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Twitch streamer with a digital avatar say / THU 8-24-23 / Green booking / Theater section for Statler and Waldorf on "The Muppet Show" / 2016 title role for Auli'i Cravalho / Liqueur in some coffee cocktails familiarly
Thursday, August 24, 2023
Constructor: Robin Yu
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- WENT OUT THE WINDOW (2D: Suddenly fell through, as a plan)
- VOTER OUTREACH (14A: Campaign to increase Election Day participation)
- EMOTIONAL OUTLETS (53A: Activities that relieve psychological stress)
- SWEPT OUT TO SEA (43D: Carried away by the tide)
René Jules Lalique (6 April 1860 – 1 May 1945) was a French jeweller, medallist, and glass designer known for his creations of glass art, perfume bottles, vases, jewellery, chandeliers, clocks, and automobile hood ornaments.[...] Lalique was best known for his creations in glass art. In the 1920s, he became noted for his work in the Art Deco style. He was responsible for the walls of lighted glass and elegant coloured glass columns which filled the dining room and "grand salon" of the SS Normandie and the interior fittings, cross, screens, reredos and font of St. Matthew's Church at Millbrook in Jersey (Lalique's "Glass Church"). As part of the Art Nouveau style, many of his jewellery pieces and vases showcase plants, flowers and flowing lines.
Both unique and commercial works of René Lalique are in the collections of a large number of public museums around the world including the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Lalique Museum of Hakone in Japan, the Musée Lalique and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in France, the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim in Germany, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum and the Corning Museum in New York State, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. (wikipedia)
• • •
[Sorry, I know I post this video every time "black" or "out" is thematically
relevant, but its "F&%^-you!" energy is just irresistible to me]
The fill is a mixed bag. A mixed TOTE BAG, filled with some goodies (DONE DEAL, GOING GAGA, and OPERA BOX (esp. as clued)) and some baddies (really hard to work up any love for ECOHOTEL or VTUBER). Beyond the theme, there is nothing especially tricky or difficult about today's puzzle. And the thematic trick wasn't that tricky to begin with so ... the puzzle is weak in the trick department. Undertricked, I feel. The only things I struggled with were dumb little details like "ugh, is is EEO or EOE?" I wish I had more to say about the fill, but it's rather straightforward. I wrote in DADA before DECO, that was fun. What would DADA glasswork even look like? It was interesting to learn that Jimmy Carter's Secret Service code name was DEACON. I was just telling my wife yesterday that that is what I want to call our next dog. Then I could call him "Deke" or "DEACON Jones" or "DEACON Blues" or "DEACON King Kong" or "Total Deke-lipse of the Heart" or if he's mellow maybe "Dekaf" etc. The possibilities are endless. My wife is currently favoring "Vienna," but I told her we'd just end up singing Ultravox's "Vienna" to her all the time, and that might get boring—though if I sang it in the dog’s voice, that might be fun: (extreme emo dog voice) "The feeling is gone / Only you and I / It means nothing to meeeeeeee / This toy means nothing to meeeeeeee / IIIIII'm Viennaaaaaaaaaa!" I mean, that could work. But I'm still Team DEACON.
Explainers:
- 41A: News stand? (OP-ED) — a piece that takes a "stand" in a "news"paper. That's kinda cute.
- 21D: Something that's designed to be buggy? (WEB) — Yes, spiders do "design" their webs in order to catch "bugs," so that works.
- 24A: House of reps? (GYM) — best of the "?" clues, for sure. You do reps at the gym. Nice legislative pun.
- 48A: Foil, e.g. (SWORD) — a "foil" is a fencing SWORD,
- 31A: Exactamundo (BANG ON) — this one clanked. I think of BANG-ON as a fairly ordinary expression, whereas I think of "Exactamundo" as something I've only ever heard Fonzie say. The "word"—in my experience—exists only in the Fonziverse. Nowhere else. Also, it's an exclamation, not an adjective. This clue is very un-Fonzie-like, i.e. uncool
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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107 comments:
Once it’s fair game to include foreign words that are not even close to being commonly used in English (DONC), the game is largely senseless. EOE crossing KEPI is also fairly tragic. BANG ON and KOLA NUTS and GOING GAGA and ECO HOTEL were also signs of desperation, on a par with VTUBER. In short, lots of really low-grade fill makes this an underwhelming puzzle.
Rex that was a fun writeup. How many drinks have you had?.. "Oh, Vienna!" Anyway, I liked the theme a bit more than Rex. When I see this type of note, I take a screenshot of the NYT website version and put it on my left monitor, while I solve with Across Lite on my right monitor. Best of all worlds! And the swirly (I mean ROLLING) arrows helped me out with the BLACK OUTs. Good Thursday wackiness.
But before I got the OUT trick, I thought 2 down was WENT / SIDEWAYS for "Suddenly fell through", and was pleased because... SIDEWAYS went sideways! That would be a neat trick too; maybe some future Thursday. But once I fixed that, had NOD before NOM for "Awards show recognition, informally". Kealoa?
