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Many a Marvel character / TUES 3-28-23 / Wyatt of the Wild West / Beverages with tasting notes / Bakery unit / Red gemstone
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Hello, everyone! It’s Clare, back for the last Tuesday of March. Hope everyone is having a good start to your spring. I saw the cherry blossoms here in DC yesterday, and they were stunning — the sky was clear and bright blue, and the blossoms were at about their colorful, fragrant peak. It was just… imagine a lot of people… now multiply that by about tenfold. But, yes, I still got some lovely photos. I'm also enjoying the weather warming up because it means I can ride my bike without having to wear seven layers of clothing. And, of course, I’m staying up-to-date on all the sports happenings in the world, especially the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments.
Anywho, onto the crossword!
Relative difficulty: Pretty easy
Theme answers:
- BROW WIPE (17A: [Phew! That was close!])
- KNEE SLAP (26A: [Har-har-har!])
- EYE ROLL (40A: [Puh-lease!])
- FACEPALM (51A: [D'oh!])
- FIST PUMP (64A: [Woo-hoo!])
The Idiot is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1868–69. The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man." The novel examines the consequences of placing such a singular individual at the centre of the conflicts, desires, passions and egoism of worldly society, both for the man himself and for those with whom he becomes involved. (Wiki)
• • •
So that puzzle… existed. I don’t know. It was straightforward and fairly easy. The theme wasn’t overly special, but it was at least different from some of the usual themes we get. The gestures generally felt solid — except, I didn’t like BROW WIPE (17A); you wipe your brow, but I don’t think a BROW WIPE is a thing, is it? The theme didn’t take me very long to get, and once I got it, the answers came pretty easily. I think if you were in the mood for something kind of meh that you could do while listening to music and watching the South Carolina women win again in the NCAA tournament, you probably enjoyed this puzzle. On the other hand, if you wanted some inventive clues/answers with a really invigorating theme, this may not have been your favorite puzzle.
I fell somewhere in between. There was some good to the puzzle. I don’t usually love bracket clues, but the theme used them well. PIE HOLE (30D: Mouth, slangily), SATCHEL (49A:
Bag with a strap), LEMURS (66A: Madagascar's aye-ayes and sifakas), and TREETOP (28A: "Rock-a-Bye Baby" setting) were all fun words you don’t see that often in puzzles. The fill wasn’t too crosswordese-y.
But, some of the puzzle just felt off. There was some laziness seemingly with ACT UP (46D: Make Mischief), EVENS UP (44D: Ties, as a score), and SHOOT EM UP (3D: Video game genre for Space Invaders) all having the same ending. Also, while I don’t blame the constructors for this, it was really poor timing to have an answer in the puzzle be SHOOT EM UP given Monday’s horrible events in Nashville. Having CRIMEA (8D: Black Sea peninsula) and RUSSIA (62A: Country that seized 8-Down in 2014) there in the puzzle felt somehow off to me, too — maybe it’s the clue for 62A, where “seized” is a pretty tame word for what RUSSIA did.
I had “in the nude” rather than IN THE BUFF (36D: Not wearing any clothing) for a bit, which confused the SE corner for me before I saw the clue 68A: Douglas __ and knew the answer had to be FIR. I also had no idea what 25D: Chichi was. I’ve since Googled it, and I’m not convinced the definition of “chichi” really aligns with TONY. It seems the definition for TONY (not the award for excellence on Broadway) is aristocratic manner, fashionable, stylish, expensive. Chichi seems to be more about being elegant or trendy or elaborately ornamented in a pretentious way.
Misc.:
Signed, Clare [Head Scratch] Carroll
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Misc.:
- I was all set to make EMIL (60D: Actor Jannings who won the first Best Actor Oscar) the “word of the day,” but looking through his Wikipedia page, I quickly learned that he was a Swiss-born German actor and starred in a lot of Nazi propaganda films.He even apparently carried his Oscar around to prove he’d been associated with Hollywood. Not sure we needed him in the puzzle…
- Quick aside: Can anyone tell me why doornails are DEAD (57A)?!
- With 28D: "Rock-a-Bye Baby" setting, if you look at the lyrics for “Rock-a-bye-Baby,” why in the world is this a nursery rhyme? “Down will come baby, cradle and all.” I guess there’s room for interpretation, but I’m pretty sure the baby dies there. Similar vibes as “Oh My Darling, Clementine,” where the woman drowns.
- Thanks, but I didn’t really need another reminder about the TAMPA (12D) Bay Buccaneers winning the 2021 Super Bowl. As if Tom Brady really needed that seventh ring. Just rub it in, why don’t you? At least he’s retired — for now. Also, today I learned the city is just TAMPA, not “Tampa Bay.”
