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Mobile homes punnily / SUN 7-2-23 / Stephen K. ___, British stand-up comedian / Peacock seen on TV / Linguistic group including Zulu and Xhosa / Collegiate beaver mascot whose name is its school spelled backward / Angles above 90 degrees?
Sunday, July 2, 2023
Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: Emily OSTER (123A: Author/economist Emily) —
As I indicated yesterday, the write-up is going to be a little short today because I'm tired from driving much of the day. Woke up at 4, solved and blogged, fed cats and ate breakfast, then drove to Saratoga Springs to visit my wife (away at a writer's workshop), then bopped around the town for a bit, then drove home again. During the return journey, I was daydreaming or otherwise up in my head and missed the 88 turnoff and was heading toward *&$%-ing Utica (!?) when I realized everything looked ... wrong. Had to take a detour through the backwoodsiest parts of central NY to finally rejoin the 88 and then home feed cats dinner Manhattan and now solving / writing. Blog drive enjoy Saratoga Springs drive blog, that's the day. So my brain does not feel fully up to evaluating / discussing this puzzle. I think I don't quite get the theme. I do get that the shoes are "big" in that they are two stories tall. It's weird, though—since the "shoes" don't occupy one cell, but two different cells, one atop the other, it's more like ... two shoes than "big shoes." And I don't understand the title. What is "About Two Feet" playing on? My Left Foot? About a Boy? Two Left Feet? I feel sure there's a pun in there somewhere, but I can't see it. I keep saying it out loud, over and over: nothing. Anyway, clearly I don't fully appreciate this theme. A few of the theme answers are very nice ("YOU FLATTER ME," THE ELEPHANT MAN), but the theme itself ... I mean which is it? Are there two feet, or is there just one big shoe? I guess ... two feet in the Acrosses, one big shoe in the Downs? NBC LOGO feels forced (fine as clue for PEACOCK, not as an answer unto itself). I've never heard WHEEL ESTATE. Ever. I like it. But it feels made-up. And yet I like it. I want it to be real. So let's say it's real. I actually appreciate the weirdness of the whole theme concept today, but there's something in the execution that just doesn't quite come together for me. Big shoes v. two shoes? What am I supposed to be seeing here?
- "THEELEPHANTMAN"
- WHEELESTATE (22A: 1980 film that led to the creation of the Academy Award for Best Makeup / 26A: Mobile homes, punnily)
- TOLLBOOTHS
- PIRATESBOOTY (32A: Coin toss spots, once / 39A: What "X" could mark on a map)
- SYMBOLICLOGIC
- NBCLOGO (69A: In which "P or Q, but not both" is represented as (P∨Q)∧¬(P∧Q) / 74A: Peacock seen on TV)
- "YOUFLATTERME"
- DECAFLATTE (95A: "Stop, I'm blushing" / 103A: Evening coffee order)
Word of the Day: Emily OSTER (123A: Author/economist Emily) —
Emily Fair Oster (born February 14, 1980) is an American economist and author. She is currently the JJE Goldman Sachs University Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs at Brown University, where she has taught since 2015. Her research interests span from development economics and health economics to research design and experimental methodology. Her research has received exposure among non-economists through The Wall Street Journal, the book SuperFreakonomics, and her 2007 TED Talk.Oster is the author of three books, Expecting Better, The Family Firm, and Cribsheet, which discuss a data-driven approach to decision-making in pregnancy and parenting. (wikipedia)
• • •
The things I really like about the grid are smaller, mid-range answers like "BUT WHY?" and TECH HUB and even RED DWARF, PROP BETS and AUTOPAY. Hardest part of the puzzle for me by far was the front end of SYMBOLIC LOGIC (never heard of it—only got SYMBOLIC, in the end, because it's a word I could recognize). The crosses were almost ungettable for me. That NYT clue was baffling to me (61D: Sullivan's opponent in a landmark free speech case: Abbr.) as was this AMOS person, of whom I've never heard (62D: Stephen K. ___, British stand-up comedian). OTOE required first and fourth crosses (73A: ___-Missouria Tribe). So that section was a yikes. Nothing else really rose to the level of threat. No idea about OSTER, so that bottom section could've been dicey, but the crosses were all fair. Had LIE-INS before DIE-INS, so got a bit flustered there (100D: Attention-grabbing protests). It seems like you can spell LAH-DI-DAH all kinds of ways (with and without the various "H"s), so that was interesting (87A: Highfalutin). But overall, it was pretty doable. I mostly enjoyed the solve. Just wish the theme had clicked better for me. Hope you dug the theme more than I did. My cats are screaming at me now, so I gotta go.
