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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Tuesday*, mostly because of one answer)
Theme answers:
- WITCH HAZEL (17A: *Plant used to treat rashes)
- GODDESS LOCS (29A: *Crocheted hair extensions)
- DIVA CUP (37A: *Eco-friendly alternative to tampons)
- QUEEN OF SOUL (44A: *Epithet for Aretha Franklin)
Retcon has had a busy life for such a young word. In the span of a few decades it has managed to become an abbreviation, change from a noun to a verb, and move from the jargon-filled chat rooms of the Internet to general parlance. [...] Retcon is a shortened form of retroactive continuity, and refers to a literary device in which the form or content of a previously established narrative is changed. Retcons are often encountered in serial formats such as comic books or television series, where they serve as a means of allowing the work’s creators to create a parallel universe, reintroduce a character, or explore plot lines that would otherwise be in conflict with the work. Essentially, a retconallows an author to have his or her cake and eat it too, as it enables the return of dead characters, the revision of unpopular elements of a work, and a general disregard for reality. // The term appears to have its roots in a 1973 book by E. Frank Tupper titled The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: “Pannenberg’s conception of retroactive continuity ultimately means that history flows fundamentally from the future into the past.” [...] [In the '80s,] the term gained some degree of currency among comic book fans. The abbreviated form, retcon, started appearing in Usenet newsgroups before the end of the decade. Retcon's noun and verb forms appeared almost simultaneously. [...] By the turn of the 21st century retcon had moved beyond the province of the Internet, and began to surface in newspapers and books. (merriam-webster.com)
• • •
My only criticism of the theme is that the revealer, FEMALE LEAD, lands with a bit of a thud. It is literally accurate (each theme answer LEADs off with a "female" figure of some kind), but the figures in question aren't merely "female"—they are notably *powerful* females. Exceptional. Forces to be reckoned with. Having the throughline be merely "female" doesn't seem enough. But you get the revealer you get, and it's a nice repurposing of the regular meaning of FEMALE LEAD, and "LEAD" kinda sorta gives you "powerful" vibes by proximity, so it's fine.
The puzzle felt a little name-y to me, peskily trivia-y in a lot of the smaller answers: HOGG, LEE, DAN, ALI. The only one I didn't know was LEE (she was the all-around Gold Medalist in Tokyo in 2020, so she's definitely worth knowing, and kinda underclued today) (32A: Suni of Team USA gymnastics). It's an extremely online puzzle as well, with lots of APPS ... well, three, anyway (Grindr, Tinder, IMESSAGE). It's so confusing that Tinder has an "e" but Grindr doesn't! Maybe having no "e" is supposed to set off some kind of GAYDAR and that's how you keep the spellings straight (!), but I remain confused every time I'm called upon to spell one of them (Grindr, in case you didn't know, is specifically for "gay, bi, trans, and queer people"). I thought the puzzle had a pretty good sense of humor. I especially appreciated the cannibalistic humor in the COMMA clue (41A: Punctuation missing from "Let's eat Grandma"?). I had SWAK before MWAH, probably because I just read a book about WWII (Paul Fussell's formidable Wartime (1989)) and "SWAK" has its origins as a WWII postal acronym. (LOL, some of these acronyms are hilarious: B.U.R.M.A. = "Be Upstairs (or Undressed) Ready My Angel"!?!?! I guess deprivation makes you creative!)
See you tomorrow.
Enjoyed this one a bunch. In the Easy camp for me (Monday time). PALIMONY was a total unknown. I misremembered it as a DIVA CaP but that was an easy fix.
ReplyDeleteThx, Malaika, for this excellent Tues. creation! π
ReplyDeleteVery hard; (2 1/2 x avg).
Floundered mightily on this one.
Newly learned: RETCON; David HOGG; GODDESS LOCS; Suni LEE; DIVACUP; HOLI; ALI; PROSECCO.
Had GODDESS mOpS and AmI crossing PROSEpCO for the dnf. d'oh!
