.png)
Relative difficulty: Easy
The cheeses:
- CREAM
- EDAM
- FETA
- SWISS
- BLUE
Sofia Carmina Coppola (/ˈkoʊpələ/ KOH-pəl-ə; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and actress. She has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Golden Lion, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.The youngest child and only daughter of filmmakers Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, she made her film debut as an infant in her father's acclaimed crime drama film The Godfather (1972). Coppola later appeared in several music videos, as well as a supporting role in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). Coppola then portrayed Mary Corleone, the daughter of Michael Corleone, in The Godfather Part III (1990).
Coppola transitioned her career into filmmaking by making her feature-length directorial debut with the coming-of-age drama The Virgin Suicides (1999). It was the first of her collaborations with actress Kirsten Dunst. Coppola received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the comedy-drama Lost in Translation (2003), and became the third woman to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. She has since directed the historical drama Marie Antoinette (2006), the family drama Somewhere (2010), the satirical crime drama The Bling Ring (2013), the southern gothic thriller The Beguiled (2017), and the comedy On the Rocks (2020). (wikipedia)
I have to say, though, that the fill was kind of grieving me early on. SSNS and NAE and ELBA and especially DIETPOP, which just hits my ears all kinds of wrong. Not sure why I can absolutely accept POP as a synonym for "soda," but DIETPOP just sounds ridiculous (40A: Low-calorie soda). DIET COLA yes, DIET SODA yes, DIET POP, clank. I know this is at least in part a regional issue. Still, clank. The worst clank, though, by faaaaaar, was NO SEATS. I put that answer together from Downs and then just stared at it. "NOSE ... ATS? Wait, NO SEATS? What the ... how in the hell are they going to plausibly clue that??!" Answer: not well (35A: "Standing room only"). There is no believable clue for "NO SEATS." Just because something is in your gigantic wordlist does not mean it's good. Curate! Don't let the computer push you around. Do better. NO SEATS, LOL, no. No treats for NO SEATS. On the other hand (or OTOH, as the now-middle-aged kids say), I thought FACE-TIMED and GROUPHUG were very nice. Gave the grid a nice sparkle and a fresh feel. This puzzle seems to be the constructor's debut, so nice work, I'd say. Gotta run—wife has been gone all week and she comes back tonight (yay) but I gotta drive to Syracuse in a rainstorm to get her (boo), and it's about time for me to fly. See you tomorrow.
 |
| [Evan Birnholz, filling in for me in 2013] |
Medium. Cute and clever, made me smile, liked it a bunch. A fine debut.
ReplyDeleteCroce Solvers: Croce’s Freestyle #807 was on the easy-medium for me except for one major WOE which I was certain was wrong, but turned out to be right. Good luck!
Aw, cute. SAY CHEESE with cheesy smiles. I'm a fan of this puzzle even though it put up a bit of a fuss with me. I can't spell ALEX, or RECTANGLE, or SOFIA.
ReplyDeleteI think it's retrofit, not REFIT. REF IT is when you adjudicate middle school basketball after hours for a few bucks.
When the middle of your face has its own Twitter account, you should be expecting some NOSE ATS.
A DIET POP is a skinny guy punching you in the head, a POP DIET is what your dad ain't gonna do, or one everybody is trying that doesn't work. DIE T-POP is what haters hope will happen to the boy band craze in Tajikistan.
That's the kinda clue I'd write for EDEN. Way over the top. And I am delighted to see the return of a legit tee-hee from our lonely NYTXW editorial crew in RAISES HELL.
Uniclues:
1 Dated online (not in Utah obviously) if you know what I mean.
2 Joins team celebration despite all the sweat.
3 "Sorry about ruining your big round spaceship."
4 Assistant orders decaf for boss.
1 FACETIMED MADAM
2 ABIDES GROUP HUG
3 LEIA ATONES
4 AIDE RAISES HELL
I'm ashamed to admit I didn't notice the smile shapes until Jeff Chen and Rex pointed them out.
