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Particles proposed by Michael Faraday in the 1830s / THU 6-15-23 / Mary-Louise Parker show about a suburban mom dealing pot / Campaign to influence emotions and morale, informally / Where you may go after reaching an impasse / Inappropriately jocular / Blowhard's exhalation / River whose celestial mirror is the Milky Way, in ancient myths
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Constructor: David Harris
Relative difficulty: Extremely easy
Theme answers:
- FACET(IOUS) (15A: *Inappropriately jocular)
- SPEC(IOUS) (19A: *Misleadingly plausible)
- TED(IOUS) (43A: *Dullsville)
- CONTENT(IOUS) (54A: *Likely to cause an argument)
- VICAR(IOUS) (59A: *Experienced through another)
- STUD(IOUS) (62A: *Earnestly hitting the books)
- PASS(IONS) (6D: *Fiery feelings)
- FACT(IONS) (13D: *Political groups)
- STALL(IONS) (27D: *Male zebras)
- MISS(IONS) (51D: *Video game quests)
- CAPT(IONS) (54D: *Descriptive lines under photos)
- TENS(IONS) (57D: *Causes of stress)
Mac Pro is a series of workstations and servers for professionals that have been designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2006. The Mac Pro, by some performance benchmarks, is the most powerful computer that Apple offers. It is one of four desktop computers in the current Mac lineup, sitting above the Mac Mini, iMac and Mac Studio. (wikipedia)
• • •
...and then I look back at STALL, look up at "Square One," mentally add the -IONS, say "Oh, STALLIONS, OK" ... and then ... well, that was it as far as fun or excitement or interest or anything was concerned. Oh, I guess I eventually realized that Across themers were involved too, and they'd take -IOUS and not -IONS, but who cares? Once you make the very easy-to-discover discovery of what the theme entails, you are back to solving a dull Monday puzzle again, made duller (and Mondayer) by the fact that You Now Have Four Letters In Place For Every Starred Clue You Encounter. I encountered 11 of 12 starred clues this way today. You just get handed those answers. There's no trickery or cleverness or anything left once you get the "joke." The grid is void of remarkable or original entries. The clues don't even seem to be trying that hard to be playful. There's the revealer and then there's: listlessness, all around. It's nice that all the answers to starred clues are actual words even without their "square one" suffixes, but that's kind of a bare minimum feature of a theme like this. The puzzle would be ridiculous if those answers were gibberish as written. I definitely see how BACK TO SQUARE ONE would be seductive as hell as a revealer, what with its being a perfect grid-spanning 15 letters, and having the very concept of "squares" built right into it. But as executed, from the solver's end, there's very little there there. One moment of "aha" and then ... just the mopping up.
I didn't even get to have interesting screw-ups, struggles, or failures. The worst thing that happened was I read the CHESS clue as having a star on it (that is, misread the opening quotation mark in that clue as a star) (46A: "A foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time," per Shaw), and so I had real trouble making an -IOUS word out of it and ended up wondering what the hell CHESSIOUS could possibly mean. Then I squinted harder at the clue and realized my error. I like the Shaw quote, if only because it's low-key subtweeting you (i.e. me), the solver. That is, what he says about chess could just as easily be said about crossword puzzles.
What else? I had PULL OUT before PUSH OUT, but that's not very interesting, is it? (22A: Forcibly remove). I somehow remembered / came up with PSYOP (26A: Campaign to influence emotions and morale, informally); it's not a term I come across much outside of crosswords. Very pleased that it occurred to me so quickly, with just the -OP in place. The term itself sounds so much more nefarious than the clue makes it out to be. PSYOP sounds like part of an alien invasion, while the clue makes it seem like a pleasant, largely subliminal pep rally. I had no idea MAC PROS were a thing, so that was weird. I'm working on a MACBook PRO right now, and I know there are iPad Pros, but just a straight-up Mac Pro? News to me. This is because it's more computing power than most people need for their home office. Anyway, that's it for anything resembling resistance in this puzzle. My favorite part of the puzzle, besides that little "oh" moment when I got the revealer, was that clue on HAN (29A: Multiple-episode pilot?). He (HAN Solo) is indeed a pilot in many of the "Star Wars" episodes (most notably, for me, Episodes IV, V, and VI, even though we never called them that because they came first why would we call them that!? ... but that's a can of worms. The clue is brilliant. Not sure why they used "Multiple-episode" instead of "Multi-episode," which sounds much more natural as an adjective, but whatever. Still works. Applause for that clue. And on that (high) note, I'll wrap things up. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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100 comments:
Definitely liked this more than Rex. Enjoyed it, and found it clever. — RCP
What’s with the capitals in the clues for 31 and 56 down?
I disagree that the clues aren’t trying very hard to be playful. In addition to the one for HAN, which Rex mentions, the clues for IPADS (“they’re touched to be of service “), ATM (“it helps you find your balance”) and especially DERMAL (“skinny”) were all nice.
