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Platte River people / WED 2-1-23 / 2018 John Travolta flop / Half of D
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Constructor: Dan Caprera
Relative difficulty: Hard, for a Wednesday?? 11:48 (Also, note the oversized grid)
THEME: Aliens — There are three types of alien vehicles as the theme answers. Each of these seems to (visually) be "beaming up" an earthly item
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: IMAGO (Adult stage in insects) —
Hello besties! Thanks in advance for tuning in to another Malaika MWednesday. I'll start with a little update... Last time I was here, I speculated that I knew one of the constructors of the puzzle from elementary school. Well, I was right! She read the post and reached out to me, and now perhaps we will record a crossword puzzle podcast together. That was a fun reminder for me that these blog posts are nice because they allow us to use a fairly individual activity in order to make connections with other people.
- Science fiction vessel-- FLYING SAUCER
- Trash hauler [Mooooooo!]-- SCOW
- Science fiction vessel-- MOTHERSHIP
- Place for a drink while traveling [Hoooonk!]-- BAR CAR
- Science fiction vessel-- SPACE CRAFT
- 1976 hit by heart [Heeeelp!]-- MAGIC MAN
- Science fiction energy rays that may suck up earthly bodies, as depicted three times in this puzzle-- TRACTOR BEAMS
Word of the Day: IMAGO (Adult stage in insects) —
In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the imaginal stage, the stage in which the insect attains maturity. It follows the final ecdysis of the immature instars.
• • •
Other things.... My solving snack for today was plain potato chips sprinkled generously with chaat masala. And my solving music was this SZA song which makes me want to weep in the shower. Onwards!
Y'all, I struggled so much with this. And actually, I'm still not 100% sure I got everything that's going on. If I've missed an aspect of this puzzle, please correct me in the comments-- I read every single one of them. Lots of things slowed me down here.
First of all, we had some long across answers that had nothing to do with the theme at all-- KLEPTOCRATIC was brand new to me in a way where I thought maybe the theme was going to be invented words. (BALLET DANCER made me realize these were just there as non-theme entries.) And then SCOW was also new to me!! I've never heard this word in my life. So I wondered if maybe the vertical "beamed" answers were going to be nonsense words.
Once I was able to click COW with the [Moooo!] in the clue, I felt like the next "beamed" entry should be another animal-- a goose, obviously, to go along with [Hoooonk!]. Boy was I wrong. An added element of confusion for me was the way these "beamed" entries were hidden. A COW has nothing to do with a SCOW at all-- it's just some letters inside the word. By contrast, a BAR CAR is indeed a CAR and a MAGIC MAN is indeed a MAN. Some people nitpick a lot about these inconsistencies, and some people not at all-- I only do so when the inconsistencies greatly slowed down my grasp of the theme, and that was the case here.
And the kicker for me was that I have never heard of the term TRACTOR BEAMS. So then I was trying to reckon TRACTOR with CAR, and getting nowhere. I am a huuuge fan of revealers, because they tie the puzzle together. But this revealer didn't do that for me, and so I think I would have preferred the puzzle without it! (The visual of a UFO beaming up an earthly item feels pretty familiar-- I don't need an explainer.) What do y'all think? Was this term known to you? Did it help you "get" the puzzle?
Bullets:
- [Ingredient in a hurricane] for RUM— This was easy for me since I am very familiar with the hurricane cocktail. In February 2020 I made several gallons of hurricane punch (pictured above) for a big house party we had and it was a hit.
- [East Coast Amtrak service with the fastest trains in the Americas] for ACELA — My favorite depressing fact about the ACELA is that, while it is the fastest train service in the US, only 10% of it is fast enough to qualify as high speed rail. I went to high school in Italy and would frequently take (as a 15yr old!!) the amazingly efficient Frecciarossa and Frecciargento trains. I wish we had anything like that here.
- [1976 hit by Heart] for MAGIC MAN —1976?? Phew!! That is trivia that is not for me. I had "Manic Man" here at first, since the crossing (IMAGO) is a word that's totally new to me. I know exactly one song by Heart and the only reason I know it is because Fergie covered it when I was in elementary school.
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137 comments:
"Tractor beam" was personally a gimme as a staple trope/device in a lot of mainstream science fiction (eg, Death Star capturing Millennium Falcon in A New Hope), but easy to imagine it being tricky if that's not your yum.
Now crossing "ETO" with "Tstrap," on the other hand... Now that gave me fits...
TRACTORBEAMS go back to the original Star Trek series, if not further in the SF lit.
As for KLEPTOCRATIC, sometimes that term seems more appropriate for Russia than oligarchy.
Medium. Clever and amusing, liked it.
@Malaika - looks like a lot of this one was before your time e.g. I knew TRACTOR BEAM from ‘60s Star Trek TV shows (that’s back when there were only 3 or 4 channels).
@pabloinnh - RE : Croce - I had to change my answer to the “floor” clue to finally come up with the French city....took me while
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A tractor-beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance.[1] The concept originates in fiction: The term was coined by E. E. Smith (an update of his earlier "attractor-beam") in his novel Spacehounds of IPC (1931).
MAGIC MAN was Heart's very first hit. It was a mid-tempo rocker with a long instrumental break in the middle. I remember being shocked to find out that it was only #82 on WABC'S Top 100 Songs of 1976, because I heard it so damn much I was sure it would be near the top of the list. "Barracuda" was their second hit, the following year. Then they went into power-ballad mode in the 80's.
TRACTOR BEAM would be known to anyone who grew up watching "Star Trek". It was normally used to hold an object (e.g. another space vehicle) in place, though, not to suck things up into the ship.
My, of my, Malaika. You’ve never heard of TRACTORBEAMS? We’ll you better strap yourself in ‘cuz you’re gonna be gettin hit hard today by Trekkies, Wakandans, Scoobie Doobies and many other spaceifiers.
You also arched an eyebrow about the long non-themer acrosses. Well I just wove them into the narrative along with the craft immediately above:
Hey you KLEPTOCRATIC COW-lifters in the FLYINGSAUCER!!!
Get my ANCIENT CAR off your MOTHERSHIP!!!
You SPACECRAFT SMILERS unman that MAN!!!
Without an ET, your TRACTOR BEAM is sitting on a BALLDANCER!!!
Another delightful write up, Malaika. And a weirdly fun puzzle thanks to Dan Caprera.
OMG, name ONE time in the history of Earth when anybody ever got beamed up for reals. Will Shortz is deliberately spreading ET falsehoods to cover up his anti-alien, pro-cow agenda. I say MOOOOO to this puzzle.
And it should have run on a different day as somebody says every dang day as if the NYTXW signed a contract with us to make every puzzle hard, but not hard, and promising our solving time will be exactly what our obsessed clockwatchers need it to be for their self esteem. Maybe this is a @Malaika Friday and an @myself Monday so on average everyday is Frigg's Dei on the pre-Gregorian calendar.
Happy February.
And LOL @Malaika with not one but TWO sticky notes warning her witch's brew is STRONG.
FLYING SAUCER is such a fun idea and if only space travel was possible it would be my preferred method. MOTHER SHIPS are so corporate and any damn fool can get a generic SPACECRAFT like buying a Nissan Sentra or being a billionaire with a rocket. Saucers are sleek, compact, have great window seats, and make that whirring sound. As long as you stay away from Roswell and mainly fly where people don't know how to focus their cameras it's the only way to go.