[Spelling Bee: Wed currently -2, missing a 4 and a 6er. (I'm annoyed TUFA wasn't accepted; in this Ngram it's neck and neck with a word that was accepted.) So much for my one day streak!]
Well...it comes down to this for my Thursdays endeavors. It's either a hate/love thing. My mind doesn't always pop into sneaky "try and figure me out" mode. I tend to just yawn and go to bed if nothing pops. If something intrigues me and I want to see what brain devised a puzzle that's intriguing, then I'll sit up, pay attention, pour myself another vinito and forge ahead. Sadly, this fell into the "go to bed" category.
To be sure...I had time on my hands so I went ahead and finished this simple, easy OUT and about puzzle. I didn't hate it...but I yawned a lot.
First yawn: BANG ON for Fonzi's Exactamundo clue. Who says that? BANG ON? Dear god, give me some drums.
Second yawn: Jimmy Carter's Secret Service code name. Lordy, I wanted it to be NO GAS. Yep. I had a green '69 VW Bug at the time. Thank goodness it only took about 4 gallons to fill her up after waiting 30 hours in line while listening to Jim Croce sing"Speedball Tucker." or maybe it was about how bad Leroy Brown was.
Moving on.
Play some Josh Groban and make my husband go to bed early.
He did.
Other yawners: GLOBE TROT BDAY DONC. I now want some BAILEYS with a shot of good brandy.
Oh...let's not forget ASHIER...a word nobody I've ever met utters in my presence. Did I spell that correctly?
I've said what I needed to say.
Adios amigos compañeros de mi vida.....la la la la la.
No problem here
Slightly tougher than medium for me. Nothing was really that difficult (except maybe DONC) but making sense of the theme took some pausing. Interesting spin for a Thursday, liked it.
rca before NBC because I stopped reading the clue at pioneer.
@okanaganer - NOM/NOd is a kealoa for me.
It’s been BAT WEEK in my house, as well as first week of school, so the 🥃 consumption has ticked slightly up, I’ll admit. For me, that means two drinks. Not sustainable. But for this week, it’s helping. 🙏 ~RP
My only overwrite was DONE DEed before DEAL at 4D. Are KOLA NUTS really no longer used in soft drinks?
Finished but never understood the themer
Can someone help me understand “event for a unicorn, perhaps, in brief”? What is an IPO and what does it have to do with unicorns?
I pretty much ignored the unconventional grid (and the theme) and just let the theme entries drop in via the crosses (fortunately it was a pretty easy Thursday). I’ll probably be one of many today who could do without the likes of KEPI, VTUBER, BANGON, DONC and even the MOANA lady.
I don’t get a good vibe from the clue for IPO (I just think of the stock offering kind of IPO - is there another?) - maybe “unicorn” is shorthand for some type of special startup; if so, I must not be reading the business section much these days. Hopefully there is another angle that I missed.
And DONC is just AWFUL - shame on you Will for signing off on that one.
As in film and literature, a formal gimmick (in terms of crosswords this is often the theme) is 1) only interesting if it adds richness to the meaning of the work. At the very least 2) it shouldn’t lead to bad fill.
Unfortunately this puzzle’s gimmick 1) does not and 2) does.
Plus we get ATVs / HOTRODS / SPRINTCARS ? Ugh!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn_(finance)
Ooohhhhh ok. Yeah I’ve never heard this term before, or the term IPO. Relied fully on the cross to get it. Thanks!
Had Peanut for Carter’s code name.
Samuel L. Jackson issues a prominent "correctamundo" in Pulp Fiction, definitely outside the Fonziverse.
I have picked up crossword puzzle French (ete, tete, mer, eau, entre ...) and philosopher's Latin (cogito ergo sum), but this seems to be the first time I ever encountered the French word DONC.
I’m gonna give this one some love since no one else is. I thought it was fun, with a perfect revealer, and a gimmick I actually used to get answers in what was a difficult puzzle for me.
Lots of tricky cluing, which I love. Agree with Rex that the GYM and WEB clues are great - always happy to see short, blah fill saved by cleverness. See also “green standard” for PAR. Even ASHIER, which as someone noted is a word no one would say, was rescued for me by a great clue: “pale in comparison.”
Satire before SENDUP. Anyone else think “peanut” for Carter’s Secret Service name? Amazing that he has been in hospice for months.
I learned that ABNER Doubleday did not invent baseball. Gotta look that up.
Finished and then the theme became clear. I liked it.
Some random thoughts re Robin’s puzzle:
• The theme was not only a riddle to be cracked, but also contributed to the puzzle’s fresh feel. All the theme answers are NYT puzzle debuts, and, IMO, sensational: EMOTIONAL OUTLETS, SWEPT OUT TO SEA, VOTER OUTREACH, and WENT OUT THE WINDOW.
• Note in these theme answers that the letters immediately before and after “OUT” are the same. This restricted the number of possible theme answers, and made the gorgeous ones Robin found even more impressive.
• Top notch clue for GYM – [House of reps?]