It took me much longer than Rex to pick up the theme, in part because I often try to hold off on getting the revealer to see if I can grok the theme before seeing it. I couldn’t in this case, and getting LACQUER (plus having some other crosses) made me see BACK TO SQUARE ONE before I read the clue. Even then, I had skipped 1 across, not seeing IOUS from “markers of a sort,” so it still took a while to see it. The first guess I had at a theme answer was at “earnestly hitting the books,” which I thought would be STUDying. Is it something to do with ying and yang? No, that’s not even right. I think CONTENTious and TENSions is where I finally got it.
Because it took me longer, I liked the puzzle better than Rex did. Agree that the lack of long answers was a weakness.
This must have been very tough to construct. But does Rex pause over that? He does not because his goal is always to find fault, to pick nits. Well, it's his blog and I read it every day so I should just abide it? Well done, David Harris, hope to see more of your works.
I could not disagree more with Rex.
When I do a themed puzzle, especially a Thu or Sun NYTXW, I want a theme that is not only clever, but also has a "key" that is necessary to "get" in order to solve. Like those escape rooms where you need to locate and decipher clues to exit before the room explodes or the poison gas is released or…whatever.
This puzzle succeeds! I normally jump around a Thursday puzzle, picking off the low-hanging fruit. Today, it was 27 & 28D. At that point, the "key", 37A, was obvious and sent me back to 1A/1D. Thanks to the asterisks, the other themed answers fell quickly. They were all legit. Then I was able to make short work of the rest of the fill.
I’m a fanboy of all things Apple (well most; I’m not buying those VR glasses any time soon), so 5D & 51A were nice to see. And I thought the rest of the fill was ok.
One of my favorite Thursdays of 2023.
Funny how a theme can go different ways. For a different take on the BACK TO SQUARE ONE theme, see the Thursday puzzle of 4/4/19, which for some reason I thought of right away…
I have the feeling that this one has the potential to be one of the many “Rex hates it, but the overwhelming consensus of the commentary is positive” Thursday offerings. Will be interesting to see if today’s puzzle finds favor with the masses.
Bit of a nostalgic feeling for me today as BACK TO SQUARE ONE brings back memories of Joyce Goldstein’s landmark Mediterranean/North African fusion restaurant out in San Francisco. I still have her cookbook of the same name.
I hesitated before dropping in ATM because there is no abbr. in the clue, then quickly remembered that this is the NYT and they just ignore and/or make up their own rules, words, quasi-words etc - so no big deal there.
But what is the reason for the capitals for 31 and 56 down?
I completely disagree with Rex this time. That it was so smooth, despite 15 theme answers, is an asset, not a liability. The puzzle was easy yet had a theme that would not be that straightforward for a newer solver. This is the puzzle I would pick for a newer solver who's intimidated by Thursday wordplay.
You could make an argument that it's not on the right day of the week, but that's Will Shortz's decision, and that's not a reflection of the puzzle.
31 is trying to emphasize how an emoting actor might deliver the clue in an actual stage performance.
56 is making the distinction between "newb" and the online gaming slang "n00b". It's just giving you a clever little hint about which form to use for the answer.
I liked the puzzle better than @Rex did, but I agree on one major point: the asterisks on the theme clues. "[T]he puzzle waves a big caution flag with [those] little star[s]". It's even worse if you solve on the NYT web site: not only are the clues starred, but whenever you select one of the themers, all the themers and the revealer light up in yellow. That's not handing us the answers on a silver platter, it's spoon feeding.
Because Rex solved from NW to W, he encountered just one starred clue before encountering the revealer. And that one starred clue intersects with the revealer, so the entire solve was truncated, and made way too easy. I get why he hated on this one.
I solved NW, to N, to NE, to E, and then to W. So I encountered six starred clues before the revealer, and I was stumped by all six of them. My puzzle had six holes in it that I just could not suss out. I was at a major "impasse". So the revealer gave me a big aha moment! Yes, the remaining six theme answers were incredibly easy, but that was okay — they made up for all the time I lost puzzling over the first six! So it was fun! and I understand that Rex missed out on that fun almost entirely, because of his solving pattern.
I didn’t hate this puzzle, I just thought it was nowhere near Thursday hard (finished in half of my average time). And I agree that this is a puzzle which privileged the constructor’s fun over the solvers’, which is a pet peeve. But I also agree with @Wanderlust that there were in fact some playful clues.
Case in point: because I try not to jump to the revealer until I’ve worked my way to it, I had ArM instead of ATM for “It helps you find your balance,” which is fun - a niche kealoa if there ever was one.
I’m not a constructor, so I’m curious to hear from those who are whether this would have actually been quite difficult to construct, as all of the front “halves” of the answers are stand alone words themselves. I imagine with constructing software that it’s not impossibly tricky, but I’m totally guessing here. If we should be awed at the feat of construction and that should override the ease of the solve, I wanna know so I can adjust my ‘tude accordingly!
Pretty much what Rex said: extremely easy, instantly found the gimmick, etc. I did like the clueing in general, but yeah, they spoonfeed you a lot. You don't need to write "r00kie"; we can figure out noob/newb from either of two crosses.
But I enjoyed it because the clues still made me smile by at least trying to be a little goofy.
My biggest disappointment is that Rex didn't use "Vicarious" by Tool as one of the song choices.
