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Wisconsin politico Tony / SUN 3-19-23 / Adventure-seeking travelers, in old usage / Tone deafness medically / Third-largest city of Turkey / Fool from the Yiddish / Texas terminus of I-35 / Predecessor of USB drive / Clay figures in Jewish lore
Sunday, March 19, 2023
Constructor: Robert Ryan
Relative difficulty: Challenging
Theme answers:
- DEPART/MENTALLY (23A: Zone out?) (DEPART is now a verb)
- INTRO/VERSION (34A: Beginner's edition?) (INTRO means "introductory")
- SUP/POSITION (47A: Seat at the dining table?) (the position in which you SUP)
- KIN/ESTHETIC (63A: Beauty that runs in the family?) (KIN = "family")
- MALE/FACTION (84A: Boys' club?) (a faction of men)
- CON/TEXTUALLY (98A: Swindle by instant messaging?) (CON = "swindle")
- INTER/RELATIONS (109A: Use a family crypt?) (INTER = "bury")
Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many free reed aerophones such as the harmonica. Tablature was common during the Renaissance and Baroque eras, and is commonly used today in notating many forms of music.
Three types of organ tablature were used in Europe: German, Spanish and Italian.
To distinguish standard musical notation from tablature, the former is usually called "staff notation" or just "notation". (wikipedia)
• • •
The puzzle was kind of a nothing at the thematic level (toughish, but basic, and not particularly entertaining—hard to get excited by terms like INTERRELATIONS and SUPPOSITION etc.). Side note: MALE FACTION really doesn't work, or it's an outlier anyway, as it's the only one that involves significant pronunciation change. The puzzle overall played very hard for me, from start to finish. Just "no idea" "shrug" "nope" over and over. I mean, I made steady progress, never got truly stuck, but ugh, it was a slog. AGLARE and not AGLEAM? (22A: Shining intensely). Truly a no-win kealoa*, that one.. No idea who this Wisconsin EVERS person is (28D: Wisconsin politico Tony) (LOL, looks like he's governor, my bad). Barely heard of IZMIR (48D: Third-largest city of Turkey). Could not care less about Pink Floyd and had to endure not one but two clues about them, like it's some kind of theme? ERRANTS!? (119A: Adventure-seeking travelers, in old usage). I'm really supposed to accept that as a word? Even after you've already got ERRS in the grid!?!! (64D: Goofs up) (both words are using "err" in the sense of "to wander," don't let them fool you into thinking otherwise). Look, there are parts that are OK (HOT SAKE, IN OR OUT?, BROKEN NOSE alongside SEPIA TONES), and I thought the "breaks" in the themers were occasionally clever (DEPART MENTALLY and CON TEXTUALLY are my favorites, and had me wondering whether a whole themer set couldn't have been made out of adverbs), but there were just a lot of proper nouns I didn't know or care about and a lot of Trying Too Hard clues making everything slightly unpleasant. Also, RESEEN? PCCARD?! Is that like a sim card? The clue on NEON (35D: He can be found above it) gives us an abbr. (He) but the answer is a whole-ass spelled-out word (NEON). That's a foul and a violation. "He" corresponds with "Ne," not NEON. The editing is so slipshod today, it's stunning. The clue on ELIAS, I liked (54A: Real name that becomes a fake one by changing its first letter) (to "ALIAS," that is). Much of the rest of the cluing left me cold and/or befuddled.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
P.S. The ultra-successful "These Puzzles Fund Abortion" fundraiser is back for another round with "These Puzzl3s Fund Abortion" (This Time, There's a "3" In The Title). As before, the idea is that you donate at least $15 to one (or more) of the five abortion funds they're supporting, and you get 16 puzzles from top-flight constructors like Ada Nicolle (who made yesterday's stellar puzzle) as well as Brooke Husic, Rafael Musa, Natan Last, Rebecca Goldstein, and many more. The whole thing is organized by my good friend, newly tenured professor of bioethics Rachel Fabi (congratulate her!). Here's her tweet about the puzzle pack:
Give now, get puzzles in a couple weeks, you'll be glad you did—both because abortion access is a crucial (and endangered) part of our healthcare system *and* because the puzzles are sure to be fantastic.✨✨These Puzzl3s Fund Abortion is now available for presale!!!!✨✨
— Rachel Fabi, PhD (@faBioethics) March 14, 2023
To be in the first wave of solvers to see the hard work of our incredible slate of constructors, donate now through https://t.co/OPOdJABLjE
Preorder puzzles will be sent on March 28!#tpfa3 #fthon23
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152 comments:
Toughest Sunday in quite a while for me. Rather than chronicle my long list of missteps I’ll just say I started out with el paso (hi @Rex) at 1a and it didn’t get better from there, although I did finish. Clever idea, smooth grid, and a worthy challenge, liked it. A fine debut!
@Rex - that B was my last square...a semi educated/lucky guess.
Not sold on TAB as an aid for a ‘novice’ guitarist. I’ve been playing for forty years and I still drink it.
Had IrIshTAX tax for a while, and definitely thought the Times was begging for the letters of complaint.
Also had INTERdEpendent where INTERRELATIONS wound up, and that seemed ooooh so right.
Here’s hoping XANDER is the tip of the iceberg and that we’ll start getting more Buffy clues. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for Simpsons, Star Trek and Harry Potter stuff. But Buffy is sadly under-represented.
Bonus themers:
Result of a C-section?
Moon landing cheers?
DarrinV’s degree from Wharton?
SCAR AB
GO LEMS
ROO MBA
Got naticked in exactly the same place as Rex, making the same incorrect guess. And this is really a shame because in all other respects this was an excellent puzzle... just shows how we keep coming up Shortz in the editing department...
I guess I shouldn't be surprised our host choked on TAB, for awhile
I thought my only option there was EARPIN which left me with a nonsense TAE. The reason I thought TAB was off limits was because I'd already entered IDIOTTAB at 72A and you cant repeat things like that. Finally that X popped up on the radar and I killed two birds with one stone to finish cleanly with XANDER and BARPIN. Now I can add TAB/TAX to the kea/loa list.
It's nice when puzzles self correct like that . I think it's sometimes the only way I get through them. The fill here was no more challenging than a lot of other Sundays I've hacked my way across and it's what Sundays are good for. Today's theme used no gibberish just straight up words that it asks you to reimagine so that was a bonus.
Not so lucky with the Sat SB. I've got three words left so it looks like that will be another learning experience.
Same Natick at TAB but running the alphabet was quick.
Faced the same last square as Rex; kinda wanted EAR PIN but TAE didn't make sense. Chose BAR PIN and won.
The theme might have been a bit more elegant if all the single words were, say, adjectives, and all the "break"ed phrases were, say, nouns. Suggesting this while knowing I probably couldn't construct that if my life depended on it.
Typeovers: THROWS before TOSSES, and ANA ESTHETIC before KIN ESTHETIC. I guess I thought ANA was the beauty in the family?
[Spelling Bee: Sat currently pg-3; missing 2 6ers and a 7er. Not too invested in it today cuz mild sunny day, and kinda have SB fatigue I guess. 15 day QB streak is a distant memory!]
I thought the puzzle was fine. That’s it. Blah. Whatever. But fine.