I don't know if KLEPTOCRATIC is a real thing, but I love it so much. It's so funny I know VIN Diesel when I almost never know any of the starlets. Isn't DENALI a beautiful word? And IMAGO?
Dunno:
TWEE, GOTTI, CAPSICUM... but now I do.
Oof:
SMILERS, SUAVEST.
Uniclues:
1 When everything is where it's supposed to be.
2 The Newton I found under the refrigerator.
3 The skinny twerp who can easily knock me out.
4 Tastes like chili, looks like chili, smells like chili... not chili.
5 Clean up a crime scene nefariously.
6 Houdini humor.
7 Expert at seducing married women.
1 KLEPTOCRATIC EEK!
2 ANCIENT NABISCO (~)
3 BALLET DANCER PAL (~)
4 SLY STEED STEWS
5 LYE UNABASHEDLY
6 MAGIC MAN LIP (~)
7 CHEAT SHEETS ACE
@CT2Napa, OMG, I read a bunch of E.E. "Doc" Smith books circa 45 years ago. Glad to say that I have almost completely forgotten how terrible those books were.
A lot of difficult crosses on this. ETO xing TSTRAPS, CAPSICUM xing ACELA, MAGICMAN xing IMAGO. Nonetheless had a fun time parsing. Surprised they didn’t sneak in crosswordese faves ETS and UFO.
Also MEW is not particularly “catlike” compared to, say, MEOWTH (alienlike maybe?). Though I guess people would call that a PPP foul.
Maliaka - hand up for not being familiar with TRACTOR BEAM, but I was happy to learn about it.
I recently was able to (finally) connect with a particularly tough kid – we had butted heads several times – when he knocked on my door during my planning to ask if he could do some work in my room. Oh. Hell. Yes. All the plans I had had for that hour went out the window so that I could finesse some kind of détente with this guy who had thrown an apple at my shins. I don’t know how it came up, but we ended up talking about UFOs. I said if one landed right outside, I’d be the first to go up to it and knock on the door. Helloooooo? Got some kind of Close Encounters ramp you can lower for me? Hello? Anyone home? You come in peace, right? Josh said no way – he’d be running out the back door. So this theme makes me happy. Josh and I are good now, and he sits and works for me during class.
@Robin – why stop at Russia? “Like a government LED by thieving politicians” . . . run-of-the-mill and conventional have the same number of letters as KLEPTOCRATIC.
Three nice crosses: ACELA/BAR CAR, JFK/FLY, and IDEAL/EDEN.
When my son was in kindergarten, he saved up his allowance and bought a Pokémon MEW on Ebay. It was The card of the neighborhood; kids would come over just for a MEW viewing. We had recently moved there, and it was kind of Gardiner’s entrée into society. Good times.
I liked the symmetry of UNABASHEDLY and CHEAT SHEETS. I have kids who goof around the whole class, throw little snits, cause all kinds of unpleasant disruptions… and then sit down next to someone who’s done the work and start openly copying all the answers. I go take their paper and tell them, no, they will absolutely get a zero because it’s not their work. The weird thing is, they’re always genuinely surprised. Like, they think that as long as they turn it in with answers, it’s all good. Jeez Louise.
@Gary Jugert, I know, right? I can’t put my finger on it, but adding an EST to SUAVE feels weird, maybe because suaver feels weird? But so does most suave.I’m probably overthinking it because yesterday between classes (when I’m besieged by kids stopping to get an apple), I was explaining to a new guy that the Granny Smiths were sourer than the Pink Ladys. Then I kept saying sourer and making other kids try to say it. The good sports would try and fail; the budding little purist snobs would argue that it wasn’t a word. I tried to tell them that it’s a word if a native speaker says it and that I had said it and that the dictionary isn’t the be-all and end-all of what gets to be a word and that language is really playwithable so there. . . But they’re like everyone else who’s drunk the Prescriptive Kool-Aid. Ah me.
Thanks to Legally Blonde the word MOTHERSHIP always makes me laugh. It was that scene where they’re needing someone to interview the ex-wife who’s at a spa. This law student says to Elle, A spa – isn’t that like your MOTHERSHIP? Great line. Cool that SHIP has different meanings. You can tool around in a MOTHERSHIP, warship, steamship but not in a friendship or scholarship. Well, unless you decide a scholarship is a school bus. Hah. On a side note, you could argue that the conversion van is the father of the mother of all motherhood motherships, the minivan.
Imago see myself out now.
Thanks, @egsforbreakfast, for clearing up how those (apparently) non-theme long acrosses fit the narrative. That was confusing me.
The only thing that gave me a lot of pause was 47A. I could only think of three musical instruments with pedals: harp (didn't fit), pIano and orgAn. But I was very confident of LOSE IT at 30D, so the final T put the kibosh on those. It took almost all the crosses to get HIHAT.
I was really charmed by this one. We had a narrative, visuals, and sound effects - it was like a CGI xword!
Is the VIN the vehicle identification number ? If so, that’s a very weak clue. The little section with DENALI and IMAGO took some navigation due to well, DENALI and IMAGO. I didn’t think the circled letters added much if anything - I doubt half the people solving really realized (or cared) about the aliens beaming up a cow.
Wow! Two fantastic Thursdays in a row! Yes, I know it’s Wednesday but it felt like Thursday cleverness. Wonder what we have in store for tomorrow.
I loved this, and I’m sorry it fell flat for you, Malaika - and anyone else who didn’t get the revealer. Like you, I was expecting an animal - a goose - for the second body sucked up into the MOTHER SHIP. But no matter, I could picture a car getting pulled up - it helps that a MOTHER SHIP would be big enough to do it. (And, of course, there are GEESE there too, flying above and to the right of all three SPACECRAFT, having escaped their TRACTOR BEAMS.)
Soooo many things to love about this even beyond the theme. Lots of fun and original answers and three great clues: “Diesel found in street racers” (VIN), “It’s bound to be eaten by livestock” (BALE), and “Performer who might step on some toes?” (BALLET DANCER).
Back to the theme - it made me think of a Halloween party we had several years ago. We always have a theme, and that year it was alien abduction. We decorated by hanging the lower halves of people from the ceiling (pants and shoes, skirts and stockings with shoes) as if they were being sucked up by tractor beams. We all played aliens with huge white veiny heads and took people on a tour upstairs where we enacted strange rituals like “operating” on a teenage boy (who was a plant on the tour) and pulling an alien baby out of his stomach as he screamed in agony. It was a riot.
@LMS, I love that you would be out there knocking on the spaceship door while your student would be running for dear life. Movies of aliens on Earth are always one thing or another - they come in peace to teach us great truths, or they’re here to wipe us out and take our planet. I read an article by some scientist saying the SETI people are effing nuts sending out signals saying “Here we are!” when the chances of the ETs coming in peace are very slim. More likely we are inviting the BRUTES to come here and UNABASHEDLY vaporize us into JELLO.
What does “heeelp” have to do with the magic man answer?
