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Booze it up, old-style / SUN 4-2-23 / Dance accompanied by pahu drums / Flag carrier in the Mediterranean / Cowlick concealer / Giggle alongside / Los vacation hot spot in Mexico / Embarrassing fail in modern lingo
Sunday, April 2, 2023
Constructor: Jeremy Newton and Tracy Gray
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- "THE STARRY (F/N)IGHT" (22A: Spaceship battle? / An iconic Van Gogh) / HE(FN)ER (8D: Subject of the biography "Mr. Playboy")
- "RE(O/D) BALLOON" (38A: Flying invention by a classic automaker? / An iconic Klee) / SET AT (OD)DS (12D: Pitted against one another)
- "THE (R/M)ONA LISA" (48A: Slangy reply when Bart's sister asks "What's Covid?" / An iconic Leonardo) / WA(RM) BATH (37D: Relaxing soak)
- "THE (G/B)IRTH OF VENUS" (65A: Reason Mercury gets eclipsed? / An iconic Botticelli) / L(GB)TQ FLAGS (60D: Rainbows in the sky, perhaps)
- "THE (E/S)ON OF MAN" (88A: Post-dinosaur period? / An iconic Magritte) / VIN(ES) (68D: Tree climbers, perhaps)
- "(R/N)IGHTHAWKS" (95A: Opposite of liberal doves? / An iconic Hopper) / "IT BU(RN)S!" (69D: Vampire's cry in sunlight)
- "CREATION OF ADA(Y/M)" (115A: Planning one's 24-hour itinerary? / An iconic Michelangelo, with "The") / "YA(Y, M)E!" (107D: "Aren't I somethin'?!")
Ro-Tel (stylized as Ro★Tel) is the brand name of a line of canned tomatoes and green chili. There are different varieties of Ro-Tel in varying degrees of hotness and spiciness. The brand was acquired by ConAgra Foods in 2000 from International Home Foods. Ro-Tel gets its name from its inventor, Carl Roettele, who started a family canning company in Elsa, Texas, in the 1940s. It is commonly used in making chile con queso, particularly with Velveeta, and in King Ranch chicken. (wikipedia)
• • •
I found the whole thing a grind because over and over I just had no idea what the fill was about. I've heard of Cabo San Lucas ... is that the same as "Los CABOS" (30D: Los ___, vacation hot spot in Mexico). Er, looks like Los CABOS is the municipality that *encompasses* Cabo San Lucas (!?!?!?!). Never heard of anyone going to CABOS. People go to CABO. That's the only way I've ever heard it referred to colloquially—in the singular like that. I guessed CABOS easily enough, but that was emblematic of the "really??" reaction I had over and over again while solving this. Really, AIR MALTA?? That's ... you're going with that? OK. And omg RO-TEL, what in the hell is that? I've been going into supermarkets for decades, have bought untold cans of tomatoes, and today is literally the first I'm hearing of this "brand," a brand which ... well, I'm surprised you'd want to go with a brand name that sounds like a portmanteau of "roach motel," but I don't claim to be a sales pro. "OH, I DUNNO" is an arbitrary set of words—I kinda like its colloquialness, but the addition of "OH" takes it kinda too far. I mean, "UH, I DUNNO" or "GEE, I DUNNO" or "UM, I DUNNO" or "HUH, I DUNNO" all seem equally viable and equally not great as crossword answers (actually, I think the GEE version's a bit of a winner, tbh). NO LEADS!? Just ... on its own, sitting there? That's your answer? I keep sighing and sighing. Why is LOW NECKS a "feature" and not "features," plural???? Seems bad cluing, that (86D: Feature of décolleté clothing). I liked MOB SCENES and L(GB)TQ FLAGS, the latter being the best thing in the grid by faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar (60D: Rainbows in the sky, perhaps). Oh, and "IT BU(RN)S!" that's pretty funny. But too much of the rest of the longer fill felt forced or awkward.
It's "big ask," not HUGE ASK (894A: No small favor). It's "meanie" not MEANY (106D: Playground bully). I don't really get how SIGN is [Notice] and now I'm seeing why—it's an awkward clue forced onto the word because someone thought it would be cute to have *successive* [Notice] clues (SEE 99A: Notice). I guess if you post a notice somewhere, like a flier or whatever, that's a kind of SIGN? More oof. Was the clue on RAIN supposed to be ... funny? A play on words? I had no idea what it was trying to do, and I wrote in RUIN (109D: It may lead to greener pastures). Seemed like a nice sentiment; you know, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, God shuts a door/opens a window, something along those lines. But then I had CROUTS for my Dalmatians and ... yeah, that looked wrong. And was. Had LAW before SAW (72A: "Don't judge a book by its cover," e.g.), which I guess is how you clue SAW when you realize you've already got SEE in your grid. Could've just gone with the cutting implement, but why be sensible and in-the-language when you can be olde-timey and weird? And speaking of olde-timey and weird: RIP-SNORTER. Also TOPE (33A: Booze it up, old-style). The Sunday situation continues to be inexplicably dire. Thursdays are frequently very clever and good, but getting that clever goodness to cover a 21x21 grid seems like, well, a big ask, if not a huge one. I'd like nothing more than to like Sundays, I really would. But it's ... been a while.
Speaking of puzzles I've enjoyed: in the interest of looking back and remembering / honoring the good stuff, I want to start recognizing the best puzzles of each month. I'll single out two themed and one themeless puzzle every month. And so, the Best of March 2023:
- Themed: Lynn Lempel, "HUMAN NATURE" (Mon., Mar. 6); and David Kwong, "Two's Company, Three's a Crowd" (Thu., Mar. 23)
- Themeless: Robyn Weintraub ("CAN I SEE SOME I.D?," "YOU DID WHAT?" etc.) (Sat., Mar. 25)
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132 comments:
LMTR, but not that much more. As a denizen of the Big Apple he and many other NYT readers knew about LEX Ave., but for those of us not so a privileged, a definite natick. My first guess was LoX Ave, thinking about NY delis. Then I drifted towards LaX Ave because Arin sounded like a more plausible first name for a sportscaster. But I finally settled on LEX Ave because,
what the hex
it rhymes with Rex!
... and has that good old Latin feel of once highly literate New York. Sure, I guessed right, but so what? A truly good puzzle does not require alphabetical roulette... otherwise I'd have given it a pass on the theme and the bulk of the fill. Too bad, so sad... ah well, there's always next week!
