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Spanish Wine Classification / SUN 8-20-23 / Time to stop trying? / Brother of Eos and Selene / Spot for a bowler / French vineyard region
Sunday, August 20, 2023
Constructor: Michael Schlossberg
Relative difficulty: Easy (well under 10 minutes for me, which is pretty much my Sunday "Medium" threshold)
THEME: Crunch Time — Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar is eating its way through the theme answers,
Word of the Day: SOLERA (Spanish wine classification) —
Solera is a process for aging liquids such as wine, beer, vinegar, and brandy, by fractional blending in such a way that the finished product is a mixture of ages, with the average age gradually increasing as the process continues over many years. The purpose of this labor-intensive process is the maintenance of a reliable style and quality of the beverage over time.
(NOTE: As a beer brewer, I know of solera as an aging process as described above. I've never really seen it described as a classification, but I suppose it fits).
• • •
Hey everybody, it's Eli back again! I flew through this Sunday offering despite not being very familiar with The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I'm of the right age to have read it as a child, and I'm sure I must have at some point, but when I see Eric Carle's illustration style, my first thought is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Sadly, one of the main connections my brain makes with this book is that George W Bush named it as a favorite of his as a child despite it being published when he was in college. Not the book's fault; I'm sure it's lovely.
Theme answers:
- IN SPITE OF
- ALICIA KEYS
- PULLED A FAST ONE
- CUP BEARER
- APPLIED SCIENCE
- FAT CONTENT
- PLUS MINUS
Overall, I thought the themers were a pretty nice set of long answers. I dropped PULLED A FAST ONE immediately, and liked how in the language it felt. Sometimes having your first instinct be right is incredibly satisfying. FAT CONTENT stood out as something that could have felt boring, but for some reason worked. Maybe I'm just hungry for avocados. The weakest of the set to me was PLUS MINUS, but I'm sure there are valid reasons for that symbol to exist that I'm not aware of.
Nothing really stood out as bad on this puzzle, which is about all I ask for on a Sunday these days. Not a bad way to pass the time with a cup of coffee.
Quick Notes:
- 99D: Slow dance with quick turns (BOLERO) - JEFF BECK vs RAVEL! (Note: I may not have realized how amazing the lineup on Beck's Bolero was).
- 68D Member of a furry race (EWOK) — I'm the right age to enjoy the Ewoks (ie - I was a child when Return of the Jedi came out). Not enough to want to watch the cartoon, of course.
- 27A Big shows (EXPOS) — The only slowdown I had on this puzzle was putting TODOS in here and just abandoning the corner until the end. I may have only pointed this out as an excuse to post Montreal Expos mascot Youppi!
- 101A ___ Eisley, where Luke Skywalker meets Han Solo (MOS)— That's right, I'm highlighting another Star Wars clue. Also, as good a reason as any to post a clip from Comedy Bang Bang with Scott Aukerman and Paul F. Tompkins singing the Caninta Song.
- 1A Wildfire season stat, for shot (AQI) — If you don't live somewhere where this is a concern, this stands for Air Quality Index. Between Maui, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest, this was a bit of a tough pill to swallow at the start of the puzzle. Living in Los Angeles, I've had to keep an eye on AQI quite often. But tonight, I have to prepare for a hurricane/tropical storm; the first to make landfall in the area since the 1930s, apparently. Everything seems just great, globally.
Like last time I posted, I'm going to leave with a personal note. I'm currently training for the Malibu Triathlon, which raises money for Children's Hospital Los Angeles, a leading pediatric cancer research and care facility. If you should feel generous and want to donate, you can do so at this link:
[Follow Eli Selzer on Twitter (I may not even last through the weekend there) and BlueSky at @eliselzer.bsky.social]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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81 comments:
Just a slog for me, there were so very many proper nouns clumped together. In particular, from 4 to 9 down all except 6, and 4 across is another, so good gof, gimme a break. I think Will is way too fond of names.
After finishing, theme wise I got the TIDBITS part, but didn't notice those letters were embedded in things an insect might eat. Knowing absolutely nothing about the book was a big minus.
