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Vermont municipality SE of Montpelier / SAT 5-20-23 / Term of address in an old-timey introduction / Creature of the internet / Staffers savvy with syringes / Landforms seen in South America / Some Boolean logic operators / Basketball star with five Olympic gold medals
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Constructor: Erica Hsiung Wojcik
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: CARLO Ancelotti (40D: Soccer coaching great ___ Ancelotti) —
Carlo Ancelotti Cavaliere OMRI, Ufficiale OSI (born 10 June 1959) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of La Liga club Real Madrid. Regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time, Ancelotti is the most decorated manager in UEFA Champions League history, having won the trophy a record four times as coach (twice with AC Milan and twice with Real Madrid). He is also the first and only one to have managed teams in five Champions League finals. As a player, he won the European Cup twice with AC Milan in 1989 and 1990, making him one of eight people to have won the European Cup or Champions League as both a player and a manager. Ancelotti is also the first and only manager ever to have won league titles in all of Europe's top five leagues. He has won the FIFA Club World Cup a joint-record three times, and is also the manager with the most UEFA Super Cup triumphs, having won the trophy on four occasions, managing Milan and Real Madrid.Nicknamed Don Carlo, Ancelotti played as a midfielder and began his career with Italian club Parma, helping the club to Serie B promotion in 1979. He moved to Roma the following season, where he won a Serie A title and four Coppa Italia titles, and also played for the late 1980s Milan team, with which he won two league titles and two European Cups, among other titles. At international level he played for the Italy national team on 26 occasions, scoring once, and appeared in two FIFA World Cups, finishing in third place in the 1990 edition of the tournament, as well as UEFA Euro 1988, where he helped his nation to reach the semi-finals. (wikipedia)
• • •
I really liked the cluing and overall energy of this puzzle. WILLA CATHER gave me a big early rush, sure, but at some point in the SW I found myself (maybe literally) saying "hey, this is shaping up to be pretty good." I enjoyed the clues on NOTHIN' (44A: Reply to "Whatcha doin'?") and THANKS (33D: What might precede a million). I struggled with STYLED (50A: Gave a look?) but felt rewarded when I finally got the right answer (it's dead on). And "MY PRETTY" made me smile, for sure. And then the longer fill in the middle all ended up being worthy marquee answers, and they all went down in a rush at that point, so I got to enjoy them as answers without ever having had to struggle with the clues. All my effort went into getting crosses, so by the time I looked at the clues for the longer stuff ... it was like tipping dominoes over. Easy. And not much I didn't enjoy. Again, I think the CARLO / BARRE cross is not great. I mean, BARRE? (43A: Vermont municipality SE of Montpelier). With that clue? Yikes. And I'm glad I went with SKORTS because CARLI / SKIRTS seems entirely plausible if you know nothing about (European) football i.e. soccer. Can't say CARLO is obscure (40D: Soccer coaching great ___ Ancelotti)—see his achievements in the Word of the Day entry, above—but I guarantee you he'll be a huge "???" for a huge chunk of the stateside solving audience today. Again, this would not matter *except* that I think the crosses of his name here aren't great. Too much potential for confusion. I also didn't like FOIE as clued (25A: ___ gras torchon (French dish)), since FOIE gras is achieved via gavage, which is too close to torture, hard pass. I am grateful, though, to have been led down a wikipedia foie gras rabbit hole to this quote from Charlie Trotter:
Chicago chef Charlie Trotter maintained that the production of foie gras is "too cruel to be served." However, Trotter refused to be associated with animal rights groups stating "These people are idiots. Understand my position: I have nothing to do with a group like that. I think they're pathetic." (wikipedia)
This made me laugh. I don't necessarily like what he's saying about animal rights groups, but I can relate to being in the position of "Ugh, yes, I agree with those people, but only on this one issue, please don't lump me in with them, please." It's like me thinking big pharmaceutical companies are generally awful but *insisting* you not liken me to those anti-vaxxer nutters who think the same thing.
Other things:
- 15A: It's a drag (AVENUE) — second use of "drag" to mean "street" that we've seen this month, I think.
- 20A: Silver streaks, e.g. (LODES) — oh, actual silver. Thought this had something to do with hair.
- 23A: Son of Seth (ENOS) — Me: "one of them four-letter Bible guys ... AMOS?" Close! AMOS actually helped!
- 46A: Staffers savvy with syringes (ER NURSES) — got this off the ER-, but my first thought was BARTENDERS since I saw The Master Gardener yesterday and there's this scene where we hear (twice) that Sigourney Weaver's servant uses a syringe to inject the maraschinos in his Manhattans with Cointreau. The movie has nothing to do with cocktails, really, but it's a mesmerizing scene, and it takes place in a room with the most exquisite jellyfish wallpaper ... I get really distracted / absorbed by little details in Paul Schrader movies. How are there no pictures of this wallpaper on the internet? Why does the internet even exist if not to provide me with such things!?!?
- 43D: Chin (up) (BUCK) — I've heard the phrase "BUCK up" and I think it's being offered here as an equivalent of "(Keep your) chin up!" They seem tonally different, but I got BUCK easily enough so ... no complaints!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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85 comments:
Saturday satting. I suppose we can't blame VILEST on anyone but Oscar Wilde (other than the constructor, the editors, and the crossword software company), but stacking it on Pennsylvania AVENUE and slyly it morphs into VILE ST.
I've stopped shaving and started using BEARD OIL and with any luck I'll be a singing Santa Claus this year, and Gandalf at the subsequent Comic-Con, and then a member of ZZTop. Giga-Goatee GLOAT.
Wrote in LOOSE CHANGE off the L and that was mostly the end of any whooshing for me.
Yays: MY PRETTY.
Hm: LEA/LEADEN.
