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Volcano output / MON 7-31-23 / Casper is a friendly one / Add one's two cents / Provoked / Group of showbiz elites / CT scan alternatives / Material for LPs / Stares said to inflict curses
Monday, July 31, 2023
Constructor: David Litman and Andrea Carla Michaels
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: SEE YOU IN COURT
Word of the Day: CLOWN CAR (5D: Comically packed circus vehicle) —
A clown car is a prop in a common circus clown routine, which involves a large number of clowns emerging from a small car. The first performance of this routine was in the Cole Bros. Circus during the 1950s.[1] The effect is usually produced by removing all of a car's internal components like door panels, headliners, engines, seats, and any interior barrier to the trunk, and then filling the enlarged space with as many clowns as possible.[2] Greg DeSanto of the International Clown Hall of Fame estimates that somewhere between 14 and 21 clowns and their props could fit into a car prepared in this manner.[2]
• • •
Theme answers:
- VENUS WILLIAMS (19A: Tennis great with a sister who's also a tennis great)
- KING CHARLES III (24A: British royal crowned in May 2023)
- SONIA SOTOMAYOR (45A: First Latina justice, successor to David Souter)
- SEE YOU IN COURT (51A: Words before legal action … or what one might exclaim to 19-, 24- and 45-Across?)
As such, I feel very strongly that Mondays need to be ultra smooth! Every Monday puzzle could be someone's first puzzle ever, and if they see things like ARETE or SSTS or ASTA or OSES, etc., etc., they might think puzzles aren't for them. But puzzles are for everyone! So the Monday puzzle has a huge responsibility to be fun and accessible and smooth.
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| Look! It's lava! |
Thankfully I enjoyed this one. Three kinds of court: sport, royal, legal. Each represented by a very well-known person ... and a very in-the-language revealer. I wish there had been a way to clue the revealer in a way that didn't refer to one of the court meanings, so that all three felt like they had equal footing. Minor nit ... you can't have it all, and the theme works well enough for me.
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| A Frida Kahlo self-portrait |
Generally not a fan of The Monarchy™, but at least it was fun to see KING CHARLES III for the first time in a crossword. Could have gone without YEOMEN, though. I think you only get one (1) English royal term per puzzle! O'TOOLE also had old and fusty vibes, but overall the fill was nice and smooth as a Monday should be.
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| Potatoes are delicious |
Nothing much else to say about this one. A cute Monday offering!
Bullets:
- SAUL (32A: AMC's "Better Call ___") — I have never watched this show nor have I watched Breaking Bad. I think I'd really enjoy them but the activation energy for me to start a show with that many seasons is so high.
- TSOS (56A: General ___ chicken) — I have also never had General Tso's Chicken. (Is it good? Should I try it?)
- IONS (10D: Atoms with charges) — If I may be pedantic for a moment, molecules can be ions too! I guess you can say that molecules are atoms so the clue is fine, but I might prefer [Atoms with charges, e.g.]
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76 comments:
Rafa! Sorry you're not a fan of The Monarchy™, as a Canadian I think it is a nicely moderating influence to the messy business of democracy. Charles has some big shoes to fill, his mom HRM Liz II was one epic monarch.
Better Call Saul was pretty good, but it tended to drag... I watched one whole season where basically nothing of note happened until the last episode. And I second your point about molecules also being ions.
Solving down only, I finished with only one hiccup, at 2 down "Paper towel leftover" where I had CORE. Without looking at the across clues, it took a while to get an alternative that made plausible acrosses. TUBE it is!
[Spelling Bee: Sun currently -3, looks like my brain is taking the weekend off.]
Hey, Rafa! Took a peek here for David’s sake and pleased/relieved it was you…and glad you liked!
I might agree with the YEOMAN comment, but obviously our strongest fill for that space! I like to think that it reflects nicely on KINGCHARLESIII (a brand new entry) rather than exceeds some hidden quota on English references…
And I must defend another UK mention in OTOOLE. To call the mention of one of the greatest actors of all time (star of “Lawrence of Arabia” another 3 hour film but worth every minute!) “fusty” is unfortunate! I’m in my 60s, mentoring a teen on this puzzle and am hopeful and delighted to expose him and others to take an interest in things that have preceded their birth!!! It’s the reason I continue to partake despite the casual ageism I’m experiencing in the comments of the Twitter/crossworld/blogosphere or whatever you “young folk” call it! ;)
Not being crazily defensive, I hope! Just wanting to shed light from the critiqued’s perspective!
