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Cold Asian desert / THU 2-9-23 / Garment patented in 1914 by Mary Phelps Jacob / Midas Wolf Disney's Three Little Pigs antagonist / Only human briefly
Thursday, February 9, 2023
Constructor: Alex Rosen
Relative difficulty: Monday-Easy, with fussy theme stuff pushing it to just "Easy"
Theme answers:
- DOLE (17A: Firm fruit) (i.e. Fruit firm)
- NEIL (41A: Young musician) (i.e. Musician Young)
- TRIPOD (42A: Mount Olympus) (i.e. Olympus mount) (etc.)
- SCAN (44A: Look good)
- BATTER UP (50A: Call home)
- BOBS (69A: Cuts short)
- ERIE (72A: Water buffalo)
- BOUT (11D: Engagement ring)
- A-TEAM (29D: Crew top)
- HEIST (30D: Job bank)
- BUCKS (33D: Does not)
- MENSA (35D: Group thinking)
- OGRE (43D: Giant storybook)
- TUBE (57D: Part IV)
- WOK (67D: Pan Asian)
- ORE (68D: Rock hard)
Saint Caspar (otherwise known as Casper, Gaspar, Kaspar, Jasper, and other variations) was one of the 'Three Kings', along with Melchior and Balthazar, representing the wise men or 'Biblical Magi' mentioned in the Bible in the Gospel of Matthew, verses 2:1-9. Although the Bible does not specify who or what the Magi were, since the seventh century, the Magi have been identified in Western Christianity as Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. Caspar and the other two are considered saints by the Catholic Church. (wikipedia)
• • •
The grid is 16 wide. I don't know why. Probably so TRIPOD can sit in the center—it is the marquee clue/answer pairing, after all. But the grid width is yet another thing that seems arbitrary about this puzzle. As for difficulty, there was none, for a while, and then themers came, and even then I somehow worked out those areas. The NE corner, for example—just worked BOUT/DOLE down to the last letter and guessed what it had to be from what the clue words suggested, but at that point, I did not see the reversal thing. I somehow got all the way to the bottom of the grid without knowing the trick (via AIG OGRE (educated guess!) RESIN SPINDLE) and managed to put together the second part of the instructions, and that was that. Only real difficulty came, as usual, with proper nouns I didn't know (ZEKE, for instance) (73A: ___ Midas Wolf (Disney's "Three Little Pigs" antagonist)), and then with the single square in the puzzle that absolutely tripped me up. No idea what the Magi's names are (45A: One of the Three Magi), and no idea what Grossglockner is (37D: Grossglockner, for one). I had the latter down as an ALE ... which made one of the Magi CASEAR, which seemed both nuts and ... I don't know, kinda like CAESAR, so kinda plausible. Anyway, when I completed the grid, at first, the "Congratulations!" message did not go off, so I thought "well, it's gotta be CASEAR, what kind of name is that!?" But honestly every cross looked good. But then I thought about Grossglockner, and how I had no idea, and so I pulled the last letter in ALE and boom, ALP, CASPAR, done.
I don't think the puzzle really plays fair with you at 72A: Water buffalo, though that clue is certainly one of the most inventive. First words of all clues are capitals by position, but "Buffalo" is capital "B" by nature. The idea that you have to mentally capitalize something in order to make it make sense seems wrong. Yes, if you move "buffalo" to the beginning of the clue, its first letter becomes (by position) a capital, but still. Seems more "we're making up rules as we go" than properly tricky. Once you get the theme, though, it's easy to see what's going on, and as I say, the reversal there is one of the good ones, so maybe it works despite (or even because of) its unfairness. The one answer that was bugging me long after I'd finished solving was ADAM (8D: Only human, briefly). I just could not make sense of it. I knew that ADAM was the first human (biblically), but I could not make sense of the "Only" and I really really couldn't make sense of the "briefly"—which is the great trick here. The clue takes a bit of clue phrasing you see all the time "briefly" added (after a comma) to the end of a clue to signify an abbreviation of some kind), and uses it in a completely unexpected way. I went looking for an abbreviation that meant "only human" (as in "error-prone" or "subject to screw-ups" or whatever else that Billy Joel song is about), but what I got was someone who was THE only human for a BRIEF period of time. Like, there was ADAM, briefly, and then Eve came along and ADAM was no longer the ... only human. Great clue that had me totally lost. I wish the puzzle had more clever and challenging stuff like that. But most of the non-theme stuff today is pretty humdrum and Very easy. The theme ... well it's the theme. Doesn't seem like much of one, but some of those reversals are good. I hope you enjoyed it all more than I did.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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112 comments:
Because so much of later week crosswords is word play in the cluing, none of the ‘theme’ answers or clues would have been unsolvable in any other Thursday/Friday/Saturday puzzle. Which makes the theme and the instructions completely unnecessary. That said, I was amused by a lot of the answers and clues: ERIE, TRIPOD, TUBE, BOUT etc were all quite clever to my simple mind. But overall a fun little puzzle.
Hand up for Grossglockner ALe. That was my only overwrite, except for the stupid typo that at first prevented the happy music. Luckily, I skipped reading the clues for the long-across themers, and figuring out the theme made it more easy-medium than super easy.
It wasn’t until I read your title that the “Cold Spanish dessert” made sense. Flan is not really that cold in the dessert category.
Wowser. I disagree with Rex on almost every front (save for the clue for Adam. Brilliant). First, this played Thursday hard for me. That Thursday where nothing is falling, and you sense that there are some shenanigans afoot. Wanting to prolong the mystery, I didn’t let myself consider the reveal, and when it finally clicked with NEIL, I was delighted. De. Light. Ed. I admired each and every two-word clue, especially the “firm fruit”/DOLE.
The two dessert/desert echo clues should be fast-tracked to the clue hall of fame. And the clue for ADAM, again, is most excellent. I BET we all fell for the “briefly” bit and were looking for some kind of shortened something.
