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House Beautiful subject / WED 07-05-23 / "Inside the N.B.A." personality / "___, mi dicon venal" (Puccini aria)
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
Constructor: Joe Deeney
Relative difficulty: Hard-ish? 15:29
THEME: Language class! — Phrases that involve languages are clued cheekily using that language
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: HONG CHAU (Best Supporting Actress nominee for "The Whale," 2022) —
Hey squad, and Happy Fourth of July! (I'm writing this on Tuesday.) I hope you were able to eat something smoky and charred, or drink something colorful and frosty. Or both! What's your favorite "America" song? Mine is probably "Independence Day."
- Кукла as a clue for RUSSIAN DOLL
- أرقام as a clue for ARABIC NUMERALS
- 跳棋 as a clue for CHINESE CHECKERS
- לאומי as a clue for HEBREW NATIONAL
- Γιαούρτι as a clue for GREEK YOGURT
Word of the Day: HONG CHAU (Best Supporting Actress nominee for "The Whale," 2022) —
Hong Chau (born June 25, 1979) is an American actress. She has received several award nominations for her film roles as Ngoc Lan Tran in Downsizing (2017) and as Liz, a nurse, in The Whale (2022), including one for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter.
• • •
My guess is that this puzzle played very hard for most of the solvers! If you don't read or recognize the language, then you have zero information for the across clues. (If you recognize the language, it might help you out-- like, I can't speak Hebrew, but I know what Hebrew looks like, which would help me out with the "Hebrew" part of HEBREW NATIONAL.)
This is a big complaint I have with "quip puzzles," by the way, where one long-ish quote / sentence is broken up across the theme answers. It makes the puzzle harder to solve because you're missing a clue. By that logic, you'd think I didn't like this puzzle... and you'd be wrong! (Once again proving that oftentimes the reason you like a themed puzzles is just based on vibes.) I loved this! And I don't even read any of the languages listed here. The mechanism was unique, and the entries themselves were cute.
This is a big complaint I have with "quip puzzles," by the way, where one long-ish quote / sentence is broken up across the theme answers. It makes the puzzle harder to solve because you're missing a clue. By that logic, you'd think I didn't like this puzzle... and you'd be wrong! (Once again proving that oftentimes the reason you like a themed puzzles is just based on vibes.) I loved this! And I don't even read any of the languages listed here. The mechanism was unique, and the entries themselves were cute.
There was a good amount of long fill in this, given that it had five long theme answers. AVENGERS and VR HEADSET were cool to see, but MIND BLOWN feels super dated to me.... or is that just because I'm Gen Z? Having ELDER and OLDEN slowed me down a bit, as did GIA, EOS, and THISBE.
Bullets:
Bullets:
- [Square things] for ATONE — This is a hard clue for a Wednesday! I'd expect to see it on a Saturday puzzle.
- HONG CHAU — I didn't recognize this actress from her name, but once I Googled her, I recognized her immediately. I thought she was very funny in "The Menu," one of my fave movies of last year.
- [Diwali dress] for SARI — Is this a dress? I suppose so. It made me go "hmmm" though.
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125 comments:
Crossword constructor accomplished something…i didn’t enjoy the solve.
Basically, this is a puzzle with five long unclued entries, all of phrases involving a language. But for 99% of solvers, many-to-all of those squares are effectively unchecked.
PLUS we get HONG CHAU crossing two foreign words, a foreign name, and an initialism.
I'm inside taking a break from bodacious but loud fireworks outside.
Puzzle: Didn't necessarily play that hard but then, it did. I'm not really up on my little foreign symbols. Cute to look at...but a bit like a dud firework. FZZZZT.
I felt it a bit heavy on the names...HONG CHAU CHO PSY EOS and GIA. Wow. Imagine if that was your law firm.
I seemed to have little trouble with the starts. The ends...well..Toss a coin. We have a DOLL, some NUMERALS a few CHECKERS to play with, a HEBREW NATIONAL hot dog and YOGURT. Do they connect? No.
Back to the fireworks. They're more fun
Easy, although HONG CHAU required trusting a lot of crosses. GIA and THISBE were also WOEs. However, the rest of the puzzle was cake, hence easy. And no, I know none of the languages, but I did figure out early that the theme was “language _______” and the crosses took care of the rest. Fun and different, liked it.
While this played easy for me because I could read three of the five clues in foreign scripts, I don't think it's fair to call those entries unclued.
Once you get the idea that you're looking for a familiar phrase that starts with the name of the language, you're on a roll. And the crosses give you five chances to make that connection.
Any English speaker with a high school diploma can recognize GREEK, and if YOGURT doesn't go straight in, the crosses will narrow it down. For the rest, even if you don't recognize the particular script, you likely can narrow it down. If you're not sure the Cyrillic text is Russian, you can check Ukranian or Tajik on the crosses. If you're not sure about Arabic, try Persian.
Hi Clare and happy 4th! Of course up here, we celebrated on the 1st... happy 156th birthday Canada! Fireworks are illegal where I was, but I heard some anyway.
Got home last night after the long Canada Day weekend at the lake. I read yesterday's comments about "barbecue" which was timely, as on The Day, I, who don't own a barbecue and am a terrible cook, volunteered to cook the chicken pieces provided by 4 different people. Some fat, some thin, mostly boneless skinless breasts except mine which were bone-in skin-on thighs. Oh and a couple were still partly frozen! What a nightmare. I set my phone going on timer and it took a total of 17 minutes, with me shuffling chicken pieces on and off the grill. Come the meal, everyone commented how perfectly it was cooked. Blind luck!
Yay me for being able to recognize most of the alphabets here, and thus to guess the actual language. And I can sound out Russian and Greek letters, but I didn't know KUKLA is DOLL, or that GIAOURTI is YOGURT. A novel and interesting theme!
But a bit spoiled by one of the worst Naticks I've seen: CHO crossing HONGCHAU at the O. You must be kidding! I guessed U, then I, then in disgust O. Disgraceful.
