls Penelope). It is currently 11-something PM and I just *woke up* from my latest short / fitful sleeping episode. The worst is over, but oof, sleep, it is not on schedule. Anyway, my solving skills seem to be still intact, but I feel like I must have missed something with the theme, as I cannot find the "MOVE FAST" component and I'm sure there must be one. Or else, I feel there should be one and so I'm stubbornly still searching. The lack of such a component, combined with my inherent revulsion at the revealer phrase (tech bro'y sloganeering can go jump in the sea), meant that I didn't really groove on this one. Its pop culture universe is also (largely) not my pop culture universe, but that's just ... the breaks (boom, big pun, even in sickness, still got it!). Don't know anything about "The Princess Diaries" so 2x "Princess Diaries" = 2x = [shrug] (22A: ___ Thermopolis, Anne Hathaway's role in "The Princess Diaries" => MIA). MEG CABOT's name does ring a bell, though—I've probably had her name in my eyeline countless times at the bookstore). Never did take to "THE WEST WING," but the whole Aaron Sorkin "walk and talk" thing, I have definitely heard of (I was a big fan of Sorkin's "Sports Night," which probably shares some dialogue characteristics with "West Wing"). I have read Sally ROONEY, though (61A: "Normal People" author Sally), and anyway, it's not like you needed to be Very familiar with any of these pop culture answers to solve the puzzle fairly quickly. My issues with the puzzle are, as I say, primarily thematic, in that it seems incompletely executed, and that revealer phrase, blargh.
It's weird that puzzleworld wants to perpetrate "I WAS HAD" on the world when my ear always wants it to be "I'VE BEEN HAD!" Now, "I WAS HAD" returns the most Google hits, but you get a whole bunch of odd hits for grammar sites, instances where there's a comma between "was" and "had," instances where the relevant phrase is something like "who I was had nothing to do with it." I think the phrase I'm *really* hearing in my head is "WE WAS ROBBED!" but I watch a lot of gangster films, which might explain why I hear what I hear. On the symmetrical side of the grid, "WANNA GO" feels perfect. Fresh, current, terse, bouncy, good. "SEEMS OK" is in the same general category. As for difficulty, there wasn't much today, but it didn't seem unusually easy, either, for a Tuesday. I had JET before SST (the retired FRANCo-British supersonic crosswordese that time forgot!) (47D: Concorde, e.g., in brief), but no other mistakes / write-overs. I am currently amusing myself by reading a couple of rows in this grid as if the answers went together. I'm particularly intrigued by the existential question "IS LAM LAM?" and by the potential animated series "EEL TEEN" or "TEEN EWE." I'm imagining a juvenile delinquent young sheep just hanging out under a street light, smoking, glaring defiantly at me as EEL TEEN rides up on his motorcycle and does the same. I would watch a show about the escapades of these two, for sure. Sorkin, call me.
Where the clues said "Princess Diaries" I heard "Princess Bride" and wondered what oh what is wrong with my memory. Anne Hathaway played Mia in it? Inconceivable!
After some comments yesterday, I decided to try solving this by only looking at the across clues. I learned something interesting: what makes me like solving Mondays by only looking at the down clues, is that it's a once a week thing. Twice a week is too much. End of experiment!
In my last internet job, my "supervisor" was a 20-something who said he subscribed to the MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS philosophy (except when things broke, he went ballistic and blamed me). I guess I'm too old for that stuff... I think I'm pretty much a "move carefully and make things work" kinda guy.
Get well soon Rex!
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0; pretty fast, pg in 3 minutes and QB in maybe 15 min. No weird words!]
This was one occasion when knowing very little helped me. My brain was also thinking Princess Bride but I hadn't a clue about the actresses' names in either so it didn't bother me at all. I think someone will have already made a comment about a certain 4 letter across answer but I haven't read most of the blog yet. Decent puzzle.
OMG... LOL... ATONER! [Sorry sort... uh maybe?] [Apologizer] [One Xerox cartridge] [She of the sunbathers] [Wholistic person] [Big pickup truck] ... but the real clue should have been [Reason to have your software recompile the north central section of the puzzle]. ATONER.
Yeah, there's ARSES (3 for 3 so far in 2023 for LNETHs) tossed in for good measure. Pay attention wannabes constructors.
Torturous theme, but I did fill them all in part way through the puzzle, so I guess it helped the solve. We watched Wednesday on streaming and, just as here, Thing plays a leading role.
Yays:
SNARF. And 🦖 writing uniclues.
Boos:
Holy Moly there are a lot of abbreviations.
Uniclues:
1 Three random words just sitting next to each other, we promise. 2 When three of the typewriter keys get stuck together while writing a paper in comparative religions. 3 Action and reaction for a buffalo in a china shop. 4 What the majority of women have done numerous times in their past. 5 Nickname for a short emotional person. 6 Not only are they smart, but they smell good too. 7 The result of thinking you've still got it.
1 OWE ATONER ORAL 2 ISLAM LAM SNAG 3 BREAK THINGS. SAD. 4 DATE ARSE'S SON 5 STORMIN' ITSY 6 ARAMIS GENIUSES 7 OLD AGE EGGED ON
I say, Move Things and Break Fast. Sounds like the motto of a hungry moving crew. Rex wants the MOVEFAST part to have meaning within the theme. Seems like a big ask.Every way I try to do it, I only get around 50% of the way there. I guess my attempts are half-FAST.
IWASHAD takes me back to my youth, which I guess was spent largely in public restrooms. Seems like in Oregon, restaurant pissoirs were required to post a decal on the mirror that said WASH YOUR HANDS (and below in smaller letters was “Before Reurning to Work”). Almost invariably, 4 letters were scratched out, leaving the phrase as WAS YOU HAD Before Returning to Work?
For a few nsecs I had POT for 9D. It seemed possible that pot in your room could trigger an extra charge. I almost started going through old credit card statements to check on the frequency with which I have incurred these charges. Due to (or perhaps because of) my edible-induced state of laziness, I instead corrected my answer to COT and checked out.
Theme was a little too easy and, for me, revealed too early. But still a fun Tuesday distraction. Thanks, Margaret Seikel.
Given your nom-de-blog, I thought you were going to say “Move Things and Breakfast”. That’s my mantra for early January when I’m still sticking to my New Year’s resolution to work out first thing in the morning.
MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS, in the timeline of tech startups, is actually not a particularly modern or even up to date principle. Facebook (sorry, Meta), the originator of the phrase, jettisoned it as a principle 7-8 years ago after they discovered that too many things were breaking. I worked there in 2016, during the subsequent culture shift, and boy were people having a hard time figuring out how to refocus on *not* breaking things instead.
“Outdated principle” or “principle that scales poorly” or “principle of the overconfident and shortsighted” would be more accurate revealer clues.
Hey, Rex. Sorry you were under the weather. Thanks for gutting it out and doing your write-up despite your illness. “I was on the couch all day watching movies” describes my absolute perfect day – especially if said movies involve some kind of princess diaries (or a prince running around pretending to be a lowly commoner but falls in love with an actual commoner who gets all mad and stuff when she finds out his real identity because she doesn’t care one whit about wealth and power, but she finally comes around, and they live happily ever after once his snobby queen mom accepts her and warms to the arrangement. Man oh man I’m shallow.
I was looking for that MOVES FAST element, too, THANKS FOR COMING had me imagining that mass exodus that happens at a gathering when the first brave guest stands to leave a yawner, thus opening the floodgates for all the other bored guests to make their escape, too. Then I was thinking that maybe those “walks and talks” were fast? But there’s no sense of moving fast with THAT’S SURPRISING.
This can be a high-brow place, this blog. I don’t feel ashamed that I’m shallow, that I own a TV and know how to use it, that I like Cheese Whiz. . . but I always feel ashamed when I don’t understand the disdain for something that maybe I’m supposed to be disdaining, too. I’ve searched my databanks trying to understand why “tech bro'y sloganeering” is objectionable. Assumption that start-ups are just “bro” things notwithstanding, what’s wrong with start-up techspeak? Were the women who started Spanx, Bumble, 23 and Me not invited to the MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS business model? Once again, I feel unWoke and exposed.