For 115 across "Strings entered during checkout" had to be something like UPC CODES which was much too short. In the early 1980s before UPCs and scanners, I worked cashier in the BC Liquor Branch stores, and they had a system of private number codes which had to be manually input for each item. We would easily memorize the codes for the most popular items, so we could actually enter the customer's purchase before they even reached the till. They would heave a dozen Molson Canadian (#907750?) onto the counter but we would already have rung it up, saying "That's $7.90, please." Now that was efficient!
Typeovers: 103a DANG before NUTS, and 108d ARIAS before GOYAS.
[Spelling Bee: Sat -1, missing a 7er. Out of practice!]
Easy-medium seems right. I too have heard of the book but have never read it, so I’m taking @Eli’s word about it the theme integrity. Still not sure about why TIDBITS? That said, I enjoyed the solve, the theme answers were delightful.
@Eli - I’m in San Diego and it’s 1:30am and the tropical storm has yet to arrive.
Math student here. That PLUSMINUS sign comes up a lot but I've always heard it as plus OR minus. So I couldn't figure it out even with the PLUS part, I needed the M.
I solve on an interface that doesn't allow for both circles AND shaded squares in the same puzzle, so this played like a themeless for me (I only saw the circles). I got the revealer off just the V, but as a non-American, all I knew about the VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR is that he ate something each day. No idea about what.
Like Eli, 10 minutes is an average Sunday time for me. I barely missed the 10 minute mark because of that COMPOTES x REPPED crossing. I didn't know COMPOTES and I could only see RaPPED or RiPPED. I don't recall ever seeing REP clued as a verb, don't really like REPPED as fill.
I would have thought this was a themeless, but the revealer indicated otherwise. Thought about it a while … and still had no idea what the theme was. Had to go to the Times website to find out. Now I understand part of it, but still not the circled letters. Hoped that Rex would explain those, but no dice.
If you have to explain the joke …
Complete mess of a theme - endless 3s in a Sunday sized grid. I hate to be negative but this was just brutal.
How far can sailors fly
So very sorry about the fires where you live. When I read about the evacuations in Okanagan, I thought, “oh I know someone from there.” Sorta. Hope you and yours are safe.
Eli did explain that. They spell TIDBITS from left to right.
Took me twice as long as usual, but I enjoyed the patient slow reveal as it was fun the whole way through. It's a wonderful Sunday romp.
Loved: QUIXOTIC and DO YOUR WORST.
Uniclues:
1 Chasing down the manager to turn on the restaurant's outdoor seating area cooling system.
2 Pastor's surprising sermon opening suggesting Eve's pursuit of knowledge was a good thing.
3 Enthusiastic one-word painting replacing dusty Jesus.
1 ANTECEDE MIST HAVOC
2 BAG ORIGINAL SIN SCARE
3 NAVE "WOOT" MURAL
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Gentle reminder to the double-dipper. PSST, ONE TIME USE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I pretty much solved it as a themeless too, going back after I finished to see where the CATERPILLAR 🐛 was and what he was eating. I didn’t understand the circled letters until I read Eli.
Loved the three long middle down answers. “Time to quit trying” is a fabulous clue for COURT RECESS. I have always wanted a CUP BEARER and feel that I deserve one. And I loved ORIGINAL SIN - the first of many examples of what a scheming, vindictive egotist the Biblical god is. He really PULLED A FAST ONE on Adam and Eve.
I liked the Iberian mini-theme with ESPAÑA, QUIXOTIC, GOYAS, BOLERO and SOLERA next to GRAPES. And we almost had iTALIA oddly located to the northwest of ESPAÑA.
I also liked DO YOUR WORST, which could be a line directed at certain constructors when you open a puzzle and see their names.
Sunday Sunday, so big to me
Spacious acres spreading far as the eye can see
And when I come to you I wonder what you will be
(With apologies to the Mamas & the Papas.)
It’s true. I come to the 21 x 21 hoping for a Sweet Spot Sunday. It’s just too big to be an El-Capitan climb or a when-will-this-be-over snore. Or, in Goldilocks terms, I don’t want too hard or too easy; I want juuuust right. IMO, Michael’s puzzle hit that spot.
It kept me thinking. Which word is said four times in the Lord’s Prayer? What do civil engineering and molecular biology have in common? What cosmetic feature do EVs have? What do PIE, LEAF, and CONE have in common?
Thus, I was engaged and motivated, but through Michael’s skill, never frustrated, for there were always crosses. The puzzle was dotted with seemingly perfectly-placed life preservers. From start to finish, I was neither swimming against the current nor twiddling my thumbs. A sweet spot outing.