I was surprised to see how recent the BRA is. So I looked into it, and learned that the word “patented” in the clue is important; she didn’t invent the BRA. Apparently BRAs of some sort or another had been around for centuries; Mary just had the smarts to patent one.
Speaking of boobytraps, that B leading off 11D had me automatically filling in “band” (pre theme understanding) for the engagement ring and then being all upset ‘cause engagement rings are not bands. It was my plan to point this out but not be all snarky and stuff.
I wasn’t paying attention and associated TRASH TV with hate. Like people spewing hate? Jerry Springer? But then I realized hate-watching for what it is – me watching The Bachelor. I sit there season after season watching pretty much the same people say the same things and fight over the same issues. They’re all so shallow and focused on how “hot” someone is, all want to “open up” and “be vulnerable,” be their “authentic selves.” Gag. And yet I can’t Not watch. I have to hold the remote up to block the cringe-worthy spectacle that is all the kissing and have taken to muting those scenes, too, ‘cause they sound like they’re eating UDON. And. Still. I. Watch. (But this thought has led me to the only other themer I could come up with. Neil Lane is the jeweler on the show who visits at the end to help the final two pick out an engagement ring. So his clue would be Neil Diamond, and the answer would be LANE. Meh)
Alex – bravo, bravo, bravo. You dealt me a Thursday with just the right amount of push-back. I’ll be remembering this one for a long time.
And BOBS can be a verb, so works even if you don't reverse it.
So much of my solve mirrored Rex’s. The CASeAR/ALe mistake (I think I have seen him as gASPAR more often). The “Huh?” reaction to ADAM followed by “Wow, great clue!” The thumbs-up to TRASH TV. The side-eye to the lower-case b in BUFFALO. The yawn at the revealer phrase.
But my overall reaction was the opposite. I really liked most of the theme answers because the words often meant something totally different when reversed. Yep “Mount Olympus” / “Olympus mount” was one good example of that. But I also like “Part IV” / “IV part” (which completely fooled me, even after I knew the theme and had gotten all the other themers). Engagement ring / Ring engagement. Does not / Not does. Pan Asian / Asian pan. And even Water buffalo / Buffalo water, now that I get the technicality on the “b” - that it would become capitalized when it moves to the first position.
You put a great actor like IDRIS Elba in your puzzle and you clue him with “Cats”? That is probably the one movie that he would like to erase from his resumé.
I am on TEAM O when it comes to blood types. Negative, specifically. That’s the universal donor type, which makes me ridiculously proud. Yeah, if you’re in an accident, I’ll give you my blood. We don’t match types? Doesn’t matter, my friend, I’m a universal donor! Here to help you, whoever you are!!!
I agree with Rex today about this being an incredibly dull theme revealer, but with many delightful theme clues and answers. I loved the clue for ADAM, which took me ages to get, and a lovely Aha! moment when I did. And I really liked several others as well.
My current hate-watching is of The White Lotus. What a collection of mostly very unpleasant people! But for some reason I can’t stop watching.
I rarely disagree with Rex as much as this. I thought several of the clues were really clever and enjoyable. I appreciated that you had to solve the revealers before being able to genuinely get the theme.
It seems like a few months ago the NYT decided to run exclusively gimmick puzzles, with things like shaded squares, letters outside the grid, etc. Anyone else see that trend?
My mileage DID vary (from Rex's). I loved solving this puzzle. First trying to make sense of it and then a big "Aha!". Lots of fun!
I hate hate hate the "Supreme Egyptian Deity" clue. It was AMENRA today, but it could just as easily have been AMONRA, AMUNRA, AMONRE, AMUNRE or AMENRE, or many others. And E is a pretty fringe choice for the AMUN/AMON/AMEN vowel.
This is the kind of grid where you can sense something is amiss while solving it, and then the “aha” hits you (for me it was NEIL Young). I of course had trouble with the usual cast of characters (IDRIS, AMENRA, CASPAR), but was able to mostly enjoy the rest since the crosses were early-week easy-ish (and for a change the theme wasn’t a cryptic slog-fest).
I wonder if others found that center section on the east coast to be menacingly tricky ? I had the hardest time convincing myself that BUCKS fits for “not does” - I’m guessing it’s the “bucks the trend” concept they are getting at, it just seemed to be a big stretch on that one. BUCKS is next to ASAHI which I have seen in XWorld but never remember and (agree with Rex) MENSA with a clue that may be well intentioned but also just seems, well like they tried to hard.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who’s familiar with authentic Spanish food - is FLAN generally served refrigerated in Spain ? I don’t consider “room temperature” to be synonymous with “cold”.
Couldn't get the Happy Music at first, and knew where the problem was but took a while to unravel. I had dUCKS instead of BUCKS for "not does" but that left me with doM for "Sound of impact." See what I did there? Dropped in oSAHI instead of ASAHI--and I know better!
So I began to wonder if Sound of impact was one of those silly clues that wanted me to notice a sound in the word impact (MMM?). That didn't work. I finally noticed the mistake on ASAHI, but with dUCKS that still left me with dAM for the Sound of impact. "Dam_!" So I started to run the alphabets for the umpteenth time and right there at the start-- BUCKS.
Happy tune at last!
Good fun, in spite of my DENSE brain. Agree with Rex about the MENSA clue and with Anonymous 6:45 that BOBS could be the answer to "Cuts short" or "Short cuts."
Oh sure, once I figured out what was going on – and that happened early – the puzzle became much easier to solve. But even though I like to wrestle with stiff challenge, I was so charmed by what I was experiencing, disappointment never entered the equation. This answer set was simply brilliant, astonishingly clever. My jaw kept dropping lower.
Every single two-word clue looked like a real clue. Further, in most of them, when reversed, words completely changed meaning – “firm”, “Young”, “Olympus”, “mount”, “home”, “cuts”, “buffalo”, “ring”, “crew”, “does”, “IV”. Brilliant! Crackling with wit!