Oh, what a lovely and impressive construction, which must have taken much work and trial-and-error:
• Finding theme answers whose base word wasn’t related to the word created when IOUS or IONS was added – so, for instance, LABOR and LABOR(IOUS) couldn’t have been used.
• Having the IOUS answers all be across, as 1A is, and the IONS answers all be down, as 1D is.
• Crossing five sets of theme answers.
• Finding IOUS and IONS words whose base word is a word in its own right (okay, CAPT is an abbreviation, but still), so the grid doesn’t have gibberish.
• Placing a dozen theme answers in the grid.
So, there was that, the technical challenge. But then, rising to the Thursday challenge of creating a riddle to be solved, requiring some twisted thinking on the solver’s part, and, IMO, succeeding wonderfully (evidence: a rousing “Aha!”, at cracking the gimmick).
All in all, a Thursday showpiece. This is what I want on this day, and you came through sweetly and strongly, David. Magnifique! Thank you for this, sir, and congratulations on your first solo NYT puzzle!
And in print version, 31D has capital Os, and 56D has big zeros. I don't get it.
I hated this puzzle but I'm nowhere as good as you guys.
This was so easy that my “solve time” was LOWER than the number of minutes faster than my average that I solved it in.
Also felt like Rex that it was ridiculous to try to make that work and then fill with horrible short nonsense in between, Inon, onit, asto, I was just disappointed for a Thursday. Just no challenge here.
I think the themers needed to be marked in some way, not only for us mere mortal solvers, but I think even Rex would get irritated trying to remember how many themers he had filled in when he hits an answer that doesn’t immediately come to mind. In the app, the answers were highlighted when you were on the revealer, and that probably would have been enough for me, but wouldn’t have helped print solvers.
@Lewis, thanks for the pointer to the puzzle in the archives. That may have been in the back of my mind during this solve, because that was how I tried to make sense of the themers at first, but in this case resulted in nonsense.
I agree with @Wanderlust, there’s more going on in the clues than Rex says.
I thought this was just right...a theme puzzle whereby the revealer helps you discover the trick, rather than the other way around. We've had too many of the wrong kind recently.
It took me forever to get DEEPEN because I misread the clue as "got" instead of "get" (more mysterious). I didn't understand the clue for HAN (was it HAN SOLO?). And I've never used the word "skosh," so the DAB/USB cross was tough for me.
Actually the first Star Wars to hit screens was subtitled IV. Nobody saw it as a potential series. The IV was meant to make it seem a bit like those old cinema serials as a spoof. Who knew?
Cute enough trick - but overall fill was clunky. We do get our friend @PABLO memorialized in a Thursday grid - slim pickings after that.
S.O.B.
Rex vs Lewis is always fun
I filled in the themer first - couldn’t resist. First answer in, no letters. It was just begging to be filled. Unfortunately that was it for the fun.
Nicely constructed puzzle but I agree it was really easy.
Everything about this puzzle rocks, as far as I'm concerned. A very clever theme that fully engages the solver's mind and imagination. Even though I picked up what was going on early (in the PASS/FACET section), I also might not have. And once having done so, there was no drop in my interest and involvement. Every theme answer was a mini-puzzle of its own.
How perfect is the revealer? But good as it is, I didn't see it coming. I think I've seen this revealer before -- though I don't remember what sort of theme it was attached to -- but I can't imagine it being any more apt or launching a better puzzle than it does here.
Some lovely cluing too. Skinny?=DERMAL was diabolical, though I suppose to be completely fair, it really should have been skin-ny. And I loved the clue for CHESS (46A).
I always know when I really love a puzzle. It's when I'm champing at the bit to get to the Comments page in order to tell you so.
I thought this was the cleverest Thursday in many a week. Time was very close to my average. So I’m definitely in the disagree with @Rex camp. Numerous ingenious clues mentioned by others, and strong puzzle aesthetics as pointed out by @Lewis. My thumb is way up.
webwinger
Had the revealer filled in early and it still took far too long to see what was going on. I blame a double grandchild distraction excuse as the 5-year old is now done with school and joined her 1-year old brother for a child care day. Busy busy.
Anyway, once the theme kicked in it was a nice aha! moment that even overlooking the obvious didn't bother me, and I thought all the IOUS and IONS were fun to put together with their otherwise mysterious predecessors.
Also, and @Roo, you knew this was coming, a PABLO! About time.
I thought this was a very nice Thursday indeed, DH. Definitely Had a nice flow and some clever clues, and thanks for all the fun.
Oh, good heavens -- it was our @Lewis who did the other BACK TO SQUARE ONE puzzle. And it was an excellent one. My apologies, Lewis. But as you surely know by now, there are only two ways I remember crosswords (or anything else for that matter):
Vaguely or not at all.
POW! says Chen. POO! says Rex (or Not POW! to follow up on yesterday’s clueing gimmick).
For once, I’m in total agreement with Rex. The fill was so easy - starting with the crucial IOUS and IONS - and so clearly flagged that I could just skip the * clues and do the straightforward blanks first.
Usually spend several minutes on a Thursday working out the trick, then (in the case of rebuses) how to enter the damn things on my iPad. Today’s time beat my Wednesday average by 30 seconds. For the second consecutive THursday, the THrill was gone.