However, I’ve got to object to Rex’s rant about the TAB/BARPIN crossing. There was nothing at all unfair, or even hard, about that. Especially when you have it down to the final cross, there is nothing remotely unfair. I honestly don’t even understand what his criticism of BARPIN even is. It’s a form of jewelry. That Rex didn’t know that doesn’t make it unfair.
But his incorrect (ERRANT?) complaint about TAB is just wrong. Again, if Rex doesn’t know what a tab in music is, fine. That doesn’t make the clue unfair, especially when the cross makes it so clear. His only misguided complaint seems to be that he believes TAB is an abbreviation for tablature and required a note saying so for him to possibly see it.
Well, it’s not an abbreviation. Yes, it derives from tablature, but the three-letter word TAB is its own word now. There are endless examples on Google proving this. Unless Rex has also complained that AUTO needs a warning that it is an “abbreviation” for AUTOMOBILE, then he needs to drop his baseless complaint about the editing.
Hooray for me, I guess? I did not get Naticked where TAB cross BARPIN. One of my brothers is a skilled (Ph.D. somehow) guitarist, so I recall him mentioning TAB sheets, so somehow TAB seemed a reasonable fill for 30A?
Otherwise, it seems a typical sloggy sad Sunday fill. Oversized grid, etc. And then you have to deal with the usual sad-ass theme.
TBH, I did figure out a couple of the themers bases on the theme. So, not the worst Sunday #NHYTXW I have seen in months? But one of the very few.
Summation = "meh".
TAB Natick ditto.
I almost never agree with @Rex (about anything). But you know what they say: "Crosswords make strange bedfellows." And here Rex and I are today - fighting over the covers.
Pretty harsh criticism for a puzzle that wasn't bad in my opinion. Maybe Rex got frustrated that things didn't come as easily for him today? But sheesh, don't blame the puzzle because you couldn't figure it out. I was briefly held up in a couple places today, sure (I still don't fully understand the clueing for BRUT) but BARPIN and TAB was...easy? I guess things don't play the same for us all, which is why crosswords are so hard to design, and why almost zero of them will please Rex.
I had to come here to find that it was a B in that spot (I had an E and knew it was wrong but had no idea how). I was relieved to see it was the last square Rex entered and VERY relieved to read he had trouble with it too.
How in the world did CORNHOLE (10D) get past the editor? (In case you don’t know, try the Urban Dictionary)
Hand up for TAB/BARPIN as my last entry. That was a lucky guess. But if I'd thought of @Rex el pasO and @kitshef INTERdependent I'd still be solving.
Needed Sergey & Larry to correct zANDER.
TAB is not an abbreviation. No guitarist says “tabulatures”, they just call them tabs. Maybe one could call the shortened form slang, but it’s entered the language, at least of musicians who deal with them. My biggest hesitation putting that in was because they’re not just for novices.
My own sticking point was guessing that Taylor Swift might be doing an EROS tour -seemed plausible enough to a non-fan - and leaving DEPORTMENTALLY in as an odd but intelligible theme answer!
I have to agree with other commenters here that the word TAB has gained common acceptance in the world of music learning to the point where the fuller term TABLATURE is rarely used.
AFEWZS! - Give me a break!
tc
Third debut puzzle of the week. What a period of promise we solvers are in, with its flood of talented new solvers. The debuts, in general, have felt veteran-made, and fresh. Crosslandia is alive, well, and thriving.
Look at today’s puzzle. I wowed at, smiled at, and adored these theme answers, punny and funny, marvelous finds. This theme felt like a spa for my brain. I loved trying to figure these answers out with as few crosses as possible, and those couple of times that I did brought terrific ahas.
Also, Robert Ryan has the cluing gene. Sure, “Suns” has been used in clues for NBA before, but only in clues like [Org. with Suns and Heat], never like today’s clever [Suns setting, for short]. “Crisp” has never been used in a HI-DEF clue before, as in today’s wonderfully misleading [Extra crisp, informally]. NEON has been in major venue crossword puzzles more than 500 times since 2002, but never clued like today’s mysterious and tricky [He can be found above it]. And ELIAS usually is clued regarding inventor Howe, never before like the riddle-y [Real name that becomes a fake one by changing its first letter].
I feel so lucky to have this brilliant new cluing voice in crosswords.
Finally, much of this puzzle fought me, mostly from slippery cluing. I treasure these battles. I emerge from them refreshed and alive.
Bravo, RR. I loved this puzzle, and thank you for making it. I’m hungry for seconds, and soon, please!
Before I got tab, I had hatpin, which is actually a thing
I went with hatpin, which is as much a piece of jewelry as any pin, and often terminates in a pearl. Thus the northwest area was my last to solve. Are sprites and fairies lookalikes? Aren’t they just similar in being fictional, magical and tiny? They look however an illustrator feels like drawing them.
I believe an alcohol reference regarding relative dryness, brut more dry than sec.
If Rex is going to use his crossword blog to promote abortions, then I'm outta here.
Not sure how serious I can take a grid that includes a bunch of Yiddish and Floyd. IZMIR - really? Leave the TONES off of SEPIA. OMG - how SKREWY are IDIOT TAX, ERRANTS and OGLER?
Donovan
The single word repurposing theme is the highlight of the puzzle - too bad the overall fill couldn’t keep up.
LAREDO
Brutal. PPP and arcane crap everywhere (see GLASER, YUTZ, DARCY, EVERS, ASONIA, ROOMBA, TONGAN, GOLEMS, IZMIR, XANDER, CONOR, ERIES . . ). Add in a cryptic, barley discernible theme and you’ve got basically the CrossWorld equivalent of one big garbage dump. Obviously, I didn’t care for today’s offering.
I don’t usually enjoy the NYT’s juvenile humor or ASS-fetish, but in this case I’ll make an exception. If there is one bight spot to todays puzzle, it’s the subliminal instruction spanning the grid (GROPE BF’S MALE FACTION). That’s way better than just toggling back and forth between ASS and PEE.
FH
I thought BRUT was perhaps the cleverest clue today. It refers to types of Champagne (you know, the beverage that was invented by the British and copied 30 years later by the French). Anyway, a moderately dry Champagne is called 'SEC' while an even drier one is 'BRUT'. Technically, although SEC means dry, it is actually slightly sweet. Ah, those French persons!
1) Dad on the campgrounds.
2) Casual worker hasn’t shown up yet.
3) Crazy, but rationally so.
4) Last of the Simpsons’ son.
5) Pudgy compadre.
I was mystified for far too long, but finally saw it at INTRO/VERSION when I was tackling that area for the second time. Before that, a couple of the themers really made me wonder why the answers weren’t matching their clues. I’m a terror for not looking at Sunday puzzle titles until I’m well into the solve, and I did that again today. (Note to self.)
I had two problem-areas in the end. I had trouble parsing A FEW ZS at 7D [Forty winks] and couldn’t quite see DENY, SCREWY and YUTZ (the last of which I didn’t know). And then the whole area around the BAR PIN/TAB crossing had me going. I had bOSH for TOSH which made SPRITE unintelligible, I thought OMAN was irAN, and I tried various solutions for BAR PIN, including “tie PIN” and “hAt PIN.” Yeesh. But it all finally came right with no look-ups, so yay.