Wordplay heaven. As I solved, I couldn’t wait to see the next two-word clue. When a Crosslandia outing becomes filled with eager anticipation and rewarded with glee again and again, as this one was, well, that’s one of the very special puzzles.
Yes, Alex, you hit my happy button. Yours is a brain I want to experience again. I’m so grateful for this shimmering jewel you made!
Anyone else have “B” in the 69 square? A IV Part is a TUNE and Short Cuts are NO BS
southside: doe, a deer, a female deer
It’s an art to come out swinging and shit on a puzzle but then go on to list things you really liked. The trick here was solid, Thursday fun. Agree that once the game fell with the revealer the fill was a little pedestrian - but I’ll take the DENSE theme and walk away. Overall fill did have a scrabbly feel - didn’t see a J or Q.
Actually knew CASPAR so ALP was backed into. The cluing on ERIE and GOBI are top notch. Don’t really understand hate-watching. My son’s mother in law from Porto makes a killer pudim de doce de leite. Second ERNST sighting this week.
Enjoyable Thursday solve.
My Sweet ROISIN Dubh
Too easy for a Thursday once the theme was clear, but a few fun clues. This is only fun for folks who find clues at least as much fun as words in the grid, which isn't true for poor Rex.
Bucks are “not does” in that they are male deer, not female.
I was literally groaning at this puzzle’s “theme” clues with the reversal. they often made no sense. It was so disappointing.
Disqualified by AMeN RA.
I enjoyed this a lot! Yeah, the theme answers were bunched up in some place and nonexistent in others, but for some reason that I can’t articulate, that almost seemed part of the point. I’m also not a fan of instructions but that bothered me not in the least here. I got the gimmick pretty early, but working out the reversed answers was still fun, even when I knew what was going on — as written, the clues seemed so normal, and I enjoyed twisting my head around to figure out the reversed answer, not always immediately evident, but then, there it was! Nice! My wife thought this was about the most fun and clever puzzle she’s ever done!
@king and @wander - omg, thanks. I guess it was “menacingly tricky” for me at least - they got me good on that one.
Do tubes have a four part structure? I enjoyed the puzzle but still don’t get that clue.
Nice, I got OGRE and HEIST and TRIPOD without getting the theme... I just thought they were worded weird. There is a patent on bras? Not that I like them and my current lover never wears them. Loved the puzzle, it was a good solid Thursday. No googles, no errors.
I was getting ready to criticize Will Shortz for the cluing when I realized that the theme involved backward clues. I think BOUT for "engagement ring" was the tipoff; the actual clue had to be "ring engagement."
Figuring out the theme made the puzzle fairly easy. I also had ALE instead of ALP, but then I remembered CASPAR was one of the three kings. It felt good to finish this one.
Couldn't agree with YOU more and with Rexy less. "And yet I can't NOT [read]" him.
I don’t know, I thought it was pretty fun. Anyone else like me and can literally (new meaning) hear Rex grown while you’re solving. ;)
Almost got Nadicked by Caspar and Alp. I had a very similar experience as Rex. The northeast was made much harder by having put main idea instead of main item. I then really wanted Flea. My brain was like, maybe abound also means abscond and flea is some kind of play on flee and then lots of fleas.. I don’t know, doesn’t make much sense, but Thursday’s are whacky, so my brain told me.
KateA, you have to read IV as eye-vee. Then it makes sense. More Roman numerical trickery by the NYT.
IV means “four” in the clue, but “intravenous” when the words are reversed. That one eluded me for a while too!
It seems to me that OFL has gone mad - or got up on the wrong side of the bed. This was a pleasant and entertaining puzzle! Yet Rex savagely attacks it. For example "with this two-word reversal gag affecting clues scattered will-nilly around the grid." What's wrong with willy-nilly (he misspelled it)? And then there's his extended screed about WATER BUFFALO. Geez. Well, I trust that the sane Rex will be here tomorrow.
Weird theme. Most of the two-word answers worked unreversed. And ORE doesn’t work in either formation. Really thought we’d get ANOA at 72A before the theme became evident.
CASPAR is not mentioned in the bible; nor is the number of magi. Three is a reasonable guess given that there are three named gifts, but for all we know from the bible there could have been seventy magi.
@Wanderlust - I did not see Cats, but I did see Pacific Rim and Idris Elba was pretty awful in that. But then again, everyone was pretty awful in that.
I (usually) (mostly) agree with Rex. Not today! I found the puzzle fun and some of the clues a real challenge. “NOT DOES” is a brilliant misdirect, as was “ENGAGEMENT RING” and “HUMAN ONLY”.
@LMS - clever ref to “boobytraps”!
Easy enough that I was filling stuff in and then thinking, for things like DOLE and BOUT, yeah, OK, I guess. Had the REVERSEEACH so I knew something was going on but and even saw HEIST for "bank job" but needed the TWOWORD part of the instructions before everything became clear.
Didn't know GOBI as clued, took a while to see what IV was doing, and i still think "Buffalo water" is way too contrived as a clue for ERIE. Didn't know ZEKE and never spell ASAHI right on the first try but those were the only minor snags. Many years of Christmas pageants have made me familiar with good old CASPAR.
I found this one clever and entertaining, AR, an Artful Reversal of clues leading to some nice ahas!. Thanks for all the fun.
Well, aren't we ATAD polarized today. Who would've thought in this day and age. I loved it. Thought ADAM, BUCKS and TUBE were brilliant, and the desert/dessert symmetry elegant (while reminding me of lots of fun debates about how to pronounce Mount Desert Island). The lights came on early looking at D_L_, thinking DOLE, and moving on because it didn't quite work. Loved ending up seeing how it DID work, down around HEIST.
The NYT has test solvers who provide feedback to the editors. I imagine the day of the week on which the puzzle is slotted reflects the feedback from the test solvers. Meaning, how Sharp rates the puzzle is irrelevant to them. And I suppose to others who solve the puzzle. Still, his reaction to the puzzle is valid for him even if I responded differently, and I like reading varying opinions.
