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Entwined / SUN 7-9-23 / Musical set in Buenos Aires / Ben Jonson love poem of 1616 / Celebrity gossip show / Dance craze of the 2010s / Picker of a peck of pickled peppers
Sunday, July 9, 2023
Constructor: Christina Iverson
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: A Thousand Words — Theme answers contain synonyms for "image" and are clued using images.
Word of the Day: WACO (City that calls itself "The Heart of Texas") —Waco (/ˈweɪkoʊ/ WAY-koh) is the county seat of McLennan County, Texas, United States.[7] It is situated along the Brazos River and I-35, halfway between Dallas and Austin. The city had a 2020 population of 138,486, making it the 22nd-most populous city in the state.[8] The 2022 U.S. Census population estimate for the city was 143,984.[9] The Waco metropolitan statistical area consists of McLennan and Falls counties, which had a 2010 population of 234,906.[10] Falls County was added to the Waco MSA in 2013. The 2022 U.S. census population estimate for the Waco metropolitan area was 283,885.[11]
- 23A: CHARACTER SKETCHES
- 38A: SPITTING IMAGE
- 49A: COMPUTER ICON
- 66A: LEGAL REPRESENTATION
- 82A: LOTTERY DRAWING
- 95A: MOVING PICTURE
- 114A: SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
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| Huskies are beautiful |
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| Look, it's a SNAIL. Why were 106A SNAIL and 33A MAIL cross-referenced with highlights in my app? No idea! |
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| The Taj Mahal is in AGRA, Uttar Pradesh |
Bullets:
- 47A SAO: Title in Portuguese — I grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, so I will never tire of seeing SAO in crosswords.
- 23A: CHARACTER SKETCHES — I cannot read Chinese script, but iOS lets you copy text from images these days. So I took a screenshot of the image in this clue, copied the text, and put in into Google Translate. Turns out the text says "hello" ... in case you were interested!
- 55A COVEN: Charming bunch? — Enjoyed this clue.
- 62A PIPE: Portal in Mario games — I recently bought a Nintendo Switch to play the new Zelda game (highly recommend!) and also have been playing Super Mario Odyssey ... so this clue felt particularly relevant to me.
Save And Share :
105 comments:
I came here expecting a whole lot of hate towards this puzzle from Rex, since he insists on never using the Times app, but instead we have Rafa! And I do agree with him 💯. This was fun, fun, fun!
I saw the note, took screen shots of the clues from the NYT web page, then had those on my second monitor while I solved with Across Lite. Piece of cake!...
Okay... the drawings; they have a kind of naive appeal, but seriously. 38 looks like a guy with a fork sticking out of his mouth. 114 like some really weird medieval fair combat? And 82... I honestly had not the slightest idea. So it turns out the constructor actually drew all these! Well, Christina,... umm... good effort!
A novel concept, I'll give it that.
[Spelling Bee: Sat currently pg -1, missing a 6er.]
Wasn’t ENEWS in yesterday’s puzzle?
Easy. The app gave me verbal descriptions instead of drawings/pictures which might have made this easier. However, nothing in this one was particularly tough. Cute idea, liked it.
82A is actually LOTTO DRAWING. The abbreviation stumped me for a minute.
Despite being confounded by the image of what appeared to me to be a gumball machine at 82A,
I found the solve mostly easy and an enjoyable change of pace for a Sunday puzzle.
I agree with the write up. This was a very fun puzzle. I was able to see all of the pictures clearly – I thought they were fantastic – on the iPhone NYT. I too seem to recall ENEWS appearing yesterday, but I could be mistaken. This puzzle was a nice way to finish out the weekend.
No; just, no.
Yes, the fill was clean, and I sped through the puzzle despite not knowing Mario Bros detail or mosque architecture, but it was just way too easy.
I liked this a lot and expected a rant from Rex… too easy, too many 3-letter answers, something wrong with the app and the images, etc. Because I’m typing on my phone, I didn’t see Rafa’s name at first and thought, “Huh, this doesn’t sound like Rex!” Agree with Rafa about some of the clever cluing. I think it’s fun that Christina drew all the theme clues herself…. Nothing AI- or professionally-generated.