Oh, one last thing. It's a new month, so time to highlight the best NYTXW puzzles of last month (two themed puzzles, and one themeless). So here it is, the Best of June 2023:See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
- Themed: David, Karen & Paul Steinberg, "Reducing Fractions" (Thu., Jun. 1); Rafael Musa, "Flying Colors" (Sun., Jun. 4)
- Themeless: Kunal Nabar (MONOPOLY MONEY, MAGICAL REALISM, PALATE CLEANSER, PEOPLE PLEASER) (Fri., Jun. 23)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Calling asana "angles" is bizarre (46D: Angles above 90 degrees? = HOT YOGA). Yes, Triangle Pose exists. Still. Bizarre.
P.P.S. Thanks to an invite code from a generous reader, I’m now over at Blue Sky. Hope to see some of you there 😘
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104 comments:
Easy-medium. I ambled through this one and didn’t run into much resistance. AMOS and OSTER were it for WOEs and my erasures were mostly typos and misreads. A delightful Sunday with a great reveal, liked it a bunch and Jeff gave it POW!
I solved in the NYT iPad app and when I got the happy music the double shoe words (which were shaded) turned into one shoe word in a big box...hence BIG SHOES.
Got tripped up on the PPP chunk AMOS/NYT/OTOE. Always at least one natick to spoil the party. Agree fully with Rex about the unhelpful puzzle title. Something should have been chosen which explains what to DO with the two feet. As only one of them is used for the down answers, I suggest that something like "Put your best foot forward" would have been far more preferable. Just sayin'.
OK. I confess - I don't get out that much so I was not familiar with the hit song "Butter" (1A). Also, I was curious what all the excitement was about BTS.
So I checked out the song and the band BTS on YouTube and I am left with one question: Where's Perry Como when you really need him?
I'm not sure what fence I should put my big shoes over. How do you start with a WOW...this might be really entertaining... to HELL...this is tedious and not fun work.
The concept is quite good but I needed to breath a lot in between your fancy fox trots. I was weaving every which way, and after a while I got lost.
Seems like a lot of names. Seems like I don't know what HOT YOGA nor SYMBOLIC LOGIC nor PROP BETS or HESS and and, well, my waves weren't in tune with the constructors. My bad.
I seriously wanted to enjoy this. I didn't. BIG SHOES TO FILL didn't click with me. My poetic lament is an ELEGY to myself.
I will say, thought, that I loved WHEEL ESTATE and PIRATES BOOTY. Am I a simpleton?
It's my NAP TIME. See you tomorrow...maybe.
The NYT clue should have indicted that it's a landmark First Amendment case FOR THE PRESS. Most people don't care about Sullivan. It established "actual malice" for sueing the press for defamation if you're a public figure/celebrity. Donald Trump and Clarence Thomas want it overturned.
Coulda’, woulda’ shoulda’, been a “Little Goody Two-Shoes”. Got hung up because of “don’t be sad”. and “pea” soup
I assume “90 degrees” in HOT YOGA refers to the temperature?
How about “Little Goody Rwo-Shoes” as the theme? Got bogged down because of Don’t be “sad” and “pea”soup.
The ‘big shoes’ bit only becomes clear once the entire puzzle is solved in the app: the shoe-cell squares are combined vertically, making them arguably ‘big shoes’. But if you need to complete the puzzle to see it, I don’t see how it helps as the visual representation when solving is indeed pairs of shoes stacked one atop the other.
@Rex: I read the punny part of the title as in "How much is 60 centimeters?" "About two feet."
Like OFL, I was beat from a long day but still I had a surprising lack of overwrites:
cloCk before WATCH at 8A
AMeS before AMOS for the British comedian at 61D
creE before OTOE for the Missouria tribe at 73A
RED stARs before RED DWARF for Proxima Centauri at 75D
sit INS before lIE INS before DIE INS at 100D
The NW gave me some trouble at first because I'm not a BTS fan and can't identify the band by the names of their songs. Wracked my brain for a six-letter lake fitting -AH-OE before getting the theme, but it filled in nicely after I got the long crosses.
“Angles above 90 degrees?” as the clue for “hot yoga” should be punishable by decapitation by a math teacher. Which I am.
I take issue with the plurization of staff as STAFFS in 113 across. Should be "staves," IMO!! Think they should have clued it as Var. And wanted formal logic instead of SYMBOLIC LOGIC. HEEL as the first theme answer made me think it was going to be like anatomical parts of the foot/leg (arch, shin) but that was quickly dispelled by the theme revealer. The AMOS - STP - PLATT sequence in the center gave me some headaches; both the S and P in STP were Naticks for me. Fun puzzle!
I thought otoe and nyt would be easy. Guess not. My one complaint was two of the theme answers were followed by two identical letters. FLATtete, and HEELee.
Sure, if it were earlier in the week. But to keep the difficulty level up, going for a more obscure way to clue it seems exactly right to me.
Agree with OFL and most of the comments. Medium difficulty, enjoyable, but a curious title. “Goody two-shoes” would clearly have been better.
Didn’t like the shaded boxes on the app - after HEEL dropped the others become automatic fill ins. The mid length stuff Rex liked I found tedious and flat. Some unknown trivia and names didn’t help this grid. The revealer was apt I guess - but by the time o got there I had had enough.
