Group of obsessive followers, as of a TV show / MON 8-14-23 / Exceed the limit à la Spinal Tap / Longtime Dancing With the Stars judge Goodman
Constructor: Simon Marotte and Trenton Lee Stewart
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (Downs-Only)
THEME: ONE AND DONE (62A: Never to be repeated ... or an apt pronouncement after following the instructions sequentially in 17-, 25-, 39- and 49-Across) — theme answers are familiar phrases, which, taken together, form a kind of arithmetic problem, the answer to which is ONE (so, when you are DONE solving the problem, the answer you get will be ONE) Theme answers:
GO TO ELEVEN (11) (17A: Step 1: Exceed the limit à la Spinal Tap)
PLUS ONE (11 + 1= 12) (25A: Step 2: Partygoer's guest)
TAKE TEN (12 - 10 = 2) (39A: Step 3: Go on a brief break)
Word of the Day: Pusha T (27D: Emulates Cardi B or Pusha T = RAPS) —
Terrence LeVarr Thornton (born May 13, 1977), better known by his stage name Pusha T, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record executive. He rose to prominence as one-half of the Virginia-based hip hop duo Clipse, which was mainly active from 1994 to 2010, alongside his older brother No Malice. As Clipse, the two released three studio albums upon signing to Pharrell's Star Trak Entertainment; the albums spawned hit singles including "Grindin'" and "When the Last Time" (both 2002).
In September 2010, Pusha T signed a deal with Kanye West's GOOD Music imprint, under the aegis of Def Jam Recordings. Later that year, he was featured on West's single "Runaway," which peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2011, he released his first solo project, the mixtape Fear of God, which was followed up with his debut solo album, My Name Is My Name, released in 2013. In November 2015, West appointed Pusha T to take over his role as president of GOOD Music, where he remained one of its flagship artists until parting ways with the label in 2022.
Just back from a local fundraiser for VINES, a community garden / urban farming organization here in Binghamton. Ate lots of good food made by local restaurants using VINES produce, hung out with some people I hadn't seen in a while, picked up a couple of bottles of wine ("for charity!" I reasoned), and generally had a nice end-of-summer time. Plus, they gave me a special "You Are Old Enough To Drink"-type bracelet, which made me feel about 30 years younger, like I was clubbing or something (a thing I have literally never done, do they still call it that?):
[Nobody actually checked my ID so I’m guessing they "Verified" my "Age" by just looking at my neck skin and going "oh, yeah, very much over 21"]
So, I chose today's "Word of the Day" so that when you (inevitably) run into PUSHAT someday, in some future puzzle, you cannot say that you've "never heard of him." You have now officially heard of him. Today's "Word of the Day" is for everyone who boohoos every time a rapper appears in the grid. CARDI B, you have seen, and stored away in your memory banks (probably), but now you've got PUSHA T to add to said banks. If you read the wikipedia entry, you can see that his longevity and success make him more than crossworthy. This is part of what I do. Just out here providing a rap education public service for you all, thank me later (!). As for this puzzle, it's math, there it is, I did the math, it works, the end. Pretty straightforward, not terribly exciting. The repeated ONE is a little ugly (PLUS ONE, ONE AND DONE), but few are likely to notice, let alone care. The thing about the Spinal Tap answer (part of an iconic line that comes at the end of an unforgettable exchange) is that ... "GO TO ELEVEN" doesn't really mean "exceed the limit." The point of the "eleven" line, what makes it absurd, is that the dials on his amp actually GO TO ELEVEN. That is, ELEVEN *is* the "limit." The inability of Nigel to understand the interviewer's question (namely: "Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"), his failure to understand the very premise of the question: that's the joke. That's what makes it funny. Anyway, in the movie, eleven is the limit. It does not "exceed the limit." I guess that, metaphorically, one might use "GO TO ELEVEN" to mean "exceed the limit," but more accurately it just means to max out. And the main reason you'd say it would be to remind everyone of this funny scene, which is funny, here, see for yourself:
The Downs-only solve was hard for me today in only one place—THRILL RIDE (29D: Roller coaster, e.g.). The corresponding (i.e. symmetrical) long Down was an out-and-out gimme, but once I made my way around the grid and ended up in the SW corner, I found myself staring, somewhat despairingly, at this:
Now, if you look closely, you can see the mistake that kept me stuck for a bit. I misread the clue at 49D: "___ it occurred to you ...?") and wrote in "HAS IT" instead of "HASN'T" (so much more natural does "has it occurred to you...?" sound to my ears than "hasn't it occurred to you...?"). So I was looking at I-NE at 64-Across and that could only be IONE ... but when I put an "N" in there, well, that did not help me get to THRILL RIDE. And if you look at all the other blanks I had where THRILL RIDE was supposed to go, you can see that multiple letters made sense for every square. Was it SPARES SPIRES or SPORES? ACRE or ACHE? RATS RAGS RAMS etc.? Wasn't looking good there. And then I double-checked "HAS IT," saw my error, and then was able to rolodex through letters at the end of the answer to see RIDE and from there pick up THRILL RIDE. Phew. Close call. But in the end, I finally got that ONE troublesome answer AND I was DONE. I do admire how hard the puzzle is trying to convince you that it is exciting (HIGH-OCTANE! THRILL RIDE). Thumbs up for those answers in their roles as hype men.
Not much else to comment on here. The only hesitations I had while solving Downs-only were at SIVA (never that sure about god names) and "IF ONLY..." (kept wanting the phrase to start with the pronoun "I" but "I" was in the cross as well as in the clue (47D: "I wish!"), so I just waited for crosses to make some kind of sense of that answer. Eventually, they obliged. I liked FANDOM and OVERLOOK, and thought the grid was clean, if not exactly the promised THRILL RIDE. See you tomorrow.
Also solving downs only, it was pretty easy except for that danged NW corner. Up there for the downs I had LAPS, EACH, ROTI, and DISSES. What a mess, and honestly what are the odds that ALL of those guesses were wrong? It didn't help that when I changed 2 down to A POP, 1 across became LARD, although the rest was still a mess. Finally I tried LEGS for 1 down and it got better. Ironic that 1 across was actually LAPS... malapop!
The theme was okay, but the first one was the weakest, in that GO TO ELEVEN is not really a phrase in the language; I would not recognize it outside of the Spinal Tap scene, and even then it's iffy. But I did love that movie, although I think this scene: A Mach piece, in D minor is funnier.
