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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (for a Monday)
Theme answers:
- HYPOTENUSE (16A: Longest side of a right triangle)
- FAST AND LOOSE (23A: Reckless way to play things)
- CHOCOLATE MOUSSE (38A: Dessert made with cocoa and egg whites)
- "WHAT THE DEUCE!?" (47A: Quaint cry of surprise)
- JAMBA JUICE (60A: Smoothie chain founded in 1990)
An exclamation used to emphasize surprise, shock, or bafflement. ("Deuce" is a minced oath in place of the word "devil.") (idioms.thefreedictionary.com)
• • •
Besides SPOOFS, there were only four other Downs that I couldn't get either immediately or very quickly. The first was SLY NOD (21D: Surreptitious gesture with the head). My trouble was due entirely to my misreading "Surreptitious" as "Superstitious." "What the hell kind of superstitious head gestures are there, even!?" I was imagining superstitious people doing all kinds of strange things with their heads, possibly on Friday the 13th or when black cats crossed their paths, but none of the gestures seemed plausible or nameable. I worked the crosses for that answer to the point where it *had* to be SLY NOD before I finally noticed that I'd been misreading the clue the whole time. Fun! Also had trouble with (the grimly clued) WHACK, which I wanted to be WASTE (neglecting the fact that WASTE was already in the puzzle, in LAY TO WASTE). Seemed like there might be a few options for a five-letter head covering with an Arabic name, so I had to wait for inferred crosses to help me with HIJAB (49D: Head covering whose name means "curtain" in Arabic). DEBATE was also weirdly not obvious without some help (45D: Argue back and forth). But that's it for Downs-only trouble. Kind of a throwaway theme. Mondays have been much better than this of late—along with Thursday, the best themed day of the week in recent months. Today was a bit of a letdown. But as I say, I'm never truly bored or dissatisfied when I'm solving a Monday Downs-only. Hope you liked this better than I did. See you ... soon, I hope.
Easy-medium seems right. A delightful/fun set of theme answers with some solid long downs. I did like this better than @Rex did.
ReplyDeleteCroce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #812 was a medium-tough Croce for me with the top third tougher than the bottom third. I didn’t help that I started off with a wrong answer at 1a which was confirmed by another wrong down answer. As always YMMV. Good luck!
Happy to report that I flew through this puzzle and did not suffer any abuse, fall for any ruse, or turn a shade of puce.
ReplyDeleteGood news
DeleteI thought the theme was quite good for a Monday. Just added a bit of rhyming/speling change verbal fun to a mostly quite easy puzzle suitable of a Monday. I was totally stuck on Jamba Juice crossing MTV Had the Tv and had ba-bajuice because I forget hijab. I think that MTV crossing JambaJuice( which I've never heard of) was a bit of a natick for a Monday. HIjab, on the other hand, I feel pretty much anyone who reads the news should know by now. So maybe I would have guessed the M if I'd had the J.
ReplyDeleteLooking back at the downs (I definitely solve using crosses) I see a lot of good words and phrases: spoofs, basins, lay to waste, stood aside , boosts, sly nod (I was glad to eaad in Rex's comments that I'm not the only one who gives myself trouble by misreading a clue. Did not happen this time, however.) whack is a fun word and not common in crosswords that I remember, bemuse there are more but i'll stop with these. Do not know what Rex was seeing to diss the fill.
Yes, solving downs usually adds to the fun of guessing the theme-- and the themers-- without the clues (assuming they're acrosses, as here). Which was pretty easy today.
ReplyDelete10 down was the trickiest long one; I had ANNIHILATE at first and it fit. LAY TO WASTE doesn't come easily to mind.
Except when you really goof as I did with FAST AS A GOOSE! That sounded vaguely plausible, especially with Brits who have sayings like "wouldn't say boo to a goose". (But then, geese aren't really that fast, not as fast as, say, ducks. Those ducks cruise like F-18s... zoooooom!) Eventually fixed that, FAST AND LOOSE is actually a phrase that several humans have used.
[Spelling Bee: Sat -1, missed this 6er. Sun, also -1 so far, missing a damned 4er and I'm baffled.]
First comment, really? Well maybe not as it is having trouble publishing...
ReplyDeleteOops, being away and with the iffy internet, I forgot to solve downs only, so this one went by in a snap. Didn't notice the theme until @Rex pointed it out.
WOE JAMBA JUICE?? Not the puzz answer but the real thing? I've obviously seen it somewhere because as soon as I thought, hmm, HIJAB, and checked the J cross it went right in...
