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Freudian concept of resisting temptation / THU 8-10-23 / 1998 film featuring NBA star Ray Allen / Race that winds down in the winter / Who's comin in a Laura Nyro song / Smart thermostat brand / Immigration policy established in 2012 for short / Animal whose skull is the subject of Georgia O'Keeffe's Summer Days
Thursday, August 10, 2023
Constructor: Natan Last
Relative difficulty: ha ha ha I'm gonna say "Challenging"
Theme answers:
- "HE GOT GAME" / LAID IN (17A: 1998 film featuring N.B.A. star Ray Allen / 2D: Stored, as supplies)
- MOVIEGOER / BRIDES-TO-BE (18A: Someone who sees the big picture / 10D: Ones who've answered "Yes!")
- OFFICE GOSSIP / "MAMA SAID" (34A: Dish near a water cooler? / 6D: Title lyric that precedes "There'll be days like this" in a Shirelles classic)
- RUBE GOLDBERG / OPIOID (43A: Only person whose first and last name together is listed as an adjective in Merriam-Webster / 26D: Codeine or methadone)
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Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), known best as Rube Goldberg(/ˈruːb/), was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.
Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The cartoons led to the expression "Rube Goldberg machines" to describe similar gadgets and processes. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 1948, the National Cartoonists Society's Gold T-Square Award in 1955, and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award in 1959. He was a founding member and first president of the National Cartoonists Society, which hosts the annual Reuben Award, honoring the top cartoonist of the year and named after Goldberg, who won the award in 1967. He is the inspiration for international competitions known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests, which challenge participants to create a complicated machine to perform a simple task. (wikipedia)
• • •
Oh, I forgot to mention my second small-but-Major error, also precipitated by having one of the crosses already in place. Faced with --G at 4D: Trail, I immediately, instinctively, and unquestioningly went with ... DOG!? I mean, if you DOG someone, you follow (or "Trail") them, so ... yes, [Trail] is a defensible clue for DOG, but LAG is so much more straightforward / obvious / better. Infinite sigh. Starting this puzzle like Superman only to trip over my laces and fall on my face. "Frustrating" doesn't quite get at it (the aptness of "MAMA SAID there'd be days like this" is only just now hitting me). Even after getting CONTROL I had no idea what kind of CONTROL I was dealing with, so the SW corner of the puzzle, which should've opened right up, stayed closed until I went in there and slowly pried it open with a crowbar. I guess I didn't know IMPULSE CONTROL was a "Freudian" concept (despite knowing very well that ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO were). Worst part of that SW corner was the near-fatally ambiguous clue on STALLS (46D: Stable arrangement) (STASIS fit ... and even after thinking of the horse kind of "stable" I thought maybe the "arrangement" in question was STACKS (of hay bales???)). At this point, the puzzle becomes a maddening haze. Imagine Clark Griswold stumbling through the Arizona desert after having set off on what seemed like a simple mission to go find a tow truck. Confident ... then hot and disoriented ... then just loopy. That was me, solving this puzzle.
Eventually, I actually look at the clue for "MAMA SAID," and there's "ID," and then I put "ID" where "EGO" was in "HE GOT GAME," and the Down was suddenly totally obvious (LAID IN), and the puzzle suddenly became much more doable. "MAMA SAID" not only solved the whole problem of what to do with the rebus squares, it also gave me (finally) my second themer— I knew EGO had to go in that "ID" square, so bam, OFFICE GOSSIP (such a hard clue for an answer that is already hard by nature of its rebusness!). And then OPIOID gave me (finally!) RUBE GOLDBERG. I was looking for an honest-to-god ordinary adjective like ... what? RUBY-something? The only time you'd use RUBE GOLDBERG as an adjective is in front of "machine" or "contraption," but fair is fair and adjectival is adjectival so ... judges say "Fair!" And brilliant. But also knee-buckling. After getting the SW corner in shape, after turning ET AL to MISC (55D: Catchall category: Abbr.) and finally getting the IMPULSE part of IMPULSE / CONTROL, all I had left was the NE corner, which turned out to be the easiest thing in the grid. BRIDES-TO-BE up, MOVIEGOER over, land safely on ONO: done. Haggard, weary, possibly thirsty, but done. No impulses left to control.
Notes:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- 5D: Ellipse (OVAL) — picked a great day to confuse "Ellipse" with "Ellipsis"; couldn't make sense of this at all.
- 46A: Sport in a ring (SUMO) — hey did you know that JUDO does *not* take place in a ring? I ... did not.
- 51A: Caterwaul (YOWL) — hey did you know that HOWL is also a word that means [Caterwaul]?
- 68A: Phi ___ (college group, familiarly) (SIG) — the only part of this puzzle that I actively disliked. This is a frat? I've been on university campuses most of my life and I have no idea how all the Gr. letters and their abbrs. are supposed to work. Phi SIG means zero to me.
- 31A: "Miracle Workers" airer (TBS) — I have seen TBS in the puzzle roughly 10,000 times and I don't think I could name any show associated with it except ... is Samantha Bee's show "Full Frontal" still on? I think that was TBS. (I stopped watching all politically-oriented comedy (and other) shows in 2016.). This is all to say I have no idea what "Miracle Workers" even is. Presumably not about the Helen Keller multiverse. (Hey, it's got Steve Buscemi in it, so maybe it's actually good?)
