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Something to get down from / THU 4-6-23 / Black: It. / "Sim," in Brazil
Thursday, April 6, 2023
Constructor: Sam Buttrey
Relative difficulty: Hard! (25:25, had to "check puzzle" once)
THEME: TRADING PLACES — Famous duos are clued as though they are words, and their clues are switched
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: TRADING PLACES (Classic 1983 comedy … or a hint to what the answers to four pairs of starred clues are doing) —
Hey besties and welcome to a delayed Malaika MWednesday. I am so sorry for the mix-up in days that resulted in a late post... totally my fault, and thanks to Rex for hopping back in on what was supposed to be his day off. No solving music today, as the Lakers game was playing in the background.
- BILL got the clue [Acronym of talks] and TED got the clue [Unwelcome bit of mail]
- LAUREL got the clue [Able to endure difficult conditions] and HARDY got the clue [Kind of wreath]
- PENN got the clue [Bank employee] and TELLER got the clue [Philadelphia university, familiarly]
- CHIP got the clue [Hill's partner] and DALE got the clue [China problem]
Word of the Day: TRADING PLACES (Classic 1983 comedy … or a hint to what the answers to four pairs of starred clues are doing) —
In 2010, nearly 30 years after its release, the film was cited in the testimony of Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Gary Gensler regarding new regulations on the financial markets. He said:We have recommended banning using misappropriated government information to trade in the commodity markets. In the movie Trading Places, starring Eddie Murphy, the Duke brothers intended to profit from trades in frozen concentrated orange juice futures contracts using an illicitly obtained and not yet public Department of Agriculture orange crop report. Characters played by Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd intercept the misappropriated report and trade on it to profit and ruin the Duke brothers.The testimony was part of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act designed to prevent insider trading on commodities markets, which had previously not been illegal. Section 746 of the reform act is referred to as the "Eddie Murphy rule".
• • •
Y'all, I thought this was so hard!! I didn't clock the theme until literally the last minute of my solve, at which point I had shrugging-ly filled in a lot of the pairs due to crosses. (Even though I got the movie pretty early on! Which I am very proud of by the way!! Long-time readers will know that I know basically zero pop culture references from before 2000, but in this case I have both seen Trading Places and deeply enjoyed it!! So there!!)
As a result, this played like a themeless puzzle for me and this fill was..... oof. AFORE, TOMS, NINEVEH, TOED clued as golf jargon, MOA, ELL, TRALA (??????????????????), EIDER, LAMINA, LISTERIA, ROPER. Yikes. I was fighting for my life. I think this is definitely the kind of puzzle that is much more fun if you pick up on the theme early-- the clues are starred so you know which ones to look at, but you do still have to figure out which pairs go together, which in my opinion is the perfect amount of opaque. And it's so impressive that the constructor squished four of those pairs in.
Bullets:
- ["Sim," in Brazil] for YES — This really tripped me up because I expected the reverse order... Like I read this clue as "The entry is how you say the word "sim" when you are in Brazil" and I was like "Well why on Earth would I know that."
- Can someone explain to me why [Hill's partner] is a clue for DALE?
- [Black: It.] as a clue for NERO — This is totally unrelated to the puzzle, but I hate how The Times styles clues like this. They were totally baffling when I first started solving. Please just say ["Black," in Italian]
- [Bananagrams pieces] for TILES — Nothing else to say here except that I love to play Bananagrams.
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127 comments:
I believe that Hill is the partner of Dale in the US Army’s Caisson Song (“Over Hill, Over Dale, we will hit the dusty trail …”)
Medium. patINA before LAMINA was the nanosecond eater on this one. The lack of symmetry initially bugged me (and also upped the difficulty level) but according to Xwordinfo it’s a feature not a bug. So, liked it. Clever debut!
@Malaika - It’s an idiom? here’s what I came up with on the inter webs:
1. Across a wide expanse of rural land. ("Dale" is another word for valley.)
We hiked over hill and dale, taking in the brilliant summer sun as we searched for a perfect place to have our picnic.
2. All over the area; far and wide.
I had to drive over hill and dale to find a hardware store that had the light fixture I needed.
Over hill and under DALE is the idiomatic expression
This puzzle would have been great for April Fools Day — it's so relentlessly old-timey in both the fill abd the cluing that it seems like a parody. I have to admit I sort of enjoyed it for that reason, reveling in the TRA LAs and the MOAs and the GLEE. I felt cheated when the anachronistic ROAD RAGE showed up.
Malaika, HILL and DALE, usually heard in the context of "searched over hill and dale for...", is akin to "searched high and low", "left no stone unturned", etc. And in order to conform with the ___ and ___theme, it would not be CHIPPENDALE (the furniture style or male dancers' eponym) that is being referred to, but CHIP and DALE, a pair of cartoon Disney chipmunks that debuted in (of course) 1943.
♪ Has there been
Ever a grid so quaint
As this one? No, there ain't!
Not since Nineveh, not since Tyre
Not since Babylon turned to mire...
No, not since NINEVEH! ♪
Hi Malaika; I have to say not hard at all for me to finish. However I didn't get the theme until after that finish; I knew there was something wacko happening but still...? The "trading" places weren't obvious until all the themers were done; no obvious link between say PENN and TELLER, eg. But pretty good once that link was clear.
I like you picked "Something to get down from" for the URL title, that is pretty good clue for EIDER.
I was a fresh faced 23 year old when TRADING PLACES came out. Sighhhh...
[Spelling Bee: Wed 0, last word unfortunately this bland 6er.]
Yes, it was hard, but it wasn't fun. A very unpleasant theme, just a lot of hunting around to find which starred clues matched which, a boring slog.