Easy-medium. Smooth with some fine long downs. My only issue is that I’m not sure how well the VENUS answer works with the “IN COURT” reveal. Liked it and Jeff gave it POW.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #830 was easy for a Croce or about 2 X a NYT Saturday. Toughest part for me was the bottom center section. Good luck!
Well ... at least there was no chance that 31A could be tit-tat-toe, so we don't need to relitigate that issue.
@Rafa -- This is right on the money: "Every Monday puzzle could be someone's first puzzle ever, and if they see things like ARETE or SSTS or ASTA or OSES, etc., etc., they might think puzzles aren't for them. But puzzles are for everyone!"
I also agree that I didn't care for Oppenheimer, but there's a really good two-hour movie hiding inside it.
Good point about the IONS clue.
Puzzle was a good, easy Monday. No overwrites.
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. They use "like" in a non-Valley Girl way (7)
2. Bars for checking people out (3)(4)
3. Gathering to show off a new rock band? (10)(5)
4. Purveyor of game pieces (6)(4)
5. They're up before anyone else (8)
SIMILES
UPC CODE
ENGAGEMENT PARTY
SPORTS DESK
LEADOFFS
The puzzle seemed to go a little heavier with the PPP, including the artist, poet, some actors (and a podcaster?) today. It may be a long week if one is not a trivia-buff.
Still a beginner here, but this was a PB for me by a longshot, shaving a couple minutes off my best
First time that I have done a downs-only solve faster than my average. @okanaganer, I also thought corE before TUBE (my last answer) but LoKE and ArIT were clearly wrong. Otherwise, almost everything went in on clues only - barely had to look at across letters at all.
I had no idea what tied Venus and Chuck together, but I had the aha at Sonia. I did wonder what the revealer would be and I liked it, though Rafa is right that the court in “See you in court” is literally Sonia’s kind of court but not that of the other two. And @Jae is right that you would see Venus on court not in court. No matter, very fun and nice to see EVIL EYES.
YEOMEN might have been better clued as a naval term, but I think it's very forgivable here. Easy Monday, because the theme clues were pretty much of a giveaway.
Great write-up Rafa, and I enjoyed reading Andrea’s comments giving a bit more context to everything. I thought this was a sweet Monday puzzle and would have been my best time ever except that I put in “tata” instead of CIAO and then never saw the downs (I was solving acrosses first) so then had to hunt to find my mistakes.
Loved Rafi’s comment about the activation energy needed to start a show with many seasons already made - exactly how I feel about several series out there that I’m sure I would enjoy. I haven’t seen Oppenheimer yet but I also agree that Barbie is great!
New best time, 2:14. And it wasn't even all that smooth, so I guess I could probably shave off a few seconds more.
Cute theme - well filled. A little trivia laden - but overall slick and fresh. EVIL EYES, CHIMES IN, YEOMEN are nice non-themers. Maybe TAC was a give back for all you who bitched yesterday about TAT. Not a lot of plurals but they all seem to be concentrated in the bottom of the grid.
Down with Rafa on never seeing SAUL or Breaking Bad - but O’TOOLE was great - try My Favorite Year or Mr. Chips.
Enjoyable Monday solve.
Mike NESS
Solved downs only for the first time; didn’t really enjoy the experience. Had trouble with TUBE, like @okanaganer, and also SEMINARY, but the main thing I disliked was missing out on the sparkly across clues.
Oppenheimer, OTOH, was terrific despite its length IMO. Really got me thinking again about the enormously frought world we now inhabit. I recently learned that geologists are defining a new earth history epoch, the Anthropocene, beginning right around the time I was born in the mid-twentieth century. We’ve come to take for granted that our species now threatens the survival of all life on the planet in multiple ways, but that has only been a lifelong concern for generations currently alive. And my elderly Boomer cohort is the only one of those still mostly present that can be confident our lives will not be cut short or radically altered by what humans have wrought. O brave new world…
Thanks for a fine Monday, ACMe, and nice to see you back as a commenter!