- 62D: What's added atop a croque-monsieur to make it a croque-madame (EGG) — me: "ooh, that's the one with HAM ... but the HAM ... that can't go on top, can it? HAM ... is there a three-letter cheese? ..." [more evidence: brain fried (like an EGG) for most of this solve.]
- 21D: Accommodations that a bank might float a loan for? (HOUSEBOAT) — gonna leave things here, because this is just an all-time great "?" clue / answer, a splashy (!) answer in a rightfully marquee location. Even in all my thematic confusion, I managed to both get and admire this beauty.
Hope your solve was significantly more pain-free than mine, and that, however much pain was (or was not) involved, you managed to appreciate this epic construction. See you tomorrow.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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106 comments:
That was fun. I. Had a progression from He Got Game to Mama Said and back to figuring out the id/ego combination for laid in pretty early on. That made things pretty smooth for me on a Thursday. Rube Goldberg was great.
As an international, non-native, speaker in Europe, today's puzzle was very hard to solve - so many blanks open. And here comes REX and IDs it all. Thanks Rex for both enlightening and giving some credit loan extension for the EGO.
Very clever theme, and one that I needed a hint to get. (And then another hint or two to solve.) The bottom half of the puzzle fell relatively easy, even got the RUBEGOLDBERG plus EGO rebus, but the substitution was an extra step I wasn’t ready for at first. Maybe because my second rebus long was OFFICIDS-P because I thought the rebuses would all be EGO or ID.
My only complaints would be that the rebuses were too heavy and not well distributed through the grid. The second complaint is Nicholas ROEG. Who the? Wow, that’s a very tough name to know, isn’t it?
And Miracle Workers is a lot of fun. Every season it’s the same cast but they play new roles in a different setting. And Daniel Radcliffe shows again he isn’t afraid to push himself in ways many actors wouldn’t:
https://youtu.be/CJ9C1U_SPoA
This is a great write-up, Rex.
Got the EGO rebus on the basketball clue, and finished solving without ever discerning what the downs were. So, as happens frequently for me on Thursdays, the grid looked like indecipherable word salad and the whole experience turned into a long, boring slog. Great if you enjoy this kind of thing, as OFL obviously does. I just never really had a fighting chance. Unfortunately, being gibberish-averse seems to be in my DNA.
Found it pretty tough. I definitely was not on the cluing wavelength today, and the revealer did not reveal anything for me, other than having ‘Freudian’ in the clue, which told me my EGO rebuses were probably right, and later on told me my IDs were probably right.
Fell into Rex’s OesTE/yOre trap.
I’m skeptical of the RUBE GOLDBERG clue. I feel like somewhere out in the nearly billions of names there must a Droo Ping or a Bar Ely or something.
“Leggo my EGO!” Brilliant, Rex. This was one of your best write-ups ever, and definitely EGO free. I can’t imagine not looking at some of the clues for so long. I look at them all when I’m working on a section. Funny that you ended on ONO because that was the second thing I put in (after OVAL), and it felt like those were the only two things I had for the longest time.
I got the revealer before I got any of the rebi. I finally saw the EGO in OFFICE GOSSIP, and then I thought maybe ID, EGO and SUPEREGO were going to be rebused in various places. How you would hide superego in a word or phrase I have no idea. Anyway, eventually I recognized a downward ID and it came together. Agree with Rex that it was a great idea very well executed. Congrats, Natan and class.
Lots of great clues, so I am wondering which one(s) @Lewis will choose for his roundup. The one for HOUSEBOAT was indeed great but I think my favorite was “race that winds down in the winter” for SLALOM. I was thinking something like the Iditarod.
Not only was this a satisfying and scintillating two-way rebus offering, but it brought me to a very funny moment.
At one point I had figured out that it was EGO going one way and ID going the other, but I hadn’t uncovered the revealer yet, and I was thinking of EGO in its everyday sense, like someone having a big or little ego, and I was thinking of ID as “I.D.”. I wondered why they would be sharing the same square, and justified to myself that “Our egos are our i.d.’s – yeah yeah, that’s the theme! Our egos are our i.d.’s!”
Hah! The things we will believe to make sense of things!
Well, the revealer actually did make sense of things, and after all was said and done, this was a splendid Thursday puzzle, with bite, lots of riddle-cracking, and humor. With no IMPULSE CONTROL at all, I bow down to you Natan and class, for this gift you delivered. Thank you so very much!
Hands up for OESTE and YORE. After all, Durango is in the Oeild Oeste, no? Oh, that’s Colorado. Durango Mexico is in the north.
Also how does one insert this rebus and get the happy music? EGOID didn’t work for me.
Strangely enough, solving on line I just put in "EGO," meaning to go back later and figure out what format to put the two words into a rebus (ego/id? id/ego? idego? egoid?) but I got the solved message with only "EGO" in place in all the locations.
Yup. Clever construction but not much fun.
Not proud of my time (2 mins over average), but a very satisfying solve.
Seeing that Rex (and some of you) had some of the same issues was a bit of a relief.
Not gonna gloss over this...with STAsiS in for STALLS (46D), it was setting up for "IM PUsS_ CONTROL" (60/63A), and knowing that Freud fit in somehow, well, you get the idea.
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot except for the NW (more on that in a minute). I like rebus puzzles and once I got the revealer I could put in three out of the four EGOs. It helped that early on I was sure of OFFICEGOSSIP but needed to figure out where the rebus square fit it. It then took a bit longer to see that it was ID in the corresponding down word. All quite satisfying when it fell into place.