• Four palindromes (EOE, ADA ORO, TOT).
• As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken on since 2017, I must report that this puzzle has an unusually low double-letter count (anything less than five), with two. Two! This is only the third puzzle to be so low in seven years.
• For quite a while, I made myself believe that a ROLLING CLOCKOUT was a thing.
• ROW is appropriately placed in one. SXSW would have been perfectly placed in the start of the same row (but of course, couldn’t due to the theme).
• [Alternative to paper or plastic] had me misdirected for a long time, as I was thinking money, not bags. I love when that happens!
Not so random thought: Very cool theme idea, excellently executed. Your two NYT puzzles, Robin, have pulsed with verve and creativity, and I’m hungry for more. Thank you for a very sweet Thursday!
Had fun with it - definitely Rex - solving on the app with the graphics helped. Nothing too difficult - although I’m sure most will point out the outliers - crosses were fine so I won’t complain.
Liked the different themer orientations - WENT OUT THE WINDOW was cool. Don’t like ASHIER or DEWS. Second sighting of I SPY this week. My wife loves a BAILEYS on the rocks.
Pleasant Thursday morning solve.
You SWEPT me away
I had both SATIRE and PEANUT! Worked great with the EA I had in there…
The BANGON/MOANA/DONC crosses doomed me. I figured out the trick, which I rarely do on Thursday, only to get a DNF anyway.
How in the world BANGON relates to "exactamundo" I will leave to a GEN-X or GEN-Z solver. If Rex Parker didn't understand it, I won't apologize to anyone.
@jae (3:30am). I did the same thing. RCA owned NBC, so NBC's "pioneering" in color television was really just RCA using its asset to promote and sell it's product.
I gotta believe that 18D was originally NOD, the more widely used informal term for awards show recognition, and that the constructor settled for NOM, a not-incorrect informal term, but one I have rarely heard used.
If you name your dog Vienna you will either wind up singing Vienna Calling by Falco or Rosanna by Toto with the name changed to Vienna.
"DONC is just AWFUL - shame on you Will for signing off on that one."
#SECONDED
File under wheelhouses: Very early on, the clue at 25D inadvertently caught my eye, and I filled in DONC immediately.
Thx, Robin; OUTstanding Thurs. offering! 😊
Med.
Mostly a smooth OUTing.
Had fun trying to suss OUT the DEAL at WENT 'around', but that WENT nowhere, so had to be patient for WINDOW to appear to get OUT of the dilemma. After that, VOTER OUTREACH came quickly, as did the other two themers.
Sure grateful to have gleaned SXSW from previous NYT xwords.
Learned today: VTUBER; DONC; BAILEYS.
A most enjoyable OUTing! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@Wanderlust7 - Agreed. Loved this puzzle.
Welp. Yesterday I said I was having a great week for puzzles. Turns out I spoke to soon. This was not my cup of tea. Certainly easy enough but since my printout from the Times website did not contain the visual aid of the arrows, the convoluted theme did not exactly inspire love. I got the general idea there were black squares used and the word OUT was missing. Still, while I could see VOTER OUTREACH, the others just never jumped out at me.
It was a good idea for a theme, but when the technology isn’t there to make the whole finished product available to all your users . . . well, you’re gonna have some disappointed solvers.
BANG ON felt off the mark. I had BANK IT. And VTUBER clued with “Twitch streamer” - both of which may as well have been written in a foreign language - didn’t do anything to sweeten the deal.
Vienna is an excellent song, and would be an excellent name for a dog. Don't saddle your dog with 'Deacon' as a name.
Clue for BANG ON did not feel BANG ON for me. Dumb slang in the clue, ordinary idiom in the answer.
Clever construction idea. Don't know what a SPRINT CAR is and overall, the puzzle had too much car stuff in it, but I liked it OK.
@Anonymous 6:51 am, a “unicorn” is a start-up company (usually in tech) that is valued over a billion dollars, and an IPO is an initial public offering (i.e., when the company goes public on a stock exchange and anyone can buy shares in it). Facebook and Google are examples of unicorns.
Forget the puzzle. Is anyone else blown away by the Linda Holmes and Rex pairing? Worlds colliding.
As someone else mentioned, Samuel L Jackson reanimated the phrase Exactamundo in Pulp Fiction. He even went so far as to reference Fonzie when he said it, however, so I think we can still classify that instance as being part of the Fonziverse.
My main gripe with this puzzle - aside from the fact the little black curvy arrows didn't always curve in the right direction for the clues as read - was the clue/answer for 45 Down. The clue was "poker call" and the answer was IRAISE. This is just flat out wrong. In poker, you either bet, check, call, raise or fold. If there's no bet before it's your turn to act, you have the options of checking or betting. If someone else bets before you, your options are fold, call or raise. The term "poker call" means just that: you've called a bet. You haven't raised. If you say IRAISE, that means you didn't call. It's so easy to fix this; I wonder why the constructor or the editor didn't catch it.
UNICORN is slang for a start up that has reached a 1B valuation.