I really didn't get much of a kick out of the theme's rebusery, but I did like remembering the paintings. Probably like Rex, NIGHT HAWKS is my favorite. There have been many visual tributes to it; I ran into one in a graphic novel about 10 years ago (one panel with the novel's characters in an eerie re-arrangement). I once found a web page, which I can't find now, with many many other examples through the years.
I disagree about Los CABOS: my sister went there, and that's exactly what she called it.
One typeover of note: "Vampire's cry in sunlight" = I'M BURNT! (Amusingly, crossing I'M SHORT!)
[Spelling Bee: Sat currently pg -2; missing a 5er and a 6er. I will have another go in the morning.]
Medium-tough seems right, although the NYT app wanted the rebus entries in a specific order so I had to go back and fix the ones that were awry. Gotta keep the streak goin. Clever and mildly amusing, liked it a bit more than @Rex did.
I'd have to agree the theme doesn't really make sense. The "forgeries" happen when random down answers rebus through the artworks? Why? And the [E/S] rebus in THE SON OF MAN is actually superfluous, because VINS makes sense without the E; it can be clued as "French wines". Sloppy.
This felt like it took forever to finish, even though it never seemed excessively hard. I had a malapop with YAYME at 1 down originally, and SAD TO SAY before AFRAID SO. I looked up occurrences of ET TU on XWord Info because "playfully" in the clue seemed like a new and cheerful wrinkle. Well, not quite new— out of 170 instances, "playfully" was used in the clue exactly once before, in a 4/25/2021 puzzle by...Jeremy Newton. Guess he thinks it's playful.
Caesar: Et tu, Brute?
Brutus: Just kidding, Seez! April Fool!
Caesar: But it's March...[dies]
["Ha ha's" all around]
–H
OATES ("I'm short")
—L
—L
Thx for appending the March month's positive highlights. Please do that again! I am usually so discouraged by solving the average #NYTXW that I forget about whatever good stuff occurred recently.
Also, could we have some more cat pix?
This was a slog today—I think you mentioned most of the big eye-roll moments I had, but yikes. LOWNECKS was a particular sore spot, as the NYT is usually systematic about singular-singular / plural-plural cluing. But the themers were so clunky that instead of “a-ha!” it was more like “…eh?” (REO BALLOON may be the worst offender today, just… oof.) And I was also convinced I had something wrong in ROTEL, which I have never once heard of.
Hated it.
Not a difficult puzzle overall, but the happy music was elusive. I was ready to throw in the DNF towel* when I decided to reverse the rebus at 95A. I'd had [N/R]IGHTHAWKS, and usually you can enter a rebus in any order (sometimes only one letter will suffice), but this puzzle required the specific sequence that properly crossed IT BU[R/N]S. Picky, picky.
* In my bathroom I have towels that say HIS, HERS and DNF
I really disliked this puzzle while I was slogging through it, and hated it even more after reading @Rex’s review. Eew! One of the worst Sundays ever.
OTOH, I found yesterday’s April Fools puzzle delightful.
webwinger
Dogs Playing Poser – Obedient canines reacting when an artist says “Sit.”
Water Willies – Bathphobia
Whistler’s Mosher – Certain artist’s enthusiastic-if-embarrassing fan
FH
COVID: As lethal as the flu, which we mustn't make jokes about.
Puzzle was medium-challenging and not a lot of fun.
It's short for Lexington, but Park isn't short for anything, so poor clueing (even though the clue does abbreviate NYC and ave.). Maybe saying ave. east of Mad. (Short for Madison) would have worked better, though nobody calls it mad Avenue and everyone refers to Lexington as Lexington, so maybe not ...?
Oh, good idea, @Lewis.
Coen Brothers' movie character that is on the way down?
(THE) DUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE
This would be the case study in a crossword course on a slog. As others have said, not especially difficult per se, but my solve time was closing in on double a typical Sunday. Figuring the rebus pun/the works of art in question, and which down clue required the finicky rebus was just time consuming.
@Conrad My technical DNF was reversing the G and B in LGBTQ FLAGS. I pored over the puzzle trying to find that mistake. Because it’s an abbreviation, I think, it didn’t look wrong. Agree with Rex that was a great answer and clue.
I liked it better than Rex did. I get what he’s saying about FORGERY, but I didn’t notice it while solving. I agree most of the wackiness of the forgeries fell flat. THE GIRTH OF VENUS was definitely my favorite. It works with the “eclipsing Mercury” clue and it’s kind of fun to imagine the Goddess of Love letting herself go over time and ending up a pudgy matron.
I disagree about a lot of the fill complaints. Los CABOS is definitely a thing people say, RO-TEL is a brand I still use for the Mexican chicken recipe my high school friend’s Mom gave me, OH, I DUNNO sounds perfectly in-the-language to me, RAIN definitely leads to greener pastures, RIP-SNORTER is old-timey but fun. Etc., etc., etc. Never heard of TOPE, though.
I thought EST was wrong because iST seemed like the right ending for “maximal.” I finally saw that it was ending as in biggest, messiest, etc.
Don’t babies usually say “dada” before “MAMA” because it’s easier to form that word? I feel like new moms are often offended that their young’uns start saying dada first.
LAUGH WITH is nice on the day after April Fool’s Day. That’s my birthday (60 yesterday!) and I am so used to people trying to play b-day tricks on me. I’m used to it and ready for it, so rarely fooled. No one laughs AT me on my big day.
Finally, nice to see Charlie Parker’s HORN and WAILS close by each other.
Close to @Joe D’s take - seemed like it went on forever but no real pushback. The FORGERY play felt like an afterthought - something loosely associated with art and differences - but as the big guy clarified no connection to obvious changes like the rebus presented here.
I did know the works at least - and couth or not I thought THE RONA LISA was the wackiest. Overall fill was rough - liked RIP SNORTER and HAM RADIO - but there is a lot of garbage in this large grid.
MAMA Told Me and MAMA Tried
This wasn’t LOATHED territory - but not a great end to an already poor crossword week.
WAILS and HORN are the only apt pair in this grid
That’s a fun idea, riffing off of famous titles, and Tracy and Jeremy went the extra mile with rebuses that work one way across and another way down PLUS having the bogus letters (placed in the grid in proper order!) spell a clever reveal. Playfulness and skill rolled into one.