ReplyDeleteLike Rex solving down clues only, the only real problem was the whole RECTANGLES EXERTS area. For quite a while I had PUTS ON for 4 down and guessed FAST TIMED for 17 across. When I finally realized what those downs were, I just went "Huh?" I have a hard time imagining why one would use that clue for RECTANGLES, I mean why not "Newspaper pages, usually"?
Funny thing "soda" vs "pop"... here in western Canada, it was always "pop", never "soda". Unfortunately Google Ngrams doesn't have a Western Canada English corpus, so I can't prove it.
[Spelling Bee: Sat -3 (kinda gave up), Sun 0. Last word Sun a goofy 4er for which M-W and Collins don't even have an entry.]
Rex can’t think of any valid way to clue NOSEATS.
ReplyDelete1. Why one always stands at urinals.
2. Sign outside of a Spanish car dealership with zero inventory.
Pronouns for a wedding attendant? USHER
Congrats on a cheesy debut, Catherine Cetta.
My five favorite clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. One way to reach a distant star (3)(6)
2. Joint chief of staff? (6)
3. Epic fails? (4)(5)
4. What a helicopter might fly out of? (5)
5. Object for binding contracts (6)
FAN LETTER
WARDEN
PLOT HOLES
MAPLE
STAPLE
I thought this was an enjoyable Monday. As far as which cheese am I, I’d have to say cream cheese, since I was born and raised in Philadelphia. Although, Philadelphia Cream cheese is apparently a misnomer, for reasons I don’t understand. Maybe, it’d be more accurate to say I’m whatever cheese I feel like topping my cheesesteak with on any given day. I’m reminded of the days, many moons ago (when the moon was made of cheese?), walking down Locust Walk to afternoon classes, strolling up to the cheesesteak cart, where the proprietor would chant her well-worn daily query, "Sauce & onions?"
ReplyDeleteNice easy Monday, although quite a lot of tired fill (hello, Mel OTT!) The only problem for me was NOSEATS - wanted soldout - but that was quickly rectified. CARRYON also took a minute. Nice way to start the week, especially since Saturday’s puzzle was brutal for me.
ReplyDeleteThe minimalist theme doesn’t put a lot of stress on the grid and the fill is pretty clean and straightforward - what a concept !
ReplyDeleteI don’t get the allure of including math tests in foreign languages, which is another of those quirky conventions that the NYT embraces but I rarely see elsewhere.
Tried doing this downs-only. Oooph. That takes some discipline.
ReplyDeleteNOSEATS is straightforward answer for the clue STANDING ROOM ONLY. Almost impossible to not get it, even with no crosses.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not about hard/easy. It’s simply not a standalone phrase, any more than NOLIGHT or NOCLOUDS is.
DeleteLosing musical chairs player's realization.
ReplyDeleteMaybe ‘why you don’t wear chaps without pants’ for NO SEATS?
ReplyDeleteSimilar solve to Rex’s, including the great helpfulness of the theme. That was especially important in seeing that it could not be ‘puts on’ where EXERTS eventually went (hi, okanaganer).
Croce 807: Medium, but on the hard side of medium. Lots of grid segmentation limited the flow.
Nice puzzle, easy except for figuring out the theme (after finishing it).
ReplyDeleteThoughts…
ReplyDelete• This didn’t feel like the debut it is. Curving words in a grid makes filling it cleanly very tough, yet this fill-in feels smooth, unforced. Brava, Catherine!
• Scintillating theme, those smiley cheeses with the perfect reveal. Are constructors everywhere asking, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
• LENO backward, appropriately, is ONE L.
• Lovely rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap: DEETS.
• I specifically left the SE blank to see if I could figure out the reveal before uncovering it, a skill I have a hard time with, and today I got it! Fist pump!
• Hmmm… CAT is a nickname for Catherine.
• NEWISH after yesterday’s UPPISH, which is echo-ish.
• Possible topic for a thought experiment: The cross of NO SEATS and USHER.
• GROUP HUG atop SAY CHEESE. Does it get any more feel-good than that?
I loved this theme, and I celebrate inside when I finish such a promising debut puzzle, with a lovely new voice. Welcome, Catherine, congratulations, and thank you!
Once I caught on to the cheese thing, I was sure the revealer would be "cheese dip."