It's been my experience that the biggest braggarts out there are in fact Not the ones with the robust EGOS but rather the ones with really fragile EGOS.
SHARIA crosses ISLAM – nice. LUTHOR crosses ROONEY – dealt me a dnf and the thought that “Reoney” is a really weird last name. Oops.
I wasted a ton of time trying to put my finger on the decided difference between STOW and store.. Best I can figure is that if you STOW it, you’re gonna retrieve it shortly? So you STOW your carry-on in the bin but store your spices in the pantry? But if you’ve just bought specific items to use in a recipe later in the day, you don’t STOW them in the fridge, right? And neither verb works with where you put away your folded clothes. This is the drawer I store my leggings and sweatshirts in. feels weird. Anyhoo. . . not really important in the big scheme of things.
“What a budget motel might have” – where do you even start with this? An odor, for sure. A noisy thermostat that doesn’t really work. A commode with an anemic flush. A sour-smelling shower curtain. A half-clogged bathtub drain that leaves you ankle-deep in water by the time you’re done showering – that Creeps. Me. Out. I know my way around a cheap motel, buddy.
Pantyhose annoyance – not pulling them up enough, so that you have to take ITSY bitsy little steps.
Margaret – I had never heard MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS, but I really like the phrase. Especially as the mother of former toddlers and a great dane mix, Fred.
PS - @egsforbreakfast – great post. To piggyback, I’ll offer that BREAKFAST AND MOVE THINGS could be the slogan for Kellogg's All-Bran.
Nearly my first Tuesday DNF in quite some time on an otherwise easy puzzle. LUTHOR/ROONEY nearly got me. Combine that with MIA/ARAMIS and I feel lucky to have been just 2 minutes slower than normal. Didn't love the theme, and I felt it gave away too many answers, but fun nonetheless.
Also, that "MOVE FAST AND / BREAK THINGS", such a horrible phrase. Completely sucked any air out of this puzzle that there might have been. I think xkcd 1428 explained it adequately, but Zuck and Jared can just eat it.
@Rex. You didn't miss anything in the theme. The "OR" in the revealer is the key. I'm with you on THEWESTWING (way over rated) and Sports Night, excellent show. Were you slipping back into a "fitful sleeping episode" toward the end of your write up? HAR!
RAntS before RAvES before RAils before RAGES for "Shows explosive anger". Had LUTHeR (headslap), making it hard to get ROONEY so I really screwed myself in the south central. Otherwise, good Tuesday.
My ten favorite clues from 2022 (in order of appearance):
The right one can produce a smile (11) Summons before congress? (5)(4) Putting greens in these courses might be expected (6) Dead ringers? (7) Cheese that’s “not badda” (5) Joins a heavy metal band, say (5) Not in bounds? (3)(4)(2)(1)(4) Noun phrase that’s present perfect indicative? (4)(4) Inefficient confetti-making tool (4)(5) Cut with a letter opener? (1)(4)(5)
PARENTHESIS (Kameron Austin Collins) BOOTY CALL (Brooke Husic and Nam Joon Yin) SALADS (Kameron Austin Collins) MEDIUMS (Byron Walden) GOUDA (Emily Carroll) WELDS (Sid Sivakumar) ONE STEP AT A TIME (Erik Agard) WISH LIST (Brook Husic and Erik Agard) HOLE PUNCH (Kate Hawkins) T-BONE STEAK (John Martz)
Thanks, @Lewis. I always look forward to your lists. I remembered BOOTY CALL, HOLE PUNCH and T-BONE STEAK but had forgotten the others - and they all brought back smiles.
The PPP seemed a little esoteric for a Tuesday - which may just be a wheelhouse thing. It also seemed like quite a bit of real estate was allocated to the theme, which also contributed to pushing his one toward slog-fest territory. Fortunately I was able to fight my way through it. Next.
Blugh. Revealer is an unfamiliar phrase that expresses much that is wrong with the business world. One themer (THAT’S SURPRISING) is green paint. Clue for SNARF clearly should be for ScARF. Two Princess Diary clues. Double-blugh.
Hope you’re feeling better soon, Rex, though I gotta say, you’re funny when you’re sick. And to all the usual suspects: thank God for you people, whose humor brightens my day. Now it’s time for my Special K. Gotta get a move on.
Chicken or the egg? I would think that this started with that rotten paradigm for modern business and everything else an afterthought. Never saw THE WEST WING or Princess Diaries. Like THANKS FOR COMING.
Food mini-theme. ATE FILE(t) of SOLE, PANINI, EEL, EGG(edon). SNARF it down ORAL(ly) after smoking some REFERS. You could also add LAM(b), EWE, and have a DATE for dessert.
Never heard this stupidly vile slogan and not surprised at all that it came from where it came from. So no help with the themers, but I just didn't care. Also know nothing about "The Princess Bride." This puzzle was meant for someone who is not me.
@The Anonymouses saying "sandwich" should lead to PANINo: You're right of course. Sadly, nobody cares.
Very easy for me, my (now 32 year-old) daughter was a huge fan of The Princess Diaries in all its forms, so MEGCABOT and MIA were gimmes. I didn’t know the start-up philosophy but I had to laugh when I got it, as it seems so apropos to companies like FB/Meta that have helped mess up the world. Not all startups are guilty of that of course.
I like the puzzle’s welcoming vibe of having the first spanner be THANKS FOR COMING. I like the pair of EWE and LAM. I like SNARF up, ARSES on the bottom, and, on the rim, RIM. I like that MIA made me think of “Hamm”, which crossed nicely with PANINI. I like the Italian cross of CAPO and PANINI. I like any reference to THE WEST WING. There is even a West Wing coffee cup in our house. I like that there was almost an OUT mini-theme, with the answer OUT, and OWE, EWE, and TEEn. I greatly like Loren's closing sentence.
And thus I’m feeling bouncy and breezy from the likes of your puzzle, Margaret. A big thank you for making it!
Amy: hope you and your lady are feeling better today, Rex. Thanks for blogging through your fog. Mostly enjoyed the puzzle. The ATONER clue really got me.🤣.
I share your disgust at the "startup" slogan. Though lately it has been entertaining to watch Musk's version of this in action.
My first, like, immediate, thought for 25D was BEDBUGS, which fits, but I had enough crosses to dismiss that. I like @LMS' list as well, though she neglected to come up with 7-letter possibilities (which is surprisingly tough but maybe it's time to go make some coffee). AC DRIPS. PERFUME.
Here to join the chorus of blarghs about this crossword, for the same reasons about both wheelhouse and theme.
Fwiw, @Loren, I don’t think you have anything to be ashamed about for liking those things, and my hope is that it’s not the intent of the blogger or the commenters to produce that. I grew up in a family that very much did shame those things and what a delight it’s been as an adult to shed that and to stop believing in “guilty pleasures” but just pleasures. If I wanna watch Grey’s Anatomy all the way through for the 4th time, like I’m doing right now, I will.
And, fwiw, I think of “tech bro” as a term that can apply to someone of any gender, because it’s more about aligning oneself with the worst kind of patriarchal scummy business culture than one’s gender identity or even the fact of a tech startup. And as @Ben W named, the slogan is outdated and only the diehards and their fanboys (again used gender neutrally here), like Elon Musk, are still adherents to it.
Sometimes tech startups are awesome. Case in point, Wiggle Room, which was started by a friend: https://www.camelbackventures.org/blog-posts/2021fellow-jaime-jin-lewis
And yes another hand up for thinking it was Princess Bride at first!
I’m going to dip into the archives now to hopefully find something more enjoyable to me…
MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS SEEMS OK? Does it seem like a good way of achieving success and making the world a better place? It sounds so completely nihilistic. Sure, I get that ambitious start-ups want to remake the world, but is it necessary to throw the baby out with the bath water? Haven’t we learned valuable lessons from past experience? Or do we just go with the Toddler Principle of How to Work a Room? I don’t know – maybe my OLD AGE is showing. Or, dammit, maybe it’s my good sense. Or maybe I just can’t take heavy-duty questions of moral philosophy this early on a Tuesday morning.