[Spelling Bee: Sun -1 as of 10pm PDT, missing a 7er. I will keep trying as my 10 day QB streak is in peril.]
Same error. I did the puzzle on paper and never went back to that area. So a dnf on a Monday: has it crossing iode. I know but as I said I didn’t go back. The shame. I think has it or hasn’t it ever are more common but all four are in the language. Rex doesn’t say it twice makes no sense. Going too fast!
EVITE had an EPIC CHIP on her PITA. She was the town YENTL and always had HALF of her BOSSY NOSE in about TEN or maybe ELEVEN ACTOR RATS from the town of STENO. These RATS were like a PAC TEAM that liked to SPARK her UNIT of THRILL and RIDE her until she'd FESS up that APOP was her ONE AND only true love.
APOP was RAPT with love. EVITE could STIR his NODE into MAD SPIRES of FANDOM. "Ay MAMA mia" he'd FESS up..."IF ONLY I could FLOAT her a THRILL!" His AIM was to give her TEN, PLUS ONE, ALAMO STEMS of roses. He could OVERLOOK her ANGUS LEGS (I MEAN...he could TAKE TEN SETS of those LEGS any day) and her BOSSY YENTL ways, but it had been AGES since the OCTANE in his NEAP could FLOAT his UNIT.
No ONE's AIM was to UPEND the KETTLE. A SIVA from LIMA was brought in to REFEREE this EPIC STEPPE. Maybe it would SPARK ONE UNIT of love!....HASN'T it GONE on long enough? The THRILL of the RIDE isn't OVER. It's time to RAPS things up...."No more SCORNS" yelled the SCOT, HALF OFF his rocker..."Lets get ON with IT and just get HIGH!"
They did. EVITE and APOP would MEND their ways. Their AIM was to be a TEAM. She'd set her alarm at TEN and start the KETTLE and he'd get up at ELEVEN. By ONE they were DONE eating . They liked to sit under a TREE and LAPS into some YENTL....They were happy.
They finally wed and had ELEVEN children. ONE of the had a NOSE like APOP. TEN of them had ANGUS LEGS like MAMA. It didn't matter. It was the THRILL RIDE that got them HIGH....They were in love.
Quote marks not required for Spinal Tap. It's the band that turn their amps to 11, when they "need that extra push over the cliff" (they are exceeding the usual limit in their own minds at least).
I liked this. I didn't register a lot of the down answers until later, since I was zipping through the acrosses for almost the whole solve. Normally the "one" dupe might bother me but it didn't here. Nice job, guys.
I grew up with my father semi-regularly referencing this scene in Spinal Tap, so it put a big smile on my face. We recently rewatched it to see if it holds up (it does until it *really* doesn’t), but this scene remained perfection.
So, [*pushes glasses up ridge of nose with index finger*], the reason why SIVA is also spelled SHIVA is because it actually should be transliterated in English as Śiva. The Hindi alphabet contains a shh letter that often gets spelled out in lay English or sometimes folks wind up dropping that diacritic accent.
I feel like this was about as interesting as a Monday puzzle gets, so I enjoyed that. I thought the NEIL clue was cute and I thought the sawfish clue for NOSE was an excellent way to spruce up a boring word. Really nice work in general as Mondays go, I thought.
Yes. I immediately and with total confidence typed in GOTOTWELVE, as that would be to “exceed the limit” in the Spinal Tap gag. As Rex stated, eleven *is* the limit. That’s the point.
The thing that I enjoyed the most about today’s puzzle was the fact that I needed Rex to explain a Monday theme to me (plus I never saw the Spinal Tap movie so GO TO ELEVEN just lied there looking all confused). Other than that, he only real speed bump today was SIVA which I hadn’t heard of before.
Beautifully filled grid – look at those long downs. Nice when the theme still allows you to have quality fill.
Downs only had the same problem as Rex with THRILL RIDE, although without the HASit error. So for me, RIDE was easy but coming up with THRILL was not. And the same problem as okanaganer in the NW. I had LEGS/each/PITA/no guess. Easy to see I had something wrong, and LEGS seemed pretty certain, but not knowing if the problem was in 'each' or in 'PITA' or both made that tough. In total, this played more like a hard Tuesday or an easy Wednesday for me.
@JoeDiPinto: You’re absolutely right—the Spinal Tap guys *think* they’re exceeding the limit, and that’s the joke. And @okanaganer with all due respect, that phrase is definitely part of the language where I come from. Also agree with @Weezie that the NEIL clue is a winner. All around, a very fun, fresh Monday,
I’d call Simon and Trenton an ordered pair at this point, as, in their two collaborations, the order of the theme answers was important. Today’s, of course, in the math problem, and in their first, which was in the form of the guessing game “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral”, where the theme answers were band names that contained those elements in that order (COUNTING CROWS, SMASHING PUMPKINS, ROLLING STONES).
Thus, I liked seeing STIR in today’s grid, as it reminded me of recipes, which consist of ordered steps.
I tried to guess the revealer after uncovering the theme answers, and even after knowing it had something to do with the number ONE, my efforts turned out to be an EPIC fail/flail. But I loved the trying, and I loved the revealer they came up with. I also loved [You could tell how old it is if you saw it!] for TREE, and [Diamond with gold and platinum certifications] for NEIL.
Two more things. My brain keeps shouting “MA!” at reading line 11 – HALF OFF / MAMA. And I was sad to see the METS in last place.
Simon and Trenton, your puzzles have had flair and your themes have been innovative. They’ve whetted my appetite to see more. I loved this, and thank you for making it!
I also misread the clue as "(Has it) occurred to you?" But I was sure "iode" had to be wrong, so the problem corrected itself. Never heard of Spinal Tap, so GOTOELEVEN didn't come right away.
All told, a tougher than usual Monday puzzle. But the arithmetic worked in the end.
Thx, Simon & Trenton; if I SAid this one was too clever by HALF, I'd be telling a LIE. 'Twas an ELEVEN on a scale of TEN. Well done! 😊
Med.
Just enuf crunch to make it interesting.
Wanted TEAM sports, but…alas.
Just loaded NEIL Diamond's 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' soundtrack into my music library last week.
Also added this one recently into my top ten alpha playlist: Play Me.