Just in the process of watching Adam's Rib, which included the MWAH word. π
An excellent adventure in spite of the booboos. Liked it muchly! :)
___
Croce's 834 (6x NYT Sat.) was evil (in a fun and informative way) lol. Dnfed on the uppermost four cells in the NW corner, along with the first letter of the 'so very' word, and also on the 'Quinine / 'Nickname' cross. On to Elizabeth Gorski's Mon. New Yorker. π€
___
Peace π πΊπ¦ ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all π π
Probably a wavelength thing, but the entire NW was tough for me today with RETCON, HOGG, MWAH, HOLI, GODDESSLOCS and DIVACUP, all of which I had to parse and take on faith. That’s a lot of uncertainty to slog through, especially this early in the week. That may be an anomaly (probably at least partly generational) as everything south of the equator felt like a normal Tuesday (including the lame revealer as well).
ReplyDeleteThis dropped in pretty swiftly for me, but this is the rare NYTXW puzzle that is actually geared towards younger audiences, so take my easy rating with a big spoonful of salt.
ReplyDeleteI *really* appreciated that the puzzle included both DIVA CUP and GODDESS LOCS. And since my early rising gives me a soapbox, I wanna get ahead of people crying foul at either one of those terms being included on a Tuesday. If you are unfamiliar with either of those terms, it’s not because they’re not common, it’s because you haven’t hear a menstruating person or Black woman or femme talking about them, respectively. They are super common terms in those very large demographics. I really appreciate how Rex seems to really try to be careful to consider this before he declares a word too obscure. Unusual to see here, for sure though - I honestly hesitated on dropping in GODDESS LOCS for a second because it felt *so* not NYTXW, but then I remembered it was Malaika, and in it went. People seeing themselves reflected in puzzles is one way to make crosswords more accessible to more kinds of people, and today was a great example of that.
As for Grindr, just not a dating app and the vast majority of its users are gay/queer men (trans and cis), with some trans women and non-binary trans folks in the mix. It’s the equivalent of a bathhouse or cruising grounds in an app, the quintessential hookup app. Another thing I was surprised to see in the Gray Lady, so congrats Malaika! I’ve always assumed they dropped the e to make the brand seem more transgressive and edgy? While we’re at it: Scruff is an app that tends to attract the same demographics as Grindr but with more of a range of hookup and dating vibes, and the lesbians and tenderqueers use Lex for the same thing. *Cue “the more you know” music*
A small quibble that’s more about how I would have phrased a clue than it being wrong - while WITCH HAZEL is technically a plant, it really would be referred to by those of us who use it medicinally as a shrub or small tree. But still fair game.
All in all, a really fun puzzle, a nice change of pace. Thanks Malaika!
My wife had never heard about DIVACUPs even though they've been around since the 1860's. Amazon sells them.
ReplyDeleteLiked it. The constructor's personality peeked through. I hadn't seen "Let's eat Grandma" before. Very cute.
Not sure whose idea it was to put this on Tuesday, as it was much harder than an average Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, two of the four themers I’ve never head of (GODDESS LOCS, DIVA CUP). And they both cross HOLI, which is probably not a Tuesday word, and GODDESS LOCS crosses two WOES (HOGG, ALI). HOGG was gettable from the theme. The cross of LOCS and ALI, though, was a complete guess. [And for folks who don’t know HOLI, that also crosses LEE, which a lot of folks won’t know).
And was all that worth NYER and SWOLE and ENGR? Or ISA and ARI and DRS? Or IMESSAGE and ALTA and DEV? No, no and no.
Your post came right after Weezie who “pre-responded “ to your criticism that this section of the puzzle is too obscure for Tuesday.
DeleteI tend to agree with you. Weezie is talking about what SHOULD be not what is about these words. Also, if you put these words in the constructor and/or editor should go slow on the crossing names! I figured that area out but holi and Ali seemed vaguely familiar to me. (The theme helps only if you use it! I finished that difficult section before I knew the theme).
I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the LOCS spelling of “dreadlocks,” so it took every cross for that to make sense (and putting in ALI Wong as an act of faith - my capacity to remember pop culture names has apparently maxed out). That and RETCON seemed just a tad ambitious for a Tuesday. But those are small matters; it was a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteSuper fun one! Loved all the themers and especially GODDESSLOCS. Nicely done!!!
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t Malaika sign off her Malaika Wednesdays with MWAH? If so, nice to see it here.