And I liked this puzzle. Even with the PPP. Maybe it could have been published earlier in the week. But who really cares when if is published if you enjoyed a puzzle. And I enjoyed this one. And I feel a bit down when I see it fell flat on some others.
What tripped me up the most is the magi mentioned in this puzzle is typically spelled Gaspar not Caspar. I was able to get the answer with crosses, but if you're going to use an obscure name, at least use the more common spelling.
This was sooo hard for me because I didn't figure out the gimmick for a long time. Even when I figured out one of the clues was written as noun first, adjective second, I still didn't put it together that that was the theme! I just thought the cluer was being annoying there. I did think the clue for ADAM was really hard, and once I got it it does seem like a good one.
This was fun. Thursday doesn't always have to be a rebus or other grid trickery. It's basically an easy themeless with a twist. Chef's kiss.
Where I agree with Rex:
-- ADAM clue is wonderful.
-- CASeAR/ALe had to be right.
-- Mount Olympus is the best reversed clue.
-- Group thinking is the weakest reversed clue, and the whole idea of MENSA is annoying.
Where I disagree with Rex:
-- Pretty much everything else he said.
I also really enjoyed the reversed clues for ERIE, BOUT, BOB -- and especially the completely different meaning of "does" in the BUCKS clue.
I hate the term TRASHTV because I hate TRASHTV itself and never watch it. Of course, this is just the snooty side of me, of which I am not proud, because one person's trash is another person's gem. I'm sure that Golf Channel's second-round coverage of the [insert PGA Tour event here] is TRASHTV to many; I consume it like Cookie Monster with a box of Oreos.
Pull off this kind of trick really well, as is done here, and you're going to get a solver like me circling clue after clue with the intention of saying in my comment: "What kind of a dumb clue is this??!!" and "This is the absolute worst clue I've ever seen!!!"
It's called "No good deed goes unpunished."
I had so circled the clues for BATTER UP and A TEAM and especially OGRE. The TUBE clue generated a great big "Huh??" So there was steam coming out of my ears by the time I got to the TWOW of the second half of the revealer and said not so much "Aha!" as "OMG!" And then went back to re-read the two word clues I'd hated on so much. They were all right on the money, of course.
The cleverest for me were "Does not" = BUCKS and "Part IV" = TUBE. But they're all pretty great.
I sold you short for too long, Alex. But you got me good, and it's a very, very clever puzzle.
Thanks!
Oops, see comment above. Put it in the wrong place.
Hey All !
Had the H___T of 30D (Job bank) and the ole brain decided to automatically reverse the clue, and I saw Bank job. But then, as I was moving onto the next clue, some little brain monster nudged me, and said, "Go back and reread the clue." So I did, saw it was Job bank, and said, "Wha? What in tarhooties is that supposed to mean?" Looked a few rows up, had REVER in 18A (the Revealer first part), and said, "Maybe you need to reverse the two word clues?" Looked at a few others, and BAM, that's what it ended up as! Figuring that out like that made me feel like I am in MENSA.
SHIFTED is an odd answer for the clue. I'm probably missing some subtlety. ADAM was confounding me a bit, too. Thanks for the clarification, Rex.
One-letter DNF at that dad-blasted ALP. Had the ALe in, cause shoot, that could be a Bavarian beer. Why not? My three wise men names are not known. CASeAR looked fine to me. Three Musketeers, sure, Three Wise Men... are... three men. Will promptly forget CASPAR as one.
Had you're out for BATTERUP off just the U. Wrong! But was plausible.
TRASH TV? If you say so. The USSR was in the UN? Who knew? Hard to fathom it broke up in 1991. Seems like it was later than that.
AMEN RA! First sighting this year? Put in AM_NRA and waited on the whack-a-vowel.
Funny with the Cold Asian desert and Cold Spanish dessert. The ole desert/dessert eye trick.
Noticed the 16 wide grid, YAY ME. Liked this more than Rex. Untraditional type theme, which is fine. Keeps the brain functioning.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I agree… this was a truly excellent, exciting and unique puzzle!
Reversing the words in the two-word clues set up some absolutely great misdirects. I count seven of them. Put them with the clue for Adam and we have a cluing bonanza. Wonderful puzzle.
@Loren (6:31). Please come down to this corner of the playground. I've got a nice piece of cake for you.
Wow!!! If you didn’t like this puzzle, you probably didn’t like Neal Armstrong’s first step on the moon or when Clark Griswald finally got all the Christmas lights on. Wonderful concept, great cluing, tremendous fill. I even had a ball just remembering to switch word order as I encountered new two-word clues. Just fun, fun, fun. Even Rex seemed to like it despite professing to hate it. Amazing that Rex probably wouldn’t deign to use it for Oliver’s kitty litter box, while Jeff Chen would give it POW for any week of the year so far.
I wonder who would win if TEAMO played the ATEAM? ATEAM may be disadvantaged since they have ATEAT projecting out. But there is a BRA just waiting to cover it..
TRIPOD (42A) could be the result of too much acid.
Thank you, Alex Rosen, for a great start to my day.
“Speaking of boobytraps” wins best segue of the year
For those of us who are not from the US, HATE HATE HATE seeing 'murican Senator clues.
Had to look her up and then find out she's Republican Severe ick.
Agree with Rex that this skewed too easily, with a few delightful clues scattered around. I didn’t need the revealer to get the reversed clues. I feel like I’ve done enough of these puzzles where the wording is reversed without a theme so they all made sense to me. I.e engagement ring makes sense without reversing it to mean a ring one engages in, like boxing. BUCKS made sense to me as someone “bucks” an idea, throws it out, I don’t know, but it made total sense without reversing. Thursdays have felt abnormally easy the past several weeks…
Thx, Alex; perfect Thurs. challenge! :)
Med+ (some crunchy fill; lots to chew on).
