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Court athlete informally / THU 9-28-23 / Portmanteau for a certain self-taken video on a smartphone / Video game hero who battles the evil Dr. Wily / Common five-petaled flower / Place to order patatas bravas / Bygone owner of Capital Records
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Constructor: Ricky Cruz
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- "MONSTERS, INC."
- BALLERINA
- PALESTINE
- FALLING FLAT
... clued as follows:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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| MONSTERS (17A: Some energy drinks) IN C = "Monsters, Inc." |
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| BALLER (30A: Court athlete, slangily) IN A = ballerina |
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| PALEST (45A: Most wan) IN E = Palestine |
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| FALL (61A: Leaf-raking time) IN G FLAT = falling flat |
Word of the Day: EIDETIC (34A: ___ memory (ability to recall images with high precision)) —
Less time today because I have to teach and also because much of my writing time was just taken up trying to image-capture and typeset the theme clues (above). Lots of tech fail on my part! Speaking of tech (if not exactly fail), I'm gonna start with MEGAMAN and SLOFIE, which is the kind of fill that makes me sad because it reminds me of how much of what passes for young-skewing or current or hip fill these days is extremely online or otherwise tech-oriented. Congrats to the tech overlords for convincing everyone that the pathway to freedom and self-expression and identity lies in screens. This isn't new (TV ruined boomers, TV and home video gaming ruined my generation (X), etc. etc.) but the phone has perfected it and now reality happens on screens and ... I don't know what's happening in this meat-sack world we used to call "reality." Bodies ... moving around ... angry ... not paying attention. Anyway, I am trying to make peace with the fact that minimizing the role of screens in my life is going to mean accelerating my detachment from popular culture (including cutesy self-documentation terminology). Sucks to get old, but it sucks more to be glued to the depression- and anger-making machine that is your phone / The Internet, so ... I dunno. Win some lose some (I've been reading Naomi Klein-not-Wolf's Doppelganger, please forgive my tech despair). MEGAMAN has been around since 1987, so there's no good reason that's unfamiliar to me (14A: Video game hero who battles the evil Dr. Wily). Gaming was never my thing. Shrug. As for SLOFIE ... look, the reason I hate SLOFIE more than I would normally hate an extremely embarrassing tech portmanteau like SLOFIE is that it was the *last* thing I entered, the last thing I pieced together, and I was truly enjoying the puzzle up to that point. So just when I'm ready for the puzzle to stick the landing, it serves me the heaping plate of garbage that is SLOFIE. Real mood-killer, that stupid "word." You absolutely do not have to cram the latest dumb word into your grid to prove that you aren't one of the OLDS, I promise. The high quality of your work is enough. I'm just glad I could piece together what the elements of the portmanteau were (slow + selfie), because I famously (and probably not exclusively) never can remember how to spell Jackson POLL-CK.
But anyway, the theme: it's great. I particularly love how it takes musical crosswordese you see all the time (key signatures like IN C, IN A, IN E, or notes like G FLAT) and then, by incorporating them into this bizarro magical musical theme, makes them parts of longer, familiar words and phrases ("MONSTERS, INC." BALLERINA etc.). Putting a regular old clue *in a key*. Like, actually giving it a musical setting, literally putting it on a staff ... it's ingenious. MONSTERS might have been hard for those who are not up on their energy drink terminology, and BALLER might have been hard for those who are not up on their basketball terminology, but the basic concept here seems very clear ... once you finally see it. Happy to see FALL IN G FLAT, the obvious best of the bunch, occupying its rightful place at the bottom of the grid—always good to finish big. Only wish I'd actually literally finished there, instead of with the "O" in SLOFIE. Just saying the word feels awful. Just looking at it. It's like the sound of a sloth vomiting.
Eidetic memory (/aɪˈdɛtɪk/ eye-DET-ik; also known as photographic memory and total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only once and without using a mnemonic device.