BIG SHOES TO FILL
Pretty easy solve for me, and reminiscent of that other NYT Magazine word game whose name I'm blanking on... I enjoyed the concept of BIGSHOESTOFILL, although I'd thought Rex would find this a bit simplistic.
I liked learning about the plural "staves" but went ahead anyway and looked up "staff" in the OED; "staffs" is apparently OK in their entry:
staff, n.1
Pronunciation: Brit. Hear pronunciation/stɑːf/, Hear pronunciation/staf/, U.S. Hear pronunciation/stæf/
Inflections: Plural staffs Brit. Hear pronunciation/stɑːfs/, Hear pronunciation/stafs/, U.S. Hear pronunciation/stæfs/, (in branches I. and II.) staves Brit. Hear pronunciation/steɪvz/, U.S. Hear pronunciation/steɪvz/.
“Big shoes to fill…” “How big?” “About two feet”. Is that is?
It helped when I came to 73A that I live in the homeland of the Otoe-Missouria (eastern Nebraska) and helped in a very small way when a delegation from their reservation in Oklahoma returned home for a few days this past year. I hope they will make many more trips and be able to reestablish a home here.
Well, déjà vu for me!
Kind of eerie, actually. As I was uncovering this puzzle, it became very clear that the theme answers – shoe types and the two across answers that embedded them – duplicated those in a puzzle I’ve been in the middle of working on! That is, my puzzle basically has the same theme! Mine has a different approach (it’s a rebus) and revealer, but it’s basically the same puzzle.
So, a simultaneous “Hah!” and “Dang!”
The latter because, given the duplicate answers, maybe my puzzle will be considered in five years, maybe longer. But oh well, these things happen.
The former because – cue “Twilight Zone” music – ain’t life grand and strange? And especially because the idea for today’s puzzle came from Rebecca, according to their notes, and to be on the same wavelength as one of the most crackling creative constructors out there, well, that’s an honor. Yes, I’m a big fan.
I loved the approach of today’s theme, with that spot-on revealer, and I loved the excellence of the puzzle’s overall execution, with the cluing pitched Sunday perfect -- not brain-wrenchingly hard, but still, enough rub to keep things interesting.
I also got a kick out of some of those lovely-yet-simple wordplay clues, i.e., [Hopping joint?] for KNEE, and [Recliner setting] for DEN.
All in all, a sterling Sunday offering, and, surprise upon surprise – I loved the theme! Bravo on this, R&R!
Best Sunday we’ve seen in ages, for me at least. YMMV. Glad to see the thought-provoking Emily OSTER. And NYT v Sullivan was in the news recently, re the E. Jean Carroll case, I believe. Or something else involving our former slanderer-in-chief.
I’ve had the impression that STAFFS is American usage, “staves” British. Comes up a lot in music notation. Somehow, growing up in Texas, I was taught to say “staves,” then realized I was coming off a bit LAH-DI-DAH.
*Is that it?
Yep, similar take as Rex and the majority today. Nice to have something a bit more weekend-appropriate difficulty-wise. Some really excellent clues and answers; I bet Lewis will especially adore all the good phrases today.
I also appreciated the timeliness of the ANITA Hill cluing given the mishegas of the Supreme Court this week. The whole “my ex is a philosophy professor” thing came in handy with SYMBOLIC LOGIC. +1 to Anon @1:33; given the 90 degrees being heat, I thought the HOT YOGA cluing was apt.
Somewhat absurdly, the DEN/SNOW DAY cross was the last to fall for me. I just kept thinking of “Recliner setting” as a setting for the chair itself, and not grokking the relatively gentle punnery of “Break after a major fall?” Sometimes we get stuck in the oddest of places!
Re: yesterday and Lloyd’s indeed being a market, not a company - appreciated the correction from the insurance agents among us! And, if even the textbook for one of the most popular CFP programs in the country calls it a company (many CFPs also sell insurance), you can see why non-experts might be forgiven for their confusion.
I actually own the book (there are two editions) Wheel Estate : The Rise and Decline of Mobile Homes ....Good write up and I agree about Hot Yoga (angles?)
I thought "heel" was an outlier. You can have high heeled shoes, high heels, or heels for short, but not one heel (as you can have one boot, one clog, or one flat).
Just remembered: NYT v Sullivan came up re the Fox News v Dominion voting machines case. Apparently it’s okay to lie in print if you don’t do it in a mean way, or something like that.
Enjoyed it. Didn’t finish it unassisted, but enjoyed it anyway. Got the theme early enough and I was able to flow through the grid pretty nicely for a change. I was never going to get THUNBERG on my own and absolutely no clue what ANGLES they were referring to or what HOT YOGA even is, lol. Similarly, SYMBOLIC just seemed so arbitrary (aren’t all formulas symbolic?), especially with OTOE and BANTU lurking around over there to gum up the works.