I liked the theme once I figured it out. Maybe not knee-slappers, but clever reparsings with some sparkle. Loved DEPART/MENTALLY and it gave me a flash of all those endless DEPARTMENTAL meetings I sat through when in academe. You really had to DEPART MENTALLY or you’d go mad. Also, liked the terrific black humor of INTER/RELATIONS. Family crypt, indeed. And didn’t we just have Romeo and Juliet yesterday with a famous family crypt scene.
[SB: Fri. 0; Sat -3. @okanaganer: on Friday, my last word was your crazy 8er. And yesterday I was stymied by this colorful group. The only one I didn’t know was the shorter C-word, so phooey on me.]
1) PATENTING
2) TEMPLATE
3) PSYCHOLOGICALLY
4) BARTEND
5) FATALLY
@GAC (7:53) - There is a vast difference between "promoting" abortions (as you accuse @Rex) and permitting access to abortions, which Rex does support.
I agree completely with those above who have noted that TAB is not an abbreviation any more than AD (advertisement), EXAM (examination), or AUTO (automobile) are abbreviations. None of those would be clued with some indication that they’re abbreviations, and neither should TAB. The clue was crystal clear to anyone who plays guitar. Rex is at his most annoying when he rants about something he knows nothing about - like here. Google “guitar tab” if you want to see how in-the-language TAB is.
— Jim C. in Maine
I’m right there with you on Tab/ Barpin idiocy . And I PLAY guitar. Feh. Not a good puzzle AT ALL. I actually had to use the reveal square on that one. Earpin is actually a thing that is Long and thin and jewelry but Tae made no sense obvi.
I thought the theme was great fun, one I'd like to see again, even. Just simple, fun wordplay. Pride and prejudice is so often remade, I 'm surprised that Darcy could be hard, but I couldn't recall the name and I 've read the original 4 times. And I loved Buffy, but forgot Xander. I also forgot PC card ..not quite so portable as a USB drive! But it was a fun puzzle with a lot of delicious word play. Hope to see more like this
The one I had to guess at was the K at the Kay/Kohl junction. Knew neither of those proper names and could see multiple possibilities, K, R, G, M, J...got it on my second guess purely by Rohl and Kohl sounding more "German" to me, whatever that means.
Ok. Bye.
It's a common beanbag-toss game, at least here in the South, and not risqué despite the somewhat unfortunate name. Players try to toss small beanbags through a round hole in a slanted wooden board. It's pretty popular with tailgaters and, as I recall, fraternities, probably because of the hilarity of increasingly inebriated players making wilder and wilder tosses, not infrequently into innocent spectators. Supposedly cornhole because historically the bags were filled with corn. Though I tend to suspect the original namer was quite aware of the more salacious meaning. It does have other names, like bag toss or tailgate toss, but I've never heard anyone from around here call it anything except cornhole. Which can come as a shock to a non-Southerner overhearing, say, a nice, churchgoing family proposing a game of cornhole after lunch.
Thx, Robert; a real brain stretcher! :)
Very hard (over 2x avg).
Dnfed at ASONIA / PC CARD. Had CoRD, and oSONIA just didn't look right, but forgot to tag them and come back before finishing with the 'B' guess at TAB / BAR PIN (gonna have to look those two up).
Good battle. Enjoyed the trek! :)
___
Stella's Sat. Stumper: success in 2 hrs+; challenging and gratifying! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Jim I’d invite you to look at your own list of words (AD AUTO EXEC) then think about their familiarity and *then* compare that familiarity to the familiarity of TAB (as clued). The familiarity gap is less gap than abyss. The issue is literally never whether I do or don’t know something—its crosses crosses crosses. I accept you Guitar Insider take on TAB not needing to be an abbr. Today, that is not the primary issue. The *general familiarity* of *crossing* words is the problem. I don’t know stuff Every Single Day, as do you, as does everyone. That’s part of the deal. Bad *crosses* are something else. They shouldn’t be part of the deal. Thank you for your input. ~RP (PS see Dr. A’s comment below for a different guitar player’s take)
And apologies for the typos :(
RESEEM and ASONIA are delighted with the TAB BARPIN commotion. That whole San Diego corner is lousy and I was sure Rex would have one of his 'If you need to include 'reseen' in a corner, it's time to redo the corner' comments. Theme answers were tough to parse out, thus good and challenging. But hopefully corners like the one I mentioned won't be reseen soon.
Not sure what to think. The puzzle was hard for me, but the struggle rewarding.
When faced with something like the TAB problem, I usually just don't fill in the letter, which technically is a DNF. That is what happened with this puzzle. If I don't know for sure what the entry is, I consider it a DNF whether I fill the letter in or not. Starting with Friday, I have a lot of those types of puzzles. I don't care. I spend enough time solving puzzles. I trust that the test solvers did not complain enough to alert the editors (of which Shortz is just one) that the puzzle was "unfair." So in the end, I guess I did like this one even though I did not finish.
A word about topics such as abortion. I think Z no longer comments here because he became upset about one of the comments he read about one of those topics. Bringing up such topics can be painful to those who don't agree with stated conclusions or preferences. I understand why Sharp uses this blog as a platform for topics he supports. But I would prefer avoiding such topics. Nevertheless, one of the problems today is that many limited themselves to forums that only support their own prejudices (and I use that term in a positive sense if that is possible). As long as contrary views are allowed to infiltrate the comments, I support reading about views I disagree with. I find challenges are good. Alas, I think I am in the minority.
Same here, too many words in the Saturday SB, not enough time. Streak over
TAB/BARPIN may not be a true Natick, but it’s pretty tough, and TOSH/BOSH is a kealoa that screwed up that same neck of the woods for me. I proudly came up with hAtPIN with minimal crosses. I wondered about TAh, but it was the nonsensical SPtIbE that told me I had an error there. Once I untangled the SPRITE, I came up with eARPIN, but still no happy music. Fortunately it doesn’t take long to reach B when running the alphabet.
I came here to say that I enjoyed this puzzle more than others. I learned all I know about music terms from these puzzles, and today I can add "tab" to my list. I also wore BARPINS during the mid-80s when I wore suits and dresses for work. I still have some of them.
Now, on to my first, and hopefully last, rant about the comments. This blog belongs to Rex. It appears every day as a space that people use to comment on the puzzle, but also as a forum about Rex and what he writes. No one is required to read his blog, @GAC, so you are free to leave. He doesn't owe you anything, yet he gives you a space to write about the puzzles and pretty much anything else you chose. Rex could remove the personal attacks, but he chooses to leave them - and some things written are pretty negative.
As @Joaquin said, Rex supports abortion rights, as do I. He also supports POC, women's rights, LBGTQ rights, and trans rights. I'll continue to enjoy reading his blog daily, and I'm sure that @GAC can find spaces that reflects his opinions. Thanks for all you do, Rex.
I should have skipped the whole TAB/BARPIN Rex section - really too much! I don't know something, therefore WS and co. did a bad job editing, whaaa. Not sure why so many controversies here. Yes, TAB is an abbreviation of tablature - when you use professional music notation software, there is a "guitar tablature" option. No, it didn't need to be included as an abbr. in the clue because the common usage is TAB, usually in all caps.