Agree that this is a Monday that knows how to Monday. Nice theme and a revealer I didn't really see coming, probably because I was zipping along and couldn't be bothered to slow down and actually think about something.
Slight pause at the OMAR/RAMI cross. Someday I'll get caught up on my pop culture. Not today though.
Nice one, DL and ACM. Did Like me A Clever Monday and thanks for all the fun.
Yikes this one filled quickly. New PR for me, done in half my average Monday time. Granted, I don't speed run, so my average isn't extreme... But then again, I don't speed run and this puzzle still basically completed itself.
Nevertheless, it was pretty solid fill. No big complaints.
I'm a little confused by Rafa complaining about YEOMEN being a royal term. Yeoman are basically just low-level land owners. Part of the class system, yes, but not royals. Now, the tower gaurds may be associated with the monarchy because of the Tower of London, but that's the clue's fault for singling out that specific meaning -- although I admit a different clue might be too tough for Monday. Nevertheless, like Rafa's IONS clue, this one also would have worked with "e.g." if those are the nits we're picking.
Hah
Yes, you need to have General Tso's chicken. It's a Chinese food standard.
Great write up! I agree about Barbie, fabulous film. Haven’t seen Oppenheimer but I am not a fan of three hour movies either!
Thx, David & ACM; your STARs shone brightly in this one! 😊
Hi Rafa; always nice to hear from you! 😊
Good to see ACMe stop by, too. Miss you! 😔
Easy-med.
Very smooth solve. No hitches along the way, if one doesn't count not being able to sp SOTOMAYOR without the crosses. (chuckles to self, or to be more concise, lol)
Full of coincidences: 1) Had TAC yd; 2) Currently listening to 'Eliot NESS and The Mad Butcher'; 3) Currently reading, 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom' by T.E. Lawrence, and following along watching O'TOOLE in the movie on CTV; 4) Recently finished 'Mary Baker EDDY : Christian Healer'; 5) Just a few moments ago, finished a chess puzzle which had the KINGs one space apart in the corner, white to move and down a rook, with only a pawn and bishop to execute the mate.
Mom was born in Moscow, IDAHO.
Served as a YEOMAN, first in the Gunnery office, then the First Lieutenant's Office on the USS Bryce Canyon, '62-'65.
Another fine early week production. Liked it very much! :)
Thx @jae; on it this PM! 🤞
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Terrific NYT acrostic by David Balton & Jane Stewart on xwordinfo.com yd.
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Currently working on a Globe and Mail cryptic, which is a bear, so far. Anna Shechtman's Mon. New Yorker on tap for tm 🤞
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
We're home from our weekend in western Massachusetts, where we saw some great art exhibitions at the Clark Institute and Mass. Museum of Contemporary Art; and I'm up early because a crew is outside power-washing the house preparatory to painting it. So I'm here sooner than usual.
I forgot to look at the constructors until I got here, and am delighted to see ACME and her collaborator. Very smooth indeed -- but I have to stick up for ASTA, one of the greats in movie dogdom.
I liked the theme, but that "SEE YOU got me thinking -- COURT already has C and U in it, but are there synonyms for court that could be combined with c and u to make other words? Um, no. I shouldn't waste my time thinking about such things.
I thought 3 hours would be too much, but my wife dragged me to "Oppenheimer" with her, and I really liked it. Now I'm trying to drag here to "Barbie," but I'm not sure I'll succeed.
Unfortunately, after seeing "If I HAD A nickel" my mind immediately tried to fit it into the folk song about the hammer et al. "If I had a nickel, I'd spend it in the morning..." Now that will be going through my head all day.
@ACME, thanks for stopping by! Wish we heard from you more often.
Who else had Tic-TIT-Toe?
Titters (or LOL, as you kids don’t say.)
TITTERS would make a good autoreply to texted jokes. More realistic chuckle than the usual chucklehead reaction.
And if you get a DM with devastatingly bad news, TATTERS would be an apt response. As in “your life is now in…”
A defining problem for me with the theme was the fact that I would never say "see you in court" to a tennis player or to a monarch. The first would be "on court" and the second "at court". It's a pity really because the fill is otherwise not bad at all. Am I being too pedantic?