ReplyDeleteSuch an original puzzle, and I loved learning GODDESS LOCS and DIVA CUP. I looked up the latter, expecting it to be made of some natural fiber (making it more eco-friendly) but no, it’s plastic and reusable. (Sorry, I’m a gay man who raised two boys, and DIVA CUPS were definitely not around when my sisters started menstruating. I have to point out that when I was typing in “menstruating,” Apple suggested to me that perhaps I wanted “men struggling.” How apt!)
Not only would any reference to menstruation never have appeared in the NYTXW a few years ago, but the clue “queer feeling” for GAYDAR wouldn’t have either. I guess it’s well enough known now that queer is a word of pride not derision.
Enjoyed it!
I forgot to mention that I really liked the cluing for GAYDAR, and appreciate your reflecting as a sign of societal progress. Things being what they are right now, I’ll take any sign that I can get.
DeleteI loved this puzzle! So much of my crosswording is just filling in stuff I've learned only from crosswords, so it was nice to have a whole puzzle I could fill out based on personal knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reaching out to a younger and more diverse audience, Malaika!
My first Tuesday DNF in… I don’t know when. Lots of new terms and names for me, and though all fair, a bit surprising to see GODDESSLOCS, DIVACUPS, HOGG, HOLI, and ALI all colliding in the center this early in the week. (I did know ALI Wong, and she’s a delight.)
ReplyDeleteOtherwise a fun and easy puzzle. RETCON has now been, um, retconned by my favorite podcast where one of the characters meta-referred to a retcon in their own universe as a ‘retinal confirmation’. They saw it with their own eyes, so yup, this retcon has now been retconned. Guess you had to be there.
I wouldn't consider WITCH and DIVA "forces to be reckoned with." I suppose a witch could be powerful, it's not positive connotation for women. And diva certainly means accomplished, but it's mainly used pejoratively. So I wouldn't get worked up about the revealer only saying "FEMALE". You certainly don't want it to say, "FEMALE LEADS that every woman should strive to be."
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, well done @Rex for pointing out that having DIVAN and DIVA CUP in the NYTXW is actually a good thing.
Mack 7:28 AM - You are thinking very literally (I think) of DIVA in the sense of a female opera star, and how that term came to be used derisively for a difficult person who requires constant deference. But this puzzle is very much a celebration of queerness (in the LGBTQ+ sense), and among gay men in particular (but not exclusively), the term "diva" is anything but pejorative. Divas are our heroines—Judy, Liza, Barbra, Madonna, Whitney, Beyonce, etc. Similarly with WITCH, which has a "positive connotation" for many people—think Lilith, Sabrina, and Willow Rosenberg.
DeleteWait. This was a LGBTQ+ themed puzzle? Well that went right over my head. I noticed Grindr and GAYDAR, of course, but what else? ARI Shapiro isn't clued in any queer-specific way. And the traditionally female-gendered terms are part of a theme that literally refers women.
DeleteSo if this was a celebration of queerness, it seems like it missed the mark, at least for clods like me. If it was an inside joke among the community, then I guess... whatever. Fair enough.
Also, lol. I definitely wrote "tampon", not "divan". π
I wondered what kind of weirdo was objecting to DIVAN! π
Delete@Mac I think this is an “LGBTQ+ themed puzzle” insomuch as it is a puzzle geared towards younger readers with queer vibes (using an expansive definition of queer). Grindr and GAYDAR feel casual in a way that feels in-group, not out-group, which is not something I’ve experienced in an NYT crossword before.
DeleteAlso, as a young queer man, this was a very easy Tuesday for me. Seeing people here gripe about it being a hard Wednesday is affirming, in a way, because it shows how unapologetically Malaika leans into the target audience – DIVA CUP, RETCON, PROSECCO, SWOLE, David HOGG, Suni LEE, ADA Lovelace, etc, are all extremely fair words for a Tuesday, even if people over the age of 50 might balk at them. “Let’s eat grandma” is also something that almost everyone under the age of 30 who is even a little bit online will have heard at some point.
Can’t decide whether this is theme in search of a revealer or the converse. Either way - it drags down an otherwise well filled grid. Definitely know some male QUEENS and DIVAS - so I’m leaning towards the revealer causing all the issues here.