Seems like CHIP and DALE would be obscure for most solvers. Not really the same level of ICONIC as the other duos, which span familiarity across generations. CHIP and DALE rescue rangers was a great childhood cartoon. Maybe the constructor was going for Chippendales? (Reminds me of the ICONIC SNL skit with Chris Farley.) really hated this puzzle. I don’t think there is an answer in here that I love. Maybe ROAD RAGE? Also what is this clue for SIMILE? I can think of a thousand ways to clue it and this is a bad attempt at wordplay unless I’m missing something? Also can someone explain why POLE is an advantageous kind of position? Ugly fill with unnecessarily obtuse cluing and a theme that didn’t do it for me…
-Brando
A worthy Thursday. Felt a tinge of pride for solving this one. May have checked my look in the mirror and said... "Looking good, Billy Ray! Feeling Good, Louis!"
Nice
Great Thursday puzzle! Not just PoW, PoY!!
Disclaimer: The constructor is the Steve Martin doppelgänger (that's Sam on the right) who won the Jeopardy Professors Tournament and was in the finals of the Tournament of Champions.
He's also my nephew.
Hi Malaika, nice to see you again. DALE because “Chip and Dale” is another of the duos that “trade places.” I finally caught on way down in the southwest when I tried to enter TEMPLE for the university and it didn’t work, but TELLER did, and PENN is the other half of the duo. I thought the theme was very clever and fun to solve and felt very clever myself when I figured it out!
Clever!
So, this is a debut. You may recognize the constructor, who last year was in the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions.
Here's his picture: https://www.tvinsider.com/1069358/jeopardy-sam-buttrey-tournament-of-champions/ .
It would have been a quick solve for me but I could not get the EIDER / TED cross for the longest. First I ran the alphabet on -IDER, trying to see something that one would climb down from. (“Rider? No, that’s who is getting down.”). Then I tried to find the clue for T-D’s partner, but there was no logic to where the starred clues were, so that got frustrating. Then I tried to find it by looking in the almost finished grid for an answer for “bit of unwanted mail,” but I was thinking “spam” so I didn’t find it. Finally, I closed the app to feed the pleading pooch, and the “down” trick instantly came to me: EIDER. So she had to wait about three seconds longer for breakfast.
The theme was clever because the pairs of people had to both have names that are words unrelated to the names. So no “ Abbott and Costello” or “Bonnie and Clyde” or “ Sonny and Cher.” “Will and Grace” would work but that almost seems like cheating because those character names were obviously chosen to be words that describe virtues.
Me too for patINA before LAMINA. I liked the clues for BATONS and ROAD RAGE.
Of all the foods that can transmit LISTERIA, uncooked fish isn’t one that readily comes to mind. I usually think of cheese and other dairy products, some poorly prepared meats, and some contaminated, unwashed fruits and vegetables. But, Wikipedia lists "sea food", so I learned something new.
I was confused as heck with this puzzle. I knew I had to get the movie title to have any chance, so I devoted a lot of energy in the middle. Once I got the revealer, the rest fell in place. Fun puzzle! (But some of the fill, not so great).
What I found most challenging is that in the app, you cannot see which clues are starred unless you are actively on that clue. NYT really needs to add a feature so one doesn’t need to search around to see what clue somewhere else in the grid might apply to the active one. They build a feature to animate TMI but can’t show me a star? Jeeeez.
The first line of the Army Song or Caisson Song: Over hill over dale as we hit the dusty trail…
My initial reaction was similar to Joe D’s - I thought it was another joke puzzle. Then I realized that the theme reduced to the solvers doing all the work of trying to figure out which clues go with what answers and I pretty much bailed. Just not a fan of puzzles like this that have an additional puzzle (or gimmick) within a puzzle. I know they are very popular - in fact the NYT gives them their own day, lol. Unfortunately, we just had one yesterday, so I’m over my quota and have serious gimmick-fatigue. Hopefully we don’t get a bunch of turkeys to close out what has been a less than stellar week to open the month of April.
Four pairs, Penn and teller, chip and Dale, laurel and hardy, bill and Ted.
Answers TRADED PLACES!!!
Pretty darn good!
When I saw Sam’s picture on XwordInfo.com, it thrust him into my consciousness, I, a regular Jeopardy watcher, who remember him from last year’s Tournament of Champions. This is a very intelligent, likeable soul, with a lovely sense of humor. And he delivered a never-done-before theme based on such a simple answer-switch concept – tres élégant.
Highlights for me:
• TOMS made me think of “tom”, meaning a male cat, and I wondered if there was a word for a female cat, and a quick lookup gave me a sweet TIL – “molly”.
• The very-rare-in-crosswords-and-life six letter semordnilap LAMINA.
• I loved [Bird spotted in eastern Samoa?] for MOA. First, it’s never been used before (usually its clues are something like “Extinct bird of New Zealand”). Second, it misdirected me into trying to think of birds that have spots, and that was driving me crazy. When I finally got it, I got it with a big “Hah!”
Congratulations, Sam, on your debut, and thank you for a scintillating Thursday. I loved this!
Very tough to get started today. Put in seven answers, but none with much confidence (one turned out to be wrong), before finally getting ALTO – my first solid answer.
Must be the best puzzle of the year so far.
TIL that TED is an acronym. I always assumed they were named for some guy named Ted.
Like many, I was so committed to PATINA that I DNF’d the NW corner.
Ok Malaika, because your are awesome Over HILL and over DALE we’re going to hit the dusty trail is an old US Army song from circa 1918. No I wan’t born then. If I was being honest I picked it up in a Daffy Duck cartoon I have to say it did feel hard but I just worked around the themes until it clicked and so in the end it was more annoying than hard. Built your reference to TRADING PLACES made it worth while. Peace.
The very first thing that came to mind for 1A was TED, which obviously didn't fit. The middle north was easy to fill, so PENN appeared and the PENNy dropped - PENN where the answer is supposed to be TELLER. So then 1A was BILL instead of TED.
The second penny dropped in the SW. I was thinking of SPAM for 59D but nothing was coming to mind for "____ and spam" or "spam and ____". Then I got TED and realized that the other halves of the pairs were in there somewhere.
The THIRD penny dropped when I checked the blog and saw that all the pairs were famous duos and not just random "____ and ____" phrases. It just didn't register during the solve. Just because of these three "aha" moments, today's puzzle is already a candidate pick for my favorites from this month.
