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Mr. Wednesday's true identity in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" / SUN 5-28-23 / Request for one-on-one time in the "Bachelor" TV franchise / Titular character portrayed by Jason Sudeikis / Mexican garments as they're spelled in Mexico / Equipped as a factory for production / Newspaper debut of 9/15/82 / They're found beneath sink holes
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Constructor: Chandi Deitmer and Taylor Johnson
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- LEISURE SIT / SUIT UP FRONT (24A: Enjoy a La-Z-Boy recliner? / 26A: Head exec?)
- IT'S A LOST CASE / COLD CAUSE (46A: "My luggage has gone missing!"? / 49A: Germs from daycare, e.g.?)
- CAKE DON'TS / DONUT DESPAIR (90A: Things to avoid when baking desserts? / 92A: Sadness at the last Boston cream being taken, e.g.?)
- THIS OLD HOSE / PANTY HOUSE (116A: My garden waterer that's seen better days? / 119A: Shopping destination for your underwear needs?)
This Old House is an American home improvement media brand with television shows, a magazine, and a website. The brand is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The television series airs on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television network and follows remodeling projects of houses over a series of weekly episodes.Boston PBS station WGBH-TV originally created the program and produced it from its inception in 1979 until 2001, when Time Inc. acquired the television assets and formed This Old House Ventures. WGBH also distributed episodes to PBS until 2019, when WETA-TV became the distributor starting with season 41. Warner Bros. Domestic Television distributes the series to commercial television stations in broadcast syndication. Time Inc. launched This Old House magazine in 1995, focusing on home how-to, know-how, and inspiration. (wikipedia)
• • •
I was hoping that the "Second" part of the revealer phrase ("CAN I BORROW YOU FOR A SECOND?") was going to have some kind of meaning. Like, maybe the "U" would always appear in the "second" position in its new answer. But no, that isn't it. I guess if you're being generous you could say that "FOR A SECOND" means "FOR A SECOND theme answer that follows the theme answer from which the 'U' has been stolen." Maybe that was the intended meaning? Maybe I'm making that up? Maybe there's some third interpretation I'm not seeing? Anyway, this kind of theme lives or dies on the wackiness of the results, and these just don't get there. The last pair is the only good pair: THIS OLD HOSE and PANTY HOUSE are at least plausibly smile-inducing. The rest ... work, but with far less amusing results.
Fill-wise, there were rough spots for sure. I've got angry green circles around the whole PTRAPS / PAC / ASAMI area, largely because ASAMI is the worst and PTRAPS has a really tortured clue on it (tortured in an attempt at misdirection—the worst kind of torture) (58A: They're found beneath sink holes). Who has ever called the drain in their sink a "sink hole"? Pfft. The IODIDE area was also rough for me. I don't really know what an IODIDE is, so there's that. And it crossed a very weird EDU clue (13D: Northwestern follower) (I wanted -ERS) and a very badly clued IDIOTIC (11D: Half-baked). IDIOTIC is way, way, way more strongly negative a term than "half-baked." "Half-baked" implies that maybe it makes sense at first blush, whereas IDIOTIC implies thoroughgoing implausibility and stupidity. Biggest trouble spot for me was everywhere around DONUT DESPAIR, since I wanted to the "Boston cream" in the clue to have something to do with PIES, which is what I initially wrote at the end of the answer. The clues in here were also very hard for me. I know nothing about "American Gods," so everything about that clue and answer, shrug (I guess ODIN is a god, so maybe "Gods" was supposed to be a hint???) (89D: Mr. Wednesday's true identity in Neil Gaiman's "American Gods") [people in the Comments are reminding me that “Wednesday” is derived from ODIN via “Woden”]. FRENEMY (a good answer) was hard to see. TOOLED UP (???), no way. I just inferred the UP part eventually (62D: Equipped, as a factory for production). And then there was ORGY, the last thing I wrote in—totally inscrutable to me, with that clue (89A: Bodily function?). As "?" clues go, I think it's fine. Just couldn't get hold of it. Aside from the "I'M HIP" / "I'M HEP" kealoa*, I had no other issues. (Apparently I'M HEP has only appeared once, in 2010, so I should probably be slightly more confident in guessing "I'M HIP" next time) (this is the 18th appearance of "I'M HIP" in the Shortz Era).
["When it was hip to be hep, I was hep..."]