Colin
I was also baffled as to why snail and mail were cross referenced. Were they originally clued together and then edited?
When I saw the name RAFA I hoped it was the most famous RAFA - Rafael Nadal. But he did not grow up in Brazil, so my hopes were shattered. Still, this RAFA did a fine job of discussing the puzzle. Like some others I anticipated a full bore REX review that would clear out all my sinuses but there too lay disappointment. Shrug. Life goes on.
This must have been a tough one to pull off, but Christina did it very well. The theme entries were all pretty easily discernible and the rest of it was for the most part straightforward (and on the easy side - which I prefer, though I know some advanced solvers may pine for more of a challenge).
Unfortunately, I was ultimately slayed by TOCELIA crossing Arnold Lobel, whoever he his. That whole section turned into a mess as I had not heard TWITS used as a verb before and have no idea who/what/how MAIL is as it relates to “Knight-wear” (please, enlighten me !). Anyway, enjoyable outing that ended in a trivia crossing trivia DNF for me.
Not sure about this one - densely themed but loaded with 3s and 4s which bogs down a Sunday-sized grid. I do like Seamus HEANEY and VEAL PARM - and the peculiar sketches add a nice touch.
SLATE
Hmm. I solved in the NYT XWORD app, which noted the use of pictures but did not display the images in clues; gave verbal descriptions with the same repeated warning for each theme clue. After solving, in almost exactly average Sunday time, out of curiosity, I went for the first time ever to the puzzle page in the NYT SUBSCRIPTION app, and found not only the constructor’s charming drawings but a somewhat different interface that I have to say I liked better. The grid was completed per my solve in the other app. Who knew?
Missing, howevs, were the stats (documenting my now humongous though not so impressive streak, because I partner with Google on a regular basis without a scintilla—or should I say an IOTA—of guilt) and the archive feature. Also, I did something accidentally that made all my answers disappear and reset the timer. Going back to my original app, I found the same empty grid and ticking clock, but it still showed my original completion time in stats. The grid icon on the intro page was still complete in gold, but did not indicate my solve time.
WOE! Will my streak now end at midnight tonight? I’ll miss it if that happens, but really don’t want to go through the whole fill-in process again. Help from the commentariat, please?
BTW, I agree that the puzzle was cute, but was annoyed by all the short fill, especially when I had to hunt down a typo at the end. Nice guest write-up by Rafa.
I love the balance between Christina’s highly polished junk-free grid, and Christina’s utterly charming unpolished drawings.
From the “I wish there was a word for it” department:
When you put down an answer that you “know” is right but doesn’t seem to fit the clue, and you wrench your brain trying to justify your answer, trying to put that square peg into a round hole. That happened to me with MISSORT, for which I had every letter but the R, and filled in as MISS OUT, thinking “What else could it be?” The clue was [File a Led Zeppelin album under Z, say]. And there I am, thinking, “Ah! I’ll always be looking for this album under “L”, and never be finding it, and it’s such a great album, that I’ll be “missing out” on it! Yeah! Yeah! That’s it!”
In this puzzle, every theme answer is a legitimate phrase never meant to be a picture caption, but through punnery, involving an illustration, becomes just that. So clever, original, and for me, smile producing! Sometimes we see grid art formed by the black squares in a grid, but how rare and wonderful to see it in the clues. This theme was presaged in a way by Wednesday’s puzzle, with its punny theme answers and its clues written in foreign languages.
Christina, your sparkling puzzle charmed me with its humor and delightful drawings – thank you for a most pleasurable outing!
I couldn't disagree more with Rafa. This was atrocious.
Seven corny, easy-to-guess long phrases, filled in 22 seconds, following by sixty-two thousand trivia-laden short fill words, proper nouns and initialisms.
And yesterday's orecart is today's alekeg. inatie. ohhi. naenae (crossing thedea). GTFO.
Chain mail
“Mail” is a type of armor made up of smaller repeating pieces. “Chain mail” and “scale mail” are the two most common types.
