THEME: BEASTIE BOYS (37A: Rap group with the classic 1986 album "Licensed to Ill" ... or a description of 17-, 24-, 48- and 57-Across?) — DESCRIPTION
Theme answers:
WOLF BLITZER (17A: Longtime host of CNN's "The Situation Room")
TIGER WOODS (24A: 11-time P.G.A. Tour Player of the Year)
BEAR GRYLLS (48A: The man in "Man vs. Wild")
BUFFALO BILL (57A: Wild West showman who lent his name to an N.F.L. team) (that team, of course: the Miami Dolphins)
Word of the Day: WORD (CLUE) —
Beastie Boys were an American hip hop group from New York City, formed in 1978. The group was composed of Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar, programming). Beastie Boys were formed out of members of experimental hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines in 1978, with Diamond as vocalist, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach on drums. When Shatan left in 1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the band changed their name to Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz.
Beastie Boys have sold 20 million records in the United States and had seven platinum-selling albums from 1986 to 2004. They are the biggest-selling rap group since Billboard began recording sales in 1991. In 2012, they became the third rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the same year, Yauch died of cancer and Beastie Boys disbanded. The remaining members have released several retrospective works, including a book, a documentary, and a career-spanning compilation album. (wikipedia)
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This is cute. Any puzzle that puts BEASTIE BOYS front and center is gonna get a lot of leeway with me, but this theme doesn't need leeway. It's simple, lively, and consistent, and the wordplay is kinda charming: a bunch of "boys" with "beastie" first names. Normally balk at calling grown men "boys" (outside of band name contexts) but for this one occasion, I'll happily allow it. The only themer I have mild qualms about here is BUFFALO BILL, and only because ... that's a stage name. And BILL is not his last name (whereas Blitzer, Woods, and Grylls—all last names). So old Bill there seems like a significant outlier. And yet only one of these guys was actually called his "Beastie" name at birth (Wolf). Tiger's name is Eldrick Tont Woods, and Bear was born Edward Michael. So liberties are being taken all around, and why not, who cares? It's fine. This is how we actually know all these guys, and all of their names follow a Beastie-first pattern. Done. Can you think of other BEASTIE BOYS. I got ... let's see, GOOSE GOSSAGE, there's one. And then there's MOOSE MALLOY, but that's only gonna resonate with hardcore Raymond Chandler fans ... I guess anyone named JAY or ROBIN might count, but that would feel like cheating. BUCK OWENS / HENRY / O'NEIL / ROGERS? Again, with so many options to choose from, BUCK feels weak. CAT STEVENS ... but you've already got a TIGER, so ... I guess he's out. It's not so easy to get a really unusual Beastie set, and to get them to come out all symmetrical like this—that takes some good luck (and probably diligence). Bit awkward to have another "Beastie Boy" lurking in the grid right over Bear's shoulder, though ... but there he is RATSO Rizzo, wondering why he didn't get the invite. "Hey, you guys having a meeting or party or somethin'? What gives?"
I missed the whole BEAR GRYLLS phenomenon, but learned his name when Obama (!?) appeared on his show back in ... looks like 2015. Here's the episode description:
President Barack Obama and Bear Grylls explore the Alaskan wilderness, where they observe evidence of climate change, sample wild salmon and catkins tea made with water from melting glaciers; Obama discusses his official duties, parenthood and faith.
But never (ever) having seen his show, I can never really remember what he does. If you asked me even yesterday what BEAR GRYLLS is famous for, I'd've said, "Uh ... grilling?" But I knew *his name*, which was all that really mattered for the purposes of this puzzle. I was more fortunate when it came to my familiarity with the other names in this grid. ALLISON Janney is well known from "West Wing." I never saw "I, Tonya," but I have seen (many, many times) Nicole Holofcener's "Walking and Talking" (1996), and Janney has a small but memorable part as a neighbor lady in that movie. I also had no problem with St. VINCENT, a name that (as clued) is going to be the biggest proper noun stumper of the day for most people, I'm guessing. I own like five of her albums and listened to her (delightful) podcast ("Mixtape Delivery Service") for a while, so, between BEASTIE BOYS and St. VINCENT, this puzzle was really talking my (musical) language. St. VINCENT (not surprisingly), like BUFFALO BILL, a stage name. Her real name is Annie Clark. Ooh, looks like she's got a new podcast about the History of Rock ("History Listen: Rock," from Audible). Definitely gonna check that out, possibly today. I'm bizarrely happy about this discovery. Woo hoo, sometimes writing this blog pays off in unexpected ways.
The middle of this grid was the most fun for me. Something about BOGEYing into BEASTIE BOYS and St. VINCENT and then GOing VIRAL really worked for me. I also had a mini-struggle in there with RAN- at 27D: Shared with for feedback (RAN BY). Was not considering two words, and one-word possibilities were ... nil. Just when I was getting frustrated, the BEASTIE BOYS gave me the "B" and I saw that it was RAN space BY, which is just fine. I mean, not as one word, of course ("What the hell's a RANBY!?"), but as a two-word phrase, mwah, great. I laughed at TORY because it's the first thing I wrote in but I was *sure* it was wrong, since TORY is my reflexive response to "Conservative" only because I solve So Many Guardian (UK) cryptic crosswords. That puzzle has retuned my brain in weird ways. "Conservative" can signal "C" or "CON" or "TORY" or ... oh god, my brain is tripping into cryptic-solving mode, gotta stop it before it runs away from me. Anyway, surprised to see TORY be the answers, since nothing in the clue screams (or even whispers) UK. SBALOANS is an ugly longer answer, and DDAYS is never welcome in the plural, but overall the grid looks nice, I think. There were two kealoas* that I noticed today, but only SHH held me up (it hasn't been SSH since 2000, but ... you never know). As for WIENERS, well, I had the WIE- spelling already sorted before I ever looked at the clue. You can spell it WEINERS, right? Right? Martin, what do you think?
See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
Felt like a difficult Tuesday. At some point it seems like the Weiner became a Hot Dog. But I remember the term Weiner Roast from when we ran around afterward and caught lightning bugs in Ball Jars as it got dark. Maybe Weiner Roast and Lightning Bugs are regional things.
The yard was full of lightning bugs back then. Moved back to the home town and have seen only a few here and there. Light pollution from all the chain restaurants and stores probably did them in. The chains also wiped out all the mom and pop businesses that the SBA might've helped. Liked SBA Loans because I knew it.
Easy, except for BEARGRYLLS/ESTAR cross. It didn't look possible there, but trial and error got it done. Not too many misdirect clues, which made the puzzle very doable (even for a senior citizen who never heard of the BEASTIEBOYS,
I was hoping OFL would count all the three-letter answers in this one so I wouldn't have to, but he didn't. I don't usually notice these things but I thought today might be a record. Maybe someone who keeps track of these things can help me out.
Always interesting how some cultural info is right in OGL's wheelhouse (BEASTIEBOYS, ALLLISON, VINCENT) and be virtually unknown to me. I have heard of BEARGRYLLS but not seen anything he has done, and it's an interesting name so memorable (see also BEASTIEBOYS).
Also, BUFFALOBILL's defunct. I guess you can stick him in a crossword though.
Easy breezy Wdnesdecito, BK. A Bit Kebob-y, as it was chopped into many small pieces in sections, but I liked it fine. Thanks for all the fun.
Good, breezy Wednesday except for the last letter to fall: the R in ESTA- and BEARG-YLLS. Tough if you’re not a Spanish speaker and have never heard of the bear dude.
Okay, throw Allison Janney into a puzzle, who wowed me in “The West Wing” and “I, Tonya”, and I’m on your side. Add a rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap (STRAW), and I’m singing your praises. Have RATSO join in the party, he of one of my favorite movies, and I’m yessing while pumping my fist. Scatter in words I love – BLEAT, BOGEY, SMELT – and I’m bowing down to the puzzle.
Then, as I’m reading post-solve about BEAR GRYLLS, who I had never heard of, I’m filled with sweeps of inspiration after learning that 18 months after breaking three vertebrae when his parachute failed to open during a military accident, he, at age 23, climbed Mt. Everest.
A well-constructed grid filled with pings of adoration and a sweep of inspiration, and well, as they say in Hokeypokey-ese, that’s what it’s all about. Thank you, Brandon, for this huge day-brightener!