Hope you all have nice weather for the festivities!
My five favorite clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. One who is one, e.g. (4)
2. Last thing to go in a pocket, one hopes (5)(4)
3. Milk it (5)
4. They're found beneath sink holes (1)(5)
5. Woo-woo films? (7)
BABY
EIGHT BALL
UDDER
P TRAPS
ROMCOMS
From time to time, I like to mention that this list is reserved for original clues, clues that have not appeared in the major crossword outlets. There are often fantastic clues from the previous week that do not show up on this list because they've shown up in puzzles before. I think from here on, my first line will read "My five favorite original clues from last week".
ReplyDeleteI solved this online, and didn't even know what the theme was - treated this as a themeless.
ReplyDeleteBut looking back, I am reminded of the mnemonic for the "four birds of the thoracic cavity":
1) Esopha-goose (esophagus)
2) Va-goose (vagus [nerve])
3) Azy-goose (azygos [vein])
and the
4) Thoracic duck (duct)
The joke mnemonic works better with reference to the “thoracic cage” (birdcage).
DeleteDon’t forget the Swan! And the hemiazygoose.
DeleteCompletely disagree with everything @Rex said. Super easy with some reliance on the crosses for a few answers and pleasantly surprised by the theme. Also adding What The Deuce Chocolate Mousse! to my repertoire of things to say that will suggest to my adult children I'm going slightly batty so they'll call more often.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was nice to include AD ASTRA, QUATRO, OCHO, BETE NOIR, OPUS DEI and even HIJAB to spice things up a bit. Was waiting for Rex to explain the theme/gimmick to me today, but if there is one, it seems to have eluded him as well.
ReplyDelete"rhyming part is spelled slightly differently than the others (-USE, -OOSE, -OUSSE, -EUCE, -UICE)"
ReplyDeleteFor a Monday? That is a perfectly fine and slightly inventive themer. I think you're being a bit harsh and, dare I say, pretentious?
Oh, terrific freshness in the long answers (eight letters or more). Of the seven in the grid, six have shown up in the NYT puzzle three times or fewer in its 80-year history, and two are debuts (LAY TO WASTE and WHAT THE DEUCE). This freshness brightens up the whole puzzle, IMO.
ReplyDeleteKatie and Zachary had me at HYPOTENUSE – which has appeared in a Times puzzle but once before – a word I’ve loved since I was a kid, just for its sound and how it looks. It makes me smile because it shoots me back to the witty and magnificent Major-General’s song from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance”, appearing in this snippet:
“I’m very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I’m teeming with a lot o’ news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.”
There were other bright spots in the grid as well. The apt crossing of NASA and ASTRA. The echo of yesterday’s [One who’s barely acting?] clue for PORN STAR in today’s line seven, which begins ACT BARE. The rhyming theme echoed in BETE / DEBT / FETE. And even the middle-M trio of tri-letter answers: EMU, IMO, UMA.
Quick, fresh, and bright, an invigorating springboard to the day. Thank you for this, Katie and Zachary.
It's LAYWASTETO, not LAYTOWASTE. Grrrr....
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I was cruising with my downs-only solving, and was pretty pleased with myself for dropping in laywasteto. Definitely slowed me down (up?) after that.
DeleteTell that to the Rolling Stones (Sympathy for the Devil)
DeleteI also immediately thought of Sympathy for the Devil. Amazing how people’s reactions are so different. Lay to waste is most definitely a thing.
DeleteI thought the fill was actually pretty good for a Monday.
ReplyDeleteOMAR PYRE SPOOFS ASTRA BASINS STOODASIDE BEMUSE CAJUN HIJAB BÊTE ok nothing special but again it’s Monday.
Nice puzzle. Any criticism, to me, would have NO EXCUSE and be of NO USE.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a worse theme type than the quip puzzle, it’s the rhyming puzzle. There are the bones of a good themeless here, though the word count is way too high.
ReplyDeleteCroce 812 mostly quite easy, with a tricky NE moving it to medium territory. Really enjoyed that one.
ReplyDeleteThx, Katie & Zachary, the yeas have it; nicely done! 😊
ReplyDeleteEasy-med.
Played this one FAST AND LOOSE, but almost got JAMBed at the JUICE.
DEvil before DEUCE.
