Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (maybe harder if you don't know The BABADOOK, maybe easier if you do...)
The Mustaches:
DALI |
FU MANCHU |
HANDLEBAR |
PENCIL |
Word of the Day: The BABADOOK (44A: Horror film monster who has become an L.G.B.T.Q. icon, with "the") —
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld The Babadook is a 2014 Australian psychological horror film written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her feature directorial debut. It stars Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall, Hayley McElhinney, Barbara West and Ben Winspear. Based on Kent's 2005 short film Monster, the film follows a widowed single mother who must confront her son's fear of a mysterious humanoid monster in their home. [...] The Babadook premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 17 January 2014 and was given a limited release in Australian cinemas on 22 May 2014, initially failing to become a commercial success in its native country. However, it generated wider attention internationally, grossing $10 million against a $2 million budget. The film received universal acclaim, with particular praise for the performances of the cast, creature design, premise, and themes. At the 4th AACTA Awards, it won for Best Film, and Kent won for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay, respectively. In the years since its release, it has become a cult classic partly due to its popularity as an internet meme. [...] In October 2016, a Tumblr user joked that the Babadook is openly gay; in December 2016, another Tumblr user posted a viral screenshot showing the movie classified by Netflix as an LGBT film. Despite the absence of overt references to LGBT culture in the film, fans and journalists generated interpretations of queer subtext in the film (dubbed "Babadiscourse") that were often tongue-in-cheek, but occasionally more serious, highlighting the character's dramatic persona, grotesque costume, and chaotic effect within a traditional family structure. In June 2017, The Babadook trended on Twitter and was displayed as a symbol during that year's Pride Month. The social media response became so strong that theatres in Los Angeles took the opportunity to hold screenings of the film for charity. Michael Bronski said to the Los Angeles Times: "In this moment, who better than the Babadook to represent not only queer desire, but queer antagonism, queer in-your-faceness, queer queerness?", and drew comparisons to historic connections between queerness and horror fiction such as Frankenstein and Dracula. (wikipedia)
• • •
This one was really betrayed by its revealer. Such an anticlimactic thud of a way to conclude a pretty interesting shape-themed puzzle. You'd be forgiven for not knowing that it was a MUSTACHE theme if all you had in the grid was the DALI, but after FU MANCHU or HANDLEBAR or whichever MUSTACHE you uncover next, it's obvious, so that when you finally get to the revealer, it's completely redundant and non-revealing—telling you what you already know. There's no wordplay, no snappy phrase, no nothing. Just plain old MUSTACHE, so what should be the punchline ends up being just a "[Shrug], couldn't think of anything good to put here so ... MUSTACHE." The clue doesn't even try to be clever. It's just pointing at the MUSTACHEs like, "nice MUSTACHEs, right?" I guess it's possible that you somehow got MUSTACHE first (?) or at least early, but since it's essentially unclued if you don't have the MUSTACHEs in place, it seems unlikely that revealer's gonna help you get the themers. Puzzle is designed for the reverse to happen, but the reverse just leads you to "yeah, I can see that already, thanks." So the puzzle has a revealer problem. There's gotta be a better, more oblique way to come at the revealer. As is, it's a letdown. But ... *before* I got let down, I thought this was pretty good, as shape puzzles go. You get four solid, visually accurate MUSTACHE types, of varying degrees of ornateness, and HANDLEBAR really does look great right across the middle of the puzzle's face. A very marquee MUSTACHE, for sure.
I did not know the DALI was a MUSTACHE type. I actually thought his was a variation on the HANDLEBAR, but it seems to be its own thing. I have never heard of anyone but Dali sporting a DALI, maybe that's the (slight) issue I'm having with that one. Dali's MUSTACHE is of course an iconic part of his image. It was like a creature unto itself. At certain moments, it's basically a reverse FU MANCHU:
The fill in this puzzle started out rickety. After coming out of the NW into ANAL / ALLIN / I LIED, I started having bad feelings about how much short gunk was going to dominate the puzzle, but things picked up a bit in the middle of the grid, and only plural USOS really felt clunky (35A: Shows for soldiers, informally). MISS CLEO and The BABADOOK give the middle a lot of personality, and the middle was already brimming with HANDLEBAR MUSTACHE personality, so that was remarkable. GLAM ROCK, always sizzling (18A: Ziggy Stardust's music genre). ON OCCASION and AS PROMISED aren't exactly sizzling, but they are weirdly satisfying as perfectly apt two-word phrases that require a little thought, maybe a few crosses, to parse accurately. This is important on Tuesdays, when the fill can run flat (because answers need to be relatively easy to get). I tried to make AS PREDICTED work at 29D: "Just like I said I would..." and ran out of room. I don't think I made any other outright errors. I was lucky enough to know of The BABADOOK, even though I've never seen it. I think if you're on social media a lot, and you follow a lot of film and LGBTQ folks, the Discourse just finds you. If you have never heard of The BABADOOK, I suspect this puzzle played at least a little harder than usual. Either way, I hope you were able to find some love in your heart for this whimsical little Tuesday. If you just pretend the revealer doesn't exist, it's really quite enjoyable.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
No comments yet? Hmm.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of the Babadook but it didn't slow me down. Yes, I got the mustaches before the MUSTACHE, altho not familiar with the term PENCIL vis à vis mustaches, so wondered about that a bit.
