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Like thin clouds / TUES 4-25-23 / Half of a 1960s folk quartet / Aardvark's prey / Eat like Pac-Man
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
Hello! It’s Clare, back for the last Tuesday in April. Hope everyone has had a lovely (and warm) April. The weather here in DC has been pretty great, and it’s meant getting to ride my bike in shorts and a tank top rather than with three layers and a rain jacket and ear warmers and gloves. Except I’m now getting a tan line from my backpack from when I bike. Oops! I’ve also been enjoying watching my Warriors, who tied the series with the Kings on Sunday, and Liverpool is kinda sorta maybe making a push for a top-four finish, which would qualify them for the Champions League. With Liverpool out of the running to win the English Premier League, I’ll be rooting for my sister’s team, Arsenal, to crush Man City when they play on Wednesday in one of the biggest games of the season!
Anywho, on to the puzzle…
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: Two words, cued literally, that can be pronounced as one word ending in -ies, at which point the pronunciation switches from ‘-ize’ to ‘ease.’
Theme answers:
- QUARTER LIES // QUARTERLIES (17A: "It's worth only 20 cents," "It has Abe Lincoln on it" and others?)
- PAN TRIES // PANTRIES (26A: Flute-playing Greek god makes an effort?)
- CAD DIES // CADDIES (40A: Terse summary of Alec d'Urberville's fate? (spoiler alert!))
- PREP PIES // PREPPIES (53A: Peel the apples, roll out the dough, turn the oven on, etc.?)
- SPECIAL TIES // SPECIALTIES (65A: Neckwear reserved for fancy occasions?)
Primula elatior, the oxlip is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to nutrient-poor and calcium-rich damp woods and meadows throughout Europe, with northern borders in Denmark and southern parts of Sweden, eastwards to the Altai Mountains and on the Kola Peninsula in Russia, and westwards in the British Isles. (Wiki)
• • •
This is a theme that made a lot more sense in hindsight and that I somehow enjoyed more after finishing it. I can’t even tell you how long it took me to figure out how to describe the theme for this write-up. But looking back, having the two words made into one was executed well. And while it’s not exactly the most inventive of themes, it made for a solid Tuesday puzzle. While solving, though, I was confused by the theme and didn’t put two and two together (or in this case, one and one). It didn’t help that I think the worst clue for the theme answers was the first one, at 17A, with QUARTER LIES, which kind of put me off from the start of the puzzle. The idea of a quarter being worth 20 cents or Abe Lincoln being the face on it didn't make me think of lies; those notions are so wacky I wasn't quite sure what they were supposed to be. If we’d started with SPECIAL TIES (65A), I think I would’ve enjoyed the solve a lot more. It also didn’t help that I’ve never seen “preppy” used as a noun, so I couldn’t wrap my head around PREPPIES (53A). I tried “prep work” at first, even though that didn’t make a ton of sense.
This was a quite clean puzzle, without a ton of crosswordese, which I appreciated. I also liked a lot of the words the constructor chose to incorporate into the puzzle. My favorite for whatever reason was CHOMP (32D: Eat like Pac-Man). That’s such a random and fun word to say, and you can totally picture Pac-Man moving around the game just chomping up those little pellets and the ghosts. Some of my other favorite words were SOAPY (28D), WISPY (47A), HEIST (57D), and PATSY (73A). I liked the clue and answer for 42D: Word with song or dive — so, SWAN song or SWAN dive. ONE HOP (56A: Like some grounders in baseball) was also fun. And there was some nice symmetry in the puzzle with NOKIA (6A) being on top of EXECS (15A) and TAMPA (1A) directly above OCEAN (14A).
The long downs were nice, with MOUSE TRAP (12D), REPORTERS (33D), and ENTREATED (34D). I didn’t really like CAMPINESS (11D), mostly because I think the adjective is used way more than the noun. Something can be “campy,” for sure. Talking about CAMPINESS? Not so much.