I forgot to mention one significant flaw in theme execution—at least it's a flaw in my eyes. In a "U"-based theme, where the dropping and adding of "U"s for comic effect is the entire point, there really shouldn't be Any Other "U"s involved in those theme answers. Clear the deck so that the "U"s can do their job without superflUous "U" distraction. But SUIT UP FRONT, woof. WOOF. Aside from being just a limp answer (both as a base answer ("sit up front") and as a wacky answer, it's got that dang extra "U" in there, mucking things up. Note how none of the other themers have this issue. And then note how they are better for it. [Spoke too fast—there’s a second superfluous (un-Hauled) “U” in LEISURE SIT] OK, let's see, anything else need explaining? I got very very flummoxed by 15A: Tap alternative (PSST!). Really wanted "sparkling" or "bottled" ... or else something beer-related. And then I wanted something dance related. Just brutal, that one ("tap" here is a physical "tap" on the shoulder, an attention-getting "tap"). No idea what SHOGI is (16D: Board game popular in Japan), so you can just look that one up if you want it explained (it's a chess-like game). The [Titular character portrayed by Jason Sudeikis] is actually TED Lasso, so the clue is weird to me (usually full name in clue = full name in answer). Never in my life heard the expression ["Show it here!"]. "Give it here!" sure, of course, yes. But "Show it here!," never. So "LEMME SEE" wasn't exactly hard, but the clue definitely felt awkward. An ANT is a [Six foot-runner]s because it has ... six feet. I wanted EMU (which is roughly six feet tall, and runs ... or so crosswords have told me). I think that's it for today. Enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend if you got one! See you later.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. I think my family member actually made me watch "The Bachelorette." Same difference, I'm guessing.
*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.
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75 comments:
Medium-tough. It took me a while to grok what was going on. No WOEs but more than a couple of erasures...ladEd before EATEN, meant to before FIANCÉE, Bulge before BLOAT, etc.... @Rex is right about the hard clues.
Clever take on a familiar theme and unlike @Rex the wackiness worked for me, liked it.
Random thought for a Sunday:
Assuming most people do the puzzle online, why doesn’t the NYT have multiple difficulty levels for each puzzle (ie a beginner, experienced and expert)? All they’d have to do is vary the clues.
I doubt I’m the only person who thinks the late week puzzles have gotten much easier the last few years. I’m at the point where I’m thinking of cancelling my subscription…and I’m far from an expert.
At first I didn't notice that the right side themer contains the exact word that lost the U on the left side. And also, on those horizontals there are no other answers. That's kinda elegant.
But I call foul on SOLANGE. I was so proud of myself for remembering BEYONCE's last name, and I refused... re-fused, I say... to let her go. Never heard of Ms SOLANGE but again, am I getting too old? Can't keep track of 'em all.
Typeovers: BULGE before BLOAT, and S[U]IT IN FRONT before UP front for way too long cuz I didn't really know what Crossfit records (I thought it was probably LENS, short for LENGTHS).
[Spelling Bee: Sat -1 so far, missing a 6er. There were just so many distracting names you could make with these letters: Tobago, Bogota, Angola, Nagano, Tonga, Gabon, etc.]
For 89D, our 'Wednesday' is a slurring of an older 'Wodensday,' meaning ODIN's Day. So I'd guess Gods + Wednesday is meant to clue you in even if the niche fiction book doesn't register. (I imagine you did know Thursday is Thor's Day.)
Medium-challenging + a few extra minutes of fumbling around to spot two wrong squares. I had no idea 1) why STRAPS would be found in a sink 2) what SAC could possibly stand for 3) why they didn't just go with the infinitely better STRAPS x SAC crossing. Also I thought ECOTOPE was reasonable which gave me ORGO which I know is (awful) crosswordese for "organic chemistry", so I could see a "bodily" connection but not "function".
SHOGI is essentially chess with respawns. All pieces are the same color (no white/black distinction) and they're kind of arrow-shaped, so you can flip a captured piece and bring it back onto the board as your own.
Greetings from beautiful Düsseldorf, where the internet in our apt is so bad that it's almost like not having it at all.
I really like Neil Gaiman, and although I'm not familiar with that particular work it's pretty obvious that "Wednesday" would be another name for Odin since that is where the day got its name. I recently learned that the norse god Tyr (who also made my swim cap and earplugs), the god of war, is the source of our Tuesday, which is thrilling because in the Romance languages it's Mardi or Martes, also named for the god of war!
Last night I thought my head would explode, in a French restaurant, where it was equally likely that one would be addressed in French, German, or (British) English. Zu viele Sprache! Trop de langues!
The puzzle, well, I did it on the website. The internet is a little better this morning. Reminds me of a Tony Hillerman book... if you know it, great, otherwise too long to explain.