For those wondering what TABS are: a small diagram with 6 vertical lines representing strings crossed by horizontal lines representing frets. Little dots represent where you put your fingers. Additional markings represent open or muted strings, fret positions, etc. They are useful for novices, and beyond for trickier chords or unusual voicings. Pros just use chord symbols.
@anon 5:51, if something having a sinister meaning on Urban Dictionary disqualifies it from xword use, we'll have some pretty small offerings. Granted, one doesn't have to go to UD to know cornhole. @Southside, you could get your daily dirty word fix from this; please don't work it into your meta-sentence.
I got stuck at ERRANTS/BRUT - did an alphabet run and had a doh/aha moment for BRUT with its wine meaning - fiendish!
Nice to have a challenging Sunday.
😘👋🏻🥰
So long !
@pmdm – Z’s issue was not with the comments board, but with what he felt was a politically slanted entry in the crossword puzzle itself. It’s the NYT crossword he’s boycotting; he still loves us.
Buh bye.
Amy: took a few theme answers before I got it, but found it clever and fun once I did. AFEWZS tickled me. The TAB section Rex features was toughest for me as well. Had Obstructs before OBSTRUDES so that hung me up until realizing SPRITE had to be the Fairy Look alike.
Congrats on the debut, Robert!
@RJ, yes it's Rex's blog but presumably people come here because of their love of crossword puzzles - - a pleasant diversion which allows folks to temporarily forget about the issues which continue to divide the USA. Seems Rex could care less about unifying people. "My ball, my rules" is that it?
Oof, the most challenging Sunday since I got past the initially learning curve of regularly solving. And a pretty similar experience to most of you. It had some bright moments but a lot of the cluing was a bit tortured, and it just wasn’t much fun for me.
As per the topic of commentary today, I’ll briefly say that the foundation where I work got its start as an emergency abortion access fund; we still make grants to many local and national abortion access and reproductive justice organizations. I’m very proud to get to help resource that work, and grateful that I now know of another way to support it. Thanks for sharing it, Rex. And ditto to @Joaquin’s and @RJ’s comments.
Hey All !
SCREWY puz today. Took me a while to finally see what was going on. And even then, some of the one-wordness didn't come across as one word, e.g. MALEFACTION. Is it [MAL-(schwa)-FAX-SHUN?] First one I got was CONTEXTUALLY, which had me see what was wanted, and also got a chuckle. KINESTHETIC was a YUTZ of a word.
ROOMBA got a sorta chuckle when I finally figured that one out. The Kealoauluala of ASDOI, SODOI, DITTO, ME TOO had me changing that answer every time I looked at it. BFS is missing an F, no? OK, I guess it's BoyFriends and not BestFriendsForever. We have OLDS as the car, why not MGS? Also, why not Medgar EVERS?
Funniest moment, had S__THO_E for 59A, and looked at it before reading the clue. Sort of a letdown after reading that clue. Har. 😁
Probably gonna catch A FEW ZS later. Ah, Sunday.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
See ya, you won’t be missed!
Bye, then!
Who else had IDIOT TAg/gANDER? I came here with the intention of writing" "Is IDIOT TAG a Thing?". And evidently it's not. But I didn't know that IDIOT TAX was a Thing, either.
And don't get me started on XANDER/gANDER.
I would call this puzzle Cryptic-Lite -- made for people who think they don't like/can't do Cryptics. But I bet you found the Cryptic answers rather fun -- didn't you? You wouldn't have known what was coming down the pike since "Give Me A Break" would seem to have nothing whatever to do with the Cryptic theme. (It does, but in a way most solvers won't pick up on). In fact I was so oblivious to the fact that a Cryptic theme lay ahead that...
...I almost bailed on the puzzle before even picking up my pen. I glimpsed all those tiny bits of useless and completely unknown information -- much of it pop culture -- that I was going to be required to dredge up and I thought: "Too long, too dreary, too frustrating." But once I began, I got hooked by the Cryptic clues.
For those not in the know, these are DEPARTMENTALLY; INTROVERSION; KINESTHETIC; MALEFACTION; CONTEXTUALLY and INTERRELATIONS.
Without all the trivia, I would have loved this puzzle. With it, I still give it a thumb up.
TAB was clued just fine. I’d wager this was far more “gettable” than the random sports figures that pop up so often. And though it might be an abbreviation I’ve never heard anyone ask if I read tablature … it’s always just tab.
Great puzzle today. Just difficult enough to challenge but not frustrate.
Double "Natick-ed" (although, like @Rex, neither was a pure Natick) between the oft discussed TAB?BAR PIN and the less discussed (because I'm sure it was a gimme for Buffy fans) IDIOT TAX/XANDER. I went with IDIOT TAg/gANDER. (sigh)
Got NBA as the Suns setting, but only after having to remove PHO.
Tough Sunday takes my dnf streak to 2.
I really loved this puzzle and thank you Mr. Ryan, I am very much looking forward to more from you! I thought all the themed answers worked, were clever and funny and solvable, and the rest of the puzzle was hard enough so that everything didn't fall into place right away. That wasn't a "slog" to me, it was a challenge and a lot of fun. I thought the clues were clever and tricky (as another commented has said,) clues like ""Word has it!" and "He can be found above it" and "It comes after nine but not after 10". I'm a fan of vintage wear so "bar pin" was not a problem for me, although I've never heard of a tab for guitar.
The only SMALL thing was that I see the constructor is from England, and a couple of the clues seemed to reflect more an English sensibility than an American one. For example I know that "tin" is a food container in England, in America I think it would be called a can. I had the T so went for "tub", which messed that area up for a bit. "Tosh" also does not sound all that familiar to me. These are very minor nits to pick and I thought it was a lovely puzzle. Happy Sunday all!
Anonymous Anonymous said...
@RJ, yes it's Rex's blog but presumably people come here because of their love of crossword puzzles - - a pleasant diversion which allows folks to temporarily forget about the issues which continue to divide the USA. Seems Rex could care less about unifying people. "My ball, my rules" is that it?
Wow, that's what you got out of my comments? Rex supports causes on his blog because it's his blog, and this fundraiser is a cause that he believes in and is promoted by his friend and fellow constructor. It's a x-word fundraiser.
If your comment were correct, we'd not see the nasty personal comments directed toward him in the blog. I'm also not sure where you get the idea that unifying people is his job.
Thanks, @Weezie, for the work you do and your comments.
This was tough. I’m glad Rex found it challenging as well. I almost gave up. I saw Robert Ryan is from Ireland and thought maybe there’d be too many Celtic arcane references. I forged ahead and completed with one error (actually a blank square I neglected to fill in the hard copy) IDIOTTAx/xANDER. TAB was tough but came to me (capo? amp? Pick? Etc). No need for an abbreviation references. NEON I got and had NO idea what it meant until I got here. Agree in this instance there should have been an abbreviation alert. BRUT was brutal :). No idea until I got here. I am ProLife but I respect each individuals circumstance - no way I will quit this blog. Anyhow. AFEWZS geezzz. I had AF - - - - and was thinking maybe FEEDLOT should be sEEDLOT. Asleep? I hesitated at LEAPED. Isn’t it “leapt”? I had pLaSTeR before ALLSTAR for the cast clue. TOSH? Rubbish? Huh. HIDEF could not parse correctly at all. HID EF ? HIDE F? Duh. So simple yet it escapes me. Agree is/was PCCARD a thing? Good puzzle and very tough , balancing out a few easyish Sundays of late. My first entry was RADNER and that put me in a good mood.