The fill isn't the best, of course. Always happens when there's theme AAALL over the grid. That NINEVEH/LISTERIA crossing. ugh. Right next to LAMINA (which I had as PATINA at first). ROAD RAGE stands out as a great bonus answer.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream has a song that begins “Over hill, over dale.” (Long before the U.S. Army, @Philly.)
Agreed, Malaika, on Bananagrams. Also fun: Scrabble. I guess we’re just a couple of tessalaphiles. (Not the same as a Tesla-phile!)
Malaika, I picked up on the theme fairly early. It was not fun.
As much as I hated yesterday's crap-fest--that's how much I loved this puzzle. And finding out that it was constructed by one of my all-time Jeopardy! favorite contestants was just the cherry on top. So many write-overs, so many stumbles, but my neurons were firing like crazy the whole time, and it was an exhilarating experience.
Started off on the wrong foot with TEDS for 1A because...what else could "acronym of talks" possibly be? So the NW corner was already hopeless: Even after getting ON IT, NINEVEH, and SCARE, 1D was still a mystery. Got TRADING PLACES, a movie I really like, right away, but nothing clicked until all the way down at 45D. A Philadelphia university is Temple, which fits, but the name isn't "familiarly." The only possible answer to that clue is PENN. Which is when I remembered how befuddled I was at 15A, where the obvious answer was TELLER. And--BOOM! Mystery solved, wrong answers "erased," new answers inserted, happy music. And only then did I see that the traded answers were celebrity pairs. WOW!
To make a puzzle like this work, the fill had to be up to snuff, and this was. A few much-needed gimmes--SEE, ELL, EGO--but mostly fresh and crunchy.
Best puzzle of the year so far. Everything a Thursday should be and a bag of 61As.
I knew the movie once I had PLACES but remembered it as chANGINGPLACES even though that didn't fit. So I was now thinking a rebus. Took too long to get by that. Then it was a search for the asterisked clues. Took me a long time, but it was fun.
I'm really proud of myself for getting the theme really early on, and I think my solving experience was all that much more pleasant because of it! I agree on the fill though, very esoteric.
ADUCK before EIDER.
Didn't get the theme until seeing it here, but finished in a bit under my average time.
Excellent debut puzzle!
Not too hard. A normal 12-14 min Thursday. Trading Places was one of my all time favorite comedies, right behind My Cousin Vinny. I understood the theme as soon as that went in, but the asymmetrical nature of the theme answers delayed the aha moment. I let out açaí. The fill, unfortunately, was in the all too ho-hum category. The New Yorker puzzles prove that dull crosswords can be avoided. The NYT seems to prefer cleverness over quality, and is the lesser for it.
Baffling ... until it wasn't, and then it was extremely easy. Kind of a disappointing puzzle for a Thursday as a result.
Had fun with this - liked the random order of the pairs. At first the TED pair brought a side eye but two different things. Liked LAUREL and HARDY.
MEDDLE
Overall fill was high on trivia - NINEVEH topping the list - but nothing that wasn’t fairly crossed. Liked EIDER and ICONIC. LISTERIA was unfortunate.
Enjoyable Thursday solve.
IRIS
Congratulations! This was really hard for me. Tell him he did a good job!
I was so dizzy and confused with the irritating upping and downing and backing and forthing my eyes were obliged to do that I completely missed the fact that the answers that were TRADING PLACES were part of a pair. So a puzzle that had seemed so random and arbitrary -- and, btw, had annoyed me beyond all endurance -- turns out to be enormously clever and not arbitrary at all.
And yet the solving process was -- how shall I put this? -- really quite unpleasant. Or at least that was my experience. Back-and-forthing is the reason I don't do Acrostics. YMMV.
Here's a day when I really needed the Rexblog. Otherwise I would have gone to my grave not knowing that this puzzle actually had a raison-d'etre. And that, no matter how annoying it was to solve, it really does merit a certain amount of praise.
Lots of answers for Malaika's question on hill and DALE but I don't think anyone as yet has addressed the 18X? for TRALA, TRA-LA-LA being nonsense singing syllables you fit in when you don't know the words, or occasionally when they actually are part of the lyrics. (The first that came to mind was Let's Live For Today by The Grass Roots, definitely pre-2000 pop culture reference there. Oops, that's sha-la-la-la-la-la)
A fun and challenging puzzle. Took a while to figure out the theme, and when I finally did the trick was, as others have said, was to find the PLACES TRADed pair. They were almost stacked, but not perfectly aligned, not that I am holding it against the theme.
bacTERIA->LySTERIA->LISTERIA and NeNEVaH->NINEVEH were my only major re-writes, but I was never all that confident in either of them that I turned my back on them.
I'm still so sore from last week's CANTAB that ELI still strikes me as snobbery, even if it's a gimme clue/answer.
Up HILL and down DALE (old saying circa my long-dead parents).
Ah, those clues with asterisks. You know something's up, but what the hell is it? Pogo sticked around and wound up in the SE, where I had LAUREL entirely filled in, which of course made no sense. Back to the NE , where the clue for HARDY fit LAUREL, so I went to the middle and filled in TRADINGPLACES, tada! I can't believe I didn't get the real LAUREL and HARDY connection until I got to PENN and TELLER. I mean, really.
Someday I'll remember what a CPU is and someday I'll go to a Starbuck's and memorize the menu but those things haven't happened yet. LISTERIA needed every cross and evoked a vague sense of "yeah, I sort of remember that". Today's coup was getting NINEVEH off the EH. Huzzah.
Jeez, a debut? I bow before you SB. Surely Better debuts have been constructed, but I can't think of one. Congratulations, and many thanks for an enormous amount of fun.
Sweet. Or as the puzzle would have it, SUHWEET (3/31)
Hands up for getting the trick just before the last square - the I of EIDER. I think this would have been better to solve on paper; the * clues disappear from the app unless they are within a few clues, making it very difficult to cross reference. Crosses were fair enough to get most of them and have that "aha" moment at the end.