ReplyDeleteI liked the CHEESy smiles. After EDAM and CREAM, it was clear what was on the menu, but the Acrosses were going in so quickly that I didn't notice FETA and SWISS until after they'd been served. I needed to buckle down and see if I could get the last one: with the first letter a B, it must be Brie! My one do-over. What CHEESE am I? I have to go with SWISS, as I live not far from the village of New Glarus, founded by immigrants from Switzerland and a good part of the reason that Wisconsinites are called CHEESEheads.
ReplyDelete@JD from yesterday - I didn't have a chance to post but wanted to thank you for that legal firm. LOL!
So easy but those cheese smileys are just the cutest! Fun and silly.
ReplyDeleteI’m Parmesan and I skipped picture day :P
ReplyDeleteAmy: a smiling Monday puzzle is a welcome thing. I'll say I'm BLUE cheese, because Stilton is one of my very favorite cheeses. Used to order and sell cheese at a gourmet store in Boston long ago, so this is a treat.
ReplyDeleteVery nice puzzle. Was this exceptionally easy even for a Monday? Or did I just vibe with the constructor?
ReplyDeleteI wondered the same thing.
DeleteI solved downs-only for the first time today. Took me about twice as long as normal, but it was a fun challenge. The NW corner was he hardest for me, I didn’t see EXERTS without that X, and RECTANGLES didn’t come to me even with quite a few crosses. Eventually got it, though. I had all the cheeses filled in before I noticed they were cheeses, but that helped me get the revealer without reading the clue, which made easier work in the SE,
ReplyDeleteNice Monday, didn't see the CHEESES for a long time and then the smiley shapes were obvious. No unknows with this one. I keep looking for my printed copy for more things to mention and then remember that I did it online because I was in a hurry and didn't have time to print it out before we left for grandson duty. No Croce either, so that will have to wait.
ReplyDeleteWell done, CC. Certainly Charming and thanks for all the fun.
I am a fool who needs to stop solving themed puzzles as themeless. In this case, it didn’t change much for me because it was very breezy, but I would have enjoyed cracking a smile at the puzzle upon discovering the gimmick. Weird, cute, enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteThe fill was hit or slight miss for me, but generally solid, with some really good words and phrases, especially given the day of the week. I liked learning that TSAR is derived from Caesar - not sure if that fact has been included in crossword clues much, but it was news to me, and it was such a good way to freshen up the crosswordese! All in all, a good Monday.
Meanwhile, after two solid weeks of cold rain, it finally warmed up this weekend, with today being the third sunny day in a row in the 60’s. Everything is lush and green and the trees are finally staring to fully leaf out. I spent the whole weekend outside, but still, today, every inch of me wants to take a personal day and get out there and mow the lawn and build an new container bed, but, work has other ideas. Maybe I’ll cut out a couple hours early? I hope folks have good starts to their weeks.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteI'm SWISS, because I have holes in my head. 😁
Neat little puz. The ole brain actually figured out the Themers were CHEESE smiles. Still ticking!
Quite difficult to squeeze in five types of CHEESEs, and come out with this clean of a grid. Impressive, Catherine. Wondering how much hair got pulled out...
At T-Mobile Arena here in town where the Vegas Golden Knights play, there is a section with NO SEATS. The tickets include food and drinks, but you stand for the whole game. Go Knights Go!
Im a LEO! August here, in case you need time to order my gift. Har
OK, everyone, *GROUP HUG*
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
49d should have been d’oh, not duh.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived in Brooklyn, I was a member of the Park Slope Food Coop which had a good cheese department. I was on line once and the woman ahead of me was about to place her order when she broke down in tears. "My goodness," the cheese person said. "Are you okay?" And she answered, sobbing, "I just got back from a funeral -- do you have any Vermont cheddar?"
ReplyDeleteLife goes on. And I guess it goes on better with Vermont cheddar.
I never gave thought to what cheese I am. Maybe NY cheddar, even though I've lived in Jersey since '86. It's a good question.
Counterpoint: I was missing half of my 11th grade English class due to AP Calc testing, so did this with the other half. By the end of the puzzle, two kids had downloaded the NYT games app because they enjoyed it that much. So!