Easiest puzzle so far this week, and it’s not even close. Today much easier than yesterday; yesterday much easier than Monday. By the time we get to Saturday, I fully expect to solve the puzzle in three and half minutes.
Although the theme works well, this would also have made an excellent themeless with fantastic long entries in the non-theme acrosses and downs.
Malaika - different strokes. I've known SCOW and TRACTOR BEAM since the late '60s (probably both learned from Star Trek), and MAGIC MAN is my favorite Heart song, but I've never heard that Sza song before and when I listened to it, I hated everything about it. Admittedly, I have very low tolerance for "I'm hopelessly in love with someone I can't have" songs.
I remembered IMAGO because of a book by Seanan McGuire - somewhere in the last three Incryptid books, I think.
Yeah, yeah, I hear complaints all the time about crosswordese, words like today’s OTO, MST, TBS, CCL, ETO, AAR, ACTI, ENT, and SRS. And often I praise puzzles for being shy of these, because a smaller glue presence usually means a fresher feeling puzzle. Furthermore, crossword editors hate crosswordese, and toss grids right back to constructors for rework to get rid of them.
But… but. To me, a veteran solver, crosswordese answers provide footholds, often are life-rafts in difficult sections. We veteran solvers have seen these answers aplenty, and we know them. Sure, it’s cool to decry them in crossword circles, I guess, but for me, they are often things to be grateful for. They certainly hastened my fill-in today.
So here’s to you, much maligned crosswordese. Thank you for your service!
And thank you, Dan, for the brilliant visuals of alien abductions – that was eye-play to go with wordplay, and it was fresh and fun. I loved this!
@lms, sharing your Southern roots, I love that you challenged students to say "sourer," which is a classic hard-to-say word with a Southern accent. "Mirror" can also be tough, but the granddaddy of them all is "rural" (as in, "I grew up in a very rurrrrooooorrrrrrr ... rrrroooooowwrrraarrr ... I grew up in the country."
Puzzle definitely played medium or a tad harder than that for me. Liked it!
No errors. But I didnt get it, I still dont and have no need to dig further. This puzzle is done thank God. I have no idea what a TRACTORBEAM is - I have never seen Staar Trek or Star Wars. I’ve seen a couple episodes of Lost in Space, but thats about it. MAGICMAN is definitely in my wheelhouse. it was either that or Barracuda. Both great tunes. is a HIHAT really an instrument? Reminds me of the old joke - What do you call someone who is always sitting around musicians? - A drummer. Sorry Dan, didnt like this puzzle but that is more me than you, peace out.
Southside Johnny - Vin Diesel as in the Fast and Furious franchise, not VIN
I think the only other place I’ve heard scow used is for The Old Scow stuck tenuously near the brink of Niagara Falls since 1918, and which involved a harrowing rescue operation: https://www.niagaraparks.com/visit/heritage/the-iron-scow/
"When you're stuck for life on a garbage SCOW
Only forty feet long from stern to prow
And a crackpot in the bow-wow ..."
The dog in Sondheim's wonderful Sunday in the Park with George
But my problem is for newer solvers a lot of crosswordese is just ungettable.
TSTRAPS and ETO. Crossing two relatively obscure initials just sucks
Vin Diesel, star of the street-racing Fast & Furious franchise.
A+ for me all the way. Unique fill with long non-themers. Lots of nicely themed content (in both directions!).
@SouthsideJohnny....Vin is referring to the actor Vin Diesel of all the F&F movies. Good clue.
I don’t mean this to sound snarky or reverse-ageist, but you’ve never heard of a garbage scow?
I saw the COW and MAN and CAR going up but somehow missed they were being sucked up into the space craft — I kept looking for something in the down letters before them (BAR, MAGIC, forwards or backwards) to have something to do with it. Nope.
“Tractor Beam” was new to me too although I’ve watched science fiction on and off for many years. The crosses were fair though and the theme enjoyable so it was easy to get it. I found the clue for “Ballet Dancer” to be misleading though. Maybe someone stepping on their own toes would work? I don’t think you’d end up an official ballet dancer if you constantly stepped on your colleague’s toes. You’d just be another clumsy person who likes to dance, as I am!
Fun theme well executed. Not a lot of rough spots. I didn’t instantly recall it, but I learned IMAGO from a previous puzzle, so that’s always fun.
Odd grid layout - I like the attempt at the dual layered theme but I still can’t see the circles solving on the app. The solve was a wheelhouse thing - played easy for me. Loaded with short glue that drags it down.
@Joe D is spot on with his Heart summary. MAGIC MAN was the hit but not my fave from Dreamboat Annie
Liked how UNABASHEDLY fit in and KLEPTOCRATIC is cool. SMILERS should have been edited out and agree with Malaika on the descriptor for the ACELA.
AAR, ETO, MEW, SES etc are the real downfall of this solve.
The BEARD x TUBE cross is apt
Have you tried chaat masala as a popcorn seasoning? My current go-to.
I know TRACTOR BEAMS from a video game in the 70's. It was a well known game back then. Could have bee Galaga or Galaxian - or both. This was an entertaining puzzle. I had a real hold up getting SMILERS since I had CCX for half of D. Never very good at math. Took a while for the penny to drop since SMIXERS had MIXERS in it. Doh!
I always smile when I see a Malaika Wednesday post. Thank you for exuding your wonderful and positive vibe. BTW enjoyed the puzzle.
Vin refers to the actor Vin Diesel and the clue refers to the Fast & Furious film franchise. Which I have never seen but gets a lot of love.
Malaika, I wondered how it's possible that you've never encountered SCOW in other crosswords, if not IRL. Garbage SCOWs used to ply the rivers all around Manhattan. Not sure whether they still do, but I'm betting yes.
And KLEPTOCRATIC? Just turn your eyes toward D.C. Confidently filled in ORGAN for 47A, but HI-HAT is better.
I really enjoyed this puzzle and its goofy theme and found it very much in my wheelhouse, so this was, by far, the easiest puzz of the week. (@Gary Jugert: Loved your mini-rant about day-to-difficulty expectations, but it's not as if Shortz hasn't set it up that way.) Loved TRACTOR BEAMS both as a clue and as what they are. A T STRAP is a pretty shoe and a pretty clue. CHEAT SHEETS and UNABASHEDLY--great clues. And yes, @Gary Jugert--again!, IMAGO and DENALI roll trippingly off the tongue.
Lovely puzzle!
Twenty-eight threes out of 80 entries. More than a third. Lewis sugarcoats it saying that they helped him solve it. As if a crossword master like Lewis needed help with it.
Way faster than my average for a Wednesday. I have done every puzzle in about basically the same time this week. So Monday felt the hardest.
What we know seems obvious and what we don't is impossible, e.g., I put in KLEPTOCRATIC off the K and Ms. Malaika has never run into it. See also SCOW and TRACTORBEAM. Different strokes indeed. About the only thing that was mysterious in this one was MEW as clued. Not up on my Pokemon.
@LNS-I agree with what we should do if a flying saucer lands nearby, which is to employ the Bugs Bunny approach. "What's up Doc?" is a good response to almost anything.
I always enjoy running into old friends that may be crosswordese but remind me of all the fun I've had in many years of solving. I used to see AAR quite a bit but lately not so much. Same for ETO and IMAGO How have you been? I assume the TSTRAP has been holding down a TTOP somewhere.