Now for some dislikes… I find most repeated clues in puzzles to be annoying. They can work if the clue is clever and the answers are next to or near each other. But in this puzzle, the clue was a rather odd “mined find,” and one answer was in the middle of the puzzle while the other was in the SW. That just felt weird. I didn’t like IS ON TO (31A: Sees through). While it may be crosswordese, I’ve never used (or seen) the plural of serum as SERA (38A: Some skin-care products) in the real world — and I use five-plus serums (or, I guess, SERA) on my face nightly.
There were some places for some potential confusion, especially because there seemed to be a few more proper nouns in this puzzle than usual. OXLIP (7D: Yellow primrose) is a quite uncommon type of flower (even my gardening aficionado mother had never heard of it). I hope everyone knows KEIRA Knightly (8D), especially from her turn in the amazing 2005 version of “Pride and Prejudice,” although the spelling with the “e” before the “i” might’ve tripped some up. I’ve seen Parker POSEY (59D) in a couple things, but I didn’t recognize her name right off the bat.
Misc.:
Signed, Clare Carroll, more a fan of hard cider than of beer in the heavens (or BREW SKIES // BREWSKIES)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Misc.:
- In my humble opinion, a window seat is much better than an AISLE (70A: Preferred seat assignment, to many) on a plane! It’s especially helpful on a long flight when you want to lean up against the window to sleep.
- I’ve done many a LAP (67D) around a track. I used to do a lot of 5K races, which is 12.5 laps; a 10K is 25 laps. Once in high school, we did some fundraising thing where we did our long run for the week around the track. I ran something like 12 miles that day, which was a scary (and boring) 48 laps.
- I’ve been to the Louvre and was lucky enough to see Nike of Samothrace (aka Winged Victory). I used to only ever wear NIKE (27D) shoes when running, but I recently switched over to HOKAs, which offer a lot of lovely support.
- On Wednesday, my sister and I are going to see a BTS member in concert in NYC! It’s the opening day of his tour, and as you might imagine, we’re rather excited. His name is Suga (aka Agust D aka Yoongi), and what kind of fan would I be if I didn’t share his newest song, which is amazing:)
And that's it from me! Have a great May.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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66 comments:
Lovely write-up even if I can't agree with some parts of it, most prominently with the description of the theme. I'm pretty sure it's vise versa: long word clued as two short ones wich results in a wacky phrase. The pronunciation change stays of course :)
Hi Clare! I guess I'm a lot more tired of this kind of theme than you. I didn't notice the "ize" --> "ease" consistency, so it just seemed like another re-parsing-the-break-between-words thing, which we have seen a lot of.
The video was a bit off putting. I'm really tired of the resurgence of smoking as a "cool" thing. Plus guns and stuff. But maybe I'm missing some irony? Wish I spoke Korean. The song without the video is quite solid, even though I don't really swoon for rap (too old I guess).
Totally agree with the dislike of repeated clues. And for flowers: OX---, I just wanted OX EYE daisies. Doesn't make me think "primrose", though.
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0; last word this familiar 7er. QB streak up to 6!]
Medium. NE was the toughest section for me partly because I blanked of the ruler clue and CAMPINESS did not leap quickly to mind.
Me too OXeye before OXLIP
OK Tuesday, liked it.
The Mamas & the Papas were NEVER a folk quartet. Folk rock-ish, at times maybe. But, NEVER folk.
Thanks as always for your considered and thorough write-ups, Clare. Be sure to wear sunscreen when riding that bike ‘cause, well, sundries.
I never tire of being shown a new way to consider any word. I saw the trick right off the bat and was happy to settle in to tease out the others. In the margin I jotted down tries, pies, dies, shies, plies, pries, cries, fries. . . and marked’em off as they fell. Loved. This.
Yeah – the part that makes this so startling is precisely the sound change. So something like BUTTERFLIES (winged stick of Land O Lakes) wouldn’t be nearly as fun.