Ug:The clue for MEME ACCOUNT indicates neither the author of the puzzle nor any of its editors knows what a MEME is, nor where they come from, nor what Twitter and Instagram are.
Tee-Hee: GONAD.
Uniclues:
1 Less than enthusiastic traveling companions headed toward an underwear convention sponsored by their rival Fruit of the Loom.
2 Give the fellahs unstylish coifs.
3 Fancy fanny finery.
4 Pitched praise.
5 Bring legal action against ostrich sitting on your face.
1 TEPID HANES CAR
2 HARM CUTE GENTS (~)
3 STYLED SKORTS
4 LOBBED THANKS
5 SUE BIRD AT REST
Very nice puzzle. It does everything right and nothing wrong.
Rex, every single one of Willa Cather’s novels is so worth reading. Look into The Professor’s House and Death Comes for the Archbishop, then keep going!
Willa Cather is so great. I credit my wife (and the Douglas Sirk movie "The Tarnished Angels," in which Dorothy Malone's character reads and discusses it) for motivating me to check her out. Wise woman, my wife.
DANCE AROUND is exactly right as a description of my outing today. After several footholds, a fog of vague possibilities, then shuffling from here to there and back, waiting for things to land.
That is, dig and claw, and revel when dings sound. Mine for gold. Persist with the faith that cracks will open because this is a NYT Saturday puzzle, a well-made grid that will cross the more arcane answers fairly. A bear-down solve, rich with earnest effort and reward. Where you make progress the old-fashioned way – you earn it.
My kind of Saturday.
And look at that gorgeous grid design. When I squint, I see the number 22, which takes me to math (22/7, approximating pi), to anatomy (the number of bones in the skull), to language (22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet), to sports (22 players on a football field), to measurement (22 yards in a chain) – thank you, Wikipedia for help on this – but most notably to me, the magnificent number in the title of Joseph Heller’s masterpiece, a never-to-forget highlight of my life.
An impressive construction, where three 11-letter answers cross the same sans ugliness, with answers from varied fields, with Saturday-worthy vagueness, trickiness, and cleverness (i.e., “What might precede a million”, for THANKS).
Speaking of which, much gratitude to you, Erica, for this proper Saturday excursion. I adored this!
I don’t know what BEARD OIL is and I’m afraid to ask. Similarly, I have no idea what a MEME ACCOUNT is (come to think of it, what does MEME mean as well - small picture? Didn’t those use to be icons?). I must be stuck in a Time Warp, since WILLA CATHER and LOOSE CHANGE in the sofa sounded oh so familiar to me, but would not have come up with LOLCAT if given a cool MILLION guesses.
It’s funny, I had the opposite thought when I saw MEME ACCOUNT— that the constructor probably is an Online Person.
BEAR DOIL? What the heck is a BEAR DOIL? 😀
I have a hunch that the difficulty level of this puzzle for any given solver will hinge largely on whether WILLACATHER is a gimme or an unknown, given its crucial place in the grid.
MY, PRETTY easy for me, with the NE going in almost as if it was a Monday and the SE providing the only resistance. I had kiSSES before REESES and could not come up with any meaning of caboose that ended in K. “Don’t get CUTE” feels like it needs “…with me” after it.
A friend was describing this strange phenomenon he’d read about regarding people who associate colors with letters and numbers, and I said, “Doesn’t everybody?” We decided I have SYNESTHESIA. I do think of every letter as having a color and some have textures. To pick a random chain, J is light purple, K is orange and L is kelly green … for me. Another synesthete might have different colors for those letters. I’ve read a lot about it and some people feel it much more strongly than I do. The colors are leaping off the page as they read. Others incorporate sounds. It’s not a bad condition to have.
I grew up one town away from DES Peres. We pronounce it the French way but my Chicagoland cousins grew up near Des Plaines, and they pronounce that Dess Plains. So gauche.
Near DES, you have LLANOS, which I think most would pronounce right as “yanos.” But we mispronounce the animal living on the llanos as “lamas.” It’s “yamas” but you sound pretentious saying it that way in English.
Much harder for me than it was for @Rex and most of the early posters. I did *NOT* get WILLA CATHER off the WI. At 3D, pLANOS before LLANOS and few before TOO at 6D made it hard to see LOLCAT. BEARD gel befor e OIL at 16A, Tried several three-letter female names before LEA at 9D. At 32A I was familiar with the concept but didn’t have the word SYNESTHESIA. Wanted end for the caboose at 35A but realized it couldn’t be because 10D. I had the RN part of ER NURSES at 46A and started thinking there may be some sort of specialized nurse who gives shots.
The first time I drove past Barre, VT on the Interstate must have been in the 60s because I remember a carful of people singing Allan Sherman’s song “Barry Is the Baby’s Name” (https://youtu.be/u3GFE7gltKY
Started in the SW - always seems to be where I can get the all important Saturday first foothold -and it flowed from there.
Finished well under my 15 minute average even with a wasted minute before I replaced the correct-looking FAUNs/SYNESTHESIs with the A train caboose.
Considered larBIRD (like Susie calls Larry David when she’s not shrieking “Get the F out!”) but sussed out SUE.
Never heard of LOLCAT, SEAGOAT or KATANA, knew it had to be SKORT so got CARLO.
Challenging but totally inferable, with minimal PPP and maximal fun! Well done, Erica!
Thx, Erica; NOTHIN wrong with this one! 😊
Easy (between a Wednes & Thurs time).
Pretty much on the right wavelength all the way.
Especially liked 'What might precede a million' for THANKS.
Fun solve; liked it a lot! :)
___
On to Lester Ruff's Sat. Stumper. 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
Really well constructed puzzle, very refreshing after this week’s awful Wednesday. No bad fill, well-written clues, overall a very elegant construction.