My daughter loves TOTK. Great game!
89A in the print version was clued as “Madonna title role”, and I searched my memory for a bit to come up with Susan, as in “Desperately Seeking”.
Reply to SouthsideJohnny: Knight-wear MAIL refers to (wearable) chain mail
Pleasant enough. Not for the venison and veal obviously. Somehow I've never read nor heard of Ben Jonson and that'll change today. Spelled HEANEY via crosses, but the NYTXW habit of using an S for the plural of ULNA gave me a one square boooo today.
Tee-Hee: HAREM
Uniclues:
1 Made a happy place for a sad amphibian.
2 Write witchy words.
3 Replace dude in tuxedo and girl in glittery dress with toothless pirate and little boy in suspenders and soot on his nose.
4 Zombie's murderous menu for the potluck.
5 Rogues in caps begin round recap.
6 Adds cream instead of milk.
1 WOVE TEARY TOAD MAT
2 SLATE COVEN ODE
3 ROGUISH LOTTO DRAWING
4 VEAL PARM DEAD GIVEAWAY
5 TWITS OPEN TEE BLAB
6 MAKES A FOOL OF IRISH TEA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: "Our mouse couldn't pull a rabbit out of the hat, but, our..." RAT SO MADE MAGIC.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Arnold Lobel stayed out of the print version, at least mine. The clue at 10A was "Warty hopper."
I loved the puzzle, but did not find it easy.
I can see an unusual sorter putting Led Zepp under Z. It would be the person who puts Jethro Tull under T, and the Rolling Stones under S and extends that approach. The Moody Blues would have to be under M, tho, and Procol Harem under P. It could get tricky.
For those of you who can't get enough tuchases in your puzzles, today's Puns and Anagrams had two great clues: "Skin eruptions on her ass," at 24D, and "Asses' return mailers," at 46A.
Any puzzle that references both veal parm and Led Zeppelin makes me smile...great job!
I admire the construction - as Rafa said, the answers are all legitimate phrases and the drawings are fun. But I prefer a little more resistance in a Sunday theme. The concept was pretty obvious and most of the theme answers easy to guess. Once I had CHARACTER SKETCHES I was able to jump ahead and fill in most of the others with few or no crosses.
I solve on paper and my daughter solves on line - the clues for 10A and 89A were different! I had no Arnold Lobel but I did have Madonna!
Thx, Christina; a PICTURE perfect production! 😊
Hi Rafa, good to see you again; thx for your write-up. :)
Easy-med.
Loved the SKETCHES theme! and, they were helpful to the solve.
Smooth journey.
Liked this one a lot! :)
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Another fine Matthew Sewell Sat. Stumper production. Med. at a little over 1 hr.
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On to the NYT' panda variety puzzle by Tracy Bennett on xwordinfo.com.
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I’ve been solving for a few years and often noticed similar words appearing in the same string of a few days. I never asked about it.
Can someone explain how ENEWS can appear two days in a row?
It’s a bit uncanny if it’s random - it can’t be completely random, the editor is the common denominator.
Finally, a NYT puzzle comes along with a sketchy theme and graphic content!
DNF at jOAD/JOCELIA. Though I knew Joad was from Steinbeck, I figured this Lobel fella might have used the same name. And JOCELIA sounded like a reasonable 1609 name. But basically, that was whack-a-consonant for me. Never heard of Lobel nor any of his works. If the clue had gone with Kenneth Grahame, I’d have made it. Or if I'd had the 'warty hopper' clue that some people apparently had.
My other nervous point was HEANEY, given that the NYT is inconsistent between ULNAs and ULNAE. HEANEY sounded better than HEANsY, though.
Very good theme, although at 23A I feared we were in for another foreign language translation disaster.
I enjoyed this. I thought it was a bit ROGUISH, in the cheeky, mischievous sense of the word. Picture clues instead of words! The very idea! I wondered if there’d be a lot of outrage along the lines of “Does the constructor think we’re six years old?” But I appreciated the originality and the whimsy.