I knew what a guitar TAB was, no problem there. There were some very tough spots in this one, but I liked it. FYI, Tony Evers is the Democratic governor of Wisconsin, helping to stand against the Republican gerrymandering and court packing. He's a good man.
I'm still running a day late. I read through Sat. comments rather quickly so I may have missed it, but it seems nobody mentioned "timpany" for KETTLE DRUMS. It was my first thought but too short. Didn't take too long to think of KETTLE DRUMS.
I agree with Weezie, Joaquin and RJ. . . it’s RP’s domain and if his views knot up your knickers, use the ESC function.
As for the puzz, a schmear of wit with a lotta overcooked clues and meh theme execution.
Longtime lurker but I can’t resist posting about this because it’s bugging me so much!
My problem with TAB was not the abbreviation. Hardly anyone says “tablature” in my experience, it’s just called “TAB.” The problem is that TAB is not just for novice guitar players. It’s an alternate system of notating music that doesn’t require knowing the notes on the scale and where they are on the guitar neck, which makes it easily accessible even if you dont have formal music training. It can be used to notate music at any level, including incredibly challenging fingerstyle or classical pieces. So “aid for a novice guitarist” just does not work as a clue and I’m surprised that was not fact-checked.
What burtonkd described is a chord chart, which is not the same as tab. A chord chart shows you where to place your fingers to make a particular chord. TAB will show you a complete piece of music from beginning to end, much like reading a score.
It’s often written with standard music notation above, such as in this example: Freight Train
Looks like my link didn’t work! Here it is if you want to cut and paste:
http://musicnoteslib.com/tabs/Chet_Atkins-Freight_Train-4294907669.html
I don’t want to go into a rant here (certainly not the proper forum, we’re just here to talk about the puzzle), but I detest the term “pro-life.” It implies that anyone who supports reproductive rights is “pro-death.” Don’t even get me started.
Oh, boy. I found this puzzle's theme answers highly amusing, and the clues entertaining and many of them challenging. Yay!
I relied on the clue for BAR and the pin came from crosses. I could see a fisherman having a garpin on a hat…. But it's probably not a piece of jewelry I would choose. 😀 Long, narrow jewelry made me think of a bolo tie. Too long, fortunately.
The square that made me run the alphabet was the X in IDIOTTAX. I had a tab there.
@Barbara S Thanks for the bonus themers! 😀
Re the current topics debate - Thanks to Rex's advocacy and links posted by other commenters here I have a much more nuanced understanding of Trans issues. If his abortion rights advocacy upsets you, perhaps learning more about why people feel the way he does would be helpful. There's lots of information out there.
Wow. This very enjoyable puzzle gave me fits and TAB/BARPIN were the least of my worries! First, even though I’m familiar with P & P AND Bridget Jones’ Diary, my brain glitched and I confidently plopped in DARbY and did not revisit which left me trying to come up with an obscure word for “off” that had bRE in the middle. Second, I glitched again and was thinking USB port instead of drive for 91 Down. Third glitch…MALEdiCTION instead of MALEFACTION (and I didn’t check to see if THAT even made sense given the theme). Le sigh. These are all on me, but resulted a big fat three-way DNF with a D’OH once I checked.
Relating to 91 DOWN…maybe reference to “flash drive” would have been less confusing?
Kitshef: yes, I kind of recall that. Whatever the reason, I was sad to lose his comments. I know he still comments on other sites concerning other puzzles, but even with easy early week puzzles I only have time to solve one crossword per day.
Well, on to hear Zweden and Messiean
I'm glad I decided to do this Sunday puzzle. It's raining AGAIN, and this March Madness is driving me bonkers.
The puzzle: My YIKES meter was blowing hot in several places. Here's looking at you AFEW ZS, PCCARD, IDIOT TAX, YUTZ (what happened to PUTZ or is that a corn hole issue?)...and ...our topic of the day TAB/BARPIN. BUT.....the OHO and the AHA meter was turned on high.
My first OHO: DEPART MENTALLY. I do that!. People who will push down a rant down my throat that I have no interest in makes me DAPART. I just stand there and gaze with a stupid smile, excuse myself and go hang out at the bar and do an INTRO VERSION of my lack of perspicaciousness.
There were many AHA's. I like AHA's. I had no problems with the theme entries and I found them clever.
I like the word ETYMOLOGY and wondered what a HIDE F is. Am I an IDIOT because I pay a TAX? Should I know IZMIR? Is it famous for something? And...my favorite: The clue for ROOMBA. I'd like to see that clued as the American version of a Cuban dance. Would that blow some heads off?
Anyway, this was an enjoyable hour spent on a gloomy day. I needed a fun "Break" and Robert provided it.
Regarding @Rex's criticism of [He can be found above it] for NEON, because "He" is an abbreviation and "NEON" is not, I imagine the NYT team having a late-hour hand wringing session over that very point, then finally caving, because it was just too good to pass up. My joy at cracking that clue certainly justified it bending the rules!
Then there's this. A long-time commenter on the Wordplay website said, regarding this point: "Abbreviations in an entry require a signal in the clue; an abbreviation in the clue does not mandate an abbreviation in the entry."
Just a note on Tony Evers. He’s not just some Governor. As the Democratic governor of Wisconsin with a right wing Republican legislature, he was instrumental in ensuring the Biden’s victory in Wisconsin wasn’t overturned and managed to win a second term even while Republicans held on to Ron Johnson’s seat. As the NYT has pointed out, the state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin on April 4 is probably the most consequential of the year. We all need to pay more attention to what New Yorkers consider the “fly over states.”
Like @Barbara S, I wanted bOSH before TOSH; hAt PIN before BAR PIN (which I've never heard of) and irAN before OMAN. The only one I wrote in, though, was bOSH.
And @Barbara S, you really should try your hand at creating a puzzle. You've obviously got a feel for it. If, like me, you're not either willing or able to construct a grid, find a collaborator who can.
I have a treat for everyone who thought of HAT PIN first and also for everyone who didn't. HAT PIN, as you shall see, is a real thing. Begin watching the clip at 3:23. If you've never seen it before, you'll fall out of your chair laughing. I promise.
Toodles!
Buh-bye
Had so much trouble in the NW that when I finally polished it off I forgot I had a blank at the TAB/BARPIN square.
Unusually challenging puzzle for a Sunday. It's interesting to see what a British person thinks an American should know
NEON DION.
Opens closet door where he keeps dusty skeletons, and drags out his old soapbox.
{Stands [atop] and speaks thusly:}
While it is true TAB is an aid for a novice guitarist, it's also an aid for every fretted musical instrument played by musicians of all experience levels. Tab is how the first ever book of instrumental music was written in 1507, and is in many respects a superior form of written music than the standard notation used by other instruments. The only people who consider tabs are for novices are classical guitarists who've made the single-instrument multi-year commitment to read standard notation only. They are rewarded for this commitment by having tiny academically inclined audiences and a much harder time reading outside of standard tuning and are thereby forced to play from memory often. This creates the false illusion of advanced play. The other 99% of guitarists use lots of different aids (tabs among them) to create music. Don't be fooled by the 1% that tabs are only for novices. They're great aids for everybody wanting to make music.