Personally, I would prefer that the editors avoid nonsense like LAHDIDAH. Yes, it’s valid, but the NYT uses this convention much to frequently so that it becomes a slog to parse out these quasi phrase/sayings all the time (and the clue/answer link can be very tenuous - as it is today with HIGHFALUTIN).
@anon math teacher 5:21 - 90 degrees is the temperature. You make the angles with your body while doing the poses.
I thought the theme worked a few ways, none exactly literally. "fill" a pun on the act of doing a xword. "to" is a homonym for "two", thus filling the word twice.
Maybe the themers show two shoes that go ABOUT TWO FEET, i.e., around the feet. Lame, but possibly the corny intention?
Better than average Sunday, not so groan-y, all grockable, but agree with OFL that the theme was vague and lame.
Amen to Weezie at 7:41 re: Anita Hill! Are they revisiting same-sex marriage next?
I expect way more from Rafael Musa and I’m disappointed but I guess he may have been more of a consultant than a collaborator? Also I guess everyone has a bad day. Very bizarre theme.
Thx, Rebecca & Rafael; you're shoo-ins for the PIRATES BOOTY! 😊
Med (bang on avg time).
Not particularly in my WHEELHOUSE, but got the job done.
IT'S BEEN REAL! On to Mark Halpin's acrostic at xwordinfo.com
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Lester Ruff's Sat. Stumper was easy-med, and, as always, a good way to spend time and learn some things :)
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
AMOS/STP/PLATT was basically a guess. Fairly hard as Sundays go, although mostly that was about getting going at the beginning, and then the last section. In between pretty easy.
HEEL: First instance is split between two words, which is ideal. Second instance is all contained with in one word, and is at the end of that word, which is subpar.
BOOT: Both instances are contained within one word, and both instances are at the beginning of that word, which is subpar.
CLOG: Both instances are split between two words, which is ideal. But they are both split at the same point - between the C and the L, which is subpar.
FLAT: Second instance is split between two words, which is ideal. First instance is contained within one word, and appears at the beginning of that word, which is subpar.
Wasn't it proven that the content that FOX aired over a long period of time was false and they knew knew that they were spreading lies? Ergo a $787 million dollar judgement. I think if FOX had printed what they aired they would still be out $787 million.
.
Re: why they are “big” shoes, from the NYT Wordplay column: “ In the print edition of the puzzle, the empty grid has no horizontal dividers between the four-letter runs, creating a particular effect: Instead of entering the same letter twice, one right on top of the another, it is obvious that you are to enter each letter once, at double height. In the digital version, you get a four-by-two rectangle of gray boxes, and when you’re finished with the puzzle, the enlarging effect happens automatically.”
Started off with almost nothing for 5 minutes. Then noticed the 4 letter blocs were vertical duplicates and shoe types and was off to the races (though had NYC in for NYT for a long time)
Enjoyed it, though MY ipad app didn’t show really big shoes (in honor of SULLIVAN) at the end.
Alternative title could have been CROC BLOCS. What, a CROC? (Guess i just think “CROCs” sounds as funny as the shoes themselves look.)
I think a good title for this puzzle might have been:
ONE LETTER; TWO CLUES; LUCKY SOLVERS
This theme type -- and we've seen it before; more about that in a minute -- serves to make the theme answers twice as easy as they would be otherwise. Can't figure out WHEEL ESTATE? Ah, but you have heard of THE ELEPHANT MAN, haven't you? Or vice versa.
Another apt title would be TWO BITES AT THE APPLE.
So, very easy. And cute -- I did think it was cute. That is, I thought it was cute once I got over my visual unease.
The reason I know I've seen this kind of grid before is that I had the same slightly creeped-out reaction I had the first time. It's the reason I've never once been in a "funhouse" looking at distorted mirrors. Eeeek, no!!!! It's the reason I've never been to a horror movie since I was taken to "Snow White" at age 4 or 5. The Queen is holding an apple and you see her hand melt. Or the apple melt. Or both melt. And suddenly she's a hideous witch. It was something like that. Over the years, I've managed to block most of it out.
You see, I'm creeped out by unearthly, unhuman images and always avoid them. There was something about this grid with the squares melting into each other that was disturbing. But I soldiered on and finished it anyway. With the result that now there are no longer melting squares -- only very big letters.
Whew!
I sense this was more fun to design then solve. The shoe thing wasn’t that interesting to me. Quick solve. Parts felt like a TV guide puzzle. Others were challenging. Carpe diem.
Ah. Had the SHOW OVERLAYS button on my Ipad turned off, that’s why they didn't merge.
Also have the “play music when solved” off so that the dopey tune doesn’t resonate loudly when I’m solving in a long TSA line…
Hey All !