I got the trick about moving the -u- from the first to the second clue on the same line. Yup. And did it. No other real issues...? Except I had IODInE for awhile.
Happy Memorial Day (or Pentecost)!
Medium-Challenging for me. It came down to the @Rex IODIDE/EDU cross, which nearly cost me my streak (wouldn’t have been a big loss). I had IODInE, figuring that either the “-“ was a stray character or an ion of the element is still called IODINE. I thought an IODIDE was a compound, in the way that an oxide is a compound involving oxygen. Where is George Barany when we really need him?!?
Bugged by two female examples of ALTOS. Are they not altas? DNF on LEMME vs LETME. NUTS!
Ended up solving as a themeless - gimmick should have been pared down to an early week puzzle.
Nice Canadian slant today with Blue RODEO and Klaatu
Didn’t we learn in a recent puzzle that Wednesday comes from Odin’s Day? So that tipped me off, too.
Oh, much to like today. I liked seeing a couple of echoes: HIGH C in the mini, HARD C in the main event, and HAMS yesterday, SALAMIS today. I liked AS AM I crossing SALAMIS, as the latter completely contains the former’s letters. I liked that there was enough bite in this puzzle to satisfy my brain’s work ethic. I liked the clever theme with its on-point revealer.
I especially like when a puzzle triggers brainplay. Today it happened twice. First, when my eyes passed over ONUSES post-solve, my brain popped out with, “When couple treat others to meals or drinks, can you call these treats ONUSES?” And second, the theme made me want to think of new theme clues/answers, and out came:
[Nod?] [SRO at Sotheby’s?]
-
-
-
SILENT ACTION AUCTION PACKED
Thus, a most happifying Sunday offering, Chandi and Taylor – thank you so much!
@Adam12 - Me too on the DNF in LEtME vs. LEMME. Could not figure out how tET was an annual gala host, but it is an annual holiday, so … maybe?
My order of solving made this more interesting than it otherwise would have been. I have never seen “The Bachelor” or “- ette” so the request for one on one time was a mystery. I got all the theme answers and then went at the revealer. I knew it would have YOU in it somewhere. It was kind of fun to have the revealer slowly reveal and then grok the expression. I agree with Rex that it seems odd to have a phrase that common be a formal request on the show. Do they have to say those exact words in order to talk alone with a potential match? Does a Cone of Silence descend on them so others can’t hear? @LMS, I know you love these shows - can you enlighten us?
The first themer I got was THIS OLD HOSE and since I knew the revealer was something about The Bachelor, I thought all of the theme answers would be variations of “unscripted” or “reality” shows - in which case, I was going to be in deep doo-doo. But that was the only one. I liked the theme and most of the punny answers worked for me. Rex, I think you are right about the meaning of “for a second” - the “U”s are stolen from the first answer to be added to the second one.
There was a mini- theme of X-rated lewdness with PORN STAR and ORGY (throw in LURID FLESH). The clue for the first (“one who’s barely acting”) didn’t fool me at all but “bodily function” for the second most definitely did. Great clue - one of many. “Drive home” for USB PORT also merits mention.
Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, and “American Gods” is a great book. The gods of dead mythologies, now mostly impotent because no one worships them anymore, are strewn around the US, struggling to make a living, staying in seedy apartments, pining for the old days. They are united by Mr. Wednesday to fight the new gods (of technology). I think you’d like it, Rex. Haven’t seen the TV version.
Wacky theme answers created by adding/dropping letters just aren't Rex's thing, we know. We had a medium-difficult time with this puzzle. It just didn't quite sit well, but I couldn't put my finger on it; at an intellectual / constructing level, though, I had few issues with it. I agree with Rex about SUITUPFRONT, thinking something to do with the "U" in UP at first. "Tap alternative" was devious but clever cluing, I thought - appreciated this much more than Rex. Went with BULGE before BLOAT. Toyed with URGE as a "bodily function" for a few moments.
Enjoy the long weekend, everyone! Hope it's warm and sunny wherever you are.
Yes, I do the Thurs-Sat puzzles from the early 2000s on the app and find them much harder.
Interesting - MALACHI, SHOGI, SOLANGE, SUBROSA, DUDEBRO, LLOSA and SARAPES nudge up the arcane content on this one to a reasonably high level, yet the overall consensus thus far is that it was pretty much medium difficulty - probably because the theme stood up reasonably well.