{Descends from soapbox.}
Otherwise, another sloggy Sunday. I do not know people in these puzzles. Kinda wish they'd go back to extinct birds. Not really. Once in awhile I get to learn about somebody interesting. But mostly not, mostly just movie stars.
Loved: SCARAB, SCREWY, YUTZ, IN OR OUT, KEEP MUM, BROKEN NOSE, SEPIA TONES, GOLEMS, ALBUM ART.
Ya got me: KAY 🙄. AMPULE is a variant spelling apparently.
TEE-HEE: LUBE.
Uniclues:
1 Limited of course in preference for the real kinda football.
2 Cement galoshes.
3 Buddy with benefits bootie call.
4 Polynesians in tuxedos on cruise ships.
5 "Sheesk, I thought it was the Black."
1 LAREDO SOCCER AD SPACE (~)
2 MOBSTER REAL IDIOT TAX
3 GROPE BFS MALEFACTION
4 DRESSY TONGAN ERRANTS (~)
5 CASPIAN SEA TRIP UP, OMG
Kinda odd the puzzle contains two Pink Floyd themed answers and two Jewish themed answers. For those who do not know, Roger Waters, bassist and main songwriter of the group, has been accused of anti-Semitism, amongst other things.
I'm so glad to see Rex rank this as challenging because I was constantly hitting the TAB button for my random solve and getting no traction, especially on the west side. The cluing today was tricky!
Some of my unfortunately left-in-for-too-long answers were "catnap" for 7D, "dis" at 3D, mUshED baby food at 78D and my all-too-clever "ess" for an initial shock at 112D. mUshED was especially diabolical to my solve because that made 56D _MG which left me with a tip-of-the-tongue feeling for the actual MPG. Gah.
TAB - as a not so great guitarist, I was interested in what might be helpful for a novice - what tool have I been missing all of these years? TAB, not helpful at all. I play guitar left-handed so to read most tablatures, I have to MENTALLY see them in the mirror.
Though this played really hard for a Sunday, for me, I enjoyed the theme answers a lot. DEPARTMENTALLY is my favorite along with INTERRELATIONS. SUPPOSITION and CONTEXTUALLY are pretty good too. I usually hate the change-a-letter clues but I enjoyed ELIAS a lot (except I mis-read the clue and had aLIAS in for most of the solve, leaving the cornhole TOSSES a mystery. TOSH!)
Robert Ryan, congratulations on your debut, and on a Sunday yet!
Wow, so much complaining about the tab clue, which was perfectly fine. As others have said, that's an acceptable short term, not considered an abbreviation, and I'm surprised Rex hasn't heard of it! But just because he hasn't doesn't mean the editing was poor—it wasn't. I thought the wordplay in the theme answers was fun and clever, as were many of the clues. All in all, an enjoyable Sunday puzzle and Mr. Ryan should certainly be proud of it!
I don’t understand the answer to 35 down, “He can be found above it” why neon?
This was a tough one, but, being a guitar player I got TAB immediately. Also, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is my favorite album of all time so was glad to see that. That first Floyd album with founder Syd Barrett is the best. Unlike anything that came later.
What Norman Bates decided to do with the late Norma's remains? KEEP MUM
I liked the theme entries a lot but the rest of this puzzle seemed somewhat bland to me. No problem at the BARTAB intersection, but the SZ concluding 7d was a headscratcher for awhile. Pluse, I was reading 23a as DEPARTMENT ALLY at first, so I couldn't figure out how that equalled "zone out".
Let's check out this "supergroup", which I've never heard of.
Well. Okay then. Here's something a little more chill.
@TML – He is helium, which is right above neon on the periodic table.
👍🏻
Ok, you're terminated.
TAB = "Tablature," which is a method of notating music that graphically illustrates fingering, rather than using conventional musical notes. It's intended for novices who haven't mastered (or don't care to learn) standards musical notation. Harmonica players, as well as guitarists, lute players, et al. use this method of "reading" music.
Agreed! Why all the kvetching about a three-letter answer, cleverly clued?
I almost always agree with @Louis and do so again today. Thank you, Robert Ryan!
ps— As a young reader of Trinity (Uris), I was totally enamored by the protagonist, Conor Larkin.
Who knew his name meant “lover of hounds?”
He is the atomic symbol for helium, which is directly above neon in the periodic table of elements. Rex had a quibble about the way it was clued; @Lewis at 11:27 had a response to that which I tend to agree with. It was a *very* good misdirect worth a teensy bit of convention-bending, in my opinion.
You don't use a family crypt to INTER relations. When you inter a body you BURY it. You don't bury someone in a crypt.
Not unfair. Just a Sunday that behaves like a Saturday. I could react with a "bosh" or a "posh", but not a TOSH.
Read Rex he explains this
Anyone who's read any of the King Arthur stories should be familiar with knight ERRANTs.
But I totally agree with Rex about HE / NEON. Dreadful editing there.
Rex- you can write and/or endorse anything you like - it is, after all, YOUR blog!
And thank you for letting us know about the Abortion Fund - I donated immediately and sent the link on.
The clue for PCCARD is awful.
Yes, a PC card is (was) a thing. Desktop PCs had/have slots that you can slide a specialized piece of electronics (the card) into the slot and screw it into place. And for laptops, there were/are PC cards for supplementary memory.
But USB "drive" implies supplementary or backup storage, and that wasn't the primary purpose of PC cards on either desktops or laptops. They were used for much more specialized purposes. For extra memory, high speed video processing, specialized communications interfaces, etc.
Villager
And for laptops, there
I feel almost like a celebrity for getting DEKCITAN at the same cross as Rex. CAPO didn't fit in three letters. Nor did ARTHUR GODFREY'S UKE PLAYER.
@me – I meant the ZS concluding 7d. Plus, "Plus".
When I saw Rex got a Natick, it had me theorizing where in the grid it could've happened... TONGAN/ALBUM ART? IDIOT TAX/XANDER? HI-DEF/HOT SAKE? MGS/EVERS? OLDS/RADNER? KEEP MUM/RMN? No wait... YUTZ/A FEW ZS! That has to be it!
Wait... the problem was TAB??? Even as someone who has never touched a guitar, I have heard people ask for the "tabs" of various songs countless times in my life. I really cannot believe that this is so obscure as to require extra attention in the editing process. At the very least, there is no way that it is the worst cross in the entire grid.
But you see how no one is wiping out on all those crosses you mentioned and lots of people are wiping out on the one Rex mentioned. You do see that? Right? It’s strange that people continue to believe this is simply an issue of not knowing an answer.
Late to the party as I didn't have at the puzzle until after returning from choir this morning, and then it took quite a while, and then I had to read all the comments, which also took quite a while.
Anyway, it's nice to know there are so many guitar players around. I had been playing for about thirty years before I learned TABlature, and that was when I was trying to learn to play banjo. So that's definitive anecdotal proof that a TAB is not a help for "novice" guitar players. If you're trying to play something that involves finger picking, a TAB is invaluable. Otherwise just tell me the chords.
