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British author known for his 1984 novel Money / TUE 5-2-23 / Final Oldsmobile model / First female singer to have multiple albums exceed 10 billion streams on Spotify / Pioneering synthesizers introduced in the 1960s
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Constructor: Aimee Lucido
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- DOMINATRIX (17A: Woman who might wield a whip)
- MINI-MARTS (25A: Gas station conveniences)
- MT. RAINIER (53A: Tallest peak in the Cascades)
- MARTIN AMIS (62A: British author known for his 1984 novel "Money")
Burrata (Italian pronunciation: [burˈrata]) is an Italian cow milk (occasionally buffalo milk) cheese made from mozzarella and cream. The outer casing is solid cheese, while the inside contains stracciatella and cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture. It is typical of Puglia. (wikipedia)
Stracciatella di bufala (Italian pronunciation: [strattʃaˈtɛlla di ˈbuːfala]) is a cheese produced from Italian buffalo milk in the province of Foggia, located in the southern Italian region of Apulia, using a stretching (pasta filata) and a shredding technique. // Stracciatella cheese is composed of small shreds—hence its name, which in Italian is a diminutive of straccia ("rag" or "shred") meaning "a little shred". It is a stretched curd fresh cheese, white in colour, and made the whole year round, but is thought to be at its best during the spring and summer months. This stracciatella is unusual in that buffalo herds and the cheeses made from their milk are much more common over on the western side of the Apennines in Lazio and Campania. // When mixed with thick cream, stracciatella is also used to make burrata (Italian for "buttered"): this is a rich, buttery textured cheese which comes enclosed in a bag of mozzarella and is thought to have been originally created in the early 20th century in Andria on the Murgia plateau. It is also now made outside Italy, especially in the United States and Argentina. Since neither stracciatella nor burrata keeps well even when refrigerated, these cheeses need to be consumed promptly, while they are still soft and fresh.
• • •
The fill on this one is remarkably good, so nice that I barely noticed the Four Horsemen of the Crosswordese Apocalypse there (I'm speaking of course of ALERO EDSEL ERLE and NAST, speak of them only in whispers...). For a Tuesday grid, this one really bounces. You get double 7s in every corner, and every pair is a delight. In one case you even get thematic juxtaposition, with AMOROUS right alongside ROMCOMS! And BURRATA *is* A STEP UP from most other cheeses. You can also do yoga while listening to DUA LIPA and you definitely say "GOOD TRY" to someone whose effort you have ADMIRED, so there's little two-word images and stories in every corner. I don't think the other long answers work so great as a thematic pair, unless you know anyone who plays ULTIMATE with BURRITOS. I mean ... that sounds way more interesting to me than actual ULTIMATE, but ... probably messy.
Confession: I like AMAIN. I just like the word. I also like APACE. There's something quirkily old-timey about them that makes me smile. AMOK doesn't do it for me, but AMAIN and APACE are words I should squint suspiciously at, but don't. My only issue with AMAIN is that REMAIN is already in the grid. To ma(i)ny "main"s. In this same vein (the "main" vein, you might say), it's probably not ideal to put AMOS in a grid with AMIS. Yes, yes, they're different blah blah blah but they are homophones and one of them is your themer so it's probably best to clear out all soundalikes if at all possible [update: I’m told AMIS is pronounced like AMES, so nevermind??]. My only initial ERROR today was MOON for MARS but it wasn't really an ERROR—more an impatient failure to read the whole clue: "Let's see, [Destination for NASA] ok that's MOON or MARS and ... well, 4D: Enjoy the slopes is SKI, so MARS it is, moving on." On early-week / easy puzzles I tend to plow messily forward and let the crosses sort me out. Martinis aren't my favorite cocktail, but I might have one tonight, in honor of this puzzle. Or I'll just have my standard Manhattan up, in a martini glass. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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80 comments:
Nice! The theme works well and the theme answers are all very legit. I admit I’m not familiar with MARTIN AMIS, but that’s my shortcoming I guess. I was momentarily stuck in the SW with 61A, "modern checkout device". It would have been sooo much easier if the clue read, "device you’re using to solve this puzzle"!
So many different gins, and each one makes a different martini. I'm partial to Hendrick's. Also, I hated olives as a kid (couldn't take the salt, mostly). But I started having them in martinis and grew to like them. I awoke apace today, it's barely 4 AM, why am I thinking about cocktails already? I grew up near Moog's place, saw a few very cumbersome synthesizer concerts in my extreme youth. Mostly my impression was that the musicians took about as long to tune the oscillators between pieces as they did to play the pieces themselves.