I can’t find the podcast! I guess I don’t have access to Audible. Bummer. Anyhoo, the only reason I know of Allison Janney is that someone once thought I was her! Haha, made me curious about how she even is.
This was squarely in my wheelhouse, so it came within a minute of my fastest Wednesday time.
A quick tip for non-Spanish speakers - virtually every single verb infinitive ends in -r, so I think folks could take to writing in the last letter as “R” when clued accordingly. (There are reflexive verbs whose infinitive ends in “se,” but I really doubt the NYT would ever include them as answers.)
In general, a really lovely puzzle, I thought. Lots of great words and a cute theme. Other Beastie names: Bobcat Goldthwait, Foxy Brown (slant answer), Bugsy Siegel (slant answer, or use one of the many old-timey baseball players named Bugs). Allison Janney is a magnificent actor, worth checking out.
Promising grid, diminished a bit by the PPP theme, especially with the niche “celeb” BEAR GRYLLS (and yes, I know that like most celebs, he probably has a million followers, etc - no need to enlighten me). To be fair, some may refer to one of my faves, the lovely and talented Ms. NORA Ephron (RIP) as just a niche Hollywood personality as well, so things have a way of evening themselves out I guess.
The rest of it was fun for me because they kept the cluing at about Tuesday-level, which helps when faced with a PPP theme.
Like yesterday, a theme that played mostly themeless, but knowing that I was looking for a BEASTIE name did help me pull BEAR GRYLLS from the memory banks more quickly than I otherwise would have.
VINCENT was the only unfamiliar name but fairly crossed. BETA TEST was hard for me to parse. Otherwise seemed fairly easy. I’m not a fan of ETAIL in puzzles - even when shopping on line was new, the term wasn’t as common as it seems to be in Crossworldland, and now it feels pretty musty.
One of the few times I can say TOO EASY about an NYT crossword. Except for BEAR GRYLLS, NSFW. Also ALLISON, but it got filled in by the crosses. Enjoyed it.
This was fun. I’m familiar with all the BEAST-men, which helped. Oddly, I know BEAR GRYLLS from my bookstore days. He’s written some 20 books, although how he has time to write when he’s normally off climbing mountains or crossing oceans in small open boats, I have no idea. I’m not particularly captivated by the deeds of adventurers, but one thing you have to say for BEAR is that he often uses his exploits as ways to raise money for charity, particularly charities supporting children, so good on him.
Interesting clue for REBUS, of which I suspect @Anoa Bob will approve. Count me among the fans of ALLISON Janney, but I didn’t know St. VINCENT at all. Fortunately, when I saw the clue, I already had VI_C_NT, so the answer seemed obvious. I noticed GO BAG and GO VIRAL, but repetition never bothers me. Funny how BOGEYED crossed the highly successful TIGER WOODS. Three errors, easily fixed: EmAIL (although for a second I did wonder why I’d never run into the crossing word SmOLEN meaning “pinched”), hEE for YEE, and the wrong consonant doubled in ATILLA.
UNICLUES:
1. Hot dogs you can surf anywhere. 2. The latest in biodegradable fashion on campus. 3. Nickname of golfer-wading-bird who spends a lot of time looking for lost balls in shallow water. 4. William Randolph’s favorite fish.
[SB: Yd -1. Missed this. I sometimes get words in this category and sometimes don’t. But all was not lost: I had no less than two words they wouldn’t accept to get cranky about: CAPACITATE (which I think they used to like) and CAVITATE. As a maker of hot cereal, I watch my porridge CAVITATING every morning as it bubbles happily on the stove.]
The last cross to fall was ETAIL/STOLEN and had to write over SmOLEN to get it. WOE is smolen? I don't know, but I'll tell you when I figure it out. Sometimes it's amazing how dense I can be with a simple (Pinched) clue. Usually it's because I am so distracted by the cross, which was the case today since ETAIL is a TIL word. Otherwise a pretty breezy Wednesday, which I needed because I am still licking my wounds from Saturday.
FH Somebody asked..... I count 20 3-letter answers. Since none of them cross each other, that's 60 answer-squares occupied by them. There are 185 'answer-squares' (total of 225 minus 40 black squares), and so the 3-letter answers occupy 32.4% of the answer-space. No idea if that is a record; but my guess is that it's close.
Would have been easy for Tuesday. Would not have been too out of place on a Monday. Of course, it helps to know all the themers (though the spelling of GRYLLS surprised me).
I really feel that if your theme is proper names, you ought to avoid additional proper names as best you can (ALLISON, NORA, VINCENT, RATSO, ATTILA, HEARST). I’ll actually give a ‘George Washington’ exception to ATTILA (really well known names get a pass). On the other hand, VINCENT, which pretty much had to be clued as a name, went with a particularly obscure VINCENT.
Moose Skowron, baseball player Cat Stevens, musician Rabbit Maranville, baseball player Fox Mulder, from the X-files Bobcat Goldthwaite, ‘comedian’ Gopher Smith, from the Love Boat
A proper name-themed puzzle where, happily, I knew all the names except for ALLISON and BEAR GRYLLS. But here's why I don't like puzzles based on proper names: When you don't know who in the world thee people are, it's maddening and when you do know them, there's no challenge and it's boring.
Because I was reading a book review at the breakfast table that finished on the puzzle page, I found myself -- as I usually never am -- looking at the puzzle without a pen in my hand. So I solved much of the puzzle in in my head -- and by the time I picked up a pen and started filling it in, it was like I was solving it for the second time.
Very easy and also not very interesting, I thought.
ESTA…; BEARG…YLLS. Yikes! 🤔 Will think about this td, before likely taking a stab at it.
BOGEY golf was my goal.
Learned the UKE before the guitar.
A fun adventure up to the Spanish cross BEAR. ___ @pablo; did you do Anna's NYM? I found it overall easy-med, except for the 3-cell dnf at the cross of the two authors, the 'small sound' and the last letter of the Oscar's campaign. Always enjoy Anna's work! ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
NO, you can never spell it WEINERS. It's name derives from the Austrian spelling of Vienna, which is WIEN. WIENERS are "from Vienna" such as Wiener Schnitzel
Likewise, Frankfurters are from Frankfurt, which isn't even in the same country as Vienna, but somehow we tend to use those terms interchangeably on this side of the world. Whatever.
Pretty easy to see where this was going early on, pretty easy in general. Not much resistance at all except I came close to a Natick at 48A, having never heard of BEAR GRYLLS. The only other apropos name that popped up in my mind was Catfish Hunter, who pitched for the A’s back when they were still in Kansas City.
The BEASTIE BOYS don’t do a thing for me but I’m with @Lewis on loving ALLISON Janney in my puzzle grid. Yes she was absolutely wonderful in “Tonya” (as was Margot Robbie in the title role). And if you missed her in The Help, she nailed it as the old school Southern matron hoping to marry off her wayward daughter.
Unlike most PPP theme puzzles, this was easy. It helped that I caught on to the theme right away. I didn’t know BEASTIEBOYS was rap, so I needed some crosses there - didn’t expect to be familiar with the name but I was. Most of the names I've heard but don’t Know. Exception being the BEAR guy. No idea. Still easy.
I spent a couple of pre-teen years living in Cody Wyoming in the late ‘60s. It was Buffalo Bill Central. His grandson rode on horseback in the 4th of July parade looking just like him, lanky, with the beard and long white locks. After the parade I'd roam around the basement of the Woolworth's store, eyeing the colorful plasticware like candy. Sometimes at the soda counter they had a collection of helium balloons. You'd pick one and the lady behind the counter would pop it. A little piece of paper fell out with your price for a banana split. Kept hoping for a free one, but liked them anyway.
1 🍆 2 Add rocks while Van Gogh paints. 3 Why ladies love William Frederick Cody. 4 Latest Google invention to encourage colon screening. 5 Reason #1 for throwing a hula themed party at the university. 6 My front tooth.
1 NSFW REBUS SHH 2 ICE VINCENT 3 BUFFALO BILL UKE (~) 4 WIFI WEINERS 5 STRAW COED TOP 6 HATED IT YELLOW
BEASTIEBOYS - quite possibly my least favorite 20M album selling “band”. They were like an annoying joke to me. Like something Adam Sandler would have spoofed in a movie. I do not consider it music. Anyhow, easy puzzle other than BEAR, who I have never heard of. And I never really thought that the Buffalo Bills were named after a guy, thought they were named after animals.