Hope the east coast weather has calmed some. Our flight yesterday was cancelled. We are now sitting in shannon airport, having come all the way from Dublin, hoping that this flight will actually go.
Neat little grid - no idea on BABADOOK or MISS CLEO but the crosses were fair. Lots of trivia - but cute theme and well filled.
ReplyDeleteBLAZE Foley
I was under the impression that the ACLU not only failed to protest the internment of Japanese American citizens, but that they quietly discouraged any of their members from doing so on their own. Maybe they eventually found their way, but according to “The Japanese-American Cases” and “A Principled Stand”, the ACLU was, to be kind, late to the party. With all the hand-wringing and apoplexy I see when certain individuals and organizations are mentioned in the crossword, this is one of the worst clues I have seen in all my time as a puzzler. The ACLU doesn’t deserve to be the answer to this clue.
ReplyDelete@Trentiel 6:56 am: Thanks for flagging this. It’s an interesting story.
DeleteConstructor here, thanks for the review! I did originally have something different as the revealer - MOVEMBER, with the puzzle “participating” in it - but I think the editors thought it might be more accessible with the straightforward reveal instead
ReplyDeleteNot surprisingly your proposed revealer is infinitely better. This shoulda run in the correct month. Clue on MOVEMBER could’ve explained what it is for those unfamiliar.~RP
DeleteNO SHAVE NOVEMBER is a 15, would have been super fun to see
DeleteColby alum here, thank you for the unexpected jolt of seeing it in the puzzle clued as it was! Loved it.
DeleteGreat puzzle, Anthony! I never even come to the blog for Tuesday puzzles, but this one was a delight. The shapes were actually fun (and accurate), and the revealer made me actually pay attention to them during the solve (I usually don’t even look), which then helped me fill in the rest. Was also delighted when MISS CLEO worked her way in. Great Tuesday puzzle!
DeleteIt seemed like this grid was loaded with PPP - but one never knows, that might just be a wheelhouse thing. EAMES x BABADOOK and MOMOI and POPULI standing side by side were particularly difficult for example. Another convoluted theme with not much of a payoff and it sure looks like the rest of the grid was forced to bear the brunt of the strain with the subpar fill. At least those who prefer more of a challenge on a Tuesday will likely be pleased since it was fair and decipherable - just a touch too much trivia for my taste.
ReplyDeleteI got BABADOOK from the crosses.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of babadook or misscleo, but doubt I’m missing much. Easy XW with clever mustache designs. Liked it. — SoCal CP
ReplyDeleteBABADOOK? never ever have I ever remotely heard of this. MISSCLEO somehow in the deep, dark recesses of my brain I came up with it. This was hard for a Tuesday - didnt know POPULI and the cross w/ OPI bordered Natickland. ALLIN reminds me of James Holz.. of Jeopardy fame. I did admire the construction - how could you not? Thanks Anthony, great job
ReplyDeleteSome random thoughts:
ReplyDelete• I don’t believe this theme has ever been done before (or Jeff Chen would probably have indicated it was). So high props to Anthony for originality.
• INCHUP anagrams to “chin up”, and inch up is exactly what I do toward the end of a chin up set.
• The theme brought a big aha from me because I stared at the grid before filling in the first square, trying to figure out what the circle shapes represented, with no success.
• Add to the six first names in the grid a backward LANA and ARI, and wannabe ALLIN.
• Five lovely NYT debut words, excellent additions to the oeuvre: AS PROMISED, BABADOOK, MISS CLEO, MOM-TO-BE, and POPULI.
• I didn’t know there were beard and mustache competitions, but I shouldn’t be surprised. No type of competition would surprise me after learning that there were yoga competitions.
• When my renegade brain sees BABADOOK, it sends the song “Camelot” (from the musical) into my mind, with Richard Burton singing, substituting “Babadook” for “Camelot”.
Lovely construction, as it’s often difficult to cleanly fill a grid around visual elements. That and the sparkling theme make this NYT debut puzzle really stand out. Congratulations on this, Anthony, and thank you for a splendid outing!
FYI - Movember is not a contest - its a fund and awareness raising event for men’s health issues (prostrate and testicular cancer etc..)
DeleteNot too shabby for a Tuesday. Although I wish we could place aloha in a permanent time out.
ReplyDeleteThe MOMOA/IPO cross was an absolute Natick for me, as I’d never heard of either one, but I guessed correctly — the O just sounded better than other options. And I never heard of BABADOOK either but I had no trouble getting it from crosses.