So this played easy for a Wednesday and I liked the visuals. Really didn't see the revealer coming which is always a good thing.
Well done you, DC. Delightfully Charming and thanks for all the fun.
@Son Volt from yesterday-Somehow how I missed your references to 'Third Rate Romance" which was unfortunate because I had just played it Monday night at our hootenanny. One of my favorites. There's a very funny video on youtube with a different take on the lyrics if you're interested.
Vin Diesel is an actor in the Fast and Furious movies about street racers. It is amazing how much this puzzle was in my wheel house v Malaika. I started out with Kleptocratic though wondering if I spelled it right. Being a sci-fi geek didn't hurt.
It must be a generational thing, because like yesterday, I found this as easy as an ordinary Monday. My time was about the same as yesterday's, also easy. The Monday from two days ago was much harder (slower) for me.
I'd rate today's as mildly amusing.
I've come to look forward to Malaika MWednesdays. Mwah back to you! It would never occur to me to set out a solving snack and put on solving music; mainly I just want a quiet place to solve undistractedly. But your way sounds much more lighthearted and fun. Hey, great idea about the solving podcast. I thought it was really nice when Rex (Michael) and Rachel Fabi did their little co-solving gig once a month; for one thing it cast a different light on Rex for me, and made me like him more -- seemed less of a sourpuss. The opposite of sourer. (Btw, Spellcheck -- that prescriptivist snob -- thinks "sourer" is a word, but not "undistractedly". UNABASHEDLY gets the green light.)
I hope we don't get people trashing Heart today; it would make me sad. MAGIC MAN is a song from my childhood that I still listen to when it comes on, and I still think Heart as women pioneers in what was a man's world in that era. And I still like the acoustic guitar intro to "Crazy on You".
SMILERS is not in my vocabulary, but the concept seems all too familiar. So often I see really jerky people smiling for the camera and I think how utterly false they look doing it. Sometimes I like looking at old family photos from the 1800's, and no one is smiling -- clearly it would have been exhausting to hold a smile for the time it took to take a photo. They wind up looking kind of bad-ass. Made of stern stuff. BRUTES. A third of them were horse thieves, is the family lore. Maybe a COW here or there as well.
I'm thinking Rex would not allow CCL to go unremarked on as old-school crosswordese, combining ANCIENT Roman numerals with a math quiz, which you just know Rex would detest. Do kids even learn Roman numerals anymore? I somehow doubt it. The movies stopped using them in their credits ages ago.
@Southside
In case you weren't kidding, VIN Diesel is an actor. A man who appears in movies made by men, for men, about men. Men walking among men. VIN Diesel sounds like the manliest name on the planet.
SB: -3 from yd, but I'm not letting go of the tab just yet. My tabs have been crashing more and more recently; may be a sign that it's time for a new computer.
What Todd said!
How is CCL half of D?
Robin - You’re thinking of Klept as in the Russian villain in “From Russia with Love” with James Bond
Hey All !
18A, unitedStatEs fits, too. Har. Regardless of party...
Saw the 16 wideness, good on me. Was wondering why the circled letters were in there, seeing later that they were things being BEAMed into the Science Fiction vessels.
Funny how you can be BEAMed either directly though a TRACTOR BEAM, or via a Transporter, ala BEAM me up, Scotty.
Nice puz, GOTTI ONTO the theme quick. Could've been another Themer in BALL ET DANCER - Alien at the prom? -
CHEAT SHEETS has HEAT HEET in it. Also, another ET. INLET, ETO, too.
No JELLO/ELL dupe complaints? (Haven't read everyone yet.) ETO/STRAPS potential Natick
THAT's it. 😁
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Marissa - Think Roman Numerals
I LOVED this! TRACTOR BEAMS and all! Alien spacecraft coming to Earth for purposes unknown and hovering over likely targets, then snatching them up – yes! I was inculcated into the wonderful world of space-on-television by my mother (of all people). She was always glued to actual space missions and never missed a launch, an orbit, a (moon) landing or a final splashdown back on Earth. And, at the same time, she loved Star Trek and all programs of that ilk. I think she was set alight by the idea of exploring strange new worlds, whether in real life or in fiction. And my husband is much the same. He’s a planetary scientist who studies ice on Mars, an interest that grew out of his experience as a terrestrial glaciologist. He’s dead keen on any novel or movie (no matter how far-fetched) that features Mars, in particular, and cosmic travel in general. And – oh! – thanks to Mr. S., I got to experience a mission to Mars relatively close up. He was on the science team of NASA’s Phoenix lander, which touched down on Mars in 2008. We were at Canaveral for the launch and in Tucson (mission headquarters) for the landing. The whole event was quite astonishing. So, as you can see, I’ve been surrounded by space-lovers for most of my life and it’s rubbed off.
I had very little trouble figuring out this puzzle. I didn’t know KLEPTOCRATIC, MAGIC MAN, CAPSICUM, MEW or Chi Psi, but crosses made them all easy. I had an interesting pattern of solving: I bombed out in the NW, but then got HER, EEK, CASE and BATED in the NE and proceeded down the eastern seaboard, only gradually (like the pioneers) spreading west. It meant that I solved the ends of most of the acrosses before the beginnings. I’m so glad I’ve finally memorized ACELA and HIHAT, two answers I’ve learned from crosswords. AAR is more or less in the same category, although it didn’t come as readily as the other two.
Uniclues:
1. Yoga pose requiring so much flexibility that it can only be achieved through special effects.
2. Train that blasts off!
3. Caesar’s assassins.
4. Wily warhorse ready to rumble.
5. Fling around the sodium hydroxide without remorse (and fib about it).
6. What to do (frantically) on a sinking rubbish barge.
7. Minor Tolkien character, denizen of the Piquant Pastures of Paprikum.
1. JELLO ASANA CGI
2. SPACECRAFT ACELA
3. SMILERS/BRUTES
4. SLY STEED STEWS
5. LYE UNABASHEDLY
6. SCOW MORE BALE*
7. CAPSICUM ENT
* I know this is a stretch, but Oxford/Lexico gives BALE as a variant spelling of “bail,” so I’m going with it.
@Gary Jugert – Your #7! Also, I loved my namesake uniclue the other day. I’m partial to the ovines among us, as I was born in the Year of the Sheep (also known as The Year of the Goat – such a problem: I never know whether to baa or maa).
@Joe Dipinto (yesterday) – Thanks for posting “Someday Soon” with the wonderful Ian & Sylvia. That song is truly part of the soundtrack of my life.
[SB: Here are my scores since I last posted: -4, -2, -1, 0, 0. Hmm, well, at least the trend is in the right direction. I was livid on Sunday because they wouldn’t accept URTICARIA (hives), but you’ll be glad to know I’ve calmed down since then. Yesterday these were my last two words. Not surprising, but that’s a meteoric rise for one of them.]
It's the actor.
(Not my cupa tea, either)
this was easier than mon and tues
D is 500 in Roman Numerals. Half of that, 250, is CCL.
Undoubtedly this will be repeated many times here.
Definiely an age thing. I found this easy. I propose a trial in which we give our ages after our comments and ranking, to see if the rankings correlate with our age.