Easy, in that even if I didn’t know the specific trivia that would yield the answer to one of the proper names (never watch CNN or Man vs Wild, not a golf fan, a little too young for the Beastie Boys), I recognized all the names, and it was easy to get them from the crossings.
I did very much want it to be a Wienie or Weenie Roast though. Wiener roast just seems oddly uncomfortable to me.
Very cute, and mostly easy. Thankfully, I'd heard of the BEASTIE BOYS, whom WOLF and TIGER quickly recalled to mind. I didn't know BEAR GRYLLS, though, and relied on the theme to get his first name, as I'd stalled out on the crosses. Besides the Bs of the BOYS - BLITZER, BEAR, and BUFFALO BILL - I enjoyed the alliteration of BETA TEST, BOGEYED, and BLEATS (Billy the Kid?).
@pabloinnh, @bocamp - Feeling a bit like the grid's RATSO (see @Rex), I'll nevertheless elbow in on the NYM puzzle: I lucked out on knowing all of the names, but wondered how many solvers would know both of those authors. The crossing letter isn't really inferable, I don't think. Probably my first "easy" Monday there; nice after last week's DNF.
Does BEAR GRYLLS have a TV show? I think I may have seen it once, which was enough to give me the easy part, but GRYLLS required every cross. Since the theme was obvious after the first two, BEAR was very gettable.
I was bothered more than Rex by DDAY -- there's only one, really. There may have been others before 1944, but that one wiped them all from history's memory.
I really would have liked to see ALARIC, who sacked Rome in 410 CE, as the fifth century conqueror, and he fit, but I couldn't see the NYT doing that.
@beverly c., thanks for the memories of Cody! I was there exactly once (it's really out of the way). I used to summer in the Paradise Valley of Montana, and once we decided to go home by driving through Yellowstone Park to the East Entrance, just so we could visit the Buffalo Bill Museum. It was worth the trip; a much more serious museum than I'd expected. I had hoped to get back there last summer and drive through the park again on a road trip to Oregon, but the floods closed that route down just before we left Boston. Maybe next year!
@pabloinnh -- Heard back from Jeff. He didn't know off the top of his head, but gave me a link to this page, which might hold the answer: https://www.xwordinfo.com/BWStats/MostWords .
I can tell you that the second puzzle on the list, by Patrick Blindauer, has 38 threes, but it's theme related...
My sticking point today was BETATEST/RATSO. The latter doesn't mean anything to me, so I was stuck with BETA_EST, but my brain just would not parse it as BETA. I was looking for letters to file "BE TA_EST" and "BET A _EST"and nothing was clicking. Ugh.
Other than that, I flew through it as an easy Wednesday.
I was quite happy to see the Beastie Boys in the grid. I wasn't too much a fan of them until my cousin asked me to bring him back the Check Your Head CD back in '93 when I visited him in Tasmania. He must have blasted it three times a day, every single day I was there. After awhile, I could not help but love it and become a Beastie Boys fan. Fantastic music, great groove on their instrumentals, a wonderfully boyish sense of humor. What's not to like?
Easy...in my wheelhouse too. My biggest problem was that I can never remember how to spell ATTILA (it took me two tries just now) (dyslexia is not fun). Fun breezy Wednesday, liked it.
Kinda tame, those critters. Even for Wednesday. Only having “changed the y to an i before the past tense ed” slowed a top to bottom plunge. Amused to have TIGER WOODS/BOGEYED intersecting. Then the music didn’t play with pAWn as the 66A entry and I actually had to read the clues to 47 & 55D! Clearly “tools “ calls for the plural, but lulled into inattentive isn’t a good puzzle place apparently. Always fun to see Brandon & his cute kids pop up on the xwordinfo constructor note—even on a hump day.
@bocamp and @Carola- I finished the NYM without knowing the proper names but I made some good guesses on crosses. Otherwise I don't put it in the "extremely challenging" category. OTOH, I'm still spinning my wheels in the NW of the Saturday Stumper.
@Lewis-Thanks again for the additional research. You're a brick, and anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight.
What’s up with this seeming recent trend of NYT puzzle themes being based on PPP? (Haven’t finished puzzle or read comments but not a fan of PPP-themed puzzles.)
double DOOK for me. Had H_TEDIT and put in HOT EDIT. Didn't know what that was, but constructors always find phrases that I don't know. No happy music, so read the clue for 16A and put in the A. HAT EDIT? Even more obscure!
@Barbara S.-Meant to include you in a previous post as you have made my day with the news that's it's International Otter Day. This should be every day, of course.
I'm going to look for my Otter Power t-shirt (yes, I really have one).
Beast puz with the Jaws of Themedness. Like, especially as a hidden-birds followup. Gets a no-know for BEARGRYLLS, at our house. ESTAR crossin didn't help the cause much. Luved the bonus RATSO beastlet.
staff weeject pick: That NE SHH-ATA-BAE stack was hard to beat.
Alice - Definitely agree about your BEASTIEBOY assessment. I had not idea they sold 20 million records! I remember Fight for Your Right to Party - but that was about it. My gang were all rockers
There's Bat Masterson, who'd tie in nicely with Buffalo Bill. One letter too long though, and would a bat be considered a "beast"? I tend to think of beasts as larger creatures.
This was basic and easy but enjoyable. I didn't feel like 3/4 of the clues were trying to prevent me from getting the answer, as is usually the case. Unfamiliar with Bear Grylls but I knew every cross.
The first time I saw Allison Janney was in "Big Night" – she played the flower shop proprietor that Tony Shalhoub had a crush on.
Well, my bugaboo started with 1A. Why do I have to wait to get home to click anything....NSFW? Who are you and why should I click you. Well I clicked...only because of all the downs guiding me to a WOLF. Names! I just thought about doing a puzzle without one single name. And here we have an elephant in the room blowing names all over the place. OK...so I finished. I sat back and looked at the puzzle. Full of BEASTIE BOYS. Not so bad. I knew them all. that helps. My head slap moment...The Spanish 101 infinitive clue at 34D. What's an infinitive...I forgot. Is it a verb form that ends in something or other? Yikes. See, I didn't know BEAR GRYLLS last name and I needed something. Oh...look! it's ESTAR! ESTAR hasta las narices. Yep...That was me. Anyway...fine enough Wednesday that I finished easily. Yep.
@Whatsername's mention of the great Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter (may he rest in peace), reminded me of a very funny commercial he and comic Norm Crosby appeared in, for I-don't-remember-what.
Crosby was known for malapropisms. And in the ad, Catfish says something about the product and Crosby responds "Bull's-ear Catnip!" It's been decades and I still get a chuckle out of it.
Crosby passed away in 2020 -- may he rest in peace too.
No "best of May" picks from @Rex today? Here are mine, all from the very start of the month:
Themed - CAPITAL GAINS (David J. Kanh, Thursday, May 4th) Themed - SAY CHEESE! (Catherine Cetta, Monday, May 8th) Themeless - Carter Cobb, Saturday, May 6th (the one with the double triple-stack and few black squares)
BEARGRYLLS dropped in real easy for anyone who’s been watching NBA and NHL playoffs on TNT/TBS - the commercials for his new show Survive Bear Grylls are on every other break it seems!
Just this weekend, my husband, a big BEAR GRYLLS fan, was explaining to friends the premise of the show and talking about the Obama episode. Obama never had to do any of the hair-raising stunts other guests have had to do, but he did eat some salmon found on the side of the river. His security wasn't far away and he kept his cell phone and I don't think they made him fly on the outside of the helicopter as so many guests have to. But that's such a weird coincidence, that it came up just yesterday in conversation.
Like Rex, I threw in S_H at 10A and waited to see if it was SsH or SHH, similar to the AAH or AHH kealoa.
I knew who St. VINCENT is because my friends' daughter was working on one of her albums a couple of years ago (production assistant or something, I think) so I bought the album on CD because it had Megan's name in the credits. And it was a pretty good album.
Wow. Where yesterday tried hard to be cohesive but just didn’t make it, today had it all. Clever, tight theme that was fun to solve. As it unfolded, I suspected an animal theme and was not disappointed. The reveal was cute and humorous. What mire could I want? Absolutely nothing.