- SLOPES (69A: They can be slippery) reminded me of the recent Alpine ski racing season that just ended where Mikaela Shiffrin had one of the most phenomenal years of any athlete in any sport ever. Having just turned 28, she now has the most wins of any skier all time (among a whole bunch of other records she set) and also won the overall title and two discipline titles (aka three Globes). Her win percentage in the races she enters is at about 35 percent, which is just insane and is also the highest of any athlete in any sport (higher than Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods). In case you can’t tell, I’m a big Mikaela Shiffrin fan. She’s pretty much the best. Let’s get her into some crosswords, okay?
And that's it from me. Have a great April!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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85 comments:
12 Down is incorrect. It says “only” NFL team to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium. Yes, Tampa did it. And then the very next year the LA Rams won it in their home stadium. Wonder if that will be fixed.
DEAD as a doornail is a common phrase
I feel like I'm missing another element of the theme with all those ups in the downs.
Also am I misremembering, but hasn't another team won in their own home stadium? Just the very next year?
Medium. I thought this was clever and amusing. Liked it quite a bit more than @Clare did.
...and I also thought that grid repeats were OK these days.
What about the LA Rams winning the 2022 Super Bowl in their own stadium?
Hi Clare! I always thought doornails were DEAD because they were hammered flat; turns out the internet thinks it mainly means a nail that can't be removed. Shakespeare and Dickens both used the phrase, so that's saying something.
Okay theme; BROW WIPE is not something I've heard of but it makes sense when you visualize it.
"Rockabye baby setting" had me thinking of one of those Elvis movies!... HONOLULU? But the lullaby is better.
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0. I got to pg in 24 seconds (I use a javascript hack that lets me time it precisely... I kid you not; actually 23.4 seconds!!!!) Crazy stuff.]
Enjoyed this, but definitely easy. Clare, we have an idiom “as dead as a doornail.” It’s likely dead b/c it’s getting repeatedly hammered. —- Craig
I though that other bodily tems included in the puzzle (EYEBALLS/ORBS; PART/LINE MADE With A CONB; MOUTH/,SLANGILY/PIEHOLE; NOT WEAERINGANY CLOTHIHG/INTHE BUFF; LIGHT ON ONES FEET /SPRY subtly added to theme, making it denser and more interesting,
Was Clare asking because she has never heard "dead as a door nail" much less "dead as a codfin nail? Make me feel old.
Go Iowa!!
Easy with some good stuff.
TREETOP CAVE is obviously a home for an
oxymoron.
TNUT KNEESLAP is funny enough to not need a uniclue.
Bet your IRA on red and win is BROW WIPE INCOME.
EMIL was my Dad's name.
Interesting diagonal today:
O A O I U O I R R A A U U I
And if you want to play a round of golf naked there will be A TOLL IN THE BUFF but ORAL RENTALS will be available.
I'll see myself out.
Clare – nice write-up. This Tar Heel fan just has to sit tight and wait for next season. Sigh. And I read that a door nail is DEAD because the metal was expensive and hence likely to be stolen. They’d hammer it through the door and then hammer the protruding pointy end flat against the door so it couldn’t be pulled out.
This is a really tight set of themers. They all communicate an emotion, but they’re all executed by only the person with the emotion. So fist bump or wrist slap wouldn’t work. They’re visible, so gut check wouldn’t work. They’re all body part+present tense verb-cum-noun, so fingers crossed or thumbs up wouldn’t work. (And the second word is a physical action, so pinkie swear wouldn’t work.) I agree that BROW WIPE is the biggest stretch ( lip curl, shoulder shrug, head tilt. . .?) but I’ll absolutely take it. Absolutely. I’m with @jae; I loved this.
@JC66 – good catch on the other body stuff. I have to add TAIL and ASS. Oh, and in FACE PALM, both words are body parts. I liked that.
I know that PIE HOLE means mouth, but asshole has kinda commandeered any other meaning of as regards the body, so I’m losing PIE HOLE from the rotation. Too risky. Your mileage may vary.
In Chattanooga one of the few back-to-school supplies we got to get was a new book SATCHEL. I tell ya, I always felt so cosmopolitan and cool with my new one, especially the year when I chose a bright yellow patent leather beauty to go with my Laugh-In lunchbox. Good times.
Barely read the clue for 28A and understood that Bye Bye Birdie was set in a TREE TOP. Who knew? I thought. Oops. Clare – right? What a horrifying little lullaby that one is, right? Listen kid. Before you get in that cradle, we need to talk. I’ve checked the weather, and some wind’s kicking up. . .
I investigated the didgeridoo. Wow. Very cool. The music is obviously not based on our diatonic scale, but it’s fascinating. The sound is reminiscent of a big ole fat carpenter bee. As usual with something like this, I stare off wondering what the definition of “music” is. Something you can sing? Dance to? And if there are so many cultures with music that’s not diatonic, how can you explain the genius of a Mozart, who comes out of the womb with an innate understanding western music. Are there aboriginal “Mozarts” whose genius is equally as impressive? Think maybe it has to do with music you’re exposed to in utero? Ok. This is stupid. I can’t really communicate what I mean anyway.