Fond memories of OAHU ('62-'65). 🌊
Enjoyable trip! :)
___
Thx @jae; on it! 🤞
___
Evan Kalish's NYT' Vowelless was a fun challenge! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteTough to find rhymers that are each spelled differently, so kudos on that. Neat to find 4 pair of symmetrica ones, that aren't just made up mumbo-jumbo.
Wonder if Chip Foose
Is a fan of couscous.
Or pate from a goose.
Maybe he's a decedent of Zeus.
Thought this a neat theme. Super fast for me today, without trying. Right about 6 1/2 minutes. And that was with standing with my back to the puz from the back bedroom, using ESP to read the clues through the walls, and filling the grid in in my head, remembering every letter until it was completely filled in. A bit of a challenge, but still easy.
Five OO's. Thirteen Double total (counting the TT of WHATTHEDEUCE.)
No ce clean fill, simple theme, fun puz. What more could one ask of a MonPuz?
Happy Memorial Day.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
After HYPOTENUSE and FASTANDLOOSE, the theme became apparent, so when I started 38A with a CH and without having read the clue, I was hoping for CHIRSTMASGOOSE. Not there, but I'd prefer a CHOCOLATEMOUSSE any old time.
ReplyDeleteIn regional news, JAMBAJUICE has not made it to NH, or if it has, it has eluded me.
And as we say here sometimes, I was today years old when I saw the connection between BASIN and bassinette. As my Good Old Best Friend says, there's nothing as annoying as an obvious truth.
I thought this was a perfectly fine Monday with just a little crunch to liven things up. Well done, KH and ZDL Kept Humming on through with Zero Deleted Letters, and thanks for all the fun.
Being a Family Guy fan, loved 47 across. (I actually have said it on occasion, thinking it’s an elegant upgrade from WTH and especially WTF)…
ReplyDelete<a href="https://youtu.be/Pi12EFY0YLg”>Stewie: What the deuce?</a>
If you take two hippos of equal length and a third that is longer, and arrange them (carefully and politely) to form a triangle, the longest will be the hippopotenuse.
ReplyDeleteThat’s why you should always choose the greater of three hippos as against the lesser of two weevils
DeleteI don't think of myself as a person who uses "quaint" expressions, so when I had the WHATTHED and wrote in without any further thinking WHAT THE DEvil, I thought that maybe my lingo needed some updating. It's not that I say "What the devil" a lot, but it's certainly something I have said from time to time.
ReplyDeleteOh. It's actually WHAT THE DEUCE. Now there's something I never say -- though I'm sure many characters in my beloved Agatha Christie novels do say it. Rather British, no?
Oh, yes, the puzzle. One of those [in most cases boring] rhymes-with-different-spellings themes that in this case was used to launch a perfectly delightful and smooth-as-silk grid. Colorful, lively themers and no junk. A nice assortment of rhymes. I enjoyed it.
I thought this was truly a gem of its kind, the tried and true "words that end in the same sound but are spelled differently" theme. I love this sort of fun-with-English wordplay.* And what an array of dynamite theme answers - HYPOTENUSE! FAST AND LOOSE! WHAT THE DEUCE! - such wit and creativity. I also liked INHALE over CHOCOLATE MOUSSE.
ReplyDelete*Fun, that is, from the perspective of a native speaker. Digression: the other day, doing the Spelling Bee, I pondered the non-rhyming bomb, comb, and tomb and the likely hair-tearing by someone tackling these as an English learner. And kind of making the same point, we end the puzzle with the apt BEMUSE, which looks like HYPOTENUSE, but....
@Katie Hale and Zachary David Levy, thank you for a wonderfully entertaining Monday.
After FAST AND LOOSE I thought we were going to get a sets of paired adjectives; I hadn't yet realized that HYPOTENUSE was a themer. (@Lewis, I thought of that song too; the best thing is when the chorus echoes "with many cheerful facts about the square of the hypota, pota, pota, potenuse!" Breaks me up every time.) But then CHOCOLATE MOUSSE made it clear where we were going, and I waited for the brilliant revealer to reveal another dimension of the theme. I'm still waiting.
ReplyDeleteI've slept under the stars a few times, on only one of which the experience was marred by a sudden rainstorm; but mostly when one CAMPS one is sleeping under the roof of a tent, so the clue needed a "perhaps" at the end.
As a political scientist, I'm hear to tell you that the typical write-in vote is not a protest, but the result of an organized campaign by a candidate who hopes to win, and sometimes does. Here in Massachusetts we say that such a candidate "runs on stickers," because they organize their campaign to hand out stickers with the name printed on them that can be stuck to the ballot. OTOH, my father was once elected Justice of the Peace as a gag, when some friends noticed that no one was running and all wrote his name in. It was fine with him, he got to marry people and collect a fee.