[Spelling Bee: Tues currently pg -2. It was a busy day and not much time to chase down those two pesky 6ers, and now I've had several glasses of wine so forget it!]
This played super easy for me - I got AGLET then all of the downs from that, which meant that 17A had to be RUSSIAN something, so clearly the theme answers were all going to be "language ______". Then it was easy as pie to put in ARABIC, CHINESE, HEBREW and GREEK at that point. A new Wednesday record for me at 3:39.
The alphabets used were all really easy to recognise (far easier than if the clues had been just other languages using the Roman Alphabet, e.g. Spanish flu, French press, Danish pastry). I enjoyed seeing non-Roman clues a lot.
And surely everyone can recognise at least GREEK, ARABIC and HEBREW on sight?
Fun.
99% of solvers can't recognize GREEK, ARABIC, HEBREW or CHINESE characters on sight? Even if not to translate, but just recognize the forms?! I'd understand if they were written in Aurabesh or Klingon...
I missed out on most of the fun. I try to solve early-week puzzles without reading the clues for the long acrosses, so today I didn't get the joke until after I'd finished. It looked like a simple {nationality}+something theme.
Like many others, I Naticked at CH_ x H_NGCHAU. Oddly, I guessed O but didn't get the happy music. Then I looked it up and discovered that O was right. Then when I typed it in prior to searching for the other mistake (THISBE was my prime suspect), the happy music played. I do need to be more careful.
This one played easy for me, 10 minutes, which is way better than my Wednesday average. After getting Russian Doll I wrote in chinese checkers off only TCU. Hebrew national was the only one that I had to think about. Crosses were easy enough that the theme didn't matter. Didn't know Hong Chau. Not that enjoyable.
Once i identified the language - the trick was over and the common items went right in. Some of the trivia was late weekish but mostly fair. No idea on HONG CHOU.
Not the usual splashy fare we get from Joe - but a pleasant enough Wednesday solve.
Billy Strings
I was able to solve it, but think the concept is stupid. Just a slog, no fun.
This was easy for me, the only challenge being HONGCHAU crossing TCU (the U being the problem) since these obscure sports teams are always a problem for me and I’ve never heard of HONGCHAU, although I now plan to check out her movies!
The themers were not hard to infer and I feel like we should all know THISBE.
Got the theme off of RUSSIAN which pretty much took the air out of the rest of them. That whole HONG CHAU crossing CHO, ECCE, TCU section is a disaster. More math questions in random foreign languages, opera lyrics and Rap “artists”. In other words, another gimmicky, niche NYT puzzle, which is pretty much standard fare these days. Not terrible, just boooorrrring.
I might've had a small advantage since I've thought of this theme myself but I scrapped the idea because of what others have mentioned (you can recognize the languages but the second part of each themer is pretty much unclued). It was a quick solve even though the interface I solve on (https://downforacross.com/) can't use special characters in the clues... so here's what I got:
[Kukla] - RUSSIAN DOLL (I got RUSSIAN, it looked like a Russian word, and I understood the theme)
['rqm] - ARABIC NUMERALS (a bit tough to uncover due to unknowns SUNOCO and THISBE, which is one word because 6-letter partials [How could ____?] are banned)
[Tiao Qi] - CHINESE CHECKERS (both CHINESE and CHECKERS went right in, that was instantly recognizable even without seeing actual Chinese characters)
[lvmy] - HEBREW NATIONAL (I just didn't know the brand, so NATIONAL came slowly. Also... vowels just don't exist in Hebrew)
[Giaourti] - GREEK YOGURT (I had -KY- and I didn't even have to look at the clue)
HONGCHAU - oh boy. Luckily I could guess the U since I always expect one when college abbreviations are involved. That O was my last square and a Natick. I remember Margaret CHO and Michael CHE, and a recent Saturday taught me that there's also a CHU, so it could've been any of those three.
I'm Gen Z like Malaika, and I loved seeing MINDBLOWN. VR HEADSET was awesome though, I expect it to trip up older solvers who get VRH- and wonder what on earth's going on.
Ok, so my version had all the clues in Romanization, so 23A was, literally, “ ‘rqm.” Wait. What? The YOGURT was “giaourti.” After I finished I panicked that I wouldn’t figure it out, a fear that usually niggles in the back of my brain with particularly erudite themes – especially the mathy, codey, sciency ones. Y’all are a bunch of wicked-smart people, and when I first joined here, I felt like an outsider, poser wannabe, not smart enough to hang. (Any lurkers out there – this place isn’t as scary as you think. You should totally join us and start commenting. And get a blue avatar so we can get to know you. Anyways, I realized when I finally started commenting that no one was gonna come at me for not belonging.)
If I had had the clues in their scripts, this would have been a breeze. I love the idea!
Mongolian Beef - үхрийн мах.
Persian cat - گربه
Korean War - 전쟁
The more I sit with this, the more I like it.
And so many other languages are represented here: Italian, Latin, German, Spanish, Hindi, Dutch, Japanese.
Whenever I introduce prepositions in class, I always say, Hey! Wanna see prepositions in Japanese? This usually startles them, and when I start writing a big ole sentence in Japanese kanji and hiragana on the board, even the wiseacres in the back are paying attention. 私は学校でお弁当を食べました。What the . . .? I’ll draw little arrows identifying the characters that are actually postpositions because they follow the noun they’re working with. I explain this, too, that some languages have postpositions instead of prepositions. Incredibly, the whole class pays attention even though they have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. But the grammar aspect isn’t the point. When I’m done, I say, I could have written this using our alphabet - Watashi wa gakkō de o bentō o tabemashita. Why do you think I chose to write it in Japanese? Answers vary, but finally someone will say something like to show you can? I always shriek and say BINGO! I wrote this totally to show off. As you wander off into your lives, if you ever have the chance to study a language with a different written system, do it. Because when you can write stuff in that system, you just feel really smart. Like a bad-ass boss. Happily, a few years ago, I got a postcard from a former student who was doing a year abroad in China. Said she took my advice. Yay!