Hi Clare!! Always enjoy your write-ups!
The #NYTXW website commentary (which I usually do not read) about the puzzle links to a YouTube video purportedly explaining the meaning of DEAD as a doornail. Which I guess means hammering the nail points sidewise on the other side of the door, so that they can't be extracted?
Maybe that's for reals. Hard for me to tell as I am hearing impaired and the captioning on that video is... is there even any?
Anyhoo, that turn of phrase was easy. I'd heard the phrase decades ago.
The theme was okay. It being a Tuesday, expectations were not high.
As Okanaganer already pointed out, Dickens used the phrase, but even he couldn't have told you why doornails were dead:
"Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail."
Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and say that in a country that reliably averages more than one mass shooting per day, SHOOTEMUP will always be poorly-timed. That should have been vetoed.
Impressive - we’ve got a BAD ASS way of getting our ASS fix in, and coupled with a LOW CUT CHICHI so it turns out to be a banner day for the juvey humor contingent. Nice to see some creativity today. I wonder when the foreign contingent will want some love as well - perhaps we’ll see a clue such as “Ass, in Brest” sometime soon.
Yes!!!
Thanks Clare, I always enjoy your write-ups!
I found this puzzle to be Monday-easy. I mostly got the themers from crosses, but as soon as one of them became obvious, they all were.
The phrase “DEAD as a doornail” most famously comes from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Scrooge’s partner, Marley, is DEAD as a doornail.
The last time GRE appeared it was clear to me I have no idea what that is (wanted ACT or SAT there). I’m sure I looked it up at the time, but today it was as WOE-y as ever.
I liked the body part – action theme, but the cluing was a complete disaster. Any potential joy just went right down the drain with the themer clue style.
Thanks, Claire. I found this one okay. I like that the grid was more open than it looked at first. (Didn't play like a series of tiny puzzles.)
I was gonna carp that TNUT ain’t a thing. But then I read it’s Wikipedia page. Who knew?
Easy puzzle. Quick solve. Mentioning TAMPA as a Super Bowl city reminded me of an interesting dispute that arose when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers first joined the NFL.
When they played the Packers in Green Bay, the Packers' management refused to put "Tampa Bay" on the scoreboard. They insisted that the Buccaneers were just the "Tampa Buccaneers." The Buccaneers then announced that when the Packers next played in Tampa, they would be identified as the "Green Packers" on the scoreboard.
That ended the argument. Ever since, "Tampa Bay Buccaneers" has been the official name.
Lotsa EVIL 😈 in the puzzle, and not a lot of HEROes. You’ve got RUSSIA (clued for its invasion of CRIMEA), the MAFIA, IAGO, the Nazi EMIL Jannings, maybe Wyatt EARP with A DUEL, and the Brady-era TAMPA Bay Buccaneers (hi, Clare!). And Jack RUBY with the wrong clue. And a SHOOT ‘EM UP. Where is Idi Amin?
HEROes? Maybe ARI Shapiro and SATCHEL Paige with a different clue.
I liked the theme pretty well - tight themers and I liked the bracketed clues. I would have left the BROW WIPE clue as [Phew!] or [Whew!] to make it consistent with the others, which are all sort of onomatopoeiac words (except [Puh-leeze!] but at least that’s a single word, not a whole phrase).
FIST bUMP before PUMP (works equally well for the clue). STAid before STOIC. Briefly, TeMPe before TAMPA before realizing the Cardinals have never won the Super Bowl (and aren’t based in Tempe anyway but close).
Repetition of a short word like UP just does not bother me at all.
BADASS made me love this one
Does anyone actually shout RAH from the stands? Has anyone ever?
And "seize" (to forcibly grab hold of) is exactly what Russia special forces, on February 20, 2014, did to the Supreme Soviet of Crimea and the Council of Ministers of Crimea, while the so-called "Crimean militia," supported by the armed Forces of Russia, seized municipal administrative buildings, airports, communications facilities, media outlets and other key services in a coordinated and carefully planned and executed seizure of control over Crimea, leading to illegal annexation which to this day, is maintained by Russian occupation. What else would you call it?
Yeah, pretty easy; there were only 3 or 4 times I needed to wait for another cross after reading the clue. Nice theme, though.
A lot of nursery rhymes involve violence -- think of Humpty Dumpty, or Three Blind Mice; and they were often political allegories in their origin. But Rock-a-bye Baby isn't so much a nursery rhyme, or even a lullaby, but a game you play with a young child where you pretend to drop the child, but then catch him or her right away. At least, that's how I always did it.
My hypothesis is that this puzzle was submitted before the 2022 Super Bowl was played.
Came to the comments for this quote. Thank you!
Agreed — shootings and Russian invasions not welcome in my puzzle.
On another note, an article in the NYT a couple of days ago described the use of nails in ancient Greco-Roman burials, as talismans (talismen?) of a sort. Apparently they were thought to keep the dead from coming back to life (eek!). I read it and thought, “Is that where ‘dead as a doornail’ comes from?” And two days later, bam, here it is again.