I misread the clue for TOQUE as “headwear for a chief.” My daughter uses my Prime account and then pays me via Venmo for her various purchases. I realized that I could kinda stay abreast of what’s what with her by taking note of the stuff she puts in the cart. Dog enrichment toys, bathroom organizer, face SERA. . . So then it occurred to me that she could likewise keep tabs on me. I immediately added some items to the cart that would get her attention: an expensive male nude bronze statue, a Squatty Potty, bed bug spray, head lice kit, and an elaborate Native American headdress. It didn’t take her long to call. Mom? Um. Well. That headdress? You can’t wear that. It would be beyond racist.
Just fyi, I eat my lunch like Pac Man, and I just can’t help it. I’m a friggin’ machine.
I tell ya, man, whoever was charged with naming our flowers must have been high. So many of them sound like either Shakespearean insults (I know, I know – I’ve said this before) or OR. . . physical ailments.
I have a doctor’s appointment.
Oh yeah? What’s going on?
Pesky case of either corncockle or humped bladderwort; I’m not sure. Just praying it’s not cheeseweed or pussytoes.
As an ARMY who solved this puzzle while watching Jungkook making noodles, I appreciate your review!
Like so many, I had OXeye before OXLIP at 7D, but that was my only non-typo overwrite. Lots of typo overwrites, though: the fingers are not in a cooperative mood this morning.
Thanks for the enjoyable and balanced review, Clare! I must say, though, before I remembered it was Clare day, this puzzle bugged me so much that I was looking forward to hopefully reading Rex’s forceful lamentations on this one and then piling on.
Easy for a Tuesday imo, but I was disappointed by that. I think I’d rather someone either swing for the fences with cleverness or silliness or both, or just have a nice, solid, clean theme that works. This attempted to be both silly and clever and fell short on both - three of the five the answers had me grumbling “uh, ok, I guess” - they were neither wacky nor tricky enough to warrant the conceit. SPECIALTIES and PANTRIES were the only two that worked for me, because they weren’t totally tying themselves in knots to make it work.
And yes, fill-wise, it’s a weird mix of some nice enough words with solid cluing, and then some where the answer is obscure or a weird choice or both. Re: obscurity, I’m an nth generation gardener and read about botany for fun and I only had recognition memory for OXLIP, not recall memory. Re: weird choices, SERA is the new OCTOPODES - I grimaced at that one.
On the whole, I see where this puzzle was attempting to go and it didn’t quite work for me… I suppose one could say that today, I PAN TRIES.
Haha this reminds me of my fail playing Anigrams last night (check it out if you haven't played, its a hoot, click, cheep and a maa and whatever sounds giraffes and octopuses make- https://anigrams.us/play/normal) I had sussed out the word artsier and then the next word arteries and spent a good minute thinking what a terrible word that was for places to keep art and why had I never heard of that term when it hit me what the word actually was...and I have a medical degree...
A DOOK theme! Loved it.
Went with vulgarity for the John Waters characteristic, which had the advantage of having no correct letters so was easy to abandon quickly (despite being ‘confirmed’ by ‘oils’ where SERA belonged).
I’m always amused by how animal sounds, which ought to be onomatopoeic, are so different in different languages. Our OINK is the Frenchman’s ‘groin’ or the Swedes ‘noff’. Korean dogs go ‘meong’, which sounds much more like a cat sound.
I pretty well flew through this one, with one holdup at CAMP humor instead of CAMPINESS. Forgive me if I’ve mentioned it before when John Waters was in the puzzle, but the last time I did drag, I got to wear Rikki Lake’s actual wig from “Hairspray.”
Nice enough Tuesday. The theme could have been a touch tighter if all of the second words had been nouns. Easy to fix with PAN TRIES - just clue it as “failed omelettes or frittatas.” But I don’t see an alternative for CAD DIES, which was probably the cleverest themer.