Right, themers easy, reveal I’d never heard of. Ignored the circled squares until the end, so only saw the split THINGS after the solve. Another easy 1A and NW – the second in a row and a good omen: I’m looking forward to easily vanquishing my usual bugbear all week. I ran into a bit of a SNAG around ATONER. I had AsE for the [Chemical ending], which gave me ATOSER for [Sorry sort]. Without properly re-consulting the clue that had given me the T, I merrily changed it to an L, resulting in A lOsER for [Sorry sort], as in “Bill’s such A lOsER – what a sorry specimen he is.” But when I finally looked, SlOWS for [Puts in the overhead bin, say] just didn’t cut it and corrections ensued.
I knew MEG CABOT from my bookstore days. Before the movie-tie covers, her books were always bright pink and stood out visually from a distance. (A SURPRISING number of bookstore customers come in and ask for “the book with the pink cover.” It’s even more SURPRISING how often knowledgeable staff can find it for them.) I haven’t read Sally ROONEY but Normal People came out with a splash a few years ago and won a packet of awards, so ROONEY’s name was no problem today. I wouldn’t have guessed that Lex LUTHOR isn’t universally known (like Superman is). I’m not a comic book person but somehow Mr. LUTHOR has managed to set up a branch of his criminal empire in my consciousness.
Uniclues: 1. Restatement of MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS 2. The experience of trying to sleep on a camp bed while the Concorde roars over your head.
1. AMOK SEEMS OK 2. COT MOAN SST
{@Gary Jugert: I’m going to email you.}
[SB: yd, 0 – yay, it’s been a while. Last words: this easy pair.]
Tuesday is Learning Day, i guess. Today I learned MOVEFASTANDBREAKTHINGS (which does not strike me as much of a strategy), who wrote The Princess Diaries, Ms. Thermopolis's first name, who wrote Normal People, some stuff about THEWESTWING, a Reddit feature, and that I am woefully behind on later PPP.
Was waiting for the PANINI objections, and there they were. I have a similar problem with the singular of "tamales", which should be "tamal". I think we've used the technically wrong versions of these so much that they are now part of the language.
When we were running our summer business and employed staff from the UK, we found out that there is some confusion between our words COT and crib, as more than once when a guest wanted a COT in a room they were given what we yanks call a crib. Two nations divided by a common language, and all that.
Nice enough Tuesday, MS. My Solving experience was a solid medium, so thanks for some fun.
I know a little bit about the differences in word choice between the UK & the US, but this one was new to me. One thing I did learn after spending time with British college students in the early 70's that fanny does NOT mean bottom over there. ( On the other hand, to the British, to knock up a friend is just to wake him/her up in the morning- before cell-er- mobile phones anyway)
There's something hilarious to me about Anonymi piping up -- twice -- to declare PANINI invalid, that the singular is "panino". Part of the reason this is hilarious to me is that my pointlessly pedantic brain actually goes down such tracks -- a single strand of spaghetti would be spaghetto, etc. -- but that nobody except a few people in my immediate family would find such clever observations the least bit amusing. From everyone else, you'd get the sad trombone. Trust me: you really are better off Anonymous, bubs. It reminds me of a Louis CK bit that is mostly unprintable, but where a generally annoying somebody stops in the middle of what he's doing to announce, "you know, people from Phoenix ought to be called Phoenicians."
I was heretofore blissfully unaware of MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS. I've never heard a business slogan so dumb in my life.
The commentariat is on fire today, so I'd better get myself out of the way now.
If I ever get into puzzle construction, I might use nitpicky “right” answers as a theme, and call it “Well, actually…” Something for the especially pedantic among us.
Hey All ! Way to tie in the MOVE FAST element. Shooing guests away after they've stayed too long = THANKS FOR COMING (as getting pushed out the door.) Quickly walking through the White House from the East Garden to get to the other side = THE WEST WING OK, I got nothing for THATS SURPRISING. 😁
Kind of an odd puz. A phrase that I can see make some sort of sense, but one I hadn't heard of. Sounds like an EGO thing.
Joining Rex's row-reading... Seeing the jerks child? - DATE ARSES SON.
Stayed at a ONE STAR motel last time I went to Pennsylvania. Hoo-boy. At least there wasn't any bed bugs. But got (@LMS's) tub/water over feet thing. Had to get my own towels. Room was sorta kinda clean, but no one showed up the 4 days I was there. It rained a lot, but room didn't leak, so there's that. Spider webs in corners of (outside, at least) room door.
Anyway, this was a TuesPuz, so we'll leave it at that.
The first time I heard MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS was just the other night in "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," which was almost as disappointing as this puzzle.
My first solve since Thursday and I have come down with some form of the seasonal crud so like Rex, I’m a little fuzzy. Despite my best intentions to accomplish great things today, I’ll be taking that same turn on the couch. Life is what happens when you’re making other plans as they say. I thought this was a pretty good Tuesday, even though I’m not familiar with the business philosophy expressed in the revealer. Actually I found the concept of a fantasy adventure with a beautiful princess much more appealing than that of some internet startup tech geek and was hoping for more MIA clues. That’s a trivia round I would’ve aced.
It’s “move fast” because it’s Tuesday and you move fast through the thing. Unless you’re under the weather—get well soon Rex! And yep, “panini” as a singular is just Plain Wrong.
Never heard of MOVE FAST AND / BREAK THINGS. The more I think about it, the more I think it is a ridiculous statement. Money hungry amoral narcissists chasing the Almighty dollar at all costs. No thanks. Other than that I liked the puzzle. Easy Tuesday
@TTrimble - Yeah, it's PANINI for the usual singular in English. Was it recently in NYT or WSJ where PEROGI showed up in the singular? First, that's not really the right spelling no matter what Slavic language you're picking, but the "i" is also a plural marker. But it's in English, not Polish or whatever, so it's cool to say "a pierogi" even though it hurts my Polish ears a bit. Once words gets borrowed by a language, they tend to follow the borrowing language's rules. There's nothing special about English doing this.
My only doubt was that I wouldn't put it past the New York Times crossword to use PANINo, so I left that final square empty until a cross confirmed the I.
Easy fast solve on this one. Didn't notice the theme or even remember the circles letters.
I’m out west, so responding late but I’ll join the pile-on against MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS. My objection isn’t so much that it’s bro-speak as that the things they broke are democracy, respect for truth and the ability to hear differing points of view. Countless people have been killed around the world over hateful and false info that spreads so easily on the platforms. But I hope Margaret, if she reads this, doesn’t take the animus toward the expression as necessarily dislike of her puzzle. I still mostly enjoyed it.
@LMS - I am staying in a few motels on this trip. Luckily I am able to move beyond the ONE STAR places at this point in life but I have stayed in plenty of that variety. One you missed that I just experienced last night (even in a lovely place) was thin walls that let you hear everything the two couples sharing the room next door are saying. If they had been playing music, I would have asked them to be quieter but they were just talking and laughing so I didn’t. But I can tell you every detail of their day down to how the margaritas were (too sweet) and whose mother-in-law needs to stop checking in on them every day. But we probably woke them up at 7 am talking about the hotel breakfast and our plans for the day so we’re even.
Hurry please. Furniture movers are coming to our school to move three piani from the third floor to the second. I said I would buy lunch. Do I order panini or paninos? They’ll be here in 15.
Re the music cue that's been mentioned a couple of times: I don't perceive it as a "sad" trombone, though that's what it's come to be called. To me it's the "don't-you-feel-really-stupid-now" trombone.
Serviceable Tuesday puzzle in my mind and hand up for never having heard Move Fast and Break Things. Sounds rash. Okay, how have I managed to be alive, sentient, AND watch tv without realizing that an OWL figured heavily into Tootsie Pop ads!?
@Egs and @LMS you are in even rarer form today than usual! 🤣
Speaking of shallow, I personally think everyone needs a shallow side! I am also unashamed to own and use my tv and I can guarantee you that it’s not often on PBS (unless Ross Poldark or similar is on, talk about shallow choices WITHIN PBS). I can sometimes get on Naked and Afraid kicks. Not so much to find out more about what hellhole they’ve been dropped into, but to see who will weenie out or whether fights ensue.