Although the terms eidetic memory and photographic memory are popularly used interchangeably, they are also distinguished, with eidetic memory referring to the ability to see an object for a few minutes after it is no longer present and photographic memory referring to the ability to recall pages of text or numbers, or similar, in great detail. When the concepts are distinguished, eidetic memory is reported to occur in a small number of children and is generally not found in adults, while true photographic memory has never been demonstrated to exist.
The word eidetic comes from the Greek word εἶδος (pronounced [êːdos], eidos) "visible form". (wikipedia)
• • •
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| "EROICA" (as seen in Psycho) |
Hey, did you know EIDETIC!? I did! Or, I "did"—by which I mean I got "EI-" and looked at the clue and my brain shrugged and went "... is this something?" while handing me EIDETIC. "I dunno, brain, let's find out!" And it was right. LOL, there are so many technical words like that that all just blur together in my head in a jargony soup. "Diegetic" is in there ... "epideictic" ... "enclitic" ... "ekphrasis" ... "E"s seem to be involved a lot. Anyway, threw up EIDETIC from half court and ... swish! Outside of that word (and the MEGAMAN SLOFIE, of course), everything in the grid felt familiar and solid and nicely varied. BONE IN! CAT TREATS! NEGRONIS! TAPAS BAR! It's a tasty night out for you and your cat! The "?" clues did their thing, i.e. slowed me down a bit. [Frequent flier?] (JET) could've been a lot of things (initial thought: BAT). I thought [Jerky?] was going to have to do with spasms, but I took the wrong misdirection path there. "Jerky" as in "Jerk-y" as in "like a jerk," i.e. IMPOLITE. Nice. Didn't like the boring "on the Hollywood Walk of Fame" clue they gave GLADYS Knight. It's the worst possible clue you can give a celeb. It's like you hate them and don't want to mention anything they've actually done. And in GLADYS's case, she's done a lot. Legend.
See you tomorrow.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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171 comments:
I solved on my iPad, and all the theme clues were… no clues at all! Just black boxes! I was able to solve by the crossing words,but utterly baffled until I came here and read how the puzzle was supposed to look.
Thankfully this was easy solve mostly on the Downs because the NYT app wouldn't correctly display the themes questions. All I saw was a black box.
Epic fail. Solved in the android app which only showed black boxes for the theme clues. Solved it, but couldn't figure out what all the black boxes were for before coming here.
I do the crossword on my phone via the NYTimes app. The theme clues were just big black censored bars. No pictures, no words — no clues, basically. Unacceptable in their own technology.
On the NYTXW app the themes clues were just large panels of all black. The clues published here were not visible.
I’m in Portugal and maybe it’s bad Internet or something but my themed clues today were solid black rectangles - no images at all. Tech fail.
My only grief with the puzzle is the theme clues are black boxes in the official nyt app. I did the whole puzzle with no idea what those would be. I would hope the nyt would make sure clues appear in their own app
NYT app just had black rectangles in for themer clues. Still an easy solve for me, but could not imagine what those things had in common!
The themed clues were just white boxes on the app. Somehow managed to get it without them. Had no clue what the theme was until I came here
Glad I wasn’t the only one confused.
I use their app but the clues for the four themed questions didn’t show up at all. Just appeared as black bars.
Sorry Ricky - the NYT really shit on your puzzle today. Their app was not able to display the theme entries - all I saw was an empty white box - no musical notation no clue.
Easy enough grid - I was able to solve with downs but this was an epic fail. Is there anyone awake over there?
So how do you actually view this puzzle properly? (Other than buying a paper newspaper) As far as I know, you can only use the NYT apps to solve NYT puzzles. How did any of you actually see something other than black boxes? I was really pissed at the Times today.
Website interface works fine. I downloaded to Black Ink (as usual), which managed the theme clues pretty well… ~RP
Excellent rant/review, Rex! Your point sharpened by the fact that every comment here prior to mine, with one exception, has nothing to do with the puzzle. They're all complaints about how the puzzle didn't show up on...yep!...their phones.