Clare, I got the one word/two words dichotomy on QUARTER LIES, but I agree with you that the clue was very strange. I thought the part about it being worth 20 cents had something to do with inflation. Another way to clue it might have been “ ‘We had our best three months ever, boss’ and ‘this half of the semester just flew by.’ “ A little long.
Not sure I agree with Sophocles on his quote. I’m pretty good at ignoring most bad advice, but I can’t do the same with ENEMies. They just don’t go away. I’m actually trying to think whether I’ve ever had an enemy, at least since junior high school. I can’t think of one, and I’m curious about others here - tell us about your enemy!
Nice clue on PARSEC. I can see why Han Solo got it wrong. If I were Harrison Ford, I’d still be pissed at the writers for making me look bad. There’s an enemy.
Really enjoyed your write up. Arsenal/Man City will be a great watch. Oh, and the discussion about today’s puzzle was good too. 😊. COYS
Easy-peasy puzzle and fun to uncover the themers. But the best part (IMHO, YMMV) is the back story of how the constructor's high school embarrassment led him to being published in the NYT 20 years later (see Wordplay notes). Nice recovery, Mr. Boroughs!
I had "mui" instead of MUY at first, so I tried to convince myself that PANTRIES was wrong. But "sli" couldn't work, so I had to got to SLY.
I agree with Claire that QUARTERLIES was poorly clued. A better clue would have been "half of half-truths?"
I agree with Claire that CAMPINESS is a questionable word. The perfectly serviceable noun is “camp.”
Amy: hi Clare, good review. Like you, found I liked this more after finishing it. Gave me a bit of a tumble for a Tuesday. That's a good thing, just somewhat frustrating while in the midst of the solve. Agree about repeat clues, as well.
As for LAPs, ran a marathon at St. Olaf College in Minnesota one winter...in the gym. The women's track team kept track 🙄 of our laps. It's called the Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon. My time was a Boston Qualifier (in 2008).
Delightful wordplay theme – never done before, and high props for that!
There’s a remarkable echo to yesterday’s puzzle. In that grid there were nine answers ending with schwas, eight of them proper nouns. Today we also have nine schwa-enders, six of them proper nouns: TAMPA / NOKIA / ACURA / ENYA / IDA / KEIRA / SERA / COMA / INTERTIA.
Also, for the first time this year, I, as your resident alphadoppeltotter, a responsibility I’ve inexplicably taken on, must report that this puzzle has an unusually low number of double letters (less than five). Today there are but four.
Lovely PuzzPair© of PATSY and SAP.
Underlying all these details, what I take away most from this puzzle is the word I started with – delightful. The gymnastics you did with words in this theme has a playground feel to me, Grant, and has me bounding into my day with smiles. Thank you!
Administrative note: I am going out of town for a family gathering, and will return here on Tuesday. Most likely that is when I’ll post my favorite clues of the previous week. I will peek in, however, to see what’s what with the tribe. Wishing you all a most lovely week ahead!
Is there no end to the playful things that can be done with the English language?
I sure hope not!
This was so much fun and also so well done. Density of theme: there were five themers, which is a lot in a 15 x 15. Consistency of themers: all change pronunciation and change it in exactly the same way. And then as a bonus you've also got four nine-letter, smooth-as-silk, non-themer Downs.
(Note to self for future reference: Not all 5-letter Florida cities in crosswords are OCALA.)
Oh, if only all Tuesday puzzles could be like this. Clever and very entertaining.
The NE section must be tough on a constructor - seems due to the shape of the grid though, so a (partially at least) self-inflicted wound. CMS, AOL, MUY, EPPS, SERA surrounding a board game and CAMPINESS - it’s pretty much just Crosswordese Corner today. I’ll bet many of us would be hard pressed to come up with an even more lame clue than the one for QUARTER LIES. I wish they would get less ambitious with the themes and settle on clues that are just good, rather than constantly trying too hard.