Kudos to the constructor for his first solo in the NYT - it WAS a good theme and if the stars had not made it too damn easy, would have likely been a worthy challenge.
Which brings me back to my proposal that NYTXW should offer some digital puzzles at two levels: Easier (*, in this case) and More Challenging (no *). How hard would that be?
Off to *$ (Starbucks, get it?) to get me the Thursday jolt missing today…
Once you get one, you get them all, and DERMAL and PSY OP too. EMOTE and NOOB had pretty weird clues, eh? I'm with 🦖, the HAN clue was outstanding. A really interesting puzzle. Over too soon.
Uniclues:
1 Be a poet.
2 Direction from the asphalt boss.
3 The way of the wriggler wrangler.
4 A belly full of Kraft's.
5 Procedures for adulting.
6 One duty handled by adult film producer.
7 Print out a list of all my bad ideas.
8 Send the bowl of mashed potatoes around.
9 Loo.
1 PUSH OUT STANZAS (~)
2 LET 'EM TAR (~)
3 EELER TAO
4 MAC PROS CONTENT
5 DEBTS -> SOBS -> ROBS (~)
6 SEEN TO KNEE PADS
7 ZAP TONER
8 PASS HIS DESIRE
9 SEWER CAN
Completely disagree with Rex. Is there a certain narrow mindedness that's starting to creep into the reviews? Editor Robert Gottlieb's obit is in the NYT today. David Remnick in The New Yorker said he "may have the most important book editor of his time." Toni Morrison said that after her first two books, he told her that she could loosen up a bit and "Be reckless in your imagination."
When you start a puzzle with the thought, "I took one look at the grid, before I'd even started solving, and thought "well this won't be good," you've already shut it down. Might be time to loosen up.
This puzzle really was a heck of an accomplishment.
And RIP Robert Gottlieb. Not sure I can read the last Robert Caro book without someone to edit out a few hundred thousand words.
I vote with Rex today. I saw the gimmick almost immediately. Plus the puzzle gives too much away, lighting up all over when you get in the vicinity of a theme answer. I hate that! Let ME solve the darn puzzle. That’s what I'm paying for! The asterisks are okay if folks need a heads up. At least you only see one at a time.
I did have to wonder about the HAN clue, and ATM, so that was nice.
After reading @Lewis description of how difficult this puzzle must have been to make, I'm sorry the constructor put so much effort into it.
@Rick Boardman
The first Star Wars film was not subtitled with "Episode IV" until 1981, after it had become a huge success. Star Wars released in 1978. See Wikipedia.
This got revealed to me in a few different pieces and was so rewarding. I found it to be a very satisfying and enjoyable puzzle. Made me grin before coffee, and that's saying a lot.
I agree with Rex that "tough to construct" shouldn't get you much credit - the goal of the constructor should be making it "fun to solve"
BACKTOSQUAREONE is doubly-clever. You need to go to the suffixes at "square one" to get the "back" part of the word.
Really liked that the fragments in the grid are words in themselves -- the abbreviation CAPT sneaks in.
Happy to see the IOUS words, especially FACETIOUS, VICARIOUS, and SPECIOUS.
Great fun finding the twelve long words.
Hey All !
Reading Rex's rants, I thought this puz was made by Bruce Haight!
I agree with most here, in that this was a neat puz. I also agree with @Lewis that it was a toughie to construct. Like he said, all the words that get the suffixes are real words themselves. Plus some cross, some are stacked, just look at the SE corner. Four together! Then to get your 1D & 1A to be those suffixes, along with getting clean fill, and a Q in the center of everything. Nice job David.
Glad to have my hand held today, cause I was at sea as to what in tarhooties was going on at first. I originally thought you'd have to go back to the beginning of each starred clue word, as in TED being TEDT, but thankfully none of the words made sense that way, so once I said, "Hmm, BACK TO SQUARE ONE, let me look to see what 1A is." Saw the IOUS and IONS, said AHA, and let out a "neat!"
Enjoy your day, everyone!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Thx, David; an audacIOUS creatION! 😊
Med (avg time, but plenty of PUSHBACK).
LOVED every minute of this adventurOUS MISSION.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I knew that when I finished this and thought, "oh, how clever!", and then went to Rex's comments, that he would hate it.
On another note, I have been going back in time and doing archived Thursday-Saturday puzzles. Since I've now reached the year 2006, I can see what Rex had to say (since he started this that year). It's very enjoyable. I guess after a few thousand of these columns, one's attitude changes (not to mention the years), but he actually comments on the comments, which is often amusing.
Oh, yes, I forgot to mention a PABLO for @pablo!
WooHoo! Is that the first or second one the year? 😜😂
I did smile when I got it, @pablo!
RooMonster Rare Sightings Guy
Did I go through this puzzle quickly? Yes. Did I enjoy it immensely? YES! Go figure on the different solving experiences on the blog but apparently today is the “one man’s feast is another man’s famine” variety. Hah! For some reason I GOT the fact that IONS was added to all the down answers but D’OH, I didn’t get the IOUS for across until I got to the revealer.