A most enjoyable trip! :)
Thx @jae; on it! ___ David Balton & Jane Stewart's acrostic on xwordinfo.com was by far the easiest I ever encountered; nevertheless, it was most enjoyable, and has an excellent moral. ___ On to Tim Croce's #834. 🤞 Elizabeth Gorski's Mon. New Yorker on tap for tm. ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I would call this one medium for a Monday. Mind you, the limiting factor for me was still how quickly my fat fingers could type legible words on my phone, but it seems like there's a bunch of stuff that's a bit obscure for casual or beginner solvers: -Using Halal to clue an otherwise straightforward, common food. -The odd spelling of SIVA (Heh. My phone keeps trying to autocorrect it to Shiva). -YENTL -Cardi B or Pusha T (no, @Rex, you typing a name in your blog is not a sufficient reason for us to remember it). -TEAM GAME instead of TEAM SPORT (not so much obscure as just a bad answer) -FANDOM -NEAP -Knowing what CPU means. -LEN Goodman, whoever that is. -Knowing who plays at Citi Field.
Again, none of this is likely to slow down anybody here, but perhaps for a novice trying to solve a Monday... I dunno, it just felt off.
I agree that eleven is the limit in the Spinal Tap quote, but I guess someone could make the argument that in common parlance people use it to mean "We're going to push this beyond what anyone else has done!" Maybe (@okanaganer: "Go to eleven" is absolutely a phrase used in everyday speech outside of the movie)
PS. I didn't get a chance to comment yesterday due to travel, but I wanted to say, instead of the poker reference, a better clue for IN OR OUT would be: "Something you say to a cat."
I know little about rap and virtually nothing about Cardi B but I think you are pushing your argument too much to include her as obscure for a Monday. Anyway beginners aren’t clueless. They just don’t know a lot of the tricks etc yet. Most beginners would recognize rap style names even if they hadn’t heard of either Cardi B or Pusha T. (Highly unlikely). You have a point about Siva (the spelling). Pushing it for a Monday. However correct it is, not for this day! But fandom has been around for a long time. What is obscure about it? Yentl was a hit movie years ago maybe not Monday appropriate now. But I doubt it. Neap? If you live along the coast not obscure at all.
Took a giant step backwards today in my Downs-Only progress… and I’d been doing much better on recent Mondays. Too many of the across answers had too many plausible alternatives that I couldn’t get from just the downs… oh well. Once I looked at the across clues it was a normal Monday. Oh well.
Today I discovered that if you write in YENTA instead of YENTL, you need to have PASSONE instead of PLUSONE and it ruins the whole equation. Never did see how SPEND meant "flip over" but didn't worry about it. Monday Monday.....
Otherwise no problems. I never tire of reading about OFL's adventures in solving downs-only, except on Mondays. THRILLRIDE, for instance, was obvious after a few crosses.
Perfectly cromulent Monday, SM and TLS. Small Mistake led to a Too Long Solve, but that's on me. Thanks for all the fun.
My kind of math! Cute idea, on-the-NOSE reveal. I had to fill in ELEVEN from crosses, as I've never seen the movie, but the rest went quickly; I thought PLUS ONE and TAKE TEN were especially nicely repurposed for the theme. Like @Rex, I admired HIGH OCTANE THRILL RIDE, and in the lower tier my eye was drawn to REFEREE, TEAM GAME, and FANDOM, as Wisconsin volleyball starts this Saturday. Go Badgers!
Follow the instructions themes are in the same category as tribute or quote puzzles for me. This one had a little more nuance to it - and the fill is harmless - so I guess a decent early week puzzle?
Did like OVERLOOK and STEPPE and I tied ALAMO to FESS who will always be Davy Crockett to me.
Cute and clever, fun to solve. Still, I imagine it took some work to put together so I appreciate the effort of the constructors. Nice job gentlemen! A pleasant start to the week.
Good Monday. I’m in @Joe Dapinto’s camp that the 11 clue works. Forget about what makes that scene funny, in the bands mind going to 11 was exceeding the traditional volume dial limit of 10.
For a Monday I did think crossing a Spinal Tap clue, with downs of SIVA and STEPPE is on the harder side of a Monday for novice solvers.
Didn’t mind the ONE dupe and not much else to dislike, so I’m just going to stay hangry over the CUBAN clue from yesterday. We have a fantastic Italian market/deli in Dallas (Jimmysfoodstore.com) with the best Cuban sandwich (and Italian beef and Paninos and you get the idea) I may need to make the 45 min drive into town today from our little farm to get over it.
Wow! You have to come up with all those in-the-language phrases with a low-ish number in them and they have to be symmetrical in length and you have to insert them in the puzzle in just the right order for them to add up to something and then you have to find the something to which they add up in another in-the-language symmetrical phrase.
I don't know how anyone succeeds in making a grid like this.
While solving, it played a lot less Wow-ish for me, but it was certainly pleasant enough. Then, after I'd finished solving, I did the required math and the Wow whooshed right in. An unusual, imaginative and very well-executed theme.
This one took a lot longer than usual. It's a fine puzzle and enjoyable all the way through. I had to do the math problem twice before I got the right answer.
Disappointed to see ALAMO in the singular after Rachel and Christina used Saturday to elevate it to a memorable stench as a plural.
Saw Barbie over the weekend. I liked it.
Uniclues:
1 Tuesday Goodwiller. 2 Shaken martini lover ventures briefly into the enemy camp. 3 The jalapeño version. 4 Off camera action usually preceding a viral video of overweight men and women punching other overweight men and women. 5 Be happy.
1 HALF OFF MAMA 2 STIR ONE AND DONE 3 PITA THRILL RIDE 4 SCORNS REFEREE 5 UPEND MAD
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Posterior ad campaign slogan. REAR ENDS! I SIT LONGER!.
Good clue for PAC would be former preceder of 12, then 10, now 4. If you don’t like TEAMGAMES, you won’t understand this inane comment. Speaking of which, Team Boxing would be an interesting game/sport. I’m picturing something like a brawl. And if some TEAMGAMES have a REFEREE, are the players referors?
@kitshef 7:15. Nice one on remembering the ALAMOS. BTW, with the popularity of Oppenheimer, ALAMOS probably should have been clued yesterday as “A bomb lab site Los______” or something like that. While we’re on the subject, I understand that when the Kens took over Barbieland, they were going to name it KENYA, but found that it was already being used elsewhere.
I liked that the puzzle starts with LEGS (1D) dangling from LAPS (1A).
Pretty sweet puzzle for a Monday. Thanks, Simon Marotte and Trenton Lee Stewart.