Woo, a very tight theme. Except for the one answer (EYEROLL) that had to be an odd number of letters because it was in the center of a row, we have four answers comprised of a four-letter body part followed by a four-letter action noun. I suppose JAW DROP could have snuck in, in the middle.
All the answers are also in the language. Made me try to think of new phrases that aren’t in the language: “Excuse me a moment, I’ve got to perform a noseblow. I won’t be slow about it; I’ll do a legshake.”
Hello STOIC, second day in a row. And hello to a pair of rare-in-crossword-puzzle five-letter semordnilaps SLEEP and SLEEK. And FLY echoes yesterday’s SWAT.
For those wondering about the origin of "dead as a doornail", go to today's WordPlay blog, written by Rachel Fabi, where you'll find a two-minute video that is perfect. Great TIL for me.
I’ve never seen a puzzle with this theme, so props on originality, Daniel and Jay. I loved the theme, and thank you both!
Since the Rams share Sofi Stadium with the Chargers, perhaps it is why the clue asked "in its own stadium" rather than home stadium.
I liked this for the over-the-top vividness of the expressions, and their cumulative effect coming one after another after another. It sounded like a cartoon character going nuts or a stand-up comedian becoming apoplectic. I more or less solved it as a themeless, although I was aware that I was passing a lot of square-bracketed clues along the way. I think “olé” for RAH and IN THE nUde were my only errors. I’ve never had a COSMO and looked it up. Ah yes, cranberry juice. (Although among variations Wikipedia lists the constipolitan: prune juice in place of cranberry juice. Hmm. Okay.) Noticed all the UPs but couldn’t work UP much IRE.
I like the word SATCHEL but don’t use it much. I looked it up, too, and it seems the authorities disagree about whether the strap is intrinsic or merely typical. The whole thing got me wondering how SATCHEL Paige ended up with his name. Here’s Wiki: “According to Paige, his nickname originated from childhood work toting bags at the train station. He said he was not making enough money at a dime a bag, so he used a pole and rope to build a contraption that allowed him to cart up to four bags at once. Another kid supposedly yelled, ‘You look like a walking satchel tree.’”
[SB: @okanaganer - I’ve got some good news and some good news: Sun and Mon, 0, which means I’ve extended my all-time streak record up from a mere 4 – to 6! Sam Ezersky really did me a solid with his timing of two low-word-count days right when I needed them. My last “word” on Sunday was this, which I uttered contemptuously as I smashed the old record! I see today we’re back to a more demanding word count, so we’ll see what happens.]
Dickens wonders about ‘Dead as a Doornail’ in the opening of A Christmas Carol, saying a coffin nail is the deadest piece of ironmongery. (Marley is the one who is dead as a doornail).
UNICLUES:
1. Danger pay.
2. The rootinest, tootinest funniest darn wood fastener this side of the Pecos.
3. Arboreal kids’ fort with stalactites and stalagmites.
4. Croons the tune of “It Was A Very Good Beer” to Homer Simpson.
5. Destined for goofery.
6. Description by someone who really hates Japanese noodles.
7. Patsy Cline belting out “Crazy” while zooming down Whiteface.
8. Inflatable beach balls.
9. Maximum-security prison ink featuring a malevolent chicken.
1. BROW-WIPE INCOME
2. KNEESLAP T-NUT (~)
3. TREETOP CAVE
4. HUMS NIGH IDIOT
5. FACE-PALM FATE
6. UDON: DEAD TUBES
7. SLOPES ALTO FLY
8. ORBS THAT FURL(S)
9. HEN EVIL TATTOO
@S. Petliura at 7:31. Your question as to whether anyone ever actually says "rah" at a sporting event reminded me: When I was a mere child, my dad used to chant this cheer from his high school days in Minnesota:
With a bee-bo
With a by-bo
With a bee-bo by-bo bum
Whom'd get a rat trap bigger than a cat trap?
Whom'd get a rat trap bigger than a cat trap?
South Side High School
Rah rah rah!
Always tickled me.
I guess a unique theme - limited but fun. Fill was easier than straightforward. I think the doubling down on the UP phrases stand out due to being so close in the grid. Hand up for having “nude” before BUFF. IAGO getting some play this week.
RUBY’s Arms
Not sure how SHOOT EM UP gets revised this late. ALPE and A DUEL are unfortunate - maybe FURLS and SGT too. Liked TREE TOP.
Enjoyable enough Tuesday solve.
Play your digeridoo Blue
Merriam-Webster - one definition of "tony" is "marked by an aristocratic or high-toned manner or style"
On my printout, thr r n sort of looked like an "M." DOOMAIL was quite puzzling. Couldn't figure out why the answer was dead.
Glad I came here to realize I need an eye exam.
Oh! and this:
Rah rah ree
Kick 'em in the knee!