About the NW though… that section was hellish for me because of proper names/titles I didn’t know all crossing each other. WII I could guess, and was sure of MAMASAID (once I got the theme) but. HEGOTGAME? A character from “Glee”? (Never watched it.) That (to me) obscure word SCHWA? And the clue for ANEW was really hard for me. So there you go, I have to say those crosses actually seemed unfair to me, but obviously others didn’t feel that way.
Otherwise a very enjoyable Thursday puzzle. I think Natan and his class are terrific!
Good stuff. I found it very challenging as well. Got the EGO in HE GOT GAME, but couldn’t figure out what the heck LAegoIN was supposed to be. Then I got the ID in MAMA SAID, and for a minute wondered how on earth SUPEREGO was going to be crammed into one square when the lightbulb went on.
My only “complaint” is software-related; I’m never quite sure how to enter rebuses and it feels like the app is inconsistent in what it accepts. In its defense, I realized I was inconsistent putting them in: sometimes EGO went in first, sometimes ID - maybe that was the issue. Or maybe I had a typo in one of the squares. At any rate, when I didn’t get the happy music I stripped those squares down to just ID and it worked.
It was the hardest Thursday (and took twice as long as recent Fridays) I can remember doing. I’ve only been doing the crossword for a year and a half or so, but - yeah. Hard one!
I always sup ere going to bed.
I'm hoping we hear from @LMS today, "The Queen of the Schwa"
I hate Thursdays, I hate rebodes, I hate cross-checked rebodes and I know nothing about Freudian (or any other) psychology.
Lots of overwrites, including LAded before LA[ID] IN at 2D, nes before WII at 29A, inON before UPON at 30A and hBo before TBS at 31A (confirmed by BURR) and aitS before CAYS at 42A. Oh, and hand up for oesTE before NORTE (39A) and STAsiS before STALLS (46D).
WOEs included the Glee guy at 3D and the "Man Who Fell to Earth" person at 11D.
Do texters still LOL (54D)? I just read an article that it's passe and people are now texting IJBOL (I Just Burst Out Laughing).
But my own personal claim to infamy was parsing 10D at BRIDE STOBE and being surprised when I typed the second B and got the happy music.
I too found this both brilliant and challenging, and was gratified that OFL felt the same way, though my hangups (not Freudian!) were somewhat different from his.
This certainly didn’t seem like the product of a committee! I’ve long been curious about JASA, and this time took the time to read about it at xwordinfo.com . What a cool idea! I meet criteria for joining the group, and would definitely take the class if I lived in NYC.
A small delightful detail: If rebus squares were filled as EGO/ID, which worked for me (I assume other configurations were accepted by the app as well, as usual--and as comments above confirm), the answer can be interpreted as “ego over id”, which, at least as I understand it, is exactly how Freudian IMPULSE CONTROL is supposed to work. Amazing!
Loved it except the cross of ARTIE and HEGOTGAME because, embarrassingly, I could not come up with either of those clues and they were both needed to solve that corner. Left with just that area, and no other options, i looked up ARTIE and then it went right in. I had the theme, I had the other rebus squares, and I even had LAID IN and so I knew that was the fourth theme square. I’m kind of mad about that but not too mad.
Thx, Natan & J.A.S.A.; I'D SAy this was a wonderful Thurs. creation! 😊
Med-hard.
Wasn't on the right wavelength, and took a while to suss out the theme. Wasn't sure how to enter the rebuses, but ID/EGO worked fine in the end.
Just finished listening to Tony Fadell's 'Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making', featuring the NEST thermostat story.
Enjoyed the challenge; felt fortunate to finish without a dnf. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Be sure to put the backsplash “EGO/ID”
Great write up; similar experience here. Can’t shake the feeling that my ego or id or whatever ironically got my way. Brilliant puzzle.
I really enjoyed this, but unlike Rex I found it very easy. I knew HE GOT GAME immediately and also assumed the cross must be LAID IN, so the trick was clear early on. At least two minutes faster solve than my Thursday average. But again, it was fun! Yay class!
Wonderful Thursday ���� Liked the fact I could put in either EGO or ID and the software took it - like a flickering impulse between id and ego. Solved the revealer first and thought it was a Star Trek theme - Impulse power!
I loved the puzzle and had very similar breakthroughs and hiccups (orate). I did run into the Sam rebus problem. It soothed my ego that it took “ego” in the rebus spaces but was very confusing and frustrating that it wouldn’t take “egoid” or “idego”. Just an artifactual interface problem, I am sure.
I can’t figure out how to enter the rebuses today. Any advice? Thx
A 10-minute time on a puzzle Rex calls challenging is like getting Final Jeopardy when none of the contestants do.
If you put either ID or EGO it works. I just put EGO in every rebus.
Initially saw the Rube Goldberg clue as an atomic symbol for elements, i.e. Gold=AU. That slowed me down for a minute. He Got Game/Mama Said provided course correction. Then I tried to fit EGO into 25A because I thought "stoolpigeons" before "stoolies" because in my mind's eye I saw "ego" in the former word.
Very clever rebus crossings-- I was afraid the laptop program would demand both ego/id. Phew!!
Finished without a mistake according to Rex's diagram, but the sound never went off because I didn't know which letter to put in each of the two-way squares.
Typical Thursday, I thought. It took me a couple of hours because I had "obits" instead of ELEGY. BRIDESTOBE came slowly, because I was fixate on the idea of poll questions. Good misdirect. Once I got that right, MOVIEGOER was obvious.