The “These go to eleven,” is definitely my favorite scene from that movie. A muppet series recently came out (The Electric Mayhem) and their amps go to 11.5! 😂
Many thanx for @RP's public services, a la "rap roundup". M&A knows squat about rap, other than for the sorta musical guests on SNL. @RP: How'bout also roundups for LOTR and Dancin with the Stars … two more subjects that M&A knows squat about. We evidently need to know this stuff, for the NYTPuz solvequests.
staff weeject pick: LEN. See above plea to @RP. fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Texas historical site to "remember"} = ALAMO. Much ez-ier than goin with a {One of the alternatives to Budgets} clue, or somesuch.
Luvly longball entries: HIGHOCTANE. THRILLRIDE.
Now, about the puztheme… 1. Like the math slant. 2. Didn't totally like the use of ONE more than once. 3. Had no idea, re: what GOTOELEVEN was. Need a Spinal Tap roundup from @RP. 4. Start out instead with GRABADOZEN. 5. Somewhere after the HALFOFF themer entry, include a ROUND Down entry, to get rid of the extra .5's worth. QED. har
Thanx for the numbers game, and for gangin up on us, Marotte & Stewart dudes. Nice constructioneerin job.
I agree that this was a very nice Monday offering. Is it just me, or does anyone remember when TAKE five became TAKETEN? I’m all for the change because five minutes won’t get you through a line at the ladies’ room but I’m pretty sure the expression morphed during my lifetime which is a wee bit longer than the fabulous Dorian Gray..(hi @Andrew, and btw, no flaps for me either YET but plenty o’ lines)
I might be spewing sacrilege but I just never have been able to get into Christopher Guest’s “things.” I will say that even though I was U-30 when This is Spinal Tap came out I was kinda busy with a baby and law school so MAYBE I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Anyhoo, the term TAKEITTOELEVEN was not familiar to me until today. And I looked at that scene today…if that is one of the best scenes in the mockumentary, my assessment holds and my thought was, Chris Guest was kinda cute back then.
I got to the revealer and confidently wrote in ONE AND only, which didn't work. The actual revealer works better, anyway. I also went the HAS iT/iODE route. I almost looked up iode, but noticed just in time that I could change the i to N. I too think the ironic version is better.
Good theme, and nice to see OCTANE again, even without the chemistry.
I never saw that movie either but since I was reading all the clues, it wasn't hard to figure out GO TO ELEVEN.
But TEAM GAME was lame. Is boxing a game? I can actually envision a manager saying, "Look kid, this ain't no game!" to a boxer. I guess if it's not a game it's not a team game, in the same way that a striped bass is not a deciduous plant, but no. You could say checkers instead of boxing and it would work.
I don't think a court reporter is called a STENO, either, but I could be wrong on that.
@jberg, to my knowledge TODAY and since I’ve practiced law (‘87) they are called court reporters. These days the record is recorded and the c.r. MIGHT supplement with quick shorthand or notes. Sometimes they will ask to pause testimony to make sure they got a name right or even a word or sentence. I believe there is also software used to aid in transcription of the record. I can’t remember the last time I saw a stenotype used but I figure they are not yet totally obsolete.
@Beezer -- I turned off "This Is Spinal Tap" less than ten minutes into it. It's not a Nancy movie any more than it's a Beezer movie. But before you knock Christopher Guest off your list...
You HAVE to see "Best In Show"!!! It's one of the best movie satires ever made -- I mean EVER. Side-splittingly funny and marvelously original, it really skewers its victims without being nasty or mean. The subject is accessible and of interest to all audience demographics. I wish I liked his other movies more, but I could watch this one over and over. Don't miss it!
Well, he is - or was (I'm retired from the law for quite a while) - called a "court stenographer" so I guess the steno is okay. Actually I don't remember anybody paying much attention to the court stenographer, one way or the next.
Saturday we had both PASTA and PASTE. Yesterday we were treated to a pasta origami fest and today there's another PASTE at 13 Down. Coincidence? I think not.
GO TO ELEVEN is an everyday language phrase? Even for people, like myself, who haven't seen the Spinal Tap movie? How many of yous ever heard the phrase before the movie? Ain't buying it. I don't think it's everyday language worthy. Why ELEVEN? Some volume or amp controls may go to TEN but that's no law of physics. The volume on the receiver/amplifier that I'm listening to as I type, for example, goes to one hundred. GO TO ELEVEN is a niche phrase known only to the seen-or-heard-about-the-movie cognoscenti is what I'm saying. Do my remarks GO TO TWELVE?
It was a banner day for [Copy/Paste] POC (plural of convenience) hunters, however, starting right out of the gate LAPS and LEGS. And we got treated to some two for one POCs when SCORN/RAT, INCA/SPIRE and SET/MET all got grid fill help by sharing a final S.
@Nancy. Hmmm. How do I say this without sounding like an idiot? I will start by saying Christopher Guest is a genius. I’ve seen Best in Show. I LOVE all the actors in his movies. I LOVE people with a dry sense of humor. For whatever reason I flag at movies that are totally based on dry humor (when considered “comedies”). This is MY bad and NOT the creative artist. I TOTALLY GET why people love his stuff because it is borne out of genius. Let’s just say Chris Guest is my “Proust” of comedy. No offense CG, if you are out there!
"Why ELEVEN? Some volume or amp controls may go to TEN but that's no law of physics. The volume on the receiver/amplifier that I'm listening to as I type, for example, goes to one hundred."
@Anoa Bob – Please point that out to Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap. (But I guarantee you, it will sail over his head.)
"Go to eleven" didn't exist prior to the movie, and I wouldn't call it an everyday language phrase. People who never saw the movie might not know it, but some probably would, and it's a famous enough quote to be crossworthy.
I admit, it took a bit of poking around with various letters at GODDESSLOCS, as I couldn't remember if it was AmI or ALI Wong (despite having actually seen two of her Netflix specials (though they were 2020 watches for me), so I had all sorts of a mess there before finally figuring out the right combo. I've always spelled it dreadlocks, so the LOCS spelling is a new one to me, and just not something my brain wanted to see as an option for whatever reason. At any rate, I love learning new words and spellings, so that's a good one to me. Only complaint is that this didn't feel like a Tuesday puzzle (though I did finish under Tuesday average time, if you don't count fixing errors as a DNF. I don't know what the custom is around here.)