With PORN STAR, SHOGI and SALAMI, I thought we might be headed for a stealth juvy humor day (in fact, CAN I STEAL YOU FOR A SECOND is the type of lame dialogue that a PORN STAR might actually say while BARELY ACTING). However, it seems that discretion was the better part of valor today and that’s where it ended.
Thx, Chandi & Taylor; U rock! 😊
Med+
Fairly close to avg time, except for hunting down two gaffs.
Had CLeO / LEISURE SeT and SENt / TEt; d'oh! :(
Also took some time to fully grok the moving U concept. Great theme! :)
A fun exercise, and worthwhile mental battle (especially locating the dnfs).
___
@Son Volt, pablo: relatively easy-med Steve Mossberg Sat. Stumper yd (under an hr).
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On to Evan Kalish's NYT 'Vowelless' on xwordinfo.com
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
Haha, totally with you on the whole Bachelor/Bachelorette craze. So much eww. Also had most of the same issues as you did, Suit up front was just so meh.
I have thought, read and loved American Gods, and almost all of Neil Gaiman’s books. Highly recommend!
I love a long, juicy puzzle… but this one just wasn’t fun for me. I loved the puzzle’s title “U-Haul”. I just wish the revealer had something to do with moving, as in moving the “u”s, or relocating them, rather than stealing them! The Bachelorette…ugh!
Ah, Inca Cola. Absolutely love that stuff and it’s a good thing it is hard to find around here because I’d drink it all the time.
On the down side, the revealer fell completely flat as I don’t really know that as a phrase, so it felt like 'eat a sandwich'. I’m absolutely willing to believe it’s a phrase from the show, though. I once watched an episode of American Idol. I thought it was pretty good. And one episode of (probably getting the title wrong) Win a Date with Bret Michaels, which was pretty awful. That’s the extent of my reality TV experience.
I tried to read Gods and Monsters, but could not get into it at all. The theme really intrigues me, and my sister loved it, but the writing style was offputting. I’ll probably try again some day.
Excellent theme; excellent puzzle.
Six-foot runner, even as a misdirection with a ?, is just a poorly edited clue. The hyphen between six and foot implies that the word foot is being modified, hence why I thought emu like Rex. Without the hyphen, the answer would imply something with six feet, that is, an ant. I get the use of the ? But with the hyphen, it just doesn’t work.
Enjoyed it, but it was medium-tough for me. I got LEISURE SIT fairly early (which also has a stray U, so the first theme pair isn’t very elegant). Got the SUIT part of the other half of that pair, but couldn’t come up with the rest of it for a while. Also had DONTS and DONUTS down below, and thought the operative words would always be the last word of the west half and first word of the east half, which meant I was trying to make CAUSE____ work for a long time on 49a, and that I resisted HOSE for 116a because I knew it’s counterpart started with a P. I got that sorted, but the revealer was another challenge, taking a while to parse. I agree with Rex that the Bachelor reference was superfluous (and equally unpleasant for me).
My biggest issue though wasn’t theme related. I confidently put AndMe for 65a base on the M for SALAMIS. That section was the last big chunk to fall until I made that correction.
@Conrad - the suffix 'ide' is used specifically for negative ions.
In an ionic compound, the first part of the name will be based on the positive ion, and the second part of the name will be based on the negative ion. For example:
Potassium iodide = a positive potassium ion (K+) and a negative iodine ion (I-).
As with everything in life, there are some exceptions (e.g. 'cyanide') but this is the rule the overwhelming majority of the time.
Took me a whole lot longer than usual, but there's a Harry Potter marathon on this weekend, and I had fun working this the entire time so the world is delightful.
The IODIDE clue led to all sorts of havoc in that area. Cheated to find my mistake at MET and I'm sure that'll beat a lot of solvers up. I don't think I've ever seen EHUD and couldn't believe they'd say KITSCH is BAD ART.
Do tell, oh esteemed editors of the New York Times, what is BAD ART? Go ahead, I will wait.
Tee-Hees: PANTY HOUSE, PORN STAR, FLESH and ORGY. Every time I write a uniclue that feels a little baudy, I think, "is that too far?" But then our beloved NYTXW slush pile jockey throws his little fifth-grade arms around me and says, "C'mon, let me show you how far we'll go to find an ALLEY CAT." Google's Blogger software will likely flag this comment and make it disappear, but I swear dear robot, the esteemed Gray Lady SAID YES.
DUDE BRO? Uh, okay.
Shout out to M&A and the under appreciated U.
Uniclues:
1 Tik-Tok's slogan.
2 Clock setting for Cowboy Tiny Tim gathering.
3 Combat troops attempt to determine who's the good guy now.
1 KISS SALAMIS? LEMME SEE!
2 FALSETTO RODEO E.S.T.
3 G.I.S GUESS USA TODAY
Hey All !