In terms of difficulty, I was enjoying my cruise through the puzzle at a comfortable GAIT, and then came to a screeching halt with BEAR GRYLLS. Never watched the show, know not a thing about it so hoped the crosses would not lead me astray and they did not. The BEAR part was nearly obvious once I had the easy ABRUPT, SNEAK IN and BETA TEST, so I just kept on going and my angst over the WOE was quickly over and the happy music ensued.
In terms of fill, this one was remarkably tight. Only the NE corner with its short fill at the top three deserved the side eye. Happily, SHH, BAE (just ick!) and AT A and o e more down below were the sum total of my groans today. Done and on to the good stuff. While I would likely use the word ABLER as a last resort, it’s a fair ball - probably a liner for sure, but onward.
As I moved southward, enjoying this Wednesday fare until the very last weak entry came to light. In fact, the “rodeo cry” clue at 40A takes the weakness cake for this puzzle. I’m not a huge rodeo fan, but I live in the part of the country where rodeo is huge and real life working “cowboys” (men and women) are an abundant part of the working landscape. Rodeo as entertainment and serious sport as well as the famous Department of Corrections rodeo which bred local county jail
The Beastie Boys big hit was Fight For Your Right to Party, which I thought was dreadful. But then I heard some of their other stuff which was pretty good. They did a different jazzy album... maybe Paul's Boutique?
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, my last word this 7er. @Barbara S, I had the same opinion about CAPACITATE and CAVITATE but I also wanted CAPACITATIVE for another pangram.]
Speaking of BEASTIE BOYS, Merlin (the app, not Merlin the Magician (another BEASTIE BOY)) informed me of a Red-Eyed Vireo singing his territorial song in today's morning chorus. Merlin was mum regarding the content of the bird's breakfast, lest it be drawn into controversy.
I was disappointed to learn BEAR GRYLLS wasn't the guy who went to life with the grizzly bears as a co-equal.
“Listen up, Pilgrim: If Buffalo Bill can get in here, then why can’t I?” — Rooster Cogburn
On a totally unrelated note, in today’s LA Times, the one-word answer SLEEVE was clued “Oreo cookie packaging.” Gotta try to get it in every crossword somehow😋
@okanaganer - Paul's Boutique was their Big Deal album at the time for music afficianados. It's a landmark album for the genre, with sampling heard as it never had been heard before until that time (or at least not to as wide an audience.) Over a hundred samples were used on the album. All sorts of kudos for that album -- Wikipedia tells me Time called it one of the 100 Greatest Albums of all Time. Music snobs Pitchfork named it the #3 album of the 80s back in 2002. And so on.
In terms of "jazzy",they definitely have that kind of stuff on that album, but their jazzy album is The Mix-Up, which is all instrumentals. It has jazz, funk, soul as its backbone. Even the earlier Check Your Head has plenty of jazz/funk/soul influences on it and features some instrumentals. There was also the 1996 instrumental compilation The In Sound from Way Out.
Lot of great stuff there. But we all love them most for Sabotage and that video!
Today is the 96th time that REBUS (5A) has made an NYTXW appearance during the Shortz era and it has almost always been clued like today's "In which pictures of a bill + gates = a noted business executive".
This is similar to how it is used in REBUS puzzles like the old T.V. game show "Concentration" where the sounds of the of the things pictured, not the actual things themselves, are used to solve the puzzle.
This is also consistent with the Latin definition of REBUS as "with or by way of things" and why linguists and other scholars use The REBUS Principle to explain how primitive hieroglyphics and pictographs evolved into modern, abstract alphabets. More on this and how REBUS is used in the PBS Nova show "A to Z: The First Alphabet" at Rebusgate.
How REBUS ever came to be used for a crossword puzzle with multiple letters in single squares is puzzling to me. I would call that a litteris puzzle, "with or by way of letters". If the multiple letters formed words, it would be a verbis puzzle, "with or by way of words".
Finally took the plunge on the ESTAR / BEAR GRYLLS cross. Couldn't imagine anything but the 'R' working there.
@pablo, Carol: congrats to you both! I've got those authors memorized (at least after 2 days). I'm ready for their next appearance; hope it comes to a xword near me soon. Also ready for the acronym. Not knowing it, made the Oscar a toss up.
Good luck @pablo, on Steve's NW; nothing there that you can't eventually suss out! 🤞 ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
@jberg. Thanks for commenting. I was impressed by that museum too. For the sake of brevity I omitted some other memories - sarsaparilla sodas, buffalo burgers, and sulfur swimming holes. Also, when playing hide-and-seek at dusk I once was knocked to the ground because I ran into an electrified fence wire!
How does the clue for 58 D work? „Winningest team in the Women‘s World Cup“ - in which sport?!! I mean, the answer was easily inferrable from crosses but still… awful cluing. Or am I missing something? There‘s got to be a ton of different Women‘s World Cups (Wikipedia alone lists nine across six different sports).
One just has a sixth sense about which people on the blog have a better memory than you do. Of course in my case, it's a very low bar. But @Joe D has always been one of my main candidates -- what with remembering which Billboard songs came out in which years and all manner of perfectly forgettable stuff like that.
Today (at 12:12) Joe remembers that ALLISON Janney played a flower shop proprietor that Tony Shalhoub had a crush on in "Big Night." I saw "Big Night" -- maybe even more than once. I loved "Big Night". But remembering a small detail like that from a 1996 film -- well any brain that's able to do that is a brain very different from mine.
I don't remember the flower shop. I don't remember the crush. I don't even remember ALLISON Janney.
@Nancy – ah, but it wasn't such a small detail. (Spoiler ahead if you haven't seen the film.)
Primo (Tony Shalhoub) goes to the shop to pick up the flowers for the dinner, and his brother Secondo (Stanley Tucci) tells him to invite her (I think her character's name is Ann). Inside the shop, Primo is too awkward to follow through, but since the flowers she ordered for him didn't arrive, she tells Primo she will put an arrangement together and bring it to the restaurant later.
When Ann drops off the flowers, Secondo realizes that Primo didn't invite her, so Secondo tells her to come to the dinner. She does, and Primo is of course delighted and they enjoy the evening together. It's very sweet.
@Peter P 2:55 pm THANK YOU THANK YOU! "The In Sound from Way Out" sounds like what I remember hearing back in the day and being very impressed. That is some very nice funk!
@Barbara S.-Couldn't find my OTTER POWER shirt, darn it. I had it made longer ago than I remembered at a KMart, when they still did such things. I did find a shirt from the high school of my teaching days, whose mascot was The Marauders. One year some class had the good idea of making this into "More Otters", and I still have that one, yay.
@Anonymous 4:05 -- I think "World Cup" without any other qualifiers refers to soccer/football colloquially. If it's the world cup of anything else, it needs to be specified. I suppose you can be pedantic about it, but that's usage as I've always heard and spoken it. I mean, there's a World Series of Poker and World Series of Bowling, but you wouldn't refer to either simply as "the World Series" in conversation. Similarly, you wouldn't really talk about the "World Series of Baseball" (though "baseball World Series" might be okay, if not also a little bit goofy.) as "World Series" on its own implies baseball.
@pabloinnh I'm sorry your OTTER POWER shirt didn't turn up. And it's OK about the photo. I figure I can picture you wearing it anyway -- given your fluency in Spanish, I see you as a dead ringer for Antonio Banderas in his prime...with a smiling otter on your chest.
Because we aren’t German or Austrian. Also while weiner may be considered “wrong “ by some, including me -it does grate on me- it is in widespread use. It is part of American English. That battle was lost along time ago.
It's worth noting that the most KNOWN USE of "BEASTIE" comes from Robert Burns' "To a Mouse." So, of all themers today, we must count RATSO among them.
I was surprised at OFNP's writeup; the constructor must be a friend of his. Said he liked the theme and its examples--then began listing all the ways they didn't mesh! Plus, the fill was full of...droppings. DDAYS? SBALOANS? Yikes, 2/3 of the TOP line of the grid HAVE NO VOWELS! Acronyms and PPPs galore. Sorry, Brandon, you BOGEYED this one.