If it goes public it does so by means of an IPO (typically) — Initial Public Offering
Hi, gang! Been quite a while since I've commented here, but getting back into the routine of "solve & check Rex," so time for a return.
This one played pretty easy, but it's a fun enough theme and revealer. Anything that can include UEY and not raise my blood pressure is doing something right. Fully agree with Fearless Leader on EEO vs EOE - just annoying (but still not as bad as UEY/UIE - I firmly believe that The Good Lord allowed the word "execrable" to enter the English language solely so that I'd have an adjective for that). I'll stand up for the maligned BANGON, though: it's definitely an expression that I hear often enough, and "Exactamundo" is just fun to see.
All in all, I'll take it. Might have played better as a Wednesday, but that's not on the constructor. Thanks, Robin!
Really hard puzzle. The loop-de-loops probably helped me, but I don't think putting OUT in the puzzle four times is gonna receive much admiration. The rest of it beat me up.
Misremembered KGB as KBG, so BEING GAGA happened and EOE is sometimes EEO, at least in my head.
The clue for BDAY was cringworthy at best. Poker terms are annoying at best. NOM is abbreviations at their worst. Had to look up DONC. IPO and unicorn will never be cute, please stop doing that NYTXW.
The SPRINT CARS clue indicates the editor has never been to a sprint car race. I'd love to know what website the word "rugged" came from. Ditto for HOT ROD. Maybe their next staff retreat could be to go to a race someplace. Subway and taxi people probably aren't prepared to write about motorsports.
PIANO TUNER was nice, as was the clue for GYM.
Uniclue:
1 How an NPR listener becomes a smug NPR listener.
1 TOTEBAG MORPHS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Praying for a little culture. PETRI DISH AMENS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hey All !
Definitely needed the ROLLING BLACKOUTS here. Holy frijoles, I never would've figured out the theme without them. I'm just not that clever. Hand held, and all that. Besides, the it's fun to see those arrow/half block things, and to zoom around them to get from a Down to an Across (or vice-versa.)
I'd like to think I would've finished the puz if those Swooshes weren't there, but it would've been at a substantially higher time. And I'd've had to come here for Rex to Rexplain.
Anyway, cool theme, neat to do something with Blockers that are there anyway. Puz was BANG ON, one might say.
We have TOT, TOTO, TOTEbag. Just an observation. Almost changed by ATVS to ATUS, having not heard of a VTUBER, but yes to a UTUBER (now that I mull it over, it's YOUTUBER, yes?)(Ah, me.)
Something's missing, though. I'll give you one guess as to what it is. 😁
No F's (I'm all EMOTIONAL)
RooMonster
DarrinV
I did the NYT Crossword every day for almost 2 yrs and I came to truly hate the Thursday puzzle in that time. Today's puzzle is a reminder of why I hate the Thursday. Stupid, pointless theme that does nothing to enhance the puzzle solving experience. It's that way nearly every week.
In my mind, this type of puzzle is exactly what Thursdays should be about. I admire the creativity and enjoyed solving it. I wish THEWINDOW and TOSEA were better standalone answers, like REACH and LETS, but that's a small quibble.
The longer-ish connective tissue is good -- KOLANUTS, OPERABOX, DONEDEAL, PIANOTUNER, SPRINTCARS. I've never seen GLOBETROT without "ing" or "er(s)" but I like it anyway.
Other randomness:
-- A Black Widow clue and a WEB. Nice.
-- SPRINTCARS jostling with a HOTROD -- and even with an AMC. What a crazy race that would be.
-- Entries like ECOHOTELs and VTUBERs may seem like desperation to some of us, but they're real things.
-- Satire >> SENDUP
-- Is there a tight definition of a TOT? I imagine onesies on infants or babies, but TOTs seem a little older than that. Or maybe I'm thinking of toddlers?
@Wanderlust -- Yes to pEAnut! Especially since my first two letters were the E and A.
@Rex -- When I was little, we had two black cats, Midnight and Licorice. My younger sister couldn't say the latter's name; it always came out as "Deekie". So he very quickly became DEACON, often shortened to Deke, and he lived 14 years with that name. He's been gone since the late 1980s, and I still miss him. Do it.
If you like fairly loud multi-guitar jangle rock, check out Australia's ROLLING BLACKOUTs Coastal Fever.
LOL, millennial here. I was going to joke about BANG ON maybe being some bygone fifties trash. So, just terrible fill/cluing all around. 😂
And crossing DONC and MOANA, as clued, maybe she is more famous than I realize (I am pretty out of touch) and I should have been able to suss it out anyway, but on that cross you could have easily just gone 2016 (hit) animated feature to make it so much less trash. It also crossing Jimmy's SS handle, so obviously not positive on that letter either. This little terrible section 100% should have disqualified this puzzle from ever being published.
I just had WENT for 2-D/20-A, then got SWEPT/TO SEA at 43-D, 60-A, which worked, sort of, without the OUT, so I was stymied until I got the revealer; then it was easy -- although I finished with two errord, NOd/GYd and then V-TUnER/nDAY. both of those downs seemed to make sense so I just gave up.