Initially thought that the U's would just be taken away, giving a particular poster some real agita towards this puz. Thankfully, they were just moved. And that should make him appreciate the U-love of this puz! As Rodney Dangerfield said in the movie "Ladybugs" (which, if you've never seen it, you should, as it's rather funny) "I finally got some respect." 😁
Toughie in spots, did end up with an FWE (Finished With Errors). Had PoST/oHOGI in NE corner, IODInE/EnU. Dang, so close, a two-letterer.
A BLT is less simple than a PBJ. You have to cook the bacon, after all. Guess which one I had first? Also, EMU, like 99% of the solving public. Nice misdirect, there.
Is DUDEBRO anything? You can be, or be called, a DUDE or a BRO, but whoever said DUDEBRO? Unless said BRO did something IDIOTIC, "DUDE ... BRO that was dumb."
NYT risque department today: PORNSTAR. *Blushes* Rowr!
Did enjoy the Theme, as Rex said, wackiness ensued. Don't know if anyone caught the grid is 22 wide. More SunPuz for the money.
I'm in DONUT DESPAIR as I have none right now. Nothing like a LEISURE SIT with a DONUT.
Time to skedaddle. Have a nice few days off work, if it applies to you. (Doesn't for me.) Remember this Holiday is for the rememberance of all the Armed Forces men and women who lost their lives in war time. Say a silent prayer sometime this weekend.
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Phaedrus 1:33 AM
Business School 101. Experts at this have been paying for their puzzle for decades and despite weekly threats to quit, they don't. So you don't spend money on them. Making puzzles more accessible brings in new subscribers, hence the app, "modern" language, and possibly easier puzzles. Your strawman suggesting puzzles from the old days are harder is an oft posited argument, but crosswords don't age well and are always a product of their time and location. You don't live in the USA in 2000 anymore, so of course they're harder even though you're better at doing them.
Only know the catchphrase from the parody SNL skit
Of course the puzzles have gotten easier as the digital subscription has been implemented. Obvious.
I liked the theme but agree the first set is terrible and doesn’t hold up.
The other pairs are interrelated (hose/panty, cake/donut, lost luggage is often a cold case) which I find very elegant.
When another party guest ruminated that she "lost her Fee-an-say, poor baby".
"Maybe the dingo ate your baby"!
This puzzle made me want to publicly acknowledge my favorite track & field event. So here’s a shot out to the shoutput.
I noticed that “lass am I “ is an anagram for SALAMIS. Could be amusing next time I visit my local Scottish-Italian deli.
On Thursday (or Thors day for those keeping track) we had TRAP for “Hip-hop sub genre”. Today (or Toe day if you’ve run out of fingers to count on) we got PTRAP, which must be a Part Time hip-hop sub genre.
BTW, that “Metallic fabric” answer is LAME.
I thought this was a clever theme and revealer. Not difficult to get the concept early on, but each pair still took a good bit of effort to come into focus. Thanks, Chandi Deitmer and Taylor Johnson.
Love wackiness, ergo loved puzzle.
I like some wacky but NOT the sorta wacky that’s married to backward somersaults, or some such.
Lemme say that a lotta this fill was far too cute and tortured, begging the solver to acknowledge how clever the constructors were. This type of wit(?) in the Sunday NYT puzzles is getting so tedious, maybe time to stick to the dailies?
They aren’t Altas in the same way that Maria Callas and Renee Fleming aren’t Sopranas.
Well, I'm certainly having an ignominious end of the week. But then the puzzles haven't been all that nominious either.
I can't make out what that smudged thing after the "I" of Clue 22 on my paper edition is, and, even if I could, I wouldn't have known IODIDE. Maybe if I'd taken all those chem courses I dodged...
SUIT UPFRONT as the answer to "head exec"???!!! How bad is this? I mean, really!
PORN STAR is good, but I didn't get it because I had SAUTES instead of SINGES and never heard of SHOGI. SAGEr instead of SAGET completely prevented me from getting IDIOTIC. You try to make a word out of "I???RI?".
There were plenty of sections that I did get easily, but nothing here produced any real mirth. The best joke here was the W.C. FIELDS quote. Sorry, Philadelphians.
Alto is a female voice range, e.g. the recently departed, great Tina Turner. There is even a lower female “contralto” classification that includes singers such as Cher. The highest male range is generally tenor (not considering falsetto, I suppose).
Am I the only one with a Shogi set?