I do wonder why the editor felt an English translation was needed to clue ad ASTRA, but not opus DEI. And whether TACT is really a skill, as opposed to a personality trait.
I also wondered whether WHAT THE DEUCE" was really quaint, but I guess it is -- no one seems to feel the need to mince their oaths anymore.
And finally, "Rhymes with puce?" Not the way I pronounce it, and M-W agrees with me. Puce has the full long U sound, as in uniform.
What you are describing is not a long u but a diphthong: yoo. Anyway to me puce rhymes with moose.
Delete@Andrew: I wasn't sure if there were any other Family Guy aficionados here, but Stewie was the first thing I thought of also. I did a gig in LA with a musician from the studio orchestra. He had some fun tidbits, including that Seth MacFarlane was not so involved after the first few seasons, which explains why the quality/original tone changed. (Same thing happened in a big way to Sponge Bob - can't wait until that show appears here).
ReplyDeleteEnough challenging for a Monday answers not to be a fill in the blanks exercise. Theme with the different spellings seems fine for a Monday.
I associate YAW with airplanes, and the queasiness it induces. Makes sense for a ship also.
@jberg -- Hah! Thank you for reminding me about that chorus echo!
ReplyDeleteOver at the NYer, our disputed Oscar acknowledgement, for short, has made an appearance.
ReplyDelete1) You really thought space travel was cheap?
ReplyDelete2) So here's one big space travel expense, for example
3) I hate this stupid theorem! Bye, bye, stupid theorem!
4) The baleful look of any Marvel Universe villain
1) NASA DEBT ALAS
2) ASTRA BOOSTS
3) HYPOTENUSE PYRE
4) LAY TO WASTE MIEN
@jberg - Good point about puce not rhyming, I didn't catch that. I pronounce it with the j glide (a quick ee sound). This doesn't happen in hypotenuse, loose, moose, juice, but it does rhyme with DEUCE in my book, or at least the way Stewie says it:)
ReplyDeleteI think Mr. Sharp sometimes (often) forgets that Mondays are geared to beginners, who likely found today's puz to be delightful.
ReplyDeleteSince the dry cleaners lost my blindfold, I tried solving this Odds Only after scratching out the even-numbered clues and still found the puzzle to be fairly easy. However, it did take a moment to realize that the first letter of each rhyming themer formed the mnemonic for Henry Likes My Door Jamb.
ReplyDeleteI usually hear a chorus of NAYS when I ask if anyone has seen a NENE.
ReplyDeleteIn 2015, Senator Cruz said “I’ll wager that I’ll be the nominee.” The Orange Shitgibbon replied “That’s ABETTED. And by the way, your wife’s ugly.”
A theme like this eventually BOOSTS SPOOFS, but I enjoyed it. It also had a spiritual side because, while Rex solved accurately by looking only at the Downs, for others, it was nailed on Across. Thanks, Katie Hale and Zachary David Levy.
If only - for once - I would remember HIJAB (it's been used often enough). But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteAs a math guy, also doing Downs only, HYPOTENUSE was instantly seen from HYP-.
ReplyDeleteSet an all time record for me for a NYT puzzle, even not being certain of the spelling of HYPOTENUSE. I’ve probably finished filling a Monday or Tuesday faster, but not without sloppy typing errors. Not a surprise that I liked it. Sure there was a bunch of common, gimme stuff, but the long stuff helped keep it interesting enough for a Monday grid.
ReplyDelete@Roomonster8:54 Are you a script writer for "Psych"? Or have you been binge watching it?
ReplyDeleteFirst theme ending has a long ‘u’ use) pronunciation: the other themes have a ‘ooh’ sound. A request: Could one of the bloggers kindly define ‘green paint’. Google definitions don’t seem to help.
ReplyDelete@Joseph Michael 10:48
ReplyDeleteIt's getting old ........
@burtonkd 10:10 - like The Simpsons and South Park, Family Guy is wildly inconsistent. But when it’s funny, it can be VERY funny.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, has anyone posted about Key & Peele’s Hypotenuse skit? Here it is (and hopefully, this time the link will work better than above!)
As is evident, I watch a lot of comedy TV!