I think BANG ON is British, rather than youthspeak, and is maybe hinted at by the foreign-ish sound of exactamundo. But maybe not.
Speaking of foreign -- since what Descartes actually wrote was "Cogito ergo sum," putting it into French doesn't seem justified. But I love the word donc. When I was taking French lessons, the teacher advised us that if we could manage to say 'donc,' correctly, in conversation, it would sound like we really spoke the language. The one time I tried it, it worked.
Enjoyed the theme, enjoyed most of the puzzle, but I'm somewhat young and in touch and have never, not once, in any situation at all, heard or seen VTUBER used. I had other hangups like NOd for NOM etc. that felt like fun crossword puzzle problems to work out, but getting to VTUBER made my morning worse.
I agree really liked it.
Not a crossword puzzle but a word game, and not a terribly interesting one. When does WS retire?
For Carter's secret service code name, I started with Peanut...
Yes, I had “ergo” at first although I knew it was Latin, not French. I got “donc” from the crosses. I wish I had studied French formally at some point but unfortunately only took Spanish, which has served me well in many other situations, other than crosswords.
The arrows threw/intimidated me at first.
Thought this might be a 3D puzzle or at least require some rotation of the grid.
VOTER REACH and SWEPT TO SEA didn’t need the OUT to make sense. So after my initial GOINGGAGA at the grid, kind of a SO SO-SO final rating.
@Gary (9:09) I did a double take on the clue for SPRINT CAR too. I mean they have wings. True that to do what they do, they have to be sturdy but stock cars - 3300 pound beasts – now that’s rugged.
@Perry (9:18) Funny, that’s exactly how I feel about the Sunday crossword which is the definition of anathema to me. I loathe it. On the other hand, Thursday is my favorite day. Just another viewpoint for what it’s worth, which isn’t much.
Or, when the dog is standing by the door & ready to go out, croon to the designated dogwalker in your best Billy Joel imitation: "Vienna waits for you."
First of all, I'm the sort of person who gets a frisson of anticipation and excitement rather than an "OMG, oh no!" when I see a grid like this. I know there's going to be something I'll need to figure out -- most likely something I've never had to figure out before.
I saw the trick the first time I encountered it -- at VOTER [OUT]REACH. "Now why does that arrow thing shaped like a half-moon mean "out", I asked myself? "Beats me. This had better be good."
And it is. ROLLING BLACKOUT is an unexpected and perfect revealer.
There's also some lovely non-theme fill like GLOBETROT and GOING GAGA. And terrific clues for PIANO TUNER and OP ED.
The world is,I think, divided into the kinds of people who love this sort of puzzle and the kinds who hate it. I love it -- and this one was over for me much too quickly.
@Rex. Definitely name your dog Vienna if it’s a wiener dog.
What’s a celebrity roast without AMC?
Cute puzzle with some nice cluing. Thanks, Robin Yu.
I had Peachy for a moment.
Not fair. The NYT app should give a warning when the newspaper style print is different from the Standard Layout.
It really shouldn't surprise anyone that Carter's Secret Service nickname was DEACON, as he was in fact a Deacon of his church. For about 80 years and counting.
I'm old, I haven't seen a movie in a theater in about 30 years, I have only ever had basic cable. I have Amazon Prime Video, and a Netflix subscription I don't know why I haven't cancelled, since I haven't used it in three years. I am confused about one thing: How can anyone claim to not have heard about MOANA? 2016 title role for someone with a Hawaiian first name doesn't just scream MOANA? (Big) Hit movie, it still gets streamed 100 million times per year on Apple+, and it's a WTF? Do we have a significant population of dead people posting here?
TIL: VTUBER. Actually changed ATV to ATu, wondering what it was, thinking maybe uTUBER? but got the "almost there" message and couldn't find any other typos, so changed it back and BANG ON puzzle done.
I, too, had no clue on the 29D person, but MOANA came to seem like the "obvious" choice. Only because I had the vowels...
Also, I liked the black out wheels (see how you can read that to describe them?). The first to fall was SWEPT (OUT) TO SEA and then it was whoosh to the rest.
Speaking of punctuation and emphasis, I was recently treated to a message at a doctor's office wherein the speaker said, "To make change, or to reschedule an appointment..." It was loud enough for DH to hear and he held out his hand palm up and rubbed his thumb over his finger. I wonder whether the person was not a native English speaker? Or maybe it was AI generated, since AI will have learned that to make change is a thing (although a thing that is a less common ability than it once was).
@G. Weissman summed it up nicely, and amen to @Perry regarding Thursdays! The muck reminded me of the worst Sundays.
This just seemed kind of dull to me. It became obvious right away that OUT was supposed to go in the "turnaround" squares – the question was *why* is it being rotated? Then the revealer explained it: those squares represented rolling, black, "out"s. ROLLING BLACKOUT doesn't seem like a very interesting theme idea, except that it can be depicted very easily in a crossword grid.
So that was that.