I had a much more difficult time than Rex because of the remembering names thing that's starting to happen to me. When I open a grid and see those long answers I get a bit nervous, but the great WILLA CATHER was a huge help. So much to read, so little time.
I'm embarrassed to say that it took me all the downs to get LOLCAT. Now I have "I'll get you MY PRETTY, and your little dog, too" stuck in my head, but this puzzle was worth it.
@Rex's rant regarding FOIE gras reminds me of one of my favorite quotes (attributed to Jascha Heifetz), "No matter what side of an argument you're on, you always find some people on your side that you wish were on the other side.”
Unlike OFL, I was unfamiliar with the WILLACATHER novel. Also unlike OFL, CARLO and BARRE were both gimmes. Pro tip: BARRE, which is not too far from where I live, is pronounced "Berry". Nothing says "flatlander" like a mispronunciation of this one.
BOAST before GLOAT slowed progress in the middle. Both my sons won sportsmanship awards in HS and I told them the downside was they couldn't brag about them.
There's old friend TENSES from my teaching days. Still remember really understanding the Imperfect Subjunctive, which I know is not technically a tense, but still.
I don't have a MEMEACCOUNT. I wonder how many of us do. I don't have an LOLCAT either.
I thought this was a swell Saturday with just the right amount of crunch. Even Hard Words like SYNESTHESIA were fairly crossed, so many thanks to EHW for all the fun.
A lovely Saturday!
CARLi/SKiRT is especially plausible in the context of this puzzle. After struggling to see SUE BIRD for a long time because I was trying to think of a male ballplayer, I thought CARLI was another female sports figure clued without reference to gender, which I thought was awesome. Alas, finally had to turn to Google for that one. For that matter, it took me a while to see SKiRTS/SKORTS because is was picturing a male golfer - love a crossword that makes me confront my latent chauvinism!
I got WILLA CATHER off the WI- as well. Growing up in Nebraska, she was unavoidable. In fifth grade, we read a book about her youth, then bussed to Red Cloud to visit her childhood home. Read at least one of her novels for class in college (A Lost Lady), and had friends who lived in a dorm named in her honor. Still took a while to trust it - I didn’t recognize the novel and I so closely associate her with the frontier that 1912 felt late for her debut).
What a lovely puzzle, done while sandwiched in between a snoring partner and a snoring pup, made all the more lovely for that.
Similar solve experience with the NW, though I got BEARDOIL right away. It’s just a moisturizing product for beards, and it makes them much more pleasant and less scratchy and less prone to getting unkempt. WILLACATHER took me a little while to get, and I had LOSTREMOTES instead of LOOSECHANGE for a little while. The real blessing I had was being able to drop in SYNESTHESIA: a gorgeous word, a gorgeous answer, and a gorgeous foothold for me. I have a mild version of it; a dear friend refuses to hear about it on the grounds that her four years of art school was more than a lifetime’s worth of listening to people talk about what colors numbers are.
I liked that at least twice this puzzle did the crossword equivalent of that old feminist joke in which “the doctor was a woman!” - SUEBIRD and SKORTS.
In general, mostly breezy with some real resistance in the corners, a big overwrite or two, in general a delightful way to kick off the day.
"Sea goat"? Really?? Worst clue I've seen in this puzzle for some time. It's been a bad couple of weeks for me.
One horribly racist section in Willa Cather’s My Ántonia. Did not recall it from my initial read of the text (probably high school) but could not in good conscience assign this to current high school classes. Sigh.
Liked this one a lot even though I finished with a glaring error, which I thought would be explained in Rex's notes. I was so proud and felt so hip to throw down tEMuACCOUNT (srsly--it is a real thing) for 31A. And STarED for 50A (Gave a look?), which gave me tYPRETTa for the Wizard of Oz clue. Figured it's some obscure film term that I'd missed over the last 71 years--some weird amalgam of operetta and typecasting. I'm sticking with it.
Even if that was correct, however, I had LOpCAT for 1A and pLANOS for 3D. Apparently I'm not hip enough to be familiar with those kitties from LOL.
I watched the link to the movie Master Gardener that Rex included. I'mma watch it tonight. It better be as good and the preview.
Not Easy for me - but doable with a lot of going from across to down and back again. MY PRETTY was my favorite. Had SQUEEZEONBY for 29A until I got WILLA CATHER. Still like SQUEEZE better than DANCE, but had to capitulate. After that LOOSECHANGE helped a lot, as did SKORTS and ERNURSES. Very nice puzzle.
One of my fastest Saturdays...ever? In the NW, ENOS was enough to get me ONE ONE and LLANOs and the rest, and in the NE, IVES and LEA x AVENUE took care of that corner. The rest unfurled from there. Favorites: DANCE AROUND and MY PRETTY!
Do-overs: BEARD wax, NuTHIN, kiSSES. Help from previous puzzles: KATANA. New to me: MEME ACCOUNT.
To the WILLA CATHER recommendations, I'll add A Lost Lady.
LOLCAT was heavily hinted by the Wordplay blog post below the puzzle, for those solving on a desktop computer with a sufficiently large monitor to see that... "Create of the Internet" and it has a picture of a cat next to a computer and you can see the cat photos on the computer...
LOLCATs are things that all of you, every one, has seen... you just might not have known that term for them. Basically any picture of a cat with funny text on top. The official definition includes bad grammar and spelling for the text, but I would argue that even properly spelled stuff is still LOLCAT territory.
I should buy a boat.
Hey All !
What a beast of a puz. Had NuTHIN for a good long time. (Definitely should've been NUTHIN with that U, as that's what the clue asked for.) Had very few blocks filled in, had to resort to Check Puzzle to ferret out the wrongness to try to regain footholds. Did eventually get the puz completed, but with many Check Puzzle checks!