Just watched the finals link from tourney - wondering if anyone from here was visible in the audience (or on stage) in those video links. I'd love to go someday, but terrible timing for church musicians...
As I was struggling to get through this all I kept thinking “what is Rex going to say about this one? Is he going to love it or hate it?”
Still don’t know the answer to that question.
Never got the theme even after I had the movie.
Too bad, would have enjoyed solving it with that help.
Loved Eider, hated Lamina.
Fine enough puzzle, but they really, really, REALLY needed to highlight the spots where the answer pairs were. I could never remember where those starred clues happened.
Also: the CLUES traded places, not the ANSWERS. You can't trade places with the answers because they're not the same length.
Could've been a fun solve, but no. Had to check answers to find one of the pairs I missed, which ruined my streak. Dammit.
Completed the puzzle but it wasn’t until I dropped in here that I realized the switched pairs were, well, actually pairs. Very clever.
“Over hill, over dale, we will hit the dusty trail, as those casons go rolling along” US Army theme song? I remember singing it with Dad.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act ll Scene l:
Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, I do wander every where, Swifter than the moon's sphere; And I serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green: The cowslips tall her pensioners be; In their gold coats spots you see; Those be rubies, fairy ...
Yes, but what about the chip and Dale, Laurel and Hardy, bill and Ted, etc. clever!
I am so glad, Sam Buttrey, that @Lewis alerted me to the fact that you are the Sam from Jeopardy's Tournament of Champions. I didn't remember your last name -- though now I sort of do -- and I never went over to xword.info to look at your photo either.
So this is a good time to let you know how very hard I was rooting for you on Jeopardy. Which is unusual for me since I normally don't care much about the contestants one way or the other and only care about how well do that night. But you were different: you were warm and entirely natural and displayed much self-deprecating humor and, well, you sort of seemed like Everyman. I was SO unhappy that you didn't win!
Congrats on your very original crossword debut.
Wow, liked it! patINA and bacTERIA hung me up for a time. What the heck is BIPB? Figured I hadn't got the trick yet.
But I had DALE filled in before I saw the clue, and the penny dropped. Checked back to 9A where I had _ARD_ and confirmed opposites. Although BILL gave me LAtINA, which was obviously wrong, just as LISTERIA was obviously right.
Then the revealer was a cinch off just 2 letters.
BTW thx @Malaika for the recap; I know I saw it but couldn't remember the plot. FCOJ did it, though! I was working as a stock broker at the time. Not my favorite job by a long shot, but equivalent to, say, a master's in finance, which has proven useful.
Great Thursday puzzle, thanks Sam!
Solved it online, so it was a lot of toggling and difficult. I suspect it would be “easy” (easier fir sure) if sold on paper with a highlighter at hand. —CP in CA
I wondered why the NYT app didn’t highlight the pairs. It was honestly tedious to try and remember which clues were starred around the puzzle let alone guessing which answers were TRADINGPLACES. Usually when the NYT app decides to highlight grouped answers I find it to be overhelpful but today when there’s so little to go on as far as why certain clues are paired with others geographically, it would have helped a bunch.
Nice music links. Goo Goo Dolls “iris” is also a good choice. —CP in CA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NdYWuo9OFAw
Recognized Sam's name immediately from Jeopardy. He was a brilliant and classy champion. Great puzzle!
The pole position in car racing is the inside lane at the start. It’s a desirable position. All the other stuff makes sense too.
its a shame rex didn't do the write up because of nineveh, ny
Hey All !
Had hySTERIA before LISTERIA. Har! Pregnant women can get hySTERIcal...
Joining the "tough to figure out what in tarhooties was going on" crowd. SE corner turned out to be first solved section, so had LAUREL teasing me, making no sense whatsoever for the clue. Started thinking maybe the asterisked clues would have answers that turned to the left/right, up/down. Or a rebus somewhere, or were supposed to be read backwards... Finally got enough crossers to see the Revealer, and knew they asterisked clues would be put in different spots. Which helped me get DALE from CHIP, as CHIP again wasn't making sense for its clue. Still took me a while to get HARDY...
So a clever puz that had me ducking the punches it was throwing at me. Seemed like it took a while, other clues were mysteries, too. But, timer says 28 minutes, so, OK.
As BILL and TED would say, "Excellent!" (*Air guitar*)
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I get the Chip and Dale duo but I totally missed the connection between "hill" and "dale" — another commenter said "over the hill and dale" is a saying. In my 40 years over I've never heard anyone say that!
My favorite riddle/joke as a youth (c 1967):
q: How do you get down off an elephant?
a: You don't; You get down off a goose!
Oh see here’s a Thursday puzzle that I actually really enjoyed! Yes, it was a bit old-timey, but I was into that. Moreover, I really like the puzzles that reward trivia knowledge and this one didn’t disappoint. Lots of “oh, I know that one, let me just get a couple letters in there and it will come to me.” Very fun.
And so cool that Sam is both a debut NYT constructor and an awesome jeopardy contestant! You must be very proud, @Conrad. The Yinglish phrase “such nachas” comes to mind.
I took this week off to do some yard work and spring cleaning and studying, so I’ve been leaning into communicating with as few people as possible. Spring has arrived in the mountains: the garlic is sprouting, the Eastern Phoebes have returned to their nest (in our garage!), and my old dog has returned to his daily circuit of following the sun around the deck. Hope y’all are well.
Malaika: I believe you're a millennial and can do no wrong. Let Rex take the blame. Glad you're here today and thanks for your review.
Super challenging for me even though I grokked the ruse early. I rather enjoyed the fight, but yeeshk it took a long time. The entire west side was uncooperative.