ASHIER = a worker at a French outdoor café whose job is to empty the ashtrays.
The Donc-Key Serenade.
ROLLING + BLACK + OUT - major props to the constructor for the insight that the phrase could be repurposed as a crossword theme, for figuring out a visual representation, and for placing the OUTs symmetrically! And for making a puzzle that was fun to solve. I got WENT OUT THE WINDOW early, but stalled OUT on "get OUT the VOTE." What the DEUCE!? It took a while to sort that out. I thought SWEPT OUT TO SEA was lovely, enjoyed DONE DEAL, OPERA BOX, GLOBE TROT>
I was half awake when I saw the blank grid with the redirects and whoa - eager but intimidated. Going through the whole puzzle I found about four scattered answers. Little by little, the NE corner revealed VOTER out REACH! Yay! Now despite not knowing an assortment of answers, the trick helped get footholds in the rest. Lovely, perfect revealer too. The final obstacle was that great misleading clue at 24A. Not GYd - GYM! Whew!
I didn’t watch or think of Fonzi, but exactamundo, I've heard, sure. Our neighbor calls our dog Rikki, “The Rickster.” Kind of in the same boat. I like the Deke name play options. Never liked Vienna weiners. Will it be a dachshund?
Ted Lasso once said “Exactamundo, Dikembe Motumbo” one of his funnier sides.
Solved pretty easily without arrows on my printout but they would have made the solve more fun. The gimmick is more like making a turn on a roundabout than rolling anywhere.
Jeff Chen says that DONC has been in the puzzle before but I don't remember it.
I usually like puzzles like this one but not today. Also 21 Terrible Threes.
I hated it as soon as I saw it, but I printed it out anyway after I wiped the spittle from my screen. The editor just loves little games more than he likes actual crossword puzzles.
Turned (no pun intended) out to be quite easy.
For a critique of the puzzle, I would give it a pass because visually you know something weird is going on, so the game is to figure out exactly what to fill in. While I got it wrong, still I liked the concept. If you want a vanilla type crossword, don't bother with the NYT on a Thursday, in general.
To the complaints about Shortz, I would have this to say. The NYT has in recent years augmented the number of puzzle editors by a lot (by my standards). If the new editors were OK with DONC (which I really am not), they may have overruled or convinced Shortz the entry is OK for a Thursday. I would want to know exactly how much influence they have before blaming Shortz for every problem that comes up. Perhaps that has been explained elsewhere and I missed it. But really, at least it has to be a communal decision. Or so I think.
Absolutely the worst puzzle I ever tried to do.
yep. I think it would really help, to have visibility to them little curly-Q things in yer puzgrid. We always print off an as-seen-in-the-newspaper copy, to avoid any such no-see-em hassles.
Liked immediately that the puzgrid did somethin different, with its appearance. Adds cool extra-weird variety.
Got ROLLINGBLACKOUT off of nuthin but its clue quite early, to help get the solvequest started -- and to help explain them curly-Q structures. Then WENT(OUT)THEWINDOW soon made a heap more sense, up in the openin solvequest corner.
staff weeject pick: OUT. Left OUT, but brought nicely into the puztheme.
other likes: GOINGGAGA. DONEDEAL. PIANOTUNERS. TOTEBAG [we almost always bring 4 of em with us, to the grocery store checkout area]. UEY.
kinda no-knows: DONC. MOANA. BANGON. VTUBER.
Thanx for the fun and vive da puzgrid difference, Mr. Yu dude. TWAS [black curly-Q] STANDIN.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
Oh & Robyn W is at the NYer today (thank God). Maybe she doesn't like what's going on at the NYT lately either ???
Is it still considered a kealoa if NOD doesn’t work because of GYM (not GYd)?
When I think of exactamundo it is Samuel L Jackson dealer with the moronic couple of robbers in the diner in Pulp Fiction.
I also really wanted Carter’s code name to be Peanut!
One of the worst, far from east not because of “outs” but absurd clues response needed to do many clues, e.g., “pale in comparison” (ashier), a word that no one has ever uttered!!!
I totally agree. Also how much Texas hold’em do we have to be subjected to.
I agree. Exactamundo!
I, too, started with Peanut!
On ASHIER:
Several hundred years ago when I was in college, my statistics prof explained "spurious correlation" by telling us that some study showed that there was a statistical relationship between car thefts and cigar smoking. Of course, that's ridiculous, so it's a "spurious" correlation. I was in his office later that day for some reason and I theorized that perhaps the thieves were after the ash trays in the cars. A terrible line, but a nice memory. He was a great professor.
I had SWEPT TO SEA first which seemed to make sense to me. Then I got VOTER REACH which I was like hmmm...maybe that's a thing? Then I had EMOTIONAL LETS which was confusing but I said whatever. Then I got to WENT THE WINDOW and finally realized the missing OUT part which was a cool reveal. Not amazing but was kinda cool. Was more fun than Rex had it seemed though. I did the online puzzle with the arrows which helped.