I loved all the literary references today. I was glad to be reminded of Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series, sweet stories of friendship for young readers, written and illustrated by the author. I remember them well from my bookstore days.
I was surprised to find out that Jonson’s TO CELIA provided the words for the song “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes.”
TO CELIA
BY Ben Jonson
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I’ll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope, that there
It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent’st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.
Also very fond of the poetry of Seamus Heaney. Full of gritty scenes of farm life in Northern Ireland, and the sometimes simple, sometimes complex relationships between fathers and sons.
Follower
BY Seamus HEANEY
My father worked with a horse-plough,
His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow.
The horses strained at his clicking tongue.
An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright steel-pointed sock.
The sod rolled over without breaking.
At the headrig, with a single pluck
Of reins, the sweating team turned round
And back into the land. His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly.
I stumbled in his hobnailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.
I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow round the farm.
I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.
Cities immortalized in song:
WACO: Ronnie Dunn
TULSA: Gene Pitney
[SB: Fri and Sat, 0. I think I know which 6er you're stuck on, @okanaganer, and it's a toughie. I was lucky to have remembered it, not sure from where, maybe a previous Bee?]
Hey All !
First Themer I got was the last one in the puz, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. Let out a "Hah! Good one", then moved on to the others to see if I could figure 'em out. Nice group of Themers, although CHARACTER SKETCHES is something not familiar to my ears. CHARACTER actors....Are they in CHARACTER SKETCHES? Har
Wasn't sure if SPITTING person was sneezing, spitting, or moistly whistling.
Decent fill, considering all the Theme. Stuck for a bit in the TOAD section. Part of that was the SKETCHES problem. TWITS oddly clued. TO CELIA unknown to this unsophisticated dude. DOS. Wha? Ala DOS and Donts?
Also, the HEANEY/HAREM area was thorny. But, put in my last letter, and got the Happy Music!
A nice ON GOAL SunPuz. I ICEd IT!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
The highlights on SNAIL and MAIL must be an editing error. Assuming one clue or the other referenced the other’s answer, but they removed the cross-reference and left in the highlight. Wonder if we’ll see this corrected later in the day.
A charming idea for a puzzle -- even more charmingly rendered.
I mean, in a Pro-Am tournament, you always root hardest for the amateur, right? I know I do.
Letting Christina do her own art work instead of getting, say, Basquiat, is a real coup. How many people who are aces with words have also mastered the visual arts? William Blake, for one. Winston Churchill to a lesser degree, art-wise.
And now we have Christina Iverson whose adorable drawings give this puzzle a je ne sais quoi it might not otherwise have had. It also gives it a slight campiness. I believe the very first definition I ever heard of "camp" is something "so bad that it's good."
Just kidding, Christina.
So how good are Christina's drawings? Good enough that I didn't have to cheat to get the theme answers. Not even once. And solving it was a complete joy: I was smiling the whole time.
Perhaps 106 Across was originally something like: With 33A, slow post = snail mail.
I loved it, especially the charming drawings! Fresh, and brought a smile.
This was my first in-app solving for ages after giving up my Sunday actual-paper NYT delivery this week. I, like others, got to the first theme and thought: "Whelp. App gimmick. Rex is gonna hate on this." Turns out there's a guest blogger that treated the puzzle more kindly.
Not a record time, but close to it. A good start to the Sunday.
I’m sure I’m missing something, but how is KIA the answer for “Soul proprietor?” All I can think of is that “soul” is a homophone for “Seoul”. But why not “Seoul proprietor?” Maybe KIA has a meaning I don’t know of. I thought about Killed In Action, but that doesn’t do anything for me.
Disappointed that DEADGIVEAWAY wasn’t clued as “Free merch from a Grateful band”, especially with Dead & Company currently on their final tour.
I’m always game for a change of pace, and this provided a very fast pace for a change. But it was cute and fun. Thanks, Christina Iverson.
Like others: expected a Rex rant about how he was totally blind to the theme and refused to read the note. Pleasantly surprised that our guest blogger judged the puzzle on its merits, and I agree with others: a fine theme executed well!