There were glints as well, such as the “Hah!” that burst out when I got the answer to [Really, you too?], or remembering reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to my son – actually seeing the book in my memory, and seeing my son at that precious age.
Thank you, Michael, from a Very Happy Solver. This was juuuust right!
Thx, Michael, a VERY tasty meal! 😋
Hi Eli, good to see you again; thx for your take! 😊
Easy-med.
A pretty smooth solve, top to bottom.
COSIMO / MOS was the only SCARy spot.
Glad I learned NOM from a previous NYT xword or that might have been trouble crossing COSIMO, as well.
All said and done, a fine trip! :)
___
@Lewis; very much enjoyed your LAT Fri puz. 😊
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Steve Mossberg's Sat. Stumper was easy-med (2x NYT Sat.). Another excellent S.M. production! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Awful. Easily the least enjoyable Sunday of the year so far. A theme that was MIA the entire puzzle, trivia-galore and not much more. Wildfire abbreviation, Hebrew letter, a cartoon cat, Thor, The Jetsons, Ewoks, . . . Eos and his brother, Umm al Quwain, plus bonus points if you can name . . . a Medici ? Omg, please make it stop. I wish they would put these hybrid “puzzles” in a different section and have actual Crossword Puzzles as well, but hey - not gonna happen, so off to WaPo hoping for better.
Interesting comment about PLUSMINUS vs PLUS(or)MINUS. I think I refer to the [i]symbol[/i] as ‘plusminus’ but I would read it in usage, say “50 +/- 10” as “fifty, plus or minus 10”.
Medium solve, really because of all the PPP's. Lots of PPP's.
TIDBITS is a bit of a stretch... Perhaps "nibble" would've been more in line (so to speak) with what a caterpillar does?
I enjoyed especially these clues:
- Produce in bunches
- Parliament member
- Spot for a bowler
- Riveting icon
I had LEROY instead of ELROY at first for George and Jane's son. Too much NCIS on the brain, I guess.
But, "thrill" = SEND? You got me on this one. Is this as in "You send me..." (the song)?
For those wondering, my guess is that "tidbit" was a reference to how much of each item the VHC eats. In the book, each item has a small hole in it (just like the circles in the puzzle). I didn't even see this in the puzzle until I read the blog, but it adds to the cleverness of the construction.
I thought this was a very clever puzzle. As others have said, right in the "not too easy, not too hard" sweet spot, and for me, it brought back childhood memories.
A few too many proper names, and I'm sure Rex would object to the Star Wars references, but all in all, a great way to start my Sunday. :)
Accidentally posted this above. Eli did explain that. They spell TIDBITS reading left to right.
Having VERY HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO slowed me down, as my Hanna Barbera knowledge was rewarded but no idea of that kid book.
I’m amazed I completed this with zero cheats. But the process wasn’t much fun.
Spot on. Too many groans due to cutesy clueing..and too many religious references (original sin, cup bearer, lord's prayer..ugh). Also the very hungry caterpillar reminds me of George Bush...he claimed it was one of his favorite books...double ugh.
I count 3 "ours" in the Lord's Prayer. Is there another translation that has four?
Crossworld, meet real world. I just watched Spain's women's soccer team win the World Cup. ESPANA (128A), CUPBEARER (37D).
The Very Hungry Caterpillar did not eat the whole pieces of fruit, but bored a hole through each fruit (as illustrated in the puzzle), eating just a choice morsel of each fruit. A choice morsel of food is known as a tidbit. Hence the rationale for the word spelled out by the "eaten" letters being TIDBIT.
Parenthetically, Tim Hortons calls its version of Dunkin Munchkins - the piece of dough bored out to make the donut hole and then fried - Timbits.
@bocamp -- I'm very glad you did!
A plethora of celebrations today:
Happy Raksha Bandhan (Hindu celebration of the love between siblings)
Happy National Radio Day (I love CBC Radio 1 and 2!)