SEA GOAT?? I thought it was just A GOAT. Or THE GOAT as I had first. SYNESTHESIA, holy moly. And are MEMEs in an ACCOUNT? I thought they were just... MEMEs.
Anyway, impressive Center Blob of Six crossing 11's. Need plenty of DANCing AROUND to get any semblance of clean fill. Nice fill everywhere, for that matter.
Got a chuckle out of Rex's mini-rant on GONAD.- "just an awful, awful sounding word." Har, Rex, you know they are a part of you, no? Is Balls any better? 😁
@Anon 7:22
A BEAR DOIL is an unfinished table mat owned by the Three Bears. 😁
Tough SatPuz here. Hoping y'all got your tough puz fix.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Can someone explain TOO to me as clued?
Hi, fellow mild synesthete. Since I posted what colors J, K and L are for me, I’m curious what they are for you.
The Gershwins taught me how to spell NUTTIN', so that got me plenty of it for a while.
I thought Silver Streak was for hair, or a train. I thought it was an Amtrak route, but that turns out to be Silver Star, from NYC to Miami. I like the literal Saturday misdirect. Silver Streak was also a movie from 1934, featuring the Silver Streak Zephyr, running LA to Chicago.
Sometimes, I feel like there will be a life exam on stuff I should have picked up by now. I'll be failing, or at least getting a C- in these and other subjects:
- complete knowledge of Zodiac Signs
- Greek alphabet in order
- being able to identify at least 25 tree species
- four letter Bible guys
I hope LOLCAT, MEMEACCOUNT, etc will be merely stuff to cram, then eject after minor quizzes.
I'm glad KATANA decided to stick around findable in the ol'attic.
I wanted thEBIRD, but don't remember that as a nickname for Larry. SUE much better!
Too bad FOIE Gras (torchon or non) can be so delicious...
Looking at a puzzle mid-solve, MYPR just has to be wrong. Great aha moment to get
-ETTY!
Got everything except the SW. Couldn't figure out the MYPRETTY/STYLED cross. Didn't know SEAGOAT, so I had no chance. The clue for HARM is valid to the extent of the doctor's Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm," but no patient ever said it to a doctor, so to put it in quotes is unfair.
Overall, an average Saturday in terms of difficulty. Definitely not easy.
I actually don’t have colors for letters! I do for some numbers, like 4 is definitely a rich spring leaves green, but it’s more about colors and certain sounds, especially music. Like, the red-eyed vireo that’s endlessly chirping right now? That is so clearly a faded salmon pink. Letters have personalities in my head but not colors. J is someone taking a nap in an armchair, K is a toddler having a tantrum, L is an accountant. Brains are strange and fascinating!
I’m with Rex on FOIE gras, but not sure where I come out on the Wilkes Barre vs. Vermont’s Barre situation. Just try not to bury the lede.
I went to my MEMEACCOUNT to find a LOLCAT with a KATANA…… NOTHIN!
Do you suppose that the inventor of 51A had to decide between Skirt + Shorts = SKORTS and Shorts + Skirt = Shirts? The latter choice was probably wisely foregone. Otherwise “shirts vs. skins” basketball would have gotten pretty interesting.
Men’s GONADs may be balls, but a GENTS GONAD is a testicle.
Had the first use of Pickleball as an answer just last month. Today is, I think, its first use in a clue. I’m pretty sure that even SUEBIRD and CARLO Ancelotti are playing it these days.
Wonderful puzzle that had a lot of whooshing with some BZZT thrown in. Thanks, Erica Hsiung Wojcik.
I can tell you that no native New Yorker would ever dream of calling Fifth or Madison or Lexington or Columbus or Broadway a "drag". Never in a million, zillion years. There, I've said it.
In fact, this wasn't a good puzzle at all for native New Yorkers. Most of us don't own cars and therefore while "fancy restaurants" may offer many different services, a VALET usually isn't one of them.
After a marathon, I think my legs would feel a lot, a LOT worse than LEADEN.
THE GOAT before SEA GOAT. I didn't know there was such a thing as a SEA GOAT. And why wouldn't LARRY BIRD fit? SUE must be his daughter, right?
AT EASE before AT REST. Who on earth were the ERN----S with the syringes? Whoever they are, needle-phobic me would try to avoid them. A very DOOK-y answer when it finally came in.
Three out of five stars is what I'd term TEPID. You award me 2 1/2 and you've damaged me for life.
A tough, interesting puzzle that I enjoyed tussling with.
Agreed — MEME ACCOUNT is very much a thing for those terminally online
RE: 47D -- There's a blues singer in Chicago whose stage name is Mzz Reese (childhood nickname -- her actual first name is Priscilla). She has named her band "Reese's Pieces."
Another nod to us dirty old (leg) men today with SKORTS, after yesterday's miniskirt. Has the puzzle's leering moved lower since its recent focus on tuchases? I'll have to keep an eye out to see.
@Lewis -- I agree with you on Heller and Catch-22. As you may already know, the book was going to be called Catch-18, but Uris's Mila 18 came out and they were worried about the two getting confused.
When I was an undergrad at Brandeis several hundred years ago, Heller came to speak and he was wonderful. At the end, some folks approached him and asked if he'd autograph their copies of Catch-22. I stupidly didn't think to bring mine, but I had a copy of Plato's Republic on me from a course I was taking. So I explained my situation to him and asked if he'd sign the Republic, and he chuckled and signed it. I went around for several days saying that I had an autographed copy of Plato's Republic.
Easy. I did not know that REESES (I had kisSES for a nanosecond) was part of Hershey. Solid with fine crossing center stacks, liked it.
CYRUS was WOE and the NW was the toughest corner for me.
Knowing WILLA was extremely helpful.
Same, that’s exactly how I’d define a meme account!