Hwy @egs-I have to say my first thought on seeing all these themers was "someone's stealing your schtick!". Further proof that constructors read this witty and informative blog.
I agree with @Anon 3:18 that the MAMAS and the Papas are not a "folk quartet", and spent precious nanoseconds trying to come up with an actual folk quartet.
Hand up for OXEYE, and I learned something about who my ENEMY is. I liked that all the themers had the IES ending. Elegant.
Very easy but enjoyable Tuesdecito, GB. Gpt Better as each themer appeared, and thanks for all the fun.
In the movie “Solo,” it is explained why he used PARSECS. Apparently, the normal route was much longer (I think 11 parsecs) because the shorter way (3 parsecs) was through an asteroid field. Han had to go that way in order to escape something or other or get there faster or something.
Hey All !
Clever theme. Perfect for a TuesPuz.
@pablo
Jeez Louise, now I'm making it into the clues! 39A. RooMonster is an extension of my original nickname of Rooster. (Got the name while in the Army. A buddy from PA extended it with the Monster.)
Been a rough week or so for the F. We need MORES O' them. 😁
Nice puz Grant. IDA preciate MUY F's next time. Otherwise, fun!
No F's (Maybe I obsess? 😁)
RooMonster
DarrinV
ONE HOP. One hop. Ten minutes I am staring at ONE trying to figure out -EIST, -PELS, and -OSEY. Nothing. I wasn't planning on curing cancer during those ten minutes, but holy moly I couldn't see ONE HOP for the life of me.
Lovely groaner theme. PREP PIES was my favorite theme entry. I will use CAD DIES in real life. @egs writes this theme for us daily.
Uniclues:
1 Just-sorta-luxury explainers.
2 Knightley getting grumbly.
3 My couch potato skill.
4 Filch a feather boa.
1 ACURA REPORTERS
2 KEIRA NITS RISE
3 PRO'S INERTIA
4 CAMPINESS HEIST
I gotta register a complaint about CAMPINESS. As someone who watched Female Troubles with absolutely no idea about Mr. Waters oeuvre, CAMPINESS doesn't begin to describe the divergence between what I saw and what I expected as common movie fare. I expect Mr.Waters would agree, it wasn't a put-up of the common, it was an assault on it.
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where OXLIPS and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight;
And there the snake throws her enamell’d skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in:
And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes,
And make her full of hateful fantasies.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1
I'd agree with wikipedia that Mamas & Papas were "folk rock."
I'm wondering now if "Monday, Monday" was about the Monday puzzle?
Monday, Monday, so good to me
Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
Nah.
It was their only #1 hit on the U.S. charts.
@Muse darlin: yep. "chief" before "chef", readin that 1-Down clue. Not til TOQUE was totally filled in did it force m&e to finally re-read the clue correctly. But this is a common M&A problem, when solvin the puz in a dark closet. (M&A's alternative to "Downs only" solvequest challenges.)
staff weeject pick: {Delicious upside-down cake rave??} = MUY.
Liked the theme, as it evoked some yuks. Enjoyed the spoiler alert on CADDIES. PuzEatinSpouse wondered about all the giggle sounds comin from the closet.
Luvly 9-longball twins, in the NE & SW. Also, luvly weeject stacks, in the NE & SW.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Boroughs dude. Good job. Ditto, @Clare darlin.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
Took me a while to figure this ONE out. In fact I got all the way to SPECIAL/TIES before I said aha. Had a moment where I gave a snarly LIP to the clue for INERTIA, thinking that word is only MEANT to imply forward movement - as in the HOP of a baseball - but I know now It can also describe a situation such as a MOUSE caught in a TRAP. Googled the MAMAS and the Papas. FWIW, they are generally referred to as a “folk rock” group.
I liked it better when I was finished than I did while I was solving, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Thank you Grant. MUY bueno!