@anonymous 6:33…there seems to be “a thing” these days about intermittent capitalization and I’m gonna see if I can find the answer on Google. I would point out that 56D has zeros rather than capital Os. Um…like W00T? As for the caps in clue for EMOTE…maybe it is to show the overemphasis that a ham actor might have? No clue on NOOB clue.
I'm not sure if I needed the asterisks, but they certainly helped. The theme answers are mostly not symmetrical, so they may have been hard to find. I did like some of the clues, though I'm still having a debate with myself over Wriggler wrangler. Clever, or too clever by half? I think the way I feel is that when you are cluing eel(er) or oreo, anything goes, but I might change my mind.
Where the lack of an asterisk did help was with ERUPT. It's symmetrical with FACETIOUS, and you could add IONS, except that the clue is singular, it's across not down, and the base word has the same meaning as the longer one. But I might have taken it as sloppiness without the asterisks.
I sort of liked the two babes, CALF and CUB, although it would have been even better if NOOB had been clued as "babe in a video game." And I don't get the capitalization there either.
Welp, 31 and 56 down did NOT do what I spoke of in other comment. That is called “alternating caps” which is supposed to convey a tone of mockery.
It was below the fold on page 1 of the NYT today and once again the damnable Donald Trump was sucked out all the oxygen in the room. I read about Bob Gottlieb's death here on the blog and not in the Times -- going as I did directly from the damnable Donald Trump to the NYTXW without glancing below the fold. I'll take the paper with me to Central Park and read the obit there.
Gottlieb was a hugely lionized figure in the publishing field where I worked in the 1960s and 1970s. All the people I worked for over the years knew him personally -- though I didn't. Bob and I were surely at many of the same publishing parties -- thrown by either the NBA or the Literary Guild over the years. He, surrounded by all the people who longed for even a moment or two in his presence. Me, not so much. The closest I think I ever came to him was a couple of feet. I passed by a top editor's office -- who can remember who? -- and the door was partly ajar. "Do you know who's in there?" someone (who can remember who?) breathed/whispered. "Bob Gottlieb!!!"
Few people in the publishing field were so respected by so many. He was a legend during each of his various incarnations and will be missed. The obit says he was 92. He had to have been, of course -- he goes back so far. And yet he always seemed so much younger.
@anonymous 6:33 - The capitals in 56 down are actually the number 0, and -- so far as I can tell -- it's just a representation of "leet speak" or internetese where, among other things, the letter "o" is often represented with a 0. You will occasionally find "noob" written as "n00b" (and also "newb" or "nwb"), especially if you were on BBSes back in the 80s, where leet speak developed. In fact, "leet" itself would sometimes be written out as "1337" as the numbers roughly correspond to the alphabetic letterforms. While I could see "rookie" being typed out as "r00kie" in leet, "t0tal" is really forcing it.
For 31 down, I think that's just a textual representation of somebody over-emoting the clue or something. At least that's how I read it.
In neither case do I think it was necessary for the typographic oddity. In fact, to me with 56D the way the clue is written implies that the answer should be "n00b" with zeroes, not plain NOOB.
At any rate, I found it fun. It took me longer than most you guys here, for whatever reason. Probably being tired after driving back from Wisconsin Dells and the waterpark to celebrate the kids' end of school year. The kept taking me up this aquatic torture device called "the Tornado." The slide itself wasn't so bad, but the long trek up the stairs with a very heavy four-person inflatable raft put me in the mind of a condemned prisoner being forced to haul the implements of his execution to the town square.
I first thought it was some sort of wrap-around puzzle, as 51D is where I figured out the MISS goes with the IONS, so with the other starred clues I was initially looking to complete the fill with another fill in the same row or column. So that slowed me down, as well. It did take getting the revealer to finally grok it.
Why is a Ninja Turtle like Betsy Ross’ husband?
They both love a good SEWER.
Here’s hoping that La Petite Orange’s troubles DEEPEN enough that he ends up in DEEPEN.
The constructor notes that he submitted this without the asterisks and they were added by the editor (as were the highlights presumably). It would have been a much tougher puzzle that way, and this lends credence to my belief (and that of many commenters) that the puzzles are being dumbed down to increase the bottom line. I liked the concept of the puzzle, but found it way too easy and boring. Without the asterisks, I think those who made it all the way through would be giving it rave reviews. I’m certain that I would. So thanks, David Harris, for submitting a great puzzle. Raspberries to the NYT for wrecking it.
@Andrew (9:08) -- that's a great idea. Maybe on Mondays there can be an alternate hard set of clues for the grid, and on Saturdays an alternate easy set. Should be simple to make available for the digital puzzle, and for the print puzzle readers could be guided to a website containing the alternate?
31 down is capitalized because it's "emoting"--over-emphasizing the sounds the way a bad actor might.
56 isn't capitalized. Those are zeros replacing the o's. It's "leet speak" or "1337 sp34k," an older form of internet slang, hinting at the clue.
Two separate things going on.
In 31-down, it’s intended to be an example of emoting, with unnecessary emphasis on strange parts of the words that wouldn’t be there if someone was reading the lines normally.