As some said: I think SNAIL and MAIL were originally clued differently and someone forgot to take out the link between the answers in the software.
Soul is one of the car models from Kia
It's "spit and image."
Uh, no – you can't use the clue "Picker of a peck of pickled peppers" for some random PETER. The tonguetwister guy is PETER PIPER. Fail.
Thanks @Barbara S for posting TO CELIA. I didn’t think I was familiar with it, but I did recognize it - it's sung by Johnny Flynn in the 2020 version of the film Emma. We're also very fond of his performance of Queen Bee at the end.
I enjoyed this puzzle, taking special note of the uncommon clues for commonly seen words. And I did encounter quite a bit of resistance at that TOAD, OSLO, CECELIA corner, which made for a satisfying conclusion.
Twits are the "subjects" to light ridicule
Thank you Rafa for your delightfully positive , bubbly and SMART review..I'm still SMILING 🥰
Welp, adding hieroglyphics DID encourage me to update to the latest app version!
@egsforbreakfast: The Soul is a car made by Kia Motors.
A Sunday personal best for me - not because I swooshed it but because it was well-constructed (Christina's artwork & all!) & FUN!
Thank you Christina. You should give classes to new (& some not-so-new) constructors.
Can't say it enough - I loved it.
Agree. This puzzle was pure fun. Congrats and thanks to Christina.
As soon as I read "I loved this puzzle," I knew it couldn't be Rex.
Wow! I can't recall such high praise from Rex. Good to see. I found the puzzle a bit too easy, but I enjoyed it, and solved it in record time for me. I wouldn't have minded if it were a wee bit harder. Waco, btw, is the home of Dr. Pepper!
Cute and creative, fun to solve. I agree with @Rafa about the creative cluing. My favorite was "Like a rake": I spent a lot of time trying to come up with another word for "pronged" - but no, ROGUISH!. Loved it.
Do-overs: None, but I came close to lightly writing in CHicken scraTCHES in a "Would they really?" vein. Decided no, they wouldn't. Help from previous puzzles: ENEWS, NAENAE.
Concur completely with our guest reviewer, and award this puzzle five stars: fun theme, clever cluing ("deer departed?" for VENISON deserves special mention), and above all, no serious naticks, at least, not in the print version.
But my sympathy goes out to those who did the online version and got naticked by that YOBEL crossing. Can anyone explain to me why entirely different cluing would be used for an answer in one version of the puzzle? This seems grossly unfair, and confounds post mortem discussion of the puzzle...
What a pleasure. . . and on a Sunday!
Novel theme and splendid execution, what more could you desire? Well, in a xword puzzle that is.
Bravo CI!
So glad Rafa, not OFL, did the write-up.
My husband in bed asleep; the dogs in bed with him. Pour myself a little nightcap. Decide to tackle the Sunday puzzle. Need some Pavarotti for this one.
Drawings...in the puzzle. First thought...Yikes. Second thought....These are pretty good, let me see if I can figure you out....
I did.
This was a joy. I loved you, Mrs. Sunday. You've restored my faith. So many boring Sundays in the past that I practically stopped being interested.. Not this one. So glad I did a bodacious fandango tango with you last night.
Hard to pick a favorite. Maybe the MOVING PICTURE. Loading a big box into a truck and looking like it weighed nothing. I also like the guy SPITTING although at first he looked like he was blowing something in the wind. I liked that you crossed KISS.
Everything around your whee, whiz, bangs were also good. Mind wanders. I feel the urge to draw a TOAD and a LIZARD, goading a YAK in the GARDEN with PETER picking pickled peppers.
A smile to start y day. That you, Christina.
If crossword puzzles are meant to be fun this one truly filled the bill. Whimsy everywhere. Even the lost clue connection between SNAIL and MAIL was retained simply by the highlighting. Thanks @ Barbara S for the Seamus Heaney quote—that last line provides quite a kick that is not at all whimsy.
@Tom F - I have wondered the same thing about crossword coincidences. Z, who is no longer on this blog, mentioned that it had been asked of will shortz and company if they do this on purpose, and their answer is no. It sure seems like something they might do to amuse themselves. If, however, it is intentional, other outlets are in on it. As someone pointed out trash panda showed up in the New Yorker this week one day apart from it being an answer here.