ReplyDeleteThe splashy and slick fill sounds just like the Malaika I’ve grown to love when she guest blogs. STEALS IN is fantastic as is FELLAS and ROUND ONE. As much as I can’t stand the Bullies - nice to see hockey repped in the puzzle.
Pleasant solve - but could have been special with a little tidying up.
Only the LONELY
Whoa! What stands out to me is how this puzzle pops with life. New-to-the-Times answers, answers with zing, pleasurable tastes (CARAMEL, NACHO, MINTY), Italian flavor (PROSECCO, VINCI, MILAN), lively theme answers, and the magnificent Aretha.
ReplyDeleteThe eight NYT answer debuts are terrific additions to the oeuvre: DIVA CUP, FEMALE LEAD, FLYERS, GODDESS LOCS, IMESSAGE, OLD FOE, QUEEN OF SOUL, UNSHELL. There’s pop in the non-debuts as well. Look at the small north central area, for instance, with I’M OFF, SWOLE, OOZE, MWAH, FELLAS and ISH. Wow!
Constructors face tough constraints as to what they can put into a grid, from what interlocking letters allow, to the space a theme takes up. But the best constructors find ways to wiggle around these constraints and place in words that they resonate with, allowing their personality to shine through. It’s a talent that involves art and science, and my impression is that Malaika has got the touch, is one to watch.
Malaika, this is your third NYT puzzle, each on a different day. Only one constructor has hit the cycle – a puzzle for every day of the week – in seven days (Andrew Ries). Go for it! But in any case, thank you for starting my day with a huge serving of kapow, and please, don’t be a stranger!
Old, straight, white, cis male here. I loved this easy, fun puzzle. Hats off, Malaika!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMWAHlaika!!
Never heard of GODDESS LOCS or a DIVA CUP and I don’t think I even saw RETCON much less pondered it (crosses filled it in). Given the way Malaika guest-blogs about what she sees as hard puzzles, this one was nicely tough, though I could happily live with one or two fewer unknown names.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a DNF if I kept track of such things, due to the HOLI LEE cross. If I were doing it on my laptop I could have run the alphabet and got the happy music but on paper it's sheer guesswork and no payoff. So DNF, but DNC (did not care).
ReplyDeleteLots of unfamiliar stuff here, especially for a Tuesday. I'm using age and gender and the demographics of where I live to explain my ignorance. RETCON was even a WTF. I mean, I was an English major, but that was a long time ago.
The whole quote is, I think:
Let's eat, grandpa.
Lets eat grandma.
Commas save lives.
Lots of crunch here, MH. Made Harder by reasons cited above, but it's a poor day when you can't learn something. Thanks for an educational Tuesday.
Cheated to get the GODDESSLOCS/PROSECCO cross. That one area made it a very difficult Tuesday to finish, even though the rest of the puzzle was fairly routine.
ReplyDeleteWhy would any hair extension be called a "LOC"? Is that a variant of "lock"? If so, why not say "goddess locks"? That makes sense.
Learned a few new terms.
ReplyDelete1. Retroactive continuity, or RETCON for short, is a literary device in which facts in the world of a fictional work which have been established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work which recontextualizes or breaks continuity with the former.
2. GODDESS LOCS are a protective hairstyle using a silkier type of hair and have loose curly ends as opposed to regular faux locs that just have a blunt end.
3. DIVACUPS - A menstrual cup is a flexible cup that's designed for use inside of your vagina during your period to collect blood. The cup doesn't absorb your menstrual flow as tampons or pads do. While it might seem like menstrual cups popped up overnight, they've actually been around in some form since the 1800s.
DIVA seems pejorative so kind of liked my original guess better - LAVACUPS. Maybe for the heavy flow days. (That’s my menses Mensa idea).
Anyway, puzzle definitely skewed young which I’m definitely not, but nice to get HEP to the times (they still use HEP, right?)
DIVA is a brand name.
Deletefound this one to be super, shaved minutes off my average solve time.
ReplyDeleteas for s.w.a.k. and b.u.r.m.a, creative, yes...but also and more importantly discrete. oft times needing to get past the military censors.
Speaking of COMMAs. . .