Those modern warehouse workers have trickled into Walmart. I’ll be standing at the chips section and ROBOT floor cleaner inches by. I wonder all sorts of things, does it see me, is it judging me, will it attack? And I feel like the protagonist in a Ray Bradbury story.
GREEK YOGURT – I pranked my students at the end of the year with the GREEK YOGURT in the mayonnaise jar stunt. I’d stand there at my door between classes shoveling it in, drawing a crowd. CJ Carter was the one who gagged the most. Here’s the funny thing – for some reason, I took Cyrus into my confidence, and he joined me. We both stood there eating from that mayonnaise jar while kids looked on, stupefied. Good times.
GOUDA – when I worked at A Southern Season in Chapel Hill, the cheese department manager insisted that we pronounce it the Dutch way: /Xowdah/. That first consonant sounds like you’re trying to work an errant GNAT up out of your throat. Let me tell you, you feel like a real asshole when you call over to a customer that her xxxxxowdah is ready. I got him back pretty good with a prank, but I’ll have to tell that one later. Jeez Louise I talk too much.
Bye.
Easy-peasy, but I recognized all the alphabets (I don’t read any of them, alas). But I found even without looking at the clue, once I’d grokked the gimmick with the first two, they fell almost too easily. I found it a pleasant enough solve but I wish there were either one or two fewer theme answers or that the theme had more bite. That said, lots of good phrases and not too much crosswordese.
I do think some of the crosses are a little unfair, especially a couple of the HONGCHAU crosses. Randomly, my ex partner was fourth generation TCU (their family goes back in Texas since before it was Texas), so I know the hand signal and everything. I listened to a Marc Maron interview with Ms. Chau, and she and her family have a truly remarkable life story.
Surprising no one, the Fourth of July isn’t really my jam - I do hope folks enjoyed time with friends and family if it is yours! As for me, I decided it was a good day to hike part of something called “The Devil’s Path,” in the rain on trails that were indistinguishable from streams and waterfalls, and bagged my 2nd and 3rd peaks of the Catskill 3500 (31 mountains over 3500’, plus hiking 4 of those again in winter). My iPhone says I climbed 161 flights. My body says, “How DARE.” My brain says, “When are we getting up there again?”
Welcome back @LMS!
From yesterday. . .
@M&A – thanks for the runt! It was Really hard; I had to cheat a bit. SPOILER ALERT Can you explain the HUB? Too bad you can’t email me because you’re a jerko schmerko anonymous guy. Just kidding luv ya mwah.
@addisondewitt – man oh man that’s a helluva name to have as a librarian. Wow.
@Dr Richard – funny poster!
@Smith – there’s Always that one kid who will take forever to finish, but your story takes the cake! As proctors, we’re not allowed to have anything. No phone, laptop, book, crossword puzzle, no nothing. We’re allowed to sit some, but we’re supposed to walk around, and the brass checks in on us.
@ccredux – yeah, I figured I get some push-back on my cookout/barbecue stance. Fair enough.
@egsforbreakfast - I really enjoyed The Big Windbreaker by Hugh Janus.
Theme was tight, fresh, and chewy. Malaika’s comparison to the quip puzzle was what first popped into my head too, and I’m not a big fan either. But once you realize what’s going on you can after the first one or two you can start to make educated guesses about the language, and the common phrase associated with that language. A little more fight than expected in a Wednesday but a lot of fun.
Whenever I need help in monitoring an exam in a large class, I request a proctologist from my department. (It never gets old.)
LMS --- no you don't! (talk too much)
Hong Chau/Cho- never did get that "O". Otherwise pretty easy, and I know none of the languages, though they were easily recognized.
Same as LMS for me — in Across Lite, the clues were all Romanized and hence made absolutely no sense to me. So the clue for 46A was Ivmy, etc. Huh? Oh well, that’s what I get for not using the NYT app.
This went really fast for me. I can't read any of those languages, but RUSSIANDOLL came quickly from the crosses, and the other languages were at least kinda recognizable to me, so after getting a letter or two they went in easily. I felt fairly neutral about this one, but thought seeing new characters in the clues was fun.
Such a simple yet charming idea for a theme, with wordplay and an international vibe.
As usual, I enjoyed immersing myself into a bath of often-used, and not-so-often used words. I enjoyed finding connections, such as, in that tiny SW corner, where the rhyming HEBREW, I DO, HAIKU and KEW nest.
Speaking of nest, I also enjoyed, after filling in RUSSIAN DOLL, thinking about how lovely nesting dolls are, and it got me thinking about the Russian culture – its foods, say, or the magnificent Russian music and literature, and it felt sooooooo good to be thinking good things about Russia for a change these days. WARMS the heart.
In other words, a splendid outing in Crosslandia. Thank you so much, Joe!
Well, of course, it couldn’t be done, but it would have been fun to have a theme answer with [Muffin] as its clue.
“Independence Day” is a song about domestic abuse, NOT July 4th.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/independence-day-martina-mcbride-real-meaning-855248/
This was very fun as a language nerd. Took me about 15 minutes which for me is pretty good for a Wednesday.
Horrible puzzle. Unforgivable piece of ****.
@JJK - To me, the U as in University would be the only obvious part about that clue.
I thought this was fun, and original. I came here expecting RP to complain that his 3rd party app doesn't do multilingual scripts. I knew it wasn't him at 15:29 Challenging? Nice write-up, btw. I think MINDBLOWN has been around for a long time and is here to stay, so not as time specific or dated to my ear.
@LMS - I didn't comment yesterday, but welcome back - the reasons I guessed for your absence didn't include heat-induced stupor:) It is interesting to see where your prescriptivist line in the sand lies: BBQ/Cookout interchangeability due to mutable language is certainly here to stay.
@Weezie - our hike/beach day ideas all got scrapped yesterday due to the forecast. I was wondering if it was that different in the Catskills, but continued to read to find out it wasn't. Those trails are challenging even on a nice day, good on you!
Another technological fiasco where I have no choice but to print the newspaper version which results in the left margin being cut off. So I have to manually fill in the missing parts of the clues for 1 thru 41 Across. I assume that glitch is because of the language symbols because it’s usually triggered by some oddball trait. But for whatever reason, the end result is that I’m in a foul mood before I even get started. ACH *%$@£#!