I was going to do some clever s*** with brew-skies and sun-dries but Clare and @LMS, disrespectfully, stole my thunder on them. I thought -dries and -skies were the only endings that are not used in the puzzle that would stand alone but still work with the “eyes” to “”ease” sound shift, but @LMS pointed out a few others. Speaking of “eyes”, what’s with the ox and flowers? OXLIPS, Oxeye Daisies. Maybe there is an Ox-ass petunia or something that would fit in nicely with the derrière trend, also known as Behind the Times. They missed one today where ENEMY could just as well have been ENEMa, with STYLE becoming STALe.
My parents wrote (Dad) and illustrated (Mom) a book called “In China Dogs Say Wang Wang.” They had picked up on this while living for a year in Hong Kong. The book humorously relates how animal sounds are characterized around the world. Pigs don’t just OINK. They also Rrron, Rrron; Gru Gru; Reuf Reuf; Noff Noff; Wouts Wouts; and Snurk, depending on locale. The book is delightful, but too sophisticated for children and too short for adults. No publisher would bite.
Naturally I loved the Dookiness (and CAMPINESS) of today’s puzzle. Thanks, Grant Boroughs.
I liked this more when I realized that the reparsing of each themer led to the same E’s to I’s sound change.
Also liked that the puzzle seemed a little tougher than the usual Tuesday. Didn’t know POSEY Parker but am familiar with the expression NOSEY Parker, so my baseball grounder was a ONEHON, as in this exchange heard from the bleachers:
“How many hits is that so far, darling?”
“One, hon.”
Lesson of the day: 90% of the OCEAN is unmapped.
Please note that gentlemen will not be allowed into the real estate conference unless they are wearing PROPERTIES.
p.s.
For completeness's sake:
{Places where Ma keeps her slovenly main squeeze?} = ? *
M&A Quiz Desk
p.p.s.s.
* = PASTIES.
1) It's not quite being a vegan, but it's all he can manage
2) Spent much too long in the bleeping MRI machine
3) "Cluck, cluck, yuck. Why wasn't I on Phil's bag?"
4) The throes of a [teensy little] hill-taking maneuver
1) OPTS MEAT WISPY
2) MORE SO SCAN
3) HEN CADDIES SAP
4) ANT ROTC SPASMS
Loved CAD DIES, which was the last theme answer I filled in
Agree with some comments that QUARTER LIES was the weakest.
Somehow got the idea/pattern of the theme from that and PAN TRIES but didn't actually understand it until I looked back over the puzzle.
Shouldn't there be something in the clue to suggest a centimeter ruler, as there is for foreign words?
Several nice longwords going down: parseC, entreated, inertia, campiness ( which I think is better with its clue than camp) mousetrap (maybe that's two word)
Wikipedia calls the Mamas & Papas a "folk rock" band, which seems right to me.
BTW, years after it became their only #1 hit on the U.S. charts, Michelle Phillips admitted Monday Monday was about the Monday NYT XW puzzle:
Monday, Monday, so good to me
Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be
[No she didn't.]
I don't think anybody's offered this one yet:
Dried poblano competes in Scoville scale tourney.
ANCHOVIES
@Roo-
I'm giving up on trying to catch you with PABLOS. I'll have to hope EMMA can save the day.
Am I the only DNF because I had SOAPS and WISPS? Those work just as well, I think.
Thx, Grant; no LIE, this puz was MUY 'bien'! :)
Hi Clare; good to see you again, as always. Thx for your excellent write-up. :)
Easy-med.
Loved the theme, after I finally grokked it at SPECIAL TIES.
Mostly a breezy solve.
Hands up for wanting OXeye before OXLIP, but NOIR was opposed to it.
Only a slight hitch at SERA, but CAMPINESS came to the rescue (my final entry).