ReplyDeleteCheese tunnels?
ReplyDeleteCheese excavations?
Cheese dips?
"Watch out! Cheese below!"?
The Depths of Cheese?
Since my brain didn't have much else to do in the solving of this puzzle other than trying to guess the theme, I deliberately slowed down to a crawl and tried to come up with one that would fit the pictorial way cheeses were being represented. Then, completely failing to do so, I went on to the revealer.
SAY CHEESE???? That's it????? Then why the arc? Why aren't the tiny little circles lined up straight? I don't get it. Or as the age-old question goes: "Is this all there is?"
Oh, wait -- it's a SMILE!!! I see it now! And that's before reading any of the blog -- I swear.
ReplyDeleteSo in a way, the puzzle is cuter than I realized.
Great Monday puzzle. Yeah, the theme didnt really help you solve. But once you’re done, it is sure to put a smile on your face. And what more can you ask out of a Monday? Well done, Catherine Cetta.
ReplyDelete@Lewis 7:36. You didn’t mention the palindromic MADAM, so I guess I’ll have to do it for you.
ReplyDeleteThx, Catherine; nice puz to kick off the solving week! 😊
ReplyDeleteEasy-med.
Cute theme.
Fave answer: GROUP HUG. 🤗
Fun solve; liked this one a lot! :)
___
Thx jae; on it! 🤞
___
Acrosticians: found Mark Halpin's relatively easy. Most enjoyable! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
Very nice Monday Catherine! I would’ve liked it even without the smiley faces throughout the grid but that was a super nice touch to set it apart from just a run-of-the-mill theme with circles. And I loved GROUP HUG. Congratulations on your debut and I sincerely hope you will be back with more.
ReplyDeleteCouldn’t help but think of our resident proud Cheesehead @chefwen and other Badger/Packer fans I know. Pretty sure there are NO SEATS available for those games in Green Bay.
Really, I should learn to assess the empty grid before I start to fill it in. If I had done so, I probably would have noticed the smile shapes, or bowl shapes, or whatever I would have thought they were. But I didn't; so when I got the revealer I was looking at FACETIMED and wondering what CM referred to. Then I noticed the EM in DEISM and thought there might be a message reading each line left to right -- and only then saw the EDAM smiling at me. Aha! Now I like the puzzle a lot better than while I was solving.
ReplyDeleteI do like AT SEA/SEE, and SEE resting on HEAR in a little tower of the senses. (TASTE is just implicit in all those cheeses.) Also ELBA part of a classic palindrome, with MADAM (I'm Adam) nearby and clued as such.
Yeah, it's regional. In NE Wisconsin, growing up, club SODA considered a kind of pop, and you could get an ice cream SODA, but that was it (except for baking).
Philosophical question: are garbanzo BEANs actually beans? And do they become peas if you call them chickpeas? A "word that can follow" clue might have been more precise. But I know, it's a clue, not a definition.
I balked at DEETS. “Detes” are details, DEETS are insect repellants. C’mon.
ReplyDeleteRex, I owe you a debt of gratitude for making Mondays fun again with the “downs only” solving challenge. It’s been a game-changer, literally!
Now I know Ilsa is hidden in cocktail sauce. THANKS NYT's crossword!
ReplyDeleteAnyone else entirely over this "name hidden in" paradigm? It's too simple and not fun. Just seems like lazy constructor expedience
DeleteI won't make too much fuss here, but NAE really shouldn't be clued as "Scottish denial." Most people from Scotland, especially Scots speakers would not hear NAE as a denial (as in, the opposite of YES), but rather as an adjective indicating the lack of something. Examples:
ReplyDelete"Are you wearing pants?" "NO." (This would sound like NOH -- with a long O -- in most Scottish accents.)
But: "I am wearing NAE pants." (This would sound like NAY in most Scottish accents."
We might have a hard time in English noticing the difference between the adjective NO and the denial NO. (The latter's part of speech is a matter of some contention, but it clearly performs a different syntactical function from the adjective NO).