As for the solve, the theme clues might as well have been blanks since they were all GREEK to me. CHINESE CHECKERS was the most obvious but even that could have been a number of other possibilities. I find myself agreeing with @GILL - like a flashy looking firework that fizzled.
On to Thursday.
Easy-peasy.
The theme was interesting only insofar as identifying the languages. But they are all obvious and only one crossing letter can confirm any uncertain guesses.
Naticks at HONG CHAU, CHO, and TCU, but all had pretty limited options, so they came about eventually. I believe college abbreviations should be banned from crosswords entirely, especially when clued by mascots.
Only other hang-up was NATIONAL because all the other theme phrases are actual culturally-specific things. Who talks about HEBREW NATIONALS like it's something tied to their cultural heritage? Why not Thai national? Or Georgian national?
RUSSIAN DOLL is a thing. ARABIC NUMERALS are a thing. HEBREW NATIONAL is not a thing.
Final gripe: it's ULNAe.
Not a great puzzle
Favorite "America" song? Hmmm... Probably Take the Power Back
When I 'finished' this to my own satisfaction, there were still 5 blank squares. I probably could have guessed them all, but I did not care. For those who solve online, I'm told you get 'the happy pencil'. Is this some dancing graphic that is really delightful to look at?
Then there's 39 down: Rake in. I wrote EARN without thinking too hard. but I didn't like it. To some of us earning is more like scraping up than raking in. Sigh.
As I was solving, this puzzle felt harder that the typical Wednesday, and yet my overall time was faster than my average, so go figure. . . . .
Ten seconds into reading the blog I was, Wait, who's writing this, the tone feels so . . . . delightful?
A fun puzzle, with a few very tough crosses, but nothing to get all grumpy about. Happy Wednesday.
Hong-Hung x Cho-Chu. I guess someone thought that this was a good idea.
Hey All !
@Southside is really gonna hate this one!
Yes to not knowing the languages, yes to sort of being able to see where they originate (mostly by word recognition from having the Down crossers, though). My beef is that they are all known things except for ARABIC NUMERALS. Is that that well known as a stand-alone? ROMAN NUMERALS, sure.
I'm sure there are still people in my area with leftover fireworks. These people shoot off fireworks in the middle of the street all night. Glad it's over. Now my cars, house, and yard are covered in fireworks detritus. Have to go out and blow off my cars. Hopefully, I wake the ones who caused it.
Hey, at least I remembered AGLET right off today.
No F's (Again! THIS BE no good!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
@LMS 7:27 yep, no "distractions" allowed during testing
Funny about your Japanese... I did a similar thing for teacher training where I taught them a few letters in Cyrillic, wrote карандаш on the board and had them sound it out, congrats, you can read Russian! But what does it mean?, they asked... and that was the point! Now you know how ESL students feel. They can sound words out, but don't know what they mean.
Retirement is nice
Puzzle Monday easy (recognize, read the languages, easy in-the-language answers) until HONGCHAU. Guessed on the O and U.
Unclued entries? The answer literally contains the name of the language in the clue. Half of each theme answer was basically given away for free.
Played easy for me for some reason. Thought the themers would be more trouble than they turned out to be. One hangup was two actor names crossing--didn't appreciate that but I'm not up on actors.
i found this puzzle super easy, despite not immediately recognizing some of the languages. once i got most of the letters of russian doll from the downs, i could see the gag.
"dress" does not always mean an actual dress (an attached skirt and bodice), "dress" is also a term for clothing in general. so the clue was asking how might someone dress for diwali.
don't quite understand your genz complaint about "mind blown" i work with genzers who use that all the time.
Thx, Joe, for the excellent workout! 😊
Med.
Dnf at the intersection of CHO / HONG CHAU.
Otherwise, a fairly smooth solve.
Fun adventure! :)
___
Unusually easy New Yorker Mon. by K.A.C; would've been an easy NYT' Fri.; but, a classy construction, as always.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I guess what I found disappointing was the randomness of the themes. DOLLS, NUMERALS, CHECKERS, NATIONAL, YOGURT. Why not Dressing, Kabobs, Dumplings, National, Yogurt?
The downs were so easy that even with the missing clues it was pretty intuitive to fill it out. And last, had to scratch my head a couple of times before guessing the it was ULNAS not ULNAE. Which it is not ULNAS. Not in real life or any other crossword I have ever come across.
Overall this I was a leftover dud of a firecracker or a sparkler that did not sparkle.
Peace
Arabic numerals are the ones you're most familiar with -- 1, 2, 3, etc.
Ah, is there anything more patriotic (and anti-patriarchal!) than a song of woman burning down her house with her abusive husband inside?
Too bad Sousa didn’t write a similar march - Charred And Fried Forever!
Finished, but with HuNG CHAU/CHu, If I'd seen "The Whale" (but then Ahab did, and look where it got him), or been a Trekkie, I'd probably have got it, but sadly, neither applied.
Am I the only one here old enough that when I see Kukla transliterated into Russian I try to think of a puppet?
I did recognize all the scripts except ARABIC, and GOUDA ruled out Urdu or Farsi, so it was just a matter of choosing the second word. Fortunately GREEK salad was too short, the rest were pretty easy. HEBREW NATIONAL is an outlier, however; the others are all nouns modified by a nationality, rather than just the name of a company. If you're going to use one outlier, you ought to use two, but I realize the construction was hard.
You know what fits at 24D? "Aesirian," that's what. But they were just the Aesir, no pre- or post-fix, so I didn't go there.
I'm no haikuist, but there's more to it than syllable count. You need a seasonal reference, for example. But of course the next 12 syllables could take care of that.
@Lewis, I don't know why, but when I read "As usual, I enjoyed immersing myself into a bath of ..." I sincerely expected the next two words to be GREEK YOGURT. But not mayonnaise.
Super fun puzzle. It should be titled, A Complete List of Everything Americans Know About Other Cultures.