Took a while to catch on to the trick; liked it.
Got BUCKS before grokking the theme, i.e., does not, as in BUCking the system (hi @SouthsideJohnny (7:23 AM)). Thx for the heads-up @Wanderlust (7:53 AM). Very clever clue/answer!
Idea before ITEM; DIrt before DISH; SmellS before SNIFFS.
Definitely have LEARNt Joni ERNST by now.
In the end, got it all put TOGETHER, so BOB'S my uncle!
Fun trip; enjoyed the scenery. :)
___
@pablo: Anna's New Yorker Mon. done in 1:43; great workout, as always! :)
@Joe: will give the 'Language Lab' cryptic a try; looks rather daunting! 🤔
@Roo: you may already be aware but, just in case, the Duotrigordle has a new practice option called, 'Perfect Challenge', where your entry word is always accepted, and you try to get the remaining 31 boards error free.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
I always want to like a Thursday. Will the Thursday like me as well? This one did...
I was sort of breezing through waiting for my usual stare fest to give me a hint as to what was going to smack me in the face. OK..so I stared at 3D and the Give birth to clue. I had HAVE and then I went bouncing around looking for A BABY. No baby. So you just HAVE?
I had REVERSE in its little slot but wasn't sure about EACH...I went about my business still looking for a BABY. The light bulb moment (which took a little while) was seeing DOLE cross BOUT. Firm fruit made me go nuts. I had the D and the E at the end...what goes in the middle? What firm fruit is this. Maybe it was the lost baby I couldn't find. That little AHA is always welcome on Thursdays. No baby...you just have to REVERSE EACH TWO WORD CLUE. I did as I was told.
After that, nothing really gave me much pause. CASPAR was easy for me because we always had a Christmas pageant at Cathedral in Havana. My brother was always Melchior. I wanted to be CASPeR, the friendly ghost. I still spell it that way.
Did anyone think BUTT DAL for 50A?
@JJL 7:10....I LOVED The White Lotus. I wouldn't exactly call it TRASH TV...Maybe because I really like Jennifer Coolidge. My daughter can impersonates her dumb, but not dumb, eye looks full of amazement down to a tee. Hah.
I really enjoyed your puzzle, Alex....The FLAN (room temperature, not refrigerated) is on me.
@ROOMONSTER
SHIFTED from “WENT TO THIRD” is a reference to shifting gears in a manual transmission vehicle
If you're a TV or film or theater critic, I guess there will be plenty of occasions where you'll be forced to "hate watch" something. But if you're not one of the above, then WHY????
I can honestly say that I have never hate-watched anything. I watch things I expect to enjoy. Sometimes I'm wrong about that -- in which case I turn the damn thing off. I have even been known to walk out of theater. Ask my friend Carol about a little horror called "The Syringa Tree" in which one (1) actress plays 24 parts. I was gone ere the actress had even begun to chew her way into Role 3.
Movies I've walked out of? The first "Star Wars" -- but not nearly quickly enough, since a male friend had told me it was the best movie he and ever seen and that he'd seen it 11 times. I believe I suffered my way through 50 excruciating minutes before thinking "I can't do this any more!!!" and leaving. I slunk out of "Long Day's Journey" when the insufferable mother played by Kate Hepburn refused to ever leave the screen. I mean I know you're supposed to experience the same claustrophobia that the Tyrones experience, but I did not want to experience that claustrophobia. No, I did not.
The bottom line: I don't understand the entire concept of "hate-watching" and am surprised that so many people here do it. What I'm thinking is: "I bet they don't hate the thing nearly as much as they say they do."
Would anyone care to share a bit on how the sausage is made for a typical crossword submission? I guess I had always assumed that a submission mainly consisted of the word fill and that the actual cluing was more the work of an editor. Obviously the puzzle constructor submits clues for their submission, and just as obviously there is an editing/approval process involved. But after an especially clever day of clues like today, I realize that writing out clues must also play a big part of a crossword submission. (Maybe after all the years of being wordsmithed at work has me sensitive to the editing process.)
I'm sure it varies and isn't an exact science, but how much of a hand does an editor have in the publication of a crossword? Is it just tweaking and fact checking a few clues? Is it an iterative process or more linear? It wasn't until I started coming here that I truly appreciated the artistry and individualism of constructors, so its very cool to see these talented people get their kudos.
I liked it. Up to 18A, I'd only looked at the Across clues, so at that point I decided to skirt the two reveal entries and see if I could figure out the Thursday trick on my own. The NE with the trio DOLE, BOUT, and BUCKS clued me in to the word reversal; I then went through the clues looking for others I could easily pluck. Last step was to start the Downs that crossed 18A, and the reveal very quickly revealed itself. Like @Rex, I thought Olympus mount was the best: I couldn't get Pegasus out of my mind.
Help from previous puzzles: memories of the theme being in the clues rather than the grid.
Alex - please ignore Rex's carping, this was a fun solve, very clever. Thanks!
Yes, after I didn’t get the finish music due to filling in ALe for ALP, I spent a long time looking at the NW corner to see if my mistake was somewhere in the AMENRA or the brand name or the Spanish answer.
@thfenn
Mount Desert == camel
CASPAR was the friendly one.*
*My apologies if someone already did this.
Thanks Rex, I did enjoy this one more than you did. Like so many above, I thought Alex’s oversized grid just provided more space in the playpen for my juvenile imagination. ADAM got my iPad screen coated in coffee and the “drink more Ovaltine” reveal was only a minor disappointment. I’m with JC in thinking that this grid even with its warts deserves the POW award. Bravo Alex! I’m off to revisit xwordinfo for constructor notes that probably will add to this morning’s glee.
@Pabloinnh wrote my solve summary, ditto. And @Bocamp is spot on about the Monday NYer grids that Anna provides as an alternative to the too easy NYT. Of course as is true most mornings, Commentariat reactions are the icing on the 🍰
Easy-medium. Add me to the “disagree with @Rex” contingent. I sorta/semi caught the theme about a third of the way in. Interesting/novel idea, smooth grid, fun solve, liked it a bunch, and Jeff at Xwordinfo gave it POW.