ReplyDeleteI was actually in Natick yesterday…
Don’t know Babadook from Marmaduke, but funniest part of this write up was the following juxtaposition:
ReplyDelete“In this moment, who better than the Babadook to represent not only queer desire, but queer antagonism, queer in-your-faceness, queer queerness?" And there is Homer’s neighboreeno Ned Flanders raising his hand.
Okily dokily!
Anon @ 7:00: congrats on your puzzle! Can you explain MOVEMBER? I don’t get that at all…
ReplyDeleteThanks! Movember is a health issue event where people grow mustaches during the month of November to raise awareness for predominantly men’s health issues (prostate/testicular cancer, etc.). So the puzzle would have been participating by growing some fuzz of its own.
DeleteI absolutely understand with Rex's assessment of the revealer, and I probably would've had the same reaction if I solved it the same way. However, I solved on the NYT app at night, in dark theme, with my phone set to "extra dim" and night mode on. So I didn't see all the circled letters right away. I spent a few confused moments trying to figure out what DALI, ANCHU, and HANDLE had in common.
ReplyDeleteOnce I got the revealer I had a brief, "Oh. I'm dumb and need glasses" chuckle. So it wasn't a complete thud for me at least.
I got BABADOOK from B, D, and K, but it was a bit of a guess because I've never seen the film and had no idea it was even remotely tied to LGBTQ+. That was interesting to learn.
Only hang up was the M_MOA/_PI natick, but it was the last square and didn't take much guessing to get.
Rex's choice of Mustache Man was brilliant, but once again he missed a golden opportunity:
https://youtu.be/9JOyTf1q6gE
To be honest, I did NOT realized these were mustaches until the revealer. I’m usually pretty astute but I didn’t know enough about facial hair apparently to put it all together. So for me the revealer did give an “aha” moment aspect to the puzzle. sorry. But it was fun anyway, and I did not even know the Babadook, which is a great new piece of information for me!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this. I couldn’t parse the circled squares right away so the revealer, while a little flat, actually worked as a revealer for me. MISS CLEO and BABADOOK are fun answers.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this puzzle. Theme and revealer was creative and enjoyable for a Tuesday solve.
ReplyDeleteBtw does anyone know what happened to Loren Muse Smith? Haven’t seen any posts in quite some time and hoping everything is ok with her. Always enjoy her write ups.
MOVEMBER would have been great. Shame.
ReplyDeleteFor shape-themers, this is really good. HANDLEBAR so fancy in the middle.
Gotta say, Movember would have been an awesome revealer. Still, a terrific Tuesday. I have a habit of ignoring circled letters as much as possible, so when I got to the end and realized that the letters described the mustache types, well, that was a moment of delight. Congrats to the constructor!
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle, but way too much PPP
ReplyDeleteNever got the theme, but didn't need it. I had "Nowandthen" instead of "ONOCCASION," but the crosses fixed it. Never heard of Jason MOMOA, so I had to use trial-and-error to get the cross with OPI. Otherwise, I thought it was a normal Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteThx, Anthony; I'M A FAN! 😊
ReplyDeleteEasy-med.
Smooth sailing most the way; only bumps were the heretofore unknown BABADOOK crossing GOB, and the unknowns, ALICE, COLBY & MISS CLEO, all fairly crossed.
Enjoyed this adventure! :)
@Anonymous 7:00 (AM)
Thx, Anthony, for 'Movember'; didn't know it; now I do. :)
___
@jae, kitshef: Croce's 820 is a mix of easy-med & excruciating difficulty. Most fell into the former category, but the NE took 90 mins, and the SW is taking about the same, so far. Down to to two remaining cells. 🤞 BTW, nice coincidence with td's NYT' puz. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Not sure how much crossover there is between these two interests of mine, but instead of cluing 'USOS' as 'shows for soldiers' , they could have clued it as 'one of the greatest wrestling tag teams of all time': Jimmy and Jey, the Usos
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Anthony, on a very cool puzzle. For my money: Best. Tuesday. Ever.
ReplyDeleteI found this one smooth and easy, a nice Tuesday with a twist. I have heard the word BABADOOK but had no idea what it was until today, but it was easy to guess with so many downs filled in. MISS CLEO was unavoidable if you watched TV in the '90s. Her commercials were everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI almost never pay attention to circled letters in puzzles, but FU MANCHU was impossible to ignore. How clever! And the placement of the letters for HANDLEBAR is especially impressive. So even though IM *not* A FAN of mustaches in real life, I did enjoy them here.
@Trentiel: Your assertion about the ACLU and its failure to protest the loss of civil rights of Japanese-Americans during WWII shocked me, so I tried to find information about it online--including in descriptions and reviews of the two books you mention. I was unable to find any such criticism; I even forced myself to follow a link to the Heritage Foundation web site, and even they said the ACLU did protest the actions. Your statement to the contrary is vehement, so I assume you have researched this issue extensively, but I can't find any support for it and I find a lot of info to the contrary.