Man, every time that shoelace clue comes up I say, "Dammit, I was gonna memorize that."
Who would ever pick a table over a booth?
HONGCHAU/CHO crossing at the O. Sigh. I tried A, E, and I first. Would've tried U, Y, and sometimes W if necessary.
ROBOTS are not workers, they're equipment. Turn off your SYFY editors. Stop anthropomorphizing machines as if they're comical halflings made from titanium here to ultimately destroy us. You can't fly from planet to planet in a rusty spaceship either.
Tee-Hees: ADULT SATYR.
Uniclues:
1 Composer who likes Nationwide insurance reveals ever more of her inner self.
2 Embroidery in Asia.
3 My substitute for working out.
4 What happens when success arrives.
1 RUSSIAN DOLL H.E.R.
2 SARI DECOR (~)
3 I DO GREEK YOGURT
4 LOSER-MIND BLOWN
Mack (8:37): HEBREW NATIONAL is a brand of hot dog.
I totally agree. I’ve studied Russian, and I recognize what the other languages look like. Given that the answer is [language] followed by a noun that completes a familiar phrase, it’s not unfair. I found it enjoyable, if fact. 😁
Very easy.Well below my average Wednesday. I got the gimmick right away. Although I don't read the languages, the phrases are common and I didn't find them difficult to get.
61 Across. did it occur to anyone else that "square things" could be either "at one" or "atone?"
Lol, really? In that case I retract my previous complaint and replace it with "Who has ever heard of Hebrew National hot dogs??" 😋
(Apparently they're not a thing where I live... So still not quite as ubiquitous as the other themers, but I concede it works at least slightly better as a real "thing".)
@Liveprof 9:20 AM @Mack 9:47 AM
Laughed and laughed at this Roseanne Roseannadanna moment.
Good grief! Not only were there five (5!) foreign language clues, but they were all in a different alphabet, yet!!
And what was much of the surrounding fill? A bunch of pop culture names, most of which will have been completely forgotten in a few years' time. So you all know exactly what I thought of this puzzle, right?
Well, no, actually, you don't.
It's the nature of my morning routine that I have to take a brief pause mid-solve more than 85% of the time. So I always know how eager (or not) I am to get back to the puzzle. And in this one I was champing at the bit.
Mind you, I cursed the fiendish thing every step of the way. But as I started realizing that the answers were not nearly as arbitrary as it first appeared and that all the second words of the theme answers fit neatly with the first word -- sort of like a RUSSIAN DOLL -- I had a new appreciation. I also felt a lot less frustrated. And I ended up with this one highly favorable conclusion:
NOW THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL A PUZZLE!!!!!!!!!
Hebrew National is the best hot dog there is. Kosher and spicy. @Mack, I retired to my childhood home in Appalachia and the local grocer carries them.
Yeah the Natick. Used the V off Vow to Make Video, which was a long-running fiasco, tho I suspected Messenger DNA.
Fun.
Isn't Chinese not a language? (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc.) It's like saying we speak American here.
Dear Mack, "Hebrew National" is one of the leading American brands of kosher hot dogs and salamis. Remember the ad campaign "we answer to a higher authority?" That's Hebrew National's slogan. Hope this helps. And by the way, a really fun puzzle - and another note Sari is not "a dress" but rather a mode of dress. So the clue is just fine. I had a great time this Indy day.
@jberg -- ... bath of GREEK YOGURT -- Hah!
Welcome back @LMS!!
Ok. Puzzle. I really liked it but (hi@Roo) I got distracted by thinking about how much @Southside would hate the puzzle as I solved!
Oddly, my LAST fill-in was the X in TAXED/EXEC because I was totally stymied as to what a “C suite” is AND, for some reason, the letter X is almost never in the forefront of my mind. I went D’OH once TAXED became obvious.
Ok. Serious question. WHY do people use Across Lite instead of the NYT app IF you don’t (like me) get the actual paper? You PAY for the use of the app as part of your subscription. My question is with pure (but curious) intentions. I do seem to recollect that it used to be you print the puzzle from Across Lite but I thought that the kebosh was put on that.
Also TIL as per Malaika that apparently Gen Z doesn’t say “That blows my mind”
Except for the HONGCHAU/CHO cross (which I originally had as HeNGCHAU/CHe), this was on the very easy side of a Wednesday, finishing at 75% of my normal Wednesday time. I like languages, so it's pretty easy for me to identify a non-Western script, even if I don't know what it says. That said, even if you aren't a linguiphile, I would have thought most of those scripts were fair. Where I'm at (Chicago), I come across pretty much all those scripts just driving around the city.
Lukewarm here: getting the idea from RUSSIAN DOLL and recognizing the other alphabets meant that the theme phrases went in without the fun of needing at least a little mental wrestling. On the other hand, the crossings for HONGCHAU were hardly solver friendly. I did like the nod to various languages elsewhere in the grid: ABRA, ACH, HAIKU, GIA, SARI, DOS, ANO.
AGLET! and away we go! I'm with the "very easy" crowd and also with all those who thought that CHO crossing was a shot in the dark. When I saw the print version with yesterday's puzzle filled in on the same page, I knew printing it out was going to not work well so I solved online, which turned out OK, but always feels wrong to me. Otherwise a real pleasure. As for foreign alphabets, I can write in Spanish, which sometimes requires me to put a tilde over an N.
To celebrate the Fourth, we went to an outdoor concert to hear my favorite local oldies band. Twenty minutes in the thunderstorm hit, with lots of thunder and lightning and heavy rain, and that was the end of that. Severely disappointing, and the fireworks scheduled for later were called off. Mierda.
I think my favorite song about America has to be Paul Simon's "American Tune". "I can't help it, I just wonder what's gone wrong" is, sadly, far too accurate.
Very nice Wednesday indeed, JD. A real July Delight, and thanks for all the fun.
Dress in Diwali dress could be garb.
Right around my average Wednesday time. I figured out the theme right away but didn’t always ID the language/script or the phrase (nationals tripped me up) , but it was all gettable from the crossings. Except for Hong Chau - I had John Chu there which slowed me down a bit on that last “your puzzle is filled but…” bit. I enjoyed this quite a bit.