German speakers (among others) will recognize it right away because they use different words for these two functions:
"Do you speak English?" "NEIN." (the NO of denial)
But: "Ich spreche KEIN Englisch." ("I do not speak English," or literally, "I speak NO English," the adjective NO.)
Ok, I guess I made a little fuss about it. If you don't care, pay NAE attention.
Charming and smile inducing: a precious joyful moment.
ReplyDeleteAn enjoyable Monday puzzle and @Rex pretty much voiced my feelings about the whole experience (other than I STILL do not GET the “allure” of “downs only”).
ReplyDeleteYep. DIETPOP clanks for me. I mean, I know there is this whole “regional” thing about POP v. soda but, for whatever weird factor in my upbringing, I have always said “soft drink.” Keep in mind at some point in my life I pretty much decided I didn’t really like sweet beverages with my meals so I really never HAVE to say any of those words. I DO think in MY region of the Midwest that “soda” is used more.
@Gary Jugert…good point, and hand up for thinking of the term “retrofit.” But…as I think of it, my career has involved companies having to “retrofit” pollution control equipment to an existing emission unit (more expensive than if they’d just put in the control initially) so MAYBE REFIT is right? Hah! Howz that for some academic blather!?
@Nancy…got a kick out of your “tale of revelation” I’m kind a surprised I actually figured out the “cheesy smile” aspect since I can be VERY dense when it comes to things like that in a puzzle.
@Liveprof…loved your Vermont cheddar/funeral story! Those are the kind of awkward moments where I might have to pinch myself to hold back an inappropriate giggle. Probably easier for you being BEHIND the lady than it would be for the person assisting her!
@dragoo, thanks for the clarification. I now have NAE confusion (as opposed to "NAE confusion"). I think of "nary any", and that seems to be a good swap.
ReplyDeleteFun theme for a Monday, perhaps my fastest Monday ever, though.
To the entire Midwest, POP is soda, much like "coke" is a generic in the South. "Give me a Sprite coke, please".
This was the hardest puzzle of the year so far. Tried solving it not only blindfolded, as usual on Monday, but also with my hands tied together behind my back. I was not able to get even one answer.
ReplyDeleteyep. Like several others here, M&A's first reaction was "Cheese Dips!"
ReplyDeleteKinda liked the the theme's cheeriness … definitely beats a cheese word ladder.
staff weeject pick: SAD. Nice theme antithesis. Sorta a "Say Trump!" interlude thingy.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Eve's garden … or the letters at the beginning and end of Eve's garden} = EDEN. har
"No seats available" sure sounds like a thing. So, maybe NOSEATS could kinda be a shortened (Swiss?) version?
Impressive SE area, with RAISEHELL/GROUPHUG/HOPESO/SAYCHEESE. My fave puzgrid part.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Cetta darlin. And congratz on a great debut.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
smalltown doc--This is from WHYY and tracks with my understanding.
ReplyDeleteIn 1880, when New York cheese broker Alvah Reynolds pitched New York dairyman William Lawrence on creating better branding for his new product — which was richer, creamier and fresher than the more common Neufchatel cheese — Philly was widely considered the country’s top spot for high-quality dairy.
Strolling Locust Walk means Penn. Aint no carts on Locust Walk. ( at least in the 50 years I've been using it). Lots of carts on Spruce and Walnut, but on the Walk itself? Hmm. More troubling is this idea of a vendor hawking "sauce" for a cheesesteak. What sauce? It's true pizza streaks have sauce but they're... pizza steaks, not cheesesteaks. For my money the best pizza steak was from George and Sophie's. A charming Greek couple sold them from their setup--which was an old school bus rigged up with a grill, and a couple of pizza ovens. They operated in an empty lot on the North West corner of 34th and Walnut. ( Of course they're long gone and that lot is fully developed with some sill store. A pity.
Fun puzzle to start the week, thank you Catherine. Hope to see you again.
ReplyDeleteMonday Easy. Now for some reason I looked at NO SEATS and thought it was NOSE (E)ATS, something I was a little tempted to do as a teenager making out with my girlfriends in a car, back in the early 60s. Well, maybe not so tempted, but girls used to be very thrilled if you did that to their ears. I had to come here to find the cheeses all in their smiley places -- my theory is, if you have all the right letters, and know it, who cares about those circles everywhere?