HEY! Or, "Bon jour!" @rondo is back from Paris and the French Riviera. Hard to believe that a couple few days ago I was driving scenic roads, swimming in the Mediterranean and gambling in Casino Monte Carlo like Bond James Bond (and yes, at the casino I did have a martini shaken not stirred). In Paris saw Mona Lisa, was on the Eiffel Tower at sunset, attended Moulin Rouge show, walked Monmartre and ate at the original 'bistro', great food and wine everywhere. For 2 weeks forgot that I still have a job. Or did crosswords. The puz: Noticed: GOBAG GOVIRAL, REININ SNEAKIN, but can't say I HATEDIT a LOT. Wordle par.
Not bad but it could have been great if something else would have replaced BEARGRYLLS. The other three themers are fine. BEARGRYLLS is a WOE. Cat Stevens would have fit perfectly.
Need I say more? A one-letter dnf, with ESTAs in my answers.
rrrrrrrrrrrrr
Oh @Rondo - thinking of you whilst reading about the demonstrations and riots. Saw a photo on the Champs the other day, but didn't see you. Glad you had a great time and that you're back!
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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86 comments:
Felt like a difficult Tuesday. At some point it seems like the Weiner became a Hot Dog. But I remember the term Weiner Roast from when we ran around afterward and caught lightning bugs in Ball Jars as it got dark. Maybe Weiner Roast and Lightning Bugs are regional things.
The yard was full of lightning bugs back then. Moved back to the home town and have seen only a few here and there. Light pollution from all the chain restaurants and stores probably did them in. The chains also wiped out all the mom and pop businesses that the SBA might've helped. Liked SBA Loans because I knew it.
Easy for a Wednesday, except for 61A. It filled in nicely from crosses but it took a while to get that the answer wasn't PIS but P.I.'s.
Easy, except for BEARGRYLLS/ESTAR cross. It didn't look possible there, but trial and error got it done. Not too many misdirect clues, which made the puzzle very doable (even for a senior citizen who never heard of the BEASTIEBOYS,
I was hoping OFL would count all the three-letter answers in this one so I wouldn't have to, but he didn't. I don't usually notice these things but I thought today might be a record. Maybe someone who keeps track of these things can help me out.
Always interesting how some cultural info is right in OGL's wheelhouse (BEASTIEBOYS, ALLLISON, VINCENT) and be virtually unknown to me. I have heard of BEARGRYLLS but not seen anything he has done, and it's an interesting name so memorable (see also BEASTIEBOYS).
Also, BUFFALOBILL's defunct. I guess you can stick him in a crossword though.
Easy breezy Wdnesdecito, BK. A Bit Kebob-y, as it was chopped into many small pieces in sections, but I liked it fine. Thanks for all the fun.
Good, breezy Wednesday except for the last letter to fall: the R in ESTA- and BEARG-YLLS. Tough if you’re not a Spanish speaker and have never heard of the bear dude.
Bear Grylls?
GTFO.
Okay, throw Allison Janney into a puzzle, who wowed me in “The West Wing” and “I, Tonya”, and I’m on your side. Add a rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap (STRAW), and I’m singing your praises. Have RATSO join in the party, he of one of my favorite movies, and I’m yessing while pumping my fist. Scatter in words I love – BLEAT, BOGEY, SMELT – and I’m bowing down to the puzzle.
Then, as I’m reading post-solve about BEAR GRYLLS, who I had never heard of, I’m filled with sweeps of inspiration after learning that 18 months after breaking three vertebrae when his parachute failed to open during a military accident, he, at age 23, climbed Mt. Everest.
A well-constructed grid filled with pings of adoration and a sweep of inspiration, and well, as they say in Hokeypokey-ese, that’s what it’s all about. Thank you, Brandon, for this huge day-brightener!
@pabloinnh -- 20 treys, which is high but far from a record.
Right smack-dab in the middle of my wheelhouse, save for one name. As BEAR said when competing on a quiz show, "Pat I'd like to buy a vowel."
Trivia - but cute theme and well filled. Pleasant Wednesday solve.
VINCENT
@Lewis-Hey, thank you.
What might the record be?
I can’t find the podcast! I guess I don’t have access to Audible. Bummer. Anyhoo, the only reason I know of Allison Janney is that someone once thought I was her! Haha, made me curious about how she even is.
Funny things, wheelhouses - Bear G a gimme, but I don’t get 5A (REBUS).
This was squarely in my wheelhouse, so it came within a minute of my fastest Wednesday time.
A quick tip for non-Spanish speakers - virtually every single verb infinitive ends in -r, so I think folks could take to writing in the last letter as “R” when clued accordingly. (There are reflexive verbs whose infinitive ends in “se,” but I really doubt the NYT would ever include them as answers.)
In general, a really lovely puzzle, I thought. Lots of great words and a cute theme. Other Beastie names: Bobcat Goldthwait, Foxy Brown (slant answer), Bugsy Siegel (slant answer, or use one of the many old-timey baseball players named Bugs). Allison Janney is a magnificent actor, worth checking out.
Promising grid, diminished a bit by the PPP theme, especially with the niche “celeb” BEAR GRYLLS (and yes, I know that like most celebs, he probably has a million followers, etc - no need to enlighten me). To be fair, some may refer to one of my faves, the lovely and talented Ms. NORA Ephron (RIP) as just a niche Hollywood personality as well, so things have a way of evening themselves out I guess.
The rest of it was fun for me because they kept the cluing at about Tuesday-level, which helps when faced with a PPP theme.
Like yesterday, a theme that played mostly themeless, but knowing that I was looking for a BEASTIE name did help me pull BEAR GRYLLS from the memory banks more quickly than I otherwise would have.
VINCENT was the only unfamiliar name but fairly crossed. BETA TEST was hard for me to parse. Otherwise seemed fairly easy. I’m not a fan of ETAIL in puzzles - even when shopping on line was new, the term wasn’t as common as it seems to be in Crossworldland, and now it feels pretty musty.
Really loved HATED IT.
One of the few times I can say TOO EASY about an NYT crossword. Except for BEAR GRYLLS, NSFW. Also ALLISON, but it got filled in by the crosses. Enjoyed it.
Happy World Otter Day. (Otters are the best!)
This was fun. I’m familiar with all the BEAST-men, which helped. Oddly, I know BEAR GRYLLS from my bookstore days. He’s written some 20 books, although how he has time to write when he’s normally off climbing mountains or crossing oceans in small open boats, I have no idea. I’m not particularly captivated by the deeds of adventurers, but one thing you have to say for BEAR is that he often uses his exploits as ways to raise money for charity, particularly charities supporting children, so good on him.
Interesting clue for REBUS, of which I suspect @Anoa Bob will approve. Count me among the fans of ALLISON Janney, but I didn’t know St. VINCENT at all. Fortunately, when I saw the clue, I already had VI_C_NT, so the answer seemed obvious. I noticed GO BAG and GO VIRAL, but repetition never bothers me. Funny how BOGEYED crossed the highly successful TIGER WOODS. Three errors, easily fixed: EmAIL (although for a second I did wonder why I’d never run into the crossing word SmOLEN meaning “pinched”), hEE for YEE, and the wrong consonant doubled in ATILLA.
UNICLUES:
1. Hot dogs you can surf anywhere.
2. The latest in biodegradable fashion on campus.
3. Nickname of golfer-wading-bird who spends a lot of time looking for lost balls in shallow water.
4. William Randolph’s favorite fish.
1. WIFI WIENERS
2. STRAW COED TOP
3. BOGEYED IBIS
4. HEARST SMELTS
[SB: Yd -1. Missed this. I sometimes get words in this category and sometimes don’t. But all was not lost: I had no less than two words they wouldn’t accept to get cranky about: CAPACITATE (which I think they used to like) and CAVITATE. As a maker of hot cereal, I watch my porridge CAVITATING every morning as it bubbles happily on the stove.]
The last cross to fall was ETAIL/STOLEN and had to write over SmOLEN to get it. WOE is smolen? I don't know, but I'll tell you when I figure it out. Sometimes it's amazing how dense I can be with a simple (Pinched) clue. Usually it's because I am so distracted by the cross, which was the case today since ETAIL is a TIL word. Otherwise a pretty breezy Wednesday, which I needed because I am still licking my wounds from Saturday.
Beastie Boys?? Ugh. Calling teenage boys everywhere. What's next - themes about Marvel comics and video gaming?
FH
Somebody asked.....