Happy World Mosquito Day (commemorating the discovery that mosquitoes transmit malaria between human beings and raising awareness of all mosquito-borne disease)
Ah, The VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR by Eric Carle: a runaway bestseller among the 3-to-5 set during my years in the book trade. Or is that crawl-away bestseller? It’s a fun book with some subliminal messages for kids, like the advisability of self-control (the CATERPILLAR eats everything in sight including, on Saturday, lots of sweets and junk food, such as PIE, CAKE and an ice cream CONE, and then gets a tummy-ache.) Another related issue is the question of what actually makes us feel good. The CATERPILLAR enjoys all his treats, but after he gets the stomach-ache, he’s cured by eating “one nice green LEAF.” Hmm, maybe a sensible diet is going to make me feel best in the long run. Anyway, the VHC turns into a stunning butterfly, so he learns all his lessons and comes out all right in the end.
But why TIDBITS? I don’t think that word is used in the book, but the point is made that the CATERPILLAR doesn’t eat all of any of these foods, he eats through them, leaving a hole in the middle, which the book renders as actual holes through the pages in the drawings of each food item. So, you could say that the VHC gets TIDBITS of everything he samples. (Oops, hi, @Honey Dew, just saw your post - great minds!)
The revealer is pretty far south, so when solving, I didn’t have a clue what this was about. But when I got the VHC angle, I was able to go back and solve some trouble spots in the shaded downs. I was forced to look something up at the very end, though, which did not please me. I seemed not to be familiar with the term EXURBS, which I had as EbURBS, causing the [Big name in spatulas] to be Ob_. (I think you could safely say that kitchen tools are not my strong suit, although I do enjoy the notion that there could be a Big Name in something like the humble and amusingly-spelled spatula.) The _ of Ob_ was in the word SOLERA, which I also didn’t know. So, Google allowed me to finish with much discontented muttering under my breath. Fun puzzle, though, which I enjoyed solving up to that point.
[SB: Fri 0, Sat -3. All my misses yesterday were really dumb, some based on a root word which I did get. Sigh. I’ve been away for a couple of weeks and didn’t do a bunch of SBs, but I’ve been catching up with their new Past Puzzles feature. What I’ve learned: You know you’re seriously hooked on Spelling Bee when you find yourself sweating over two different SBs in a single day.]
Themewise, I was less forgiving than Eli, perhaps because I know the book very well.
The order of the shaded food has nothing to do with the book. TIDBITS is the exact *opposite* of the theme of the book. The puzzle ignores all the structure of the book — numbers, days of the week, proper to improper foods. And even these shaded foods are just a random assortment of the THIRTEEN different things the caterpillar eats.
Maybe the weakest Sunday theme I’ve seen in a while.
Among the theme answers, you highlighted "PULLED A FAST ONE" as one that stood out to you immediately. What do you appreciate about entries like these that resonate quickly and add an enjoyable solving experience? Tel U
Great write- up and an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks for Beck's Bolero.
Excuse me. In what version of the Lord's Paryer does the word "our" appear four (4) times?
I know not of such a prayer.
Cluing was terrible! Quixotic has NOTHING to do with being idealistic!
Meh slog of duh!
I am struggling with the word "Our" four times in the Lord's Prayer. I only know three (Our Father, Our Daily Bread, Our Trespasses). Help!
@GPO 9:32 AM
King James Version (1611)
Our father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever, Amen.
Hey All !
Didn't know the kiddie lit book, ergo, just thought it was a bunch of stuff that could be eaten (although LEAF got me asking, "Who the heck eats a LEAF?") Figured the circled letters spelled something, but too lazy to write down and try to figure out. Thanks for that, Eli.
He mentioned the Themers aren't in order of the book. Hmm, seems like that should've been a priority, no? Then (I'm assuming here, and you know what they say about that), the TIDBITS would be in order. Are they in order in the book? To spell out TIDBITS?
Anyway, had some writeovers, had a few wrong answers for a DNF (FWE), but overall thought it a good SunPuz despite my ignorance of the Subject.
AGASP. Since watching the TV series "Ghosts", I always chuckle when I see GASP.
Agree about the bunch of Threes, but with left/right symmetry in a SunPuz, that'll happen. I count 31 across, 11down. 42 total, which is fine, as that's the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. 😁
There are GRAPES and UGLI fruit thrown in for some extra eating pleasure. Where's the OREOs?
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Really cool puzzle! Too bad Southside always sees the downside.
Frequently encounter the ± sign when working with radical expressions in my algebra studies. Just yd came across this interesting poser: √25 = ? The answer is more than you think (TCMathAcademy.com).