I wonder if Rex saw this last night and gave Rafa a call because he couldn't even 🤣
I forgot WACO is the home of Dr. Pepper.
And he earned his medical degree at the University of Minnesoda.
Very easy but reasonably fun. Even though OLD SHEP by Red Foley made me cry when I was a kid, it was the last thing I filled in -- took a minute to read "Country" as a music genre.
@Tom F (9:05), plus @frankbirthdaycake and @Labradorer --
I noticed the repeat of ENEWS too. And, yes, of course it's pure coincidence.
How many answers are there in a 15 x 15 puzzle? In a 21 x 21? Would you like to keep track, seven days a week of every single answer in every single puzzle???!!!
No of course you wouldn't. There wouldn't be enough money in all of puzzledom to compensate you.
Nor do I think that yesterday's and today's puzzle were even looked at in the same time frame. They would have been submitted at different times -- maybe at wildly different times. Then they would have been placed in different piles: a pile for puzzles that you plan to run on Saturday is different from the pile for puzzles that can only be run on Sunday.
There wouldn't be anything to link them together except for someone's ability to recall tens of thousands of clues at a time. Plus puzzle appearance dates. I suppose you might be able to set up a computer program to check for dupes between puzzles running close together, but I imagine that even computers have better things to do.
I don't think anyone should be upset about this in the least.
If you like Johnny Flynn, here's his song from the show Detectorists, which was wonderful (the show and the song).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ViJp1Y95fI
Weeject stacks in a SunPuz! [NE & SW]
Jaws of Themedness!
Illustrations!
All different. All extra-luvable.
staff weeject pick: ITT. Admire it's schlockiness.
fave themer drawin: SPITTINGIMAGE. Ptooey thUmbsUp.
other fave stuff included: DEADGIVEAWAY [Mighta made an interestin drawin]. LIZARDS. GARDEN/NOME clue collaboration. The ENEWS that wouldn't die.
Thanx for the primo fun, Ms. Iverson darlin. It was a true work of art.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
[@Barbara S 9:24 am, I'm sure you knew it was this word. Here are some of my attempts which were close but no cigar. Note Google Ngrams has non-zero results for all of them!]
@American Liberal Elite From what we learned in some college history class by a prof who was delighted to share it, during the Civil War Yankees picked up Spit and Image from the South and as it moved north it became Spittin'Image. Here just north of the South where I live they still say it. Today it was gentrified in a delightful puzz as Spitting.
I made this more difficult than it was til noticing the theme. Nice Sunday, held my attention.
simple but smart well thought out clues which always makes the whole experience worthwhile...
this felt to me like a merle reagal puzzle.
spot on and so satisfying to complete.
Like I said, I get that it is statistically likely.
But it happens frequently with words that really stand out.
And no one is upset…
If you're keeping track, *three* answers had different clues in the print and online versions: TOAD, DESK, and EVITA. DESK is clued as "Newsroom post" in the print edition and as "Tiny ___ Concerts (NPR series)" online.
I try not to do Sundays, but the pictures enticed me in, and I'm glad they did. I was a little worried about 23A, which I feared might require knowing what the characters actually said, but then I got CH_R... and relaxed. I didn't get the whole idea until COMPUTER ICON, though; and like many, I wrote in LOTTERY and struggled to make it fit with THE DA (or my original, and more accurate, an aDA).
The most fun, other than getting the theme, was putting in Afoot at 17-A, then noticing that it was not a foot by A HEAD.
@Barbara S. -- Wow, I know that song very well, I tried to sing it to my wife the other day, but I had no idea Ben Jonson wrote the lyrics! I'd have figured late 19th Century. I know Jonson mostly from Volpone, which is pretty different; but he was a talented guy. I think it's only a rumor that Christopher Marlowe wrote "Hound Dog," but I could be wrong.
I must've read "Frog and Toad" to my kids hundreds of times, and would certainly have recognized Mr. Lobel; but all I got was the warty hopper clue.