I thought this was extremely easy today though I guess knowing the ARAMIS / MIA Natick and the right way to spell LUTHOR helped a lot, having read the comments. Didn't know MEGCABOT but the crosses are all gettable. What is _HEWESTWING gonna be after all?
Gotta agree with @chance2travel on the matter of 11D. The obvious fact that loan words, once absorbed into American English, no longer follow the rules of their language-of-origin, is not the issue here. The NYT Crossword frequently features foreign language words and phrases, always indicated by reference in the clue. So a PANINI is a singular Italian-American sandwich. Google notwithstanding, however, a singular Italian sandwich should be a panino. That's just crossword logic, not pedantry.
@chance2travel As I'm sure you know, there is more than one way to interpret a clue; that accounts for much of the fun of crosswords. Just because it says "Italian" in the clue doesn't mean you have to answer en Italiano; for example, if it said "Italian combo, for example" you might write SUB. I think here it could have been clued "pressed sandwich", but adding "Italian" just adds another data point to help the Tuesday solver.
@Beezer From memory: the OWL announces that he will now determine just how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. He goes, "One, a-two-hoo, three" [Crunch]. "Three." Voiceover: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.
Just got an email from NYT telling me the rate for "Games" is going up from $39.95 to $50/year. 25% increase to play Wordle seems rather steep. Just waited 20 minutes on hold for the "live chat" to dancel and was then offered a rate reduction to just $14.95 per year. Guess I'll take it....begrudgingly
I get the dead tree edition of the Times and I find it pays to haggle. The people who answer the phone are instructed to do anything reasonable to keep a customer.
Whew! This one seemed all over the place. I never heard if the MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS school of adult behavior, but I have come ip against some colleagues who, in trial seemed to want to go there. In my considerable experience, that is neither efficient nor effective. My entire career when asked what lawyers do or why I liked being a lawyer, I always said that my job was to help people answer hard questions and solve problems by working together. So I’m with @okanaganer in the “move carefully and make things work” camp. Desk pounding just never seemed productive.
Much of this puzzle lived in very unfamiliar territory but thanks to my niece who was about 6 when the first Princess Diary came out, I did know those. I am also a West Wing (actually all things Sorkin) fan.
The short fill helped. The longer theme answers were a bit sticky but fairly crossed. A couple sticky spots. Forst of all, since ATONER just sounded too awkward to be a legit answer, I decided maybe it wanted sTONER. C’mon now, I hear the belly laughs and guffaws, but look at that clue and tell me “no way” could the answer be sTONER. I still like it. I also misspell LUTHOR first pass through every time, and can’t seem to remember “O-R not e-R!”
Really liked the SE chunk with GENIUSES, WANNA GO and EGGED ON. Overall a bit of resistance but a fair Tuesday.
I was fearful of the RAGES a theme based on The Princess Diaries would cause here.
What have I been doing this morning? BREAKFAST AND THINGS.
Which Trump male best qualifies for SAD EGO SON?
If THINGS AR A MIS are they AMOK?
If you have a high tolerance for messes do you think AMOK SEEMS OK?
Do some males who are OUT have SUTRA ARSES?
ROSETTA ROSIE made me smile.
I was looking for an ant or bug at the one-star. To those looking for pOT were you influenced by the REFERS nearby? I sure was when I put in sTONER for sorry sort. I was going to object to the insult too.
I was reading a baseball story before starting the solve and put in I WAS out for 2D.
@CDilly I put sTONER in as you may find out if my comment around 4:45 shows up. Notice the neighboring REFERS and those who mention looking for pOT at the one-star.
MOVEFASTANDBREAKTHINGS's cousin "be a disrupter" was featured heavily in the recently mentioned Glass Onion as a parody of the Tech Bro nature of the villian. I love that "if it AINT broke, don't fix it" is in the same puzzle. That is more my ethos - probably why I haven't made and lost billions. Is it kosher to have "broke" in a clue just below BREAKin an answer?
I assumed move fast was referring to speed solving the xword, seems a bit of a stretch.
@Weezie and Gary: The Atlantic has an article about someone trying to improve her personality - she goes to improv class and has trouble because there is a "Yes, and..." principle, but she notes her personality is more "Well, actually...".
Another in a string of very easy puzzles (although I work in tech so maybe that was an edge here for theme), establishing a new Tuesday best after almost setting a new Monday best yesterday, a Sunday best the day before, and then a Thursday best on the 22nd of Dec. Hm, maybe I'm just improving in general.
I believe Rex and others are misreading the clue for 55-Down and thereby misstating the theme of the puzzle. The theme is "BREAK THINGS." The clue for 55-Across is, "See 17-Across . . . or a hint to 23-, 34- and 48-Across." So 17-Across is two things: (1) a continuation of the answer to 17-Across; and (2) a hint to three answers in the puzzle. "MOVE FAST" isn't a hint to anything and no clue indicates that it is.
Such a stark difference from yesterday. It's so easy to BREAK THINGS at the H. THE or THAT, + -ING. Duh. It'd be OK if the entries sang...but no. Not ATTUNED. Plus the fill is careless and all over inferior, even including a natick (RO?NEY/I?S). I guessed it, but still. Double bogey.
Agree with Space. The NYT crosswords should be, could be (or once was?) the greatest of them all. But it isn’t any more. Puzzles of a much more consistently-good quality can be found elsewhere - like the New Yorker magazine e.g. But they don’t have Rex’s blog site or the Syndi Cats - which is what keeps me coming back for more…
@Diana, fully agree. Took me longer to locate the syndiblog today than it did to solve the grid. As Yeats wrote in The Second Coming: "THINGS fall apart"!
Hmm. It looks like someone removed my comment. I merely mentioned that the SyndieCats must prowl the alleys of Crosswordville for their place to post. Perhaps it was my comment (a positive one) on Burma Shave's (called him "BS") poetry? Did the pseudo-Rex not know my reference? Inquiring minds want to know...
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Where the clues said "Princess Diaries" I heard "Princess Bride" and wondered what oh what is wrong with my memory. Anne Hathaway played Mia in it? Inconceivable!
ReplyDeleteAfter some comments yesterday, I decided to try solving this by only looking at the across clues. I learned something interesting: what makes me like solving Mondays by only looking at the down clues, is that it's a once a week thing. Twice a week is too much. End of experiment!
In my last internet job, my "supervisor" was a 20-something who said he subscribed to the MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS philosophy (except when things broke, he went ballistic and blamed me). I guess I'm too old for that stuff... I think I'm pretty much a "move carefully and make things work" kinda guy.
Get well soon Rex!
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0; pretty fast, pg in 3 minutes and QB in maybe 15 min. No weird words!]
This was one occasion when knowing very little helped me. My brain was also thinking Princess Bride but I hadn't a clue about the actresses' names in either so it didn't bother me at all.
DeleteI think someone will have already made a comment about a certain 4 letter across answer but I haven't read most of the blog yet.
Decent puzzle.
OMG... LOL... ATONER! [Sorry sort... uh maybe?] [Apologizer] [One Xerox cartridge] [She of the sunbathers] [Wholistic person] [Big pickup truck] ... but the real clue should have been [Reason to have your software recompile the north central section of the puzzle]. ATONER.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there's ARSES (3 for 3 so far in 2023 for LNETHs) tossed in for good measure. Pay attention wannabes constructors.
Torturous theme, but I did fill them all in part way through the puzzle, so I guess it helped the solve. We watched Wednesday on streaming and, just as here, Thing plays a leading role.
Yays:
SNARF. And 🦖 writing uniclues.
Boos:
Holy Moly there are a lot of abbreviations.
Uniclues:
1 Three random words just sitting next to each other, we promise.
2 When three of the typewriter keys get stuck together while writing a paper in comparative religions.
3 Action and reaction for a buffalo in a china shop.
4 What the majority of women have done numerous times in their past.
5 Nickname for a short emotional person.
6 Not only are they smart, but they smell good too.
7 The result of thinking you've still got it.
1 OWE ATONER ORAL
2 ISLAM LAM SNAG
3 BREAK THINGS. SAD.
4 DATE ARSE'S SON
5 STORMIN' ITSY
6 ARAMIS GENIUSES
7 OLD AGE EGGED ON
MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS reminds me of my younger self. Well my driving as my younger self, but still ...