(The GLADYS Knight clue pissed me off too. Same reason.)
Thanks, I didn’t even know there was a website version. .
Um, no. In the app, which I use every day, there were literally no music-related clues, there is no staff visual, there is only a black fill, it made me think of a CIA-redacted document when it is declassified.
So the tech ruined what otherwise would have been a lovely theme.
I’ll add my frustration: just BLACK BARS in the iPad app!
Made me think of the black page in TRISTRAM SHANDY.
“Hmm, maybe something to do with graves, or the unknown, or censorship?”
Nope.
Solved it on the website with a laptop, no problem. The worst fill in other crosswords is IN[A-G], clued as "Like [insert classical work]". To have IN[A-G] as a theme, with a change-up for the last theme answer, was clever and surprisingly fun. Shame that the app isn't working for other solvers.
I solve in the browser (Chrome) on a laptop. Never had a problem with any of the puzzles.
So sad that what seems like a great puzzle was ruined for all of us that use the nyt app and saw only black rectangles. So this was a themeless where you had to get the black box (no clue, no lovely musical notations) answer completely from crosses.
Otherwise, I just want to say that I completely agree with Rex about the destructive character of TV, internet, and smartphones. Just yesterday I was thinking about how dire the state of the world seems - it really is dire, but I think internet disinformation, the 24-hour news cycle, cable tv, social media, make it seem even more dire than it is and leads to so much hopelessness and despair. Those of us who grew up without computers and phones experienced a world that was smaller but kinder, more civil, more community-based. The world was far from perfect of course, and it’s easy to put on the rose-colored glasses when looking back, but the toxicity of the internet and especially social media has been hugely destructive to healthy human interaction. Not to mention sane government.
Rex gets his comeuppance today on all the people who tell him he should use the official app when his software doesn’t show tricky themes properly. Today all of us using the app got screwed. I felt bad for Ricky as 9/10 of solvers did not see his clever theme.
Like others, I solved it just fine despite never seeing the theme clues. I thought there would be a revealer that would make the connection between those disparate answers clear, and when there wasn’t, I tried to find one (Kind of like doing the NYT’s new Connections puzzle, at which I often also fail.) Or I thought that upon solving correctly, the black rectangles would turn into answers. Heads will roll at the NYT today.
I did have a Natick with POLLaCK / SLaFIE because I thought that was how the painter’s name is spelled and SLOFIE means nothing to me.
A rare kealoaulu today: I had the D of IDK and the answer for “dismal” could have been DIRE, Dour or Dank. (Ulu is the third Mauna listed in Wikipedia after the more obvious Kea and Loa.)
Loved loved loved “made a semi circle, say” for STEERED.
I’m really enjoying the sort of “mini-theme” that is playing out this week where the NYT takes some of their standard characteristics that people like me consider low-brow, sloppy or just plain lazy and prop them up proudly and showcase them front and center. Yesterday they went all in and used gibberish and nonsense as a theme, which was an excellent idea.
And believe it or not, today they did themselves one better and dished up an exacta of laziness (couldn’t be bothered to hire some competent IT people to develop an app that works), and they LITERALLY gave us BLACK MATTER entries. Believe it or not, it is really humorous that they are embracing everything that they do that I hate and just going all out “in your face” with it.
Seriously, I can’t wait for tomorrow because these puzzles are getting better every day. Tomorrow I hope they ban English words altogether and just have a puzzle where ALL of the clues and answers are in foreign languages (maybe they’ll even deliver another exacta and have a theme on a Friday as well - my vote is Duolingo).
Sometimes you come to Rex's page to see his analysis. Sometimes you come to Rex's page to check if your guess is correct, when you're just not sure.
Today I came to Rex's page to read the comments, and feel vindicated that everyone else got the boxes instead of the musical notation. FWIW,the official Wordplay blog is full of the same complaints. This isn't the first time it's happened. Fix your stuff, NYT!