Well this was just great. No trouble entering ID and EGO in the same square, as I made a diagonal line with my pencil and put one on the left and one on the right. Was pretty sure it had to be HEGOTGAME crossing LAIDIN, and my suspicions were confirmed by the MOVIEGOER / BRIDES (something). After that it was finding the other two, and that wasn't too hard.
Small hangup at KEYS before CAYS, which was fixed by good old NORTE. Thought of STALLS right away, and STASIS never occurred to me.
I'm always impressed with anyone that can come up with these two-way rebus constructions, and today's was a beauty. I'm familiar with Mr. Last's work as he often does the Monday NYer's, which are their hard ones, and usually challenging.
Nice work indeed, NL and Class. Next Level Thursday and Congratulations. Thanks for all the fun.
A nice legit Thursday with an easy and somewhat inane rebus. Hunting for the squares is always the delight. Lots of unknowns, but they all worked themselves out except ROEG. There should be a little skull and crossbones when a proper noun is spelled with nonsense letters. I have a last name like that ... skull and crossbones.
🦖 is on his game today. Hilarious writeup.
UNIBROW is my favorite answer. Wrote it straight in off the N in ONO. STOOLIES and it's clue were wonderful.
Unfortunate amount of glue with this theme. What're you gonna do?
Tee-Hee: BRA.
Uniclues:
1 Chest holder-in-placer with poor aerodynamics for handling her curves.
2 "Barbenheimers are amateurs," according to one.
3 He who learns of the affair last.
4 NASCAR driver runs out of fuel.
5 Cockeyed lone wolf gets no respect.
1 SLALOM BOG BRA
2 HE-GOT-GAME MOVIE GOER
3 OFFICE GOSSIP POUT
4 OVAL ACE STALLS
5 AWRY STAG LOL-ED
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The glow and all that goes with it. AURA REGALIA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, great, challenging, clever solve.
And I fell into the DOG trap, too.'
And agree with comment above that ARTIE/HEGOTGAME was a NATICK
Hey All !
An upbeat Rex! What a great post today! More upbeatness, less nittiness, please. 😁
Figured out what in tarhooties was happening with the OFFICE SPACE/MAMA SAID cross. I said, "ooh, there's EGO in the Across, ID in the Down. Neat." Wondered if the rest would be the same. Saw OPIOID, changed the ID to EGO, saw RUBEGOLDBERG, and Bob was my uncle. (I don't have an Uncle Bob, but Uncle Jim, Uncle Martin, and neatly enough, Uncle Sam.)
Decided to go with all EGOs in the Rebus squares, was going to alternate twixt EGO and ID (ala two as EGO, two as ID), but my EGO won out. Har. The App changed 'em to EGO/ID once completed.
Where's the SUPEREGO Rebus square?
Almost Friday, y'all. These weeks sure are flying by.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I went to read the revealer clue very early on and "Freudian concept" made me immediately think of both EGO and ID. I didn't try to fill in the revealer at that point, but returned to where I was in the grid. I saw my expected EGO at OFFIC[EGO]SSIP and thought "what a great way to hide it!"
But I didn't see the dual EGO/ID thing in that box. Not yet. After all, I didn't have the foggiest idea of what the Shirelles lyric was.
No, my big "Aha" Moment -- and I've seldom had a bigger one -- came at MOVI[EGO]ER/BR[ID]ESTOBE. Wow!, I thought. How great is this!!!
I had been fuming over how OPIOD [sic] seemed to be misspelled and I had no idea of the (great clue, great answer, btw) RUBE GOLDBERG. But now that I was looking for dual ID/EGOs, I finally saw OPIOID. Which gave me RUBE GO-somebody-or-other. Aha! RUBE GOLDBERG!!! I've heard his name, though I can't remember what it stands for.
I'm patting myself on the back for figuring out H[EGO]TGAME/ARTIE -- even though it could have been a complete Natick for me.
Thought for the Day: Depending on whether you solve the Across answer before the Down or the Down answer before the Across, the ID might be conquering the EGO just as much as the EGO might be overcoming the ID. But no worries...
Freud said that IMPULSE CONTROL means the EGO is there to control the impulses of the ID. He didn't say that it always succeeds.
BTW, let's not forget the fabulous cluing of UNIBROW; STOOLIES; MOVIEGOER; HOUSEBOAT; OFFICE GOSSIP; LASH; and RUBE GOLDBERG. What a wonderful puzzle!!! What a great class to be in!!! What a stimulating teacher/mentor in Natan Last!!!
It accepts EGO/ID, or EGO, or ID
@Rex, Weezie (6:58 AM) yd
Thx for the heads-up on two good looking podcasts. Enjoying both! 🏞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
“Mama said”, which was unequivocal, screamed “rebus” at me. A few minutes of pursuing the revealer clue, and I had it licked (sort of). Rebuses are SOOOO hard on my mini-iPad. Loved Rube Goldberg!! When I was teaching physics, specifically the simple machines, I assigned a project for which my students had to design a “Rube Goldberg” machine, using every one of the simple machines at least once. What fun to grade! What fun to display! What fun!
My wife always buys two of everything. Recently she bought a BRA and a COBRA.
I know that a van is a car, but is a CARAVAN? We’ve got one, but might sell it because it always STALLS ONUS.
I’m pretty sure that AMILATE is one of those desperation words I’ve tried in Spelling Bee. Yeah, sure, I’ve run across that before. Like, he would just AMILATE an entire room with his presents of mind.