ReplyDeleteThe reason those Russian rulers were called Czars was of course to remind you of the Caesars of old Rome -- every emperor was called a Caesar, starting with Julius and going on for centuries. Pronounced much like the German "Kaiser". I'm guessing that the TS version was adopted because the Russian language pronounces the word with an audible "ts", rather than a "ks' sound.
We California natives never called a soft drink a POP. We might ask what sort of "soda" was on offer at the drive-in, or whatever. But I was raised to call such things "soft drinks". I remember being delighted to learn of CREAM sodas, when I visited New York.
Cheesy smiles. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteMost of us on this blog are advanced and find early week puzzles almost annoying, but this Monday grid will allow those starting out to see it’s more than about just the words and might want to stick with (or find) the humor of wordplay.
I was in a boring lecture at Stanford B School when I first started doing NYTXW and was so surprised when there were twists done, seemingly on purpose. Asked my girlfriend, who had done them during her years at Yale, whether it was a coincidence.
As she said to me so many times in so many different circumstances, “HON-eeeeyyy…”
@liveprof, thanks for the Park Slope Food Coop memories. That place is absolutely a parody of itself, the crunchy granola stroller set mixed with aging musicians and yuppies and so forth. I’d recommend it as an anthropological outing to any Brooklyn tourist, but they don’t allow non-members admittance.
DeleteBut my goodness, the prices are worth all the mishegas!!! A dear friend is a member and if I happen to be in town around when she’s going food shopping, she’ll ask me if I want her to pick up anything for me. A good friend. Or maybe even a Gouda one?! …I’ll see myself out.
Speaking of cheesy puzzles, Rex had a Thursday NYT puzzle back in 2011, theme was SLICED CHEESE. Different cheeses (eg Gorgonzola, Mascarpone, Limburger) were split (sliced) into 2 or more words, all with wacky clues...
ReplyDeleteI admire your spunk, JM! Sorry to hear about your DNF. At the risk of overstepping my bounds, is it possible that, in your effort to increase the Monday challenge, you are “overshooting?” Could you dial it back a smidge? Perhaps instead of the blindfold, an eye patch or sunglasses?
ReplyDeleteI’m having trouble at the other end. For example, today I had a friend translate all the clues into Serbo-Croatian, a language I don’t speak, and rearrange their numbers randomly. But I was still able to finish in 11/16 of a second – not a Monday best for me, but close.
[Sorry if this appeared twice --- the first time it seems to have disappeared.]
Okay. I was taking a rest on gardening and decided to do a search on pop v soda which also included “Coke” sans TM. I have to say…I call BS on about every map I saw! First and foremost, I saw some maps with my area marked as “coke” and I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard ANYONE refer to all carbonated beverages as coke. I HAVE heard they do in the south but never known a soul who did.
ReplyDeleteDo I really care? No. I would not think it was “quaint” if someone was at my house and asked if I had pop, soda OR soft drinks. If someone asked for coke, I’d say NO even if I had Sprite (I wouldn’t have any of it unless I had a party).
@Andrew…I’ve been into a gardeningthon so I saw your Queen K/Camilla response. I confess I “listened to” Spare (guilty pleasure) recently. Ah well…all I can say is, I guess it’s important for some folks to be called Queen. Interesting (in this day and age) that there was no chance that Prince Philip would be “King Consort.” And who wouldn’t want to be part of the most sophisticated and ridiculously dysfunctional family on the face of the earth!?
@beezer - all I could think of when I saw the ridiculous gown/robe of Charles was that he looked a lot like Barbara Bush…
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing was so over the top - this from the son-in-waiting who was going to scale down/modernize the monarchy!
But I did laugh at the crazy Harry-blocking plume of Anne’s. Well done - a tip of the feather!
Thanks Beezer -- Yes -- good that I didn't burst --- would have been impolite at a minimum.
ReplyDeleteAnd Weezie -- glad I could trigger some memories. It was so long ago that my wife and I were members. Over 40 years! It was a big deal when they voted to add tuna fish to the shelves. When we got married, I wrote an announcement for The Linewaiter's Gazette that was a parody of the NYT announcements. I remember the headline was "Linda R. Weds Former Squad Leader."