Now, onto the far more pressing WTF. The Android Congrats screen changed today and now it's gigantic and white and in addition to your streak, it now rubs your nose in how long it took, that it's way over your average time, AND that your average time stinks. Here's the thing ... Will ... this timing crossword solves is like following every rule of golf when you shoot over a hundred. Kick the ball from under the stupid tree for gawdssake and get going. You're not playing golf on TV so nobody cares. Keeping solving times serves no purpose whatsoever except at speed tournaments and to give the commentariat one more thing to prove a hard puzzle was stupid since it messed up their average time that nobody cares about ever. I don't rush for lots of reasons. I like to think about the clues and words and rethink the clues (since an infinite typing monkey pool often writes them apparently). I like to have the TV on when solving, because, well, Harry Potter. I like to chat with my wife about things she finds amusing on Instagram while I solve, or about why she's going to leave me if I don't stop wasting all my time on crosswords. And if I were a hurry-up guy I might have gotten somewhere in my life, but I can literally see the hospital where I was born from my house. In my college Shakespeare seminar we read every play and I went to the library to listen to them on LPs (the predecessor to books on tape), but I would run the 33 & 1/3 albums at 45 rpm to get through them faster and to this day when I attend a live performance I lament the fact the actors don't have high pitched chipmunk voices going lickety split while doing the entire play. Timing crosswords! BAH! What kind of animals have we become?
Uniclues:
1 Fuel used to turn country church feature into a rocket.
2 Name that giant concrete Jesus.
3 Use a healthy snack machine.
4 Like or as a lot.
5 Character flaw of the soprano.
1 STEEPLE PROPANE
2 ICONIC RIO TEST (~)
3 VEND PEARS
4 SIMILE SPREE (~)
5 HATES ALTO
@jberg, on my phone. Listen, people, you do NOT have to find the pairs! You just to know that the answer to each starred clue is the partner of the correct answer in a comedy duo. I spent a few nanos trying to rebus LAUREL in at 9-A, but then HARDY emerged from the crosses, and all was made clear.
@Lewis, I could see that “Spotted” meant it was a hidden word, but I missed the signicance of “eastern.” Eastern Samoa contains 3 birds, one in the plural, so that took me a moment.
Q: @Wanderlust, how do you get down from an elephant?
A: You don’t, you get down from a duck! (Or goose, or eider).
Advantages of old age: we used to sing “The caissons go rolling along” in Boy Scouts. Also, we used to read Kipling:
The tumult and the shouting dies
The trumpet and the drum expire
The triumph and the sacrifice
Are one with NINEVEH and Tyre….
I’d never have got that one otherwise.
Had to get Laurel, Hardy and Penn before the trick became clear.
After that it went pretty quickly. I LOVE the movie, one of my faves from high school and
it has held up pretty well. I solved the puzzle last night at 11, but I just understood Eider 5 minutes ago!
LOL.
Hill/dale partnership is a bit obscure, but it comes from Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II:
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire
I do wander everywhere.
POLE position is the most advantageous starting spot for a race in something like Nascar or F1
I’m on the same wavelength as @Nancy today which is often the case. Found myself feeling irritated while solving and trying to figure out the PLACES that were TRADING but then my annoyance was tempered somewhat by the realization that they were matching pairs. I already like it better than I did when I was first finished. So I congratulate Mr, Buttrey on a nice debut. Also, my compliments and DEEP appreciation for the low level of trivia and proper names.
@Brando (2:52) The POLE is the first starting position in an auto race, and that car/driver is said to be “on the pole.”
Unwanted bit of mail HAS TO BE SPAM! Ugh, it’s BILL!
DNF for me,
tc
Thx, Sam; perfect Thurs.! :)
Hi Malaika, always good to see you! :)
Med.
Took a long time to suss out the swap theme. Finally, TED fit the BILL, and Bob was my uncle. :)
Otherwise, pretty much on Sam's wavelength for this one.
Liked GLEE over TRALA.
'TRADING PLACES' is a fave.
Enjoyed today's BILL & TED excellent adventure (puz-wise); not sure if I've ever watched the movie, tho.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Thank you @Lewis for alerting us that this is Jeopardy Sam Buttrey! He is a Jeopardy favorite of mine and now he's a favorite constructor, too. What a great puzzle. Thanks Sam! Hope this is the first of many!
I actually did not think this was hard at all. I don’t know why. I didn’t love it, the theme was cute, but the fill was, as Malaika said, OOF!!!! INS and INNS in the same puzzle? That right there is a fail. And if I was not a physician I would probably not know LISTERIA or ORGAN for skin. So I was lucky in that regard, and I got the clue pretty quick since TEDX didn’t fit and I figured, hmm, this is looking like BILL so maybe it’s some riff on switching names of famous duos. Anyway, different backgrounds help on different days.
Hated ON? What was that about?
I haven't read anyone yet...I don't want my mind further muddled, or changed, or twisted or have anyone sharing their thoughts...yet!
Speaking of mind...this blew me away. The majority of it felt like a gale. The pleasant breeze came at the end when I sat back and looked at this thing.
I HAD to solve this as a themeless. 1A here's looking at you and your BILL. Then I get to the next asterisk at 9A and wanted my wreath to be some sort of Christmas. Leave blank and cross fingers I'll figure this out. I've never seen TRADING PLACES, but for the luck of the Irish, I put you in your spot. Hmmmm. this is the theme. Continue on and hope it becomes clear because I REALLY want to know why DALE is a China problem. Mind wanders. OK, so a Wreath is HARDY and a CHINA problem is DALE and that bank employee is PENN and then BILL is an acronym for talks. Does this make any sense? Of course not. I'm on the hunt.
My AHA came at the end. With CHIP no less. Wait...didn't we have DALE somewhere? Is it CHIP and DALE? And look! it's also LAUREL and HARDY...OH WOW. At this point I wasn't sure if I loved it or hated it for making me work harder than ever on a Thursday
There were woes to be sure...Lots of them. But for reasons only I know, I was determined to "GET" this. I did.
I confess to cheating with the TRALA. I also cheated with his down partner, RENEGADE. So, perhaps, I got a C on my TEST. I'll take it.