ReplyDeleteHow about the murderous panda who eats shoots and leaves?
— Jim C. in Maine
As a younger solver, it felt like this one was for me! So much fun- 5 minute solve, no help!
ReplyDeleteAn unusual collection of feminine/gay references that many of us probably never see on a regular basis. I think a very imaginative and humorous approach. Needed a couple of wicked crosses (eg HOGG, HOLI) to make it work but well worth it.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteLooks like a Pangram, but no B (odd), J, or K.
Nice puz. DIVA CUP is new here, haven't seen the word, or the product. Not an aisle I hang around in at the store.
What happened to the K in GODDESS LOCS?
Pretty good fill, with 5 Themers crammed in. And open corners.
Nice TuesPuz, Malaika. Finished at the L of HOLI/LEE. Lucky guess. Was contemplating D, K, N, P.
OK, IM OFF.
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Even though I've never heard of DIVA CUP (been out of that population for decades) or GODDESS LOCS, this came in faster than Monday. Just not quite downs only!
ReplyDeleteWorking the west side I had WITCH HAZEL and pretty sure it was going to be QUEEN OF SOUL, thinking "some kind of powerful women?" And not 100% on HOGG, but having _ODD did suggest GODDESS and ALI next to PALIMONY gave me LOCS. Who can forget Lee Marvin? (well, I just looked to see when that was, 1977! so I guess a lot of currently living people might have no idea).
That's ENOUGH CARAMEL for me. Gonna UNSHELL myself a MIMOSA.
For those confused about "locs," I have always seen it spelled this way when the "dread" part is dropped. Perhaps to differentiate between "locks" as a general term for hair, versus the Black hairstyle. Also, most Black people generally call them locs and do not use the term "dreadlocks." I've read that it has roots in the slave trade, but haven't done any research myself.
ReplyDeleteDNF'd on the HOdI/dEE cross. Almost missed the GODDESSLOCS/ALI cross but remembered the ALI clue was used very recently.
ReplyDeleteLove SWOLE. It is at once silly yet spot on. Never heard of RETCON; that is, I didn't know there was a name for it, even though a friend and I were talking about the very phenomenon just this week.
Also never heard the brand DIVACUP despite the fact that I am female and am around females most of every day.
I'll take bottomless MIMOSAS and PROSECCO all day long.
Guess I'm the outlier here, but I dropped this like a hot bloody potato.
ReplyDeleteOh Ms. LEE ... you coulda been anybody you wanted to bee, you cee I tried dee and vee and yee and zee. The Hindu festival would sound more fun if it was HOZI anyway.
ReplyDeleteI prefer MWednesdays, because on MTuesdays Malaika wants to chat about DIVACUPS and, well, EWW. And somehow that's less gross than RET CON.
We call it SHELLING, not UNSHELLING. I find that fascinating for some reason.
FEMALE LEAD is what comes out of a lady's pencil.
I wonder if the Florida governor was notified of [Queer feeling?] and GAYDAR, since he nixed CROSS DRESS a week or two back. In my neighborhood, a STRAIGHTDAR would probably be more useful.
I have never heard of GODDESSLOCS, but I live in a neighborhood where I see them often and until today I assumed they were real and took years of work. Sometimes I've wanted to say, "I really like your hair," but I never do. I'm an old man and nobody wants to hear my opinion on anything, least of all fashion. Now I learn they are extensions, which I also know nothing about, but I assume it's less work, so good for the goddesses. I had to switch barbers yesterday as the one I was going to vanished because they've sold the entire block in preparation to erase more of the history of Denver and replace it with unaffordable tin can style apartments. Architects actually give each other awards for those aluminum sided travesties.
Uniclues:
1 Beet production facility declares it's going old school.
2 ... said no one ever.
3 Leonardo's lazy cousin.
4 "Yes, I will also attend the margarita rim."
5 Sad and jobless in Malibu.
6 Fancy farm you won't remember later in the evening.
1 FARM: I'M OFF APPS
2 ENOUGH CARAMEL
3 LEE VINCI
4 RSVP LIME
5 PALIMONY LONELY
6 PROSECCO ESTATE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Why Johnny got suspended. YOGA POSE DOODLE.
¯\_(γ)_/¯
Found easy and enjoyable - but, you SHELL a peanut. It's not called "unshelling." Otherwise, fun!