Absolutely marvelous puzzle that didn’t give me nearly as much trouble as it did Rex. Thanks, Natan Last and class.
Yes, it was challenging, and I normally hate Thursdays. But this one was worth the effort. Bravo, Natan!
Once again the Times's crappy proprietary UI turns a delightful puzzle into a PITA struggle to figure out what the dratted thing actually wants you to put in the rebus square, which is NOT FUN. I'm just doing it in desktop, maybe that's why? I've now tried every possible variation: EGO, ID, EGOID, IDEGO, nothing works. Ugh.
Nice observation by @webwinger (8:15). The rebus squares have ego over id, a good description of IMPULSE CONTROL.
Fine puzzle. Love rebuses. It had some sparkle in the cluing.
We're heartbroken about the fire in Lahaina. The historic old town is leveled, at least 66 people dead. Our timeshare at the Marriott Ocean Club is about five minutes north. Our favorite restaurants are destroyed. We're scheduled to go there in six weeks. We haven't heard anything yet about any damage to the hotel.
OK, two words working in different directions. Very clever and complete garbage! I once again voice my undying view that each square can contain one letter only. I know I'm being reticent to change, but these kind of gimmicks just bother me. Sorry to be a traditionalist, but one letter per square is my rule.
A double red letter day with a Rex blog I actually totally agreed with and loved and an absolutely brilliant puzzle.
Great puzzle, only hampered for me by the NYT app’s rebus entry requirements for completion. I’m never putting a “/“. Ever (ok, maybe in some math rebus or something). But then to accept an E or I or EGO or ID for music, when EGOID or IDEGO without the slash is just…silence. I get the “over” concept of the Freudian theme. Whatever. Would Shortz’ rebus idiosyncratic rebus entry hang ups really been that compromised? End rant.
Really fun, challenging puzzle that struck a chord. Agree with Rex on HOUSEBOAT and @Wanderlust on SLALOM.
???
He directed films featuring Mick Jagger and David Bowie, so ROEG was my first correct answer.
Got the EGO/ID theme early, the only trouble was the middle square of 2 Down. But since revealer said 4 rebus squares and I only had 3, typed in EGO and VOILA! Puzzle solved! (Though LAIDIN was a clunker - something about mosaic tiles would have been a better clue.)
Entertaining puzzle - and an EGO-beaten Rex was fun for my pleasure-seeking ID.
I had filled in EGOID. Then IDEGO. No music. I figured I had an error somewhere. But I couldn’t find one. Checked here, no help (at the time). Then I checked Deb Amien. Bingo! These are the acceptable entries:
EGO/ID
ID/EGO
EGO
ID
E
I
How many solvers were caught up with this? EGOID and IDEGO should have worked too, especially if E or I worked. I don’t think that adding a slash is intuitive at all.
This brilliant puzzle just made me laugh when I finally understood that ego and id were answers that went in different directions. The Freud clues and Rube Goldberg came easily enough, .. but then my brain started fying as the puzzle became more and more challenging. Many clever and mis-directing clues, just what one needs on a Thursday morning. Rex's writeup was a pure joy to read, and also the comments of all the other blog commenters this morning. Thank you everyone! (And apropos of nothing, really, Heath Robinson is the cartoonist who is Rube Goldberg's equivalent in Britain.)
I finally gave up and hit reveal. Seems you need a / between ego/id to get the happy music. Frustrating!!
I loved it! I wandered for so long in the wilderness, entirely disoriented, unable to get a grip on the theme or on many of the clues. I finally had my breakthrough at the cross of the only two entries I was sure of: MAMA SAID and OFFICE GOSSIP; thank goodness I already had the reveal at that point, or I would have spent a lot of time trying to anagram EGOID. I thought the cross of BRIDES-TO-BE and MOVIE GOERS was especially fine. A great Thursday brain-racker for me.
Very tough at the start because all those clues about lines. Actually only 3 of them, but it seemed like more. My first entry was 'done' where it should have been ANEW. I think my second was the Flying Ant. But I finally got a toehold further down, and worked my way ack up.
Got the ID from OPIOID, and finally saw HE GOT GAME with that EGO in it (never saw the movie, but I'd heard the title and knew it was about basketball) -- so like a couple of others here, I was looking for superego down near the bottom. Meanwhile I had RU at 43-A and was trying to remember Rubik's first name -- though I was pretty sure it would be too short, and anyway I actually had RUBID...then I saw my surname at the end (always nice) and the light dawned.
Not only is HOUSEBOAT brilliantly clued, it crosses two theme answers. Quite a feat.
This was fun. I entered EGO/ID in the rebus boxes, which was accepted. I originally conflated "Yes!" with "I Do!" and thought: but when you've said 'I do' you're no longer a bride-to-be, you're a bride. Then I realized the answer was to "Will you marry me?"
Caravan on Impulse
On the tough side mostly because it took a while to figure out the double rebus and how to put it in the grid (or what @Rex said). NEST (as clued) was my only WOE. Very clever and sorta fun, liked it.
Wow! Never on Natan’s wavelength, but today’s grid was just brutal. Thanks for the critique by Rex that lets me begin to appreciate the craft and sublimate(?) the frustration.
I was SO happy to see that @Rex thought this puzzle was brilliant because this was my feeling as I finally “cracked” the puzzle! My solve was closer to Nancy’s except for whatever reason I got SOME of the “trick” with EGO and ID early but it took me awhile to figure that it was EGO/ID in every rebus square. I spent SOME time thinking that one or the other represented “I” for the corresponding cross because I’m NOT good at visualizing the other word when something like EGO is in the way. Hmmm. I’m not sure if I can adequately describe the deficiencies in MY perceptions, but I managed to overcome them and THAT is puzzle heaven for me.