Big agreement with the best Friday/Saturday pair in a long while (and they weren't switched around). I had lots of odd help in this, as I guessed WILLACATHER with only the I in place, though I know nothing of Willa Cather other than that she exists and wrote "O Pioneers!" SUEBIRD was a gimme because I saw the 60 Minutes piece on her, and while I was duly impressed with her, I was amazed that between her and Megan Rapinoe, she won on all of the style/funny/ability/balls/accomplishments rating scales, and I didn't thank anyone would beat Megan Rapinoe on any one of them.
And who doesn't know BARRE Vt? It has a population of over 8,000 for cripes sake. It's the only hamlet+ sized area west of Montpelier until you get to Maine. It's also the self-proclaimed 'Granite Capital of World'! I know, being self-proclaimed anything doesn't amount to much, but still, these 8000 people at least have the gumption to make grandiose claims, and you don't want to ignore 8000 with gumption. They'd probably like to tell you that if you have granite counters in your kitchen you have them to thank, but their lawyers have advised then not to do so, as all the radon that's seeping out of those counters and killing you and your family represents a huge liability for them. Gumption alone ain't going to erase that fact.
My nephew has SYNESTHESIA, he's an accomplished musician who sees music in colors. He's also on the autistic scale, so when I ask him if the synesthesia influences his playing in any way, he really doesn't get my question, he just plays. He just got called into a Prof's office for a plagiarism issue in an essay in his master's program - the prof fed his essay into an automated checker, and a previously published paper came up with the same content but without a citation in the essay. He had to ask the Prof what that paper was, the Prof didn't know, so my nephew pointed out that he was the author of the paper in question. So, can you plagiarize yourself? Discuss.
@Anonymous (9:00 AM)
Thank you for your service to our youth! 😊
Not always easy to know which way to go on sensitive issues, e.g., racism in historical literature.
Here's a POV via ChatGPT on racism in Cather's works, which makes some good points, and suggests a possible approach to dealing with controversial subjects vis a vis inclusion in school reading assignments:
"Willa Cather's novel "My Ántonia" does not contain a racist episode per se. However, it's important to approach literary works with a critical and nuanced perspective, considering the historical and cultural context in which they were written.
"My Ántonia," published in 1918, explores the lives of immigrant settlers in Nebraska during the late 19th century. While the novel portrays the challenges faced by immigrants and the harsh realities of life on the American frontier, there have been discussions and debates about certain racial and ethnic depictions in Cather's works.
Cather's portrayal of non-white characters, such as the Native American characters in "My Ántonia," has been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes and presenting limited perspectives. Some argue that the Native American characters are depicted through the lens of a white settler perspective, which may lead to misrepresentations or reinforce existing biases.
Literature is often a reflection of the time it was written, and authors may unintentionally include elements that are now considered problematic or offensive. It is essential to approach such works with critical thinking, engaging in discussions about representation, cultural sensitivity, and the power dynamics inherent in storytelling.
Ultimately, the presence of potentially problematic elements in a literary work should not diminish the value or impact of the entire piece. "My Ántonia" remains a significant contribution to American literature, and it continues to be studied and appreciated for its themes, characters, and historical context."
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
I guess I have some neuropsychological aversion to words associated with Instagram, Twitter , and the like but after everything else was very easy, I completely lost it with that lower left area because of the MEME thing. All of the clues there were legitimate and wonderfully vague, so my congrats to the constructor who beat me!
I like this
Hardly easy, but a satisfying solve nevertheless. Clocked in with a medium-ish time, although most of it was spent in the northwest. My geezer brain refuses to parse things like LOLCAT without a lot of contorting, so that was a major roadblock. WILLACATHER was a lifesaver in the middle, as was SYNESTHESIA once I remembered how to spell it. But the SYN——SIA was enough to keep me in business. Once all was said and done, an admirably fun puzzle.
I'm not sure what words I can use to describe how much I enjoyed today's puzzle. There was no @Rex whoosh, though, I had to think mightily to get answers I didn't know.
To begin...BEARD OIL. I trim my husband's beard every week and his OIL has to smell like FOIE. Don't take me seriously. But FOIE....In Spain, several farms who make foie gras do so humanely. They let the migrating geese eat all the olives and acorns and seed and figs like it was intended. They don't use force feeding. Then when it's time, they paralyze the geese using flashlight; the geese go to sleep, and then they get a swift kill. If only I could order some from these farms.
Like @Rex, WILLA CAThER gave me a tremendous boost. I wasn't sure, though. A Hillary might fit. No. The name starts with a W. Pen it in and see what happens. A dance ensued. Her name gave me most of the across answers. I did DANCE AROUND and enjoyed it all.
The top of the mountain was still pretty empty so I went to the bottom. Hmmmm. what kind of GOAT might a Capricorn be. Again, the across answers gave me the SEA.
I knew CARLO had to be right because I watch soccer and he's charismatic and yummy to look at. SKORTS finished it up for me in the bottom NE.
Back up to the top and try to figure out 1A. 1D was needed . Pickleball. Who gave it that name? Does it do something with food? No...it's just ping pong's bigger brother. LOBBED...it has to be. Then go over and try to remember who the founder of Persia was. You see, instead of BONUS for the helping of gravy, I had BONES. I don't know why. Don't you use bone marrow to make your gravy? Maybe I have SYNESTHESIA? I don't think I do because I'm not sure what you are. I got you, though, and even your top partner MEME ACCOUNT. I was on a roll.
Can LOL CAT be a thing? I'll check. Yes, that's your answer. Now to fill in some of the other huhs. I'm looking at you FAUNA...Why are you beasts? I'm also looking at Vermont's BARRE. Guesses paid off.
I finished. I truly enjoyed this. I still don't know what a LOL CAT is. I don't know if I suffer from SYNESTHESIA or even what MEME ACCOUNT is but by gum, even BONES/ CYRES looks good to me.