@Wine Diver
Yep.;-)
Is it really a “U-Haul” when they’re really just swapping words? SIT/SUIT, CASE/CAUSE, etc.? Seems inelegant. But that’s probably expecting a lot from a puzzle with a revealer based on “The Bachelor.” Blech.
There is a third part of the theme that seems to have been overlooked: the answer component words the 'U's move between are properly exchanged between their respective answers. That is, familiar phrases result from swapping SIT and SUIT, equivalent to moving the 'U' between them. Ditto CASE and CAUSE, DONTS and DONUTS, HOSE and HOUSE.
Wow. I liked this a lot & flew (whooshed) through it unlike the last few Sundays (& most puzzles of any day lately).
Thanks Chandi & Taylor!
Distinctly faster than average for me, although with any puzzle above 15 minutes, that’s more about keeping my attention that difficulty.
I slammed the long across with zero crosses, so I think it qualifies as a catchphrase.
I wonder how long CORGIs will continue to be associated with the royal family, since they were really just QE2’s thing.
I object a little bit to outright calling kitsch BADART. Feels like a very monoculture-centric evaluation. Ugly, garish, tasteless; sure, but who says those things make art bad?
Still a little confused by the clue on ROMCOMS. I get that one of the woos in “woo-woo films?” is courtship, but in what sense is woo=comedy?
All that said, certainly one I enjoyed.
Clueing and answers for PORNSTAR and USBPORT are hall of fame caliber.
I dunno, maybe it’s that it’s a lazy gorgeous holiday weekend, and I did much of the puzzle in the hammock from which I’m now commenting, but I really enjoyed it, mostly. Admittedly, the puzzle had probably more than its fair share of stretches in cluing, but I enjoyed the wacky theme, and there were enough really, really good clues and/or answers that I’m feeling generous today.
Another hand up for learning about ODIN being the namesake for Wednesday through the crossword the other day and that helping me today. (I also learned from my partner when I mentioned it that Thursday = Thor’s Day, and Friday = Frigga’s Day; excellent trivia to have under my belt!)
In queer culture, “U-hauling” lovingly refers to the tendency of some lesbian couples to rush past the “just getting to know each other” phase and instead fall hard and fast into love and domestic partnership. So I was crossing my fingers for some oblique reference, but alas, I’ll just add that to my mental list of fun puzzle ideas that I’ll probably never get around to trying to learn how to construct.
Have a lovely remainder of the long weekend, folks.
Woah. M&A went thru a whole range of emotions, with this rodeo…
1. "U-Haul" puztitle led M&A to assume that this SunPuz would offer up a ginormous haul of U usages. Perhaps [dare he dream?...] all vowels bein U's, or somesuch. Then, ironically, NUTS buoyed that hope, and MASK immediately erased it.
2. LEISURESIT themer hit M&A awful hard. "Noooo! They're haulin U's away?!" he groaned. Was forced to eat several extra cinnamon rolls, to calm the nerves. M&A TILT-SAT on the edge of his rocker, for several tense solvequest nanoseconds ...
3. Then the SUITUPFRONT themer calmed the M&A down, slightly. Got that there extracted U back, in the partnership themer dealie. Sorta better. Didn't raise the U Ceiling, but didn't exactly lower it, either. Congressional compromise meat. Sooo … OK, cancel my extra vodka collins order, see boo play.
4. 13 precious U's survived the cuts and pastes. Like. And many thanx to all the concerned bloggers here, who sympathetically thought they might need to comfort the M&A.
staff weeject pick: EDU & USD. For reasons that by now are no doubt pretty day-um clear. They was like small doses of anti-dotes.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Deltmer and Johnson folks. Keep that all-U's theme in mind for yer future puzs, tho. Consider it kinda a shock-therapy followup treatment, for some solvers.
Masked & Anonymo13Us
**gruntz**
I enjoyed that a lot. Possibly because it was geared toward my demographic (female, millennial) more than most.
I’ve noticed that when people complain about reality television like the Bachelor, they point to how shallow it is, how staged it is, and how few of the couples end up together after the show. In other words, they’re implying that the show is attempting to fool the audience but the savvy Bachelor-haters are onto them. Kinda the equivalent of hating on Monty Python for inaccurately portraying Arthurian England, or on John Waters for being so over the top.
Anyway, if you can watch it in the way its producers intend, it’s pretty funny…or at least not that worthy of derision. I do find it interesting how many people love to dunk on anything that’s by or for young-ish (I’m in my 40s!) women.