ReplyDeleteHindu Festival + Team USA Gymnastics was a complete Natick for me.
ReplyDeleteFun! A witty theme, with the added pleasures of CARAMEL, some FELLAS among the FEMALEs, and, for me and other COMMA lovers, a bonus COMMA QUEEN (of which the New Yorker magazine has one). I found the puzzle easy, thanks to luck-of-the-draw knowing all of the proper nouns except LEE and quickly getting the unknowns - RETCON and GODDESS LOCS - from crosses. I was glad to see the NYTXW continuing to do it's part to combat period shaming: ENOUGH with that, already! @Wanderlust, the suggested "men struggling" is hilarious, and @Andrew, LOL for your laVA cup!
ReplyDeleteNice one, Malaika! Keep them coming!
I’m getting old, but I’m not yet at the IMESSAGE where I’d need to wear Depends.
ReplyDeleteI thought that an exclamation point would be the missing punctuation. Let’s eat Grandma!!! I guess I had a strange relationship with my grandma.
Who knew that when Arthur Conan Doyle was being beseeched to bring back the dead Sherlock Holmes it was RETCON that the readers craved?
MWAH to this beauty of a puzzle, Malaika.
Liked the puzzle, but a couple of nits: "Retcon" is not in my universe. "R & D" is the abbreviation, I have never seen "Dev". Does that imply there is also a "Res"??? Can a singular "Diva Cup" possibly be the answer to a plural "tampons" clue? And who ever said "Unshell", when "Shell" works perfectly?
ReplyDeleteA menstrual cup, unlike a tampon, is reusable. Cups are usually medical-grade silicon, and the NYT (or Wirecutter?) just had an article about how they're less laden with forever chemicals than tampons, pads, or period underwear.
DeleteHad fun with this one and finished it faster than my average Tuesday. The theme worked well for me, and it introduced me to at least two fascinating neologisms (GODDESS LOCS and DIVA CUP). So thanks, Malaika. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteMedium-tough, perhaps because there were some major WOEs for me...GODDESS LOCS, DIVA CUP, RETCON, iMESSAGE, LEE...
ReplyDeleteGreat theme answers, like it.
Holi crossing the “L” in Lee is not cool for a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteYou should be able to finish a Tuesday without knowing those.
Aside from that great (and original) puzzle.
Well...does this mean that the NYTX is finally becoming the new progressivist? Yes! I'd say. And about time.
ReplyDeleteI learned two things today: GODDESS LOCS and DIVA CUP.
My longtime neighbor has the most beautiful head of hair I've ever seen. She calls them "Supreme Locks." The weaves are blonde mixed with black and they come down to her waist. Her boyfriend has dread locks that he wears in a pony tail. Now I have an excuse to go over and visit and ask her about GODDESS LOCS without a K....
DIVA CUP....I've heard it called Pelvic Cup....Why do you name it DIVA? I'm imagining the makers of such sitting around a conference table and being told they must come up with a name that sounds feminine and cute so that everyone will rush to the store and buy one. Ah, yes DIVA!....You know, that temperamental person who is difficult to please....
I pass...
The puzzle itself: I didn't particularly enjoy the name fest. HOLI/LEE held me up. DYAD as a Tuesday twosome also held me up...All this is on me. Sometimes I have to get off my high caballo and confess that I could just breeze through a Tuesday. Serves me right.
I'm glad this was published and I learned that the FLYERS is a Philadelphia hockey team.
Good job Malaika....And MWAH right back at you.
Someone named Suni LEE and something called a DIVA cup crossing a festival called HOLI did not seem like Tuesday cluing to me.
ReplyDeleteHOLI DIVACUPs, Batman! Evidently I was too old a fart to survive the TuesPuz solvequest. Time to put M&A in an OLDFOEs home, along with half-devoured Grandma.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, learned about lotsa new stuff:
* How to spell PROSECCO.
* Met some new folks, like LEE and ALI. Did know HOGG … saw him just recently bein interviewed on a news show … think he'd just graduated from Harvard or somesuch.
* GODDESSLOCS & DIVACUP. Always tough-ISH, when some of the themers are no-knows.