Guest column means we miss out on Rex whinging about how the pictures don't work with his antiquated software. Not to worry, though! I'm sure he'll devote an inordinate amount of Monday's review to complaining about it.
Late again on a Sunday because for musical obligations a half hour from here. I agree with the majority that this was original and fun, However....
No one has mentioned the double-your-fun feature of this one, which was Playing Pictionary and solving a crossword at the same time! Unprecedented! Which is also a word in the news a lot these days.
Also enjoyed that the artwork is about on the same level as my drawings on the whiteboard when I was trying to explain something in Spanish without using English. Memory Lane.
Nice Sundecito, CI. Clever, interesting, and different. Thanks for all the fun.
A delightful, playful puzzle that put a big smile on my face! I completely agree with Rafa's review, and with @Lewis and @Nancy too. An auspicious Sunday morning indeed!
Re: SPITTING IMAGE. Apparently this saying started out as simply "spit", then morphed into "spit and image" (a redundancy for emphasis) in the American South, which in turn became both "spitten image" and "spitting image", the latter being the now-dominant form.
Merriam Webster has an interesting article on the usage history of the saying.
Fun (?) Fact: "Old Shep" was the first song Elvis Presley ever officially sang in public. On October 3, 1945, when he was ten years old, he sang it in a singing contest at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in Tupelo. He sang it again for a talent show at Humes High School in Memphis in 1951.
Nothing not to like here. Jazzy cluing. Clever theme. Cute PICTURES. Not much junk fill (ALEKEG, NIH, INC, HEANSY etc.) Well done Christina Iverson!
I've been brewing for 25 yrs and never used the term 'ALE KEG'.
Way to go Rafa! Thanks for the great Sunday review. First of all, I agree that this was a fabulous Sunday. Second, the review understood the purpose and tradition of a NYT Sunday and evaluated it accordingly. I came her dreading the usual RexRant - he typically loathes Sundays regardless.
This one was just so much fun. Sure, the drawings were crude and a bit tough to figure out, but we got there, and the theme was so consistent and clever.
This is my preferred manner of adding illustrations to a Sunday. I really do not like it when the solver has to put something other than a letter in a square; I guess I’m a purist in that regard. Sure, I’ll do it but I don’t like it.
Sunday grids are big and when they are tedious, they can seem like a chore if they lack cohesiveness and sparkle. This one had it all. Humor, clever word play, a fresh, creative and consistent theme and it flowed. No chore, no drag, no groans - just fun. Start to finish. That’s a Sunday. Best in ages.
Can please explain 13 D dos?
Rex didn’t write this review…
Yes! @Liveprof -we love The Detectorists theme! And the series.
i usually only post here to complain. but i have to say, this was a really great puzzle. five stars.
Maybe? Snail mail is a common expression (a retronym) to distinguish from email.
Each to their own taste and all.
But how does the clue/answer combination even/in a tie contribute to an atrocious puzzle? The answer is very bland and quite common but the clue was ambiguous which is a plus in my book, especially on a weekend. Even is a standard expression in sports. Don’t like that kind of clue okay but atrocious? Likewise, oh With a standard clue so nothing interesting about it. But it has been around so long I don’t see how it’s any worse than eke.
Now ale keg is a bit desperate but that happens in every puzzle.
Say 200 million people say spitting image , and people have done so for centuries. Maybe time to give up that battle?
Do’s and Don’ts Advice as to what you should or shouldn’t do. The dos column
Congrats, Christina this was well done. It would make an epic Tuesday. It went too fast for a Sunday.
Liked the puzzle as I usually do.
I could complain as I didn’t have a clue about SHEP. Never heard of it never mind listened to it. So old shop made as much sense. Didn’t know Eli Roth either. But Eli was the obvious choice.
Also other people had no problem with this. So clearly it is a valid clue/answer combo.
I think some people complain too quickly about naticks.
Personally, I learned something. And Elvis sang it.
I solved without looking at the pictures, then looked over at each one after I filled it in. I liked seeing fresh clues for several of the usual fill, e.g. "Builders of braided fiber bridges."