Knowing DIVACUP wasn't necessary from the crosses. It sounds like a familiar term, but I don't remember any of my ex-girlfriends or wife talking about it (and we would talk about such stuff.) So just not something that would be on my radar. But, as above, that's part of what I like about crosswords: learning stuff, from the interesting to the mundane.
Overall, one of the freshest puzzles I've seen yet at the NYT. I like it.
Not exactly your HIGHOCTANE THRILLRIDE. Not when you start out with EKE and yet another EVITE (sorry, can't attend. I've had to deal with 6,432 EVITEs and it's taking all my time).
The Spinal Tap reference did nothing for me; the first themer went in laboriously cross by cross. GOTOELEVEN. Hmm. I'll be glad to go to the 7-11 if you want a Slurpee...
Anyway, the math was residually simple, and the fill was...fill. Sorta. Mini-theme with LIMA & INCAS. Bogey.
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Medium. Very smooth with some fine long downs plus it’s a fun(ny) math problem! Liked it, gave me a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteCroce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #834 was an easy-medium Croce for me, although I did need my granddaughter’s help with 47d. Good luck!
Also solving downs only, it was pretty easy except for that danged NW corner. Up there for the downs I had LAPS, EACH, ROTI, and DISSES. What a mess, and honestly what are the odds that ALL of those guesses were wrong? It didn't help that when I changed 2 down to A POP, 1 across became LARD, although the rest was still a mess. Finally I tried LEGS for 1 down and it got better. Ironic that 1 across was actually LAPS... malapop!
ReplyDeleteThe theme was okay, but the first one was the weakest, in that GO TO ELEVEN is not really a phrase in the language; I would not recognize it outside of the Spinal Tap scene, and even then it's iffy. But I did love that movie, although I think this scene: A Mach piece, in D minor is funnier.
[Spelling Bee: Sun -1 as of 10pm PDT, missing a 7er. I will keep trying as my 10 day QB streak is in peril.]
THIS caption of yours was the funniest part of today’s review (thank you!):
ReplyDelete“Nobody actually checked my ID so I'm guess they "Verified" my "Age" by just looking at my neck skin and going "oh, yeah, very much over 21"]
I enjoyed it. I made the same mistake with HASIT. oops.
ReplyDeleteSame error. I did the puzzle on paper and never went back to that area. So a dnf on a Monday: has it crossing iode. I know but as I said I didn’t go back. The shame.
DeleteI think has it or hasn’t it ever are more common but all four are in the language. Rex doesn’t say it twice makes no sense.
Going too fast!
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ReplyDeleteI made the same mistake with HASIT. oops
ReplyDeleteEVITE had an EPIC CHIP on her PITA. She was the town YENTL and always had HALF of her BOSSY NOSE in about TEN or maybe ELEVEN ACTOR RATS from the town of STENO. These RATS were like a PAC TEAM that liked to SPARK her UNIT of THRILL and RIDE her until she'd FESS up that APOP was her ONE AND only true love.
ReplyDeleteAPOP was RAPT with love. EVITE could STIR his NODE into MAD SPIRES of FANDOM. "Ay MAMA mia" he'd FESS up..."IF ONLY I could FLOAT her a THRILL!" His AIM was to give her TEN, PLUS ONE, ALAMO STEMS of roses. He could OVERLOOK her ANGUS LEGS (I MEAN...he could TAKE TEN SETS of those LEGS any day) and her BOSSY YENTL ways, but it had been AGES since the OCTANE in his NEAP could FLOAT his UNIT.
No ONE's AIM was to UPEND the KETTLE. A SIVA from LIMA was brought in to REFEREE this EPIC STEPPE. Maybe it would SPARK ONE UNIT of love!....HASN'T it GONE on long enough? The THRILL of the RIDE isn't OVER. It's time to RAPS things up...."No more SCORNS" yelled the SCOT, HALF OFF his rocker..."Lets get ON with IT and just get HIGH!"
They did. EVITE and APOP would MEND their ways. Their AIM was to be a TEAM. She'd set her alarm at TEN and start the KETTLE and he'd get up at ELEVEN. By ONE they were DONE eating . They liked to sit under a TREE and LAPS into some YENTL....They were happy.
They finally wed and had ELEVEN children. ONE of the had a NOSE like APOP. TEN of them had ANGUS LEGS like MAMA. It didn't matter. It was the THRILL RIDE that got them HIGH....They were in love.
And that's the truth
Quote marks not required for Spinal Tap. It's the band that turn their amps to 11, when they "need that extra push over the cliff" (they are exceeding the usual limit in their own minds at least).
ReplyDeleteI liked this. I didn't register a lot of the down answers until later, since I was zipping through the acrosses for almost the whole solve. Normally the "one" dupe might bother me but it didn't here. Nice job, guys.
Take 10
My five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Places where masks are seen indoors (4)
2. Dish near a water cooler? (6)(6)
3. Focal length? (9)(4)
4. Tom callin's? ((5)
5. Stock option (8)
SPAS
OFFICE GOSSIP
ATTENTION SPAN
MEOWS
SOUPBONE
I grew up with my father semi-regularly referencing this scene in Spinal Tap, so it put a big smile on my face. We recently rewatched it to see if it holds up (it does until it *really* doesn’t), but this scene remained perfection.
ReplyDeleteSo, [*pushes glasses up ridge of nose with index finger*], the reason why SIVA is also spelled SHIVA is because it actually should be transliterated in English as Śiva. The Hindi alphabet contains a shh letter that often gets spelled out in lay English or sometimes folks wind up dropping that diacritic accent.
I feel like this was about as interesting as a Monday puzzle gets, so I enjoyed that. I thought the NEIL clue was cute and I thought the sawfish clue for NOSE was an excellent way to spruce up a boring word. Really nice work in general as Mondays go, I thought.
Yep!
DeleteYes. I immediately and with total confidence typed in GOTOTWELVE, as that would be to “exceed the limit” in the Spinal Tap gag. As Rex stated, eleven *is* the limit. That’s the point.
ReplyDeleteOverall enjoyed it. A little more challenging than a usual Monday. Sorry baseball and football are team sports not TEAMGAMES.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that I enjoyed the most about today’s puzzle was the fact that I needed Rex to explain a Monday theme to me (plus I never saw the Spinal Tap movie so GO TO ELEVEN just lied there looking all confused). Other than that, he only real speed bump today was SIVA which I hadn’t heard of before.