This really is a sit back, take a breather and really ask myself if I enjoyed this. I did and I didn't. The did came at the end and the didn't was figuring this out. No matter.....I will remember this puzzle for quite some time.
Off to walk the pups and read everyone. I hope some of you felt a bit like I did.....
Absolutely loved Sam Buttrey on Jeopardy, and now this! Sam is a genius.
spent way too much time trying to figure what TED and spam have to do with each other
I am hung up on clue 9down: hates ON. Explain the on, please!
LOVED this puzzle! Thursday is my favorite day. The anticipation of what "the trick" will be and then finding it. Today was early on, because I got most of Penn from the crosses, and then it was obvious.
But my big Waterloo was in the NW. Since Ted didn't fit for talks, and I couldn't think of Ted and.. or .. and Ted, I thought of SALT Talks, and then Pepa. Once I had Pepa, it worked well with pilons instead of batons and patina instead of lamina. Just DNF'd that NW corner. Even once I had Ted in the SW, still couldn't think of Bill, was stuck on spam.
Yet all of that fol-de-rol, did not diminish my enjoyment one iota. But then, I also loved yesterday's puzzle! Another trick to solve.
Or is that TMI?
Good day to all. Peace.
This is a puzzle that would have worked, for me, better in a print version where I could have circled the asterisked clues — solving on the phone one had to memorize where they were, and they were spread out (i.e. not on the same line or in the same section) I knew PENN was a university in Philadelphia, that TED talks are a thing, etc. but never heard of the first “pair” — Bill & Ted — so in the end, after the happy music, was TLDF (too lazy too search for the clues with asterisks & match them all up & truly finish with finding the theme entries).
Ironically though, like Claire, I got the reveal movie title very early on so knew what I was supposed to be looking for. Oh well, TL….
You compete for the pole position
I really loved this puzzle and was so pleased when I realized it was my fave Sam Buttrey on Jeopardy! I confess I pretty much kid the puzzle as a themeless because I work on the NYT app and it was just too much to hop around and try to find the asterisked clues even though somehow I got the gist at CHIP and DALE. Also (hi @kishef) TIL that Temple U is called TELLER (familiarly).
@Brando….”red as a beet” would be a colorful SIMILE
@Gary J…I get you on the Congratulation/time thing. I dunno. I work on an iPad for the bigger screen and it has blown up big from day one for me. I work the crossword like you, eating breakfast, drinking coffee, chatting with my husband, etc. so probably the ONLY day that is a somewhat accurate gauge of my time is Monday. However, I’m afraid you’ll just have to pay no “never mind” to the info shoved at you/us because there are possibly more folks out there these days that CARE about that stuff. Good grief, there are people out there that care about their “streaks” and I will NEVER get THAT!
I think I've figured out why Lewis thanks the constructor every day and I never do. I usually thank people. I thank the person at the market who bags my groceries even though, like the constructor, they get paid for it. I feel that the puzzle comes from a broad process. Hundreds of puzzles are submitted, they are culled, they are edited, they are test solved and, perhaps, edited again. Since he is a constructor himself (and a gifted one), Lewis probably feels a personal bond with the creator of the puzzle. I feel something personal with the bagger who stands right next to me.
Like Nancy, I had trouble going back and forth, but I thought it was my fault, not the puzzle's. I liked it very much. I got the gimmick at Penn and Teller. I think the big guy (Penn?) is an avid solver.
Debut on Thursday? CHIP n dales for the party! Mrs. N. explaining the PLACES TRADING. OMG this was a frustrating delight 🎉
Sam Buttrey had to be one of the lovable pre-gangsters @LMS riffed on yesterday & the suit and tie for his NYTXW pix is just another tongue in cheek wink at the commentariat. Whatever as the Valley Girl noted: SB is a name to remember.
I liked it! I fell for patina which messed me up, but it was a very rewarding solve.
I always liked Chip and Dale - so excruciatingly polite. I heard somewhere that folks in the south are polite until they get to know you, and in the northeast they're only polite after they know you. I don’t travel enough in those regions to have any idea if there's any truth to it.
We sang “The Caisson Song” in grade school music. There's so much forgotten that was once commonly shared. Not just military anthems, (thanks for the Shakespeare quote). I remember a bit of another song from that music class - it had a line “swinging (?) along the open road, all in the fall, in the fall of the year!” I loved that song but that's all I remember now. Alas.
Nice clue for STEEPLE.
I am sad to say I didn't like this puzzle. @Melrose 2:49 AM described my experience perfectly.
The reason I am sad is that today's constructor was an exceedingly likable "Jeopardy" contestant, as well as obviously being a really good player. My wife and I were definitely on "Team Sam" in the Tournament of Champions.
HATE ON - phrasal verb - to criticize someone or say bad things about them, in an unpleasant and public way (Cambridge dictionary)
I'm with those who found this not fun. Somehow the majority of the clues just did not inspire answers from me. Rather like typical Fridays and Saturdays which I don't try to do. So not a criticism of the puzzle - just not for me.
Even after I figured out what the theme was doing, I found that part hard as well.
Fun puzzle, but it took me a long time to catch on to the trick (as I deferred the starred clues until I had filled the majority of the other squares). Add me to the list of those who loved Sam on Jeopardy!
Liked it more than I didn’t - struggled a bit at first AFORE getting the gimmick, but the pairs did help with the solve. Nice tricksy Thursday with not a ton/lot/crapton of gunk.
Glancing at random clues for a place to start gave me some early fun - crossing WOO WHOS.
Laughed out loud at seeing “Ere” as a clue. Lots of good clues, some tough. I liked the clue for ISNT. I had the same first impression as Malaika about the Brazil clue, but didn’t take long to SEE the error of my ways.
The term POLE position originated in horse racing.
EIgER before EIDER, because if I climb an Alp I’d sure want to “get down from” it. Apparently the Eiger’s North Face, Nordwand, has been nicknamed Mordwand for its murderous reputation.
Veneer before LAMINA, but when I saw ——VEH I knew that had to change. Sorry for those who didn’t know NINEVEH - it actually got me into the NW.