ALMOST!!! I filled in the entire puzzle Downs-Only, except for 2D. I got hung up because 1A (without looking at the clue) could have been ScAR or SpAR or StAR and 2A could have been LaKE or LiKE etc. And somehow the 2D clue wasn’t enough on its own. But getting the entire puzzle Downs-Only except for one answer feels like a major accomplishment. Yay me, as the crosswords sometimes say.
I never saw Breaking Bad but Better Call Saul was utterly fabulous. As was Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia — every precious minute of it.
Hi ACME! I want to think that my nearly-perfect Downs-Only performance has you to thank!
Arrrrgh - okay, I'll go see Barbie.
That's a nice notion -- to think of every Monday as someone's first puzzle. Joe DiMaggio said something like he played every game as if there were some kid in the stands who never saw him play before.
Paul O'Neill tells the story of meeting Ted Williams once and saying "Mr. Williams, when I was a little kid I saw you play at Fenway once." And he gave him some details like what the month and year were and who the opponent was. "You probably don't remember, but you homered in the eighth inning." And Williams said: "A fastball -- high and away."
Now that story can't be true, because O'Neill was born in 1963. Or maybe it wasn't O'Neill. But I like the story so much I can't let go of it.
“Court” is often used in vague and tricky clues. In the last two weeks, for instance, we’ve had [Court activity, familiarly] and [Court in a courtyard, perhaps]. What could the answers be? (Answers are paragraph four.)
But what a lovely stroke to base an entire theme, rather than just one answer, on many meanings of “court”! The three theme names are the clues – what do they have in common? – and I at least couldn’t figure it out, after much trying, before uncovering the revealer.
I don’t remember this ever being done in a puzzle before – basing a riddly theme on “court” – and Jeff Chen didn’t offer any examples, leading me to believe this is a first. Bravo on that, Andrea and David!
(HOOPS and SERENADE.)
Meanwhile, the grid just has that perfect Monday feel – butter-smooth clues, sparkle in answers, the feel of confidence in the construction. Surprising note: All three names are NYT puzzle debuts! Furthermore, there’s the heart-warming backstory that Andrea took David, the son of a friend, under her wing, and voila! Published in the NYT!
With so much going for it, this puzzle buoyed my day. I left it feeling, “Ain’t life grand?” Thank you, you two, for making this beauty!
Totally agree about Mondays. I expect them to be super easy and accessible, so the theme can’t be tricksy. Generally the theme elicits an “oh that’s cute” from me and that’s about it. But that’s good! As you say it could be someone’s first solve!
I liked that the names here were very gettable for adults in the US. Not sure how Sotomayor would play for someone outside the US.
There was some common crosswordese in there but all very gettable to a new solver and clued fairly. No trying to hide what EGGOS are or relying on obscure actors, athletes, or architects with the right combination of letters in their name.
Great Monday.
TAC!
A thoughtful write-up by Rafi, and great to hear from ACM(E) on both sides of the blog. I didn’t get the happy music right away and thought I had messed up the intersection of RAMI and OMAR, but it turned out that PSAT did not work well with EVIpEYE…thought the theme was light fun and appropriate for a Monday. Went well with coffee and toast.
In my book, YEOMAN will always be the rank of Janice Rand on the original Star Trek.
Hard agree and thank you so much Rafa for your thoughts on Monday puzzles. We all start somewhere and I neither have the will nor time to be a gatekeeper. (Not that I'm accusing anyone of doing that.) But also, at the risk of a little cognitive dissonance, thank you Andrea for your comments defending OTOOLE. We can have puzzles that are both accessible and fresh while still being inclusive to a variety of ages. I love still learning stuff from crosswords, it just means on a Monday the new names and terms will be easier to solve with the crosses. Like today I learned that the phrase "activation energy" can be applied in a non-sciency way and I am so here for it.
I'll 100% forgive the various prepositions of SEEYOUIN(at/on)COURT since first, they're all idiomatic anyways and second, it was such a cute theme I can't be mad at it. My only quibble would be the kealoa of HEM and HEe, especially when clued as "Haw's partner".
Hey All !
Well, looky here, TAC! Too funny after the TIT for TAT TIC/TAC YesterPuz. The RETURN of TAC. Sounds like a horror movie...