Rah rah rass
Kick 'em in the other knee!
Re: Rock-a-bye-baby - There is a lot of creepiness in "children's songs". Away in a Manger was always sung by our elementary chorus (50 years ago!). The end gives me the creeps as the children pray that Jesus "takes them to Heaven to live with thee there". You go to Heaven when you are dead. So, kill me, Jesus?
Amy: hi Clare, glad to *see* you. Found this better than an a erage Tuesday. @kitchef, SAT is pre college; GRE is pre grad school. Think it's Graduate Record Exam.
@MarthaCatherine (8:40)
Your dad's RAH cheer reminded me of a very odd one we had when when I went to Ridgemont High School (yeah, "fast times" and all). The following was never said excitedly or enthusiastically but always delivered in tones of boredom and world-weariness:
Really, rawly,
Beastly, jolly
Ridgemont, rah.
It was kind of an anti-cheer. But, hey, it was the '60s.
Hey All !
UP, UP (UP),and away!
Expected a rant from Rex on this, see that it's a Clare Tuesday, but still got a rant. Nice
Rex would've complained about "short" Themers. They are Eights, and one Seven. Which gets you longer Downs that the Themers. Not complaining about this myself, just guessing what OFL would say.
I liked this neat little puz. PIE HOLE is funny to me. I'm always saying (to myself, though, not to others, as I don't need a FIST(in the)FACE) "Shut yer PIE HOLE!"
Can't remember the last time I had a KNEE SLAP EYE ROLL FIST PUMP moment. When I was younger, I heard a comedian talking about the unpleasantness of getting sick, with something like "when you're over the toilet, it sounds like Buy My Buick! when it's happening". Can't remember the comedian, and it was 100 times funnier than what I have here.
Well, happy Tuesday!
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I'm kinda meh about this one. But it's Tuesday so I'll let it slide.
Usually this stuff doesn't bother me, but I don't like "eyes" cluing ORBS when EYEROLL is in the grid (as a themer, no less). So many other ways to clue ORBS. Couple that with the factual error in the TAMPA clue, and methinks this puzzle needed better editorial scrutiny.
Speaking of the TAMPA clue...the oddity of the Bucs and Rams winning consecutive Super Bowls in their home stadiums after 55 years of that never happening brings to mind a similar oddity in baseball. After more than 80 World Series, no team had ever lost the first two games at home and come back to win the series until the Royals did it in 1985. Then the Mets did the exact same thing the following year. I haven't checked thoroughly, but I think the only time that has happened since was the Nats in 2019, when all seven games were won by the visitors (talk about odd!).
SHOOTEMUP is indeed a bummer coming on the heels of Nashville, but I doubt the puzzle could be pulled on such short notice. And let's be honest -- given the raft of mass shootings in this country, SHOOTEMUP is likely to be a bummer on just about any day.
Finally, a question: When Clare mentions "bracket clues," what does she mean?
After BROWWIPE (Really?), I filled in KNEESLAP off the K, and the other themers weren't any harder. I think my only erasure was RENTED for RENTAL.
PIEHOLE always makes me think of some hard-boiled detective telling a two-bit thug to shut his PIEHOLE.
And I'm with @ Rug Crazy in that any puzzle that has BADASS in it is aces with me.
Clare's musings on Mikaela Shiffrin gives me the opportunity to point out that she got her start right here in our little town in NH, which the local paper will always mention any time they print a report of her winning another ski race, which is often. Now there's a true GOAT.
Nice enough Tuesdecito, DK and JK. Didn't Knock me out, Just Kinda sat there like a Tuesday, but thanks for a reasonable amount of fun.
Forgot to mention the other thing that the TAMPA clue brought to mind for me...
When the Bucs began play in the NFL in 1976, they were famously terrible. Their coach John McKay, a noted dry wit, was at one point asked what he thought of his team's execution. His response: "I'm all for it." That story may be apocryphal, but it's still one of my all-time favorite lines.
SHOOTEMUP is better rendered as one word, not three. Probably better to avoid the word at any time but really…to say that “ poor timing” is involved is absurd.
I have also heard the expression “deadER than a door nail.” Dictionary.com explains the origin. I’ve heard “dead as a mackerel “ particularly amongst New York City natives.
BROWWIPE is as good as FACEPALM.
Puzzle was as easy as a breeze.
.
ACT and SAT are taken before college. GREs are taken when you want to pursue higher degrees post college (G is for graduate). So maybe think “GREW” for GRE, as in you take it when you’re older/grown??
I think if Rex were on duty this morning it would have been a blood bath. That is unless we’re all missing some amazingly clever hidden them. Incredibly easy, unimaginative theme and lots of socially questionable content.
Shoulder shrug. Because the puzzle is nicely junk-free and smoothly put together, I'm trying hard to find something to be excited about: in the clues, in the fill, in the anything.
But I can't.