My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Camel and sand, for example (4)
2. Passes out in front of a T.S.A. agent? (2)(5)
3. Priceless, in a way (3)(3)(4)
4. One eating a lot of wings (11)
5. One of three in many baseball fields (4)
TANS
ID CARDS
NOT FOR SALE
INSECTIVORE
ACRE
I’ve been away for a week, unable to post until now, but I want to thank all for the feedback —the kind comments as well as the thoughtful criticism – on Sunday’s puzzle (by Jeff Chen and myself). Many here seemed to enjoy it, which made me immeasurably happy, as my guiding question when I make a puzzle is: Is this serving the solver? Your likes and critiques help me to better answer that question, and hopefully improve my puzzle-making. Much gratitude to you, and it’s sweet to be back!
Cute theme. It kind of fizzled out in the south with MARTIN AMIS and GROOT. I’d have preferred that they would have quit while they were ahead instead of adding a clunker like that section. Probably a small price to pay for a decent theme though.
My favorite part of the whole puzzle was the parade of magnificent A-train answers, all gorgeous: GAGA, SUMATRA, CABANA, BURRATA, GANJA, GUAVA, and DUALIPA. Beauty like this so enriches a puzzle.
There were other pick-me-ups as well. A pair of PuzzPairs© -- MADAMS / DOMINATRIX and a backward DIVA to go with GAGA. There were three three-letter palindromes (MGM, ERE, ALA), plus that rhymey bottom with MUTE / GROOT and SPAR / STAR. A DOOK (ASTEPUP) which reminded me of the dog in The Jetsons. And how many times do you see BURR starting two words in a puzzle?
Aimee included four NYT debut answers, all worthy contributions to the oeuvre: A STEP UP, GOOD TRY, MINI-MARTS, and MT. RAINIER.
A lovely outing highlighted by beauty and happy-pings. Thank you for this, Aimee!
I got the theme early on with JAMESBOND, which somehow seemed obvious without any crosses, and MTRAINIER, the circles clearly indicating martini (duh, since we’re talking about JAMESBOND’s beverage). But I solved the puzzle as a themeless really, since I wasn’t about to spend time trying to figure out anagrams for the circles.
I enjoyed it, but I have one beef - the clue for IPAD is not correct, and it seems several people (including me) had trouble there. An IPAD at checkout is not used “in lieu of” a cashier, it’s in lieu of an older style cash register. It’s a way to pay electronically and the cashier is present. A machine used in lieu of a cashier is one of those self-checkout machines.
No overwrites to speak of, but MT RANIER without "(abbr.)" in the clue did make me reconsider CAM, A STEP UP and BURRATA.
I didn't understand the circled letters in 17A; MINATRI doesn't spell anything. But I got the theme after 25A had INIMART circled. And that let me fill in JAMES BOND without reading the clue.
Interesting that @Rex likes AMAIN and APACE but hates AROAR. He doesn't get an "A" for consistency.
No pain….
Who knew Alder and Birch trees went to the same reunions! Good
Cute theme. Recognized the anagram motif but couldn't figure out the word until I hit the revealer. Had trouble in the SW. First female singer ... > 10 billion streams on spotify.
FWIW from a stranger on the internet: I found your theme to be brilliant. Really well done, with so many layers of complexity. I found the puzzle tough but fair and really enjoyed the longish time it took me to solve.
If James Bond sleeps through an earthquake, can you say he was shaken but not stirred?
I heard a rumor that the next James Bond movie is being written by MARTIN AMIS. It involves Bond disguising himself as a DOMINATRIX to infiltrate a conspiracy in the MINIMARTS around MT RAINIER.
I’ll echo earlier comments about IPAD (on which I’m solving as well, @smalltowndoc), to which I’ll add: What is it about the cross with IMS that also irks me?
@Lewis, nice to have you back! I hope your travels were pleasant. That guiding question of yours is one I wish more constructors considered! I *am* quite curious about the thinking behind including HEROIZE, if you care to share - was that just a constraint of the admirable puzzle construction and so you two made the best choice you could? Or, was it more, “it’s a Sunday, it’s in the dictionary, fair game?” No pressure on responding, just wondering and always curious to learn more about constructors’ approaches.