I ended up putting NORTE right away but ONLY because my Spanish deficiency had my brain thinking Oest without the e on the end. It seems I’m doomed to only remember sur/sud and norte.
As soon as I saw what you add to make a croque-madame my first thought was “recipe for a stroke or heart attack”!
The word EGO or ID worked in the iOS app for me. No slash or combo needed
@webwinger - 8:15 AM - Actually, the JASA crossword class is online, so feel free to join wherever you live. Summer session is wrapping up soon. Check out https://www.jasa.org/services/arts-and-education for fall info.
BTW, we now know that KEALOA is not yet acceptable at SB.
Naticked 3D/17A - Just didn’t know either. Otherwise finished but it was slow going. Clever theme.
I already have Natan on my Mt. Rushmore of constructors - so I knew this would be good. Fantastic trick - nuanced revealer and well filled overall. Agree with the big guy on the difficulty. RUBE GOLDBERG x LISSOME and POBOY is top notch. OPIOD is tough to see but not much else mars this grid.
If the editor was keen enough - he would have asked for this one to be expanded which would have made for a truly memorable Sunday.
Highly enjoyable Thursday solve.
Rest in power Robbie
Full disclosure—I am currently enrolled in the JASA class. This summer marks my first time in the class, so I was not involved in creating today's puzzle. I learned about the course from the constructor credit the last time Natan and his JASA crew appeared in the NYT. I loved this puzzle. I got IMPULSE CONTROL first. Then I got EGO from RUBE GOLDBERG. But I did not pick up the check, so to speak, until I got the OFFICE GOSSIP / MAMA SAID cross. I knew these were the entries for those clues from early on, but I had no idea until later why they refused to fit!
Anon 10:01 -- Your plaint about "only one letter in a square" should ever be allowed is sort of like your saying: "I only like vanilla ice cream. There should be no other flavors of ice cream. Only vanilla ice cream should ever be permitted to exist."
Speaking for myself, I would really hate to live in a boring world of only vanilla ice cream.
OPIOID & OFFICE GOSSIP gave me the rebus switch right away.
Agree on hope to hear.
After scouring for typos and reversing my rebuses from IDEGO to EGOID, I finally ran “check puzzle” and got all my rebus squares crossed out. I’m not annoyed with the constructor, but could be happier with the programmer (and the-what is it? $40 a year?-software). I’m glad I don’t care about streaks. Not really keen on trying combo after combo.
For me, software would not take IDEGO or EGOID. I had to enter EGO/ID to complete the puzzle. I know someone said software took either for them, but that was my experience.
At the start, disliked this puzzle. After a first pass through, had only a few answers, most of them at the bottom. Just not on my wavelength. Eventually worked my way up from there.
Just couldn't figure out the rebuses for a looong time. Knew it had to be Mama Said for 6D, but didn't see how to fit it. Can never remember how to spell "opioid" - put in "opiod," which gave me gibberish of "RUBDLDB..." for 43A.
Wanted obits for 22A, but ROEG knocked that out. Then tried dirge. Nope. At last hit on ELEGY.
Eventually came to admire it, but that's as far as I'll go for Thursdays.
Aggravating. I got the rebus at OFFICE GOSSIP but was so flummoxed by MOMMASAEGO. I just didn’t understand that they wanted EGO in place of ID, even though I knew OPIOID (actually OPIOEGO) was right. I guess I couldn’t wrap my head around the conceit of this puzzle for a while. When I finally got it I just sorta groaned, quickly filled in the rest of the puzzle, and found myself in a bad mood.
What a great puzzle! It took awhile to hit on ego and longer to get to id and I scribbled all over the paper to really see the answers. I would have crashed and burned doing it on line.
I just put Es in the four answers (left out GO) and got the music, so I never got the chance to figure out a rebus. My logic; "impulse control = not GOing."
Wow.
When I saw "Mama Said" which was a given for me, I thought "No it's not a given." It's a rebus & I'm not fond of rebuses especially a double rebus which I saw after coming here.
This was brilliant JASA class & Natan - guess I'm not.
Congrats to you guys & to all those who solved.
Magnificent. Great execution of a theme that combines stylistic and thematic richness - that’s what a theme should do. (I’m looking at you, fold-drop table…)
And it didn’t need terrible fill to make it work! The fill is super solid.
I got the "trick" pretty quickly, like a lot of you, but had to come here to figure out how to enter the dumb rebus. I had EGOID and it was not accepted. I deleted the ID, so I just had EGO, and it was accepted (maybe EGO/ID would have worked too).
Great write-up, Rex. Humility becomes you. Loved reading about the mistakes you made that I didn’t make thanks to luck. Loved this puzzle.
Our egos are our i.d.’s??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hah indeed, Lewis. Hah indeed! :)
Solving on the app, the screen took the E for HE and wouldn't overwrite EGO (even if I wanted to), so early on I thought the rebus was "go" (go go go, I have no IMPULSE CONTROL and couldn't get past that to EGO/ID).
Quibbles: a BRA doesn't hold cups, but BOOBs (cf. Spelling Bee), a toodler's face might be POUTy (adj) but not POUT (noun/verb), and I live 20 miles OESTE of Durango, CO (and many miles NORTE of the one in Mexico) so I had lots of trouble figuring out the writer's p.o.v. and started with AL SUR, which is the only thing that made sense for a U.S.-based puzzle.