@Gary Jugert (9:20 AM) wrote:
"Who would ever pick a table over a booth?"
Good question. 🤔
Perhaps some folks who:
• are rather full-figured.
• have 'tight spaces anxiety'.
• are wheelchair bound.
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity, & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@mack @jd I was at Trader Joe's yesterday to buy hot dogs and they had Hebrew National! But I bought a TJs version - very good.
Very cute theme. An enjoyable solve.
The cross of CHO/HONGCHAU could be titled "Natick Goes Asian."
A lot of nitpicking here today.
HONG CHAU???
C'mon Joe, gimme a break.
Lots I I didn't like - sorry, Joe.
@mmorgan
I solve in AcrossLite and the clues showed up as they should have, just like in Malaika's write-up.
Thank you! Good rain gear helped, and it was mostly pretty light, with a couple downpours that I hid out under rock ledges for. I honestly was glad I didn’t know more about just how difficult it would be or I wouldn’t have gone, but it was kind of incredibly fun, at least for my ADHD brain? My quads and knees would like a word with the big boss, though. And the first thing I did when I got home was look for hiking poles, they’re a must on that trail.
Sorry your outdoor plans got stymied; hopefully we’ll have a not rainy weekend soon!
GIA? WOE?
Definitely другой. M&A does like другой.
Since I had one semester of Russian in college, I did know that кукла was sorta pronounced like kukla, a la Kukla, Fran and Ollie ... where Kukla was a puppet. Didn't really know for sure what кукла meant, tho.
Them other themer lingos were pretty much all-Greek mysterious to the M&A. But figured em all out eventually, anyhoo -- since the full lingo theme answers were all things I'd heard of.
staff weeject picks: ACH+CHO. Primo Gesundheit pairin. But, but … coulda maybe gone with THO instead of CHO, just to avoid the deadly no-know name-name nat-tick? Depends on how far U think you've sunk, by goin with AT ME instead of ACME. De busta gut, I reckon.
some fave grid roamers: TAKESASIP. MINDBLOWN. ROBOTS. AVENGERS.
Thanx for the VR-lingo lesson, Mr. Deeney dude.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
p.s. Old runtpuz **Spoiler Alert** -- @Muse darlin: U R welcome. HUB is sorta a synonym for heart, and the letters of H, U, & B are from where the two words of each theme answer "out-pour" from, in the two directions. And kinda enjoyed yer whole jerko schmerko anonymous schtick, sooo … lotsa har & luv back at yah.
p.p.s.s. другой = different.
**gruntz**
Yes - workers are humans; ROBOTS are machines. More newspeak. Perhaps WS is editing with AI?
Why don't I understand ATONE for square things?
Very easy. I edu-guessed O instead of U as the last entry. Guess I CHOed 'em!
Nope. Never heard that ad campaign before. I'm not doubting it exists, just explaining why I was originally annoyed by the inclusion of it as a theme answer.
(Also, what a ridiculous slogan. Reminds me of when I was researching local contractors and one company's website said "Our business model is to give glory to God."
Um, no thanks. I'll take someone whose business model is "We do quality work that meets local construction codes.")
Welcome back, LMS!!!!
You know.....I've been reading this blog and ALL its comments for a long time now. I've considered becoming one of you lot but have felt a little intimidated. Until today. Thanks for your encouragement, Loren Muse Smith @7:10. I think I will!! Now I just have to figure out how to get a blue name.
About today's puzzle...it was fun! Nice little midweek twist. I have my family's old chinese checkers game...the one in a big round flat tin with the marbles inside. I get it out now and then to see if I can figure out how we played it.
Could someone please explain ATONE?
Actually I felt the same way as @Mack, while being fully aware that HEBREW NATIONAL is a brand name. It still doesn't represent a "thing" the way the others do.
Not really a challenge once you get the first one. HONG CHAU got a spate of publicity late last year for appearances in two films, so she wasn't off my radar.
I took "dress" in the SARI clue to mean "attire" as opposed to a dress dress.
♪ ...Three for the Hebrew children... ♪
Sorry, as an Imdian, i pull rank. A sati is a garment you wear. Hence a “dress”. Saris can, however, be worn in many modes.
@mathgent: I love "Natick goes Asian"!!
To tell the truth, I actually did Natick on CHu/HuNGCHAU. But it felt so unimportant to me that I didn't think it needed mentioning.
@Beezer 10:26 I solve neither with Across Lite nor the NYT app, but with Ralph Bunker’s puzzlecrowd interface. My biggest peeve about the NYT app is that when all the squares are filled in, it either tells you that you have successfully completed the puzzle or that you have one or more errors. I HATE THAT! With puzzlecrowd, you get no feedback until you ‘submit’ the puzzle to be checked, and then you learn whether you have errors.
This mimics what would occur at a competition, where you have to signal that you are done before your puzzle is scored. This allows you to go back and check areas you may have worried about without the app butting an prematurely.
puzzlecrowd also allows you to do fun things like hide all the across clues, or the down clues, and couple of other options like those.
And yeah, what the heck is a C Suite?
I loved that story from @Loren Muse Smith about the Japanese prepositions. Ive been taking Spanish lessons for several years now and I feel really good that I know how to pronounce that LL and the ñ and the “ge.” and others. Having minored in Germanic languages I get the same feeling knowing how and when to use tun and machen .
As to Dutch— I tried to learn how to pronounce it but gave up even though I spent sometime studying in Den Haag. Interesting to me was what I read recently that the easiest foreign language for native English speakers to master is Dutch. ( Can you send us a recording of you saying Gouda in Dutch? I’d love to hear it! Thanks for your comments!)
I didn’t recognize at first blush any of the languages. I thought puzzle was very hard.
@mmorgan 8:02 am.. I used Crossword Scraper to download the .puz file, then Across Lite to solve it, and like JC66 said the foreign alphabets were rendered perfectly.