Ah, one you complete the puz, the NYT app changes the "two shoe types stacked" to erasing the lines twixt them, thereby getting you a BIG SHOE that's FILLed. They better keep up with their "trick-showing" (can't think of a better way to say that right now), since the Yearly puz charge is going to $50. Dang. That's like a 12%-ish increase. I'd get some of it back if they'd ever accept a puz submission of mine... 😁
The change to one BIG SHOE helps with the doubling problem in the Downs. "Ah, look now", the puz says, "it's just one BOOT, so your Downs aren't RABBBIT, but RABBIT." I see. Thank you puz.
Would've been neat, although nigh impossible, to not have any other letters doubled. Again, probably quite impossible, and beside, once the puz is done, the app gets you back to a single letter.
Ramblings aside, fun puz that stretched the brain just enough to not quit in frustration and not get majority stuck. Smooth solve.
Had clock for WATCH first. Sneaky, that. Finished, but with two Errors (FWE), LAHtIDAH/tEN (a recliner set to TEN? Would that give you super sleep?), and AMALIa/SaT. Thinking SaT was maybe Satellite Link or somesuch?
Happy Sunday all.
Four (or Five, depending on how you count FLAT) F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
WHEEL ESTATE is good, but I liked my answer better: WHEEL houses.
In the app, after the solve the two shoes merged into one big shoe, fwiw, which helps the theme make more sense (but the title humor eludes me still).
I broke my streak on this one, after a year-and-a-half. Failed to get the happy music, hunted down my mistake: pANET for the artist (DIpS seemed reasonable for “Turns down”). Still not done. Hunted down multiple typos, and finally had to check the puzzle to find the last one. So I guess it was a long day for many of us. In my case, woke up at 6 after Friday night’s thunderstorm to find huge branches down from the large oak tree next to our house and the walnut tree along the fence line, both with broken branches dangling. Repaired some fence damage and cleaned up what I could, but the oak branches were way too big for me to deal with. There was widespread tree damage across the city, but miraculously we got in touch with a tree guy who got here with his crew mid-afternoon and got to work. Watching him fly around up in the tree provided the entertainment for an impromptu visit from some family - if there’s not a reality show about tree trimmers there should be.
Unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to have to bring the oak down. There’s a lot of rot, and it’s awfully close to the house. We’ve had a love-hate relationship with it since we moved in 11 years ago - it will be nice not to be pelted with acorns on our deck and fire pit every fall, but we’ll miss the shade and the beauty.
the print version has a double-height rectangle for the shoe squares, both explaining the revealer and making it a whole lot easier.
Three times in June my post didn't appear, but who's counting? I am controversial or Blogger hates uniclues (which makes it unanimous). I still like reading most of the posts most of the days.
Another wheelhouse solve. Three in a row. Mostly fun. One of my fastest Sundays ever probably. Lots of PPP but it went away by cross.
That HOT YOGA clue, yeeshk.
Ended with an error: LAH-TI-DAH.
Uniclues:
1 Road to fame and fortune for the disfigured.
2 Here's your share of the loot.
3 Jazz octet.
4 Handles party clown requests.
5 The cost to your soul of your laughably terrible playlist.
1 THE ELEPHANT MAN AVENUE
2 Y'EARNED PIRATES' BOOTY
3 AIN'T BEBOP NINE (~)
4 STAFFS BIG SHOES TO FILL
5 EARBUDS ANNUAL FEE
Another *terrible* Sunday. Even getting the metagimmick, DNF. Hated it, hated it, hated it, every step of the way.
Maybe you and I are the last two print subscribers left. I searched for a comment explaining how the “big shoes” comment makes perfect sense in the print version. I guess (those of us who don’t live in NYC) had to wait for our papers to be delivered before starting the puzzle, making us late to the party
It’s an interesting point. I’m not sure, though, that my wife hasn’t said to me “hand me my other heel” or “I can’t find my other heel” or some such thing. In any case, I wouldn’t find it odd if she did.
Say what you will about CROCs, @Andrew - I was once firmly in the anti-CROC Camp myself - but upon moving to the country one of my first purchases was a pair of RealTree camo CROCs, and they are perfection. Wildly comfortable, great for garden chores and housework and general puttering around. With no one around to judge me but the chipmunks and birds (and a partner who couldn’t care less about my footwear), I’m delighted TO FILL my BIG SHOES on a daily basis.
Also, meant to remark on Oliver PLATT - he’s a bit more famous than “That Guy Who Was In That Thing” territory but still not super well-known, which is a shame because my goodness can he act. I don’t know if anyone here’s been watching The Bear, but season two is an absolute masterwork. While he only has an occasional appearance, he is magnificent. Nice to see him referenced today.
I'n with the travel-weary group, as we spent yesterday getting home from FL. I think I have the rare south-to-north version of jet lag, which doesn't involve changing time zones.
For whatever reason this seemed sloggy. I got the gimmick right away and I envy those of you whose apps made the shoe thing into one big square. My paper solve just sat there saying "ignore the letters for down answers". OK.
Hey @Weezie-Finished in exactly the same place and for exactly the same reason. And me a former teacher who liked SNOWDAYS as much as the kids. Duh.