I don’t get CCL as half of D
I also don’t get MAN clued as heeelp! (The circled letters I. MAGICMAN)
Never, ever heard of a HIHAT
Never, ever heard of ASANO. The cross with AAR was a DNF for me.
Thx, Dan, for this BEAM of enlightenment! :)
Hi Malaika; good to see you again!:)
Easy-med.
Lol; this was my Tues. puz and vice versa.
On D.C.'s wavelength most of the way; 'suck'ed this one right 'up'!
Unlike yd, only a modicum of unknowns today: KLEPTOCRATIC; MAGIC MAN; CAPSICUM; MEW; TED.
Liked it a lot! :)
___
A pb for The New Yorker Mon. puz (just s. of 30.) Another excellent Elizabeth Gorski creation! :)
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Nice puzzle. We’ll put together using both the acrosses and downs…. fun visualizing all the stuff getting pulled up into the SPACE CRAFT (nice picture Claire). SCOW IMAGO HIHAT are all things I only learned from crossworld.
I read “step” as “take a step” and “on some toes” as their own toes.
Are the COW / CAR / MAN in anyway iconic as things that spaceships pull up with their tractor beams? How do we know that a spaceship didn't beam up OTTO I, or FSU for that matter. I guess that absorbing FSU would prove fatal to any and all alien life forms, so maybe we can discount that one. Maybe they came here for water, and sucked up an INLET. So, my question remains, why the COW / CAR / MAN?
250 in Roman numerals, half of 500.
I guess you need the circles, since the things being tractored up have nothing in common but their length -- but circles AND shaded squares? The latter are really unnecessary, since they cover the whole entry.
I've seen "kleptocracy" in the wild fairly regularly, but KLEPTOCRATIC is rarer--but it fits grammatically, and the length is right, so OK.
Unlike many here, I liked TSTRAPS for the way it used a seemingly impossible start, TSTR. And being CINC of the ETO propelled Eisenhower into POTUSship (or is it POTUShood?), so that was fine.
SMILERS is in the lyrics to Let the Sunshine In(the old religious song, apparently there are other songs with the same title), which makes it good enough for me.
But DINS in the plural? And HELPS in the grid with Heeeeeelp! in the clues? Not so OK.
@Marissaa, see @TTrimble -- those letters are Roman numerals.
Thanks, Malaika, I enjoyed your writeup!
A+ for whimsy. For a bit, I was as baffled as any COW or MAN suddenly finding it/himself inexplicably being lifted from terra firma. But then I saw what the TRACTOR BEAM was doing, changing my image of dangling entities to ones being inexorably drawn up. I also loved the complementary KLEPTOCRATIC, another form of stealing. And we got CHEAT SHEETS, CAPSICUM, DENALI, NABISCO - fun all around. Including @TTrimble on VIN Diesel (8:42).
Add me to those who knew TRACTOR BEAM from the one that Obi-Wan had to disable. Great scene.
For 65 Across “performer who may step on some toes,” at one point I had “badlapdancer.”
It almost worked,
Did a double take at the rating & write up before realizing that Malaika Not Rex was on the keyboard. Big fans of Gary Larsen cartoons have no trouble with TRACTOR BEAMS, nor did I. My first thought was to join the moiling mass of drudges who complain about the puzzle’s placement in the weekly rotation: “why are they running a MONDAY grid today?” I must admit that trains passing through (but not stopping in) the Idaho Panhandle move slowly. Passenger service, NEIN. What a contrast to the bullet train we enjoyed from Paris to Cologne….faster even than a VIN vehicle. So, thanks again Malaika for giving OFL a break, & ditto to Dan for the outstanding visual theme grid.
@LMS, you outdid yourself today. Wonderful post.
From the "you can't make this stuff up" department: I had a student come to my office after she did very poorly on an exam. She said she didn't get the chance to prepare for it, so she copied her answers off of her neighbor's paper. So it wasn't really her effort, so could I not count it?
I said, Let me get this straight -- you are telling me you copied your answers off of your neighbor's paper and you're using that as a point in your favor?
There's a flaw in there somewhere.
SMILER to me is Good Old Smiler kicking the bucket in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
Just recently we watched an episode of Andor and “OMG it's a TRACTORBEAM!” Sez I, with an eye roll. They are still inescapable (well, not that one) in sci-fi. If you don't know the first thing about sci-fi (you're American?) I can imagine this puzzle could be challenging. For me it was a delight. And I love the visual representation of the abductions.
Maybe Malaika, like me, you don’t prefer sci-fi movies. Space battles put me to sleep, as I've mentioned before, but I'll go along in a spirit of camaraderie. I do love sci-fi writing with good characterization and story. Usually fewer TRACTORBEAMS there.
Also have to agree with you @LMS re run-of-the-mill Kleptocracies.
Very fun puzzle! I love the whole concept and learned KLEPTOCRATIC too boot! (Also LOVE that term).
I always think of the Parliament album whenever I see MOTHERSHIP (Connection). George Clinton was really in an over the top funk stage with that one. Then Bootsy Collins broke off and went even more off the rails with his Rubber Band.
@Trina…Think of what noise should be emitted by the COW (mooo!), MAN (help!), and CAR (honk!) as each is drawn up to the spaceship by the tractor beam.
@Trina - The sound clues are the cries of the abductees. Only the man can actually yell for help.
@LMS With you on your MOTHERSHIP reference!
Yeah, tractor beam and kleptocratic were gimmes for me, but I had Baracuda (apparently there are two Rs) for the Heart song at first, then when I realized it was wrong, assumed the thing being beamed would start with a C since the others two did. But Eto and T straps I had to look up. No idea what either of those mean
Tina Frey’s classic line: rural Juror.
The ETO is a standard puzzle clue, and something I grew up hearing from family who served there.
Today’s puzzle was just plain easy and obvious and enjoyable
Definitely in my wheelhouse, though I had MAGICbus there for a while. Oops The Who is not Heart! I danced to plenty of Heart songs in my youth - there weren't too many women who rocked in those days and their songs often had a sly humor to them.
My son and his now wife love the Fast and Furious movies so coming up with VIN wasn't too hard. We watched a couple of them with him, and I can see the attraction, they are totally ridiculous but they have heart. You haven't seen anything till you see a car fly out the window of a skyscraper and land more or less unharmed in the adjacent skyscraper. They keep upping the ante on stunts. And don't forget, "I don't have friends, I got family."
This was a Monday puzzle.
AWEE??? Aww, no.
I get all the various SPACE CRAFT, but what are the COW, CAR and MAN doing in the tiny little circles?
And what, pray tell, are TRACTOR BEAMS?
I feel like I may be living in a different part of the solar system the constructor. Oh, wait -- it looks as though that's exactly where I am!
Going off to read y'all now and find out what the bleep is going on.
Fascinating - one of the things i like about this blog and these notes is the wide variety of people's knowledge it shows This for me, was one of the easiest puzzles in weeks - but then again I'm a sci fi fan. So tractor beam, and the rest all mother's milk. And, living by the coast, scow is clearly a garbage scow; and being a F and F fan (the whole series) made Vin Diesel a gimme. oh, and I do yoga so I instantly knew asana too.