What I remember most about filling in the grid was feeling like a pinball caroming off the bumpers – often. Where I’d seem to be making progress, then suddenly get stuck by clues I couldn’t immediately crack, whoosh to a distant neighborhood until I’d get stuck again, then whoosh again. It all eventually worked out, but the rub was sweet.
I like that SET AT ODDS was actually set on an even-numbered slot, MAMA made me think “Whistler”, and RIPSNORTER seemed to pair well with BISON. And TENK is a DOOK.
Give me a taste of play and some resistance to overcome, and I’m a happy solver. Thank you, Tracy and Jeremy, for a lovely outing!
Agree with Rex on the puzzle, but I gotta stick up for Ro-tel tomatoes. The originals (w/chilies) are the secret for making great guacamole.
This was a little harder, took me a little longer to complete. I liked this better than Rex (and others) and thought the FORGERY theme was neat, but have to agree with comments that these are not "real" forgeries. Still, to spell out FORGERY in the changed letters was a neat trick.
Admittedly, when I was finishing up, I got hung up for a few seconds on CREATION OF ADAM/A DAY, wondering about the painting "The Creation of a Dam".... trying to imagine some pastoral scene of a beaver and some sticks.
HAMRADIO! Yay, an appearance in a NYT puzzle!! When reading the clue, I was thinking, "Nah, they would never, ever link this to ham radio..." This alone for me earns high praise.
73 es CUL,
Colin
Definitely a slog. And if you shop the Mexican food section at most grocers- you will find Rotel tomatoes.
I agree that this was a chore of a puzzle and not enjoyable. Also, it is too early to start making light of COVID. We still have people catching the disease and dieing from it. Especially the older immunocompromised people.
Had the same reaction as OFL when I saw the revealer - mine was more “WTF are they thinking, this theme is the antithesis of FORGERY”.
I don’t think USC has been a football “powerhouse” for about an entire generation now. Bama and Georgia are powerhouses, USC generally struggles to crack the top ten (I’m sure there have been exceptions and no doubt some of the current or former Trojans in the crowd will gladly point out the error of my ways).
I thought the theme felt forced and contrived. It would have played just as nicely as a themeless (or maybe make the artworks themselves the theme) - but definitely would have been better without the rebus nonsense. REO BALOON and THE EON OF MAN are just too much of an ask in the willing suspension of disbelief category (for this solver at least).
Agree with Rex about most of this, but, seriously, you've never seen Rotel? If you're not putting two cans in your chili, you should! I thought I would not find it after I left Texas and moved to New York, but happily it is in EVERY grocery store I go into.
Being an art historian, I have a bias in favor of this puzzle and also an unfair advantage. Not that any of these works is particularly obscure. Rex confirmed my assumption that RED BALLOON by Klee and THE SON OF MAN by Magritte are the least-known and therefore most challenging. Like Rex, I felt the theme had nothing to do with FORGERY. It's art parody. There are so many parodies of paintings out there that you can find the gist of some of these:
THE STARRY FIGHT. Actually, this may be closer to alien abduction.
THE RONA LISA
THE GIRTH OF VENUS
In any case, I’m always up for poking a little fun at the classics. The gimmick revealed itself almost immediately with THE STARRY (FN)IGHT because of the crossing HEFNER. Mr. Playboy simply couldn’t be anyone else. I was unsure what they might have picked as the iconic Klee and wondered about Il Senecio, but it didn’t fit. When the RE came in at the beginning, that settled it. It’s pretty impressive how the theme answers are connected to one another by downs. THE (GB)IRTH OF VENUS, for example, is connected through three downs to THE (RM)ONA LISA and another three downs to THE (ES)ON OF MAN. And all the other themers have one or two down connections to themer-neighbors. That’s some grid-constructing chops.
Not too many errors, but there was a fair amount of white space for too long at the beginning. I guess my biggest mistake was UNwind for UNREEL. No clue on canned tomatoes’ ROTEL – I, too, got the roach motel vibe. Didn’t know BIG OOF, either – thought it was going to be GOOF with a two-letter descriptor. Took me a while to fathom the term “Flag carrier” in the clue for 6D. I never knew it meant national, government-owned airline. Hah! They used one of my very favorite words, which I try to insert into conversation whenever possible: RIPSNORTER! I refuse to call it dated: like these paintings, it's another timeless classic.
@Wanderlust (7:40). Since we're into art, here's a TOPEr for you.
[SB: I haven’t posted for several days, so: Wed 0, Thu -1, Fri -1, Sat 0. @okanaganer: we missed the same word on Friday, perhaps not surprisingly.]
Funniest write-up in a while. Had me dying. Cheers, Rex.
Hey, there's another Colin (4:36 AM)! Hi, Colin!
I'm the one with the Morse code key (Nye Viking Master straight key, for those of you in the know) avatar...
Why is EST the answer for 55 across, and not iST. Is that a mistake or is maximalEST a thing?
Tough puzzle but fun to solve - even if I fell short. I admire the efforts that go into creating a complicated grid like this one. I think that Rex's rant about FORGERY is misplaced.
I quite enjoyed this. Seems to me that music is over-represented in crosswords and painting is under-represented. Nice to see some rebalancing.
Not sure what is ‘apt’ about FORGERY, in this case. Puzzle would have been better off without YEAH I AM and FORGERY in it – the two opposing corners.
I remember reading once about how TONE and ‘timbre’ are completely different things and why you should not confuse them. Like all discussion of music theory, it went right over my head. But anyway, there is a difference even though I can’t tell you what it is.
I really like the Best Puzzles of the Month idea, and I like Rex's choices for March. But since I wasn't thinking along those lines last month, there may be others that I thought were worthy. Now I'll keep the eventual "Bests" in mind as we go through the month.
And here's a start: Today's godawful slog, and its endless repetition of the most overused and watered-down word in the English language, is definitely not an April contender. I remember the days when the Sunday puzzle was fun. It was a long time ago.
When I take over the NYTX (as in "never"), I will ban "rebuses." First of all, a "rebus" is a word puzzle, involving letters, symbols, and pictures. The crossword version is GARBAGE. Here's the thing; the whole idea of a crossword puzzle is to put ONE LETTER in each square. Not two, not three, not a different solution for the across and down clues. I am begging you, Mr. Shortz, please stop using these horrible tricks. (/end rant.)
Slowed down by a stupid typo in LGBTQFLAfS. Guess that was my BI GOOF.
Disagree with the complaint about the LOWNECKS clue - in this case, “clothing” is the plural.