Big fan of ENYA, as well as The MAMAs & the Papas. Hands up for 'folk rock' to describe the latter, but then there's the 'Dictum'. lol
Here's Monday Monday by The MAMAs & the Papas, albeit a day late. Thx for the heads-up @Liveprof. :)
Growing up in Eugene, have fond memories of NIKE co-founder, Bill Bowerman and the U of O track team.
"How a Waffle Iron Inspired the NIKE shoe" (CBC Radio).
___
@jae, kitshef: Croce's 804 came in under 2 hrs., so med for me. The NW was by far the toughest area.
___
Will be joining @pablo on Anna's New Yorker Mon later td. 👍
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Nice writeup, Clare! I was amused by the puzzle, and solved it much faster than yesterday's. I looked CAMPINESS up, and found it is in the Collins English dictionary. A perfect word for "the quality of being camp", which certainly describes John Waters films. California Dreamin' was the breakthrough song for the MAMAS AND THE PAPAS. Indeed, they wrote a very clever song about their experience, Creeque Alley, whose final words are, "California Dreamin' is becoming a reality." I would say the band is a folk band, because their songs tell stories and sound folky, though folk-rock is a better description.
Preppy was a noun when I was in college 100 years ago. There was even a satire book about it. https://www.amazon.com/Official-Preppy-Handbook-Lisa-Birnbach/dp/0894801406
I am really impressed with the literary sophistication of this crowd. People may not know L. Frank Baum, but they don't break a sweat at a character out of Thomas Hardy's massive oeuvre, from a book published in 1891. Cool.
I looked at 1-A, told myself "here's another example, like What's Poppin? of a phrase I've never heard of, but nevertheless instantly know what it means," and confidently wrote in Miami. Oops. TOQUE fixed that right up, fortunately. At least it did so after I realized it wasn't for a chief and stopped trying to make Tiara work.
I could see QUARTER something going in, and down below PREP tIme; but didn't know what was going on until I saw CADDIES. And I don't even golf. After that the only difficulty was wanting formaliTIES and wondering where that first I came from.
I can't decide about QUARTER LIES, but I'm leaning toward 'so bad it's good.' I didn't start out that way, though.
I don't usually react so strongly to these things, but the news of Harry Belafonte's death, heard on the BBC News Hour as I was driving home from a morning walk, really got to me. I came inside, told my Google speaker to play him, and sat there listening for the next 45 minutes. A great man.
BTW, here's what ChatGPT has to say re: the 'folk' vs 'folk rock' issue:
"The Mamas & the Papas can be considered both a folk band and a folk rock band. They are often categorized as a folk rock band because their music blended folk, rock, and pop elements. Their sound was characterized by the use of acoustic instruments such as guitars and percussion, combined with vocal harmonies, and occasionally electric instruments like the electric guitar and organ.
However, they also incorporated traditional folk music elements into their sound, such as their covers of songs like "500 Miles" and "The House of the Rising Sun," and their use of lyrics that often dealt with themes of social and political issues.
Therefore, while they are generally classified as a folk rock band due to their fusion of folk and rock, they can also be seen as a folk band with rock influences."
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
This grid is replete with examples of letter count inflation (LCI), ways to increase the grid fill capacity of base words and phrases without adding a commensurate amount of interest or value.
One that has caught the eye of our gracious guest blog host and several commenters is 11D CAMPINESS. As @Andy Freude 7:37 points out, the base word is the noun CAMP which Merriam-Webster defines as "Something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing". Making it the adjective CAMPY would inflate its fill power by 25%. Then making it back into a noun CAMPINESS again yields a whopping 125% LCI over the base word CAMP.
Another helpful LCI technique is to change a verb's tense as happens when ENTREAT needs a two letter bump to fill its 34 Down slot.
All of the theme entries are plurals but here of necessity rather than convenience. There are, however, quite a few of the classic plural of convenience (POC) ilk: PARSEC, ASSET, CM, EXEC, URN, PRO, REPORTER, NIT, OPT, SPASM, OPEL and MAMA all got POC grid fill help. Seems to me that all those plus the themers give a bit of an S fest feel to the grid.