Also, find PLUS/MINUS math rules for basic operations fascinating, esp in dealing with expressions/equations. Again, yd, came across an expression, where factoring out -1 worked better than factoring out + 1, which in turn affected the sign inside the parentheses. Tricky stuff! 🤔
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Maybe "... on our Earth...?" I counted three, myself.
RooMonster Counting Guy
The New English Translation
Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored,
may your kingdom come,
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today Our daily bread,
and forgive us Our debts, as we ourselves have forgiven Our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
ESV uses “our” three times in Matthew 6:11-12.
Nor do I - and I googled as well as said the prayer over and over.
King James version.
So, just gonna say it, I think it’s not a great idea to share solve times. It inevitably makes some newer or slower solvers feel bad, and given that solve times are sooo much about individual wheelhouses, I think it’s not terribly relevant. I know even referring to a puzzle as easy can cause the same result, but at least that’s a more obviously subjective measure and provides good fodder for discussion. I know this isn’t a viewpoint shared by everyone, and that tournaments do use solving speed, but this isn’t a competitive space, so I wish guest bloggers wouldn’t list their times. (To be clear, it’s not sour grapes from me; my sense is that I tend to be on the faster side. I just don’t want to risk making anyone feel bad by sharing times.)
Anyway, to each their own, ofc.
Okay on to the actual puzzle - today was an easy one for me. I found the theme a little lackluster, but I do think some of the cluing had wonderful misdirects. I also thought there were some gorgeously long and fun phrases, like PULLED A FAST ONE and DO YOUR WORST could have done without DEPP and a double reference to an ableist and fatphobic movie in the puzzle, though. Getting there just after dropping in the cute revealer left a bad taste in my mouth. Ah well.
Re: the title of the book, at first I wanted it to be HUNGRY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR because I guess my brain made a mashup of the game Hungry Hungry Hippos and the book, ha.
Also - on each of the last two days I’ve written out basically a whole comment and then lost it right as I was about to publish, but in general, what a good week! And @Wanderlust I was very glad to learn more about RIAs from you yesterday so thanks for sharing. In general I love when the clue for a very mundane answer manages to include a fun new piece of trivia, and NY Harbor being a RIA is a prime example of that.
@okanaganer, I hope you and yours are doing as well as possible with the wildfires.
Aargh! I was religiously avoiding all news channels prior to watching World Cup later (now 7AM in California) then this spoiler!
I think the shape of the grid suggests the butterfly that the caterpillar morphs into.
The theme was lost on me - I never read the book, couldn't parse the circled letters (never thought of trying to read them left to right, what a concept) and had nothing shaded on my grid so I got the revealer and trusted that the write-up here would clarify all, so thanks, Eli!
I didn't do a word count on the Lord's Prayer so I had THY in at 44A, fouling up my center. I wanted 37D to be "food taster" but neither THY nor my eventual OUR led that way. At least I knew the two actors in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape". But GRAPES also in the grid, tsk, tsk!
Thanks, Michael Schlossberg.
Connect TIDBITS on order for the shape of a caterpillar
Agree with those complaining of the PP count, but, NOTWITHSTANDING, I concur wholeheartedly with Eli's summary judgement: "Nothing really stood out as bad on this puzzle, which is about all I ask for on a Sunday these days." No real naticks in this one, though I do resent that the shaded squares not showing up in my print version (not that the shaded answers would have had any meaning for me... You either have heard of this children's book or you haven't, and I haven't). But the puzzle works fine as a themeless....
Another singing Sunday. Duty calls.
Went from the NW straight down the West Coast, arriving at The VERYHUNGRYCATERPILLAR, which I know well. Never read it with our boys, but grandchildren give you another chance to catch up with these things. Girls are different, and like things like "Pinkalicious". No comment.
Otherwise some trivia that I knew, which is always fun, some long whooshy answers, and some help from doing acrostics to deduce things like TOLERANCE, so an enjoyable solve here.
The very last letter I entered was the S shared by SOLERA and TESSA. Double face palm here, as I used to be a Spanish teacher, and, drum roll, my granddaughter is named TESSA. I mean, really.
Fine Sunday by me, MS. The TIDBITS Make Sense to me, but I didn't bother to decode that one, as I was sure someone would. Thanks for all the fun.