In 56-down, they’re not capital Os but rather zeroes (0), and that’s because 0s are often swapped for Os in gamer slang. They’re actually usually swapped for the Os in NOOB (so written as n00b), but since they didn’t do that in the answer they decided to do it in the clue, I suppose.
There's also a disconnect in being in the very top percentile of anything. At some point, your experience becomes so significantly removed from the average that it becomes difficult to relate.
I certainly didn't have the experience of filling in the revealer clue with only two letters (much less completing the NW corner in five seconds), making the reveal much more satisfying for me. The distribution of themed clues across the board worked to make the initial solve attempts for each section a struggle, so cracking it felt quite rewarding, even if the rest of the puzzle was a breeze afterwards. Just a very different experience at my skill level (currently on a 41-day solving streak with a prior high of 13).
Hwy @Roo-
"Rare" sighting indeed, but I'll take it.
I think it's what I get for not having one of those "Ten Most Popular Baby Names of the Year" that they come out with.
FWIW, I think "Roo" is #6 or 7 on the boy's list this year.
Oooh...Corazon de melon I shall sing. @Rex and I visited a different planet today. I was on the moon waving to him while he sits on Pluto counting asteroids.
I circled all twelve of the little stars hoping this would help me navigate back to Earth.
You see...I had STALL and I knew it needed some IONS. Oh, look...there it is at 1D!. Que fun...maybe! I'll try going for the fun....My maybe might just take care of itself.
I landed on BACK TO SQUARE ONE. I still wasn't sure how to maneuver my space craft. Do I go up or down...do I push both buttons or just one. I'll navigate some more and see if I can find a safe place.
My squeal of delight came with the VICAR. He needed something added on. What shall it be. Let's try some IOUS. VICARIOUS indeed!
So it was at this spot that my touchdown was a success . I landed on the bulls eye.
I still had empty squares that needed tending to, though. PSYOP, HAN and WEEDS...Who are you? I guess I'll invite you into my bar only because I have to.
Finished my space exploration and it was really a delightful trip. Something new to me. I like clever and different; you gave me both.
PS: @pablito. I, too, have a 5 year old granddaughter and a 1 year old grandson...I guess we have a lot in common. Que vida loca!!!
I agree with @JD 9:15 that RP should lighten up.
His snarky tone is starting to balloon, resembling the noise of all the haters among us. You can be critical, even draw blood, without being bitchy and nasty.
Hope springs eternal.
Liveprof 10:24 - even easier for the constructors than having to come up with a separate set of clues for the easier Monday / Tuesday (though I love your idea) would be the options to show DOWN ONLY or ACROSS ONLY clues on Times digital versions.
I’ve followed RP in doing Down Only for the easiest days but it’s hard not to look at (or even see subliminally) some Across clues.
Doing no more than giving “degree of difficulty” options for experienced solvers would please the COGNESCENTI (I’m using that a lot so I don’t forget it when it next appears) while still being accessible for newbies.
Maybe call it Original and Extra Crunchy? (Maybe not)
Nice one! And a "medium" for me, meaning that I had more time to enjoy the solving. I'm with those who got to the reveal later on; I'd PASSed over the asterisked entries up top and then skipped around the grid filling in the "regular" entries, hoping for inspiration along with more letters to work with. Only at 59A did I think, "It has to be VICAR," and only then did I catch on to the IOUS and remember my earlier wondering about PASS[IONS]. At that point, I went right to the reveal, filled in BACK TO SQUARE ONE, and then dealt with the scattered IONS and IOUS. For me, this was anything but a puzzle that was rewarding for the constructor but not the solver: I found it a treat to discover the stand-alone words that could take those two suffixes along with new meanings, and knowing the trick (including Across v Down) helped me finish (TED, CONTENT, STUD, CAPT). Fun to solve + admiration for the construction = a fine Thursday.
@Peter P 10:07- Your Wisconsin Dells story made me laugh (with sympathy). I'm a generation ahead of you, but we also had the end-of-school trip to Noah's Ark, before the days of the behemoth rafts, thank goodness. We had only individual tubes to wrangle and managed to sell the delights of the Lazy River for much of the day.
Easyish. Tricky at first but not that tough to after getting the revealer. Fun solve, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did and Jeff gave it POW.
I enjoyed it and thought it was clever, though I do agree it was too easy for a Thursday. Once you got the revealer it was ridiculously easy. Eliminating stars would help. Still, not bad.
Fun puzzle that led to three ahas: first, the realization that themers like PASS are completed by 1D; then the realization that themers like FACET are completed by 1A; and finally the realization that the direction of each themer matched the direction of its SQUARE ONE. Congratulat to David Harris for an auspic solo debut.
Because I am not as bright as the majority of commenters, I had the ion/ious add ons before I had filled in 1a/1d. There was little on my first pass through the puzzle that went in easily (I had arm instead of ATM, and thought that I had finally caught on to some cleverness!). So, perhaps it is because I am a slogging solver, I loved this! I loved the revealer. I had filled in all the asterisked answers and knew what they were doing before I filled in the revealer and looked back at square one. The great AHA!