ReplyDeleteI say, Move Things and Break Fast. Sounds like the motto of a hungry moving crew. Rex wants the MOVEFAST part to have meaning within the theme. Seems like a big ask.Every way I try to do it, I only get around 50% of the way there. I guess my attempts are half-FAST.
ReplyDeleteIWASHAD takes me back to my youth, which I guess was spent largely in public restrooms. Seems like in Oregon, restaurant pissoirs were required to post a decal on the mirror that said WASH YOUR HANDS (and below in smaller letters was “Before Reurning to Work”). Almost invariably, 4 letters were scratched out, leaving the phrase as WAS YOU HAD Before Returning to Work?
For a few nsecs I had POT for 9D. It seemed possible that pot in your room could trigger an extra charge. I almost started going through old credit card statements to check on the frequency with which I have incurred these charges. Due to (or perhaps because of) my edible-induced state of laziness, I instead corrected my answer to COT and checked out.
Theme was a little too easy and, for me, revealed too early. But still a fun Tuesday distraction. Thanks, Margaret Seikel.
Given your nom-de-blog, I thought you were going to say “Move Things and Breakfast”. That’s my mantra for early January when I’m still sticking to my New Year’s resolution to work out first thing in the morning.
DeleteMOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS, in the timeline of tech startups, is actually not a particularly modern or even up to date principle. Facebook (sorry, Meta), the originator of the phrase, jettisoned it as a principle 7-8 years ago after they discovered that too many things were breaking. I worked there in 2016, during the subsequent culture shift, and boy were people having a hard time figuring out how to refocus on *not* breaking things instead.
ReplyDelete“Outdated principle” or “principle that scales poorly” or “principle of the overconfident and shortsighted” would be more accurate revealer clues.
Hey, Rex. Sorry you were under the weather. Thanks for gutting it out and doing your write-up despite your illness. “I was on the couch all day watching movies” describes my absolute perfect day – especially if said movies involve some kind of princess diaries (or a prince running around pretending to be a lowly commoner but falls in love with an actual commoner who gets all mad and stuff when she finds out his real identity because she doesn’t care one whit about wealth and power, but she finally comes around, and they live happily ever after once his snobby queen mom accepts her and warms to the arrangement. Man oh man I’m shallow.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for that MOVES FAST element, too, THANKS FOR COMING had me imagining that mass exodus that happens at a gathering when the first brave guest stands to leave a yawner, thus opening the floodgates for all the other bored guests to make their escape, too. Then I was thinking that maybe those “walks and talks” were fast? But there’s no sense of moving fast with THAT’S SURPRISING.
This can be a high-brow place, this blog. I don’t feel ashamed that I’m shallow, that I own a TV and know how to use it, that I like Cheese Whiz. . . but I always feel ashamed when I don’t understand the disdain for something that maybe I’m supposed to be disdaining, too. I’ve searched my databanks trying to understand why “tech bro'y sloganeering” is objectionable. Assumption that start-ups are just “bro” things notwithstanding, what’s wrong with start-up techspeak? Were the women who started Spanx, Bumble, 23 and Me not invited to the MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS business model? Once again, I feel unWoke and exposed.
It's been my experience that the biggest braggarts out there are in fact Not the ones with the robust EGOS but rather the ones with really fragile EGOS.
SHARIA crosses ISLAM – nice. LUTHOR crosses ROONEY – dealt me a dnf and the thought that “Reoney” is a really weird last name. Oops.
I wasted a ton of time trying to put my finger on the decided difference between STOW and store.. Best I can figure is that if you STOW it, you’re gonna retrieve it shortly? So you STOW your carry-on in the bin but store your spices in the pantry? But if you’ve just bought specific items to use in a recipe later in the day, you don’t STOW them in the fridge, right? And neither verb works with where you put away your folded clothes. This is the drawer I store my leggings and sweatshirts in. feels weird. Anyhoo. . . not really important in the big scheme of things.
“What a budget motel might have” – where do you even start with this? An odor, for sure. A noisy thermostat that doesn’t really work. A commode with an anemic flush. A sour-smelling shower curtain. A half-clogged bathtub drain that leaves you ankle-deep in water by the time you’re done showering – that Creeps. Me. Out. I know my way around a cheap motel, buddy.
Pantyhose annoyance – not pulling them up enough, so that you have to take ITSY bitsy little steps.
Margaret – I had never heard MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS, but I really like the phrase. Especially as the mother of former toddlers and a great dane mix, Fred.
PS - @egsforbreakfast – great post. To piggyback, I’ll offer that BREAKFAST AND MOVE THINGS could be the slogan for Kellogg's All-Bran.
2021 Cinderella with Billy Porter. Fits your ideal movie description to a T!
DeletePANINI is plural whereas the clue suggests a singular word. The singular of PANINI is PANINO.
ReplyDeleteThanks. ROSOE WAS NOT THE RIVITER
DeleteSHOCKED. SHOCKED. NYTIMES ????
Oops. Riveter
DeleteGracie!
DeleteLMS you are the best! BTW stow means put away and batten down in case the ship or plane turns suddenly. Store is just put away.
DeleteMediumish. MEG CABOT and ROONEY (as clued) were WOEs. Plus the theme phrase was only vaguely familiar. OK Tuesday, mostly liked it.
ReplyDeleteI vote for letting Anderson and Andy drink on New Year’s Eve.
...@Rex - I too spent some time looking for the “move fast” component.
@okanaganer - hand up for thinking Princess Bride at first.
Nearly my first Tuesday DNF in quite some time on an otherwise easy puzzle. LUTHOR/ROONEY nearly got me. Combine that with MIA/ARAMIS and I feel lucky to have been just 2 minutes slower than normal. Didn't love the theme, and I felt it gave away too many answers, but fun nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteDude, if you see the Concorde clued, it is //not// JET, it is always SST. Sweet jiminy christmas.
ReplyDeleteAlso, that "MOVE FAST AND / BREAK THINGS", such a horrible phrase. Completely sucked any air out of this puzzle that there might have been. I think xkcd 1428 explained it adequately, but Zuck and Jared can just eat it.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete@Robin, you are SO right about xkcd 1428. Perfect! For those who may not be familiar with xkcd, you should be. Here's the link: xkcd.com/1428
@Rex. You didn't miss anything in the theme. The "OR" in the revealer is the key. I'm with you on THEWESTWING (way over rated) and Sports Night, excellent show. Were you slipping back into a "fitful sleeping episode" toward the end of your write up? HAR!
ReplyDeleteRAntS before RAvES before RAils before RAGES for "Shows explosive anger". Had LUTHeR (headslap), making it hard to get ROONEY so I really screwed myself in the south central. Otherwise, good
Tuesday.
My ten favorite clues from 2022
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
The right one can produce a smile (11)
Summons before congress? (5)(4)
Putting greens in these courses might be expected (6)
Dead ringers? (7)
Cheese that’s “not badda” (5)
Joins a heavy metal band, say (5)
Not in bounds? (3)(4)(2)(1)(4)
Noun phrase that’s present perfect indicative? (4)(4)
Inefficient confetti-making tool (4)(5)
Cut with a letter opener? (1)(4)(5)
PARENTHESIS (Kameron Austin Collins)
BOOTY CALL (Brooke Husic and Nam Joon Yin)
SALADS (Kameron Austin Collins)
MEDIUMS (Byron Walden)
GOUDA (Emily Carroll)
WELDS (Sid Sivakumar)
ONE STEP AT A TIME (Erik Agard)
WISH LIST (Brook Husic and Erik Agard)
HOLE PUNCH (Kate Hawkins)
T-BONE STEAK (John Martz)
Thanks, @Lewis. I always look forward to your lists. I remembered BOOTY CALL, HOLE PUNCH and T-BONE STEAK but had forgotten the others - and they all brought back smiles.