Very much liked seeing MERCY as an expression, which made me think of the late great Red Sox announcer Ned Martin. He would only use it for the most dramatic moments. Master of understatement.
My wife and I have actually stayed at the ICEHOTEL they construct annually in Quebec. If you're wondering, it was very cool.
Sorry.
Kind of liked most of this one, RG and RM. Really Got me Reaching for My eraser more than once. Thanks for a fair amount of Sunday fun.
According to xwordinfo, this double-high boxes trick has been used several times before. Jeff Chen links to the previous examples. Kind of interesting how constructors keep stretching expectations for how crosswords should work.
@Anon 9:11 - Fox settled, they weren't adjudged to have defamed Dominion.
I think people who DNFed hate the puzzle. thats just how it goes. I thought it was great and the title was perfect, dont understand Rex’s hang up about the title. SYMBOLIC LOGIC I never heard of and HOT YOGA was an AHA and a chuckle once I got it . DIEINS was the last to drop as I never really heard of it, thought it s/b lIEINS . Nice Sunday puzzle, thanks Rebecca and Rafael
Not sure why WS describes the theme as "ambitious" in the note – the oversized letter thing has been done before (and better— see Jim Horne's link to earlier examples at Xword Info). And the puzzle title is nonsensical.
The print edition has tall boxes where the themers go, so you only enter the letters once. I got HEEL right away and then BOOT, which left me confused – one is part of a shoe and the other is a type of shoe? What is this theme doing? I eventually realized all four themers were being presented as types of shoes. Though I think of "clogs" and "boots" as specific types of shoes, whereas "heels" and "flats" are really just shorthand for the elevation factor.
Anyway, I was not head over heels with this. And Jeff Chen POW!ed it. Uh-oh.
Who remembers earth shoes? I had a pair of blue suede ones in the early 70's, about the same shade as this album cover. They were really comfortable.
Solving in the magazine, I was provided the BIG SHOE boxes, and that helped me: while THE ELEPHANT MAN was easy to get, I had no idea about WHEEL ESTATE, so having HEEL handed to me was a gift. Similarly, BOOTY directed me to BOOTHS (I'd been thinking of carnival games as coin-toss spots). After the first two theme answers were in, I decided to try to guess the other two to make solving a little more challenging; the thing was, with only four letters, having just one was a give-away. Anyway, overall I found the puzzle easy, but with diminishing returns in the fun department.
Had trouble with 101D AMELIa and 126A SaT ... Natick? Can someone explain why Ready-to-go link is a SET? I was thinking SaT as in a satellite link being always available and ready to use. Doesn't quite feel like a fair cross.
I protest! Having OSU and a separate clue about a beaver mascot (TIM) and neither had anything to do with the Oregon State University Beavers! The good folks of Corvallis (affectionately known elsewhere in the state as Corn Valley for its rustic unsophistication) will likely take this lying down.
Talk about a puzzle with current awareness. They even caught the recent change from Zubin Facebook to Zubin Mehta.
Of course a modern tech business can’t go public until it STAFFS up, or in the UK, staves up.
Love seeing the notorious BIG OSTER slowly emerging in the NYT.
REAL FUN Sunday. Thanks, Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa.
The clue for 69A demonstrates symbolic logic, but does so incorrectly. If (p.q) translates as p or q, then -(p.q) must translate as not (p or q) which is equivalent to (-p & -q). But this means neither p nor q, while not both means p and not q or q and not p. Symbolically, ((p&-q).(q&-p)). Standard Intro to Symbolic Logic confusion.
I think the title is just making a pun off of common measurement language. “how big is that?” “about two feet”
Weezie (10:45 AM)
I'm in your camp re: CROCs; wear them everywhere (except rain and SNOW DAYs). Am also in agreement re: PLATT, with 'Pieces of April' being one of my faves.
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude, Serendipity, & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Ready...SET...Go!
Oooohhhhhh. Good thinking. Thanks for that
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I have great respect for constructors. I couldn't even draw the draw the boxes
Where I live there is a mobile home park called WHEEL ESTATEs, so here at least it’s real.
Ready SET go.
Ready? SET! Go!!!
I thought it was fun, good clues, right level of hardness, and the theme made sense to me. I differ from many here in needing the theme to be 100% right on to enjoy the puzzle.
I enjoyed it; finished with no cheats. It also had some STEM related clues (i’m a scientist).
@Weezie 1045...I once tried Croc's...I failed. My daughter wears them and so does my 5 year old granddaughter. They both swear by them. My go to shoes nowadays are the Mary Jane Chinese Flats. I also wear the KungFu's and If I want to get fancy, I'll buy some silk Han. Sounds snobby Rich Asian but I swear by them and they are not expensive.!
Re The Bear series. You give me "food, family and insanity" and I'll watch it. I love all of it. Haven't started the second series but it's on tonight's menu.
Ready SET go. About Two Feet: as in Shoes go on our two feet. Puzzle is about our two feet. Charlotte Amalie, capital of the Virgins. Wheel estate/Real estate.