I liked this. All the short theme words are unrelated in meaning to their suffixed versions (VICAR has nothing to do with VICARIOUS, FACT has nothing to do with FACTIONS, etc.) I suppose it was easy enough to cull them from a word list, but still, it was a clever idea.
Sir Paul is at the door
Well I had a to do list from hell this morning and didn’t get to puzzling until you folks in NYC were probably sitting down to lunch. But I couldn’t let such a terrific Thursday pass without singing its praises. I see it is only the second outing for this constructor and his first solo effort. Well David, I think you more than earned your wings in delivering this bundle of joy. It was a lot of fun and very satisfying to finish. And I don’t care what complexities went into the construction of it, that is my highest compliment to a constructor. So thank you and please get BACK TO work now on the next SQUARE of your third ONE.
This was a well-conceived, well-constructed, and fun puzzle.
Rex, please lighten up. Reading your post was like listening to Andy Rooney complain about peanut butter always sticking to the roof of his mouth. You can do better than this.
Super easy for Thursday, but likeable. I thought it was kinda neat that IONS and IOUS were there starting in Square One, and that the revealer made absolute sense, and that all the partials were real, unrelated, words. I did it this morning, which is in the middle of the night chez vous, so didn't get to comment until our adventure day was done.
Struggling a little here in Bruxelles, since, although I speak much more fluent French than German normally, I have been willing my brain to learn German which is having weird effects. I also discovered that, as unlikely as it seems, there are now things I know the words for in German but not in French (eg, Reiterdenkmal, but to be fair we don't actually have a dedicated word for that in English - a monument consisting of a man, always a man, on horseback). Plus the signs and all are in French and Dutch, close enough to German to be confusing. And then there's enceinte, which means pregnant, unless (as I learned today) it's referring to defensive walls around a city.
But all of this is why I'd rather be here...
..away from the orange cheeto and his rabble.
@Joseph Michael
Nice job on the congratulat!
Like I said in a previous post, "what Rex considers easy" etc. (as in I don't).
Tried hard but I couldn't get into this guys head :(
Constructors notes said submitted without *’s. Way to go NYT. It’s Thursday. C’mon.
Even so, I’m with Chen on this one (and others here who enjoyed it).
Appreciate the theme construction, and I’ll never get looking at the grid and forming a “good” or “bad” opinion on the puzzle as whole. I mean, I do holistically look at the grid at first, just don’t form any “this is gonna suuuck” very often, if ever. I’ll occasionally have a “woah, get ready” or “interesting”. But never forming “like/ don’t like” thought until into the solve.
To me the theme was above average, and lack of some additional Thursday difficulty didn’t spoil the fun.
Read Rex & was glad that I didn’t leap into the reveal so easily. Got to @Wanderlust and had the exact same response as that second post even down to IPAD & 🏧. Saves a bunch of typing!
I was fine with this overly easy puzzle except for the unnecessary and SPECIOUS DO AC and 00.
This is a good point. I was surprised he found it "extremely" easy, when I thought it was a proper Thursday. Solving pattern goes a long way to explaining that, besides the obvious part about him being much better at these than me.
Fun_CFO’s comment about how David Harris submitted this without the asterisks made me realize I was too hasty in my negative appraisal.
He constructed a great Thursday, watered down by NYTXW editors.
To paraphrase a certain Bard:
The fault, dear Harris, is not in your stars,
But in Will Shortz needlessly adding them.
Wanderlust and /smalltown doc , my response to the puzzle was much like yours.
Very unlike Rex's
i caught on to the theme at about 19A specious with 6D pass already in place and knowing it should be "passions" I was about 2/3 done before I read 37 and saw there was a revealer that gave a hint to the theme.
Actually it is a terrific reveal.
Personally I was glad fort he * on the theme clues
Found several playful clues. LIke36A Skinny? for dermal and the touch one for iPads and I think there was another I smiled at. Did not "get" the clue for" atm" until I came here. I was totally stumped by it. Then the crosses filled it in without my noticing. Agree with Wanderlust that it was clever.
Found the theme answers fun to to do and the whole puzzle quite entertaining, but not easy Maybe average for Thursday.
I thought this puzzle was amazing.
Two typeovers today: looking at LLA--S, I put in LLAMAS without even looking at the clue. And then for 29 down "Part of H.R.H.", plunked in HER. After 65+ years, it's a hard habit to break.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0; last word this SB classic 6er. A few goofy words yd.]
I also disagree with Rex on this one, which I found challenging, engaging and ultimately rewarding.
Is not 16 Across mis-cued? Is not ALII Latin for “others,” and ALIA for the singular “other?”
Beautifully said (*chef’s kiss*)
Another Thursday, another stupid gimmick puzzle…I don’t care how easy, these are horrible.
As did I!
C'mon. Don't we read this blog to enjoy watching Rex get his curmudge on? I like the predictive part of it. I often work a puzzle thinking "Hoo boy! Rex is going to HATE this" or rarely, "Hmm, he might actually be charmed by this". Wow, was I ever wrongity wrong wrong today!!
One of my favorite puzzles in quite a while! Gave me a real “aha!” moment.
Anyone besides me not get the "square one" of the revealer. I got the gimmick and solved the puzzle fairly easily in 21 minutes. But I didn't understand how the ions/ious related to the solve until coming here. It never occurred to me that it was literally referring to square one of the puzzle.