DeleteThe PPP seemed a little esoteric for a Tuesday - which may just be a wheelhouse thing. It also seemed like quite a bit of real estate was allocated to the theme, which also contributed to pushing his one toward slog-fest territory. Fortunately I was able to fight my way through it. Next.
ReplyDeleteBlugh. Revealer is an unfamiliar phrase that expresses much that is wrong with the business world. One themer (THAT’S SURPRISING) is green paint. Clue for SNARF clearly should be for ScARF. Two Princess Diary clues. Double-blugh.
ReplyDeleteShouldn’t PANINI have been clued with a plural? I always thought PANINO was the singular, but maybe that’s only in Italian and not English.
ReplyDeleteHope you’re feeling better soon, Rex, though I gotta say, you’re funny when you’re sick. And to all the usual suspects: thank God for you people, whose humor brightens my day. Now it’s time for my Special K. Gotta get a move on.
ReplyDeleteChicken or the egg? I would think that this started with that rotten paradigm for modern business and everything else an afterthought. Never saw THE WEST WING or Princess Diaries. Like THANKS FOR COMING.
ReplyDeleteOverall fill is rough - ATONER, WANNA GO don’t SEEM OK. SST will always be the home of the Minutemen.
Given the narrative that the NYT receives so many puzzles it’s SURPRISING this was published - it gets ONE STAR.
@Lewis - I think my fave was T-BONE STEAK. Wonderful compilation.
We’ve been HAD
It took 26 Terrible Threes to build a puzzle around MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS. Not worth it.
ReplyDeleteFood mini-theme. ATE FILE(t) of SOLE, PANINI, EEL, EGG(edon). SNARF it down ORAL(ly) after smoking some REFERS. You could also add LAM(b), EWE, and have a DATE for dessert.
ReplyDeleteCame here to say what @Robin 4:19 AM said.
ReplyDeleteNever heard this stupidly vile slogan and not surprised at all that it came from where it came from. So no help with the themers, but I just didn't care. Also know nothing about "The Princess Bride." This puzzle was meant for someone who is not me.
@The Anonymouses saying "sandwich" should lead to PANINo: You're right of course. Sadly, nobody cares.
Very easy for me, my (now 32 year-old) daughter was a huge fan of The Princess Diaries in all its forms, so MEGCABOT and MIA were gimmes. I didn’t know the start-up philosophy but I had to laugh when I got it, as it seems so apropos to companies like FB/Meta that have helped mess up the world. Not all startups are guilty of that of course.
ReplyDelete@Lewis. Thanks for the list. So many good clues. And Rex, feel better soon!
ReplyDeleteI like the puzzle’s welcoming vibe of having the first spanner be THANKS FOR COMING.
ReplyDeleteI like the pair of EWE and LAM.
I like SNARF up, ARSES on the bottom, and, on the rim, RIM.
I like that MIA made me think of “Hamm”, which crossed nicely with PANINI.
I like the Italian cross of CAPO and PANINI.
I like any reference to THE WEST WING. There is even a West Wing coffee cup in our house.
I like that there was almost an OUT mini-theme, with the answer OUT, and OWE, EWE, and TEEn.
I greatly like Loren's closing sentence.
And thus I’m feeling bouncy and breezy from the likes of your puzzle, Margaret. A big thank you for making it!
Rex’s “blargh” kinda sums it up for me.
ReplyDeleteThe arrogance of "move fast and break things" is stunning.
ReplyDeleteNo in the puzzle, but in the the people who make sorry attempts to live it.
Few actually produce something worth while. Most produce junk that reflects whatever seems lacking in their send of self.
I’m sorry you are sick. Hope you all feel better soon. (Sorry kitty)
ReplyDeleteAmy: hope you and your lady are feeling better today, Rex. Thanks for blogging through your fog. Mostly enjoyed the puzzle. The ATONER clue really got me.🤣.
ReplyDeleteI share your disgust at the "startup" slogan. Though lately it has been entertaining to watch Musk's version of this in action.
ReplyDeleteMy first, like, immediate, thought for 25D was BEDBUGS, which fits, but I had enough crosses to dismiss that. I like @LMS' list as well, though she neglected to come up with 7-letter possibilities (which is surprisingly tough but maybe it's time to go make some coffee). AC DRIPS. PERFUME.
Here to join the chorus of blarghs about this crossword, for the same reasons about both wheelhouse and theme.
ReplyDeleteFwiw, @Loren, I don’t think you have anything to be ashamed about for liking those things, and my hope is that it’s not the intent of the blogger or the commenters to produce that. I grew up in a family that very much did shame those things and what a delight it’s been as an adult to shed that and to stop believing in “guilty pleasures” but just pleasures. If I wanna watch Grey’s Anatomy all the way through for the 4th time, like I’m doing right now, I will.
And, fwiw, I think of “tech bro” as a term that can apply to someone of any gender, because it’s more about aligning oneself with the worst kind of patriarchal scummy business culture than one’s gender identity or even the fact of a tech startup. And as @Ben W named, the slogan is outdated and only the diehards and their fanboys (again used gender neutrally here), like Elon Musk, are still adherents to it.
Sometimes tech startups are awesome. Case in point, Wiggle Room, which was started by a friend: https://www.camelbackventures.org/blog-posts/2021fellow-jaime-jin-lewis
And yes another hand up for thinking it was Princess Bride at first!
I’m going to dip into the archives now to hopefully find something more enjoyable to me…
MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS SEEMS OK? Does it seem like a good way of achieving success and making the world a better place? It sounds so completely nihilistic. Sure, I get that ambitious start-ups want to remake the world, but is it necessary to throw the baby out with the bath water? Haven’t we learned valuable lessons from past experience? Or do we just go with the Toddler Principle of How to Work a Room? I don’t know – maybe my OLD AGE is showing. Or, dammit, maybe it’s my good sense. Or maybe I just can’t take heavy-duty questions of moral philosophy this early on a Tuesday morning.
ReplyDeleteRight, themers easy, reveal I’d never heard of. Ignored the circled squares until the end, so only saw the split THINGS after the solve. Another easy 1A and NW – the second in a row and a good omen: I’m looking forward to easily vanquishing my usual bugbear all week. I ran into a bit of a SNAG around ATONER. I had AsE for the [Chemical ending], which gave me ATOSER for [Sorry sort]. Without properly re-consulting the clue that had given me the T, I merrily changed it to an L, resulting in A lOsER for [Sorry sort], as in “Bill’s such A lOsER – what a sorry specimen he is.” But when I finally looked, SlOWS for [Puts in the overhead bin, say] just didn’t cut it and corrections ensued.
I knew MEG CABOT from my bookstore days. Before the movie-tie covers, her books were always bright pink and stood out visually from a distance. (A SURPRISING number of bookstore customers come in and ask for “the book with the pink cover.” It’s even more SURPRISING how often knowledgeable staff can find it for them.) I haven’t read Sally ROONEY but Normal People came out with a splash a few years ago and won a packet of awards, so ROONEY’s name was no problem today. I wouldn’t have guessed that Lex LUTHOR isn’t universally known (like Superman is). I’m not a comic book person but somehow Mr. LUTHOR has managed to set up a branch of his criminal empire in my consciousness.
Uniclues:
1. Restatement of MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS
2. The experience of trying to sleep on a camp bed while the Concorde roars over your head.
1. AMOK SEEMS OK
2. COT MOAN SST
{@Gary Jugert: I’m going to email you.}
[SB: yd, 0 – yay, it’s been a while. Last words: this easy pair.]
@Barbara S. 8:47 AM
DeleteLove your uniclues! Also, I really wish it had been ALOSER instead of ATONER!
Tuesday is Learning Day, i guess. Today I learned MOVEFASTANDBREAKTHINGS (which does not strike me as much of a strategy), who wrote The Princess Diaries, Ms. Thermopolis's first name, who wrote Normal People, some stuff about THEWESTWING, a Reddit feature, and that I am woefully behind on later PPP.
ReplyDeleteWas waiting for the PANINI objections, and there they were. I have a similar problem with the singular of "tamales", which should be "tamal". I think we've used the technically wrong versions of these so much that they are now part of the language.