I count 20 3-letter answers. Since none of them cross each other, that's 60 answer-squares occupied by them. There are 185 'answer-squares' (total of 225 minus 40 black squares), and so the 3-letter answers occupy 32.4% of the answer-space. No idea if that is a record; but my guess is that it's close.
Would have been easy for Tuesday. Would not have been too out of place on a Monday. Of course, it helps to know all the themers (though the spelling of GRYLLS surprised me).
I really feel that if your theme is proper names, you ought to avoid additional proper names as best you can (ALLISON, NORA, VINCENT, RATSO, ATTILA, HEARST). I’ll actually give a ‘George Washington’ exception to ATTILA (really well known names get a pass). On the other hand, VINCENT, which pretty much had to be clued as a name, went with a particularly obscure VINCENT.
Moose Skowron, baseball player
Cat Stevens, musician
Rabbit Maranville, baseball player
Fox Mulder, from the X-files
Bobcat Goldthwaite, ‘comedian’
Gopher Smith, from the Love Boat
Wanted Mink Stole, that would be a Beastie Girl.
A proper name-themed puzzle where, happily, I knew all the names except for ALLISON and BEAR GRYLLS. But here's why I don't like puzzles based on proper names: When you don't know who in the world thee people are, it's maddening and when you do know them, there's no challenge and it's boring.
Because I was reading a book review at the breakfast table that finished on the puzzle page, I found myself -- as I usually never am -- looking at the puzzle without a pen in my hand. So I solved much of the puzzle in in my head -- and by the time I picked up a pen and started filling it in, it was like I was solving it for the second time.
Very easy and also not very interesting, I thought.
Thx, Brandon, for this BEAST of a puz! 😊
Easy-med (without the Natick)
Was BLITZin' this one, until…
ESTA…; BEARG…YLLS. Yikes! 🤔 Will think about this td, before likely taking a stab at it.
BOGEY golf was my goal.
Learned the UKE before the guitar.
A fun adventure up to the Spanish cross BEAR.
___
@pablo; did you do Anna's NYM? I found it overall easy-med, except for the 3-cell dnf at the cross of the two authors, the 'small sound' and the last letter of the Oscar's campaign. Always enjoy Anna's work!
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
@pabloinnh -- I don't know the record, but I emailed Jeff Chen, and I'll let you know what he says...
Easy, except for BEARGRYLLS/ESTAR cross. I always hate crosses of foreign words and possibly obscure proper names.
This is v good satire 👍🏼
NO, you can never spell it WEINERS.
It's name derives from the Austrian spelling of Vienna, which is WIEN.
WIENERS are "from Vienna" such as Wiener Schnitzel
Likewise, Frankfurters are from Frankfurt, which isn't even in the same country as Vienna, but somehow we tend to use those terms interchangeably on this side of the world.
Whatever.
Hey All !
Had GRiLLS/TORi for my one-letter DNF. Dang.
Neat puz, Scrabbly North Center area. Noticed what seemed like a bunch of B's in the puz, there's 10 of them. Hopefully they don't sting.
Am I a BEASTIE BOY? Either part of RooMonster can be considered Beasty (Beastly?). Har.
Pretty quick puz for me today. Not too much junk. Fun theme. Opposite of HATED OT. 😁
A camel is a type of beast, which ties in with Wednesday. "You know what day it is?" Always laugh at that commercial.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Pretty easy to see where this was going early on, pretty easy in general. Not much resistance at all except I came close to a Natick at 48A, having never heard of BEAR GRYLLS. The only other apropos name that popped up in my mind was Catfish Hunter, who pitched for the A’s back when they were still in Kansas City.
The BEASTIE BOYS don’t do a thing for me but I’m with @Lewis on loving ALLISON Janney in my puzzle grid. Yes she was absolutely wonderful in “Tonya” (as was Margot Robbie in the title role). And if you missed her in The Help, she nailed it as the old school Southern matron hoping to marry off her wayward daughter.
Agree about commercial development wiping out small businesses
Unlike most PPP theme puzzles, this was easy. It helped that I caught on to the theme right away. I didn’t know BEASTIEBOYS was rap, so I needed some crosses there - didn’t expect to be familiar with the name but I was. Most of the names I've heard but don’t Know. Exception being the BEAR guy. No idea. Still easy.
I spent a couple of pre-teen years living in Cody Wyoming in the late ‘60s. It was Buffalo Bill Central. His grandson rode on horseback in the 4th of July parade looking just like him, lanky, with the beard and long white locks. After the parade I'd roam around the basement of the Woolworth's store, eyeing the colorful plasticware like candy. Sometimes at the soda counter they had a collection of helium balloons. You'd pick one and the lady behind the counter would pop it. A little piece of paper fell out with your price for a banana split. Kept hoping for a free one, but liked them anyway.
Great puzzle and great theme. Loved it.
Uniclues:
1 🍆
2 Add rocks while Van Gogh paints.
3 Why ladies love William Frederick Cody.
4 Latest Google invention to encourage colon screening.
5 Reason #1 for throwing a hula themed party at the university.
6 My front tooth.
1 NSFW REBUS SHH
2 ICE VINCENT
3 BUFFALO BILL UKE (~)
4 WIFI WEINERS
5 STRAW COED TOP
6 HATED IT YELLOW
BEASTIEBOYS - quite possibly my least favorite 20M album selling “band”. They were like an annoying joke to me. Like something Adam Sandler would have spoofed in a movie. I do not consider it music.
Anyhow, easy puzzle other than BEAR, who I have never heard of. And I never really thought that the Buffalo Bills were named after a guy, thought they were named after animals.
Went to same high-school as Wolf Blitzer in suburb of Buffalo. He is huge Bills fan, as am I. Found that they ended up in the puzzle together fun!
Easy, in that even if I didn’t know the specific trivia that would yield the answer to one of the proper names (never watch CNN or Man vs Wild, not a golf fan, a little too young for the Beastie Boys), I recognized all the names, and it was easy to get them from the crossings.
I did very much want it to be a Wienie or Weenie Roast though. Wiener roast just seems oddly uncomfortable to me.
Very cute, and mostly easy. Thankfully, I'd heard of the BEASTIE BOYS, whom WOLF and TIGER quickly recalled to mind. I didn't know BEAR GRYLLS, though, and relied on the theme to get his first name, as I'd stalled out on the crosses. Besides the Bs of the BOYS - BLITZER, BEAR, and BUFFALO BILL - I enjoyed the alliteration of BETA TEST, BOGEYED, and BLEATS (Billy the Kid?).
@pabloinnh, @bocamp - Feeling a bit like the grid's RATSO (see @Rex), I'll nevertheless elbow in on the NYM puzzle: I lucked out on knowing all of the names, but wondered how many solvers would know both of those authors. The crossing letter isn't really inferable, I don't think. Probably my first "easy" Monday there; nice after last week's DNF.
Does BEAR GRYLLS have a TV show? I think I may have seen it once, which was enough to give me the easy part, but GRYLLS required every cross. Since the theme was obvious after the first two, BEAR was very gettable.
I was bothered more than Rex by DDAY -- there's only one, really. There may have been others before 1944, but that one wiped them all from history's memory.
I really would have liked to see ALARIC, who sacked Rome in 410 CE, as the fifth century conqueror, and he fit, but I couldn't see the NYT doing that.
@beverly c., thanks for the memories of Cody! I was there exactly once (it's really out of the way). I used to summer in the Paradise Valley of Montana, and once we decided to go home by driving through Yellowstone Park to the East Entrance, just so we could visit the Buffalo Bill Museum. It was worth the trip; a much more serious museum than I'd expected. I had hoped to get back there last summer and drive through the park again on a road trip to Oregon, but the floods closed that route down just before we left Boston. Maybe next year!
@pabloinnh, @Lewis. Record for a non-Sunday is 44, achieved twice (5/24/2013, 10/30/2009). Those two puzzles used the exact same grid layout.
easiest wednesday i can remember
@Lewis. I usually count the Terrible Threes. The most I can remember is in the high twenties, maybe 28.
WIENERS is the correct spelling: it derives from Wien, the Austrian word for Vienna.
@pabloinnh -- Heard back from Jeff. He didn't know off the top of his head, but gave me a link to this page, which might hold the answer: https://www.xwordinfo.com/BWStats/MostWords .
I can tell you that the second puzzle on the list, by Patrick Blindauer, has 38 threes, but it's theme related...