Worst Sunday puzzle in memory
Which is more ICONIC, American Gothic or Night Hawks? Discuss.
I guess some of you haven’t been to many Midwestern Super Bowl parties or potlucks, where a can of Ro-Tel and a pound of Velveeta in a crockpot (or on the stovetop if you’re in a hurry) make for an easy sublime dip. Add a pound of hamburger or sausage and it’s practically a meal.
The themers were fine, with THE GIRTH OF VENUS tickling me the most. I appreciated that the seemingly random letters weren’t random, though I agree FORGERY doesn’t quite land.
Rex identifies a lot of the problems I had with the fill. I resisted LOW NECKS for a long long time because the clue didn’t indicate plural (it didn’t preclude plural, but we’re used to more specificity than that).
This puzzle isn't so bad if you solve on paper. I just left the rebuses out. The whole point of a forgery is that it looks just like the original. By leaving the FORGERY letters out of the puzzle it's like they've been painted over. That's the best I could make of this.
The REDBALLOON made the least sense to me until I read at xwordinfo that REO put out a car called a Flying Cloud. I'm not saying that makes it good but at least you can see a reason for it.
ROTEL was the only thing I couldn't be 100% sure of. That was because of the E of KATIE and you can never be certain of name spellings. It was a relief to see that ROTEL is a debut. I was afraid I would find out it's been used for years and I just haven't noticed.
Our host wants to make make a monthly example of his taste in puzzles. I don't see the point as he does it daily. The worst puzzle of the month seems more fitting for him not that I would agree on that either.
At least this weekends puzzles were better than the last one.
yd -0
A garbage puzzle. No more "rebuses." "They are a cheat, and I hate them. This was not a fun way to start my Sunday morning.
Haven’t struggled this much in years.(Didn’t help I was solving at 3am bc insomniac.) Every time I finally cleaned up my wrong answers & saw the right ones, I said Are you effing kidding me? All Rex’s annoyances are mine too, though my revulsion toward the Rona answer is based more on my sense that the stupid nickname itself is contemptuous toward the horrific toll of the pandemic, rather than its use in a dumb quip here.
Gotta note that it was during pandemic sequestration that I started doing the NYT crossword every day & later discovered Rex’s smart, funny commentary. Thank you Rex for my daily solving reward, good puzzle bad.
LOATHED this.
Topped off by my spending 20 minutes revising how I put in the rebus answers - only to finally see I had ToP instead of TIP.
(Shouldn’t a modern baby’s first words be She/Her, He/Him or They/Them? Mama or Dada seems an intentional insult - send him/her/them to the reeducation/indoctrination center STAT!)
JoeD: I'd love to see the rest of that production of JC! Interesting that your malapop was the top/left to the bottom/right.
This is the first time I've just given up on a NY Times puzzle. I found it to be such a slog through clues I had no .... clue ... about.
Relatively very slow for me. The paintings were all familiar, but the puns were so lame that it made the whole solving experience a chore. This would have been better with no trickery and better cluing, maybe trying to incorporate the location of the artworks into the grid instead.
I realize we all expect Sunday to be themed, but good fill and clever cluing is far > than an inane and poorly executed theme with answers so strained as to generate nothing but a disgruntled groan.
GAH! Double my normal Sunday time, meaning I'll probably be finished next week. Tough and fun. I'm sure if you don't know the names of the paintings, and weren't willing to look them up, then I presume this puzzle ended up on Nancy's wall. Cute reveal. Three tuff days in a row.
The Klee work was the only one I didn't know, so I've gotten some art education on accident somehow. I never know the TV shows and stars in puzzles even though I watch more TV than art.
THE LGBTQ initials obscured GIRTH as I couldn't accept all those consonants in a clump.
N-Ks: MARES-NEST. TOPE. DÉCOLLETÉ.
Ug: AFROED.
Tee-Hee: ARSE
Uniclues:
1 A ripsnorter way to begin (or end) a beautiful evening.
2 Judgy neighs of lass's stable members.
3 Answer to, "Why do you watch re-runs of Harry Potter instead of going out at night?"
1 THE STARRY NIGHT TRIPLE
2 DAMSEL'S MARES' TONE (~)
3 OH I DUNNO, MOB SCENES? (~)
Thx, Jeremy & Tracy; what a blast! :)
Very hard.
Hit and miss all the way. Wasn't sure exactly how to fill in the rebuses, but it worked out in the end. :)
Very enjoyable adventure! :)
___
Not doing so well on Anna Stiga's Sat. Stumper. Over 3 hrs in, and struggling mightily in the extended NW area. Will continue the battle today. 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Within seconds of starting, I knew that I would hate this puzzle. 1A is a “retort” clue, the laziest, most unimaginative, most ambiguous thing you can put into a puzzle. So lazy in this case that they omitted the usual “playground” from the clue. Barf me a river.
Clever, challenging and different. I loved it!
I didn't quite pick up the trick at THE STARRY F/NIGHT because I thought the spaceship battle would be the name of a real thing -- just a name that I, who never watch spaceship films, had never heard of.
But the next one, THE R/MONA LISA, made it clear that the non-painting half of it would be entirely made up.
Oh, did I laugh over THE GIRTH OF VENUS!
This was fun, fun, fun -- but the devious non-themer cluing also made it hard, hard, hard. I don't think of a TIP as a "word of advice"; I think of it as many words of advice. I had no idea what a wristwatch wraps around -- other than a wrist. I never thought to SPONGE DOWN my car (I don't have a car); I only thought to SCRUB it down. And my zoo was originally a MadSCENE before it was a MOBSCENE.
And so, MILLIE Bobby Brown, I was forced to cheat on you, dear girl. I decided that I was every bit as smart and every bit as deserving of a "Solve!" as all the people who have actually heard of you. And without you, MILLIE -- what with TIP and SPONGE DOWN and ULNA and IT BUR/NS -- there was not going to be a "Solve!" And now there is! Yes, a "Solve!" That's what I'm calling it. Wanna make something of it, anyone? :)
A really entertaining and imaginative puzzle. Many thanks, Jeremy and Tracy.
Is clothing plural enough to make it low necks? I
stumbled on that one, too, but then, meh.
Amy: I vote for you @Epicurus!
When Rex employs the "wacky" adjective, you know it's not because he's gleefully chortleing over an amusing puzzle.
Meh.
Koppy Kat in "Slylock Fox" regularly produces forgeries like this, with an out of place detail to betray it. This puzzle made me think of that.