Anyway, thanks as always, Rex, for your work here. And thanks to everyone for making me feel better for solving a puzzle I did not understand.
All I’ll say about the black box glitch is that if Ricky has another puzzle in the queue, hasten it to the front of the line, NYT. Next week, perhaps?
I'd be curious to know how everyone here was able to access the puzzle. All I get is a message "We're having trouble with our server."
Just to be different… I solve on the NYT app in Dark Mode, so all I saw was a bunch of big white bars. Waited for a revealer explaining things to me, but nada.
I'm so upset, because as a musician I would have *loved* those clues, but no, just big black boxes on my iPad. What an epic fail on NYT's part.
Super confused, I finished the puzzle fairly easily (7:01) but have no clue what the black boxes mean. Doesn’t make any sense
Super confused, I finished the puzzle fairly easily (7:01) but have no clue what the black boxes mean. Doesn’t make any sense
Same here.
Epic write-up, Rex.
Yup. I'd call this medium considering it was a themeless Thursday with a handful of unclued entries.
Whatever. I finished it regardless.
Like Rex I was annoyed by SLOFIE, but unlike him I was happy to see MEGAMAN. Interesting that just because he wasn't into gaming, Rex uses it to rail against technology, but happily gushes over movies and television shows. Particularly since MEGAMAN has nothing to do with telephones...
I honestly don't remember anything else from the puzzle, other than my constant amazement that the NYT doesn't take the monumental step of asking an intern to load the puzzle in the app and see if it works.
Not thinking about hockey, I immediately thought the Toronto athlete might be BJay, but knew that couldn't possibly be right for a few reasons.
Aside from a +1 on the black boxes on the app, I just want to say that despite getting big black boxes for the theme clues, I set a personal Thursday best time on this. Astonishingly easy. Like an easy Tuesday, even though the theme clues were messed up.
Thanks for posting the clue photos, Rex, I couldn’t find them anywhere else. Solved it easily enough but as others have said it was baffling.
Yes! So disappointing!
I would have loved the punny music theme. As it was, I took those cussid black boxes at face value and spent way too long trying to imagine a theme. I guess those of us on the app DID have a theme: Wholly Random Answers You Must Get Enigrely From Crosses.
Same thing on my iPhone.
Oh, such a clever theme! Ricky must have gone out celebrating when this one hit him. And the huge theme misdirect – leading the solver to think that the last three letters of the last theme answer would be “IN_” – was brilliant, fantastic. I felt like standing and clapping when that answer filled in.
Good to see Ricky back. He had four NYT puzzles in 2020, one in 2021 (July), and this is his first since then. No sign of rust, though. This puzzle is very well put together.
Lovely answers in EROICA, ACOLYTE, BALLERINA, and SINEW. In an arts-based puzzle, I loved the supporting cast – STREEP, POLLOCK, GLADYS, and WOOLF. I learned EIDETIC and SLOFIE. I liked the backward MEET echoing MET. And that never-before-used-in-any-major-crossword-venue clue for STEERED – [Made a semi circle, say?] – masterly.
But mostly, I’m still wowing over the uber-clever theme, and I love that it didn’t leave non-word letter salads stranded throughout the grid.
Ricky, IMO this one sung from start to finish. Thank you so much for making it, and please, come back soon!
Ditto
As a musician, I would have loved this puzzle if I could have seen the clues. My heart goes out to Ricky.
@Peter: A Tristram Shandy theme would have been awesome!
Thx, Ricky; this one definitely didn't FALL FLAT. Nice job! 😊
Med.
Good start in the NW, and an idea of what was in store with the themers.
The NE was a bit tricky, knowing neither EIDETIC nor NEGRONIS, but STAGE ACTS & DOT ORG came to the rescue.
Always love to see STREEP; she's wonderful!
Seeing PGA made me think of 14 yr. old Charlie Woods, who won an important tournament recently, with dad Tiger on the bag. ⛳️
Excellent Thurs. musical interlude. Liked it a lot. 🎼
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Same on my phone.