Check out article in Denso Encyclopedia. The ACLU was conflicted because of split on the board and disputes among regional organizations.
Delete@Taylor Slow, @Kent posted this link earlier but in case you didn't see it:
Deletehttps://www.aclu.org/issues/civil-liberties/during-japanese-american-incarceration-aclu-lost-and-then-found-its-way
grateful to everybody today for the info. interesting and informative read.
Theme played no part in the solve, unfortunately. Odd combo of Monday stuff with some surprisingly obscure PPP for a Tuesday. Agree MOVEMBER would have been a better reveal.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else try Jafari before SHIITE?
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteCan we hire new puz reviewers at the Times? How can a group of people dedicated to putting out good puzs think that the plain MUSTACHE is better than MOVEMBER? We here on this blog seem to have more of an ear about what a good puz makes. Weird.
Anyway, liked this "hairy" puz. Chuckled at Rex's Rollie Fingers depiction of a HANDLEBAR STACH, as that's the one that comes to my mind immediately, too! Any other famous HANDLEBARs out there?
We're missing the GOATEE. But, technically, that's a MUSTACHE with a small beard. How about COP ala Super Troopers? 😁
ISUZU still makes cars? Are they still in the US?
Too many questions, too little time.
Sorry you had to tear out and rework the whole SE, Anthony. But, you got one in. Congrats.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
This turned out to be a decent Tuesday but for some reason I had trouble with quite a few of the clues. Maybe that was just my early morning brain fog but it took me a little longer than a normal Tuesday would. I liked the grid art but like Rex, sorta raised an eyebrow at MUSTACHE. I guess we are just conditioned to expect something more substantial for a revealer.
ReplyDelete@Anon/Anthony (7:00) I’m thankful you did not use MOVEMBER as I had never heard of it before and it looked like total jibber jabber to me. Thanks to you, I am now enlightened and it sounds like an extremely worthwhile effort. However, my inability to connect the term to the circled letters - plus the also unknown BABADOOK - would have caused me to come away highly frustrated with your puzzle overall.
This an article on the ACLU website about their response. https://www.aclu.org/issues/civil-liberties/during-japanese-american-incarceration-aclu-lost-and-then-found-its-way . As indicated by the title, they acknowledge that the national organization initially prevented the west coast chapters from pursuing the cases.
ReplyDelete@Taylor Slow, see the link from Kent 7:51. On the ACLU's own web site. What Trentiel said was essentially correct (as was the clue technically), including the hand-wringing and reversing course part. Seems California branch was for internment, and the national branch was not, but didn't override. Since a 7 word clue can't tell the full story, they probably should have gone with something else.
ReplyDeleteI like to see one or two horror films a year, and BABADOOK is definitely a terrific example of the genre. The biggest terror actually doesn't come from any monster, but the portrait painted of the mother's struggles raising a difficult child at the beginning of the movie, which completely exhausts you before the supernatural stuff starts. Interesting to see how it became an LGBTIA+ icon, I definitely didn't remember it having any direct content.
I ignored the circles and the revealer until coming here, but then enjoyed the whole thing. Nice to take the opportunity to fully understand MOVEMBER, the rightful revealer, agree with RP it should have run in that month, increasing the odds it would be more at the tip of the tongue:) Prostate Cancer awareness event.
I was expecting Rex to have a fit about how a racist character like FUMANCHU shouldn't be in the puzzle, but he didn't say a word, and no one has either thus far. The comments on the NYT website confirm that many people have no idea that FUMANCHU is racist. There's a lot of work that needs to be done to raise awareness of racism against Asians and Asian-Americans.
ReplyDeleteA commenter on Wordplay left this link, which talks about why FUMANCHU really shouldn't be in a crossword puzzle: https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/shang-chi-racist-origins
Eh. I think plenty of solvers are familiar with the racism. But this answer is really just about a mustache style, not the character wearing it. Maybe you could push to rebrand it with a new name, but being annoyed by the inclusion of a type of facial hair is a bit pearl-clutching.
DeleteI wouldn't expect people to be angry at the appearance of "toothbrush" despite the negative association.
So be upset that it's popularly known as a Fu Manchu, but don't blame the constructor/editors for using a mustache as fill.
@mmorgan, nobody's answered you, but I think MOVEMBER means growing a mustache (or moustache) during the month of November. Would it have worked for me? Probably, with a lot of crosses, but I'm not sure. As it was, I was still at the stage of trying to see what the circles spelled out if you read them in order left to right and top to bottom, as you'd read a book, and getting nowhere. Then the revealer got it all sorted, so it did help.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of this MOMOA guy either, but OPI is a crossword favorite--though the intersection set of those who consider growing mustaches and those who use nail polish is probably fairly small.