@Weezie -- Yes, a constraint, I promise we didn't go out of our way to put that one in! And, BTW, your take Sunday on why I focus on the good parts of a puzzle was spot on.
Well, I really liked this one, and am already in good company. A very breezy Tuesday for me, mostly a wheelhouse thing I bet. I liked the contemporary/pop culture bent of this puzzle appearing during the night of the Met Gala, which was surely not intentional but has given a bit of a theme to this morning’s media consumption in general. (Sidebar: I’m obsessed with Jenna Ortega’s look, for starters.)
I liked CABANA and HUT right next to each other, it took me a minute to get YOGA MATS, and I thought the MUTE clue was cute. Agreed on the IPAD nit.
In defense of including the MT. in MT RAINIER, if I were the editor, my thinking would be, “how do most people refer to it? Is the “Mt.” usually or very often included?” And with RAINER I think the answer is yes, though the West Coasters in the bunch may correct me. Here on the East Coast, we would say Mt. Marcy (highest mountain in New York) but Marcy alone would be way less common, so I would expect to see MT in an answer. Whereas we would say Katahdin (highest mountain in Maine) but way less often Mt. Katahdin, so while I would accept the inclusion of MT. I might be a little grumbly about it. That second one might not be the best example because Katahdin is the Penobscot name which literally means “great mountain,” but lots of folks don’t know that. Anyway, somehow I’ve now written a long paragraph about what I think the rules should be for mountain naming conventions in crosswords. Welp, thanks for indulging if you’ve read this far!
I’d direct you to another “A” word: adverb ;) ~RP
Maybe not later in the week, but on a Tuesday I would have expected the clue for MT RAINIER to indicate an abbreviation. This may just be a me thing, but BURRATA also felt a little obscure this early in the week. Next to A STEP UP, which I had a hard time seeing/parsing, led to more resistance in the SW than is usual. In the SE, I need to remember there are no Os in DUA LIPA - I always want it to be Duo Lipo (which I realize now would be clued “2-for-1 deal on fat removal?”).
I’m not always a big anagram fan, but this theme was enjoyable and well executed. This seems like a theme in my comment, but MARTIN AMIS would have been pretty tough for a Tuesday without the assistance provided by the theme, at least for me.
Clever and clean. As for AMAIN and APACE, how do feel about AROAR, Rex and readers? (While it's in crosswords frequently, the NYT still doesn't allow it in the Spelling Bee. )
Misspelling GANgA threw me off for a long while before getting JAMESBOND. I was shaken, but not stirred.
@Joaquin – excellent Bond joke. Much more than a GOOD TRY, an answer I find suspect. NICE TRY is an expression, albeit usually a sarcastic one. GOOD TRY is just two words that someone might say together. Like "green paint".
No complaints on the theme though, which works just fine.
The Ultimate Figaro
And a shout-out to Mr. Lightfoot, RIP
I thought this one hung together beautifully, whether you particularly like anagrams in your crosswords or not. And all the theme answers were startling hiders of shaken martinis. (I’m always amazed by letter strings hidden inside other words – I still haven’t got over that “fourpeat” puzzle from two years ago which demonstrated that “No man is an island” conceals “anis anis.” See Sunday, 10 January 2021.) I got DOMINATRIX right off – woo-hoo! – but then got stuck at the second revealer. With only the initial M in place, my first thought was “MeN’s roomS”?? Well, it fit but would have been one of the worst answers in the history of the crossword puzzle. I didn’t fill it in but proceeded southward where I immediately ran into Mr. BOND and the jig was up. MT. RAINIER and MARTIN AMIS fell easily. I never considered that the abbreviation of mountain needed to be signaled in the clue, I guess because MT. is ubiquitous.
I think my only mistake was pAlApA for CABANA. I’m frequently grateful to the Spelling Bee for providing me with words used in crosswords that I’m otherwise unfamiliar with. But today I used a Spelling Bee word when I should have used something more typical. I liked CABANA’s neighbor being HUT. In 5A, I thought there was an interesting usage of pant-related CUFFS as a verb.
Rex pointed out the relationships between the adjacent 7-letter downs in three of the four corners: AMOROUS ROMCOMS, ADMIRED a GOOD TRY, and even BURRATA being A STEP UP when it comes to yummy cheese. Well – guess what! There’s also a link between YOGA MAT and DUA LIPA. Take a look.