T thought I had run into a very long themed Friday for a while with this one, and was pleased that OFL validated that feeling with a "challenging". I did end in the TAB area, but tht was because it took me forever to remember AMPULE.
Really enjoyed this tough Sunday, RR. Required Reaching into some brain areas that hadn't been used in a while, but ultimately very rewarding. Thanks for all the fun.
I have just realized: of the zillions of "guitar tabs" you search for and find online, almost all are just chord charts with lyrics + chord names plus a legend showing how to play the chords used. That is NOT full tablature notation. It's comparable to a lead sheet, what you find in a fake book, though lacks the melody.
It seems like the meaning of "tab" has changed a bit to mean anything a guitar player can use to play a song from.
On the other hand, look for something like "Stairway to Heaven guitar solo", and you will find plenty of lessons and videos with "tab" showing the notes played, bends and all.
Well I had snooZe for 7D, pUTZ for 5D, and hAtPIN for the for 32D, so that whole section is a big scribbly mess on my hard copy. I almost wasn't able to fix it.
@EG in TO: Thanks for the correction. I think I have seen sources where they are used interchangeably, or just side by side, which must have lead to my mistake. One site I just looked at is the apt-for-today's-discussion "Guitar TABS for beginners":) Intesting that the TAB system is the chord system turned sideways to indicate time going left to right. I'm guessing the TAB system came first.
Tabs are pros and beginners and everyone in between. Lousy clue.
@Nancy (11:34)
Thanks for the confidence in my (probably non-existent) abilities. I liken the notion of my constructing a crossword puzzle to someone who, having watched a TV documentary about the medulla oblongata, decides to try brain surgery. At minimum, I'd need a collaborator (as you suggest). But maybe it's something to think about when I'm not as busy as I am at the moment.
@GAC 7:53 AM
Here's a link to a guitar tab for a Green Day song:
Good Riddance
So I've read every musician's TAB comment on the blog. Plus I've gone to Google and asked for TAB "illustrations". And I still don't really have a concept of what it is exactly.
But despite not knowing TAB in the musical sense and not knowing BAR PIN at all, I got TAB right the first time. Gary, Joe, and all the other musicians here may have a chuckle over why.
I immediately thought of the TABS I used to keep in my college notebooks. These kinds of TABS, as defined online thusly:
a small flap or strip of material attached to or projecting from something, used to hold or manipulate it, or for identification and information.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to identify the notes/strings on a guitar (or a violin or a cello or a banjo) without having to look at your hands? That would be so great for the "novice", wouldn't it? "I bet it's some kind of TAB sort of thing," I thought to myself, "just like in a notebook" -- without having the faintest idea of how such a thing or group of things would be attached to the instrument without ruining the sound. But not only was I was thrilled to see that TAB was right -- I also imagined myself as someone who wouldn't have been laughed at* back in the day when she sat down ostensibly to "play" the guitar -- had she only had the use of a TAB.
*laughed at by my very musical brother who taught himself the guitar (the piano being his main instrument), played by ear, and didn't -- to the best of my knowledge -- ever use a TAB.
Into the sun with you, then.
Kinda cool -- more for the blog than the solvequest -- when a SunPuz kicks up some controversies with its cluin.
Related, staff weeject pick: TAB. M&A [not very music-instrument savvy] splatzed in TAH, gettin HAR PIN. I just let out a "har" and moved on, assumin it was a hard-wired crossin out of my wavelength.
NEON was also puzzlin, but turns out just havin a kinda feisty-clever albeit slightly sadistic clue. Like. Got NEON from its crossers, without understandin squat about what "He" was really gettin at.
OTOH, latched onto the theme mcguffin pretty much right outta the chute, at DEPART/MENTALLY. Altho at first, the puztitle led M&A to believe that the themer word was gonna be split up, whenever U bumped up against the letters "ME". Sooo … over-assumin once again, M&A breath.
Man, some of them themers was mighty high-dollar words. INTROVERSION! KINESTHETIC! MALEFACTION! Whee-har!
Also, some interestin other words I ain't seen much before [and never has the xword], such as: PCCARD. XANDER. IDIOTTAX. YUTZ.
Oh … and RESEEN -- har
Thanx for the nice, tho/roughly clued workout, Mr. Ryan dude. Cool epic way to debut -- with a Sunday-sizer.
Masked & Anonymo10Us
**gruntz**
Glad to hear it!
Guitar tabs are most certainly just for guitar novices! Many intermediate and even pro players sometimes use them.
"He" is not an abbreviation for helium, it is the symbol for helium. That is a very important distinction. Elements have symbols, not abbreviations. Fe is the symbol for iron--it is clearly not an abbreviation for it. Also, like every other symbol (#, %, *), when you "read" it, you don't try to pronounce it (since you can't); you say the thing it represents. So I think it's a perfectly fair clue, much like if "*" was a clue for "asterisk". Challenging and clever, sure, but fair.
Fine Sunday entertainment, with an engaging theme, some enjoyably tricky clues, and a number of winners like CASPIAN SEA and IF YOU LIKE. I had fun figuring out the theme entries, ESP. liked KINESTHETIC and CONTEXTUALLY. But I DNF: DEPoRT x ERoS (hi, @Anders 6:01).
As a Wisconsin resident, I'd like to add my nod of appreciation to Governor Tony EVERS, a former state school superintendent, whose common sense and soft-spoken demeanor stand in striking contrast to the unhinged rantings of many in the Republican-controlled legislature.
“Neon” is not a “symbol.” “He” is. Clues and answers must correspond. Them’s the rules. Crosswords 101.
Also atomic symbols ~are~ abbreviations. You can look that up if you like.
Old musician's joke:
Q: How do you get guitar players to play softer?
A: Put music in front of them
@Jennielap: "pro-life" irks me too, because it doesn't seem to refer to the life of the mother. GAC should read some of the horror-filled stories about women who either died or almost died due to lack of access to proper healthcare.
Thank you, Rex, for standing up for women's rights to control their own uteruses and health.
I also got stuck at TAB, ran the alphabet, and couldn't get anything. I play guitar almost every day. I use tab often. I think my brain excluded it because TAB isn't just for beginners. Lots of guitarists use it.
@Kitshef 12:17
So late here it's like almost tomorrow, but I loved your post, especially re TAB and our own DarrinV
Well, we call it the "stupid TAX", but easily inferable. Like the time we *both* left our chargers at home for a weekend in the city and had to go actually buy one, grr.
I knew TAB only because in our hymnal it sometimes says "TAB not available" or something so I had to ask, what's that about?
Overall it did not seem challenging here. I thought one adverb form would have been enough but I liked them both, so there's that.
I entered nothing at 1A because I know nothing about roads in Texas, and only a few towns (was Austin gonna work?). Solved east and south first. But eventually got DEPART | MENTALLY, which made LSD ready to put in, which suggested LAREDO, and that was the end.
But there was a point where I put it down and said, hmm, not really holding my interest. Prob'ly just me.
The name has spread around the country -in the Northeast at least. So it is in widespread usage Not just the South. I found it a bit jarring when I first heard it.
Usually when an obscene or off color meaning of a word is widespread, the tame meaning disappears or becomes much less common, like we say rooster almost always for a male chicken But cornhole game seems to be winning out.