* RETCON. This puppy had all fair crossers, so many nanoseconds were spared.
UNSHELL. har
staff weeject pick: LEE. Curious that it was clued via a name, while it was also crossin HOLI. Brutal.
lotsa fave stuff: a Malaika MWAH. PALIMONY. CARAMEL. MIMOSA. GAYDAR. ACQUIRES. UNUM. Cool theme revealer [U Go, Ripley girl!] COMMA's clue, of course.
Thanx for some good, mostly decent, hard work on a Tuesday, Malaika darlin. Bring it, Shortzmeister.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
I learned about menstrual CUPs from another puzzle (I won't say more, because spoilers), and I had the P from RSVP, so I just had to work out the DIVA part. So the theme helped with that one, as it did with GODDESS LOCS. As for that missing k, who knows? That unaccompanied final hard C seems to be pretty common in youthspeak.
ReplyDeleteThere are more and more Hindus in the US all the time, so expect to see more of HOLI; also Diwali, which seems to be the other big holiday. HOLI is the one where people throw color pigments at each other -- I presume they're easily washed out, but what do I know.
David HOGG was a student at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas high school at the time of the mass shooting there, and was inspired to a life of activism. He has stared an organization called "The Leaders We Deserve" to elect more progressive young people to office. I get mass emails from him all the time; if you ever make a contribution through Act Blue you will probably start getting them too.
OK, enough ranting from me I"M OFF to find out where those bottomless MIMOSAs are! Thanks, Malaika!
The epithet “rock star” is overused but it absolutely applies to David HOGG. . . a young giant doing critical work.
ReplyDeleteA lot of stuff I didn't know.. RETCON, LOCS (I'm assuming for Locks), GAYDAR, DIVA CUP, HOGG (gotta try to remember it now). Worked them all out though & then came here..
ReplyDeleteWow, Malaika!
Learning day for me; RETCON, GODDESSLOCS and DIVACUP were completely unfamiliar. Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI had no trouble with this, and I'm an octogenarian. Yes, there were words/names I'm not familiar with (GODDESSLOCS, Suni LEE, ARIANA Grande, RETCON, David HOGG, ALI Wong, GAYDAR), but all were solved with crosses.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I’m THAT hip but still dispatched this puzzle pretty quickly due to what I consider fair crosses (for the most part). My only close to Natickland was the L in the HOLI/LEE and, even though my reasoning was wrong, I thought Suni MIGHT be Korean so I popped in LEE for the Congats! completion notification. Then I looked up Sunisa (Suni) Lee and found out she is Hmong and she considers her step-father her “real” father and took his (Mr. Lee’s) last name.
ReplyDeleteLearned a lot of stuff today but thanks to my daughter several years ago already knew DIVACUP. I learn a lot from my kids. I just hope there isn’t a time in the future when they are re-teaching me things I’ve known all my life.
GODDESSLOCS set me to looking up Tone LΕc, where I figured the Loc was actually long O and has nothing to do with locks of hair. Had I ever HEARD his name said aloud? Oh dear…I don’t remember.
I read through @Rex’s blurb on RETCON and I’m STILL not sure I would know it if I saw it!
Thanks for the fun Mailaka!
A bronze bust honoring Suni Lee was just revealed in a St. Paul park; she's one of our Minnesota superstars!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, HOGG was a no-know.
I gave a side-eye to LOCS, making sure there wasn't a K I was missing.
I waited to the end to see how the theme answers tied together - I liked it. Thanks, Malaika.
This Gen Xer found this easy and breezy. The only side eye came from LOCS, which is not a spelling that was familiar to me.
ReplyDeleteLoved seeing RETCON, though I agree with OFL that it doesn't scream literature. More "Star Wars."
I enjoyed it a lot. Really impressed with Malaika’s work so far, and this only helps that in my book. I didn’t think it was that hard and set a new personal time record for a Tuesday. I can see the struggles, but the crosses of the trouble spots for me were very fair and helped. Overall, very good Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteThis one was in my wheelhouse. I got RETCON right away and the whole thing was super fun. Doesn't happen too often since I don't know much about football or basketball or most movies!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gem of a Tuesday! Thanks Malaika. This “aged like fine wine and cheese” solver had some excellent resistance but the very fair and fun crosses saved me every time. Learned not just RETCON but David HOGG, and GODDESS LOCS. I also knew of the CUP, but not the DIVA part of the name. What a great day.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the answer to 41A. I put in DIGIN!