UNICLUES:
1. Singer Bruno gets playfully combative with a certain Lady.
2. Pond scum found, oddly, at the top of a 14,000-foot mountain.
3. Guardians of the Galaxy’s silent soundtrack album.
4. The Barber of The-Entire-Cosmos!
5. Early failed experiment in the development of the nuclear reactor.
6. In the ashram, hated asanas but loved the cushy pad.
1. MARS CUFFS GAGA
2. MT. RAINIER ALGAE
3. MUTE GROOT TAPE
4. ULTIMATE FIGARO
5. FERMI ASH ERROR
6. ADMIRED YOGA MAT
[SB: Sun -7, Mon 0. Yikes, that was a massacre on Sunday. My mini-streak ended with a bang (and a whimper). And to make matters worse, only two of the missed words were remotely difficult. I atoned yesterday, though, my last word being this SB stalwart.]
Thx, Aimee; nicely done! 😊
Med.
Great start on the top 1/3, but a bit on the 'shaky' side thereafter.
Same issue as @JonB3 (8:30 AM) re: GANgA vs GANJA.
But, I RODE OUT the storm, and all ended well!
Fun rollercoaster RiDE.
Liked this one a lot! :)
___
Crocers: one cell dnf at the Ludacris / Mesdames. I actually considered the correct letter for the down clue, but couldn't make any sense of it for the cross. In any event, a med. unsolve at 1:40. And, as always, a most invigorating adventure! :)
___
On to Brooke Husic's Mon. New Yorker. 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
Naticked at Martin Amis and Dua Lipa (the “I”).
Bit enjoyable nonetheless.
I'm a bit surprised that a hip youngster like Rex drinks old-timey Manhattans. I'm an old guy and I have a version of one every night. Rye is too strong so I use a Canadian (usually VO but sometimes Crown Royal). I have mine over one ice cube without bitters or a cherry.
Nice puzzle but pretty bland.
Too bad Z is no longer with us, as I thought of him at ULTIMATE. Have a pic of FERMI on the fridge (not worth telling the story). Have seen MTRANIER on a lovely day from Seattle. And other fun stuff. Didn't actually get the theme but J______N_ was pretty clear for some reason, like because I wanted bean BURRITOS and that confirmed it.
So it whooshed until the SE, where it took a beat to come up with DUALIPA (downs only issue) even being pretty sure of some of the crosses. So peeked at the Across clues to verify.
Overall, nice job!
I got stuck when I misspelled Erle as Earl. Took me too long to figure out that was wrong.
Hey All !
"I'll take a BURRITO with BURRATA, please."
"Pull up to the first window."
/scene
Fun puz. Was perplexed at first after getting the top two Themers, and asking myself, "what is a MINATRI? Is that a character in some movie I haven't seen? And maybe INIMART was also in it?" Could be Sci-fi movie names...
But then got JAMES BOND and said, "AHA, I see. MARTINI is "shaken." Nice " Helped with the last Themer, as not being well read, never heard of AMIS.
Had two ERRORs for my DNF. GoNJA and NASh. Getting me SUMohRA for the Island. Sure, sounds OK. Retirement island for Sumo wrestlers.
Iam gROOt. 😁
Good puz IN TOTO. ASTEPUP could've been King Tut's assistant.
Wonder if DUA LIPA enjoys DUAL IPAs. Call me.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Joe Dipinto (8:49)
Just saw the news about Gord Lightfoot and I'm really saddened. He was one of our greats. One of my early favorites when the world was young:
There was a time in this fair land...
I shake mine, too, James. Unless I'm too tired...or too lazy...or in too much of a rush to drink them. A MARTINI that's shaken tastes twice as good as one that's stirred. Trust me (and Jim) on that.
What an adorable idea for a puzzle. I did think I was losing my mind when I saw MINATRI embedded in the first themer. In a million years I wouldn't have been able to guess what the theme would be. But the theme is fun, and working it into MARTIN AMOS -- even though I normally don't like proper name answers -- is a real coup.
How did DUALOPA (DUA LOPA? DUAL OPA?) manage to sell all those records without my ever having heard of her even once?* Are you going to tell me she's been in puzzles before? Has she? If so, I don't remember her. I did sort of remember GROOT, now in his (I think) third NYTXW incarnation, but only after 4 out of 5 letters were in:)
*That's what's known as a rhetorical question. It doesn't require a response. My good pals on the Rexblog already know this, but there's always someone on the Wordplay Blog eager to cluck their tongue at me for what they deem my unforgiveable unfamiliarity with some pop star or other whom they consider to be truly the most important figure in all of recorded human history.