@Joe D (11:31) “ASHIER” - good one. LOL
M&A (12:05) When I print the newspaper version, it always cuts off the entire left margin which is highly annoying because then I have to fill in the missing numbers and first few letters with a pencil. Either that or get dizzy trying to go back-and-forth looking at a device screen. I’ve tried adjusting the paper guides which doesn’t seem to help much. Any advice on correcting that?
Well, I LIKED IT! FUN PUZZLE.
At one of my jobs I had to speak on the phone with a woman in another office who would regularly interject pseudo-Spanishisms into the conversation. She always said them in an exaggerated way.
"Yes! Exactamuuundo!"
"You are absolutely correctamuuundo!"
"That would be perfectamuuundo!"
"I'm sorry, but what you're asking for is a big No Way-ohhh, José-ohhh!"
Ashier is certainly used to describe dry, flaky skin (my elbows are ashier than yours). I was so tired last night, when I first looked at the puzzle, that ashier was one of maybe 5 fill-ins before I shut down for the night. I didn’t find it much easier today. Donc - had to look up. I wanted peanut, but had going nuts - which didn’t help with any cross! Finally switched to gaga and the revealer came to light. Tough one for me after three days that had me thinking I was getting the hang of this crossword solving.
Re: DONC:
Took French in h.s., but have forgotten most of it, so had to check in with ChatGPT for an update on 'DONC':
"The word "donc" is quite versatile and can be used in various contexts in the French language. Here are a few examples of how "donc" can be used:
Conjunction of Reason or Inference: Similar to its usage in the Descartes quote, "donc" is often used to indicate a logical consequence or inference.
Example: "Il pleut, donc nous devrions prendre un parapluie." (It's raining, so we should take an umbrella.)
Conjunction for Making Suggestions or Giving Advice: "Donc" can be used to make suggestions or provide advice in a polite manner.
Example: "Vous devriez donc essayer ce restaurant, il est excellent." (You should try this restaurant, it's excellent.)
Conjunction in Narratives or Stories: "Donc" can be used to move a story forward, indicating a sequence of events.
Example: "Elle est sortie tôt ce matin. Elle est donc allée faire une promenade." (She went out early this morning. So she went for a walk.)
Conjunction to Express Surprise or Indignation: "Donc" can be used to express surprise or indignation, similar to "so" or "then" in English.
Example: "Il n'est donc pas venu à la réunion!" (So he didn't come to the meeting!)
Conjunction to Introduce a Conclusion: "Donc" can introduce a conclusion or summary in a sentence.
Example: "Le film était ennuyeux. Donc, nous sommes partis avant la fin." (The movie was boring. So we left before the end.)
Remember that the usage of "donc" can vary based on the context and the structure of the sentence. It's a versatile word that can enhance the clarity and flow of your communication in French."
NOTE: not vetted, so don't know if this is all spot on. Nevertheless, I get the general idea. Quite a versatile word, indeed.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Thought this was great. Of course I thought the answer I finally got on the crosses was Vt Uber so there's no accounting for taste. Typically, CPAs only work for money.
Oh, and of course, "No pro-blaay-mohhh!"
Rex, and now you could refer to Deacon as if you’re his/her/their secret service agent! “Deacon is approaching.” “Deacon is entering the kitchen.” Always talking into your shirt collar.
Just checked at xwordinfo.com and DONC has appeared twice during the Shortz era, first in 2003 clued as "Therefore: Fr." and again today. It showed up 26 times during the Maleska, Weng and Farrar editorships, most often clued as French for "therefore" or "then". Once it was clued as "Je pense, ___ je suis".
I'm not sure why "Descartes" was appended to today's "Je pense, ___ je suis". Sure, Rene Descartes was French but, as @jberg alludes to, he wrote in Latin, as was the fashion in his day, so the French connection is a tad spurious, if you ask me. Did a BEADY side eye to that.
10D V TUBER looks like something I would expect to find in a grocery store produce department. Oh, it's got something to do with a "Twitch streamer". Is that some kind of neurological disorder with episodes of continuous muscle spasms?
You can’t call a president a peanut! (Even if it’s a code name.) Imagine how embarrassing that might be for the Secret Service detail! That’s funny.
Fine for a gimmick, but not having the directional arrow on wife’s print copy was a surprise. On iPad the ROLLING BLACK outs were so obvious that she had to direct me to the reveal clue which I hadn’t seen although the grid was correctly filled. Thanks to Robin for the “interesting” grid and to @bocamp for the French review. Our French class at Southern Oregon in 1963 was actually taught by a Bulgarian woman who had escaped under the iron curtain by swimming to freedom , so count me among the legions today who DONCed on that entry.
p.s.
@Whatsername @1:57pm -- yo. Not sure what computer equipment U have, but when I print stuff, I usually get a runty "print screen" that asks "how many copies" and such. On that screen, there is a "Scale" entry that defaults to "100%". If the printout ain't fittin on yer printed page, U might try typin in a smaller Scale amount, such as 95 or even 90. Do that, before pressin the "Print" button.
See if that might help.