ReplyDelete@The Big Bad Wolf – I wanted the answer to be YUM EMOJI, but it was too long
DeleteThe WITCH, GODDESS and DIVA "leads" are all adjectives modifying inanimate things. Whereas QUEEN is a noun and the entire clue/answer is a specific famous female. That entry seems out of whack with the others.
ReplyDeleteThe old SHELL/UNSHELL dilemma: some people use "shelled" to mean the the shell has been removed and "unshelled" to mean that it hasn't. Others use the terms to mean the the exact opposite. Is one more correct than the other?
The Green Paint award goes to OLD FOE.
"Who's that dude over there glaring at you? He looks French."
"Oh – that's just my old foe, Guy."
Fast monday time for me. Some harder stuff as RP pointed out, but crosses all worked out. And the theme got the HOLI/DIVA cross. Never noticed RETCON - got all the crosses.
ReplyDeleteHated this puzzle. First ever DNF a Tuesday. No doubt because I'm 88 years old.
ReplyDelete@Nancy: As is almost always the case, you and I are on exactly the same wave length - I just didn’t bother to post a comment. MEH.
ReplyDeleteNot too bad, but I started right away with REBOOT for RETCON and was temporarily stumped.
ReplyDeleteGlad to,see misery loves company in the very difficult NW corner. Natick city for me up,there and DNF without help,from Rex. Mwah for a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteSuni Lee is a gimme for any Minnesotan, awesome athlete and Hmong American. Holi also seems pretty easy to me? Seems like if you are going to know one Hindu holiday, that would be it (or maybe Diwali?) Certainly all my kids would get that in a hot second just from daily "sharing time" in elementary school. I enjoyed learning some of the other stuff like goddess locs, much prettier than my mental "crochet" image which evoked grandma's 1970s afghan squares. Thanks for a fun puzzle!
ReplyDeleteMWAH indeed! Congratulations on a fine puzzle
ReplyDeletea few seconds off my best for a tuesday so...this was in the wheelhouse for sure. DUET before DYAD and DESHELL before UNSHELL were the writeovers. didn't know HOGG or LEE but thankfully didn't need to, thanks to crosses.
ReplyDeletea note for rex, since i know he cares about inclusivity (said genuinely, not sarcastically!) - when you're talking about people who menstruate, simply say people who menstruate, instead of "women/girls." not all women/girls menstruate and not all who menstruate are women/girls. that's all from the peanut gallery today :)
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ReplyDeleteSo easy and fast for me — and several of the clues made me laugh and go “OK, NYT, I see you!” — really a fun one!
ReplyDeleteRidiculous. I quit less than halfway through. Didn't even get to 37a, which would've been another total "Huh??".
ReplyDeleteNo Earthly idea what 29a might be--and no fewer than FOUR of the crosses were complete unknowns! Four naticks in one word! Yipe!
And then there's RETCON. And you want to put this on me on a TUESDAY?!? Like I said, ridiculous.
Wordle birdie.
NACHO LONELY FEMALE
ReplyDeleteFELLAS can’t get ENOUGH of ARIANA;
MIMOSAs and PROSECCO for fun.
We FAWNED over the GODDESS and wanna
ACQUIRE a DATE for ROUNDONE.
--- DR. DAN LEE HOGG
DIVACUP… What happened to the breakfast test?
ReplyDeleteOnce again in agreement with @Spacey, tho I got to the last few middle spaces before giving up.
ReplyDeleteAre we back to periods again? What is with this new obsession? Reusable? Doesn't sound like much of a cup for a DIVA to this Lady. Ugh.
Diana, (not a GODDESS) Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Bizarre and creepy op-ed.
ReplyDeleteI am a single male OLD FOgEy and found this puzzle pretty dang easy. Most of the cluing was pretty straight forward, and the unfamiliar answers were completely gettable from the crosses. The only answer that was a 100% unknown, was RETCON.
ReplyDelete