I'm not being proud - just this puzzle hit all my sweet spots it was the equivalent of an easy Monday for me. So when the puzzle asks about - for me - obscure hip hop singers or even more obscure sports teams in obscure sports leagues I suffer; and I know that for a lot of you these are pieces of cake.
That's what makes doing these so much fun! By the way is the constructor the same gentleman who does some New Yorker puzzles. in any case, thank you.
I don’t understand TWEE. That’s a cute was of saying “tree” or “three,” and neither is a synonym for “cute.”
Not a bad puzzle but I dislike science fiction more than I hate Oreos, so for the second day in a row I pretty much ignored the theme. Was not hard to do since it was without any noticeable resistance. The only place I hesitated at all was at HIHAT crossing MAN. Never heard of the instrument with a pedal, didn’t know the song at 25 down and don’t get how “heeeeelp” relates to MAN. But it was easy enough to fill in the obvious letters. Not familiar with the revealer either but again, easy to see.
I grew up on a farm so to me, TRACTOR BEAMS are what you have on HI when you’re in the hay field trying to haul in all the BALES before the thunderstorm hits. I was always on the wagon stacking since being a skinny girl I was not much use in hoisting them up from the ground. But there’s a system to it, and when it works right it’s a regular BALLET. Of course, now the bales are so big they have to be moved with a forklift.
I’m a teeny minority in this crowd since I can’t stand sci-fi and most fantasy(including George Santos, MTG and the MAGAs).
BUT this puzz was entirely grok-able and enjoyable, and quite sinewy for a Wednesday.
I particularly liked the long non-themers that LMS cited: UNABASHEDLY and CHEATSHEETS.
Bravo to the constructor!
Agreed. I’m a man of a certain age (you may have to be of a certain age to be familiar with that idiom) and I found it relatively easy for a Wednesday.
@Barbara S and I can dance the fandango tango together...I LOVED THIS as well...We can BALLET to the tune of MAGIC MAN...
You give me a KLEPTO anything and I think CHEAT SHEETS. Oh, wait...it's right there. I had KLEPTOmania at first thinking about this particular someone with his CHEAT SHEETS in hand and wanting to steal what he didn't need. Hah...I overthink things....No...it's the KLEPTOCRATIC society eating up the JELLO....
Such fun words today and we're talking outer space voodoo. I'd want to be on the MOTHER SHIP with Scotty and yell BEAMS me up some of that COW MAN CAR. Wine gas (AKA VIN Diesel) can steer us.
IMAGO was the TWEE mistake I made. I UNABASHEDLY wrote in LARVA....but just for a second. Ah, yes...MAGIC with her G reminded me that IMAGO is the stage for an adult scorpion.
I'm a sap for anything sci-fi. I may not be the SUAVEST cracker in this room, but I enjoy a good romp with outer space. I always wonder why our little earth was ever created. I also believe that we could quite possibly not be the only one. I'd join @Loren and hop on any FLYING SAUCER parked in my driveway. Someday I might draw an alien with a BEARD eating a NABISCO fig peppered with a CAPSICUM Chili nightshade. The oxidative damage would be minimal and it might produce little baby SMILERS.
Fun puzzle, Dan....My sci-fi mind doth runneth over.
I really disliked this puzzle. Not so much for the theme conception, which is fine, but it evoked so many things I am ashamed of or otherwise not fond of:
-- My squandered college life: too many JELLO shots with FRAT brothers, then CHEATSHEETS to get a D on the next day's midterm. How my parents continued to speak to me remains a mystery for which I am grateful.
-- The "Fast and the Furious" movies, which strike me as irredeemably dumb.
-- A reminder that Heart is Exhibit B under "Great '70s Bands That Completely Lost the Plot in the '80s and Never Recovered". Exhibit A is Aerosmith.
-- TWEE might be the most annoying word ever.
I did chuckle at TED down by TBS, so there's THAT.
I await with BATED breath. What happens to the COW, the CAR, and the MAN after they get beamed up?
But wait. Is that a BALLET DANCER also being carried away by those TRACTOR BEAMS?
Clever and original puzzle. Loved it.
Different! 16 x 15 and schlocky! Luv it. Downright alien.
Pretty easy-goin solvequest, here. Only no-knows were: CAPSICUM. Chaat masala.
Only not-so-sures: MAGICMAN. MEW.
fave stuff included: KLEPTOCRATIC. CHEATSHEETS. NABISCO. ANCIENT. VIN clue.
staff weeject picks: First of all, heckuva time to *not* have UFO in yer puz. Top ones that were in the theme: COW. CAR. MAN. Also, a moment of silence for them poor TAS that also got sucked up, unnoticed, by the MOTHERSHIP. And honrable mention to CCL.
Primo quad weeject stacks in the NW & SE. Also nice wegular weeject stacks in the NE & SW.
Whether M&A would go up and knock on a parked flyin saucer would kinda depend. fr'instances: Are there lotsa dead bodies ringin around it, especially half-eaten ones? Are there one or more of them giant death ray canons protrudin from its hull? Does it have a big ole MAGA sticker splatzed on its hull? Has all the surroundin vegetation died from radiation or somesuch? Is there real tense soundtrack music playin? Are there giant robots on patrol? etc. Yer standard schlock movie checklist stuff. And xoxo back at yah, Malaika darlin.
Thanx for the crossword schlockfest, Mr. Caprera dude. Very cool theme concept.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
@TTrimble 8:42
Roman numerals:
I just a few days ago asked my husband why the Super Bowl uses them (Idk sports, he dk the reason). If they're no longer taught in school how will the football fans know what they're talking about? Or will the SB just change to the year? And will that cause an uproar among folks old enough to remember, say, the "original" SB '23???
Malaika, you are so young! Never heard of a garbage scow? It's a boat or barge that hauls, well, garbage!
It took 28 Terrible Threes to come up with this ho-hum theme. Ugh!
Does anyone believe Lewis when he writes that he welcomes all those little words because they made the solving easier.
Easy for me but maybe because I am old enough to remember when flying saucers were the only kind of space vehicles in the lexicon. Enjoyed the puzzle.
Before you laugh at me too hard for having AWEE instead of TWEE for "cute, cutely", allow me to explain. I thought of TWEE first, but dismissed it out of hand because that's not close to the definition. Here's the definition:
adjectiveBRITISH
excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental.
"although the film's a bit twee, it's watchable"
When the annoying quality of affectation was left out of the clue, I thought: So it's not TWEE; what else could it be? And of course, when we think something is cute, we say AWWWW. So maybe AWEE is a child's version of AWWW -- akin to an OWIE?
On another subject: @Barbara S: I LOLed over your yoga pose uniclue. In fact, that's how I feel about all of the yoga poses. Also, what a thrill it must have been to be part of that NASA mission!! I may hate sci-fi novels and flicks*, but real-life space launches are very exciting to me and I do pay attention.
*One of the things that made me unable to read sci fi books were the unpronounceable names of the characters. Names like Azaxyr and Leijten and K'Ehleyr and Bodonawieedo.
I loved, loved, loved, loved this puzzle. It is destined to be a NYT classic. It was super fun to solve and I just loved the visual of the cow going Mooooooo! as the tractor beam pulled it up. I loved the way the tractor beams reach down from the various spacecraft.