Jumped to the theme answers without reading the intro paragraph, and didn't realize until I got to the end that this write-up was from Clare, not Rex. Would be refreshing to hear from a guest blogger who didn't share the master's biases quite so much...
I experienced the DC cherry blossoms when I lived there for a year. Absolutely lived up to the hype, and then some. No photo can capture the rapture of having your entire field of vision wrapped in pink!
Liked the puzzle. Nice that each of the themers comprised two 4-letter words.
Oops--just noticed that the center EYE ROLL was only 7 letters--but its placement made it a perfect "exception that proves the rule".
Hey Clare! Samesies.
Finished this before going to sleep last night and thought it was a little blah, and upon waking and staring at the theme entries this morning, I am imagining a cartoon character doing all those things and it's kinda cute.
The cluing was a little under-ambitious. A fine puzzle without much zing.
I always thought the plural of wine is wine and when I was younger I thought the gallon of Carlo Rossi red in the green bottle was the perfect combination of cheap and sophisticated.
Tee-Hee: IN THE BUFF BAD ASS. (Uniclue: That airbrushed model with the surprisingly defiant look in her eye suggesting she'll whoop yer hind end if you have one of your old-man opinions about her career choice, and let's face it, with the number of times she's been to the gym versus the number of times you've gone, she'd have no trouble backing up her gaze.)
Uniclues:
1 How a personal trainer pays the electric bill.
2 Long-tailed tit home.
3 The reason you're going to have Baby Shark in your head the rest of the day.
4 Suitcase.
5 How things are destined to go if you leave the house.
6 What happens after China calls.
7 Fashion magazine featuring militia wear.
8 Why you need braces.
9 Educational Testing Service, Inc.
10 What I'm getting fer shure after discovering this uniclue's answer.
11 Bikini Island with a less formal dress code.
1 BROW WIPE INCOME
2 TREETOP CAVE
3 IDIOT HUMS NIGH (~)
4 VRBO SATCHEL
5 FACE PALM FATE
6 RUSSIA FIST PUMP
7 SHOOT 'EM UP COSMO
8 PIE HOLE GAPS (~)
9 SLEEK GRE MAFIA
10 EVIL HEN TATTOO (~)
11 IN THE BUFF ATOLL (~)
Uniclues:
1) Love my false teeth!
2) Extra money a physical therapist earns after making you do 50 lunges
3) Permanently dislocated nose
4) From the Grimm story, not the Anderson one
5) Why, that's Bikini, of course!
1) RAH ORAL RENTAL
2) BROW WIPE INCOME
3) FACE PALM FATE
4) HEN EVIL TATTOO
5) ATOLL IN THE BUFF
This puzzle really lends itself to uniclues. Now off to see what Gary and Barbara did.
The distinguished American literary scholar Michael Patrick Hearn writes this in his edition of "A Christmas Carol" (p58): The simile "Dead as a Door-nail" is generally credited to William Langland [1332-1400) who included it in his "The Vision of Piers Plowman" (1362) "as ded as a dore-nayle." Hearn also says it seems to be of an earlier date, and also appears in an ancient British Ballad "St. George for England": But George he did the dragon kill, As dead as any door-nail. Hearn also writes Dickens likely knew the simile from Henry IV, Part 2, Act V, scene 3 and Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, scene 10.
In an amazing coincidence, I just read the first page of Science Times in today's NY Times. The story? "Death Nails in Tomb Reveal Occult Practice." It writes about
nails being found in tombs as early as the 5th century B.C.E.
It took two to make this tango untangle? A DUEL of words? A DEAD HERO ? An EVIL IDIOT in the MAFIA playing SHOOT EM UP in a TREE TOP?
A picture of Putin doing a FIST PUMP over CRIMEA while riding a horse IN THE BUFF in RUSSIA? BAD ASS, indeed.
Gee, what a KNEE SLAP of a puzzle.....
To be clear, what Russia did in Crimea was secure its near abroad, a policy that the United States does as a regular thing. And then Russia protected its nationals from ethnic cleansing in Donetsk, another thing that the US claims the right to do. The anti-Russia propaganda just has to stop--it is dangerous to our own national security.
Any TuesPuz with a {[Har-har-har!]} theme clue rates pretty high, on the M&A different scale. Like that.
Pretty easy solvequest, at our house. Lost a coupla precious nanoseconds on VRBO, tho.
M&A bonus theme clue offerin: {[Ahhhh … Someone step on a duck? Betcha the dog did it!]} = *
staff weeject picks: FIR & FLY. Always fun to watch the FIR FLY, in the puz's closin moments.
fave related stuff: LOWCUT. INTHEBUFF. BADASS.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Kantor & Kaskel dudes. Startin to wonder if this is gonna be Co-labor-ation Week at the NYTPuz …?
Masked & Anonymo8Us
p.s.
* = BUTTBURP. [LOWCUT also sorta works, but U really need that upfront body part themer part.]
**gruntz**
EMIL should be a name like ADOLPH - cancelled forever.