Since that monster has DOOK right in his or her name, one could clue it with "Granny gets by." Well, the grammar isn't quite right, but it's yours if you want to fix it up and run with it.
That chair is pretty iconic, but Charles and Roy designed a lot more than that. But after trying to find an image of an Eames lamp, I withdraw that complaint.
Oh I loooooved this puzzle, which I’m sure is partially a wheelhouse thing; I’d bet good money the constructor and I are within 5 years of each other age-wise. But also lots of whimsy and whooshing and flair, and MISSCLEO was an especially fun bit of trivia to dig up from the recesses of my mind. I knew the answer but I thought BABADOOK was fairly crossed, perhaps with the exception of EAMES, if you didn’t know it. Agreed on the ACLU cluing - important organization that’s made some mistakes, and there are lots of other ways to clue it.
ReplyDeleteExactly what I’m looking to get out of a Tuesday, thanks Anthony, and good luck on baby number three!
Re: MOVEMBER, google exists… first hit will tell you
ReplyDeleteWhat Antony said after his gal got snake bit: I sure MISSCLEO.
ReplyDeleteI also note that the ASP of ASPROMISED crosses MISSCLEO.
Big teehee for @Gary J today. ANAL? IMAFAN, MYMAN. When ENDS INCHUP, I REFOCUS. But then, my pronouns are MESHES.
Really nice debut today, which would have been improved had MOVEMBER not been plucked out. Thanks and congrats, Anthony Gisonda.
Although I didn’t particularly enjoy anal or USOS, I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle and loved seeing Dali’s inimitable mustache up top. One of the better Tuesdays in memory.
ReplyDeleteCreaky little thing this one, but mustaches are fun. I had one in college and somebody should have said, "Please shave that off, you look ridiculous," but no one did, and now every photo with me in it from the 80s is ruined. It looked like a dead mouse superglued to my nose. Right now I have a wild unshaven hope-to-be Gandalf beard going and even this horror show is better than that mustache.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of horror shows, last one I saw was when I was nine, so I missed The BABADOOK, but I just watched the trailer for it on YouTube and now I will need to sleep with the lights on for a month like I did when I was nine. I do not see how people watch those shows.
Speaking of shows, I saw Asteroid City last night, and I strongly do NOT recommend it unless you love style over substance. The one of three moments worth seeing in two hours was a song that included the lyric "Howdly-Dee Howdly-Doo" and for the Sunday puzzle survivors among us it was a fine How-De-Do.
Tee-Hees: Looks like most of the editorial staff is on holiday this week, but our fifth-grade slush pile editor is hard at work. ANAL, MUSTACHE {rides}, and the No. 1 No. 2 clue for PENCIL. Oh heck, toss in SHIITE with your No. 2.
Uniclues:
1 The baby arrives.
2 Cruise a bathhouse downtown.
3 That which immediately precedes gridiron chaos on a point after attempt.
4 Critters in my attic from time to time.
1 MOM TO BE ENDS
2 BLAZE URBAN SPA
3 MUFFS, AND THEN...
4 ON OCCASION MICE
I have somehow managed to live my whole life without knowing about the TV psychic, the "Justice League" actor, the famous singer's birth name or the horror film monster.
ReplyDeleteImagine that.
But the crosses were such that MISS CLEO and BABADOOK (!) managed to INCH UP into the grid in spite of me. It was only when the actor crossed the nail polish that I put down my PENCIL and declared "I'M [not] A FAN." But by then I was only one letter shy.
There's evidently something going on with the annoying tiny little circles that I haven't bothered to burden myself with. It wasn't relevant to my solve and it looks tedious to unpack, so I'll go find out right now.
@Roo
ReplyDeleteFYI, a GOATEE is a beard, no mustache required.
@JC66 10:28am:
DeleteYou are correct, but a moustache and goatee is called a Van Dyke. And I'm not telling you this just to be a Dick.
Taylor Slow, I wouldn’t expect to see mention of this in a review for a book, but Gordon Hirabayashi‘s story, “A Principled Stand”, makes mention of it. It is also mentioned on the Wikipedia page for Gordon Hirabayashi, citing the Densho website. I don’t want to trash the ACLU, they did eventually come around. Another commenter mentions the ACLU’s own website, though the ACLU doesn’t elaborate too much. I just think that this simple clue paints an inaccurate historical picture. Hey … it’s the NYTXW, not the encyclopedia Británica, but I learn a lot from the crossword and I want to have faith in its integrity. There are far better clues to arrive at this answer.