Liked it. I solve Sundays on paper, but checked the website (*not* the app), which I use the rest of the week, and the image clues were as clear as they are on paper. Although I think some were clipart, not drawn by the constructor, in particular LEGAL REPRESENTATION and SPORTS ILLUSTRATED - no complaint, I would have done the same!
Had the warty hopper clue but would have been fine with Alfred Lobel (Frog & Toad). ENEWS was a gimme, thanks, yd.
This is a common thing that happens, repetition from one days to the next
@Bob Mills, please don't post spoilers to Spelling Bee, ESPECIALLY to today's! If you want to mention a word, you can conceal it in a link to, say, Merriam Webster's definition of it.
@Bob Mills 6:44. Should you ever again reveal an obscure SpellingBeeword on the day it is used (I.e. before some people have tackled that SB), you will be condemned to an eternity of bee stings to your eyes and genitals! Swear to Golf!!!
@oka & @egs
Sorry, guys. I didn't realize @BM's comment was about today's SB.
It's been deleted.
Thanks!
Posting late - While I did note Enews 2 days in a row, I had never heard of it before Saturday, so it helped me today!
Also - I miss Rex's commentary, Whether he likes a puzzle or not, whether he quibbles about things many of us don't mind, he always adds some insight. We always have Lewis to give us the positive glow. I find it amazing that his mind clicks into the crossword clues so quickly. I did a year's worth of Robin Weintraub's easy New Yorker puzzles to try to get into that headset (I can't wait for her next puzzle in the NYT!).
I liked the puzzle. Did not know Eli Roth nor did I know Old Shep - luckily those lizards and ice made the Eli obvious.
love that the images were puzzles in their own right, due to their incomprehensibility
I’m quite sure everyone’s gone to bed long since, but I just got back to the blog this minute and have a few replies.
@EasyEd (1:01 PM)
Yeah, that last line: “and will not go away.” It seems to me you can interpret it variously, though. Sure, maybe it’s this shambling old man won’t leave me alone. Or maybe it’s that the essence of the man – his values, the strengths of his prime (which most of the poem is about), the weaknesses of his old age, all that he is now and has ever been to me – will follow me forever. That sense of “will not go away.”
@okanaganer (1:40 PM)
Yup, that was the word. I applaud the dogged creativity of your attempts to get it. And I’m amazed that you remembered/documented them all!
@jberg (2:28 PM)
I find it wonderfully romantic that you sang “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes” to your wife – just the other day!
Hah, Christopher Marlowe: arf!
Meh DNF. Northwest corner stumped us.
What does’ cross referenced’ mean? I don’t see any connection between SNAIL and MAIL. THNX
DNF at ULNAs/HEANsY! Surprised more people didn't complain about this. I was moving through it quickly and didn't even think to put ULNAE, and the name was unknown to me either way.
Rex squared
It's a little late for this comment to be useful, but it's actually the fastest I've done a Sunday puzzle, which pleases me since I was unable to finish the previous three Sunday puzzles.
I'm in syndiland, doing the puzzle printed in the Vancouver Sun (British Columbia). Our weekend puzzle is dated the week before it appears, but it's actually the puzzle from two weeks before. So yesterday, July 23, the puzzle was dated July 16, so should have been the one published July 9. But no, I was finally able to find it as the one published on JUNE 28, 2020.
I can't imagine what to guess for the real date of the one that will appear next week. Will we miss the July 9 puzzle entirely, or will our Sunday puzzles get three weeks behind? Our daily puzzles are five weeks behind - maybe the intention is to get the weekend puzzle back in sync with those.
This was a decent puzzle but a tad difficult to solve without the notepad, although I was able to slog through it. This puzzle appeared in my paper today on August 13. I'm not sure why the newspaper can't print the notepad. Maybe laziness ? Maybe a poorly trained editor ? It would be nice if they could clean up their act, but in the meantime maybe Rex and his cohorts could print the notepad at the top of the solve so those who don't have access to it can see it ? It is part of the puzzle so I think it deserves to be shown. On to Monday.
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