My sticking point today was BETATEST/RATSO. The latter doesn't mean anything to me, so I was stuck with BETA_EST, but my brain just would not parse it as BETA. I was looking for letters to file "BE TA_EST" and "BET A _EST"and nothing was clicking. Ugh.
Other than that, I flew through it as an easy Wednesday.
I was quite happy to see the Beastie Boys in the grid. I wasn't too much a fan of them until my cousin asked me to bring him back the Check Your Head CD back in '93 when I visited him in Tasmania. He must have blasted it three times a day, every single day I was there. After awhile, I could not help but love it and become a Beastie Boys fan. Fantastic music, great groove on their instrumentals, a wonderfully boyish sense of humor. What's not to like?
Easy...in my wheelhouse too. My biggest problem was that I can never remember how to spell ATTILA (it took me two tries just now) (dyslexia is not fun). Fun breezy Wednesday, liked it.
Kinda tame, those critters. Even for Wednesday. Only having “changed the y to an i before the past tense ed” slowed a top to bottom plunge. Amused to have TIGER WOODS/BOGEYED intersecting. Then the music didn’t play with pAWn as the 66A entry and I actually had to read the clues to 47 & 55D! Clearly “tools “ calls for the plural, but lulled into inattentive isn’t a good puzzle place apparently. Always fun to see Brandon & his cute kids pop up on the xwordinfo constructor note—even on a hump day.
@bocamp and @Carola- I finished the NYM without knowing the proper names but I made some good guesses on crosses. Otherwise I don't put it in the "extremely challenging" category. OTOH, I'm still spinning my wheels in the NW of the Saturday Stumper.
@Lewis-Thanks again for the additional research. You're a brick, and anyone who says otherwise is itching for a fight.
I don’t think anyone has mentioned Newt Gingrich yet. With luck, no one ever will again.
I’ve been to a few BEARGRYLLS, but being a lover of all things ursine, I always take WIENERS.
Very easy, but very fun puzzle. Thanks, Brandon. You’re a cat I’d never Koppy.
What’s up with this seeming recent trend of NYT puzzle themes being based on PPP? (Haven’t finished puzzle or read comments but not a fan of PPP-themed puzzles.)
double DOOK for me. Had H_TEDIT and put in HOT EDIT. Didn't know what that was, but constructors always find phrases that I don't know. No happy music, so read the clue for 16A and put in the A. HAT EDIT? Even more obscure!
@Barbara S.-Meant to include you in a previous post as you have made my day with the news that's it's International Otter Day. This should be every day, of course.
I'm going to look for my Otter Power t-shirt (yes, I really have one).
Beast puz with the Jaws of Themedness. Like, especially as a hidden-birds followup.
Gets a no-know for BEARGRYLLS, at our house. ESTAR crossin didn't help the cause much.
Luved the bonus RATSO beastlet.
staff weeject pick: That NE SHH-ATA-BAE stack was hard to beat.
fave stuff: RATSO. WIENERS/SENATOR. GOVIRAL.
NSFW/ETAIL/WIFI/LBS har.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Koppy dude. Way to fight. for yer right. to publish. Feel free to party.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
Thank you for the e e cummings!
Alice - Definitely agree about your BEASTIEBOY assessment. I had not idea they sold 20 million records! I remember Fight for Your Right to Party - but that was about it. My gang were all rockers
There's Bat Masterson, who'd tie in nicely with Buffalo Bill. One letter too long though, and would a bat be considered a "beast"? I tend to think of beasts as larger creatures.
This was basic and easy but enjoyable. I didn't feel like 3/4 of the clues were trying to prevent me from getting the answer, as is usually the case. Unfamiliar with Bear Grylls but I knew every cross.
The first time I saw Allison Janney was in "Big Night" – she played the flower shop proprietor that Tony Shalhoub had a crush on.
Well, my bugaboo started with 1A. Why do I have to wait to get home to click anything....NSFW? Who are you and why should I click you. Well I clicked...only because of all the downs guiding me to a WOLF.
Names! I just thought about doing a puzzle without one single name. And here we have an elephant in the room blowing names all over the place.
OK...so I finished. I sat back and looked at the puzzle. Full of BEASTIE BOYS. Not so bad. I knew them all. that helps.
My head slap moment...The Spanish 101 infinitive clue at 34D. What's an infinitive...I forgot. Is it a verb form that ends in something or other? Yikes. See, I didn't know BEAR GRYLLS last name and I needed something. Oh...look! it's ESTAR! ESTAR hasta las narices. Yep...That was me.
Anyway...fine enough Wednesday that I finished easily. Yep.
@mathgent -- I know the Tracy Gray once had one with 29.
@Whatsername's mention of the great Hall of Fame pitcher Catfish Hunter (may he rest in peace), reminded me of a very funny commercial he and comic Norm Crosby appeared in, for I-don't-remember-what.
Crosby was known for malapropisms. And in the ad, Catfish says something about the product and Crosby responds "Bull's-ear Catnip!" It's been decades and I still get a chuckle out of it.
Crosby passed away in 2020 -- may he rest in peace too.
No "best of May" picks from @Rex today? Here are mine, all from the very start of the month:
Themed - CAPITAL GAINS (David J. Kanh, Thursday, May 4th)
Themed - SAY CHEESE! (Catherine Cetta, Monday, May 8th)
Themeless - Carter Cobb, Saturday, May 6th (the one with the double triple-stack and few black squares)
BEARGRYLLS dropped in real easy for anyone who’s been watching NBA and NHL playoffs on TNT/TBS - the commercials for his new show Survive Bear Grylls are on every other break it seems!
Just this weekend, my husband, a big BEAR GRYLLS fan, was explaining to friends the premise of the show and talking about the Obama episode. Obama never had to do any of the hair-raising stunts other guests have had to do, but he did eat some salmon found on the side of the river. His security wasn't far away and he kept his cell phone and I don't think they made him fly on the outside of the helicopter as so many guests have to. But that's such a weird coincidence, that it came up just yesterday in conversation.
Like Rex, I threw in S_H at 10A and waited to see if it was SsH or SHH, similar to the AAH or AHH kealoa.
I knew who St. VINCENT is because my friends' daughter was working on one of her albums a couple of years ago (production assistant or something, I think) so I bought the album on CD because it had Megan's name in the credits. And it was a pretty good album.
Sherlock Holmes, PI, seems weird.
Thanks Brandon, nice Wednesday puzzle!
Was really certain I’d see Bear Bryant in the lower half of the grid, not Bear Grylls.
@pabloinnh (11:07)
Picture? Of you wearing it?
Wow. Where yesterday tried hard to be cohesive but just didn’t make it, today had it all. Clever, tight theme that was fun to solve. As it unfolded, I suspected an animal theme and was not disappointed. The reveal was cute and humorous. What mire could I want? Absolutely nothing.
In terms of difficulty, I was enjoying my cruise through the puzzle at a comfortable GAIT, and then came to a screeching halt with BEAR GRYLLS. Never watched the show, know not a thing about it so hoped the crosses would not lead me astray and they did not. The BEAR part was nearly obvious once I had the easy ABRUPT, SNEAK IN and BETA TEST, so I just kept on going and my angst over the WOE was quickly over and the happy music ensued.
In terms of fill, this one was remarkably tight. Only the NE corner with its short fill at the top three deserved the side eye. Happily, SHH, BAE (just ick!) and AT A and o e more down below were the sum total of my groans today. Done and on to the good stuff. While I would likely use the word ABLER as a last resort, it’s a fair ball - probably a liner for sure, but onward.
As I moved southward, enjoying this Wednesday fare until the very last weak entry came to light. In fact, the “rodeo cry” clue at 40A takes the weakness cake for this puzzle. I’m not a huge rodeo fan, but I live in the part of the country where rodeo is huge and real life working “cowboys” (men and women) are an abundant part of the working landscape. Rodeo as entertainment and serious sport as well as the famous Department of Corrections rodeo which bred local county jail
The Beastie Boys big hit was Fight For Your Right to Party, which I thought was dreadful. But then I heard some of their other stuff which was pretty good. They did a different jazzy album... maybe Paul's Boutique?
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, my last word this 7er. @Barbara S, I had the same opinion about CAPACITATE and CAVITATE but I also wanted CAPACITATIVE for another pangram.]