I loved this puzzle too. My only real confusion was that BUCKS is a not so great but plausible answer to "does not." If you buck something that means you don't do it. That messed me up for the theme a bit because I encountered that a bit early so I wasn't sure that it needed to be reversed after all (or then I thought the puzzle had missed this one two word clue but that turned out not to be the case).
First comment. I have solved the NYT crossword for many years, starting with the puzzles in the IHT while living in England. Also solved the quick crossword in the Guardian, but usually failed to solve the cryptic one. Since returning to the US 15 years ago, I have been content to solve the NYT puzzle and enjoy this blog (often enjoy the comments more than the puzzle). I discovered the Telegraph (UK) puzzle page a few weeks ago when they added to their usual array of puzzles a new one called Cross Atlantic. This is a US style puzzle with a mix of US and UK clues. I have completed every Cross Atlantic puzzle so far, no. 81 this morning. If you are interested, you can search for “the telegraph uk cross Atlantic”.
As with many of you, it was a tale of two puzzles. Early going up top was smooth until DOLE/BOUT where I began planning my indignant blog entry about terrible cluing. Then I began to flounder while staring at the partial reveal REVERSE EACH. I knew shinanigans was afoot, but where? How? What? Struggle struggle struggle. Getting more and more indignant at the constructor until at some point in the basement I saw the reverse cluing. Then the comedy began and thinking this constructor and this puzzle were great. I went back and reread the two worders, many of them filled by crosses, and while they sorta worked before, now it all made sense. Enjoyed the heck out of this journey.
A lymerick-ish:
Inside my DANCE TUBE filled with UDON from a WOK
SIA, some MENSANS, TOGETHER with BUCKS amok
She brought the A-TEAM
TEEMED with privilege a gleam
the FURS, the FLAN, the BRAS (don't ask) it was AD HOC
Uniclues:
1 Goal of younger generations until the children and real estate show up.
2 Moths led to wardrobe malfunction. (And I want credit for finding a G-rated clue among all the non-G-rated options.)
3 Result of the question: "Can you smell that?"
4 "The starters are stinky," said the coach.
5 "Well, actually..."
6 Soap opera.
7 He lost a G.
1 REVERSE EACH RULE
2 ATE-AT-BRA EXCUSE
3 SNIFFS TOGETHER (~)
4 DEEM A-TEAM ODOR
5 CORRECT A BIT
6 TRASH TV SAGA (~)
7 OGRE BECAME ORE (~)
Thursday is my fave day for solving because even if the gimmick is cringe-worthy, it's the most interesting puzzle of the week for me.
This theme wasn't cringe-worthy, though, it was fun.
The NW started off easy until I got to AMENRA which (of course) should've been AMUNRA but that screwed up HAVE (HAVU?) but I saw that the first word of the instructions answer started with REVERSEEA and I thought "OH! Reverse 'E' and..." so I left HAVE/AMENRA and figured that somewhere there would be a 'U' I'd swap out with the 'E'
Then I got to the NE and "firm fruit" just HAD to be DATE.
Had.
To.
Be.
But that made the French girl be ETLE and the engagement ring be BAUT which made no sense. I left DATE blank and figured it would all make sense somehow later.
Saw TRIPOD right away, even though I was reading the clue as "mount Olympus" still and I chuckled, thinking about the long rant that Rex would give such a clue. I mean, grammar and all, that was really a stretch. TRIPOD as a verb, sheesh.
Eventually, I got down to the revealer and it was a genuine AHA. Stuff I'd entered but was unsure of suddenly made sense. DATE became DOLE and that whole corner worked.
But the best part? Hardly any proper names, and the few that were there were easily inferable with regular words crossing.
OK, except for CASPAR/ALP and I can see why someone would want an E rather than a P, but if you didn't get a 'congrats' upon finishing, I'm betting that's the first place you went to fix stuff. Fair game, that.
I enjoyed today quite a bit.
So when do we see one of Rex's puzzles in the NYT so we can tear it to shreds in the comments?
The most fun I've had on a Thursday in a while. This was an absolute delight, and had me grinning ear-to-ear once I got the revealer and understood why my filled-in (about a third to half at that point) two-word clue answers finally made sense. The IV change in meaning ("4" and "intravenous") caught me. "Does" took me a few seconds, as well. These were just great how so many of the words changed meaning in the flip-flop. I also fell to the trick of the desert/dessert eye trap. Spent way too long trying to think of Asian desserts, only to realize once G-BI were down that the word was "desert" with one "s." D'oh! I messed up ALe/ALP and feel like such a bonehead, as I know of gASPAR/CASPAR, and CASeAR looked all sorts of wrong to me.
Played like a medium Thursday by time. A+ puzzle overall.
@RooMonster: SHIFTED as in shifted gears. Third gear, not base.
Loved the wardrobe malfunction combining 36A and 38A, as noted by @egs.
Haven’t read the comments because I’m late. I’m late because my alarm didn’t go off. Well not really, but that’s the best EXCUSE I HAVE. So since it’s probably all been said already I’ll be brief, like ADAM.
I liked the puzzle and appreciate that it gave us something out of the ordinary. I don’t recall ever seeing this type of trick before. But I didn’t particularly enjoy having to go all the way back through it from the beginning and change entries - like in the NE corner where I had BAIT/ETTE DATE/RITE. Aside from that, super easy and mostly fun.
This was one of the ones that really screwed me up. I had AMoNRA in there. I had gASPAR in for the wise man. There were a few other issues in other places. I got the theme pretty quickly, and my solve time wasn't the worst I've had for a Wednesday, but I spent a lot of time muttering, "Oh, *$#% you," under my breath while solving.