M&A Help Desk
@Newboy (4:56 PM) yw 😊
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@M&A (5:32) Eureka!! It worked! I have a brand new desktop computer which - like so many things these days - has been dumbed down. So instead of my old PC which popped up a menu where I could make custom print adjustments (like sizing to a certain percentage), all the "advanced" settings are hidden. After I finally found them, I changed it to "Fit Paper" and that fixed it. I feel sorta foolish for not thinking of that myself but THANK YOU!!
Back from Maine, had fun with this one, nice trick, pretty easy solve, didn't have the arrows on my printout, so what.
I thought everyone in the world knew the Descartes quote in French, like me. Not so, as it turns out, so I am a lot smarter than I thought.
Liked your Thursday muchisimo, (a better alternative to all the bogus Spanish being quoted) RY. 'Ray You, and thanks for all the fun.
I'm a vtuber fan myself so finding VTUBER as an answer made me smile. Never heard of ECOHOTEL though, and TOTO really tripped me up.
Pretty darned easy for a Thursday… I’m no professional, but I beat my average Thursday time by over 12 minutes finishing in 8… I figured out the pictorial grid clue on the first one in the upper left and then did the others rapidly. Nothing too terribly exciting to solve for here. Fun.
I see your point, but going gaga is spoken English which has been around a long time though probably becoming old fashioned. Nothing wrong with it.
However while doing the puzzle (donc fortunately is a gimme for me) I thought that fill in the blank was ridiculous
They must have loved the gimmick.
So a successful Thursday-level misdirect for people who are familiar with poker -- and a relatively straightforward clue for people not as familiar with more technical poker language. "Call" as in choice or "call" as in to speak (loudly) are standard usages. Thank you for the clarification though!
Employment lawyer here— I can authoritatively say that EOE is not an abbreviation EVER used. EEO is. EOE is meaningless and never should have made it into the NYTXW.
I feel like I'm one of three people who read Rex's blog (plus comments) and knows what a VTuber is well enough to know that VTUBER as clued is kinda off... but only because most of the big-name VTubers stream on Youtube, not on Twitch.
I get the sense that many solvers unfamiliar with the concept thought that "VTUBER" was some major stretch, something that simply isn't real or nobody would ever say (when it's grown to be a relatively big thing, especially among fans of manga, anime, and other Japanese media), or some strained fill, when in actuality it seems (from his comments) that Robin Yu very much wanted to debut the answer. I thought it was a very good answer, and he should be celebrated for debuting it!
These days, "so" precedes many English statements. So, it turns out that the French use DONC in the same way. Watch a French TV series, like Balthazar, and you'll hear it a lot.
I loved it, too.
Wow, 40 black squares (including all the blackOUTs). What's the limit?
Bottom line is the gimmick has to be really good to justify the grid modification. In this case it just wasn’t worth the trouble.
Another Thursday DNF: the TOTAL natick at sq. 10. I have absolutely no idea what letter might go in there. The tech clue down means nothing to me, and I have no clue who (or what) the [capitalized] Black Widow is. You have to be more careful about your crosses, people.
Wordle birdie.
I am going to hazard a guess that virtually everyone who trashed this puzzle did not - or could not - complete it and made up reasons for their dislike rather than admit that they couldn't get it done.
Man up. It's no disgrace. No one gets them all...not even OFL - Our Feckless Leader - who proclaims omniscience on a daily basis.
One of the great things about attempting to solve these puzzles is the things you learn. As an example, I'm sure many have looked up Abner Doubleday just to see if there is a controversy around the long-standing belief that he 'invented' baseball.
And donc was easily inferable from the crosses.
So stop whining - at least publicly - admit your fallibility, and get on with life...
Eep! My bad: I read the wrong clue. Brain or eye fart, who knows which? I rescind my first post, all but the Wordle birdie.
LETS ROLL?
THE DEACON WENT(OUT)THEWINDOW
ON a SPRINT TO be AWED.
ADA's spouse WENT TOSEA him GO,
"I'll TAR your NUTS you HOTROD!"
--- ABNER BAILEY
Got it all, but not without some consternation. Especially in the NE before getting the gimmick. And I had half-forgotten KEPI, ancient crosswordese. And BANGON?!
Wordle PAR, ending the 7 day hot streak before it, GOINGGAGA with 3 eagles and 4 birdies for a week of a tidy 10 under.
I really enjoyed this OUTing! I think this was one of the most fun Thursday gimmicks. For those who don't like the NYT Thursday puzzles, just don't do them. Easy peasy. I've been doing Xword puzzles for over 60 years. It's fun to switch things up every now and again. And now I know how to say "Cogito, ergo sum" in French. I like learnin'.
Gimmick? There was a gimmick?
Ohhh...that's what those circle/arrow/thingies were - gimmicks.
Got 97.5% anyway. Then saw why I was left OUT of part of the gimmick.
Good one.
Diana, LIW
and PS - KEPI was my first entry!
One more thing. Several people said otherwise, but Descartes actually did publish it in French first.
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