Neat puz. Good ole ACME returning on a MonPuz. Pretty clean grid, an ACME staple. I see she brought along David, who gets top billing. Unsure how these collaborations work.
A lot of Blockers today, 44! The trouble with 13 letter Themers is you often get stuck having to put a Blocker Bunch of 5 in, like in todays. They managed to keep the Threes low, though, considering the Blocker count.
Another Monday, man these come around quickly! How your week is great!
No F's (Gives David and ACME the EVIL EYE)
😁
RooMonster
DarrinV
Super excellent superior Monday but that’s to be expected when the lovely Ms. Michaels is in the picture. David, I see a bright crossword future for you, especially as you’ve started out on the right collaborator foot. Thanks for the enjoyable solve – I also loved SEMINARY – and congratulations on your debut.
CLOWN CAR was an appropriate entry considering how they occasionally make COURT appearances. Matter of fact, there have been some referenced in the news recently, something about an election.
SEE YOU IN COURT is such a nice, in-the-language phrase for a lawsuit. It makes for a colorful revealer.
But why clue the three theme people in such a completely obvious way? I mean I know it's Monday and all, but novice solvers haven't exactly been living under a rock.
In fact I didn't find any resistance anywhere in the puzzle -- leaving me with nothing remotely challenging to do except to try and guess the theme before reading the revealer. When no theme quickly came to mind, I then read the revealer. With the Y already in place, I saw it right away.
A pretty slam-dunk puzzle -- even for a Monday.
Fastest solve ever, and not just by a whisker. Just started reading acrosses and filling them in, and never had to resort to a down until I hit the revealer at 51A. Then I did need to go and fix 'tata' to CIAO when 'tHIMES IN' didn't make sense.
Croce 830 medium for me, with the NE being particularly thorny (despite the two long acrosses leading into it already in place).
The KING, sitting in his OVAL COURT, would wait until the STAR in OSHA aligned with VENUS before he became ALIVE.
You see, there was a GHOST that would CROP out of the OLDE SAGS PARLOR just as soon as the ticTAC CHIMES III in the WHEE hours. If VENUS and OSHA didn't align, the KING would SEE a HUE of the GHOST (which looked A BIT like a CLOWN) getting into his CAR. The KING needed to URGE the GHOST to leave.
He would call the MAYOR, MR IS, and ask him to leave the SEMINARY in order to call in his STAR YEOMEN, NATE, KHALO and MARC. They were A BIT LEAR of the EVIL EYE the KING might SNIP if they DIDN'T obey, but as long as they were ALIVE, it would SEEM A BIT prudent to SAUL this problem.
SO TO do this, they needed a TOOL. O, NATE had some USED OLDE REINS he could HEM into a VINYL CROP. They RAN this ITEM by KHALO because she REINS the roost. KHALO was GOADED into approval. She wanted to say CIAO to this GHOST busiNESS, but her EGGO got the better of her and she was A BIT curious.
When the ticTAC CHIMES III, the YEOMEN gathered their USED OLDE VINYL CROP REINS and approached the OLDE SAGS PARLOR. You could hear CRIES of pig OINKS from the nearby EDDY...The KINGs COURT filled with LAVA, people became ILL and you could hear CRIES of TSOS...They needed to say CIAO to this GHOST...Just ASK the MAYOR!
The YEOMEN did their job. The GHOST left for IDAHO in his CAR and DIDN'T even say CIAO. "What a CLOWN" yelled KHALO. "I will ASK KING CHARLES if we can become an ITEM. "I will STAR as VENUS in a WHEE SNIP and we can ASK the MAYOR, MR IS, if this would LUKE A BIT OLDE." "Not A BIT" cried MR IS..."KING ChARLES needs some good OLDE fashion WHEE...and what better way to end this story!"
And they all lived happily ever after....
@Rafa: Thank you for joining us this past week; I’ve enjoyed your writeups. I especially agree with you that constructors of Monday puzzles have a huge responsibility to hit just the right balance between simplicity and complexity. I thought David and Andrea nailed it nicely today.