Speaking of BEASTIE BOYS, Merlin (the app, not Merlin the Magician (another BEASTIE BOY)) informed me of a Red-Eyed Vireo singing his territorial song in today's morning chorus. Merlin was mum regarding the content of the bird's breakfast, lest it be drawn into controversy.
I was disappointed to learn BEAR GRYLLS wasn't the guy who went to life with the grizzly bears as a co-equal.
@pabloinnh 10:59, I hear you on the NW corner of the Stumper. After a nap reset, I was able to get it done. Happy solving!
“Listen up, Pilgrim: If Buffalo Bill can get in here, then why can’t I?” — Rooster Cogburn
On a totally unrelated note, in today’s LA Times, the one-word answer SLEEVE was clued “Oreo cookie packaging.” Gotta try to get it in every crossword somehow😋
@okanaganer - Paul's Boutique was their Big Deal album at the time for music afficianados. It's a landmark album for the genre, with sampling heard as it never had been heard before until that time (or at least not to as wide an audience.) Over a hundred samples were used on the album. All sorts of kudos for that album -- Wikipedia tells me Time called it one of the 100 Greatest Albums of all Time. Music snobs Pitchfork named it the #3 album of the 80s back in 2002. And so on.
In terms of "jazzy",they definitely have that kind of stuff on that album, but their jazzy album is The Mix-Up, which is all instrumentals. It has jazz, funk, soul as its backbone. Even the earlier Check Your Head has plenty of jazz/funk/soul influences on it and features some instrumentals. There was also the 1996 instrumental compilation The In Sound from Way Out.
Lot of great stuff there. But we all love them most for Sabotage and that video!
Today is the 96th time that REBUS (5A) has made an NYTXW appearance during the Shortz era and it has almost always been clued like today's "In which pictures of a bill + gates = a noted business executive".
This is similar to how it is used in REBUS puzzles like the old T.V. game show "Concentration" where the sounds of the of the things pictured, not the actual things themselves, are used to solve the puzzle.
This is also consistent with the Latin definition of REBUS as "with or by way of things" and why linguists and other scholars use The REBUS Principle to explain how primitive hieroglyphics and pictographs evolved into modern, abstract alphabets. More on this and how REBUS is used in the PBS Nova show "A to Z: The First Alphabet" at Rebusgate.
How REBUS ever came to be used for a crossword puzzle with multiple letters in single squares is puzzling to me. I would call that a litteris puzzle, "with or by way of letters". If the multiple letters formed words, it would be a verbis puzzle, "with or by way of words".
Finally took the plunge on the ESTAR / BEAR GRYLLS cross. Couldn't imagine anything but the 'R' working there.
@pablo, Carol: congrats to you both! I've got those authors memorized (at least after 2 days). I'm ready for their next appearance; hope it comes to a xword near me soon. Also ready for the acronym. Not knowing it, made the Oscar a toss up.
Good luck @pablo, on Steve's NW; nothing there that you can't eventually suss out! 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
SBALOANS? What the dang heck. I don't know her.
@jberg. Thanks for commenting. I was impressed by that museum too. For the sake of brevity I omitted some other memories - sarsaparilla sodas, buffalo burgers, and sulfur swimming holes. Also, when playing hide-and-seek at dusk I once was knocked to the ground because I ran into an electrified fence wire!
How does the clue for 58 D work? „Winningest team in the Women‘s World Cup“ - in which sport?!! I mean, the answer was easily inferrable from crosses but still… awful cluing. Or am I missing something? There‘s got to be a ton of different Women‘s World Cups (Wikipedia alone lists nine across six different sports).
One just has a sixth sense about which people on the blog have a better memory than you do. Of course in my case, it's a very low bar. But @Joe D has always been one of my main candidates -- what with remembering which Billboard songs came out in which years and all manner of perfectly forgettable stuff like that.
Today (at 12:12) Joe remembers that ALLISON Janney played a flower shop proprietor that Tony Shalhoub had a crush on in "Big Night." I saw "Big Night" -- maybe even more than once. I loved "Big Night". But remembering a small detail like that from a 1996 film -- well any brain that's able to do that is a brain very different from mine.
I don't remember the flower shop. I don't remember the crush. I don't even remember ALLISON Janney.
@Nancy – ah, but it wasn't such a small detail. (Spoiler ahead if you haven't seen the film.)
Primo (Tony Shalhoub) goes to the shop to pick up the flowers for the dinner, and his brother Secondo (Stanley Tucci) tells him to invite her (I think her character's name is Ann). Inside the shop, Primo is too awkward to follow through, but since the flowers she ordered for him didn't arrive, she tells Primo she will put an arrangement together and bring it to the restaurant later.
When Ann drops off the flowers, Secondo realizes that Primo didn't invite her, so Secondo tells her to come to the dinner. She does, and Primo is of course delighted and they enjoy the evening together. It's very sweet.
@Peter P 2:55 pm THANK YOU THANK YOU! "The In Sound from Way Out" sounds like what I remember hearing back in the day and being very impressed. That is some very nice funk!
@Barbara S.-Couldn't find my OTTER POWER shirt, darn it. I had it made longer ago than I remembered at a KMart, when they still did such things. I did find a shirt from the high school of my teaching days, whose mascot was The Marauders. One year some class had the good idea of making this into "More Otters", and I still have that one, yay.
PS-I don't do photos, but thanks for asking.
@Anonymous 4:05 -- I think "World Cup" without any other qualifiers refers to soccer/football colloquially. If it's the world cup of anything else, it needs to be specified. I suppose you can be pedantic about it, but that's usage as I've always heard and spoken it. I mean, there's a World Series of Poker and World Series of Bowling, but you wouldn't refer to either simply as "the World Series" in conversation. Similarly, you wouldn't really talk about the "World Series of Baseball" (though "baseball World Series" might be okay, if not also a little bit goofy.) as "World Series" on its own implies baseball.
@pabloinnh
I'm sorry your OTTER POWER shirt didn't turn up. And it's OK about the photo. I figure I can picture you wearing it anyway -- given your fluency in Spanish, I see you as a dead ringer for Antonio Banderas in his prime...with a smiling otter on your chest.
Because we aren’t German or Austrian. Also while weiner may be considered “wrong “ by some, including me -it does grate on me- it is in widespread use. It is part of American English. That battle was lost along time ago.
It's worth noting that the most KNOWN USE of "BEASTIE" comes from Robert Burns' "To a Mouse." So, of all themers today, we must count RATSO among them.
I was surprised at OFNP's writeup; the constructor must be a friend of his. Said he liked the theme and its examples--then began listing all the ways they didn't mesh! Plus, the fill was full of...droppings. DDAYS? SBALOANS? Yikes, 2/3 of the TOP line of the grid HAVE NO VOWELS! Acronyms and PPPs galore. Sorry, Brandon, you BOGEYED this one.
Wordle birdie.
ASYET, FYI
Whether A BUFFALO YELLOW,
or A WOLF that BLEATS when IT's pissed,
IT will FALLTO you TO GO show
that BEASTIE ain't KNOWN TO EXIST.
--- SENATOR ALLISON HEARST-VINCENT, U.S.A.
HEY! Or, "Bon jour!" @rondo is back from Paris and the French Riviera. Hard to believe that a couple few days ago I was driving scenic roads, swimming in the Mediterranean and gambling in Casino Monte Carlo like Bond James Bond (and yes, at the casino I did have a martini shaken not stirred). In Paris saw Mona Lisa, was on the Eiffel Tower at sunset, attended Moulin Rouge show, walked Monmartre and ate at the original 'bistro', great food and wine everywhere. For 2 weeks forgot that I still have a job. Or did crosswords.
The puz: Noticed: GOBAG GOVIRAL, REININ SNEAKIN, but can't say I HATEDIT a LOT.
Wordle par.
Not bad but it could have been great if something else would have replaced BEARGRYLLS. The other three themers are fine. BEARGRYLLS is a WOE. Cat Stevens would have fit perfectly.
BEARGRYLLS!!!!!?????
Need I say more? A one-letter dnf, with ESTAs in my answers.
rrrrrrrrrrrrr
Oh @Rondo - thinking of you whilst reading about the demonstrations and riots. Saw a photo on the Champs the other day, but didn't see you. Glad you had a great time and that you're back!
Lady Di
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