And RUSSIA must never be mentioned again because Ukrainians are such good Nationalist Socialists and deserve all the Billions they want!
And IAGO was bad - ban him and rewrite (or better yet, ban) Shakespeare too!
SHOOTEMUP should refer only to the addicts created by the brilliant, non-cynical US War on Drugs!
Dead as a Doornail is no doubt problematic too. Just haven’t found out why yet.
The hypersensitivity shown - for crossword puzzle clues and answers, of all things! - is necessary, virtuous and progressive. HUZZAH!
You know what's funny? When you google "tennis highest winning percentage career" and find that Boris Becker is the top, then N-1 more men when the list is Top N .... Then you add "Women" to your search, and you find four women with higher career winning percentages than Boris Becker. That's funny, just not funny ha-ha.
As always, @LMS was correct, this time about door nails.
I abhor the phrase PIEHOLE with a passion I don't fully understand.
I was going to make a 3-Up vs 7 Up joke, but then learned this: " [7-Up]...The product, originally named "Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", was launched two weeks before the Wall Street Crash of 1929.[2] It contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug, until 1948." [Wikipedia] 7-Up contained the default treatment for bi-polar depression.
A [HAND SHAKE] to the constructors for their tight original theme.
Stopped at a gas station recently and couldn’t get the fuel dispenser to work. The operator told me to bang on it first. Turns out it was a FIST PUMP.
Then drove to Florida and saw a tree with bark that resembled human features. It was a FACE PALM.
Finally got to Port TAMPA Bay but had to wait board my cruise ship. The crew was busy with mops doing a last-minute BROW WIPE.
Is it my imagination or is STOIC becoming the new OREO?
Thx, Daniel & Jay! :)
Hi Clare, good to see you again; thx for your write-up! :)
Easy-med.
Pretty much breezed thru this one.
No BROW WIPES or FACE-PALMS today, altho a bit of EYE ROLL at VRBO, and a FIST PUMP at the finish line.
Speaking of 'Impressively tough and cool': listened to 'ReThinking with Adam West' this AM, where he interviews Sian Beilock (Dartmouth's president-elect; hi @pablo). She's the epitome of BADASS! (in the best sense of the word).
Haven't yet read 'The IDIOT'; got the audiobook on hold.
Enjoyed the solve! :)
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@okanaganer (2:05 AM)
Loved your 'javascript hack' para; awesome feat! :)
@Sir Hillary (9:40 AM)
"I'm all for it." 🤣
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Croce's 796 was med (just under 2 hrs); As always, a very worthwhile endeavor! :)
On to Will Nediger's Mon. New Yorker. 🤞
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
@Natasha (6:02). C'mon down to this corner of the playground. We've got a nice piece of cake for you.
i dont know if i am too late to answer your question about nails, but if you read the tuesday science times you will see an article on the use of iron nails in roman funerary customs. apparently iron nails were used to keep the dead in place, hence dead as a doornail
@Barbara S. 8:31 AM
#2 & #6!
@Nancy 10:25 AM
Tough competition today, but I think you won #3.
The main difference is that the GRE is a grad school entrance test taken by college seniors and the ACT/SAT are undergrad entrance tests taken by high school seniors
My problem is the numbers in the puzzle are so small my aging eyes can't see them clearly. So I keep confusing which clue goes where. Today I somehow believed that BADASS WAS the answer for "make mischief". Whereas the actual clue for BADASS is very accurate.
I've been looking up DOORNAILs. One definition is a nail you put on the outside of your door that protrudes, so you can hang things on them -- maybe a notification such as, "we're all in the back yard, go around and find us!" Or in our case, a seasonal Christmas wreath. But really, I think of DOORNAILs as the ones used to tie a DOOR frame to the DOOR jambs, or to the rest of the house. These must be long and superstrong, and are dead because there is no feasible way to pull them out without a total rebuild of the DOOR structure.
I liked the unique theme and grinned when I got to FACEPALM. As for FIST PUMP I also wrote in bUMP at first, but as someone pointed out a bUMP is a two-person activity, and a PUMP is a solo gesture.
I agree with those who found this one a cut above the usual Tuesday, with it's clever theme of expressive gestures. And I agree with @Wanderlust 7:26 about the bracketed clues. It seemed to me that we had a sort of two-part theme, with the bracketed expressions and the gestures equal partners. So, "D'oh!" (a non-word?) instead of "Oh, I'm so dumb!" Wish I could describe it better. Bonus: doornail lore!
Thank you, Gary. My favorite of yours is #8. My favorite of Barbara's is #6. But there was more similarity today -- of thought if not of wording -- than usual. After all, how many different things are there to say about BROW WIPE INCOME?