@Liveprof (8:03) Loved your baseball story, a very apropos analogy to the concept of a first-time crossword solver and a good theory to apply to most any job. When Covid was raging I went to a Walgreens drive-thru for a swab test. The employee at the window reeled off the instructions so rapidly that I had to ask her to repeat some of it. I could see she was a bit annoyed so when I thanked her, I explained that while it may have been the umpteenth time she spoke those words, it was my first time ever hearing them.
Too soon to see TAC in the puzzle. I'm still distraught from yesterday.
Thanks Andrea for the terrific puzzle, and the for calling out the casual age-ism thrown around. I have hope for a better world with younger generations' apparent sensitivity to people from overlooked groups, but not when it is treated as a zero sum game with freedom to disparage individuals from others.
Hilarious troll job one-two punch to have tic-TAC-toe today:)
PPP themers would require a pretty big hiding rock in order not to know. Loved seeing KAHLO and MARC Maron - who comes around regularly bc of the first name spelling, and Marc Antony is a little fusty:)
STAR felt a little naked without "north" for navigation since the rest of them move around. "moon" would be even worse to use.
@Rafa: I did try the General Tso's Chicken, one time at a Chinese restaurant in Oklahoma. That particular servin was fine, but nuthin to make m&e an avid fan.
Haven't seen "Oppenheimer" and haven't seen "Barbie". But our nearby movie theater shut down [I think the whole COVID ordeal kinda wiped it out]. Maybe I can stream em on the Netflix someday, or somesuch.
This was the Puz of the Week, accordin to xwordinfo.chen. Always great to see ACME darlin back in the MonPuz saddle, I must say. And a bonus of even gettin blog comments from her. Like.
staff weeject pick: OTS. Plural abbreve meat. And possible basketball COURT tie-in to the puztheme.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Artist Frida renowned for her self-portraits} = KAHLO.
other faves: CLOWNCAR. VINYL. SEMINARY clue.
Thanx for gangin up on us in court, ACME darlin & Mr. Litman dude. And congratz to David Littman on his half-debut.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
An easy, fun Monday. Thanks to you both!
I've often said here that Jeff Chen's POW has nothing to do with how enjoyable the solve is. Today is a striking example. Absolutely no crunch or sparkle and yet Chen honored it.
I liked Oppenheimer but the last hour dragged.
The cryptic in Saturday's WSJ by Cox and Rathvon was excellent. Besides having to decipher some devilish clues, some entries needed to be changed before being entered (adding or dropping a letter, using a homophone or an anagram). If you would like to talk about it, email me.
Please spare me the lectures about how Mondays aren't for experienced solvers.
While Rafa’s write up was fine, I would like to pick a couple of nits:
10D(Atoms with charges) would not benefit from adding “e.g.”. Molecules doesn’t fit in four spaces. If the clue was “Australian bird” and the answer had three letters, you don’t need a “e.g.” to know it isn’t Kookaburra.
Also, “OTOOLE had old and fusty vibes”. WTF? I guess so would Jesus, Einstein, Shakespeare and Gilda Radner. Let us henceforth avoid the dreaded dead people answers in crosslandia.
To mention those two things and not even blink at CHIMESIN and ICEIN for dupe INS seems sloppy and forced.
On to the puzzle. I also wished that the revealers use of COURT didn’t apply to one of the themers more specifically than the others. It got me to thinking that COURTDISASTER is a well-known phrase with the right number of letters. How you would clue it to also apply to VENUS, CHARLES and SONIA is above my pay grade.
If “nary” means “not”, does SEMINARY mean “maybe not”?
This comment makes me sound grumpy, but I actually liked the puzzle. Thanks, David Litman and Andrea Carla Michaels. And congrats to David on a fine debut.
@Rafa, I appreciate your take on what a Monday puzzle should offer. Each week, I mentally test drive the Monday puzzle for my spouse, who every once in a while tries to cross the boundary from the Mini (which he can't always finish) to the regular crossword. Today, I immediately thought I'd suggest this one to him. I may pre-fill in RAMI, NATE, MARC, and SAUL.
@ACME, thank you and @David for this model Monday and for chiming in - I second you on YEOMEN and O'TOOLE.
I loved the A-LIST of theme luminaries. @Nalpac 8:00 and others - I also was bothered a little by the Preposition Problem; not sure what the solution might be, other than "ignore." Nice longer Downs!