A very enjoyable puzzle -- with a twist of humor instead of lemon. Nice job, Aimee.
Educational requirement for a future DOMINATRIX? S and MTRAINI ng.
I’m moderately confident that many people, probably including me, have at some point made a joke about a strong craft beer produced by 46D. A DUALIPA Dual IPA.
This puzzle contained reminders of two gone-but-not-forgotten commenters: ULTIMATE for @Z and “Birch relative” for @Birchbark.
The self-doubting shortstop finds himself thinking, “To ERROR not to err. That is the question.”
Really smooth puzzle. Thanks, Aimee Lucido.
Good example of a puzzle put together by some that doesn’t understand most of the answers and clues they used.
LOLed at “main vein”- thanks for the chuckle, Rex
Nice Tuesday, got JAMESBOND from the J in GANJA and already had a shaken MARTINI in DOMINATRIX so seeing how the remaining MARTINIs would be shaken was fun.
I had my first MARTINI when I was a sophomore in college and was invited to a cocktail party at the home of my Spanish professor. Being polite, I drank it all, but I have not had a MARTINI since. Not a gin fan, obviously.
@Wkeezie-Here in NH it's almost always Mt. Washington too. It's frequently referred to in the weather segments of the news because of the extreme conditions that occur at the peak.
Some nice fresh answers, but I'm going to be spending the morning humming "You say BURRITO, I say BURRATA', and wondering if GROOT can play a MOOG.
I join @JoeD in a sad farewell to Gordon Lightfoot, a real favorite of old folkies like me.
Absolutely Lovely Tuesday, AL, and thanks for all the fun.
Petition to kill old car models from before some of us were even born. It's just not fun.
My only quibble might be that I could have wondered what the heck was going on if the revealer had appeared a little later, but even knowing that I was looking for MARTINI didn't help me as much as it should have. Even though I do the Jumble most days, I'm not actually very good at anagrams.
I love seeing AMOK, who could forget "Amok Time" when you finally get to see Spock let his hair down? (It will always be a Star Trek clue in my heart.)
Sorry to be picky and pedantic, but the one thing I didn’t like about James Bond: “Vodka martini, shaken not stirred.”
For a guy who’s supposed to be classy and sophisticated, he orders a completely blasphemous cocktail. First, real martinis use gin, not vodka. Vodka is a cheap booze, lacking nuance. Second, never ever shake a martini. It over dilutes, creates ice shards and the drink loses complexity during the tasting.
The very request would indicate a person lacking knowledge of potent potables, and not in line with our Mr Bond.
I see it, I see it!!! No need to tell me!!! So stupid!!! It's MARTIN AMIS with an "I" -- which I knew perfectly well but miswrote -- paired with DUALIPA which I didn't know. A dumb mistake -- which would have cost me the $100,000 First Prize had I been in a tournament, but fortunately I wasn't.
Had to cheat to finish it, because of the MOOGS/GANJA cross. ANGIE/GIF cross was also tough. The theme was fairly easy to get, and enjoyable.
Also clever: Bond films are produced by…MGM
Shaken, not stirred, will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth. The reason you stir it with a special spoon is so not to chip the ice. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it.
Pretty slick theme and real good Tuesday overall, although I did spend some time wondering why all those circled letters seemed to be running AMOK and making no sense. But I valiantly RODE OUT my confusion and then of course, Bond - JAMES BOND - appeared and I could clearly SEE what was shaking.
I think I may have tasted a MARTINI once in my life and decided I’d rather drink rubbing alcohol. My taste in adult beverages runs more toward picking up a premixed daiquiri at the MINI MART on my way home. Anyway, I always think of the martini as a cocktail ordered by sophisticated city people which would explain why I couldn’t tell shaken from stirred, or a neat one from a dirty one, which I only know from watching Sex And The City.
MARTIN AMIS and DUA LIPA were also mysteries as was BURRATA which left me struggling with IPAD. I wanted some sort of acronym for a scanner like something with a UPC code. I get that an iPad can be used as a check out “device“ but something about the clue threw me. Guess I’m just more used to doing my own checking out at Walmart where there’s no iPad in sight. But there’s most likely a jug of skinny margarita mix in my cart. (Hint: For all you unsophisticated types, Margaritaville brand is the best.)
Took me longer than I thought it would. Very enjoyable once I got it.