But I liked SCHWA and LISSOME and the clues for FRYING PAN, HOUSEBOAT, and ETCHED.
Schizo rebus squares! Cool. Different. Like.
Kinda caught on to the puztheme mcguffin a bit earlier than @RP did. Had ID at LAIDIN, and EGO over at MOVIEGOER, pretty early on. But them rebi squares just weren't workin, in their partnered-up crosser answers. Are ID & EGO both somehow maybe bein used inside that there one square? Ahar! BRIDETOBE! HEGOTGAME! They just suddenly spewed out into view. Wrote in EGOID.
staff weeject picks: The SUI & EGG parallel pairin. Primo set of totally mysterious clues. [Quoth the @RP, "Brutal".]
Had BUSH for vice president after Jefferson, off the BU??. Thought it might be a trick question. Wrong again, M&A breath. Kinda made BURR my fave entry, tho.
Thanx for gangin up on us en masse, Mr. Last dude and his classy co-conspirators. It was downright sui generis. With an egg on top [Sooo … Almost EGOID].
Masked & Anonym007Us
p.s. Our hearts truly go out to the folks on Maui. M&A & PuzEatinSpouse spent part of our honeymoon time there. Fond memories of a beautiful island and wonderful experiences. But awful afraid that climate change is eventually comin for all of us.
**gruntz**
Knew water cooler had gossip, it took some downs to crack "EGO" in the middle, since I already had "Mama SaID" and from there it flowed. BUT
BUT BUT BUT
I cannot for the life of me get the app to recognize I'm done. What's the trick to entering the answers? I put "EGOID" in the Rebus box, "IDEGO", and also "EGO ID" (with space). Nothing!
Solving on Across Lite, I tried just EGO in the squares which didn't work, then tried just E which worked but looked dumb, then tried EGO/ID and it discarded the backslash meaning EGOID worked. That process didn't bother me too much as it seems each platform has its own issues. The thing I really LOOOVE about AL is that except on some Sundays, I don't ever have to scroll to see a clue.
By the way, the theme was pretty brilliant, even if I only knew EGO and ID as separate things and not as one OVER the other. I have zero interest in Freud any more; his theories are largely discredited, right? I do remember being hassled by Gypsies in Sigmund Freud Park in Vienna in 1987.
51 across was WAIL then HOWL then YOWL. If that hadn't worked, MEWL was next up.
[Spelling Bee: Wed 0, last word this awkward looking 8er. QB streak at 7!]
The app didn’t make the rebus easy on this one. I had put “egoid” in all 4 and couldn’t understand why the puzzle wouldn’t show as complete. Finally made all of them “ego” and got my complete. Assume the same would work with “id”. Weird!
I could see right away that there were substitutions or something going on as I was working Downs. So I headed straight for the revealer. I began looking for Freudian terms back up NORTE. I had left off the Downs at the Shirelles... Aah! ID! But OFFICEIDSSIP? Headslap - and the whole thing came to a quick SLALOM all the way to the finish!
I sort of get the ego/id thing, but can anybody explain how ego/id (or however you're supposed to enter it) is an illustration of ego checking the id?
I solved on the app and it worked with just entering EGO. Other people commented that it also worked with just ID, or a combination of the two with the / in between.
IMPULSE CONTROL is not a Freudian concept. It's such a common part of human existence that no one person can lay claim to it. Stuff like ID, EGO and Superego are concepts in Freud's antiquated mythology but they are no longer part of contemporary psychology and psychiatry and haven't been since long ago in the previous century.
I bet that those who think it's retro-chic to use Freudian terminology have a sanitized, bowdlerized view of his scheme (Freudian-lite so to speak) and if they knew the full scope of his cocaine-fueled ideas, they would renounce all things Freudian, including giving him credence by putting his concepts in crossword puzzles.
For one thing, Freud was a notorious misogynist. He said that women are morally and ethically inferior to men because as girls they view themselves as having already been deprived of the more desirable genitalia (thus developing penis envy) and therefore aren't motivated, as are boys, to adopt their father's moral standards to repress castration anxiety.
Freud was also a practitioner of Gaslighting. Early in his talk-therapy sessions, many female patients reported memories of childhood sexual abuse, often by older male family members. Freud tried to convince them that these memories were fictions invented by their subconscious to cover up their true libidinal desires to have sex with their fathers.
I'm not making this stuff up. For a complete exposé, see psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey's Freudian Fraud: the Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture.
Entering the rebus squares was what took me an age! No /, not both words, and at one point I decided to try EGO sometimes and ID in others. Nope. Finally went back and erased them all (again!) and just put EGO everywhere. Happy music! Wow.
Yes, it was fun until it came time to fill in the puzzle on the app. Pick your rebus and pray for the best.
Today after a very, very, very frustrating “post solve” slog of trying to figure out what the blazes the dang App wanted me to do with the rebus squares, and finally getting the happy music with just EGO in all 4 of them, I came here to see what y’all thought. If it weren’t for all the paper waste, I swear I would go back to getting the paper in well, paper format and solving the old school way, but every two weeks I already recycle a huge bin of paper, cans, cardboard and glass and I just can’t responsibly add any more.
Any unhappiness I have about this puzzle today is not the puzzle itself, its just the platform that drove me over the edge. The puzzle itself was nothing short of brilliant. What else should we expect from Natan and his JASA class? This one was absolutely stellar. Thanks to one and all!