ReplyDeleteI agree w/ Weezie @ 5:37 that the NEIL Diamond clue was priceless.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully filled grid – look at those long downs. Nice when the theme still allows you to have quality fill.
ReplyDeleteDowns only had the same problem as Rex with THRILL RIDE, although without the HASit error. So for me, RIDE was easy but coming up with THRILL was not. And the same problem as okanaganer in the NW. I had LEGS/each/PITA/no guess. Easy to see I had something wrong, and LEGS seemed pretty certain, but not knowing if the problem was in 'each' or in 'PITA' or both made that tough. In total, this played more like a hard Tuesday or an easy Wednesday for me.
Seems weird to have ALAMO in the singular.
I solved the math problem and got 42. Isn't the answer always 42?
ReplyDelete@JoeDiPinto: You’re absolutely right—the Spinal Tap guys *think* they’re exceeding the limit, and that’s the joke. And @okanaganer with all due respect, that phrase is definitely part of the language where I come from.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree with @Weezie that the NEIL clue is a winner.
All around, a very fun, fresh Monday,
Laughing so hard at your “neck skin” comment I can’t drink my coffee!
ReplyDeleteI’d call Simon and Trenton an ordered pair at this point, as, in their two collaborations, the order of the theme answers was important. Today’s, of course, in the math problem, and in their first, which was in the form of the guessing game “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral”, where the theme answers were band names that contained those elements in that order (COUNTING CROWS, SMASHING PUMPKINS, ROLLING STONES).
ReplyDeleteThus, I liked seeing STIR in today’s grid, as it reminded me of recipes, which consist of ordered steps.
I tried to guess the revealer after uncovering the theme answers, and even after knowing it had something to do with the number ONE, my efforts turned out to be an EPIC fail/flail. But I loved the trying, and I loved the revealer they came up with. I also loved [You could tell how old it is if you saw it!] for TREE, and [Diamond with gold and platinum certifications] for NEIL.
Two more things. My brain keeps shouting “MA!” at reading line 11 – HALF OFF / MAMA. And I was sad to see the METS in last place.
Simon and Trenton, your puzzles have had flair and your themes have been innovative. They’ve whetted my appetite to see more. I loved this, and thank you for making it!
I also misread the clue as "(Has it) occurred to you?" But I was sure "iode" had to be wrong, so the problem corrected itself. Never heard of Spinal Tap, so GOTOELEVEN didn't come right away.
ReplyDeleteAll told, a tougher than usual Monday puzzle. But the arithmetic worked in the end.
Thx, Simon & Trenton; if I SAid this one was too clever by HALF, I'd be telling a LIE. 'Twas an ELEVEN on a scale of TEN. Well done! 😊
ReplyDeleteMed.
Just enuf crunch to make it interesting.
Wanted TEAM sports, but…alas.
Just loaded NEIL Diamond's 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull' soundtrack into my music library last week.
Also added this one recently into my top ten alpha playlist: Play Me.
A most enjoyable trip! :)
Thx @jae; on it!
___
David Balton & Jane Stewart's acrostic on xwordinfo.com was by far the easiest I ever encountered; nevertheless, it was most enjoyable, and has an excellent moral.
___
On to Tim Croce's #834. 🤞 Elizabeth Gorski's Mon. New Yorker on tap for tm.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I would call this one medium for a Monday. Mind you, the limiting factor for me was still how quickly my fat fingers could type legible words on my phone, but it seems like there's a bunch of stuff that's a bit obscure for casual or beginner solvers:
ReplyDelete-Using Halal to clue an otherwise straightforward, common food.
-The odd spelling of SIVA (Heh. My phone keeps trying to autocorrect it to Shiva).
-YENTL
-Cardi B or Pusha T (no, @Rex, you typing a name in your blog is not a sufficient reason for us to remember it).
-TEAM GAME instead of TEAM SPORT (not so much obscure as just a bad answer)
-FANDOM
-NEAP
-Knowing what CPU means.
-LEN Goodman, whoever that is.
-Knowing who plays at Citi Field.
Again, none of this is likely to slow down anybody here, but perhaps for a novice trying to solve a Monday... I dunno, it just felt off.
I agree that eleven is the limit in the Spinal Tap quote, but I guess someone could make the argument that in common parlance people use it to mean "We're going to push this beyond what anyone else has done!"
Maybe
(@okanaganer: "Go to eleven" is absolutely a phrase used in everyday speech outside of the movie)
PS. I didn't get a chance to comment yesterday due to travel, but I wanted to say, instead of the poker reference, a better clue for IN OR OUT would be: "Something you say to a cat."
I know little about rap and virtually nothing about Cardi B but I think you are pushing your argument too much to include her as obscure for a Monday. Anyway beginners aren’t clueless. They just don’t know a lot of the tricks etc yet. Most beginners would recognize rap style names even if they hadn’t heard of either Cardi B or Pusha T. (Highly unlikely).
DeleteYou have a point about Siva (the spelling). Pushing it for a Monday. However correct it is, not for this day! But fandom has been around for a long time. What is obscure about it?
Yentl was a hit movie years ago maybe not Monday appropriate now. But I doubt it.
Neap? If you live along the coast not obscure at all.
Took a giant step backwards today in my Downs-Only progress… and I’d been doing much better on recent Mondays. Too many of the across answers had too many plausible alternatives that I couldn’t get from just the downs… oh well. Once I looked at the across clues it was a normal Monday. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteToday I discovered that if you write in YENTA instead of YENTL, you need to have PASSONE instead of PLUSONE and it ruins the whole equation. Never did see how SPEND meant "flip over" but didn't worry about it. Monday Monday.....
ReplyDeleteOtherwise no problems. I never tire of reading about OFL's adventures in solving downs-only, except on Mondays. THRILLRIDE, for instance, was obvious after a few crosses.
Perfectly cromulent Monday, SM and TLS. Small Mistake led to a Too Long Solve, but that's on me. Thanks for all the fun.
On to the NYer and the Croce. Monday Monday.....
My kind of math! Cute idea, on-the-NOSE reveal. I had to fill in ELEVEN from crosses, as I've never seen the movie, but the rest went quickly; I thought PLUS ONE and TAKE TEN were especially nicely repurposed for the theme. Like @Rex, I admired HIGH OCTANE THRILL RIDE, and in the lower tier my eye was drawn to REFEREE, TEAM GAME, and FANDOM, as Wisconsin volleyball starts this Saturday. Go Badgers!