When we were running our summer business and employed staff from the UK, we found out that there is some confusion between our words COT and crib, as more than once when a guest wanted a COT in a room they were given what we yanks call a crib. Two nations divided by a common language, and all that.
Nice enough Tuesday, MS. My Solving experience was a solid medium, so thanks for some fun.
I know a little bit about the differences in word choice between the UK & the US, but this one was new to me.
DeleteOne thing I did learn after spending time with British college students in the early 70's that fanny does NOT mean bottom over there. ( On the other hand, to the British, to knock up a friend is just to wake him/her up in the morning- before cell-er- mobile phones anyway)
There's something hilarious to me about Anonymi piping up -- twice -- to declare PANINI invalid, that the singular is "panino". Part of the reason this is hilarious to me is that my pointlessly pedantic brain actually goes down such tracks -- a single strand of spaghetti would be spaghetto, etc. -- but that nobody except a few people in my immediate family would find such clever observations the least bit amusing. From everyone else, you'd get the sad trombone. Trust me: you really are better off Anonymous, bubs. It reminds me of a Louis CK bit that is mostly unprintable, but where a generally annoying somebody stops in the middle of what he's doing to announce, "you know, people from Phoenix ought to be called Phoenicians."
ReplyDeleteI was heretofore blissfully unaware of MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS. I've never heard a business slogan so dumb in my life.
The commentariat is on fire today, so I'd better get myself out of the way now.
SB: 0 yd, yay. Today's looks semi-promising.
If I ever get into puzzle construction, I might use nitpicky “right” answers as a theme, and call it “Well, actually…” Something for the especially pedantic among us.
Delete@Weezie 10:26 AM
DeleteYour puzzle idea is wonderful. When my niece was in elementary school, she was the queen of the phrase, "Well, actually..."
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteWay to tie in the MOVE FAST element.
Shooing guests away after they've stayed too long = THANKS FOR COMING (as getting pushed out the door.)
Quickly walking through the White House from the East Garden to get to the other side = THE WEST WING
OK, I got nothing for THATS SURPRISING. 😁
Kind of an odd puz. A phrase that I can see make some sort of sense, but one I hadn't heard of. Sounds like an EGO thing.
Joining Rex's row-reading... Seeing the jerks child? - DATE ARSES SON.
Stayed at a ONE STAR motel last time I went to Pennsylvania. Hoo-boy. At least there wasn't any bed bugs. But got (@LMS's) tub/water over feet thing. Had to get my own towels. Room was sorta kinda clean, but no one showed up the 4 days I was there. It rained a lot, but room didn't leak, so there's that. Spider webs in corners of (outside, at least) room door.
Anyway, this was a TuesPuz, so we'll leave it at that.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I got a smile when I noticed both If Ain't Broke Don't Fix It and Move Fast and Break Things.
ReplyDeleteTV NOISE
ReplyDeleteAC NOISE
NO WATER
BED LUMP
OLD DIRT
BAD VIBE
PSYCHOS
WORN RUG
...
OK
...
IM BORED
The first time I heard MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS was just the other night in "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," which was almost as disappointing as this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteNice to see OUT clued as openly gay in the same quadrant as SHARIA and ISLAM. Well played.
ReplyDeleteI guess it is a regional thing. On the East Coast, NYCville, it is SCARF DOWN.
ReplyDeleteNo biggie since the clue for 5d clearly made it SNARF DOWN.
A search of XWord info finder finds that both SNARF and SCARF have been clued as wolf down.
I believe the phrase is “We WUZ robbed!”
ReplyDeleteHar. I reckon this pup weren't everyone's TH ING.
ReplyDeleteIn MOVEFAST's defense, its longest crossin entry is STORMIN, at least.
staff weeject pick: SST. Cuz they moved fast and got broken up. Nice weeject stacks in the NW & SE, btw.
fave stuff: STORMIN [excuse-me themer]. WANNAGO & its clue. SEEMSOK.
Thanx for breakin all them things, Ms. Seikel darlin. Nice bonus runt-roll entry, re: MOVE FAST AND AGE.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
Now we know to beware of these THiNG breakers in 2023:
ReplyDelete* ANKSFORCOM
* EWESTW
* ATSSURPRIS
And if any Brit calls you an ARRSE, you can tell them to stop AT ONE R.
My first solve since Thursday and I have come down with some form of the seasonal crud so like Rex, I’m a little fuzzy. Despite my best intentions to accomplish great things today, I’ll be taking that same turn on the couch. Life is what happens when you’re making other plans as they say. I thought this was a pretty good Tuesday, even though I’m not familiar with the business philosophy expressed in the revealer. Actually I found the concept of a fantasy adventure with a beautiful princess much more appealing than that of some internet startup tech geek and was hoping for more MIA clues. That’s a trivia round I would’ve aced.
ReplyDeleteIt’s “move fast” because it’s Tuesday and you move fast through the thing. Unless you’re under the weather—get well soon Rex! And yep, “panini” as a singular is just Plain Wrong.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of MOVE FAST AND / BREAK THINGS. The more I think about it, the more I think it is a ridiculous statement. Money hungry amoral narcissists chasing the Almighty dollar at all costs. No thanks. Other than that I liked the puzzle. Easy Tuesday
ReplyDeleteTTrimble (9:36) Getting the sad trombone. Hadn't heard it before. Love it.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of a favorite joke of mine which invariably gets the sad trombone.
"Have you heard about the inattentive two-headed man? Everything you tell him goes in one ear and out the other and in one ear and out the other."
@TTrimble - Yeah, it's PANINI for the usual singular in English. Was it recently in NYT or WSJ where PEROGI showed up in the singular? First, that's not really the right spelling no matter what Slavic language you're picking, but the "i" is also a plural marker. But it's in English, not Polish or whatever, so it's cool to say "a pierogi" even though it hurts my Polish ears a bit. Once words gets borrowed by a language, they tend to follow the borrowing language's rules. There's nothing special about English doing this.
ReplyDeleteMy only doubt was that I wouldn't put it past the New York Times crossword to use PANINo, so I left that final square empty until a cross confirmed the I.
Easy fast solve on this one. Didn't notice the theme or even remember the circles letters.
Given that most people can't even speak or write English correctly, how can they be expected to know the rules for foreign words?
ReplyDeleteI’m out west, so responding late but I’ll join the pile-on against MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS. My objection isn’t so much that it’s bro-speak as that the things they broke are democracy, respect for truth and the ability to hear differing points of view. Countless people have been killed around the world over hateful and false info that spreads so easily on the platforms. But I hope Margaret, if she reads this, doesn’t take the animus toward the expression as necessarily dislike of her puzzle. I still mostly enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete@LMS - I am staying in a few motels on this trip. Luckily I am able to move beyond the ONE STAR places at this point in life but I have stayed in plenty of that variety. One you missed that I just experienced last night (even in a lovely place) was thin walls that let you hear everything the two couples sharing the room next door are saying. If they had been playing music, I would have asked them to be quieter but they were just talking and laughing so I didn’t. But I can tell you every detail of their day down to how the margaritas were (too sweet) and whose mother-in-law needs to stop checking in on them every day. But we probably woke them up at 7 am talking about the hotel breakfast and our plans for the day so we’re even.
Oh, and I had the LUTHeR/ReONEY mistake too.
Thx, Margaret, for this fun puz; it was quite the THING! :)
ReplyDeleteMed+ (Wednes. time).
Not at all on MS's wavelength.
Cute theme, but no help with the solve.
Never watched THE WEST WING, but would like to. Crave TV doesn't carry it, so it must be one of those U.S., but not Canada THINGs. :(
SNARF / ScARF kea/loa, but NOV settled the issue.
Had LUTHeR before LUTHOR.
Unknowns/hazies/learnings: MIA; 'walk and talks'; ROONEY; SHARIA; MEG CABOT; OWL; ANE; ARAMIS; PANINI; MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS; LATENT.
Got MEG CABOT's, 'The Princess Diaries' on my listen-to list.
In retrospect, loved how ISLAM fostered SHARIA.