Missed Rex/Michael/pseudonymous’ squeamishness about GONAD. Let FOIE go because of animal cruelty, but here are two famous vegetarians singing about the awful, awful word.
Paul and Linda sing GONAD (or something like it)
“I hate to see you go, but I saw your GONADs…”
"SKORTS"??!!
Uniclues:
1) "I'm in my Santa costume and I can't even crack a smile"
2) "You may laugh when it playfully scratches your priceless antique credenza from Christie's, but I sure don't!"
3) She's found in an ice bath after the big game
4) "Take Fifth immediately -- before the parade begins!"
1) BEARD OIL LEADEN
2) LOL CAT VILEST
3) SUE BIRD AT REST
4) ONLY NOW AVENUE
“ very very very hard to ever get excited about something like DATA CENTER.” OFL 4/21/2023
Remember thinking at the time that was a weird complaint and I guess that stuck in my brain. When Erica reused in todays grid, I was like “uhoh” that’s gonna leave a mark from Rex. No mention. C’est la vie!
@Lobster, No difficulty with Willa Cather. Just everything else in that NW corner. The only letters I had were Willa's W, and Oil's IL. Tanked.
You can read about an interesting case of Synesthesia In Oliver Sack's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. But know that he was criticized for the book later on because he was writing about his patients. No names, but no consent either.
Re: SYNESTHESIA:
Fun coincidence: just got this newsletter email from "The Browser" (Cultural Machine):
Cultural Synesthesia "An intermingling of the senses creates not just a different way of perceiving the world, but a window into your past, like psychological amber." (by Meera Khare (the synesthete) and Apoorva Bhandari (the neuroscientist)
A snippet of the 2,300 word article:
"My consciousness is a constant stream of color. Whether I’m reading, texting a friend, or doing math homework, every letter or number I see comes swathed in its own characteristic hue. My 7’s are forest green, L’s are orange, and both A’s and 4’s are hot pink.
Growing up, I did not realize my experience was atypical until I read A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass in middle school. The book tells the story of 13-year old Mia Winchell, who experiences synesthesia, a mingling of the senses. Mia involuntarily sees letters, numbers and even sounds in specific colors. The book described my experience perfectly except for one thing – my colors were different. Since then, I’ve wondered what gives every synesthete their own unique associations; why does the K look lavender to me, but blue for someone else? What neural process transforms an impersonal, black T into my vivid, lime green T?"
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
Indeed! L is an accountant. Hilarious!
I got a WILLA CATHER whoosh also today but from a different direction. My NW was empty but GLOAT FEAST and HANES SYNESTHESIA were enough crosses to guess WILLA. I read "My Antonia" not long ago, and I wasn't impressed. It seemed to peter out at the end.
I did have a bit of hesitation at SEA GOAT. I guess I've never noticed the fishy quality of the Capricorn symbol so that was new to me.
This was pretty easy for a Saturday with my one write-over being kisSES before REESES. (Hard to think of a caboose ending in K.) Thanks, Erica Hsiung Wojcik!
I felt like I whooshed through most of this puzzle then jolted to a stop in the SE corner. I put STOWE in for Vermont and then put SUCK (I know…that would be “suck it up”) and for the longest time I just stared and tried to make sense of it. I finally had a eureka with CURSOR and I opened my mind up to a different town to Vermont, one that was blank except for the R from CURSOR. Eventually I cleared the cobwebs for BUCK.
LOLCAT is/was a meme. I had never HEARD of a MEMEACCOUNT before today but Google (page 1) pretty much just discusses the top ten accounts through Instagram. I bet if I actually cared I could probably find out WHEN memes became “owned” and “protected” as intellectual property.
Wow @wanderlust and @weezie…I am truly amazed and fascinated at your SYNESTHESIA! It sounds delightful in some ways. How, when, and why did L become an accountant? Also…with the colors thing and numbers…did you always associate colors with numbers AND how far up does it go…just up to 10?
Nice Jaws (of Themelessness)!
Tougher-than-snot NW starter chute corner, at our house. It had no-know fever: LOLCAT. BEARDOIL. DES. CYRUS. TOO [as clued]. WILLACATHER.
staff weeject pick: TOO. Due too its clue of mystery: {Its between one and many}. Does it maybe have somethin to do with bein near that there ONEONE answer? Then it would be between ONE and VAL. M&A is so desperate & confused … kinda like Congress. But, I digress.
fave stuff included: LOOSECHANGE [got off almost nuthin (note correct NUTHIN spellin, btw)]. DANCEAROUND [got off a coupla letters]. MYPRETTY [got off NUTHIN, no thanx to NOTHIN].
GENES clue.
Thanx for the feisty fun, Ms. Wojcik darlin. M&A thinks U meant too have TWO at 6-D and NUTHIN at 44-A, tho.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
p.s. @RP: Easy!?!? Yer difficulty ratin gave M&A whinesthesia.
hard-ish, but easier than TOO:
**gruntz**
DNF. I blame the SEA GOAT. (Which sea is that, by the way? The Pacific, if you go by size, I guess.) I just couldn't believe that 'the' was wrong, even though it had to be TEPID. I did finally see that you did not miNCE but DANCE AROUND, and I do know what a MEME is, but not that one needed an account to post one. And my Greek isn't good enough to figure out what preceded ...ESTHESIA.
Despite my frustration, many good points. I've never read that particular novel, but I think the only crossworthy American women novelists from the period and Cather and Edith Wharton, and the latter is too long. I don't know why I assumed she was American, though.
Well, let's hope I have better luck tomorrow.