Was no one else bothered by the jarring extra S in DONTS!? Except for that, a word turns into a different word by removing a U. SUIT-SIT, CAUSE-CASE, HOUSE-HOSE and then DONUT-DONTS !?
after solving realized how tricky clues were and the final theme - with all its twisted desperate secrecy to win The Love Game - made this a rare Sunday worth savoring...
HMTR (hated more than Rex). What made this one of the worst Sunday NYT xwords ever? Aside from the problematic theme, this area in the NW comprised of a chunk of obscurities like SMEE, LAPIS, LAME, and ROMCOME (what the h is that?). What a superslog!
CAKE DONTS??!!
(Meanwhile, when the revealer is a catchphrase from a TV show I've never seen and have barely heard of, the entire theme of the puzzle is pretty much unknowable. I consign this entire effort to PPPurgatory.)
How could the editors give this the green light when there is a U in LEISURESIT (the one that crosses NUTS) that is not part of the gimmick, i.e. it is not an additional U or an invisible one. That to me is a fatal flaw. Had IODInE not IODIDE. Some of the themers were okay, others not so much.
Liked that when the U was hauled to the right, the word at right (e.g., SUIT) could then be swapped for the word that lost its U. So LEISURE SIT & SUITUPFRONT ~ LEISURESUIT & SITUPFRONT. To me, this was more clever than just moving a U into a random spot in the second answer.
I've had it. More often thann not I find myself gritting my teeth and finishing these things out of sheer stubborness. Why should I pay for aggravation ? It's very possible that I have just aged out of the audience for the current puzzles, but for whatever reason, I'm moving on. See y'all.
@Gary J. I am a perfect example of someone who has been solving forever (first as a freeloader sitting next to my Gran for about a dozen years and then subscribing to the paper when I graduated college. Despite my experience increasing I am certIn the late week offerings are much easier. I’ve thought about unsubscribing to the puzzle but since I subscribe to the paper, I get it anyway. Alas. I also go to the archives just to test my Saturday mettle sometimes and find them lots crunchier.
Wackiness on steroids! This was so much fun for me. Sure, been there-done that sort of theme, but so expertly rendered with some real silliness. I think my favorite pair is the CAKE DONTS/DONUT DESPAIR. I’ve made this comment before, but think it bears repeating today: this is quite an impressive feat of construction! My only disappointment was the reveal. I truly wish our constructors could have found another way to clue that. The Bachelor/Bachelorette shows are just so fake and silly and I think they demean the contestants and make light of the hard work involved in creating a lasting relationship. But that’s me and I don’t have to watch (and never have), but for those of you who enjoy it, I am glad for you. My real issue with the reveal was that it seemed to dilute the superior quality of and work required for our constructors to create such a clever puzzle using such a “done” type of theme. Kudos!!
Learned about RSS feeds and what “woo-woo films” ares, aw a wonderfully different clue for EPEE, got a good chuckle from BAD ART being kitsch, loved the pump squeezing a TOE. Just so much fun. Everything a Sunday should be.
Started this AM, went north to work on opening our camp with some holes in the puz, esp. in the NE, came back, saw what was going on with the U's (finally!) and finished up. Paper solve so the clock not running, thank goodness.
Paper solve also led to some confusion, as my ink cartridge is running low, and "Boston cream" came out as "Boston team being beaten", I thought, and what does any of that have to do with DONUTs?
Maybe "The Bachelor" is a send up. Haven't ever seen it. But I think any show that includes cameras and sound people and scripts and lights and so oncan hardly be called "reality". Nor would most faithful depictions of reality make for very exciting viewing. Come follow me around all day some time if you don't believe me.
Enjoyed this, and gave myself a proper dope slap when the elegant theme finally registered . Many thanks to (constructor's name has been cut off) for all the fun.
ROMCOMS = romantic comedies. I’m only a modest puzzler but I’ve seen all of the answers you mentioned numerous times before in NYT puzzles.
I started doing the puzzle daily during the pandemic. Once I was good enough I started going through the archives and doing the Thursday-Sunday from my early days. Once I worked through those I tried to go back into the 20teens and they’re much much more difficult.
And there was a Wednesday/Odin clue in a recently puzzle. Either this week or last.
I know I said I wouldn't be back until tomorrow, but after having two glasses of wine at lunch, I wasn't up for doing anything more strenuous, so here I am. It was a bit of a slog, partly due to the over-sized grid, but not only. But once I figured out the theme, and used it to suss out the unknown-to-me revealer, it was fine.
@Tony_M when we rent out our extra bedroom, we explain the do's and DON'TS of the house to the guess. Perfectly legit word.