Lol, I just realized that part of my annoyance at this puzzle may have been that I thought it was Wednesday today.
Loved this one—loads of fun. And I looked up Mary Phelps Jacob—aka Caresse Crosby—she was a wild one!
I really enjoyed this one. I liked the reverse clues. An enjoyable Thursday puzzle and well done.
@JJK (7:10 and
@GILL (10:31) I loved The White Lotus, both seasons but I thought the first one set in Hawaii was much better. It had a stronger cast IMO with Connie Britton and Steve Zahn plus Murray Bartlett who gave such a brilliant performance as the gay resort manager. And how can you not love Jennifer Coolidge? I’m hoping they find some way to bring her back next season.
Add me to those who loved this puzzle. Clever, fun, original, and with so many great clues, especially the ones for ADAM, BUCKS, and TRIPOD. Don’t know why Rex was so negative. Maybe he was subliminally affected by the presence of a Republican Senator.
Crossword secret: If it’s a three-letter Germanic-sounding name, it’s probably an ALP.
Alternative Clues:
*Feeling after a three-day car ride
*Commit adultery again
*Oprah’s fan club
*Decide to date your girlfriend’s brother
*TRIP O.D.
*RESIN
*TEAM O
*GO BI
I agree! Made me think and was enjoyably different.
This was my favorite Thursday EVER—though the bar is low since I prefer word play to most Thursday gimmicks. I’d like to see more of this type of puzzle, whatever you call it. Bravo JR!
My only quibble was ERNST, a horror in heels. (Read her Wikipedia profile.)
M&A votes "brilliant" on this ThursPuz and its theme. Question no.
Only thing M&A woulda done different: Lots more two-worder clues in the the NW & SE, to protect the theme revealer parts a bit more. I got the "REVERSE" word of revealer-part-1 pretty early on, and then smelled a tar [reverse rat] soon afterwards, at the DOLE/BOUT site. Pepper them two revealer areas with the stuff. Maybe even sprinkle the North & South areas with some 2-worder clues a bit, to be on the sadistic side. Go all feisty on our asses. Us ThursPuz solvers can take it.
staff weeject picks: WOK & ORE. Mainly cuz they got to be 3-letter theme participants.
Not much long ball stuff. MAINITEM & TOGETHER & CABARETS & BATTERUP I guess were the longest ones. Hey -- might as well clue those with them special 2-worded clues, too boot. What the heck. U gotta know that Terrorist IdaCat would approve.
other most fave stuff: EXCUSE. RAPIER. THEWIZ. ADAM clue.
Thanx for a great solvequest, Mr. Rosen due. Primo job, other than U were a dash too friendly with yer Yoda-esque themer clues. U are clearly averse to undue sufferin. har
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
I liked the theme, but the bunching of the two-word clues in some areas with deserts in others felt off. I assume there was only one two-word clue in the top half so solvers wouldn't get frustrated too quickly, but there shouldn't have been other deserts IMO.
Lots of fun, although it took me a while to catch on. I suggest that in the future, MENSA should always be clued as “rapper Vic.” That should go over well.
Tubes are PARTS of IVs.
I liked this puzzle even though it was easy for a Thursday.
They got me with “Cold Asian desert,” which I repeatedly read as “Cold Asian dessert,” just as they intended. I liked that little gag.
I thought this was a great theme. Rex's objections are pretty technical, and had nothing to do with my enjoying the solve or not. The best part was, I really wanted to put in several words (like TRIPOD, once I had RAPIER) that didn't fit the clue. Then finally saw the word REVERSE up there and got it!
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, last word this curious 8er.]
Clever, entertaining clue reversal theme but with 16 (!) of those, not a whole lot of room left for clever, entertaining fill. I did like seeing the 32D RAPIER like wit that is so often on display in the comments.
Kitshef @ 8:40, the "Water buffalo" (sans reversal) is the largest of the bovines and does in fact spend most of its time submerged in water. The ANOA is the smallest bovine and lives singly or in pairs in dense Indonesian forests.
Mark @10:36, things have changed a bit in recent times but for the most part constructors submit a completely filled in grid with clues for all the entries. Editors may ask for a revision of the grid but rarely change anything on their own. Clues are where editors are most likely to make changes. That's why I always urge caution in giving credit or blame to the constructor or editor for any given clue without first hand knowledge.
Having not gotten the revealer till late in the solve, all I could think while doing it was "Is this some fresh hell of a cutesy cluing style that Will Shortz intends to foist on us going forward? MAKE IT STOP!! RIGHT NOW!!"
Just awful. Stupidest theme idea ever.
Someone has to stand up for Mensa, or what it used to be when I was in grad school. Mensa members aren't necessarily smarter than other people, and don't necessarily think more than most. In its original form, most Mensa members where people who thought differently, mentally configured things differently, which is why is was cool getting together for things like puzzle contests or game nights with like minded people. I haven't been a member of Mensa for years, in large part because it lost its original focus, but it seems out of line trashing a whole group of people for no reason, a generalization that isn't fair.
Crossword secret: If it’s a three-letter Germanic-sounding name, it’s probably an ALP. --@Joseph Michael
That's one of the really good crossword secrets, @Joseph Michael. I've used it for years and it never lets me down. Inspiration: Probably Cole Porter's "Wunderbar" -- though it doesn't have that particular ALP.
Whatever else the puzzle is or is not, the whole thing was worth it for the 8D clue and answer (ADAM).
IV Part is really clever.
@Nancy, great minds think alike. Care to share another Crossword Secret?
My mind's a blank right now, Joseph Michael, as my mind so often is. But as soon as some upcoming puzzle reminds me of one or more of the really good secrets, I'll share it with you. That's a promise.
@CT2Napa 11:03, brilliant. And got me thinking about whether there are any islands that are actually deserts, as opposed to just deserted, that might have mounts on them. Found this (https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-03-04/the-worlds-largest-desert-island-is-in-canada), and it turns out that we can go one step further and say Mount desert island = musk ox.