Whenever @GILL pronounces any man "yummy to look at", I transport myself over to Google immediately, not wanting to waste a single nanosecond. But I was initially disappointed at what Google was showing me of CARLO Ancelotti: he looked jowly -- and somewhat surly too, to tell the truth -- in all his photos. "Maybe he looked better when he was young," I thought, and typed in "photos of the young CARLO Ancelotti." Immediately a most handsome young man sprang into view and yes, @Gill, he was quite yummy to look at back then. I'd sadly say that he has not aged well.
I find it quite surprising that two Rexites and one Rexite's nephew have SYNETHESIA. Ours is a relatively small commentariat and I would have thought that SYNETHESIA was much rarer than that. It sounds like a very colorful syndrome to have (pun intended)...but it also sounds absolutely exhausting to live with.
I feel personalities for numbers and vague emotions towards letters that aren't quite personalities. And then there's my mental calendar ring which comes with colors and emotions based on where I'm looking (February is gray and depressing, April is a cliche, green and happy.) I've never asked if anyone else has a calendar ring in their brains.
DNF today, because I had, and never got rid of, "stared" instead of STYLED. That in turn is because when I thought of the Wicked Witch of the West, I thought only about the book, and I read and reread all of the Oz books as a child, especially the ones written by L. Frank Baum, and I don't recall the Witch calling Dorothy MY PRETTY in the book. Which she memorably did in the movie. No, my thoughts immediately went to Dorothy's Kansas house landing on the Witch's property.
I loved the reference to SYNESTHESIA because in 7th Grade I read and reread The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester, where the hero, Gully Foyle, has SYNESTHESIA. The book begins with:
Gully Foyle is my name
Terra is my nation.
Deep Space is my dwelling place
The stars my destination.
Imagine my joyful surprise when I was assigned to read James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and discovered where that ditty came from.
I had no trouble at all with BARRE, since my wife and I have driven all over her native Vermont, and know where that town is. Like Wilkes-Barre, named after Col. Isaac BARRE, who as a politician spoke often and passionately about the rights of the American colonists, whom he called "sons of liberty."
@M&A
In case you weren't joking, the clue for 6D was one TOO many in today's puzzle.
I found it impossibly hard to get traction on this puzzle and had to consult Uncle Google. (if I have to cheat it's going to be the trivia questions). So I looked up CYRUS and CARLO, and everything then started to whoosh like a fairly easy Friday. Great answers, great clues, I absolutely loved this puzzle, but disappointed I could find NO entry. I find it quite fascinating that the entire solving experience, from virtually impossible to easy-ish, can hinge on just a few letters. In fact it was just the R in CYRUS that nudged me to take out 5D's incorrect norS and replace it with ANDS, then everything started flowing.
p.p.s.s
@JC66 - yep, har, & thanx. M&A just finally got it, and was on the way here to go "arrrgh!"
And nope, I hadn't been kiddin. Just denser than snot.
Almost forgot to admire the symmetric(al) SUEBIRD & SEAGOAT, btw.
M&Also
bonus runt, to celebrate a cute TOO clue:
**gruntz**
Yikes! I rarely have them or seek them out but today I had a whoosh whoosh experience when, like many of yous, I dropped in WILLA CATHER off of just the WI and then knew the crossing "Neuropsychological trait..." was SYNESTHESIA. Then things returned to normal with the likes of CYRUS, SUE BIRD, CARLO, BARRE, et al.
For those talking about balls or testicles for 39D GONAD, the clue was "Ovary, for example". GONADs are reproductive organs for both males (external) and females (internal) in many species. GONADs for males are external because they work better at lower temperatures than normal internal body temps. For couples trying to mix their GENES and conceive, the male is often advise to ditch the HANES and go commando.
My favorite quotation about male GONADS is from an episode of "Seinfeld" where Elaine Benes says “I don’t know how you guys walk around with those things.”
I eagerly watched every episode of the T.V. series "FORGEd in FIRE" where blacksmiths use a FORGE (42A) to make various edged weapons and tools, including the Samurai's traditional KATANA (48A).
And I learned there is such a thing as BEARD OIL. Wow!
@Nancy 1:03. Actually I liked CARLO Ancelotti in his older years. Especially his eyes and how the left one sort of goes up along with his eyebrow. He was kinda delicious in his youth but nothing in the world has every beat Omar Sharif. His eyes!...his smile....YE GODS, I better go count my colors.
Am I the only one who called Dorothy a Murderer? It fits!
I did it, but hardly found it easy. When you have made one pass through both acrosses and downs with little confident result, you are not in easy land. Doesn't help that I'm a techie rather than a literati.
@Lewis, @liveprof-When I did my Junior Year Abroad in Spain many years ago, the only book I had with me in English was Catch 22. I can't say how many times I read it but eventually I think I had a lot of it memorized. Still an all-time favorite.
TEPIDly enjoyed about about 30% of the puzzle a good deal and then was majorly blech with the other half...
LOLCAT clued without its requisite cobwebs? Maybe would've gone with "Internet dinosaur"
A MEME ACCOUNT is notoriously NEVER the source of its own content.
DATA CENTER was definitely begrudged previously by Rex and was equally as blech here (weird how that happens).
DES Peres is a suburb that has a population of 9,000 people!?!?!? What? Why is this a suitable clue?
Did not know my corporate brand buyouts well-enough to know Hershey's distrubutes and owns the patents for REESES
IVES, SEAGOAT, CARLO, BARRE, CYRUS, LLANOS, ENOS, LEA, ONLY NOW(really?)...all in the same blech boat.
Loved:
SYNESTHESIA
WILLA CATHER
SUE BIRD
Heller was often asked why he never wrote another book as good as Catch-22, and his answer was always, "Who has?"
@Nancy re: SYNESTHESIA prevalence, I think something like 7% of the general population has some level of it, and about 19% of autistic folks are also synesthetes. So that latter category accounts for me and the nephew! I find the two very linked. I also get tactile synesthesia - I can frequently hear or see something and have a physical sensation as if I’m touching or being touched by that thing.