In the printed paper the little dot in the IODIDE clue was too small for me to see, so I started with IODInE, then actually tried IOnIzE before finally getting to IODIDE. You could almost make a word ladder out of it.
To be fair, Smee has been in the NYT puzzle many, many times as it has helpful letters. (too lazy to look up how many). It hasn’t been used a lot lately but it is considered easy, as in early week puzzle. Probably never registered with you but is most definitely not obscure.
Sure can relate to that sentiment, and someday soon I may makecthe same decision for the same reasons. Mm
Two Prince songs in one post! You're the best!
I invite everyone to try the puzzles from 11/26/93 (a Friday) and 4/16/94 (a Saturday). Easier than any we have had lately.
Asios, TJS, you'll be missed.
Anyone else throw in Beyonce for Singer Knowles initially? I felt like the hidden theme to this puzzle was a LOT of misdirection!
Same delayed appreciation of the theme. As several have commented, the third layer was that the U has the same surrounding word context on left and right. This was even helpful to my solve once noticed.
Can anyone recommend decent crosswords that don't do this "add/drop/change a letter, clue it wackily" crap? This sort of theme bores the pants off of me, and it feels like 80% of Sundays are just this.
Yes, a little old but I am 71 and know that Solange is Beyonce's sister. 😁
Also late to the party but I had to jump in and say: It’s so funny to me that people didn’t get the themer because I honestly thought “can I steal you for a second?” is a SUPER famous Bachelor/ette meme!! The joke basically pokes fun at the fact that there really ISN’T anything special to say to ask for one-on-one time, but for some reason every single contestant uses it in their request as a way to be like fake-cute/charming/considerate. These days few people watch it seriously, unlike many people did a decade ago, so that might be where the confusion is coming from. It’s a big ole meme solve. Already figured out the theme by the time I got there, but was able to toss in the exact phrase the puzzle was looking for before I even finished reading the clue. If you know, you know!
Also late to the party but I had to jump in and say: It’s so funny to me that people didn’t get the themer because I honestly thought “can I steal you for a second?” is a SUPER famous Bachelor/ette meme!! The joke basically pokes fun at the fact that there really ISN’T anything special to say to ask for one-on-one time, but for some reason every single contestant uses it in their request as a way to be like fake-cute/charming/considerate. These days few people watch it seriously, unlike many people did a decade ago, so that might be where the confusion is coming from. It’s a big ole meme solve. Already figured out the theme by the time I got there, but was able to toss in the exact phrase the puzzle was looking for before I even finished reading the clue. If you know, you know!
Sorry, no more stupid idiotic gimmick puzzles for me, I’m done.
Not a follower of any of those rose-giving shows, I had no idea how long the person was to be "stolen" for: a minute? A moment? A second? All three of these are six letters long! I had the devil's own time wrestling with the E/NE.
Got the theme, which I'll admit was deeply clever. Delete the U from a familiar phrase, then put it back into the SAME word in another, with double-wackiness resulting. That part was kinda fun.
But to do that, the fill had issues. PTRAPS?? Who knew? Yet another letter add-on to deal with, like TBAR and (extra-ugh!) HARDC. There really oughta be a law against that last one.
Plus the cluing did its best to obfuscate, making this a slog of the first magnitude. Too many examples to list here.
ONUSES? Wait, shouldn't it be ONI? Or ONA? Mayhap ONODES? I have enough trouble bearing ONE onus, never mind multiple ones. Par.
Wordle par.
P.S. Golden Knights are now ONE win away from hoisting that beautiful Cup! Let's do it back home on Tuesday!!
FLESH NITE
My FIANCEE IS A HARD PORNSTAR,
NO ROMCOMS AS I reckoned.
One LURID ORGY IS BADART,
and A LOST CAUSE FORASECOND.
--- SOLANGE "SWEAT" GLASER
@Ken Freeland 3:42pm:
I've noticed that you often call answers obscure, that I then say to myself, no they're not. For example, you say Smee is obscure. It has been used in the NYTXword alone 329 times. I picked this answer because the clue has probably referenced Peter Pan every single time. Since the movie came out in 1953, that would mean it has been used on average 5 times a year for 70 years. Hardly obscure, wouldn't you say.
DNF
Just didn't connect with the constructor in the NE corner.
Onward.
Diana, LIW
I pretty much knew what Rex was going to say. Especially agree with the extraneous u's. A very tough slog, and not so rewarding except that after hours of writing and erasing made it to the finish line. And where's Rondo ?
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