Sheesh. Very clever puzzle, IMO.
The movie was called "Elephant Man", as your illustration of the poster makes vividly apparent. No definite article. Which is why I refused to fill it in until I had ll the crosses. And the "Hot Yoga" clue was a disgrace.
HEEL, BOOT, CLOG, FLAT. That's it, huh?
Cute puztitle, tho … cuz shoes *are* worn about both of yer two feet.
Also a kinda clever revealer, altho it seems to be slightly off on a different track than the puztitle is. Confused the M&A, at first.
staff weeject pick: Dang. 36 candidates to choose from?! What is this, a GOP prez SLATE? Guess I'll go with E(AA)T. Which could then sorta rate a neater clue, such as: {Have a reaally big meal??} = EAAT. Hey -- possible runtpuz theme mcguffin someday.
some other fave stuff: WHEELESTATE. REDDWARF. BUTWHY. SLUSHY. WATCH clue. TOLLBOOTHS clue.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Goldstein darlin & Mr. Musa dude. I really kinda dugg it.
Masked & Anonymo12Us
**gruntz**
In the print version, the cells ARE two squares high (big), so the reveal makes much more sense.
Haven’t read all the comments but @Rex and others questioned the validity of the theme "About Two Feet". It seems pretty straightforward to me, as long as you accept 'about' to mean 'around' or 'surrounding'. Each of the theme answers is a pair of shoes of different types, and a pair of shoes are worn 'around' two feet.
I was going to type in about my solve, but really who cares where I flew and where I was slogged. But - while I think the puzzle was misnamed (I get the shoes go on the feet thing, but still a bad name), the revealer was perfect. I solved online so entered each word twice, ignored the extra, duplicated letters on the down answers, and thought it was messy. I thought that Rex would explain it all to me in the morning. But on completion, the computer/puzzle did it for me!
Fun Sunday, perfect for a gray wet morning (chilly, wet, and foggy here near Deer ISLE - think we've had about 4 hours of sunshine over the last couple weeks). Biggest hangup for me was there in the east, appropriately enough, where sItINS became lIEINS and finally DIEINS, each more attention grabbing I guess, and finally got SNOWDAY and saw DEN as where you put a recliner while I fussed through possible settings like firm, soft, etc. Foggy indeed, but fun when it all fell into place, and on my NYT games app, sure enough, big shoes. Isn't 'About two feet' just that? The puzzle's about two feet, each one getting a shoe?
Aha! Ready SET Go... thank you all, I forgot to turn my head sideways on that one.
Wow, I did NOT get that! Thanks!
I'm feeling a little unsettled physically today, so instead of taking a long morning walk I stayed home and solved this puzzle. I'm gland I did!
Yeah, the big boxes in the printed paper really helped, since it made it clear how to handle the crossing downs, as well as making the shoes big while you were solving, not just after you finished. I was sorry to see the duplicate TEs after FLAT and e after HEEL, but it must have been really hard to make this all work.
I'd never heard of WHEEL ESTATE either, but I loved it. It says 'punnily' right there in the clue, doesn't it? I also enjoyed the really convoluted ways of cluing crossword stalwarts such as NENE. I remember there being more of those, but can't spot them at this moment.
The Sullivan doctrine didn't apply to Dominion, since they are a corporation, not a public official. Trump had been a public official, but Carroll was suing him for defamation, not the other way around. It's an important protector of freedom of the press, in any case.
I spent about 10 minutes searching the web to see if Emily Oster is related to the guy who marketed the Osterizer (she isn't), and only just now noticed that Rex put a picture of one right next to her bio. It seems to be filled with candy, which I guess is a repurposing since it's now nearly obsolete, like the TOLLBOOTH, which is becoming a phantom. Solvers decades from now will have a lot of trouble with that clue.
Google may have just eaten my comment; I'll come back a little later and post again if it hasn't shown up.
In that case, the pun should have been written the other way around to be appreciated, viz., "Big shoes two fill."
Yes, it does! Clever but Rex missed it in his exhausted state.
Re: wheel estate. All words are made up. We don't plant word seeds and then harvest them.
Print version shows one big box for each of the letters of the shoes, and you can fill them twice as big, which is kind of fun-ish.
Sunday, at home, solved in print. You all have covered the boxes situation, which is very clear in print. I thought it was um, too easy overall. For ex, filled in the revealer off just the F from RED DWARF. Also, so much crosswordese... like our SB friend NENE! Although I FWE, silly me, I *know* it's Charlotte AMALIE but had SaT thinking satellite link and didn't realize it until reading comments, so thx for that.
On to the acrostic (for some things it is nice to be home, not the weather, though).