I've been out of the Uniclue Derby for a few days -- at work cluing a new puzzle (constructed with Will Nediger) that I'm more excited about than anything I've done in a while. It was just submitted to the NYT today. Let's see what WS thinks. If he likes it, perhaps you'll get to see it in about a year or so, if I'm lucky :)
Which reminds me: This is a good time to say to those of you who enjoy riffing on other people's puzzle themes and who are good at it: "Go thou and do likewise." If you're imaginative and funny and can come up with good ideas and can clue well, you can always find a grid maker who will be happy to work with you. Don't leave all your most amusing ideas on someone else's page. Okay?
I'm having the exact same "seeing the tiny numbers" problem that you are, @old timer (1:54). It ranges from being a considerable annoyance to being a real impediment -- and it's cut into my solving enjoyment, no question about it.
My wife often tells me to shut my PIEHOLE, so we got a good chuckle out of seeing it in the big city paper today.
[I hate messy underwear!] …………..BUTTWIPE
[All stuffed up!]…………………………….NOSEPICK
Always a pleasure to see a Clare write up. Today is our first full day in Argentina. Oddly, they don’t seem to have forgotten who won the real World Cup this year.
I think this was an original and well-executed concept. Thanks, Daniel Kano and Jay Kassel.
Blame Dickens for "Marley was dead..." That's the opener of "A Christmas Carol"!
@Gary J and @Nancy
I'm always fascinated by the overlaps -- 3 today that we all tackled. This puzzle provided particularly good raw material. My faves: Nancy #1 and Gary #3.
Thank you for communicating!
A nice tight set of themers today. I thought about it and thought about it, and the only additional one I could come up with is:
[Hmm..I'm not sure, let me think about that]: LIP BITE
I expected more complaints about A DUEL though. I mean, why not
11d – Pay ___: A TOLL?
Posting late means (especially early in the week) usually means there’s not much left to say. Today, of course I get to say “Hey Clare! Always glad to see your name and read your comments. DC holds a special place in my heart for so many reasons and nothing beats the tidal basin area during cherry blossom time. All of DC for sure, but I love the Jefferson Memorial and the basin with the blossoms’ fragrance and delicate pink hues welcoming spring. I love to sot and contemplate the glory of spring and my good fortune to be an American, as messed up as we are these days. Tough times like these harden my resolve to honor our founding folks by contributing as much as I can as a citizen and always, always, always voting.
I completely missed the theme until the very end when I was stuck at the TONY/EYEROLL cross. TONY just isn’t a word I think of often and the Puh-lease clue just wanted smirk, and it took me a hot second to read “close” poetically as NIGH rather than something poetic meaning shut. The typical crossword conundrum. Which pronunciation counts. Other than that little last spot, this was easy with not too much special. My absolute favorite was the clue for LEMURS. Just the sort of trivia I adore. Knew sifakas but aye-ayes is a nee one.
Knew one or more of you would know the origin of the DEAD door ail. I learned it on my very first trip to Boston as a young child. Somewhere along the Freedom Trail, a docent pointed out the nails hammered into the door with the ends bent so as to make them unusable. We were also told that the very richest people in a gaudy show of ostentation would buy many nails that were technically not necessary and just hammer them into the door sometimes in a design and bend them. I remember blurting out “That’s just rude!” And receiving a nod of agreement from the docent as my mother shushed me lest I offend any of the other tourists present.
Hope you continue to enjoy DC, Clare, and that you have a lively long spring for bike riding before the hideous heat and humidity of summer arrive.
I did the crossword late, they issued a correction to that clue on the NYT crossword app. They said it should have been first team, not only team.
Amazing
South Carolina? Have you not yet seen Caitlin Clark play? Go Hawkeyes!
Read NYT article 3/28/23 about coffins, death,nails etc.
Great write up! Fun fact on skiing. Mikeala isn’t the only GOAT in skiing right now. Johannes Klaebo is dominating men’s cross country skiing with a 50%+ career win percentage.
It’s a great time to be a ski fan!
When rustic doors are made from boards, the nails are bent over on the opposite side (or deadened) to prevent them from working loose. Hence "dead as a doornail".
@Claire: hand UP for INTHEnUde, with the U there. Inkblot at the very end.
Also agree about BROWWIPE; if that's a thing it got by me. It does work, sort of, so we'll let it slide.
I think GIBBSSLAP ("Don't do that again!") should be added to our vocabulary.
Fun puzzle with only a couple fill glitches: TNUT and TYPEA. Curse on all letter add-ons. Don't make me challenge you to ADUEL. Even so, birdie.
Wordle birdie, but with a word like THAT it feels more eagle-y.
TOP TAIL
TONY and RUBY can’t ACTUP enough,
it SEAMs they had A ROLL INTHEBUFF.
They’re THE TYPE THAT EVEN had class,
let THE FIR FLY, ain’t no BADASS.
--- SGT. EMIL EARP
There you go, making that BROW KNEE EYE FACE again. Phew!
fun on Tuesday
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Excellent puzzle. It took me a while to realize there was a theme. I was thinking this is a good themeless puzzle but now that I see the theme this has been elevated to a really great themed puzzle.
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