@Anonymous (Replying to Lewis at 7:48) Yes crosswordese can be problematic when you’re starting out but it’s just a matter of experience and will get easier as you go. When I was a new solver, I kept a little CHEAT SHEET with the more common ones for quick reference. It was a proud moment when I finally felt secure about not needing it any more.
Really funny Pixar short called "Lifted" involving an alien tractor beam. If you have the Disney channel it's worth watching !
A long, long time ago, I got to drive both of my grandfathers TRACTORs. They were full size farm TRACTORs, one a John Deere and the other a Ford, and it was quite a thrill for a 10 or 11 year old, kind of like a rite of passage. Both had headlights so that is what came to mind when TRACTOR BEAMS filled in. How those could suck up a COW, CAR and MAN sounded completely alien to me!
Ah ha, oh ho, it was originally ATTRACTOR BEAMS---thanks CT2Napa @1:16. Do they still make those? And if they will suck up a keg of beer, I want one.
I first heard of KLEPTO in the term KLEPTOmania, the uncontrollable urge to steal things that may not even be be needed or of value. The Magnificent Frigatebird survives by stealing food that other birds have caught. It's classified as a KLEPTOparasite. It's been called "The Elegant Thief from Above". I've seen it happen and it's amazing.
I suppose the MAN being beamed up to the SPACECRAFT might be crying "Heeeeelp!", just as the COW might be moooooing and the CAR might hooooonk. Apparently, TRACTOR BEAMS cause an explosion of vowels.
Easy as JELLO pie.
But crosswordese changes over time. Issa Rae and Dua Lipa are common crossword answers now (both for their first and last names), and I see older solvers complaining about them and other now common answers that young people will know all the time. That said, AAR is just baaaaad unless you are Swiss. But every puzzle is going to have some of that.
This seems to have gotten lost:
Before you laugh at me too hard for having AWEE instead of TWEE for "cute, cutely", allow me to explain. I thought of TWEE first, but dismissed it out of hand because that's not close to the definition. Here's the definition:
adjectiveBRITISH
excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental.
"although the film's a bit twee, it's watchable"
When the annoying quality of affectation was left out of the clue, I thought: So it's not TWEE; what else could it be? And of course, when we think something is cute, we say AWWWW. So maybe AWEE is a child's version of AWWW -- akin to an OWIE?
On another subject: @Barbara S: I LOLed over your yoga pose uniclue. In fact, that's how I feel about all of the yoga poses. Also, what a thrill it must have been to be part of that NASA mission!! I may hate sci-fi novels and flicks*, but real-life space launches are very exciting to me.
p.s. Puzzled how my hi-back to Malaika got splatzed into the Flyin Saucer dissertation. Thought I'd put it under the thanx-U line to the constructioneer.
Anyhoo … nice blog write-up, Malaika. Learned somethin extra, from yer snack toppins.
While M&A is here, I thought of some more Flyin Saucer unofficial greeter's considerations:
* How high is the door U are knockin on? If it's over twenty feet high, watch out that U don't get stomped like a bug.
* Was it your CAR that they beamed up? Have U run things past yer car insurance agent, before tryin to settle up things with the aliens? Might also get injury claims eligibility sorted out, while you're at it.
* Are the press people already lined up there, to film your attempt? Are U ok with bein all over the national news?
* At a minimum: Did U bring a bag of apples as a "welcome" gift? [yo, @Muse darlin]
* Do U speak TRACTORBEAM-ese?
* Is yer phaser set on "stun"?
OK, go ahead.
M&Also
@Masked and Anony 11:39...Perhaps you were watching "The Last of Us"???
For those of you who like a good post-apocalyptic drama, HBO is now showing this fantastic series. Some say it copies "The Walking Dead" but it's far far better....No UFO's involved...so far...but plenty of crunch and good acting....
I had to run the alphabet on ETO personally - or a lot of it anyway, because there are lots of potential straps/buckles.
I was concerned about AAR but confident enough in ASANA.
Studied biology in college, though not entomology, to be fair. I feel confident that any exam I would have taken that asked "what is the final metamorphic form an insect would have accepted ADULT as an answer because that's how the textbooks described it, at least back then. It's not unfair, clearly not, but it's interesting how a person can go a ways in a field and then see this word for the first time, decades on.
@Wanderlust (7:04) -- I agree that telling the ETs exactly where we are and saying "Come get us!" is pretty dumb. But it's not the dumbest of the "Let's-create-a-ginormous-and-completely-needless-problem-to-futz-up-our-collective-futures" activity going on right now.
No, that would be the insane madness of the race to create highly intelligent and autonomous AI machines that can think for themselves, build and regenerate themselves, and that will surely shove us aside -- or do much, much worse to us -- at the very first chance they get.
Alice, here's my favorite version of that joke: "How many pieces in your band?" " Well, we have three musicians and a drummer."
Yeah that was really annoying.
I sort of liked the weirdness of this thing, with the little cries for help in the clues. UNABASHEDLY was a cool grid entry. And, I was just reading something about peppers the other day, so CAPSICUM was a total gimme.
@Alice Pollard 7:40 – I guess I don't think of a HI-HAT as an "instrument" either, since it's really never used outside the context of a drum kit. It's more of a contraption. Whereas you could take any other component out of a drum kit and play it as a solo instrument.
Suavecito-est
Oh yeah, I had meant to respond to the CHEATing business in @LMS's post, but then forgot. I was reminded by @LiveProf's post.
While I've not seen this utter incomprehension of what cheating means occur in any of my classes, I did get a front row seat to it in a YouTube comment thread that I started. (It's a viral video in which the professor charges a goodly proportion of his students with being involved in a cheating ring, and tosses out all their exams.) Some of the people in the thread honestly wanted to know what exactly was so bad about cheating. It felt to me that there has been some sort of sea change, maybe in the past fifteen years or so, about basic moral understandings and conventions. And it feels to me that young people have become a lot more cynical. It's all Realpolitik now. But it really took me aback, finding myself explaining things that feel so basic.
@Smith
Oh yeah, I forgot about that. So maybe they still teach it to kids, at least in a lot of districts. I don't know. It's funny: I think I found myself making a mistake with Roman numerals not long ago, so I don't know the system as well as I thought. I just now gave myself a pop quiz to write 499 in Roman numerals, and I guessed right, but it looks sort of funny (and somewhat needlessly elaborate).
You probably needed special training back then, if you had to multiply two numbers written with the darned things.
OK — I give! Can’t make any sense of the “Half of D” answers!
D is Roman numeral 500. Half of 500 is 250 or CCL in Roman numerals.
I agree!!!
Hearty congrats @LMS on your human connection with your student. Said it before and It bears repeating: good teachers like you are the key to the country’s future success. Thank you and all of you who use all the time and energy they have to teach and yet take that hour (or few minutes or whatever time) to connect with your students as people.
If you had grown up in NYC as I did you would have seen many a garbage scow on the river. I knew what a scow was when I was five years old. Eric Fox
@Tom T 7:38 am. Thank you for giving me a true LOL moment. It reminded me of one of my law professors who tortured us for three years not because he wasn’t knowledgeable, but because his deeeeep and very “rural” Georgia accent made class almost impossible some days.