BTW Lewis - thank you for Sundays puzzle which I'm doing (wish my brain was working!)
Proper names crosses felt a bit dangerous on the lower half, but patience saved the day. Honestly amazed how many things I knew cold only from doing puzzles. Crosswordese 2.0 kinda solve.
AMOROUS ROM-COMS crossing DOMINATRIX with MADAMS sends you away from the Hallmark channel and into the higher numbers on pay-per-view. This is a Tee-Hee-iest award winner: CUFFS, DOMINATRIX, GANJA, and DAMN.
Uniclues:
1 Lady finds Bruno arresting.
2 Famous cookie purveyor on weekends.
3 Electronic musician puts an end to Muzak in filling stations.
4 The duct kind.
5 Follow folded food for fun.
1 MARS CUFFS GAGA
2 DOMINATRIX AMOS
3 MOOGS MINI-MARTS
4 MUTE GROOT TAPE
5 FRIEND BURRITOS
Never have I seen an iPad "in lieu" of a cashier. I've seen cashiers use iPad, however. That threw me because I was too stubborn to give the right answer to the wrong clue. Other than that quibble, fun.
Sure sure—but the Edsel is a good story. And I bet when you are old you’ll spin some yarns about the first electric Mustangs. Check your ageism in the meantime!
Loved the theme. I got it from the revealer, so I understood what that DOMINATRIX was doing in the MINIMART. Nevertheless, I started to write in Moun... before I noticed that I was writing in circles. Doh! And then I couldn't remember MARTIN AMIS's name. I don't think I've ever read him, but I love his father's work, so I know of him.
By the way, Rex teaches literature so he may actually know, but is AMIS really a homophone of AMOS? I always pronounced it like amiss with a long a and stress on the first syllable, though someone once told me that it was actually a homophone of our favorite Iowa college town (which I would have liked to see in the grid too, for the trifecta).
I did like the obsolete-cars minitheme. And I knew DUA LIPA from her many crossword appearances (in the first three of which I wrote in DUA rIPA). Today's clue makes me think I should actually listen to her music.... OK, that's enough. Nice to dance to, I guess.
But GROOT? Is this something people know? I agree that ANIME is art, and so are Marvel comics, but I sure haven't memorized all the characters in either. Lucky thing I knew FIGARO.
It's close enough for a clue, but I would've said the GRIMMs were fairy tale "collectors" rather than writers. To me that would imply that they made them up themselves, like HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
Figured you'd like dominatrix.
👍🏻
JAMESBOND revealer. 007 U's. GROOT. Works for m&e. Nice one, Aimee Lucido, and now Bond Girl.
Did have some no-knows, at our house: MARTINAMIS. DUALIPA (kinda). GANJA (kinda). BURRATA (Pro-rata foodie errata?).
staff weeject pick: ANS. Better clue: {Articles of impeachments?}.
fave thing: GROOT. Need to strongly support our galaxy guardians. And his dog, Grrroot.
other faves: GOODTRY/TIEDYE. ULTIMATE. AMAIN + REMAIN. GAGA/GUAVA. BURRITOS, shaken, not BURRATA-ed.
Thanx for the anagrammer school of fun, Ms. Lucido darlin. Real nice AMENDS JOB TuesPuz.
Masked & Anonym007Us
I think IPAD is ok for the cashier substitute. They are ubiquitous for ordering food at the airport. I ordered a bagel through the system on one and watched through the glass as the employees loaded the bins with nice fresh bagels. Unfortunately I had no human contact with the workers as I took my little baggie with the stale bagel that was to be my breakfast. So in the end the IPAD really was not a good substitute for the human cashier!
Sometimes a puzzle will win me over with a single entry. Today it was the Indonesian island SUMATRA (28A). It is the 6th largest island in the world and straddles the equator just south of the Malay Peninsula. In the last several decades around 50% of its tropical rain forest has been stripped away, endangering many species unique to the island, including the colorful Sumatran Orangutan.
The main reason that SUMATRA won me over is because is also the home of another endangered species, my spirit animal, the Anoa, the smallest of all the buffalo (and also my avatar).
With _A_A_A in place at 40A "Shelter by the beach", I confidently dropped in PALAPA (hi @Barbara S.). I've seen them many times over the years, especially while traveling in Mexico. Crosses quickly showed it had to be CABANA. I guess that would be an upscale version of the PALAPA. Looks like those two qualify for a kealoa, right?