Yeesh, this was just the worst Sunday slog ever. So many 3-letter words. Being completely unfamiliar with the book, I googled it afterward, to learn that these are not the only things the caterpillar eats, that they are not eaten in the order presented in the grid, and that the interpolated word TIDBITS is nowhere actually present in the story. So, a rather un-tight theme.
Plus there are unnibbled-on GRAPES and COMPOTES in the grid. And then there's the "Lord's Prayer" gaffe — it would have been easy enough to check if there are different versions, and wouldn't "First word of..." have sufficed?
At least the Split Decisions variety puzzle was fun.
This was a #4 Billboard hit in April of 1974. It contains 10 OURs.
Funny I thought this was at least Medium, but maybe it’s just that I didn’t know the proper nouns.
I had Thy before OUR. 3 of those right out of the gate was enough to make me assume that there would be another.
VHC a favorite to read to our children, so nice to revisit it. I only use tidbits as nuggets of information, but see now that tid it's (and nuggets) have food as a primary meaning.
Kudos to Lewis Friday!
On that green leaf the caterpillar eats at the end, from Sisters of Mercy by Leonard Cohen:
If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn,
They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.
Me, too -- and I'm an Episcopal priest! Upstream, someone noted that in the King James Version of the Bible OUR appears four times, but I'm not sure how often or in what liturgical traditions that form of the prayer is used. Having a clue depend on a non-common version of a very familiar text is a bad editorial choice IMHO. OUR could have been clued differently, but still interestingly, I'm sure.
In the Lord's Prayer, "forgive us OUR debts" is followed by "...as we forgive OUR debtors." So the total becomes four. When one says, "Forgive us our trespasses, etc..." then there is no fourth "our." But the clue isn't wrong, only selective.
Spoiler alert on Wirld Cup 😢
dreary cluing about as fun as biting into fruit with a Worm in it... that would have been a better gimmick the early bird gets the worm but the clues themselves are so void of wit and anything fun... no thank you
The whole puzzle was shaped like a butterfly, the reveal was there the whole time!
Years we had two cherry trees in the yard of our rented house. The moment the cherries ripened, blue jays swooped in and took a bite out of each one. They did not leave a single cherry for us.
Horrendous. . . How could a Sunday puzzle with this many 3-Letter answers possibly be remotely acceptable???
Read the book countless times to my kids. So enjoyed the theme. Did no one else notice that the grid blanks ARE a butterfly that emerged from the puzzle? Maybe have to squint a bit. But forcing that shape is what created so many 3-letter clues
Not bad but not great. The NYT should be better than this. Especially on Sundays which have been pretty disappointing lately.
Just weren't my kinda SunPuz at all. Took m&e forever, just to blast my way outta the TOPCAT/TESSA/OXO/ABRAM/SOLERA area, especially since I had ERIE were CREE belonged. And I was pretty much workin toward a non-ahar moment, since I never heard of the kid lit book. Plus, very little theme humor involved.
Plus, I had MOMMY/MONEY instead of MCCOY, for quite a spell. But I wasn't real thrilled about either of my ideas, for that there entry.
Staff weeject pick, out of a mere 42 choices: NOM. Wanted NUM, after gettin the N outta committin to ORIGINALSIN. But then, probably about a hundred different choices for weirdo eatin sounds … especially if you've ever heard my bro-in-law and m&e go after red velvet layer cake. har
some of my fave, easier-than-woot parts: PULLEDAFASTONE, as an apt themer. QUIXOTIC. ORIGINAL SIN. DOYOURWORST. DICAPRIO & DEPP Grape revival. The caterpillar bypassin for the COMPOTES.
Thanx, Mr. Schlossberg dude.
Masked & Anonymo11Us
**gruntz**
Mostly off my radar. Proper nouns in pop culture, NOM NOM as slang for eating, Thrilla in Manila ended with an RTD (requested by corner, only ref calls a TKO), & etc etc. No idea of 119A and by then I didn't care what the circles and shades involved.
48 minutes, which is fast for me for a Sunday. I do a Monday in about 8 minutes, because it takes me that long to read the clues and enter the answers, virtually all of which I know. How is it possible to do a puzzle like this in under 10 minutes?
I can only find three as well. Where’s the fourth “our?”