ReplyDelete@GILL I. - I'm dying!
Follow the instructions themes are in the same category as tribute or quote puzzles for me. This one had a little more nuance to it - and the fill is harmless - so I guess a decent early week puzzle?
ReplyDeleteDid like OVERLOOK and STEPPE and I tied ALAMO to FESS who will always be Davy Crockett to me.
5a should have been clued “Islander great”.
Pleasant enough Monday solve.
Pray for me MAMA
Cute and clever, fun to solve. Still, I imagine it took some work to put together so I appreciate the effort of the constructors. Nice job gentlemen! A pleasant start to the week.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteMuch better than the Math-type Puz I turned in a while back. Mine didn't have the zing this one does, ergo, not accepted.
Pretty cool to find in-the-language phrases that could turn into a math equation. Fill came out nice, too.
HALFOFF is an EPIC use of F's. 😁
Harkening back to YesterPuz, I'd probably faint if I ever saw 'HALF OFF FLUFFY FARFALLE'
Good job, Simon and Trenton. Way to start the PuzWeek OFF.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Good Monday. I’m in @Joe Dapinto’s camp that the 11 clue works. Forget about what makes that scene funny, in the bands mind going to 11 was exceeding the traditional volume dial limit of 10.
ReplyDeleteFor a Monday I did think crossing a Spinal Tap clue, with downs of SIVA and STEPPE is on the harder side of a Monday for novice solvers.
Didn’t mind the ONE dupe and not much else to dislike, so I’m just going to stay hangry over the CUBAN clue from yesterday. We have a fantastic Italian market/deli in Dallas (Jimmysfoodstore.com) with the best Cuban sandwich (and Italian beef and Paninos and you get the idea) I may need to make the 45 min drive into town today from our little farm to get over it.
Wow! You have to come up with all those in-the-language phrases with a low-ish number in them and they have to be symmetrical in length and you have to insert them in the puzzle in just the right order for them to add up to something and then you have to find the something to which they add up in another in-the-language symmetrical phrase.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how anyone succeeds in making a grid like this.
While solving, it played a lot less Wow-ish for me, but it was certainly pleasant enough. Then, after I'd finished solving, I did the required math and the Wow whooshed right in. An unusual, imaginative and very well-executed theme.
This one took a lot longer than usual. It's a fine puzzle and enjoyable all the way through. I had to do the math problem twice before I got the right answer.
ReplyDeleteDisappointed to see ALAMO in the singular after Rachel and Christina used Saturday to elevate it to a memorable stench as a plural.
Saw Barbie over the weekend. I liked it.
Uniclues:
1 Tuesday Goodwiller.
2 Shaken martini lover ventures briefly into the enemy camp.
3 The jalapeño version.
4 Off camera action usually preceding a viral video of overweight men and women punching other overweight men and women.
5 Be happy.
1 HALF OFF MAMA
2 STIR ONE AND DONE
3 PITA THRILL RIDE
4 SCORNS REFEREE
5 UPEND MAD
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Posterior ad campaign slogan. REAR ENDS! I SIT LONGER!.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Nice Monday puzzle!
ReplyDeleteAnd as a follow up to @Roo’s birthday comment yesterday about me looking young for being 3.45 score old, have updated my photo.
Personally, I don’t think I look that much different. Thankfully, I don’t have Rex’ neck flaps!
Yours in blue,
The Wreck of the Andrew Dorian
Good clue for PAC would be former preceder of 12, then 10, now 4. If you don’t like TEAMGAMES, you won’t understand this inane comment. Speaking of which, Team Boxing would be an interesting game/sport. I’m picturing something like a brawl. And if some TEAMGAMES have a REFEREE, are the players referors?
ReplyDelete@kitshef 7:15. Nice one on remembering the ALAMOS. BTW, with the popularity of Oppenheimer, ALAMOS probably should have been clued yesterday as “A bomb lab site Los______” or something like that. While we’re on the subject, I understand that when the Kens took over Barbieland, they were going to name it KENYA, but found that it was already being used elsewhere.
I liked that the puzzle starts with LEGS (1D) dangling from LAPS (1A).
Pretty sweet puzzle for a Monday. Thanks, Simon Marotte and Trenton Lee Stewart.
A pretty easy Monday :)
ReplyDeleteThe “These go to eleven,” is definitely my favorite scene from that movie. A muppet series recently came out (The Electric Mayhem) and their amps go to 11.5! 😂
ReplyDeleteMany thanx for @RP's public services, a la "rap roundup". M&A knows squat about rap, other than for the sorta musical guests on SNL. @RP: How'bout also roundups for LOTR and Dancin with the Stars … two more subjects that M&A knows squat about. We evidently need to know this stuff, for the NYTPuz solvequests.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: LEN. See above plea to @RP.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Texas historical site to "remember"} = ALAMO. Much ez-ier than goin with a {One of the alternatives to Budgets} clue, or somesuch.
Luvly longball entries: HIGHOCTANE. THRILLRIDE.
Now, about the puztheme…
1. Like the math slant.
2. Didn't totally like the use of ONE more than once.
3. Had no idea, re: what GOTOELEVEN was. Need a Spinal Tap roundup from @RP.
4. Start out instead with GRABADOZEN.
5. Somewhere after the HALFOFF themer entry, include a ROUND Down entry, to get rid of the extra .5's worth.
QED. har
Thanx for the numbers game, and for gangin up on us, Marotte & Stewart dudes. Nice constructioneerin job.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
package dealie:
**gruntz**
plus one more:
**gruntz**
I agree that this was a very nice Monday offering. Is it just me, or does anyone remember when TAKE five became TAKETEN? I’m all for the change because five minutes won’t get you through a line at the ladies’ room but I’m pretty sure the expression morphed during my lifetime which is a wee bit longer than the fabulous Dorian Gray..(hi @Andrew, and btw, no flaps for me either YET but plenty o’ lines)
ReplyDeleteI might be spewing sacrilege but I just never have been able to get into Christopher Guest’s “things.” I will say that even though I was U-30 when This is Spinal Tap came out I was kinda busy with a baby and law school so MAYBE I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Anyhoo, the term TAKEITTOELEVEN was not familiar to me until today. And I looked at that scene today…if that is one of the best scenes in the mockumentary, my assessment holds and my thought was, Chris Guest was kinda cute back then.