Easy. Familiar theme nicely done with a JAMES BOND twist, liked it, or what @Rex said.
Way too many proper nouns for me, not fun when you don't know names :/
Ian Fleming was a fine writer, but he created a character who didn't know what a martini is. It is 3 parts GIN, 1 part dry vermouth, optional bitters - STIRRED with ice (to minimize air bubbles so the end product is a lovely crystal clear), served in a cocktail glass with a garnish of seeded green olive(s).
And DUALIPA? WTF. Yeah, I looked her up. She probably shakes her martinis too.
I was off galavanting in the sun in beautiful Auburn and Grass Valley. I'm back now to some rain and wind in Sac. Did you miss me? No?
I haven't read anybody else yet and I will after I unpack and catch my breath.
The puzzle! Well, I'll start with my itty problems: ANS, IMS, and ATS which all sound like some DUAL IPA to go with BURRITOS and BURRATA while sitting under my PALAPA. Oops..It's a CABANA. Kinda felt like a woman wielding a whip.
I don't drink beer, but I sure do enjoy a good shaken MARTINI watching drool fest Sean Connery (RIP)... Timothy Dalton wasn't too bad to look at either.
So, you can well imagine that I really liked this puzzle. Nary a sour GRIMM note in sight. This was just down and out fun . I'm a little rusty but I managed to get oiled up with the likes of some MOOGS, a little GANJA a side of ANIME GIF and GROOT and a terrific GAGA dessert. Delicious. More please1
@Lewis: I didn't have a printer to download puzzles but everyone was napping on Sunday when I saw yours. I did it on my MacBook Air (which I hate) and couldn't stop for the life of me. I usually don't do Sundays because they've been so blah lately...yours made me dance a bodacious fandango tango... Best Sunday in ages! You and Jeff make a super team...More please!
Best Tuesday puzzle in recent memory!
For the tallest Cascade I typed in MOUNT and didn't have enough room left for any of them, even Adams or Baker. It seemed wrong to shorten it to MT. BTW I think you are pretty much in sight of one of those peaks all the way from Vancouver to Northern California.
@mathgent... me too for Crown Royal over a single ice cube. So tasty!
@Lewis, I was away for a long weekend opening up the cabin so missed your puzzle but will have to try it. I'm sure it was more fun than soldering burst copper pipes lying on my back in the mud in the crawlspace! Although hooray summer is finally here; temps in the low 30's C (high 80's F).
[Spelling Bee: away so no SB since Friday. Last week Sun to Fri: 0, 0, -2, -2, 0, 0. @Barbara S, that Sunday sounds pretty gnarly! I wish there were a way to play a day from the past.]
@JJK 7:05 Thank you for writing what I"d been thinking. Clue was definitely wrong.
That plus burrata (which I had to google, after I got it with crosses, to believe it was right) and the clue for 64A/mute - which I still don't understand, made the southwest corner slow for me.
I'm sure @Mikey (and James too) will consider me a Philistine -- and they're probably right as far as alcoholic orthodoxy is concerned -- but to @pabloinnh and @Whatsername I would say: It's no surprise to me that you hated your first (and last) MARTINI when it was made with gin. To me, gin tastes exactly like lighter fluid and no good drink can possibly come from it. Which is probably just as well. Bogie was famous for saying that all gin did was give you a headache and a hangover.
Why not try a vodka martini? (Sorry, Mikey.) Use Tito's vodka and make it with a 4 to 1 ratio of vodka to dry vermouth. No olives (too salty), no onions (that's a Gibson). Use a lemon peel as your garnish, rubbing it first around the inside perimeter of the glass. And shake it. No it won't be too watery. Shake using only three cubes of ice and put in enough vodka to compensate for any melting that might occur. I know you can all do that:)
@mathgent -- And I thought that I had a wooden leg. Wow! A Manhattan every single night???!!!! To the folks who don't know: a Manhattan is one of the most lethal drinks there is. I drank them from time to time when I was young -- it was my favorite cocktail, btw -- but I don't think I could handle them anymore. And certainly not on a daily basis. A Vodka Martini is mother's milk compared with a Manhattan.
I'm a musician and synth fiend so MOOG was lovely to see, but my question is who the hell is DUALIPA???
@JonB3 8:30 AM
Ditto. Fixing that G was my last square.