Interesting that STP was a problem. It has been a convenient three letter fill for ages, and used many times. It hasn’t been used as much lately. Maybe that’s why it caused you problems. Remember it because it will definitely appear again. It is a probably useless additive in the gas tank
In the old days it was advertised constantly so us older people are all too familiar with it. ( I can hear it now)
Pretty tricky in spots especially the area surround SYMBOLICLOGIC which included NYT, AMOS, PROPBETS and MIB. Cever theme. Enjoyable solve.
Seems like we had another puzzle this tear with single letters occupying two boxes (that is to say the 4 letters in HEEL are meant to occupy two vertical boxes instead of only one box--so the "shoes" can be "big").
Which leads me to think we need to have a term to describe this kind of fill. Since it's a rebus when two or more letters are crammed into a single box, perhaps, when a single letter occupies two or more boxes, we could refer to that device as an ANTI-REBUS or, better yet, a SUBER.
Other ideas?
How Booooooooring... Guess the computers these makers use are fond of one-off clues/answers never to he seen again... And bastardizing the spelling of clues and answers ... Ma, look what they've done to my Sunday NYT xword... How sad!
That is a bit disingenuous. Fox settled and agreed to pay a muti BILLION dollar settlement solely because they knew they were going to lose, i.e. to have a huge possibly bigger judgment against them. The plaintiff followed the old adage a (in this case a very large) bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush. If you have any knowledge about how courts work, very strong cases like this are almost always settled. It is only the weaker cases that go to trial. A huge settlement like this is stronger evidence of liability than a judgment.
I thought hifallutin and lahdidah are pretty close in meaning. The opposite of tenuous.
I have no independent knowledge but I looked into it briefly and immediately found an argument that since under Constitutional Law corporations are persons and therefore could be public figures. I also remember reading that Fox initially assumed the case was not dangerous because they felt Dominion could not meet the Sullivan standard. I got the impression that everyone assumed Sullivan applied to the case.
Well, not terribly original since the “big letter” thing has been done. I git it immediately when SOL had to go in as SOLL. So in the first grey squares I filled those in just to be sure that they would be identical. ✅. Only took me one more (it happened to be the CLOG) to convince me that we were going to be talking about shoes. Easy Sunday, well executed by our constructors. A rather enjoyable solve.
CCNY Beavers!!
Had “GUN” check, and “OSNER”.
Easy for me until I got to the SW. I just could not figure out what "BIG SHOE" went in there. Something ending in T because of TABOO, but...? Not BOOT, won't work. And besides we already have one of those--UNLESS there's supposed to be a pair! When at long last I was forced into FLAT, I cried foul. A HEEL can be big, as in high. BOOT and CLOG, yeah, pretty substantial. But FLAT??? No no, my friend, there's no way you can call a FLAT "big." That one CLEARLY does not belong. Threw me off throughout that whole section. The clue for HOTYOGA didn't help. I very nearly DNF, and it's the constructor's fault, not mine.
Some nice entries here; I especially liked LAHDEDAH. But a so-so theme with an outlier, and a rather dire protest: DIEIN. I mean, there are things I'd like to protest, but not THAT much! Bogey.
Wordle bogey, but for a word like that, feels more like a par.
ACTS SHY
ANITA said, "YOUFLATTERME,
'tho I YIELD BOOTY TO other men."
TIM RECALLed, "YOU're HOT, YOU see,
is IT TABOO if I WANT_SIN?"
--- ELSA THUNBERG
BIGSHOESTOFILL, about two feet, wha??? Didn't matter, BUTWHY? Not that much LOGIC to the 'theme". Cheri OTERI was a fave back in the day, now all but forgotten except in xworld.
Wordle par.
As the kids don't say these days: Once you've grokked it, you've unlocked it!
Rex, get some sleep!
You're off your grokker!!!
@Joe Dipinto 11:19 am:
Earth Shoes are still made. I get their emails all the time.
@Upstate George 12:53 pm:
I just looked it up online and the title of the movie was THE Elephant Man.
Google before you speak.
In order to counteract the hyper negativity seen on this blog on a daily basis, I will now provide you with some hyper positivity:
This is the best Sunday crossword puzzle ever in the history of Sunday crossword puzzles ever!
You yin
I yang
Equilibrium is restored.
You're welcome!!!
JIC there are other syndicated delay readers still commenting — how is 43A Court count leading to NINE?
I just gave up on this puzzle after working on it all week in syndiland. I love all the bits I didn't understand, am really disappointed in watching my abilities fade here. But Cross@words 1:33 PM (on what day??) posted:
JIC there are other syndicated delay readers still commenting — how is 43A Court count leading to NINE?
I didn't get that either, until I read the question, and then right away thought of the number of members on the US Supreme Court.
I wish I'd seen the double height letters. My paper has missed printing random grid lines just often enough that the one place I did notice that, I thought it was the printing of the grid in the paper again. I was going to complete them myself but decided I could ignore them.
@Cross@Roads: 9 is the COUNT of the number of Justices on the Supreme COURT.
I don't blame people for not knowing Stephen K. Amos, but he's one of my (and my wife's) favorite comedians. Highly recommended.
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