OHIDUNNO, I slogged my way through this HUGEASK of a puzzle. Did it land as a BIGOOF for me? AFRAIDSO.
Hey All !
I liked it! So there.
RIPSNORTER to me is fun! I used to say it quite a bit, but it has slowly left my lexicon. Maybe I'll bring it back. (To myself, not "bring it back".)
Seems Rex had built up vitriol from two days, so he unleashed it all on this puz. It wasn't all that. It was a nice Theme for a SunPuz.
Took me a bit to see what in tarhooties was going on, but finally figured it out at THE(R/M)ONALISA, which, sure, Coronavirus isn't the best thing to spoof on, but that answer was clever. Puzs spoof on/include iffy, evil things all the time. Everything gets spoofed eventually. I'm AFRAID SO.
Again, got no Happy Music after completing puz, let out my "Argh! Really?!" and since having spent 55 minutes on puz (yikes! SW area held me up a while), I just hit Check Puzzle. It crossed out a U! Sorry @M&A. I had SuNK/NuTURES. Son of a son of a.
Got a British ARSE and a big MOR-ASS today. 😁 Got another (H)AM RADIO. Nice to see TSETSE back, it's been a while. (Would NOT want to see one in real life!) LEO I clued funnily. Will the next Pope take up the line? LEO XIV. C'mon, we need more crossword fodder!
Iffies (gotta complain about something, I guess) YEAH I AM (who says YEAH? It's YES, no? 😜) AFROED - I suppose if you have an Afro, you are AFROED. BIG OOF. TEN K looks funny/Dook-y together. "I'll be running a TENK today."
OK, enough YAKking outta me.
Seven F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Down here (NC), I find it in the tomato aisle. I use it in jambalaya but lots of folks use it in queso or chili. I’m surprised Rex finds it so obscure.
Agree with OFL, another witless Sunday slog with a lot of tortured “wackiness.”
Minor disagrees: Red Balloon is pretty famous, especially in the modern art canon; and Los Cabos is what the once-idyllic resort is called today
I entered star warry NIGHT for 22A “space ship battle?/ an iconic van Gogh” thinking the theme was going to be a mash up of classic movies and classic paintings.
Needless to say I was disappointed by what the puzzle actually was compared to what I thought it would be.
I can't believe you people haven't heard of Rotel tomatoes. I buy them practically every time I go to the grocery (also known here as, "HEB") in Texas. Can't make decent queso without 'em!
Can anyone explain why the rebus squares only work in the Down answers? Rex tried, I guess, but it still doesn't make any sense. Since when has USC been a West Coast football "powerhouse?" BIGOOF there, since the Trojans haven't been relevant since the early 2000s 😂
Great idea to do a best of the month. This daily solver and Rex reader will enjoy the memories, since I forget each solve and write-up one day to the next (not that they’re not memorable - such is life).
Hurray for LGBTQFLAGS
Noway for RIPSNORTERS
Hurray for HAMRADIO
Noway for USERFEE
AHH...A puzzle with ART TSE TSE RY. I have been eschewing Sundays because of ennui and despair. Today, it had chewing chops and I was amused.
You could say that I've spent a big chunk of my life staring at empty canvases...I would pick up a pen or some charcoal or a Windsor & Newton hog hair paint brush and let my imagination fly into oblivion. Kinda like a RED BALLOON in Klee's fantasy world.
I had trouble here and there. My imagination go the better of me at several junctions. I got stuck in MORASS city with things like HUGE ASK and AIR MALTA and AFROED and MILLIE, to name a few. Still, I was intrigued about where this might take me and if it would yield a smile. It did.
You really don't need to be artistically inclined to get the "artistic" in this one. All the painting are pretty well known. I thought it clever how Jeremy and Tracy came up with spoofs - both down and across. Had to have been as difficult as getting wet paint to shine.
I'm glad I did this one. I'm inspired to go and sharpen up some charcoal and draw a hand holding an apple.
Agreed.
The Sundays just get worse. And worse. And worse.
Enjoyed it. Usually lose interest half way through a Sunday puzzle but this one kept me going. Don’t know many painting names but likely to remember these now. Rex - head to the store, buy a can of Rotel, some cream cheese and sharp cheddar and dream of downs-only tomorrow.
What an eye-opener, @Barbara's 8:31 comment is! So there actually are real paintings that are parodies of the paintings mentioned in this puzzle and they all have the same fake titles as the fake titles in this puzzle! It can't be a coincidence, can it? Jeremy and Tracy must have been familiar with them, right? Not that there's anything morally wrong in appropriating them for a different purpose -- but I might not have been quite so quick to praise the "originality" of the theme idea, had I known.
I would have been one of the several people questioning the peculiar cluing of ET TU in the puzzle, only I forgot to. It struck me as weird while I was solving it. I was going to say that I doubt that the dying Caesar was being especially "playful" in his statement to Brutus, but Joe D not only beat me to the punch, but did the research showing that Jeremy seemingly has a unique take on ET TU. I wonder why?
Surprised there is confusion over Los Cabos. There are two towns down there: two capes (and two saints)-- Cabo San Lucas and San Juan del Cabo--collectively referred to as "Los Cabos", i.e. The Capes. The former is party central, the latter more artistic. Jeez.. look at a map!
I stopped at the Covid clue.
I’m standing over in the line with @Nancy and @Roo today! I liked having a little more crunch in my Sunday puzzle and I also like rebus puzzles. Today I figured out the twist early due to HEFNER. I ALWAYS seem to forget that Hopper’s iconic painting is called NIGHTHAWKS but the WKS finally made me remember. Klee’s painting was the only one I was unfamiliar with. For some reason, when I think of Klee I think of Senecio (hey I didn’t know the name until I looked it up). While nosing around I found that Ad Parnassum is considered his most famous but good luck on making THAT fit in a crossword.
@Nancy, your solve experience was very much like mine EXCEPT I knew MILLIE Bobby Brown since I watched Stranger Things first two seasons.
Ro-tel is sold in both the Mexican food section AND general canned tomato section of my grocery. Hah! I never thought of Roach Motel before today, but now that it’s been pointed out I’ll never “unsee” it!
Anon 7:26: "Everyone refers to Lexington as Lexington."