K&P Hypotenuse
Nice Monday puzzle. In re the theme, the words don’t necessarily rhyme and that was intended. They rhyme depends on what dialect of English you speak. The British way with DEUCE is markedly different from American. . Americans pronounce JUICE in two distinct ways. I can’t imagine that a person native to anywhere would pronounce all the words rhyming. Possible, but highly unlikely.
ReplyDeleteWell, hey -- the themers sorta rhyme with "U's". So that's a plus.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject picks: DEW & EMU. They'd sorta be rhymers in the plural, I reckon.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Longest side of a right triangle} = HYPOTENUSE. Gimme, for a math major, even after 50+ years away from serious Pythagorean triangle analyses.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Hale darlin & Mr. Levy dude. Nice, smoooth solvequestin.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
p.s. Happy Memorial Day to y'all. Travel real SAFE.
**gruntz**
Did this theme remind anyone else of the theme song of the show Fairly Odd Parents or just me?
ReplyDeleteI thought that the hypotenuse was the longest side of a right triangle , opposite the right angle. Someone I read , innocently I am sure, referred to it as a “theorem.” This isn’t accurate is it?
ReplyDeleteAs a math major, I must admit that I never had anything to do with it after high school.
Glad to see Masked and Anonymous refer to the “sorta” rhymes. The four don’t rhyme but sorta so.
Yesterday U. Today Ü. Your face looks like a moose.
ReplyDeleteUniclues:
1 The sad news of the amount owing to the production company faking the moon landing.
2 The ceremonial end of triangles.
3 Did it with no pants.
4 Sass from one minimizing the existence of a sister.
5 Smoothie store passionate about remaining a smoothie store.
6 Description of punk rock stage.
7 Liberty ran an ad.
1 NASA DEBT, ALAS
2 HYPOTENUSE PYRE
3 ACT BARE IN HALF
4 HAS SIB MAMMAL
5 AVID JAMBA JUICE
6 AMPS STOOD ASIDE
7 EMU ABETTED MTV
My first thoughts when I opened this were that there was a lot of themer space taken up by five, longish answers and that this would significantly lower the degrees of freedom left in getting quality fill. My thoughts after completing the puzzle were that the themers were first rate for a Monday puzzle and that the fill was better than I expected. Very good puzzle, in my book.
ReplyDeleteIn high school I loved geometry. I knew the answer to "Longest side of a triangle" but remembered it ending with -EUSE. Hey, that was a long, long time ago, so don't judge. The crosses helped me out there.
I also learned today that I have been mispronouncing it all these years, thinking it was high pot toe news, which doesn't quite rhyme with the others themers, at least to my ear. Correction noted.
WHATTHE LAYTOWASTE
ReplyDeleteALAS, TARA loved her CHOCOLATEMOUSSE,
but she’s TOOHOT for ME TO care,
she’s SAFE but SLY AND FASTANDLOOSE,
it BEMUSEs ME TO SEE her BARE.
--- OMAR ALT
I picture Inspector Lestrade: "WHATTHEDEUCE are you talking about, Holmes?" The poor Inspector is a bit dense...you know, for an inspector.
ReplyDeleteI also picture FAST Eddie Felsen: "How should I play this one, Bert? Should I play it SAFE? That's how you always taught me to play. Well, here we go, FASTANDLOOSE. One-ball, corner pocket." WHACK!
Mob euphemisms for murder are rich and varied, but none more than the hitman's advertisement: "I will paint your house."
Super-easy but for one square: 62. I've never seen nor heard of JAMBAJUICE, but had to assume the down must be MTV, this being Monday and all. There are probably lots of _TVs that might have debuted that way, for all I know. Anyway it was right. Birdie.
Wordle birdie, using a starter word that bleeds over to today: WASTE.
P.S. Hearty congrats to Rickie Fowler, who ended a 2+-year drought with a scintillating birdie on the 72nd hole in the Travelers'--followed by another on the 73rd!
ReplyDeletePPSS. Sorry, make that the Rocket Mortgage, not thee Travelers.' Senior moment.
ReplyDeleteI have seen the JAMBAJUICE outlets, but haven't gone there, so was not sure of the spelling/name. Ah...names.
ReplyDeletePlayed FASTANDLOOSE with the rest for a good Monday morning. Happy holiday(s) to all SyndieCats, American and Canadian!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Okay puzzle but the theme was hardly worth it. Why did this get the okay from WS?
ReplyDeleteFun easy MonPuz. I find it fascinating that people from different regions pronounce these words differently. For me, being from the Midwest, the last syllable in all five themers rhymes exactly. And not one of them rhymes with puce.
ReplyDelete