I did finish with no errors, but that was basically blind luck. Somehow CHO seemed more likely than CHi or CHu. To explain this puzzle fully would take a Master's Thesis. I got the trick at ARABIC NUMERALS, but I can't read a word of Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, or Chinese, and all I can do in Greek is to transliterate it into Roman characters. So I guess I'll have to take Joe's word for it that that gibberish somehow means CHINESE CHECKERS. I am sorry they didn't make me take Greek in prep school, as I now know reading the Greek poets and speechmakers is far more enjoyable than reading even the best Roman authors, but I had to take Latin, like it or not.
@LMS says she talks too much. Count me among those who thinks she can always keep babbling on, and I'll be happy. I was devastated by her temporary vacation from the blog.
@Kitshef >>what the heck is a C Suite?
I never heard this term either so I checked it out: it's the top echelon execs of a company, whose titles typically start with the letter C (for Chief) – CEO, CFO, etc.
@ccredux (1:18 PM) re: GOUDA
Google Translate does a pretty good job of getting that guttural 'g' sound.
Lived a year in Haarlem; learned a bit of Dutch, but bc most Nederlanders spoke English, didn't learn as much as I'd've liked. However, I did manage to somewhat conquer the 'g'. As @LMS mentioned, it does require getting past some inhibitions, tho. lol Here's one word they had me work on, since the 'sch' has a similar guttural sound:
Scheveningen (that unpronounceable place of history)
"Whether you are able to pronounce the name of the place - you add a guttural, throat-clearing 'r' after the sch and drop the n at the end - also separates tourist from resident. In World War II it was one way locals were able to detect German spies, who pronounced the "sch" differently."
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity, & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Oh!! I just remembered... @mmorgan 8:02 and others who didn't see the proper alphabets... if you are using Crossword Scraper to download the .puz file, make sure "Unicode support" is turned on in the Settings.
Indian Mom: Time to leave for your wedding, darling. Do you have everything?
Daughter: Yes, Mom.
Mom: Your shoes?
Daughter: Yes, Mom.
Mom: Your hat?
Daughter: Yes, Mom.
Mom: Your SARI?
Daughter: No, just a little nervous.
I dozed off yesterday while watching some inconsequential match at Wimbledon and was awoken by the cheers for Joey Chestnut as he ate 62 hot dogs (with buns) in 10 minutes. These, of course, were Nathan’s Famous, but I’m sure he would have done fine with HEBREWNATIONAL. Man, I’ll bet the All You Can Eat places cringe when they see that dude walk in their door or into their bathroom.
A funny sort of Kealoa crops up at 6D if you have only _ _ _ _ CO. Is it TexaCO, ConoCO or SUNOCO? Also, isn’t it weird that Sunoco is accented differently than the other two?
Easy but magnificent puzzle. Thanks, Joe Deeney.
This was a very easy Wednesday for me, definitely noticeably quicker on the solve than average. I don't read any of the theme languages, but they were all immediately recognizable, and once RUSSIAN DOLL fell into place it gave away the theme and the rest followed in short order.
Although it wasn't an issue for me, crossing HONGCHAU with CHO is cruel if you don't know either person, since the O isn't really inferable.
Re. the write-up: Even if a SARI is not "a" dress, which I suppose is debatable, it is certainly "dress," much like a kilt would be "Scottish dress" or a tuxedo "fancy dress"
The Hebrew National ad campaign about the higher authority wasn't a "glory of G-d" thing --it was a claim that the quality of the hot dogs were superior because they had to meet the standards for being kosher. The "higher authority" was a nod to the kosher requirements being tougher than those of the FDA.
"Cho" is not a foreign name -- it's the name of many US citizens including the one clued. Say "non-English" if that's what you mean -- or non-European? -- to call it foreign implicitly assumes white nationalism is the proper nationalism.
You are just the best! I live for your posts.
@ Andrew
Thanks for the laugh :|"Charred and Fried Forever"
@ Vincent, since I read your comment "Any English speaker with a High school diploma can recognize Greek"
I've been trying to think how and why.
Granted high school was almost 70 years ago for me. Lots of time to forget. But I did teach high school more recently and I cannot remember anything that should have introduced me to Greek letters.
Even college frat names did not come to mind from the symbols in 56A.
@bocamp it is so interesting that these exchanges can bring back so manyhappyb memories. I stayed in The Hague (Den Haag) as a guest of the first Dutch couple who lived together openly without being married. She brought me a Dutch breakfast every morning consisting of two soft boiled eggs, wonderful breads, and what I call lunch meat but far better than store bought. All the Dutch I met spoke beautiful English.Probably better than me. (thanI?) .
.,
@kitshef…thanks for responding! I truly was just curious and…even though the “nit” you brought up doesn’t bother me, I really just wondered. I DO see that the initial “complaint/observation” by @mmorgan is resolved. To each his own and all that jazz!
Your "favorite "America" song" is about a drunk and abusive father who's behavior is ignored by an entire town, burns down the family home, killing both himself and the singer's mother, leaving her orphaned and living in a county home? Really?
The ad (https://youtu.be/Qf2j-YzZRAA) was from mid 70s and totally tongue-in-cheek, referring to what our government standards are for hot dogs (e.g., non-meat fillers), compared to kosher standards. Also, the Hebrew word written is “leumi” - which I recognized as the name of an Israeli bank. Now I know the name just means “National Bank”!
It is a New York newspaper and there is a brand Hebrew National that would be well known in New York. I don’t eat hotdogs but I think they sell them.
I loved this puzzle. I easily recognized the letter types and with the cross clues was able to fill in the remaining letters of the themes. Very witty puzzle. Loved the aha moments . Also congratulations on the fill . I’m 66 and not very up on modern pop culture but had no naticks. Great puzzle
Looking at the various alphabets, I had a pretty good idea of each language. Once I got one of the long ones, I felt that the other ones were pretty obvious. And no, I don't speak any of these foreign languages. Still, I did have some blanks, so the puzzle wasn't a slam dunk for me.