Well, no, actually. I grew up a block from Lex and I now live between Lex and Third. If I were telling another New Yorker where my apt is, I would say "between Lex and Third." When I give a delivery order, I tell them "between Lex and Third." I would make an exception, though, for poor out-of-the-loop out-of-towner you, Anon 7:26, and say "Lexington". But only for you. I do sympathize, however, with your finding LEX a Natick: When I first saw the clue I thought that it might be unfair to anyone who's not a New Yorker.
Agreed, not even fun
I recall the first time I saw Nighthawks. It was in the Chicago Art Institute of course. Maybe 40 years ago. It caught my eye and I stared at it intently for 3-4 minutes. And then I came out of the spell and stood back a smidge. In the spot next to it on the wall was American Gothic. I didn’t see one of the other most famous of American pieces even 3 feet away from me since the Hopper so captured my attention. (A print of the diner sits in my living room to this day.)
This was awful. Boring, not funny, strangely inexplicable in parts. It definitely killed my Sunday moment of crossword bliss.
Couldn’t agree more; meany, Cabos, etc. all felt like the creators (of the puzzle, not Adam) were trying to jam a round peg into a square hole. The silver lining to a sloppy Sunday puzzle is your blog!
@Nancy (11:46)
I wouldn't conclude that the constructors necessarily knew about the images I linked to. Sure, the internet is rife with parodies of art masterpieces. But all you need is a little wordplay and you get to RONA LISA and THE GIRTH OF VENUS pretty easily, without knowing that particular artists have also played with these letter-substitutions and painted works based on them.
I usually agree with @Lewis, but not today. Granted it must have been difficult to construct, and most of the art was at least
recognizable. But the while thing was a slog, at least for me. Just not much joy.
It took me some time to fully understand the gimmick because HEFNER was unknown, but I had a great aha moment. Didn't know NIGHTHAWKS or RED BALLOON, but the word BALLOON appeared easily with some crosses and the "doves" in the clue made at least the HAWKS part apparent.
That ULNA clue... not really? There are other bones in the wrist, you know.
I like the "puzzles of the month" idea, my picks would be:
Themed - Lynn Lempel's HUMAN NATURE Monday
Themed - Rebecca Goldstein's TUMBLEWEED Thursday
Themeless - Robyn Weintraub's Saturday, hands down.
Honorable mentions - Adam Wagner and Brooke Husic's "double clues" Thursday, and Tom Pepper's Saturday (with those nifty intersecting stacks).
Sunday puzzles have been so bad for so long I’m going stop the Sunday edition. Nothing much there I haven’t read during the week.
+1 for ROTEL & Velveeta, Superbowl tradition. The Velveeta's harder to find than the Rotel because it's not refrigerated.
@Robin 3:03 AM
+1 for more cat photos! Especially Ida.
As for posting previous puzzles, I'm not really sure what the point is. The only puzzle we care about is the next one. If we're being honest, we'll be doing the NYTXW no matter how terrible they are everyday until we're dead because where would we set our righteous indignation if it is not on poorly constructed themes?
I’m having a hard time using the online version. I did not use a rebus and it gave the song that the puzzle was completed correctly. how does that work? For example it accepted HENER AS an acceptable 8 down. Sometimes crosswords are explicit like Thursday rebus puzzles, other times implicit. Somebody enlighten me.
Ugh ugh ugh the fill was so obtuse!!!
@kitshef 8:56 AM
You are correct. Tone is not timbre. If you play the same notes on a piano, guitar, tuba, and glockenspiel, that's timbre. If you play the notes on one of those instruments in different ways like soft, loud, long, short, that's tone. Close enough for a puzzle, but not true in a musical sense.
A proud DNF here. I lost interest. Too quirky. Got LEX though. Rex, I like your naming the month best. Thanks.
@Barbara S linked to "parodies"; last night when I was searching for the page with collection of NIGHTHAWKS I didn't think to search using that word. Here is the list and I'm sure the one I ran into years ago was #2, from The Watchmen.
A dorm staple in the 60s!
Oh. DUH! i am sooo stoopid.
ET TU is "How could you?!", playfully, because it's from "Julius Caesar", which is...a PLAY! Thank you, @burtonkd – your 9:20 comment made it suddenly hit me in the face. Now it's my favorite clue/answer. Apologies to Jeremy Newton for not getting it earlier.
Sorta interestin, as M&A knew most of the paintins. Took three "Art History" courses, in college days, which no doubt helped. Sooo … the themers actually helped with the solvequest.
Themers got slightly desperate, when the last one had to assume the "THE" part, while the others didn't.
staff weeject pick, of a generous 34 choices: REQ. Got M&A's hopes up, for a pangram. Lotsa room to fit all them other letters in, with a SunPuz. But, alas … nope.
faves: RIPSNORTER. OHIDUNNO. Single BISON version. MOBSCENES. HTTP ?-marker clue [Luv them ?-marker clues].
Sooo … what we need sometime is a xword that has all the letters, and every clue has a ?-mark. Wouldn't that be extra weird-cool? Sounds like a job for RuntPuz… *
Thanx for gangin up on us, Newton and Gray folks. Artsy work.
Masked & Anonymo10Us
* pangram, all ?-markers:
**gruntz**
There's already a shortened term for the Coronavirus disease. It's COVID (all caps, unlike in the clue for 48 Across). Why would anyone use the fairly common woman's name RONA for a disease that, per the World Health Organization, has killed nearly seven million people worldwide? I don't think even Bart Simpson would be that flippant.
Another TSETSE FLY on steroids in the ointment for me was the gratuitous use of THE in several theme entries but not in others. If it's THE STARRY NIGHT or MONA LISA, why not THE RED BALLOON or NIGHT HAWKS? Looks like it's there as a letter count boosting, grid filling article of convenience when it's convenient and not when it's not.
I'm in agreement with comments that this letter swap Across, double letter Down gimmick might have worked in a weekday 15X15 but gets stretched way too thin for a seven-themer Sunday 21X21. Can't say that I LOATHED it but neither was I able to LAUGH WITH it.
Answers below:
Times of impending decisive change/ An iconic Van Gogh.
Where you take your soiled clothes/. An iconic Millet
Desirable quality particularly associated with one maker of computer tapes / an iconic Dai
A constructor hasn’t gotten something wrong if it works. Every last one of us got FORGERY and understood why it works. It is inane nitpicking to insist that it’s terrible. It isn’t. Grow up. If a clue said “Capital of Oregon,” and the answer was TALLAHASSEE, that would be unequivocally wrong unless the puzzle context somehow justified it. Then you would be forgiven for the usual “this is why I don’t do the NYTXW anymore” comments and the “fire Will Shortz”comments that many of you make every day. But if you don’t want to make the metafactual leaps that sophisticated crosswords demand, there are plenty of straightforward quiz sites on the web.