I found this blog because I was also driven insane by the “half of D” clue
Star Trek is way out of my wheelhouse, as well as Pokémon and TRACTOR BEAM…actually, much of this puzzle. Yet, I didn’t have much difficulty with it because almost all the entries I didn’t know offered foothold opportunities at crosses. So…fair enough. I don’t quite get the COW, SCOW, CAR affectation though. And I did feel old reading the Heart comment!
@ Gary J shoutout—you are such a wonderful more recent contributor! And your Uniclues are brilliant. Agree SMILER and SANER somehow grate.
@LMS. I love hearing any connections that you make with unreachable students. We need more truly passionate and caring teachers to create these small daily victories that could add up to life changes for some. Bless you!
Hard disagree with today's review. I thought it was a clever theme that made me smile. With 14A shaded (and a very straightforward answer), and the "[Moooo]" in the clue, I immediately saw what was happening. Even non-Far-Side-enthusiasts enjoy cows and aliens co-mingling, no? Tractor beams are a pretty well-trod trope, and excellent fodder for a theme.
It's really been a red letter week for the NYTimes crossword!
TSTRAPS and SCOW were nonsense to me. Never heard them before.
TRACTOR BEAMS is common enough in sci fi that I got it, but I also struggled a bit with the theme. I got COW from the moo, but SCOW confounded me so I thought I was misunderstanding. Then I also thought goose would follow, and the CAR hit me a while later while I was working on another area.
I had PIANO in for the instrument with a pedal, so that ruined MAGIC MAN for me until I eventually decided I was all wrong.
I don't think I liked this puzzle very much. It's a weird one.
The car would certainly be covered by your comprehensive policy!
MAGIC MAN was actually a damn good song. Ann Wilson ROCKED.
So, I heard and lived all the drummer jokes-married one! Not offended. Like lawyer jokes, stereotypes exist. My favorite drummer line came from one of my husband’s 8th graders. During band while trying to work through some issues with a new piece designed to introduce the kids to the Renaissance, things back in the back were a bit “disruptive.”
Now, at least until it’s time for high school marching band, there are always, always too many kids in the percussions section. Not enough parts for all the proverbial “idle hands.” Certainly true this particular year and one of the ring leaders, a student named Corey, just couldn’t sit quietly. Smart kiddo, curious and always interested, but without much focus. He was also at least a bit self aware. Apparently.
My husband said he had to stop several times to ask the young percussionists to sit quietly or watch the two who were playing tabors and finger cymbals (new instruments to the whole band). During the last disruption, Corey raised his hand and was recognized. “Mr. D,” he said, “I’m really trying but you have to give me something to do or I’ll act up. I’m a drummer.” Out if the mouths if babes.
So the puzzle didn’t seem very cohesive at first and it certainly plated more to the older among us in spots. However, I found that the cluing had some cleverness and the short fill i deed provided some nice help. Whether the crosswordese provided annoyance, lovely lily pads for brief respite, or life rafts (hi @Lewis!) depends on the solver. I found them refreshing in a couple spots.
The reveal revealed! I couldn’t figure out what COW, CAR and MAN had to do with alien spacecraft. That seeming oddity kept plaguing me all the way to the end - yea verily even after TRACTOR BEAM which I got without reading the clue. I was still trying to see similarities among circles words and just didn’t out on my wider angle lens. Finally read the dang clue. Really.
Excellent puzzle. Homage to percussion (yes, a HI-HAT is indeed an instrument), cleverness abounds, but I also can see that this may not have been everyone’s cup of tea. I say “Beam me up, Dan!”
P.S. I have great respect for the technique required to be a professional percussionist. Some day I’ll tell y’all about the most stressful musical experience in my life: my emergency appearance as a percussionist in “Madame Butterfly.” It ain’t as easy as it looks.
Amen to what @Kathy said about @Gary J at 3:39.
@LMS, TomT and CDily52…spent most of life until after college near Kentucky but I was 3 when my family moved there so I guess my “accent” was already etched in stone much as I tried to y’all and say Loo-a-vul instead of Louie-ville. My recollection is that “rural” was pronounced like “rule.” One other notable word was “toe-let” for “toilet.” I remember my Mother drilling into my head that “wash” was NOT pronounced woish, worsh, OR warsh! I know…Kentuck and Tennessee different than Deep South! I dunno. I guess I think of all of it as “dialect” more than mispronunciation. And you might think that too! However, @CDilly52 I can understand your pain of a law school class in that situation! I HOPE his tests were somewhat “hornbook” driven…
T-straps the straps on women's shoes but agree that it crossing ETO was Wednesday for me
For 65 Across “performer who may step on some toes,” at one point I had “badlapdancer.”
It almost worked,
I stayed at the imago hotel in Argentina
I don't see how the COW MAN CAR really added much pizazz to the puzzle.
The ETO/TSTRAP crossing was the toughest piece of puzzle.
Half of D was brilliant.
Overall I liked it.
Remember, "To Serve Man" is a cookbook.
Re tractor beam, y'all need to watch "Dumb & Dumber" again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5CL4oaIpY8
It’s crazy impressive that you can knock this puzzle out so quickly, yet never heard of several of the words. Long words. Bravo.
It's British: twee = cute
✋I believe him and I agree. River AAR - haven't seen you in ages!
I’m guessing it’s the sound he’s making as he’s getting beamed up.
Thank you, Rex for adopting from a shelter. She’s a lucky kitty!
I see at https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/archive/variety that "STARTING AT NOON MARCH 1We will no longer publish digital Variety and Acrostic puzzles. You can continue to play these puzzles in print." Any idea what made that change?
Basically these clues are skewed towards the old fogey crowd (me). Tractor Beam I think is from the original Star Trek series, plus lots of train references….I don’t doubt that the younger solvers found it to be a bit obtuse.
Really? Rex thinks it's harder? I found it the easiest one so far this week.
Except for TRACTORBEAMS - I just couldn't believe the T in tractor. And I most certainly an old fogey. Fogeyrina?
Both the themers and the circles made the solve easier, and not so many - you know - NAMES!!!
So onward to the rest of Wednesday...let's do the time warp. Again!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting and fan of Rocky at Midnight
Thanks for the SPACECRAFT shout out, Dan! That saved a stroke, for sure. I did like the theme, with the various vessels sucking up stuff on the ground. Well done.
Less thrilling was ACTI and TSTRAPS, but hey, we all have to get slightly desperate sometimes. Birdie.
Wordle birdie as well.
Let's not forget we have a fully spelled out SPACECRAFT for our very own @spacecraft
MORE SLY HELP
The BRUTES in the FRAT
think IT’s IDEAL to CHEAT,
HER MOTHER knew THAT,
“No MAN PAL in the SHEETS!”
--- TED GOTTI SR.
ACELA CASE
FBI in the BAR
with a SAUCER of RUM,
FLING into THAT CAR
HER eye caught CAPSICUM.
--- VIN “ACE” ASANA
must proofread: FLYING
Easiest puzzle this week. Take your longer time (Mon/Tue), subtract your shorter time (Tue/Mon), ta-da, Wed time. I first learned ETO in US History(Do they still teach that?). I first learned imago in biology class (Do they still teach that?).
Signed:
Snarky Snarkerson
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