In terms of how L became an accountant, ha, I’d be hard pressed to say exactly, but it might have something to do with the right angle, like the axes of a graph.
Sometimes I can get a hint of a rationale for the connection, sometimes it’s just, well, it just *is* that way. I have a super rich inner world and despite having an affinity for language, it’s often lost in translation when I try to convey to others the linkages that seem so internally clear.
Willa was my entry today too. In fact, I had nada until the middle top section, I had absolutely no idea of anything in the NW except CYRUS and ENOS and the S of loS?, laS?, AHA! DES Peres (which I did not get until the very end of my solve as I finally finished the NW. That corner was a stumper.
I had never heard if a LOLCAT, am unfamiliar with pickleball, had no crosses to help with BEARD even after I got OIL from WILLA and LOOSE, and the real bugaboo was that I thought the clue for ONKY NOW simply didn’t lead to the answer desired. ONLY NOW it sorta does as in ONLY NOW we have no dessert since you dropped the pie (and at this late stage, I don’t have tone to make another). Just a brain engagement failure, I guess.
The point of this ridiculously long explanation of a small fraction of an excellent Saturday is that the remainder was easy but fun. Not speed demon easy, but deliberate and thoughtful with some nice resistance easy.
As for the long across stack, the University of Oklahoma Fred Jones Art Museum has a wonderful current exhibit, Synesthesia” that made the long across very easy. DANCE AROUND was almost too easy and with just a few crosses fell nicely. I never really read the clue carefully for MEME ACCOUNT because I quickly got the ACCOUNT piece. After I had swooped across the bottom and back up the E side only that pesky NW remained.
I honestly spent more time up there scratching my fully grey head until I had painfully figured out that pickleball shots must be LOBBED which allowed me finally to finish than I did on the remainder of the puzzle. Then, I looked over the finished grid and thought what on earth was the clue that generated the weird ME ME ACCOUNT, and what could it possibly be??? And then I read the clue for the first time. Great workout. Exceptional puzzle and as @Rex says a fine Friday-Saturday combo.
The Times puzzle has been using the quote gimmick to suggest a word for some time now, especially in late week puzzles. It is now to be expected. They annoyed me at first but I have become used to them. (Who changed the rules!)
I don’t think they are unfair now because they have become standard tricks.
To all of you here in the neighborhood who experienced difficulty yesterday, I sincerely thank you! Made me feel better to know I had company!
"One TOO many" is a phrase and TOO is between one and many.
Love this story!!
Des Peres is a Natick for me.
Very, very hard for me and a DNF to boot.
I became wedded early to tepuiS in the NW, which pretty much blocked that area. Then went fairly smoothly through middle before slamming to a halt in the SE, where BARRE and CARLO were unknowns, and I had CAn for caboose, which left me with nEESES for the trademark, which I assumed was just another WoE. Then had to go back and clean up the NW, which took forever because even after I took out tepuiS, I am only vaguely aware of LOLCAT and only from crosswords, and DES was another WoE, and BONUS was a tough clue, and the tie could be ONE ONE or TWO TWO or ONE ALL or TWO ALL, and weird clue for TOO. Ugh.
FINE DENIM
SO LOUIS likes TOO DANCEAROUND
AND GLOAT like GENTS STYLED TOO be seen.
Can ONE SO PRETTY NOW be found
In CLOSE TOO NOTHIN’ but his GENES?
--- CARLO “BUCK” CATHER
I immediately despise any puzzle asking area names of cities or states (26a and 43a). Way too many options that usually lead to a puzzle dnf.
Hand up for theGOAT, and for not knowing SEAGOAT. I'm trying to picture such an animal. I guess they can swim...well, let's call it a mythical creature and be done with it.
The ONLY other sticker was--guess!--you got it: the NW. I had to go way out on a limb with about half of those answers. Strange clue for BONUS; I'm certainly glad the ? was there. Maybe there should've been two or three of them. As a, you know, bonus.
Other than that, the rest went in fairly smoothly. Larry and SUEBIRD can hardly be related. SUE is actually PRETTY, enough for DOD; Larry is...well, not.
WILLACATHER was made easier by the fact that she was the correct response to a recent Jeopardy! final clue. But I like to think I'd have gotten it anyway. BIRD-ie.
Wordle par.
That wonderful quote, "My use of words is just some antics" (on a Warren Zevon album, though originally accredited to Bif Rose) came to mind whilst sussing out many of these answers.
Another total blank, followed by one or two answers, then, well...you know...bit by bit. Then "I cannot finish this" Then "Oh, I finished this."
You know, a Saturday with fun in the morning.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Easy? The old SEAGOAT is putting us on. Challenging even for a Saturday - at least for me. Hardest part was the NW corner. The last three puzzles were tough but good. THANKS Ericca Hsiung Wojcik!
Never heard of LOLCat and didn’t know llanos which ultimately left a big hole in the NE for me.
@MetroGnome 11:39am:
The word skort goes all the way back to 1959, by Montgomery Ward.
Strange, since this almost never happens to me. Many commenters today said the NW corner was the hardest, while for me, it was the easiest, and got it completely filled in first. Beard wax(OIL) and ENOS across were gimmes. That made ANDS the logical answer for 5D. With E being the next to last letter for 1D told me the last letter would be D, plus the B gave me LOBBED for 1D, which begat ONLY NOW for 13A. That made me change wax to OIL, plus the Y made me get CYRUS, which has been safely ensconced in a vault for over 50 years, and so on. Weird how minds work!
Wow, I am so surprised to see the "easy" rating. At least M&A thought it was hard. I filled in five answers. Total. Well, I had three more, but they were wrong. Here I thought I was getting fairly competent at these things. I'm not complaining. Just floored!
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