As you may guess, I liked this puzzle. Thanks, Jeremy Newton and Tracy Gray.
Crises/Irises
Cleaners/Gleaners
The Persistence of Memorex/ The persistence of Memory.
Yet another mediocre Sunday NYT puzzle. I used to look forward to solving on Sundays. Lately the offerings have been quite unsatisfactory.
I had a lot of fun with this one, with its double-the-pleasure combination of a rebus and a tour through art history. Well, maybe TRIPLE-the-pleasure, because I found it on the challenging side, too, always a plus on a Sunday.
@Wanderlust 7:40 - I agree with you about the G/BIRTH OF VENUS on all counts. It reminded me of her portrayal in the Villa Farnesina in Rome, where she directs her son to his next assignment. At the time I gave a smile and a TIP of a hat to Raphael, thinking, "Now, that's a woman who has given birth." Not quite a portly matron yet, but no longer Botticelli's vision, either.
Ro-Tel tomatoes are sold everywhere (except Rex-land I guess).
I’ve never heard the term MARES-nest and not planning to add it to my lexicon after this puzzle
After all that work, I was hoping for a super clever reveal. Didn’t get one. 😢
This was quite a feat of construction; an”constructors’ puzzle” I call it. I am very impressed with the idea and our constructors’ abilities but the theme did not give me the cherry on top of the Sunday sundae. @Rex os 100% correct today when he comments that FORGERY is designed to be undetectable and these are not that.
This was more difficult than Sundays have been for a while. I have no objection to more grit. I like that. But today’s grit gave me resistance without the extra excitement of sussing out cleverness or just remembering or figuring out tough ones. I finished and just felt glad to be done.
I didn't mind it too much. I like a rebus and liked that the necessary letter order of the downs matched the order of the / answers clued in the acrosses. I got what they were doing pretty early on but still found it hard-ish. "REOBALLOON" was a big stretch but otherwise I found most of them somewhat clever and fun. Unlike Rex, I actually chuckled at "THERONALISA" once I figured it out. I'm not sure but I think the toughness was tricky cluing on the fill, maybe a few partially questionable answers (I like that phrase!). "SPONGEDOWN" a car?? - never would have guessed that. Playground bully, I'm pretty sure that is "meanie," not "MEANY, only one of those I know is John Irving's Owen... Is "HISSING" speaking? No. "AIRMALTA" - ok I guess. The hated "EMEND" vs "AMEND" conundrum. Oh geez, the old Popes - is is Pius or Leo#, I never know - worse than a kealoa. No one...no one says "DOGGO." I've seen it before but it's BS. Dog, doggy, pup, puppers, sure I'll buy those; had "DOGGY" which threw off 101A, etc, etc. Took me longer to finish than I usually like to spend.
And the reveal was a big "whatever..." Didn't even bother to try to figure out if it made any sense or not.
Los Cabos is new. Having been traveling there for 30 yrs, it was always referred to as Cabo.
So, as someone who has bought *a lot* of canned tomatoes in my lifetime, I decided to do some Ro-Tel reconnaissance this afternoon, seeing as I would be stopping at two groceries on the way home, and I had never seen nor heard of the brand before.
There were no Ro-Tel items in the canned tomatoes section— i.e. whole peeled tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, pureed tomatoes, etc. —in either store. Not a surprise. I looked around a bit more and discovered the item that Rex posted in the section with salsa preparations, chili and Tex-Mex related products in both stores.
The product is (as you can see) actually a mixture of diced tomatoes and green chilies, and as per Ro-Tel's website every product it sells is some kind of tomato/pepper mix, with the exception of one product that is diced tomatoes with lime and cilantro.
So I must rule that calling Ro-Tel a "canned tomato brand", as the clue does, is false advertising, because Ro-Tel's claim to fame, and, indeed, its entire business, appears to rest specifically on its tomato-and-pepper mixture. And there are many, many, many brands out there that sell canned tomatoes as a stand-alone product.
I'm joining @Joe D. (2:16 p.m.) in the abashed D'OH! Dept. Because it turns out that "playfully", re ET TU, is a Tom Swifty!!! And a very cute one at that. Which makes the clue for 51D not only not a bad clue, but a very good clue. Apologies, Jeremy and Tracy.
Which leads me to @egs's persuasive 2:55 p.m. argument that we shouldn't look for complete literalism in crosswords. I couldn't agree more. A slavish adherence to literalism may give you a publishable puzzle and perhaps even a highly respectable puzzle -- but it will never give you a great puzzle.
I love your riffs on today's theme, @egs -- especially the Dali. I whiffed: Couldn't come up with either the Dali or the Van Gogh. Had CLEANERS but came up with cLEAvERS for the Millet. (My ignorance of the art world is, alas, encyclopedic.)
And @egs: You may be yet again another Rexite who should be creating your own puzzles. Think about it.
A wristwatch does NOT wrap around an ulna. The ulna is one of two bones in the forearm so unless the wearer is missing their radius, or the watch goes through the skin/fascia/muscles etc, it wraps around both. Ugh
@Nancy. I appreciate the thoughts. I realized only just now that the Dali one isn’t right, so no wonder you missed it! There are too many letters in the wacky part of the answer.
I’ve submitted a few to the Times, and enjoyed making them. No success to date. Like you, my interest is in themes and clues,not grids. Perhaps I’ll look for a collaborator.
Just popping in to say that ROTEL tomatoes (the spicy ones, not the ones in @Rex's picture) have been a feature of my cooking for many decades. Chili, lentil stew, split pea & potato stew, etc. At one point our store stopped carrying them and I was distraught (those were the days, boy, when you could get distraught over something like that) but they eventually reappeared and all has been well on that front since.
The puzzle was kinda meh, she said, giving a mehty shrug. I got the two letter thing and duly filled in the squares. But no @Lewis whooshing.
Oh, well.
Beyond stupid. Please give us real crossword puzzles again. This is the bottom of the barrel.
NYers also call it Lex.
The reviewer here continues being sanctimonious. We can't joke about covid? I've enjoyed jokes about it since at least April 2020. Ease up.
@egs -- A collaborator is definitely the way to go -- especially if you've previously submitted puzzles that have been turned down. An experienced collaborator will not only give you a better grid than you can ever dream of making yourself, but will also provide you with invaluable feedback when something you've done either isn't working at all or isn't as strong as the other themers and can be strengthened.