ReplyDeleteOriginal and fun to solve . Reminded me of how many different kinds of mustaches there are and introduced me to the Babadook. Also liked the trip down memory lane to Miss Cleo speaking to me through my television.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was hard, partly because of my trying to make the theme be "artists," from DALI and a few letters in the NE corner. Thus it took me a good long time to see FU MANCHU and the MUSTACHE connection. Still, it took me all the way to PENCIL to see the shapes! Nice constructing job and a treat to finally see. I was also slowed down by not knowing some PPP and by general molasses-in-brain syndrome. So, a rather challenging Tuesday for me, which isn't a bad thing at all.
ReplyDeleteHelp from previous puzzles: FIONA. No idea: MISS CLEO, BABADOOK - and also MOVEMBER, had it been used.
@whatsername 9:13
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the jibber jabber shout out. Which reminded me of this great JibJab from about 20 years ago. When things were more civil between liberal wienies and right wing nutjobs…
Bush v. Kerry JibJab
I thought this was very cute, rex! It's a tuesday and it's charming. Tuesday solvers get to delight in the theme, which is rare. It didn't make it crazy hard, it was just fun.
ReplyDeleteI liked mom to be and other multi-word answers. Fun for Tuesday solvers! Some of the people who do this one never make it to thursday and it's nice for them to have a bit of theme.
As a fan of moustaches (and the proper spelling of them!) I picked up the theme really early and quickly filled in the circled letters. Even 'pencil' without looking at the clue, since it was straight across and I figured that 'chevron' was less likely, since it is a bit bent (Tom Sellick has a chevron).
ReplyDeleteInteresting trivia on The Babadook. I saw the film and I'm LGBT, but had zero idea that the two things were even remotely linked. People I know who have kids thought the movie was terrifying. I thought it was really good, but not even a little scary. I guess it depends on your life experiences.
MISS CLEO, GLAMROCK, MOMOA and BABADOOK all fell in with just two crosses, so this was right in my wheelhouse.
Naticked at POPULI crossing OPI as I've never heard of either of the phrases. Thought OPI should be OXI at first, since I knew that was some kind of brand and I don't use nail polish, so....
Interesting(?) personal trivia... I actually met my husband because of his moustache. I searched that term on a dating site and his profile popped up. He has a glorious big HANDLEBAR and looks a lot like the Monopoly guy. Had to quit my job, sell my house, and move to Canada to marry him.... 9 years ago now. Totes worth it.
The PPP that is most criticized here are names of individuals. I count six today. Is that above average?
ReplyDeleteEasy-medium. I too tried PREdicted (which didn’t fit) before PROMISED and, as usual, had problems spelling SHIITE. Also BABA DOOK was a WOE, which didn’t really hinder my solve.
ReplyDeleteClever, reasonably smooth and cute with two solid long downs, liked it, a fine debut.
@Anthony G. (Anon 7:00) - I had no idea what MOVEMBER meant/was until I looked it up just now.
Don't see my comment. So will re-post:
ReplyDeleteI have somehow managed to live my whole life without knowing about the TV psychic, the "Justice League" actor, the famous singer's birth name or the horror film monster.
Imagine that.
But the crosses were such that MISS CLEO and BABADOOK (!) managed to INCH UP into the grid in spite of me. It was only when the actor crossed the nail polish that I put down my PENCIL and declared "I'M [not] A FAN." But by then I was only one letter shy.
There's evidently something going on with the annoying tiny little circles that I haven't bothered to burden myself with. It wasn't relevant to my solve and it looks tedious to unpack, so I'll go find out right now.
I jumped from Bizarro Sunday to MUSTACHE Tuesday...Que delight!
ReplyDeleteI'm not particularly fond of just some hair growing under ones lip, I prefer the full Monty. Is there a name for beard styles? Oh, wait...Mutton chops.
My husband decided his little white MUSTACHE needed a little Van Dyke. He thought hard about this after staring at DALI's "Persistence of Memory."
This had lots of fun. MISS CLEO!!!! Youree..."Call Me Miss Cleo!" I loved her! Her deep Jamaican voice while she whispers to me "The Cards Never Lie." I believed everything in her tarot display.
I didn't know BABADOOK. I now know your name. Just like DALI's Dali, I will remember you in the future.
Ah, look...My best friend, CHE, appears again. All is forgiven by drool fest MOMOA. He looks like a BABADOOK.
I enjoyed your puzzle, Anthony. Next time maybe beards? I'll draw the Mutton Chops for you.
I really enjoyed working this puzzle. Once I got DALI in the circles I (D’OH) didn’t notice the shape(s) was a MUSTACHE so I was trying to make an “artist” out of the circles I had (just a few) in the FUMANCHU vicinity. This just made the puzzle crunchier and more enjoyable than many Tuesday offerings.
ReplyDeleteThe BABADOOK. That movie scared the heck out of me when I watched it! Watched it at home on a rainy weekend afternoon. I would’ve had to walk out of a theater due to extreme anxiety! I think watching it took me about 4 1/2 hours due to pauses to “relax.” Why did I finish? It really did have an intelligent, psychological theme. @Gary Jugert…good choice for YOU to NOT watch. I can get “worked up” DURING a movie, but for whatever reason, the fear doesn’t stick with me once I’m done with the movie.