Do-over: tata. Help from previous puzzles: SAUL, MARC.
Indeed!
It felt like the NYT was thumbing it’s nose at me.
Overwrite of CIAO for TATA but still a PB at sub-4 minutes. I had the same not about the theme with SONIASOTOMAYOR and the revealer pointing to the same type of court, but obviously it was a very very smooth fill.
Terrific take on Mondays as a gateway drug, Rafa. I got a hint of that deja vu today as it was the first time I have successfully solved using down clues only. Thanks okanaganer for the initial inspiration on a way to spice up Mondays.
If I may be pedantic for a moment, molecules can be ions too! I guess you can say that molecules are atoms
I don't think you actually can say that molecules are atoms, though. In this context, at least, with the answer being a technical term.
Agree with Egs 11:19 on O’Toole being called “old and fusty”.
Fusty (stale or stuffy) he was not. Lusty, sudsy, even nutso maybe, this guy survived stomach cancer and had his pancreas removed in ‘76 - and still gave a great performance in The Stunt Man in 1980.
Old and Fusty Eli in The Stunt Man
@egsforbreakfast writes: "I also wished that the revealers use of COURT didn’t apply to one of the themers more specifically than the others. It got me to thinking that COURTDISASTER is a well-known phrase with the right number of letters. How you would clue it to also apply to VENUS, CHARLES and SONIA is above my pay grade."
It can be done, @egs, but certainly not smoothly and definitely not appropriately for a Monday. Here's one solution:
Let's say that COURT DISASTER is placed at 51A. Then:
19A: A 51A for her was when her little sister beat her in a tennis tournament for the very first time
24A: A 51A for him was when that very heavy and unwieldy crown -- the one that's worn only at coronations -- almost fell off his head
45A: A 51A for her -- and for countless others as well -- was when the 6-3 Dobbs decision was handed down
Just saying it can be done. Not necessarily saying it can be done well:)
@Okanaganer 2:40 AM. Well put re The Monarchy “nicely moderating influence.” For five years during the 90s I spent a great deal of time in the UK, primarily London, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know folks from the lawyers, their staff and court personnel and all the wonderful folks in the shops and at the news stand-just everybody! I developed a bit of a soft spot for HRH, her horses and Corgis, the family - well, just all of it.
Croce folk-Found this one medium-tough. Used the put it down and come back later approach, and that worked for me. Satisfying solve.
@Nancy 1:21. Thanks. I like it even if it’s slightly cumbersome.
@Okanaganer. Are you close to theEagle Bluff fire? Hope not.
Well said @Andrea! And an exceptional Monday with something for everyone. Don’t forget Eliot NESS in the “for us older solvers” category (I’m 70+).
General Tso's Chicken is the Apple Pie of Chinese food—it can range from Five Stars to Negative Five Stars.
@egs, I'm about 60 km due north of the Eagle Bluff fire. We have been VERY lucky in not having wildfire smoke, except yesterday for about 4 hours it was horrible. It switched to a strong south wind, and visibility dropped from 60 km to 3 km. Then the wind switched again, and it cleared right back up last evening; now it is crystal clear again, lucky us!
This was a splendid Monday! And to learn that Andrea is “mentoring a teen” on this one just put some additional lime in my G & T (to go with other British references). I do not recall such a smooth, junk-free fun Monday in a very long while. Literally something for everyone and yet totally “gateway drug” level (good one @Rafa).
To go with this exceptionally entertaining puzzle, we had a superb Rafa writeup that set out exactly what I think about the purpose of a Monday puzzle. I have opined several times in response to a “@Rexrant” about an “easy Monday” that the purpose of Monday is to be easy enough to lure the timid solver into becoming a regular daily fan simply through that joyous experience of finishing a NYT puzzle. I will never forget my first complete solve without cheats and without help; what a feeling!
This was the perfect Monday. Smooth, fun, cohesive and well executed theme and entries that hit all the age brackets. Kudos David and Andrea!!
Since when is HAW’s partner HEM ?