Yes.
just spent a whole week with Precious Nephew who is now two (time is going by at a lightning pace) so the very hungry caterpillar (which i loved, and my sister loved) was extra fresh in my mind as that is one of his favorites. when he was smaller he could hardly stand waiting for his favorite page - the one where the caterpillar eats through tons of different snacks all in one day. (that night, he had a stomachache! but the next day, he eats through one nice green leaf, and he feels much better.) anyway, suffice it to say it put a smile on my face. as for some of you who see shapes in the overall grid - or frankly, those who notice the shape of the grid or symmetry or whatever else at all - more power to you. i knew the circles at least had to be up to something, but i looked at them in order from the top down which had me with SITDBIT and i couldn't make heads or tails of it. oops. i see it now.
i too was a bit shocked when i read a sub-ten-minute time on this, as sundays usually take me 30 minutes to an hour...but personally i like a leisurely solve on a sunday. different strokes and all that. (not that i could ever get near that time if i tried, haha.) today took me almost two hours, but that's because i decided i truly didn't care about my time at all and i was zoning out to some twitch streams periodically while solving.
That clue for OUR slowed me down. I was raised a Catholic but haven’t gone to church regularly in half a century.
My first guess was THY. But I confidently switched to OUR. I think my ignorance helped me.
Anonymous has a point. Obviously, the reference to debt etc was edited out over the centuries as being superfluous. The clue should have mentioned the actual source: the (unedited) King James Version.
Obviously he or the editors decided your suggestion would be too easy as a clue for OUR. Someone above mentioned that the original King James Version has 4 ours. That is what should have been referenced.
Well whatever is technically correct is irrelevant. A crossword puzzle is not a treatise on boxing.
Common language refers to it as a TKO. and therefore it is a perfectly valid answer. (It is overused but the clue is new).
Never thought about the OUR frequency in The Lord's Prayer, but the sung version uses "debts" and "debtors". "Trespasses" just wouldn't scan at all. Our church is now using "lead us away from temptation", which doesn't scan that well either.
Even adding in “For thine is the kingdom, the power & the glory, for ever & ever, amen” from Church of England text, there is no fourth “our”!!
Count me among the unhappies. Just for the heck of it I took one long last look at the thing after dinner and managed to work out all three trouble spots. Some satisfaction there. The clever content was indeed defeated by Slog.
Best thing: Reading the comments and spying Sun Volt's "How far can sailors fly".
Natick on Cosimo/Mos cross. Otherwise USA Today easy.
It's Monday. Did you miss me?
I was bored yesterday with the circles and gray squares and just stopped. Today it's hot out, I have nothing better to do, so I solved it as a themeless. It passed the time -- but looking at the theme now that I'm finished, I'm completely underwhelmed. Much ado about nothing, it seems.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think the word “our” only appears 3 times in The Lord’s Prayer, not 4.
I agree. Only 3. “And” appears 4 times and that’s what I had until it didn’t work. Is this a rare NYT Crossword mistake??
Anonymous - 2 days later
The holes outline the snakes shape of the caterpillar. Great reveal in the butterfly!
ACUTE FLAW
IT AIN'T ORIGINALSIN -
TO BEFAIR she's A NUN -
she KNEADS IT not TO fit in,
so ROSIE PULLEDAFASTONE.
--- ELROY MCCOY
It always amazes me how much one of those creatures can put away, only to become this near-weightless thing. In my next incarnation, I wanna be a CATERPILLAR!! I like the math.
Fun puzzle to do, a little PPP-heavy in spots but doable. Birdie.
Wordle birdie, going 4-under in the last 3 holes.
I love how people come on here and say a clue/answer is wrong, when it would probably take less than a minute for them to find out they're wrong. Somebody said quixotic was wrong, when the clue was almost the literal definition of the word. Then complaints about the Lord's Prayer clue, as if there has been only one version. Even the bible has two versions. And having grown up as a pre-Vatican II Catholic boy, I believe we are on our third version of the Our Father. And that's just in the Catholic Church in my lifetime.
Played themeless for me. Got to VERY in the SW and somehow recalled HUNGRYCATERPILLAR. My dad worked for CATERPLLAR for 41 years. Maybe that had something to do with it.
Wordle birdie.
Right! That one really got me. We even looked it up afterwards to make sure. I expected that to be at the top of Rex’s column as an unforgivable error.
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