Go to xword.info, look at the various constructors' puzzles and their various collaborations to get an idea who you might want to work with.
I agree @Joe DiPinto about Rotel. I use it when I make chili.
I disagree about the cluing. The clue had 2 abbreviations in it. That is a guarantee the answer would be an abbreviation at least at the Times (not to mention 3 letters!).. Also Madison is not the next one East of Lexington so some people would complain about that. As to whether it is obscure or not it is a New York Times puzzle after all . Also it is a well known Avenue there.
Agree with you & Rex that forgery makes no sense. But don't understand about vines/vins complaint. Just because you don't need the gimmick to fit a word there doesn't mean you can't use the gimmick. Made sense to me. And for those who hate foreign words in the puzzle,their heads exploded over PUERTO already.
Interesting how are knowledge base varies. 2 people above complained about LEX and I thought it was a no-brainer.
I had no clue about ROTEL and got it afterevery cross. Never saw it before, seriously. Maybe it's a regional thing? On the other hand I know a lot of canned tomato brands with Italian names but I am from the Northeast!
Honestly I didn't have a clue about ROTELeither. Wasn't around years ago and I never cook Mexican or Yex-Mex so how would I know?
First DNF in over a decade. Hated every moment wasted on this, impossible cluing, incomprehensible theme. Do better, NYT.
Here's my take on constructing a themed crossword puzzle and getting it published. The theme is everything. The grid construction, the non-theme fill and the cluing can be flawless, superb even, and if the theme does not receive editorial approval, the submission will be rejected. On the other hand, if the theme does meet with editorial approval, then any grid issues will get a "do over and resubmit" from the editors. If there are still issues after re-submission, the editors will often suggest one or two experienced constructors to become co-constructors. They will usually be listed as the second of the two constructors in the byline. Did I mention that the theme is everything?
@egs 2:55, I was a bit taken aback by your saying "Every last one of us got FORGERY and understand why it works". Did you conduct a poll or something? I didn't see anything that looked like FORGERY in the letter swaps. How, for example, would THE STARRY FIGHT be a FORGERY of THE STARRY NIGHT? I thought OFL's critique of FORGERY had much merit.
EXACTly!!
I say doggo all the time as do my peers, thank you very much.
Los Cabos refers to the two "Cabos" situated next to each other on the southern end of Baja California: San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas
EST in the superlative sense. LargEST, smallEST, etc.
86D: Singular clue. Plural answer. Really?
For all you puzzlers complaining that the Revealer didn't really match the theme:
How do you tell if a painting is a forgery?
You have to examine it Very Closely, looking for the slightest alteration or mis-stroke.
Which is what you had to do to identify the punny answer.
Cracking this crossword took me 3 days, and a lot of trial and error, with numerous write-overs (I use a pen).
But I liked it...and whenever I appreciate a clever theme or design, I'm willing to overlook any Clunkiness in the fill.
A big oof. Puzzles like this make me want to go
A big oof for me. Puzzles as difficult as this want me go back to Best of the Week Monday Crosswords by Will Shortz. What does tenk mean. (77d)?
Julia
I wasn't sure precisely why I groaned when I started reading the clues to the theme answers, but I knew immediately that it would be justified.
About 20% into the puzzle (when I got the rona/mona connection), for only the second time in 2023 I tapped out and hit "Reveal Puzzle" because it was clear I would receive no joy in exchange for further time and effort.
Absolutely awful. Probably the worst Sunday puzzle YTD.
I didn’t realize Rotel was such a regional brand. In Texas just about everyone knows that to make your queso at home you need a block of Velveeta and a can of Rotel tomatoes with green chilis!
This is the hardest puzzle I have ever completed--and that includes Fridays and Saturdays. Three solid hours of flat-out toil. SO: no "medium" to it whatsoever. It is strictly challenging.
Even after conceding that--despite being a Sunday and not a Thursday--we're dealing with a rebus, it was still no picnic finding where the double-up occurs in each themer. How difficult was it to locate the one in 65-across, for example? It wants to go in 60-down, but that generates a LGB start. Took a while to see THAT one come to light.
Most of the clues were either murky, or misdirected--or just plain "that-could-be-anything." They did their level best to toughen it up. In my first read-through, I had to go all the way down to the extreme SE to find my first gimme: AMY. And that was no help: MEANY is desperation-speak for MEANIE, the actual word. It went on and on like that. If I scored on triumph points alone it would be an ace, but all I felt at the end was tired. You guys tried too hard. Par.
Wordle par.
Ditto on Cabo. But I'm glad Rex acknowledged that covid is over. Now just need to convince Sleepy.
DAMSEL'S SEE-SAW ARDOR
SO LAUGHWITH THESONOF A gun, A MEAN cuss,
who SET ODDS ON A RIPSNORTER task,
YEAH,IAM AFRAID OF THEGIRTHOFVENUS,
SHE is an EXTRA, UNREEL HUGEASK,
DRAT, I RISK THE ONEONONE between us,
IT'SABET ON more and MORASS.
--- ADAM HEFNER
phhhllllggggghhhh!!
And that's not just because of the rebus features.
Did
not
like
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for crosswords
It did take a while to figure out where the double letters went. As to OFL, there are flaws in a FORGERY, that's hw they are found out, like the puzzle. There lotsa DAMSELS - ANI, MILLIE, KATIE, MONA, LISA, and AMY in the puz, and YEAH baby ERIN Andrews.
Wordle bogey, just couldn't see the start of it.
Agree.
Love it
Annoying confusing puzzle. Period.
Julia (Anonymous) 12:04 pm:
TENK is "TEN K" -- a 10-kilometer race. A half marathon would be about 13 miles, or about 21 kilometers, so a 10-K would be a good warmup for a 21-K race.
The good thing about a Sunday puzzle is that you have so many places to work from. I had no idea who some of these people were - Millie Bobby Brown ?? for example, or what some of these works were - Night Hawks ?? And there were many other answers I had no idea about. But with so much grid to work with I ground it out and finished. Rex is a tad sensitive concerning the breaking of his own crossword rules. It maybe wasn't the most polished grid, but very inventive given some poetic license.
It took me hours but gave me some aha moments here in syndicate land.
In East TN we use Ro-tel and Velveeta and like a pound of ground beef or sausage. It’s a great chip and dip. Give it a try!
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