Very much enjoyed today's challenge! :)
@Crocers
Success on the 771; timer indicated easy-med (1 1/2 hrs), but felt tougher, esp the NE and final cell at 67A / 47D. See y'all next Mon.! :)
On to Anna Shechtman's Mon. New Yorker. 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Hurry please. Furniture movers are coming to our school to move three piani from the third floor to the second. I said I would buy lunch. Do I order panini or paninos? They’ll be here in 15.
ReplyDelete11D definitely clued wrong. Especially since the clue explicitly says "Italian". PANINO is the only option at that point.
ReplyDeleteRe the music cue that's been mentioned a couple of times: I don't perceive it as a "sad" trombone, though that's what it's come to be called. To me it's the "don't-you-feel-really-stupid-now" trombone.
ReplyDeleteServiceable Tuesday puzzle in my mind and hand up for never having heard Move Fast and Break Things. Sounds rash. Okay, how have I managed to be alive, sentient, AND watch tv without realizing that an OWL figured heavily into Tootsie Pop ads!?
ReplyDelete@Egs and @LMS you are in even rarer form today than usual! 🤣
Speaking of shallow, I personally think everyone needs a shallow side! I am also unashamed to own and use my tv and I can guarantee you that it’s not often on PBS (unless Ross Poldark or similar is on, talk about shallow choices WITHIN PBS). I can sometimes get on Naked and Afraid kicks. Not so much to find out more about what hellhole they’ve been dropped into, but to see who will weenie out or whether fights ensue.
I thought this was extremely easy today though I guess knowing the ARAMIS / MIA Natick and the right way to spell LUTHOR helped a lot, having read the comments. Didn't know MEGCABOT but the crosses are all gettable. What is _HEWESTWING gonna be after all?
ReplyDeleteGoogle PANINI and you get an Italian sandwich, just like the clue for 9D says.
ReplyDeleteGotta agree with @chance2travel on the matter of 11D. The obvious fact that loan words, once absorbed into American English, no longer follow the rules of their language-of-origin, is not the issue here. The NYT Crossword frequently features foreign language words and phrases, always indicated by reference in the clue. So a PANINI is a singular Italian-American sandwich. Google notwithstanding, however, a singular Italian sandwich should be a panino. That's just crossword logic, not pedantry.
ReplyDelete@chance2travel
ReplyDeleteAs I'm sure you know, there is more than one way to interpret a clue; that accounts for much of the fun of crosswords. Just because it says "Italian" in the clue doesn't mean you have to answer en Italiano; for example, if it said "Italian combo, for example" you might write SUB. I think here it could have been clued "pressed sandwich", but adding "Italian" just adds another data point to help the Tuesday solver.
@Beezer
From memory: the OWL announces that he will now determine just how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. He goes, "One, a-two-hoo, three" [Crunch]. "Three." Voiceover: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know.
Oops, 11D.
ReplyDeleteMy first mistake this year (much funnier in November).
Just got an email from NYT telling me the rate for "Games" is going up from $39.95 to $50/year. 25% increase to play Wordle seems rather steep. Just waited 20 minutes on hold for the "live chat" to dancel and was then offered a rate reduction to just $14.95 per year. Guess I'll take it....begrudgingly
ReplyDeleteI get the dead tree edition of the Times and I find it pays to haggle. The people who answer the phone are instructed to do anything reasonable to keep a customer.
DeleteWhew! This one seemed all over the place. I never heard if the MOVE FAST AND BREAK THINGS school of adult behavior, but I have come ip against some colleagues who, in trial seemed to want to go there. In my considerable experience, that is neither efficient nor effective. My entire career when asked what lawyers do or why I liked being a lawyer, I always said that my job was to help people answer hard questions and solve problems by working together. So I’m with @okanaganer in the “move carefully and make things work” camp. Desk pounding just never seemed productive.
ReplyDeleteMuch of this puzzle lived in very unfamiliar territory but thanks to my niece who was about 6 when the first Princess Diary came out, I did know those. I am also a West Wing (actually all things Sorkin) fan.
The short fill helped. The longer theme answers were a bit sticky but fairly crossed. A couple sticky spots. Forst of all, since ATONER just sounded too awkward to be a legit answer, I decided maybe it wanted sTONER. C’mon now, I hear the belly laughs and guffaws, but look at that clue and tell me “no way” could the answer be sTONER. I still like it. I also misspell LUTHOR first pass through every time, and can’t seem to remember “O-R not e-R!”
Really liked the SE chunk with GENIUSES, WANNA GO and EGGED ON. Overall a bit of resistance but a fair Tuesday.
I was fearful of the RAGES a theme based on The Princess Diaries would cause here.
ReplyDeleteWhat have I been doing this morning?
BREAKFAST AND THINGS.
Which Trump male best qualifies for SAD EGO SON?
If THINGS AR A MIS are they AMOK?
If you have a high tolerance for messes do you think AMOK SEEMS OK?
Do some males who are OUT have SUTRA ARSES?
ROSETTA ROSIE made me smile.
I was looking for an ant or bug at the one-star. To those looking for pOT were you influenced by the REFERS nearby? I sure was when I put in sTONER for sorry sort. I was going to object to the insult too.
I was reading a baseball story before starting the solve and put in I WAS out for 2D.
@CDilly
ReplyDeleteI put sTONER in as you may find out if my comment around 4:45 shows up. Notice the neighboring REFERS and those who mention looking for pOT at the one-star.
MOVEFASTANDBREAKTHINGS's cousin "be a disrupter" was featured heavily in the recently mentioned Glass Onion as a parody of the Tech Bro nature of the villian. I love that "if it AINT broke, don't fix it" is in the same puzzle. That is more my ethos - probably why I haven't made and lost billions. Is it kosher to have "broke" in a clue just below BREAKin an answer?
ReplyDeleteI assumed move fast was referring to speed solving the xword, seems a bit of a stretch.
@Weezie and Gary:
The Atlantic has an article about someone trying to improve her personality - she goes to improv class and has trouble because there is a "Yes, and..." principle, but she notes her personality is more "Well, actually...".
Another in a string of very easy puzzles (although I work in tech so maybe that was an edge here for theme), establishing a new Tuesday best after almost setting a new Monday best yesterday, a Sunday best the day before, and then a Thursday best on the 22nd of Dec. Hm, maybe I'm just improving in general.
ReplyDeleteI believe Rex and others are misreading the clue for 55-Down and thereby misstating the theme of the puzzle. The theme is "BREAK THINGS." The clue for 55-Across is, "See 17-Across . . . or a hint to 23-, 34- and 48-Across." So 17-Across is two things: (1) a continuation of the answer to 17-Across; and (2) a hint to three answers in the puzzle. "MOVE FAST" isn't a hint to anything and no clue indicates that it is.
ReplyDeleteSuch a stark difference from yesterday. It's so easy to BREAK THINGS at the H. THE or THAT, + -ING. Duh. It'd be OK if the entries sang...but no. Not ATTUNED. Plus the fill is careless and all over inferior, even including a natick (RO?NEY/I?S). I guessed it, but still. Double bogey.
ReplyDeleteWordle par.
Agree with Space. The NYT crosswords should be, could be (or once was?) the greatest of them all. But it isn’t any more. Puzzles of a much more consistently-good quality can be found elsewhere - like the New Yorker magazine e.g. But they don’t have Rex’s blog site or the Syndi Cats - which is what keeps me coming back for more…
ReplyDeleteINS & OUT
ReplyDeleteTHANKSFORCOMING now MOVEFAST,
pay FRANCs for what you OWE.
AIN’T IT BAD THAT THINGS don’t last?
THE DATE’s over, WANNAGO?
--- ROSETTA “ROSIE” ROONEY
@Diana, fully agree. Took me longer to locate the syndiblog today than it did to solve the grid. As Yeats wrote in The Second Coming: "THINGS fall apart"!
ReplyDeleteHmm. It looks like someone removed my comment. I merely mentioned that the SyndieCats must prowl the alleys of Crosswordville for their place to post. Perhaps it was my comment (a positive one) on Burma Shave's (called him "BS") poetry? Did the pseudo-Rex not know my reference? Inquiring minds want to know...
ReplyDeleteLady Di