Don’t put videos like that on here please! Very violent!
Flew through this one! Faster than a Monday for me and I enjoyed the clueing. My only comment on your write up is you must have a great bladder to not prefer an aisle seat!
Clue: "No _____ is worse than bad advice," per sophoclies. I put in ENEMA. Answer was ENEMY. I stand by my mistake.
Preppies versus townies. Big thing in Princeton, NJ and old movies! The video caused me tension and loathing. Not good.
Don't watch!
@jberg re: Harry Belafonte.
One of my first "big dates" was at age 13 or 14 for my junior high graduation. We triple-dated to see Belafonte at the Coconut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel in LA.
Our waiter was a sleazy old man who told our dates that he would go backstage and get them each Belafonte's autograph if each girl would give him a kiss. They complied quickly and he returned shortly thereafter with three personalized autographs.
Only problem - Belafonte's name was misspelled. A sleazy old man, indeed.
@BurnThis 2:26
NO! Not the aisle!
People in window and middle seats on a plane are allowed to go to the lavatory. Aisle person has to disrupt whatever they are doing to let a seatmate exit the row and to let them back in again. Plus the drink/food cart more frequently bumps into person in aisle seat.
Any puzzle that works in SLY Stone is automatically a winner for me.
@Barbara S. 12:38 PM
For the win.
First line of "Creeque Alley", which is about how the Mamas & The Papas got together:
John and Mitchy were gettin' kind of itchy
Just to leave the folk music behind
John and Mitchy being John and Michelle Phillips, who wrote the song. So I don't think they ever considered themselves to be a "folk quartet".
I got naticked by OXLIP and Pantries. I guess it’s not an official natick since one can parse pantries from the theme if one was paying attention to the theme 🙈 Do we have some kind of stats on naticks? Should be collecting those stats. I think we should. Ami I spelling natick wrong? Probably.
Enjoyed your write up. I always like your outlook on the puzzles.
The puzzle was fine but more importantly I’m from DC but live in SF and my two teams are the Warriors and Liverpool too! It was just such an odd set of concurrences I had to mention. Go Dubs! #YNWA
I am a queer artist and art Professor and in my world, “campiness” is used all the time! Definitely a noun and used often in discussion of modern art and contemporary aesthetics. Read Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp’” for reference.
C’mon guys! To find some connection between that cross as a reference to Trump is absurd but it does illustrate your fascination with him. The best way to defeat him is to ignore him , yet you, like the media, find him in every nook and cranny, enlarging his significance and his importance. Y’all would love to see him back in power so you could enjoy your self-perceived sophistication in saying something you think is witty.
You’re playing in his hands.
Lecterns and podia are different things, right?
This theme is a LODE from which scores of ORES can be mined. The samples provided are certainly representative. Fill is quite OK, if not scintillating. Can't get all that worked up over CAMPINESS and ENTREATED. But fine.
KEIRA Knightley is DOD. Tuesday slot is well held. Speaking of slot: I'm on a super high after our Golden Knights' amazing 6-0 shutout of the Dallas Stars to advance to the Cup final! So: what the heck, birdie.
Wordle bogey...but I don't care.
Too much junk fill.
You are hilarious and make my day whenever I find your commentary. You must really fear going to the doctor lol
Perhaps the book title could be changed for the U.S. lol
My favorite part was to see how hard PAN TRIES to fit in with other worthy punagrams. He had SPECIAL TIES to the LIES in the QUARTER, and URNS a PRIES. The eyes have it.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
@Anonymous 12:47pm:
28D clue past tense, your answer is present tense. So no, it doesn't work.
SPECIALTIES TO ASSETS
MAMA'S CAMPINESS STYLE
URNS her MUY EXECS,
she ISONTO YOU, SO AISLE
let YOU try TO PARSECS.
--- PATSY "PAT" POSEY
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