The rebus really messed with me from the off because I had MAMA SAID immediately but it made OFFICE GOSSIP impossible, which led me to EFO/ID. Nope. Anyway, I ended up solving by erasing the rebus squares and replacing them with an X to remember where they were and coming back later. That eased mu my angst and the body of the puzzle was the. Easy.
I haven’t enjoyed a Thursday this much in forever. Great concept, elegantly executed! My only complaints lie with the app.
Loved this puzzle! Got hung up on thinking I had found the hook -- Had Rube and Berg and cleverly put AU in the other two squares. That bit of genius did not yield any results, sadly. But comedy gold!
Great fun! Love the humorous clues. OFFICE GOSSIP! UNIBROW!
NW most challenging for me, but gettable.
Yeah, reading the clues. What a concept, Rex! Funny guy!
I enjoyed solving this, great AHA moment, but all the joy was drained by the need for the slash, which I only learned when I gave up and asked for the solution. I am sure there have been NYT puzzles with different solutions for the an and d that didn’t require the slash. Really ticked about that.
Also (others may have said this but I am late to the game today) OVALS AND ELLIPSES ARE NOT THE SAME THING!
There must be someone else who started with the revealer, worked upward, and soon found what had to be RUBEGOLDBERG. Fun, but more whoosh-whoosh than "challenging."
Like others, got the gimmick while in the NW. Loved the double rebus. Outstanding puzzle!
Separate “ego” and “id” with a “/“ for the complete rebus to be accepted by the app. Caused me much frustration.
Had a stinkin’ 35 on a puzzle I finished in sub- 15?
Saw the EGOID rebus pretty quickly, and had it enters that way. Checked every word many times…. Over and over.
Is it a cheat to look at the comments to see how the &’and to get the rebus entered???
Grrr. Made the puzzle less than enjoyable
I had ID/EGO
I put EGO ID ID EGO in that order and it worked!
42 – yes, FORTY TWO – minutes over my average but gosh darn if I didn’t love every single one of them. The firework of delight in my brain when I got RUBE GOLDBERG! What a treat. Loved the gimmick, love the clues, loved the solve. A win all round for me (but not for my average time).
As per my usual approach on a Thursday, I scanned for a revealer-type clue and found it. Therefore I started in the south and soon came up with the first half: IMPULSE. Puzzling over that two-names clue, I couldn't make sense of it--until suddenly, with the addition of some extra letters, I saw it could be RUBEGOLDBERG--and, those extra letters were EGO! With Freud in the revealer clue, I knew I was ONTO it.
However, I went AWRY with my singers, calling them carolers. Rushing the season...no, we have too much of that already. Should've filled in gimme MAMASAID first. Tunes from MY day! Anyhow, absent that glitch, I actually found this to be easy-medium. And a darn good one. Birdie.
Birdie also in Wordle.
GIVEIN @ STAG?
MAMASAID the BRIDESTOBE
had no IMPULSE CONTROL TO WAIT.
Some PO'BOYs got LAID, you SEA,
all at ONCE they SAID, "AMILATE?"
--- ARTIE GOLDBERG
Purposely obtuse and obnoxious. Good riddance.
Loved this one. Brilliant gimmick. I thought this one was relatively easy for a Natan Last puzzle. His puzzles are notoriously challenging. This one was on the medium side. At least for me.
With my (fill in the blank) of rebus puzzles, this one stumped me as usual.
I'll admit, the trick is quite smart - but today...I wasn't.
Lady Di
On the fence here. Nice construct, But maybe it's my EGO in the way. I'D need to mull it over.
Wordle par.
Hey Rex--or whoever might still be reading comments--I'm very late solving this puzzle as you can see. I LOVED the experience of solving it--but you've referenced the wrong Miracle Workers. The Miracle Workers with Daniel Radcliffe (hey--JK Rowling is not his fault!) and Steve Buscemi is on MAX (or HBO--haven't figured that one out yet) and not TBS. There is a comedy on TBS called Miracle Workers (I checked after going crazy trying to make MAX or HBO fit in the puzzle. A great misdirection which maybe only got me. I couldn't find any mention of it by anyone else.)
Feel better telling you even though I'm sure no one is still reading comments.
By the way, I'm 600 because I was the 600th person to follow you on--was it Facebook? You wrote me a little note saying congratulations or thank you or something. See how long I've been lurking and occasionally commenting?
Hey, Rex--or whoever else is reading this blog over a month late--I LOVED this puzzle! But it was made harder for me by the misdirection on Miracle Workers. It seems no one else had this problem--or at least I don't see that anyone else mentioned it. Miracle Workers with Daniel Radcliffe (Hey, JK Rowling is not his fault!) and Steve Buscemi is on MAX (or HBO. They seem kind of interchangeable these days.) The Miracle Workers on TBS, the one you should have referenced in your blog, is a comedy with no Steve Buscemi. I checked after spending WAY too much time trying to figure out why neither MAX nor HBO would fit in that space! Thought you might like to know that.
But I loved the puzzle and your write up--except the reference to the wrong show. I agree the puzzle was brilliant.
By the way, I'm 600 because years and years ago I was your six hundredth follower on Facebook. You sent me a congratulations or thank you or something on being 600, so it became my name. See how long I've been lurking and occasionally commenting? Thank you for your blog. It's explained many, many misunderstandings over the years. Don't know what I'd do without it!
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