Rex said the theme answers weren't "strained"... I guess he's never made a martini. 😜🍸
@Barbara S. 8:53 AM
#4! Figaro had me stumped, but you cut him down to size, er, up to size.
Enjoyed the theme, but crossing CAAN and ALERO didn’t feel fair. Had to just guess at the A, thankfully only the second guess.
Basically all hard liquors have about the same level of alcohol. The standard these days seems to be 80-proof which would be 40% which goes up to 44% for Beefeater. There really isn't any difference in alcohol strength between gin and vodka, or even most other standard hard liquors, so I don't see how one would knock you out faster or make you tipsy any quicker than the other.
On the other hand I can certainly see how people might not like the taste of gin - or of a lot of other liquors. That was why vodka was invented. And also to enable Russians to get as drunk as possible as quick as possible.
All this fuss over the acrobatics of making a martini has fueled a nice little industry in mixing devices and eye droppers and other doodads, to wit ...
Mixology Bartender Kit with Stand | Silver Bar Set Cocktail Shaker Set for Drink Mixing - Bar Tools: Martini Shaker, Jigger, Strainer, Bar Mixer Spoon ...
A fool and his money, goes the old saying ...
I just learned that Erle is German for alder. Neat cross!
Thought it was a particularly dull theme - especially compared with yesterday's sparkling one. But I know I am not an anagram fan so take that into account.
The best thing about today was Rex's Simpsons video.
Also notable today was the "only ever seen in crosswords" consecutive ALERO and UDON - both filled in easily, despite never being encountered in the wild.
Also a bit surprised at how many people did not know Dua Lipa, because I'm a pop culture moron but knew her.
The only--and I mean ONLY--reason I know DUALIPA is via crosswords. The vowel-rich name has appeared all three ways: first, last and both. A constructor's darling, unfortunately not mine, but DOD for sure.
Starting this one at the top (for a change), I liked it. Always love me some Bond, James Bond. The south was definitely not a STEPUP. A bunch of techie stuff in the SW, cut through by a cheese that NO WAY belongs in a Tuesday grid. Then in the south central there's an obscure author atop a Marvel character, which if you aren't a fan (I'm not) you'd never get. Plus really, BURRATA and BURRITOS together?? I managed to finish by guessing, but one shouldn't have to do that this early in the week. ANS & ATS don't help the cause. Bogey.
wordle par--this time, strangely, sans yellows:
BBGBB
BBGGB
GBGGG
GGGGG
Loved it. But that SW corner was really tough. Learned a new word - BURRATA.
I too wished the word shaken would have been inserted somehow somewhere as a reveal instead of part of the clue. MTRAINIER did not bother me even though the abbreviation was not indicated in the clue. As for MARTINAMIS, it works fine and frankly it must be pretty tough to come up with anything else that fits with the “shaken” martini letters. Nice job Aimee!
PS:
Take a look at the Simpsons video clip Rex posted. In it Lisa is stumped when asked to come up with an anagram for Jeremy Irons. I have the answer….
……MINOR JERSEY
BOND. JAMES BOND
LIPA. DUA LIPA
Not the same. I, too, have mostly heard of Dua from X-words - and the stray mention on NPR.
I agree with @Spacey - not the typical Tuesday fare.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Not a Tuesday puzzle.
@Andy Freude 7:27am:
You've caught that bug that is only found on this blog. The RexNit virus. To get rid of it, do as Taylor Swift says: "Shake It Off"!
I can't believe anybody who does xwords regularly had a problem with Dua Lipa. I'm in my 70's and got it right away. At this point in time, she's xwordese.
Sadly, author Martin Amis passed away on May 19 between this puzzle appearing originally in the NYT on May 2 and its syndiland publication today. Knew of him (and his perhaps more famous father Kingsley) but DUA LIPA was definitely terra incognita for me as was the BURRATA BURRITOS diet duet.
Given the day of the week, AMOS say RUBY (Tuesday) MITE have been ASTEPUP from ANGIE at 38D...
MADAM’S FRIEND
SEE, the ULTIMATE DOMINATRIX
was DAMN AMOROUS and blond,
with CUFFS as A TEASER IN the mix,
and ADMIRED by JAMESBOND.
--- ANGIE GRIMM
To anonymous 3:13 pm. Re: MINOR JERSEY… Isn’t that what they call the sweaters peewee hockey players wear?
Also a JAMESBOND fan. Martinis not so much. MARS at 1a and in the corners.
Wordle bogey after four shots at GBGGG.
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