Yeah. FUMANCHU. Spent some Wikipedia time with that. The first books written were around 1912 and Dr. Fu Manchu was described as an “genius super-villain.” Times were different then for sure BUT Peter Sellers played the role in 1980! That was NOT cool.
Things got a little hairy, but not so much theme-wise. Except in that other sense, of course.
ReplyDeleteHad some trouble with the trail of ALICE/MISSCLEO/COLBY/BABADOOK/EAMES. A few no-knows peppered that string. Lost precious nanoseconds, but guessed everything right, eventually.
staff weeject pick: OPI. Have seen this brand before in xwords, but have trouble rememberin it. Somethin about OPIe Taylor wearin nail polish that just won't click.
The nice stuff included: IMAFAN. ALMANAC. GLAMROCK. ASPROMISED. ONOCCASION. ISUZU.
Recall visitin the Dali Museum in St. Pete. They had a primo, ginormous mustache statue, out in the patio area. Can see why they mighta named a special mustache style after that dude. Great, weird artworks. And liked his lobster phone a lot, too boot.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Gisonda dude. Nice debut puz -- congratz.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
@GILL
ReplyDeleteI think Mutton Chops are sideburns, not beards.
My father always had a moustache & I got scared & cried when he shaved it off (I couldn't have been more than 4 yrs old) so he quickly grew it back. Thus, I've always gone for guys with moustaches.
ReplyDeleteBut back to the puzzle - I solved as a themeless. Thanks, Anthony!
Watch the Babadook. Incredible movie.
ReplyDeleteMISSCLEO brought back some memories. Her commercials would be on and be entertaining just watching those!
ReplyDelete@JC66. Oh!...I'm guessing you're a MUSTACHE/beard guy? I think of Mutton Chops as an upside down goatee. Colonel Sanders or Hugh Jackman? I even think there's some kind of Mustache contest for men. I can imagine the amount of hours spent in front of the mirror! I've seen some that would scare the pants off of me.
ReplyDelete@Andrew (10:43) Thanks for the link, I’m still laughing. 😂 Although I remember watching back then, I had kind of forgotten about it. They sure nailed it but it’s pretty funny they referred to W as a right-wing nut job. Heck, he’s almost a liberal compared to the nut jobs we’ve seen since then.
ReplyDelete@jb129: The dog in your profile picture is absolutely adorable.
ReplyDelete@GILL
ReplyDeleteGOOGLE agrees with you, so I won't argue.
For some reason, the image of the BABADOOK looks familiar but the word rings no bells. I had DOOK in place and thought finally that solver coinage had made it into the word lists but no.
ReplyDeleteI looked at DALI, assumed there was an art tie-in, failed to parse the other circled areas, filled in MUSTACHE from crosses and then had to go back and look for the revealer. Thus, the puzzle held more surprises (enjoyable) for me than for Rex. I liked it.
Only if you do crosswords regularly would the crossing of AIDA and vox POPULI not even make you pause.
Congrats on the debut Anthony!
The theme could use some tweaking.
ReplyDeleteCute theme that I didn't get. Never heard of MISS CLEO, BABADOOK or ROAN. Liked POPULI.
ReplyDeleteError: Ryan Seacrest is the host of Wheel of Fortune now! :P
ReplyDeleteI just found this on last Friday's puzzle page. I think it's the answer to the Thursday cryptogram.
ReplyDelete"Have you checked out that chic new bistro, Karma? There's no menu. You get what you deserve."
I found it fairly easy. I did ignore the theme I can leave a mess after filling the circles as well as the boxes in the dead tree edition so there was no way for me to read the circles so I learned the details from Rex. Thought it was a good puzzle. Shortz should have accepted the he mouvember clue and put the puzzle on another day. It is probably too obscure for a Tuesday however.
ReplyDeleteI am a graduate of Colby College in Maine , my 50th reunion is next year so that answer was easy for me ( not many 5 letter colleges in Maine) but I never since I first heard the name of the school just before I applied ever made a connection between the college and cheese. I am only vaguely aware of a brand of cheese I think. I wasn’t aware of a type of cheese. Strange clue for me.
I
I’m a Colby alum and knew the cheese for a good ten years before I was aware of the school’s existence. And when I decided to go there, 90+% of the time heard “like the cheese?!” Maybe it’s a Midwest thing! Have fun at your reunion - I have one next summer.
DeleteI whizzed through the puzzle and glanced at the circles as I sped by thinking, “there’s going to be a reveal somewhere,” and left it at that. Moved right along.
ReplyDeleteLiked some of the clues for common words like “part of a book jacket” for FLAP and focus on the beret for good old CHE.