Nice to see GLEE clubs after reading about PART SONGS last week.
Last letter in was the “O” of ORGAN bc I just couldn’t get ORGAN out of its Easter music context.
But first, a bit of Bach for Maundy Thursday
@lodsf1120am
Claire??
@anon704am
The answers as clued would be chip dale bill TED laurel hardy Penn teller. As pairs they would be Chip and Dale, Bill and Ted, Laurel and Hardy, Penn and Teller. And my spellchecker wanted to capitalize Dale so now I know why you probably had dale capitized. Also count me as one who did not know TED was an acronym before this puzzle. Technology Entertainment Design.
@Nancy
Did you not notice that Trading Places was clued as a revealer? And connect it to the asterisks?
Yes I have come to expect the revealer to cause the theme answers to light up. The theme answers were scattered randomly and much easier to spot if you were solving in paper and pen(cil). Kind of a pain. but the theme was so clever I hardly griped at all. Are any of the complainers among those who complain about the highlighted themes make it too easy? I hope not.
Subtheme - Pairs. PEARS at 53D and all the themes were pairs. And who could ever forget Jamie Lee Curtis’s exposed pair in TRADiNG PLACES?
Over hill, over dale comes from Shakespeare before the Marines.
Chip 'n Dale is actually the correct pairing. Chippendale dancers come from the furniture style eponym.
Got the trick, but still got a DNF because I had PATINA for 3-Down instead of LAMINA. I think TED as an acronym is pathetic, frankly. Who ever heard of it? Considering all the legitimate ways TED could be clued, making it into an obscure acronym is terrible.
I give the constructor credit for a fertile imagination.
As an old dog face had no trouble with caissons but I didn't see anyone quoting the flowers that bloom in the spring trala from Good Old Gilbert and Sullivan. And going back a few days there was a nice quote from another Gilbert and Sullivan about Puba well p o o h b a Who sings about his many roles that reminds me of a wonderful music teacher back in Pearl River High School who had us do Gilbert and Sullivan and believe it or not she got the high school star football players to be the Pirates of Penzance. Thank you Charlotte Murray.
@Anon 9:52 – I've never heard anyone actually say "over hill and dale" irl either. But it's a phrase you see in writing quite a bit.
You’re right. And it helps to be older in this case.
We Stanford alums know all about the PALO Alto tree. It was always seen on a walk or bike ride to town, and is on the logos of both the city and the university. Apparently it has been restored to health, and could live for another thousand years.
I filled in the entire puzzle with no real problem, though it wasn't until afterwards that I verified which clues were TRADING PLACES. I too was baffled by LISTERIA.
For me, the hardest answer to come up with was RENEGADE. I was so sure it was "turncoat." And I never knew the Portuguese added an M to the Spanish/Italian "SI".
Agree that the origin is likely the army song. Then “over hill and dale” became sort of a literary descriptive phrase that I have seem or heard to describe the breadth of a search for something not found, fir example.
I should add that I came up with a far better clue for TOM: "Tower in Oxford?"
TOM is the bass bell at Oxford that bongs on the hour, and is so esteemed it had its own tower. There's a great round (song) called Great TOM IS Cast that tells us that students used to hang out in the local pubs until TOM rang the first notes of the 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. student curfew. My wife and I once stayed in a pub right across from campus, but were not counting the number of bongs. If it was closing time, we just climbed upstairs to our room.
@albatross shell (12:30)-- Of course I saw TRADING PLACES and knew that the answers to two different clues had been "traded" insofar as where they were to be entered in the grid. What I didn't notice/missed entirely was the whole PENN and TELLER, LAUREL and HARDY aspect of the puzzle.
I imagine I missed it for the exact same reason I'm hopeless with maps. My visual memory doesn't retain what isn't right in front of me. So that while I was, say, looking at the PENN answer and then connecting it to a different clue, I had already forgotten about the TELLER answer. Come to think of it, I also don't multitask very well -- which is why I generally don't multitask.
@Roo, I think "Excellent" was Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World.
@Carolita, me too for SALT Talks. Strategic Arms Limitation Talks talks. (Is there a term for when you repeat the word that one of the initials stands for?)
Over hill, over dale is Puck's first entrance in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Act II, Scene 1):
Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander every where,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green:
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dew-drops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits: I'll be gone;
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.
PUCK: How now, spirit! whither wander you?
Fairy: Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the fairy queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone:
Our queen and all our elves come here anon.
My cleverness brain was in a coma this morning. Picked up on the asterisks immediately, but didn’t get the gimmick until the last one, LAUREL over at 49 Down. To make matters worse, I still didn’t get it. I thought the TRADING PLACES of the answers meant that they traded from an across to a down and that sort of panned out. I looked at BILL and TED and that one worked but didn’t register as a known pair to me since I never saw the movie and apparently never even heard enough about it for it to register as a piece of trivia that might need to be sent to my “librarian” in my “crossword stacks” up between my ears. Ok, ok y’all quit your chortling. You know I’m an oldie. Which did in fact help on this fill.
What finally did it for me was seeing LAUREL and finally understanding. And that’s after getting all the rest of the fill. So I had the movie title which confirmed that answers needed to swap places to match their corresponding clues. Knew that super early simply from doing downs to solve the asterisked clue that clearly did not go with the answer that fit the squares. Just not why. Sheesh.
So, fill fairly easy, theme - got me! And I love it!!!!!!! Exceptionally clever. I live the struggle. Don’t mind the old slant (naturally) and adore it when I get flummoxed. Thank you Sam Buttry.
Very easy and even somewhat enjoyable for a Thursday.
That’s amazing! I was such a fan of his. Definitely considered him the only one qualified to go up against the super champs. Well deserved placement in the finals, and he was equally as wonderful as a person (if not more so!). This puzzle was a tricky treat! All the best to Sam.
Well, I submitted my comments here twice, but they never showed up.
Too lazy to type it all up a third time.
Thought everything was great, tho.