Thought it should be HEE HAW
hi rafa!
if you like the idea of crunchy breaded fried chicken chunks in a sweet & savory sticky glaze, then yes you should have general tso's chicken. i think it's good, but i rarely order it because there are just other things on the chinese menu i like more. also, if it arrives soggy, or the quality of the chicken pieces isn't good, it can be really gross. not great leftover either, imho.
breaking bad hooked me immediately and i highly recommend it. better call saul however, i've tried a couple times but the first couple episodes were so incredibly boring to me that i didn't make it any further. i don't feel like i'm missing anything skipping that one. (but then again, i felt the same way with the wire, which many feel is one of the best tv shows of all time, so of course ymmv.)
speaking of being bored, i also can't stand that so many movies now are so long, and unnecessarily so. i already have trouble sitting through movies in general (not sure why, just haven't ever really loved movies)...although i have no problem binging 2-4 or more episodes of a tv show so go figure. i guess the pacing is just inherently different. but rarely have i sat for a 2hr+ movie and not noticed how much time i was sitting there.
puzzle was a fine monday, a PB at 4:01 although it could have been less - i just can't help but pause to read the already-filled-in-via-crosses answers and their clues. i did get a smirk out of the inclusion of TAC in a much more fair & obvious way...plus i also wrote in "HEE" as "haw's partner" but at least today it was immediately obvious it would be HEM instead.
I always check out the grid before starting a puzzle and today's 44 black squares gave the puzzle somewhat of a dark, ominous look. It resulted in a total of 48 three and four letter entries and that's a lot of "glue" to hold it all together. I think that could be A BIT of a turn off for new solvers.
The average for Mondays, per xwordinfo.com, is 37.5. I think that 34-36 black squares is the sweet spot for a themed puzzle because it allows for a nice balance between theme and fill.
In Navy boot camp I was given the job of filling out paperwork about personnel in our basic training company. Our company commander, a salty old E-9 Boatswain's Mate who had seen service in WWII, wanted nothing to do with it so he taught me how to sign (forge?) his signature on the forms. My position was called company YEOMAN. After basic training, YEOMEN are enlisted personnel who perform administrative and clerical work out in the fleet. Their rating insignia is crossed feather quills.
Oddly…..I dreamt about a clown car last night!!! 😂
Remember hem and haw?
Court's in session
Thanks for the info about yeomen in the American Navy. Never heard that before.
I was aware of its usage in the British Army in WW II so I looked up what it meant. Yeomen were originally a rank in the English feudal period, below the nobility, the original form of the word is thought to be youngmen. Later it was applied to soldiers guarding the king and then after that to “ Volunteer and Territorial “ (equivalent to our National Guard ) cavalry forces. By WW II it referred to armored regiments.
Don’t know if they still use the term outside of the king’s guard now.
I liked the puzzle.
Thank you for mentioning the OMAR/RAMI cross, which I thought was pretty tough for a Monday. Sorry, I live under a rock and had to guess that an M belonged there.
@Joe D
That reminds me of Sammy Davis, Jr.
@Anoa Bob,
My boot camp company commander assigned me to be his yeoman (yo-yo) before he ever saw me, based on my having a BA in English. I quickly became adept at forging his signature. In fact, I forged the signatures of everyone in our company on the . . . I dunno, some kind of duty roster . . . because we could get dings in the barracks inspection if guys wrote outside the limits of the box, and I made sure my forged signatures never did that.
@Yo-yo,
One of the benefits of being the company YEOMAN was that while all the other guys had to carry heavy WWI type rifles (with barrels welded shut) when we were marching from one base location to another, I only had to carry a clipboard!
@JC66 – that record is from 1968, the same year "Laugh-In" premiered, where Sammy Davis Jr. had a recurring bit saying that line. Three completely different songs with the same title charted simultaneously, by Shorty Long, the Magistrates, and Pigmeat Markham, a comedian who was apparently the first to use the line as a catchphrase.
OLDE URGE
'TWAS on Prince WILLIAM'S RETURN,
the YEOMEN were SEEN IN town,
they'd ASK, "Why DIDN'T YOU learn
to SAY 'KINGCHARLES is A CLOWN?'"
--- EDDY O'TOOLE
@Joe DiPinto--There was actually a FOURTH "Here Comes The Judge" song on the charts, by a group called the Buena Vistas.
Didn't have to LABOR on the holiday. Happy Monday and Holiday all!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
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