Good times.
@Liveprof, thank you for the advice. I'm not sure that an eye patch would provide enough of a challenge, but two eye patches might do the trick. Maybe I'll try that the next time my blindfold is at the dry cleaners.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile I admire your creativity in translating the clues into a foreign language, but I can see how Serbo-Croatian might be too easy to figure out during that 11/16 second. May I suggest that you try a more archaic language, such as Sanskrit or Mycenaean Greek?
Two patches -- of course!
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion about those languages is excellent -- I may have trouble sleeping until next Monday from the excitement. I just have to make sure I don't accidentally attain fluency in them during the week.
Fun puzzle. But FEN is completely new to me. Is that a regionalism for a 'marshy area'?
ReplyDelete@Jeff B. - Not sure where you are, but one use you may know of FENway Park in Boston, which is named for the local fens.
ReplyDeleteAlso, from Wm. Shakespeare, King Lear:
You nimble lightnings, dart your blinding flames
Into her scornful eyes! Infect her beauty,
You fen-sucked fogs drawn by the powerful sun
To fall and blister.
A MARSH? A BOG? A SWAMP? A FEN?
ReplyDelete"Bogs store and release water to and from the surrounding land, but are not connected to a system of lakes or streams. Bogs are nutrient poor and generally have low plant diversity as a result.
Fens, on the other hand, are connected to slow, but flowing water of small lakes and streams. According to Ducks Unlimited, in a fen, “water sources have been in contact with nutrient-rich surface and/or groundwater making fens more productive and biologically diverse than bogs.”" (Sierra Club BC)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
@bocamp-Now I'm curious.
ReplyDeleteHow much does a fen weigh?
Sorry.
pablo, who has been to Fenway many times.
My biggest gripe is that Leia didn't found the resistance. If anyone should get credit it would be Mon Mothma.
ReplyDeleteI was reminded about a friend who was walking down the street In Amsterdam and was asked, “Have you let cheeses into your life?” Of course it was an evangelist trying to convert random pedestrians into going to church, but it seems more appropriate to today’s puzzle.
ReplyDeleteMay gouda have mercy on our souls
Delete@pablo 🤣
ReplyDeleteSeriously, tho, I'd say it's in the same ball park as a Boggsway.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
I thought this was a really gouda puzzle. Almost put in brie where BLUE goes when I had B—E for the smiley shape. Glad I held off. It’s a fun beginner-friendly challenge. Perfect for Monday. Excellent debut. Bravo to Catherine Cetta!
ReplyDeleteCARRYON, CAT, CARRYON
ReplyDeleteADMIT the MADAM you disOBEYED
will RAISE HELL AT how ILSA feels.
SO the VALUE of her NEWISH AIDE
is SET - she ABIDES NO GROUP DEALS.
--- FRAU SOFIA OLDS
Nice. Cheese in the form of smiles: ergo, circles are necessary. I did almost have a glitch in the SW; with B and E in the end circles, I nearly wrote in BRIE for the cheese. Double-checked the cross...nope. But shouldn't it really be BLEU? I mean, that's how the cheese is spelled. Isn't it? I suppose you could have a cheaper version and just call it blue, but the real McCoy? That's BLEU.
ReplyDeleteA nit which I won't pick while scoring. The idea is cute, and is reinforced by fill like GROUPHUG. Actually made me smile while doing it. Birdie.
Congrats and a tip of the Space helmet to Nick Taylor, whose 72- (!) foot putt on the fourth playoff hole sealed a victory by a native Canadian in the Canadian Open, ending a 69- (!) year drought.
Wordle par.
This was a Scholastic magazine level puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI like cheese. I like Mondays. Okey dokey.
ReplyDeleteDiana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
What Seinfeld's soup nazi would say if he worked in a movie theater ticket booth at night, and had thrown you out of his shop earlier in the day:
ReplyDeleteNO SEAT FOR YOU!!!
Easy CHEESE-y
ReplyDeleteWordle par.