I liked the puzzle. I had no idea of tab but bar pin made sense and I could picture one so in the b went.
People should go back and look. He recanted on most of his rant. He decided it was not a Natick, but tab was a bit too many obscure according to him.
Good point about tosh and tin. Especially tosh! There's soccer though, but Shortz et al. wouldn't llet him get away with a football answer!
Somehow I got the Tab/Barpin answers, but it was a guess. Had never heard of a barpin.
Keep mum got me laughing!
I had a phone (Korean, originally) that thought it lived in IZMIR. Every time it restarted it gave me the time and weather there, I had to reset it. It was sort of cute. That's one I got.
@Joe D. 1:04, one might say that Norman's treatment of NORMA was a classic failure to INTER RELATIONS.
This one had me stewing for over an hour, but I had a smile on my face when the music played. Only fill that disturbed me was the much discussed TAB (which I inferred early on). I assumed it might be an obscure name for a fret, or something. When I googled "guitar tab", may face brightened up and I looked forward to this likely being Rex's highlighted term. Highlight, he did; not as I might have hoped.
The periodic table is not based on the English language. It was created by a Russian using Latin names and Roman alphabet. Be grateful for that. Think about lead, tin, silver, and gold...
Exactly!
Horrific.
I have never heard of IDIOT TAX -- around here we call it the Stupid Tax -- but teh Google seems to indicate the both terms are widely used. Anyway, not knowing anything about Buffy, I went with IDIOT TAg/gANDER, hoping that Idiot Tag was some social media thing: almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the Franchise Tag in football., perhaps. Oh well.
Had a mental block for while on DARCY, which led me to try diTZ before puTZ before YUTZ. Yiddish has a lot of words for people's character flaws, large and small.
Finally, folks, Cornhole has long since escaped the barnyard and morphed into a global "sport," complete with leagues, tournaments, stats, and TV coverage. Check out americancornhole.com if you don't believe me (safe for work, I promise).
Being a guitar player/guitar teacher I had no problem getting the TAB clue but, I’ll agree with Rex that it was a pretty random.
Compared to last week’s puzzle which I finished in record time, this was a slog and towards the end I just wanted it over. It almost took me an hour too, which is far longer than I want to spend on crossword, any crossword.
Funny weekend for me. I was so proud of myself for overcoming struggles all over Saturday’s puzzle to finally reach a finish, only to come here and see it described as whoosh-whoosh easy. Then this one played as a relatively normal Sunday for me (just a bit slower than my average), and it was described as challenging to the point of indignation. Go figure. I guess that TAB is the new KATANA, in terms of clues that I never guessed would trip up so many.
Average puzzle for me, both in difficulty and in level of interest. One near-Natick at "idiottax/Xander," never having watched or cared about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Tried out "idiot tag," etc. before hitting by luck on the correct answer.
I appreciate that the NYT put "LSD" in back-to-back puzzles, though they should be aware that that class of psychedelics develop quick tolerance, and taking the same dosage of LSD within 24 hours of an initial dose will result in far-reduced effects. But I thought it was cute that they put "LSD" and "TAB" in such close proximity. Experienced LSD users know that, in general, one has to space their use, and that of psychedelics in the same general category (psilocybe mushrooms, DMT, etc.) at at least 72-hour intervals to attain significant effects. No more acid until Wednesday, please, NYT.
@Anoa Bob – Yes. I like how Norman's two options were stacked one on top of the other.
I haven’t hated a puzzle as much as I hated this one in a long time. It was a grind, and not in a good way. No issue with TAB. Lots of issues with the rest of the puzzle. Too many to list. Just a horrible solving experience.
This was indeed brut-al.ly challenging… but tab was not a problem for a musician like me
I don’t understand what the MALE FACTION is supposed to be as one word. Can someone spell it out for me?
Theme mis-named... should have been "Mergers and acquisitions". Hardest Sunday in a long while. Glad to see Rex agrees with me. Bar pin -- whaaa?
Another hit against 30A is that "Aid for a novice guitarist" is not accurate. Tablature notation can be used for quite advanced transcriptions that can only be played by expert guitarists. It can also capture guitar-specific performance aspects that are not represented in traditional staff notation. String bends and the like. So poo on that clue!
I got “tab” eventually—I’m a guitarist: a tab is for non-readers of music, basically cheat sheets—but I agree. You left out, among the many Shortzcomings here, “Forty winks” (7D). “Errants” probably only exists in the OED; etc. Will S., time to retire. Clever is one thing. Obfuscating is another.
Apparently Rex's affinity for fetalextraction was not an inherited trait...
I just got tired of it and put it in the recycle bin…with a sincere hope that karma recognizes this type of grid as trash going forward.
MARTY: Gimme a TAB.
SODA JERK: This is a soda fountain, not a bar!
MARTY: Never mind, just gimme a Pepsi Free.
S.J.: Look, if you want anything you gotta pay for it.
I briefly considered eARPIN, but rejected TAe. Went with the B. Yeah, that was a tough square, one of many today. Two hours of earnest toil: yep, challenging. I thought from the title the theme might have something to do with "ME," as in two-word expressions where the first word ends in M and the second begins with E. Nope.
After having it about 3/4 done, I finally saw the true mcguffin. A mite simpler, but clever enough. I especially like the first one. Have known a few people who did just that. Their bodies were just too dumb to join them.
Agree about the non-agreeing clue: He for NEON. Bad form. No idea about IZMIR; that sucker was all crosses. OTOH, DION would be a modern-day WOE, but for me a gimme. Don't forget the Belmonts.
A gray-cell workout for sure; birdie.
Wordle birdie too.
NEON COLORS TRIP
NOW, CONTEXTUALLY,
IFYOULIKE TOO USE LSD,
YOU DEPARTMENTALLY.
--- ELIAS SAN IZMIR
Learned a lot about OFL from just one line in his write-up: "Could not care less about Pink Floyd and had to endure not one but two clues about them". That explains soooo much. Damn tough puz, almost the kind one TOSSES.
Disappointing wordle bogey after a GGBBB start.
@Anonymous 5:51am:
Here in northern Illinois where I'm from, the game was just called "bags". I go to many craft shows and know several makers of the bags (many still being filled with corn). When Cornhole tournaments started showing up on TV, I said to myself, surely they can't be serious!
And stop calling me Shirley!!!
Ezest pussle evre
@Nancy 11:34 am. What a delight to watch the film clip! So long since I saw this film version and really appreciated this very funny few minutes. Brilliant acting. Bar pin was easy enough to get, with my slower approach to solving ie just check for an across or two…… and hat pins were familiar to me as well from my earlier days of being a docent in a circa 1900s house museum.
Many years a puzzler, and blog reader for a few, I solve NYT puzzles a few weeks after they first appear (and we also get Sundays puzzles on Saturdays and vice versa) so often themes are out of date, or they are long gone, and any cultural references give another layer for my brain to get around - as a transplanted Australian living in central Canada for 30 plus years - but the challenge gives us all an opportunity to learn anew.
So, all along, I’d naturally parsed that Roomonster was some version of kangaroo, and now I know it’s rooster! Hi there!
"He" should be within quotation marks. It is a symbol for Helium; otherwise it's not a word.
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