ALÍA Is other, ALII is others. No prob with that or with CAPT. Beautiful puzzle which has the most interesting theme. I went to archives and took a look at April 4, 2019. What a great one!
Alia is also neuter plural.
Put me in the easy-ish but clever theme and great construction work to find so many -IONS/-IOUS words with roots that lend themselves to xword clues. Just a fine puzzle. I am also a solver who loves a great reveal as well as loads of theme clues that aren’t either all downs or all across. The fact that David Harris did have theme clues all over the grid made this much betternñkkk kur
surprised there's not more dislike for "EELER"!
same with Rex, got the revealer early (not early enough, as I was trying to spell the cross LAQUER, oops), but not the meaning until CAPT-IONS
agree with the HAN-weirdness, but what about OLSEN?
crosword-ese ban for ALPO please (I even work with dogs)
about avg timing, don't agree with the "extremely easy" as it is still Thursday cluing
Clever themed Thursday. So many theme clues, and they are both across and down, and the answers to the theme “clues” don’t really reside solely on the squares identified by the *. Clever and skillfully executed. In my opinion as a 60+ year solver.
The skill necessary to find so many theme words that lend themselves to becoming clever xwrd clues further impressed. Sure, lots of answers were easy to get, but unless a solver trips over the reveal I doubt there are many newer solvers who would make the BACK TO SQUARE ONE connection quickly. I certainly didn’t. I knew something was afoot when I entered FACET based on downs at 15A and the word made no sense, but that entry alerted me to the “oh goody, here’s a Thursday trick; now what is it?” feeling. I actually spent a fair amount of time there at 15A. The clue, in my opinion isn’t really very accurate for the answer FACETIOUS, so that by itself gave me pause and is the reason I got that one on the downs. But FACET was obviously correct and since it didn’t really connect to the clue with crystal (or even cloudy) clarity, I moved on loving the confusion. It’s Thursday after all.
Got it on the next one though. First off, the NE across answers were easy, except since I glanced at 15D when I had CALF and ALIA just to stay on track and immediately got CASHMERE, I had the S for SPEC. I’m breezing along at a very comfy pace (I am not a speed solver), giving myself time to consider the clue and glance at any snap ideas that present themselves to see if the crosses will work with my idea, and bang! the answer to 19A (misleadingly plausible) said SPECIOUS to me. Started to type and ran out of letters and my eyes snapped BACK TO SQUARE ONE whereupon the I-O-Us became IOUS - so easy to see as the “across” and the sun came out and the cloudy became crystalline. So clear in fact that I almost thought the reveal was unnecessary. But it was clever.
From SPECIOUS, I went merrily on looking forward to discovering each * clue and the answers thereto. Pretty easy to solve, but sussing out the theme without the reveal not so much; certainly for a true NOOB, but likely for many, many other solvers as well. For those folks, the reveal is well done and instructive. Does exactly what it intends and is helpful. I really enjoyed this one. Happy Thursday!
ALIA is fine as clued with “Others, in Latin”.
Latin being a three-gendered language, you use the masculine et alii or feminine et aliae when the others in question are people (that would also be appropriate for animals, I suppose), and the neuter et alia when the others are things.
Yes. And the xword clues rarely let us know for sure.
Rex says PSYOPS is not a term he comes across “across much outside of crosswords.” He certainly doesn’t read or study military operations much. It’s usage (psychological operations) is very common.
Sometimes nits need to be picked
Great theme, but awful, awful, awful execution.
Funny, well put!
Agreed
Yes
Liked this one. I finished in the NW corner so I knew a gimmick was happening but it was not revealed until the very end. A nice Aha! moment. Well done David Harris.
Nancy @ 10:05
Trump Derangement Syndrome is no longer content-ious... it's spec-ious, facet-ious,and - worst of all - TeD-iouS.
Spare us...please...
OFNP spends paragraphs reiterating his "Extremely easy" rating. We got the message extremely early.
I would say pretty easy after you land the mcguffin, but before...not so much. After floundering about for a while, I hit ONIT in the NE, when 13d looked to be FACT, and I saw I needed IONS to make sense of it. Of course--and 1a must be IOUS. Realizing that these two are common suffixes, I had the whole shebang, and 37a turned into a gimme. Further, the Q nailed down LACQUER, and after that it was just fill-in. I guess there's no way to toughen it after the cat's out of the bag.
A quite simplistic grid; one gridspanner, five sevens, and the rest shorter stuff. Agree that the starred entries had to be stand-alone, but they were. Ruby is DEE Oh DEE. Par.
Wordle bogey; two wrong guesses on BGGGG.
Basically, I agree with @Spacey.
For me, after a bit of "help" with the name factor, I could plug away enough until I got the trick. Then 'twas a walk in the Thursday Park.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Certainly LOVED this puz much more than HIS nibs. Must have taken David Harris a lot of effort to put it together.
Agree with @Spacey and @Diana: once the reveal was, er, revealed all then fell into place and I was the victor or victorious.
That was fun. It does make me wish that ERUPTious was a word.
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