M&A
More difficult to solve on the app than need be because the theme fills were not highlighted.
The acrosses alone were hard. The downs were pretty easy, after which the thing fell without my ever understanding what was going on with the theme. One problem is that my failing mind confused "acronym" with "anagram," after which all was lost. Pretty clever. BILL and TED indeed.
@beverly c, is this your "Swinging Along" song? I’ve never heard it, but it’s adorable. Also seems a bit more complex than most kids’ songs.
@M&A, what a shame! I always look forward to your observations and sense of humor. I usually type up my comments in the Notes app, then copy and paste. Partially as a precaution against having to recreate them, but also because I'm paranoid about accidentally hitting "submit comment" before I'm ready.
Haven't you guys heard the Army's theme song? "Over hill, over dale, we will hit the dusty trail. And the Army goes rolling along."
Wow
@JoeD, nice avatars lately.
Hated trying to figure out which clues went with which answers. Very unfun!
Malaika writes, "And it's so impressive that the constructor squished four of those pairs in." I don't understand. The trick is swapping two clues. That doesn't affect construction of the the grid, does it? Couldn't you just as easily squish ten pairs into the puzzle by swapping twenty more clues?
@ Gary Jugert If you hate the puzzle format so much, just print it out on paper and solve to your heart's content without timing yourself. Problem solved.
I liked the theme and thought it was cleverly done, but there seemed to be an arbitrariness as to which clue/answer paired up with its partner. Unless there was a pattern I didn't see?
Malaika‘s explanation did not clear up 13 down for me. Why is Yes the answer to “Sim,” in Brazil?
Kind of surprised I got the gimmick as quickly as I did. But after hanging out in the SE corner a bit and getting LAUREL filled in on crosses, I was dismayed to think I must have made multiple errors, as I couldn’t think of any definition or reference where that could possibly be the answer. I had to just leave it, and hopped around some more, with LAUREL nagging me the whole time. Then when I circled back around to 9A and indignantly sputtered, “come on, here’s where LAUREL belongs…!” it suddenly clicked. Love it. Fun puzzle!
[Constructor spotted in western Samoa?] SAM
@M&A (2:25 PM)
Bummer! 😔
This article includes a line of code that Blogger will not allow to be included in this post:
"Among the many things you do online in a single day, we bet that taking down a note or two is somewhere at the top of your list. Was it for research? Recording a reference number? Brainstorming? Whatever the reason, having a scratch pad at arm’s length is a necessity. One trick that can solve that problem—turn your browser into a note pad. It may sound odd, but it’s entirely possible. For this tip, we tried it in Chrome, and we have to admit that this is a neat little trick everyone should have handy. All you have to do is copy and paste this single line of code into your browser’s URL bar:"
This works for me on my MacBook Air, with Chrome, Brave and Safari. I keep the tab open next to Rex's blog tab. The only down side is that if you do a computer reboot, page refresh, or accidentally close the tab, all the info is gone. Therefore, I keep a copy in both my 'Text Edit' app, as well as on my clipboard, since I have quite a lot of info on it, in addition to my daily contribution to the blog.
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
You can turn the timer off in settings and then it won’t show up on the gigantic white screen.
I really liked this puzzle. One of the hardest Thursdays I've done in a long time, but it never felt like a slog - it was fun figuring out what was going on. I was doubly pleased to see that it was constructed by one of my favorite Jeopardy contestants of all time - if he does a cover of "King Tut" that will be the trifecta of talent.
The very first answer I got was TRADINGPLACES. I remember sitting in my 8th grade math class, staring out the window as they filmed the scene where Louie gets bailed out of jail and meets Jamie Lee Curtis for the first time (that building is actually a community college, not a police precinct). Oddly enough, I bumped into her again in 2010; she pulled up a chair next to me at Redfish Lake in Idaho.
Memories aside, this was a very difficult puzzle but I'm sure happy I filled in the marquee answer before anything else,
TED is not an acronym of talks, no matter how much you try to massage the definition of acronym. The constructor ruined his puzzle with that ill-advised clue.
Let's try this again. Oh valued linker of the syncs: YOU'RE SKIPPING A MONTH!!! You've got us scrabbling around in MARCH! FIX IT!!!
To today's. I finally got it with PENN and TELLER. That gigantic aha! moment led straight to TRADINGPLACES, but the puzzle was still challenging. I really got off on the wrong foot with SPAM for 1a (clue at 59d). This made the NW the last to fall; ICONIC, isn't it? Of course, TED's partner isn't SPAM--it's BILL, another unwanted (snail) mail. That elicited a headslap.
Tons of triumph points on this one, and a rousing DOD to Jamie Lee Curtis, who so attractively adorned the featured film. I please to help HER with her rucksack, any time. Eagle.
Wordle bogey.
ON TRADINGPLACES
TOM'S AFRAID that IRIS goes
to SEE this HARDY feller.
AFORE this INFO harms EGOs,
he'll MEDDLE some and TELLER.
--- GLEN PENN
I really like Sam Buttrey and I hope he does well in the Jeopardy Masters tournament. Anybody but Amodio or Holzhauer would be fine. As for the puzzle, I found it was well crafted but the area branching off of SHIA linking up to NINEVEH was a bit cruel. Got it anyways. Overall, an excellent debut. Bravo Sam!
Got PENN AFORE the other two up top, so had an idea about the theme. Jamie Lee had a couple scenes in TRADINGPLACES where the VHS rental tape must have been about worn through. Gotta like a puz with daughter's name in it.
Wordle bogey.
Top 1/3 of the puzzle = HUH? Bottom 2/3 = standard Tuesday difficulty.
Fantastic puzzle!!! And upping the Thursday difficulty by not telling you who is PEARed with whom! Definitely on the best puzzle of the year Oscar list.
I managed to figure out the Thursday trick puzzle. Ha!
I tried to email Rex, but he now just has a "venmo" address - whatever that is. (I have no cell phone 'cept an emergency Tracfone) So no luck on the SyndieLink front.
Diana, LIW
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