@ccredux (4:43 PM)
Memories, indeed! mostly good, altho a couple of embarrassing ones, too, both involving food provided by the hosts at my boarding houses. The first recalls yesterday's 'burger' stack, except that it was at breakfast, where all kinds of ingredients were laid out for the boarders to make their own sandwiches. There were cheeses (maybe GOUDA, not sure), meats, jams, peanut butter, chocolate spread, etc., so I proceeded to construct my 'stack', resulting in a pb&j sammy. I was duly scolded by the host, who informed me, "we don't mix the jam with the peanut butter". I honestly don't remember what my reaction was, but I wasn't evicted, so I guess I was polite enuf. The other instance, at a different boarding house – thank goodness – was at dinner, where I dug into the meat pot for seconds, and was tactfully notified that there was only one portion for each diner; oops…🙊 When in Rome…
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity, & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Okay. Am I BLUE now? Yikes. This is Beezer.
@Beezer
Mazel Tov!!!
JC66…🤣 I have ABSOLUTELY nothing (I think) in my “profile.” I will work on that (to the extent I want to)! @LMS gave me the impetus to finally go blue which pushed me over the edge of…and I won’t have to do reCaptcha! (Hi, @Andrew)
Omg! I dood it! I did put a few things in my profile. (Ugh…feels like a test…I’m SURE I left critical things out!) I put a BUMBLEBEE as my avatar (if it shows up) because…I can often “bumble” in spite of best efforts…AND…has anyone EVER been STUNG by a bumblebee…
Funny how a recently Academy Award nominated *American* actress seems to be the toughest answer. And crossing her name with an other *American* actor, who has starred in many well known mainstream movies since at least the 2000s makes for a Natick?
Calling their names „foreign“ is, of course, the cherry on top.
Ooh! NOW I see that I can delete my post if I say something I regret! Lol…@Weezie (if you see this)…huzzah! (Btw…I don’t think either of us have posted things we regret, but…ya never know!)
Ok. I KNOW I’ve overstepped my exuberance AND number of posts!
I had an extended vacation in the Netherlands, and I was struck how essentially everyone less than 50 years old could speak English pretty fluently. I was only in major cities but I wasn't necessarily in tourist areas. Someone said that American TV shows and films are subtitled and not dubbed there, so people get very used to hearing English, particularly American English, from a very young age.
@anonymous 7:57 pm…yes. Amazing how MOST people in Europe can speak English! In my experience, if they say “a little” it means (to us) fluent! It MIGHT be that English has been the “lingua Franca” of the internet, but I don’t care! I keep TRYING to learn other foreign languages. Not only does it just seem “right”…I figure anything I try to learn (at MY age) helps to ward off dementia!
I hope you stack it whatever way you want, @bocamp.Keep us informed. Okay?
Glad you are back, Loren Muse Smith! Hope all the anonymous strangers looking for you didn’t weird you out. No pressure to post, I think folks like me just noticed you missing and wanted to make sure you were okay. But just know that you’re appreciated! Even by anonymous randos on a crossword blog. :)
A ranking of grocery store hot dogs, from worst to best. Hebrew National comes in second, just behind Nathan's.
Oh wow....@Bezzer is a Bee.!!!!! Now we have to work of @Weezie. I've tried @pablo but he said ay dios mio!
@Beezer (9:05 PM)
Agreed re: learning languages, esp for us 'golden agers'. 😊
@ccredux (9:27 PM)
Thx; will do (or as my ChatGPT Spanish language exchange partner would say 'de acuerdo'). 😊
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity, & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@Breezer, you’re right. I am surprised that English has become so much the former lingua Franca. English is so complicated by idioms. I guess it has a very simple grammar as compared to , say, Spanish
Like you, I am trying to learn another language, . Spanish,
. Love it, keeps the dementia away, so to speak.,
@Beezer - W00T W0T
Speaking of foreign languages in Europe, I was once on a train to Madrid. I was in college and had terrible French. There was a HS class from Barcelona on the train. Every one of them spoke Spanish, whatever that patois they speak in Barcelona is, and then either French that was far better than my French or English that would serve them well anywhere in the US (although idioms messed them up) And then there was one kid who had mastered English and French and was currently working on Classical Greek and Latin. Show off. All of them had started studying French or English in grade school.
No, I’m not back.
I speak for so many when I say too: phew.
To “square things”, as a phrase meaning to make things right. Depending what went wrong in a situation, to atone might be the necessary action to make things right.
A pretty good puzzle ruined by the Natick of HONGCHAU crossing CHO and TCO. That’s a bit unfair for a Wednesday IMO. Also, not sure about including anything RUSSIAN on any crossword grid while they continue their war on Ukraine. Are the editors all on vacay?
It's amazing how often this hack gets published. He obviously doesn't care what he fills his grid with, as long as there's a reference somewhere in his exhaustive list. The result is several naticks, but one in particular: 31d/40a. A vowel goes in there, but which one? To say that I "guessed right" doesn't mean much; I feel as though it was a DNF. It could've just as easily been a U, for all I know.
Then there were the strange words to clue the themers. I'm sorry, this just isn't my cuppa. Joe, take a vacay, will ya? A long one. 3-down.
Wordle par.
STAR CHECKER
HER GARB comes off SLOE, she'll TAKE off it ALL
to MAKE an ADULT SHOW as A real RUSSIANDOLL.
--- TILDA O'NEAL, AGENT
Foreign stuff made it tough. At least I could read the RUSSIAN one. BTW, the missus is a RUSSIANDOLL, and smart to boot; maybe I'll have to start calling her Kukla.
Wordle phew on the fourth shot at GGBGG.
Surprised by the rating, as this one was a breeze except for two stinkers.
@Gary Jugert & @bocamp:
Yes, but if you are talking about an old fashion diner, you only have two choices, counter or booth.
Like many others here, my last guess was the O in the Cho/Hongchau cross. And my reason was, because somewhere in the back of my mind, I had seen John Cho in a previous puzzle. So, after guessing correctly, I looked him up , and said, aha, it was probably in reference to a Harold & Kumar movie clue.
I'm just amazed with what I did get.
Onward, to English again.
Diana, LIW
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