I got to the revealer and confidently wrote in ONE AND only, which didn't work. The actual revealer works better, anyway. I also went the HAS iT/iODE route. I almost looked up iode, but noticed just in time that I could change the i to N. I too think the ironic version is better.
ReplyDeleteGood theme, and nice to see OCTANE again, even without the chemistry.
I never saw that movie either but since I was reading all the clues, it wasn't hard to figure out GO TO ELEVEN.
But TEAM GAME was lame. Is boxing a game? I can actually envision a manager saying, "Look kid, this ain't no game!" to a boxer. I guess if it's not a game it's not a team game, in the same way that a striped bass is not a deciduous plant, but no. You could say checkers instead of boxing and it would work.
I don't think a court reporter is called a STENO, either, but I could be wrong on that.
Stenographer is the official term. Maybe steno is used in conversation. Never heard it myself. But the constructors probably looked it up!
Delete@jberg, to my knowledge TODAY and since I’ve practiced law (‘87) they are called court reporters. These days the record is recorded and the c.r. MIGHT supplement with quick shorthand or notes. Sometimes they will ask to pause testimony to make sure they got a name right or even a word or sentence. I believe there is also software used to aid in transcription of the record. I can’t remember the last time I saw a stenotype used but I figure they are not yet totally obsolete.
ReplyDelete@Beezer -- I turned off "This Is Spinal Tap" less than ten minutes into it. It's not a Nancy movie any more than it's a Beezer movie. But before you knock Christopher Guest off your list...
ReplyDeleteYou HAVE to see "Best In Show"!!! It's one of the best movie satires ever made -- I mean EVER. Side-splittingly funny and marvelously original, it really skewers its victims without being nasty or mean. The subject is accessible and of interest to all audience demographics. I wish I liked his other movies more, but I could watch this one over and over. Don't miss it!
Well, he is - or was (I'm retired from the law for quite a while) - called a "court stenographer" so I guess the steno is okay. Actually I don't remember anybody paying much attention to the court stenographer, one way or the next.
ReplyDeleteSaturday we had both PASTA and PASTE. Yesterday we were treated to a pasta origami fest and today there's another PASTE at 13 Down. Coincidence? I think not.
ReplyDeleteGO TO ELEVEN is an everyday language phrase? Even for people, like myself, who haven't seen the Spinal Tap movie? How many of yous ever heard the phrase before the movie? Ain't buying it. I don't think it's everyday language worthy. Why ELEVEN? Some volume or amp controls may go to TEN but that's no law of physics. The volume on the receiver/amplifier that I'm listening to as I type, for example, goes to one hundred. GO TO ELEVEN is a niche phrase known only to the seen-or-heard-about-the-movie cognoscenti is what I'm saying. Do my remarks GO TO TWELVE?
It was a banner day for [Copy/Paste] POC (plural of convenience) hunters, however, starting right out of the gate LAPS and LEGS. And we got treated to some two for one POCs when SCORN/RAT, INCA/SPIRE and SET/MET all got grid fill help by sharing a final S.
@Nancy. Hmmm. How do I say this without sounding like an idiot? I will start by saying Christopher Guest is a genius. I’ve seen Best in Show. I LOVE all the actors in his movies. I LOVE people with a dry sense of humor. For whatever reason I flag at movies that are totally based on dry humor (when considered “comedies”). This is MY bad and NOT the creative artist. I TOTALLY GET why people love his stuff because it is borne out of genius. Let’s just say Chris Guest is my “Proust” of comedy. No offense CG, if you are out there!
ReplyDelete@Andtew
ReplyDeleteMuch better.
😁🤣
RooMonster Looks Fairly Close To That Guy
"Why ELEVEN? Some volume or amp controls may go to TEN but that's no law of physics. The volume on the receiver/amplifier that I'm listening to as I type, for example, goes to one hundred."
ReplyDelete@Anoa Bob – Please point that out to Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap. (But I guarantee you, it will sail over his head.)
"Go to eleven" didn't exist prior to the movie, and I wouldn't call it an everyday language phrase. People who never saw the movie might not know it, but some probably would, and it's a famous enough quote to be crossworthy.
Croce Freestyle #834 = easy ... comparable to a hard NYT Saturday.
ReplyDeleteI admit, it took a bit of poking around with various letters at GODDESSLOCS, as I couldn't remember if it was AmI or ALI Wong (despite having actually seen two of her Netflix specials (though they were 2020 watches for me), so I had all sorts of a mess there before finally figuring out the right combo. I've always spelled it dreadlocks, so the LOCS spelling is a new one to me, and just not something my brain wanted to see as an option for whatever reason. At any rate, I love learning new words and spellings, so that's a good one to me. Only complaint is that this didn't feel like a Tuesday puzzle (though I did finish under Tuesday average time, if you don't count fixing errors as a DNF. I don't know what the custom is around here.)
ReplyDeleteKnowing DIVACUP wasn't necessary from the crosses. It sounds like a familiar term, but I don't remember any of my ex-girlfriends or wife talking about it (and we would talk about such stuff.) So just not something that would be on my radar. But, as above, that's part of what I like about crosswords: learning stuff, from the interesting to the mundane.
Overall, one of the freshest puzzles I've seen yet at the NYT. I like it.
Easy breezy fun solve. A perfect beginner-friendly puzzle to start the week.
ReplyDeleteNot exactly your HIGHOCTANE THRILLRIDE. Not when you start out with EKE and yet another EVITE (sorry, can't attend. I've had to deal with 6,432 EVITEs and it's taking all my time).
ReplyDeleteThe Spinal Tap reference did nothing for me; the first themer went in laboriously cross by cross. GOTOELEVEN. Hmm. I'll be glad to go to the 7-11 if you want a Slurpee...
Anyway, the math was residually simple, and the fill was...fill. Sorta. Mini-theme with LIMA & INCAS. Bogey.
Wordle par.
OVERLOOK REFEREE
ReplyDeleteHer FANDOM is EPIC PLUSONE,
IMEAN her SPARK is A flame,
HIGHOCTANE TO GO 'til IT's DONE,
the THRILLRIDE is A TEAMGAME.
--- NEIL "CHIP" LIMA
TAKETEN PLUSONE to get your amp to GOTOELEVEN, Classic gag. Noticed: PLUSONE ONEANDDONE; IMEAN ISAY.
ReplyDeleteWordle phew, just too many possible combos