I thought this was fun. I ran into the NE theme clues with no idea about the theme but still was getting the correct answers. It felt the way solving a cryptic puzzle does to me - I might not be able to explain how I got to the answer but I know I'm right. Looking at things sideways, I don't know how to explain it. Often when I get an answer in a Cryptic, I have to reparse the Cryptic part of the clue to see exactly why it worked. Here, I had to fill in 18A before I was able to nod sagely and finish off the puzzle.
The revealer seemed a bit superfluous - I would have enjoyed continuing on in my sideways solve, but overall, I enjoyed this.
Thanks, Alex Rosen.
I preferred this puzzle to what was on offer yesterday. Enough of the two-word clues were cleverly thought out for me to get past the formulaic opening (AD HOC, ATRA, OMENS). I was thinking that it’d be nice if a periodically updated list of about three dozen junk-fill answers was generated, so that puzzle including over three of them would require revision work before seeing print in the NYT. ATRA would make that list, right after AFRO. Anyway, I thought this puzzle was certainly fun enough.
Curators, being humanities people, get MAs, PhDs sometimes... artists, creative writers, musicians etc. get MFAs. Maybe it's slightly specialized knowledge but certainly should be known to the Times. Soured the whole thing for me. Surprised English prof. Rex didn't call this one out!
I don't have any analysis other than this: if TRASH TV is the answer to "Object of hate-watching," then TRASH CROSSWORD" must be the answer to "Object of hate puzzling."
What a slog. And stupid too.
Very late today, but thankfully this tricksy one kept me working throughout a long day of medical adventures. I think that the fact that I had to do it in spurts made it harder than it really is. My brain SHIFTED gears so often that it didn’t seem to be able to get the momentum necessary for a truly enjoyable Thursday solve. Not Alex Rosen’s fault for sure.
The only “difficult” part was figuring out why the answer to Part IV was TUBE. Why that one just about did me in I cannot say because I got TRIPOD ‘s relation to “Olympus mount” instantly. My brain simply refused to see “I-V” rather than “four.” For a very very very very long time. Huh.
The theme revealed itself almost accidentally through crosses. I did the first two thirds of the top section with lots of downs and so I had REVERSE EACH
Without reading the reveal clue that connects 18 and 66 Across as the full reveal. When I got back over to the final NE top piece, I had no trouble with IDRIS at 10 D and thought I BET was a decent answer at 10 A. So, “firm fruit” was my first real head scratcher. So I moved on. RULE and MAIN ITEM also and saw the clue firm fruit, were easy and so I had D LE and B UT just sitting there staring at me. Because it looked like those answers wanted to be DOLE and BOUT, so I filled in the missing letters and only went back to re-read the clues to check my work. Rather than giving me pause, the theme revealed itself instantly. I liked both of those theme clues. Of all the theme answers I rather sheepishly admit that I thought “Part IV” was the best simply because I fell for it. I love a good “gotcha.”
That’s it for me. You all made my day today. Being able ti check back in to see what everyone was thinking and writing about as I went through my stuff lifted my spirits an extra notch or two more than usual. Thanks!
I’m really REALLY late, about a hundred comments late, and what I want to say is: I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an overwhelming preponderance of disagreements with OFL in all the years I’ve been reading this blog. And by the way, I also got a kick out of solving it. Funny thing: I entered answer after answer correctly without even sussing what was going on. Just thought: “Well, that’s an odd way to clue it, but the clues always are odd on Thursday”. Finished it lickety-split and then looked at the two-line revealer and thought: “By golly that’s what was going on, they were odd for a reason, not just for oddity’s sake.” A lot of fun!
Vexed = ateat ? I don’t understand.
I thought it was lots of fun, and clever. "Does not" = BUCKS and "Part IV" = TUBE are great clues. Funny how many people never figured out that "does" should be read as female deer, and criticized that clue instead of wondering if they might not have understood it!
Fun puzz. Filled in half of it in early-week time but then slowed down considerably.
I thought the moshers were known as headbANgERS. Is that wrong? Already had INSULT and FREUDIANSLIP in so it wasn't a problem.
by the way museum curators have PhDs, not MFAs. MFAs make are. Art Historians are MAs or PhDs
I am vexed by “Vexed= ate at.” Can someone explain?
If something is vexing, it can eat at you, figuratively. This clue and answer are in the past tense.
I'm confused. Aren't the three items in 25 down acronyms rather than abbreviations?
Rex is a big grump, this puzzle was lots of fun.
Names of Magi are gimmes for me, thanks to our family Christmas caroling tradition. It included the following:
Melchior et Balthazar
sont venus d’Afrique
sont venus d’Afrique
Melchior et Balthazar
sont venus d’Afrique avec le roi Gaspar.
Quand ils vinrent à Bethléhem,
ils défirent leurs mannes,
ils défirent leurs mannes,
Quand ils vinrent à Bethléhem,
ils défirent leurs mannes et leur mannequin.
Affamés comme trois grands loups,
ils mangèrent la soupe
ils mangèrent la soupe
Affamés comme trois grands loups,
ils mangèrent la soupe, c’était la soupe aux choux.
Yeah, this is not my favorite gig. Took ABIT of MENSA-type work to get the maguffin; after that it was ho-hum. Typical Thursday twistery, but no huge aha to finish it off. I too wonder why he did this. Bogey.
Wordle par.
LEARN CODES (CLUE SENT)
THE MAIN EXCUSE for ELLE
BECAME CORRECT as THE RULE of law:
HAVE an ITEM to sell?
Put TOGETHER these TWOWORDs, "No BRA!"
--- ZEKE SEGAL, MFA
Easyish for Thursday. Caught on to the theme stuff before I knew there was a theme to the TWOWORD clues. Then, it got even easier.
Nothing ATEAT me!
Diana, LIW
I, too, caught on before the reveal. A TEAT in the corners and ATEAT in the answers.
Wordle par
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