The winner for me is how brainless this solver turned out to be. I’m going to blame it on the way the reveal was written. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. To me, the words “set of circled letters” told me that the “set” was the letters grouped according to each word containing circled letters, to be parsed numerically left to right. I was thinking that we would find either that each “set” would spell something, or that all the groups of circled letters would together tell mw something either by being one long word, or shorter words that together would mean something. Well obviously that fell apart instanter. And left me with a big “huh?”
Now remember, friends, I just told you that I had whizzed through the puzzle. Yep. The. Whole. Puzzle! I had the word MUSTACHE already staring at me! Except I was using downs through there and just was not paying attention to words where I didn’t need to. And this then becomes my poster puzz for why I do not enjoy speed solving. Every single time my hubris monster takes control of a day upon which I am tuned to the precise and crystal clear wavelength of the constructor and am on a super speedy solving roll, she whispers seductively “see if you can beat your best Tuesday (or whatever day) time!” And I do. Solving without really reading all the words is really dumb. What’s dumber is not reading them AGAIN when you don’t understand the reveal. Add to that the whipped cream and cherry on top of this crap show sundae, still not seeing the correct “set of circled letters” a second (ok, and a third) time and coming here to get the DOH! head smack, whatever.
At least I got a good laugh at myself, and yet another opportunity to hear Gran telling me, “sweetheart, you don’t always have to assume everything is extra complicated.” If I had a nickelnfor every time she said that . . . Hope y’all got a good chuckle. I think this was really an excellent Tuesday. Just deserved a solver with more brain activity.
@JC66
ReplyDeleteI think most people would agree with your first response—mutton chops are sideburns, not beards. But you’re right—there is apparently something like extended sideburns that meet below the chin forming a beard. Do you, or anyone else, know of a name for this facial hair? I guess calling this muttonchops is ok but rather ambiguous.
Excellent puzzle, very enjoyable with some challenging clues.
@Andrew…hilarious! I feel same as @whatsername. I’m afraid to say it now but I think W is a very nice person (in retrospect) even if I might not align with his thinking on everything (or a lot of things). A certain orange person…despicable…to ME. I wonder what you think would have happened if Al would’ve won? (Let’s take out the chads) Never mind. You probably shouldn’t say… And I MEAN that.
ReplyDeleteWhatshername @ 1:12 - THANK YOU for the lovely comment about my Cinnamon. We were hit by a car last year (the driver "didn't see us."). I barely survived but she didn't.
ReplyDeleteI miss her terribly but she is with me all the time.
Thank you again.
@jb129: You must have been heartbroken to lose her. I’m so sorry. 😰
ReplyDelete@Trentiel and @Burtonkd and @stephanie: Thanks for the discussion. I did see some mentions of hesitancy in the California chapter, but there was more info related to what the ACLU eventually *did* do. But given all that, I agree: Of all the possible ways to clue ACLU, this was probably one of the most inaccurate. Thanks for the education, all!
ReplyDeleteAmazingly enough I got "mustache" before the themers and all was easily resolved
ReplyDeleteAll I can say about Anthony Gisonda is IMAFAN. Excellent debut. More please!
ReplyDeleteMy starting point was ALICE/ALLIN, so the first themer I came across was HANDLEBAR, which was easy after IDLER. Natch, I thought it was gonna be about motorcycles or bikes. WAS (wrong again, Spacey)!
ReplyDeleteANDTHEN, working back into the NW, coming up with DALI, I thought the handlebar was HIS mustache, and the puzzle was all about him. WAS!
Finally got it with FUMANCHU, but never hears of the term PENCIL applied to mustaches, so I had to do a bit of filling in there.
Agreed that the revealer--if you can call it that--was flat, but the depictions were spot on, and couldn't have been easy to fill in. Hence some outlying fill (looking at you, INCHUP).
Never heard of MISSCLEO or BABADOOK--is that one of the DOOKs we're always hearing about?--and that toughened things up for this Tuesday offering. Somewhat PPP-laden, but again forced by making those shapes. On balance, I think he pulled it off. Birdie.
Wordle bogey.
Alternate clue for 59A - What you grow in Movember or a hint to what the circle letters represent.
ReplyDeleteONOCCAASION
ReplyDeleteThe MOMTOBE ANGERS her man,
“ALL ANAL for me AND I’MAFAN.”
--- MISSCLEO COLBY
Who in the world is MISSCLEO??
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I've been to a couple of DALI museums, so 'STACHES are in my vocab.
And it's my birthday! Yup - me and Jerry Garcia. Tho he's not celebrating - maybe playing a gig in heaven.
Diana, LIW
I tried various moustaches over the years, when I was younger, including the pencil. And although I had very dark hair, it was not dense enough for it to stand out in a good way. So instead, it looked like a post-postpubescent eruption. Got rid of it very quickly.
ReplyDelete@Diana LIW: Happy birth-dayaftermybirth-day! +Many happy returns.
ReplyDelete