Thanks for the images. Would have made it a much better, though easier puzzle if I could see them
The victory of the screens is bad, yes. We've lost old certainties, a good thing, and screens are just filling avoid. Hopefully just for now.
Unforgivable not to even have a note in the app expaining what was going on: I wasted ages trying to work out how to possibly link black boxes to those answers...
Wish I’d been able to see the puzzle the way God and Will Shortz intended. Great theme idea and execution, and thankfully the rest of the puzzle was also rock solid so that I really enjoyed it despite the steaming pile of black boxes. I went from “gee I feel dumb that I don’t get this” to “gee I’m really pissed that I missed out on one of the most original themes I’ve seen.” Great puzzle, Ricky, and I hope the NYT hears Lewis’ suggestion that any other puzzles you have in the queue get moved up - I look forward to seeing more from you.
Yes, I expected RP to comment on the irony of all of us app users crying the way he sometimes does about how the grid is displayed.
Exactly my same reaction, as a choral singer. I managed the puzzle fine with crosses but so disappointed to miss the clever hook.
Joining the chorus...just black boxes on my android phone app
Solved without a clue as to the theme. So I guess it was pretty easy. I do like Negronis, though I prefer the similar Boulevardier.
Same as so many. And this was no Thursday puzzle if it is so easily solved without actually seeing the themed clues.
Wow, sad to read here about the IOS/Android experience. I used to solve on my phone but now do it on my laptop with web browser (it's considerably faster because I make way fewer typos), which worked fine. Huge embarrassment, or should be, for the NYT puzzle team. Seriously, NOBODY TESTED THAT?? Anyway, loved the theme. Main struggle was in the NW because energy drinks are obviously bOoSTERS.
Same on my iPhone! Just black boxes. Guess I should be proud I finished anyway? But it made it joyless.
Also use the app also had censored black boxes. I guess the puzzle must’ve been easy because I solved it anyways, but I was really struggling to figure out what monsters I NC had in common with Palestine. Palestine was my first solve and At first I thought it was going to be taboo subjects behind those black boxes, but I guess not.
Great write-up, Rex.
While I miss the print version of the puzzle, I'm glad I kept in touch with the NYT & went with the all-games only subscription.
I'm sorry for all those that the NYT app f___ed up on.
Now let's see if. it's doable for me today. See you later.
I had the black box situation. I would have loved it if I actually saw the clues being a person who actually knows the keys and would have been elated to see clues with actual musical keys. but yeah, no cluing whatsoever! LOL. Ridiculous.
Yes, the black boxes. Annoying. I’d like to see what Rex saw…
I had the $&!@% (that’s a GRAWLIX, I learned from an xword sometime back, and a nice old timey—ie pre-internet—made-up cutesy character string) black box problem, too. And on top of that, yesterday for several hours our Comcast broadband was down completely: no email, no web browsing, no cable TV, no texting—scary isolating. And on top of that, a movie I went to see at my beloved local independent cinema was shut down by a digital projection glitch. All of which put me in exactly the right mood for @RP’s screed against today’s tech prison. Bravo, OFL! (Note to world: Doesn’t it seem like Taiwan’s best defense against Chinese aggression would be a massive preemptive cyberattack?)
I was able to get all the themers from crosses (though I had no idea what they had in common), and frankly I don’t think the clues, clever as they were, would have been too helpful given my woeful understanding of music. My biggest challenge was in the NE, where I could not let go of DOTCOM for Wikipedia, despite guessing right on MET and PGA.
Oh, well. Tomorrow is another Friday…
webwinger
Shame that all the theme clues were blacked out in the app. WTF NYT? Just had to wait to fill in enough down clues to figure out the obvious answers. What could have been a fun grid was just a chore.
Another victim of the Black Boxes, so when I solved the puzzle I looked at the note, hoping for a hint as to the significance of the Black Boxes. None, but there was the link to Word Play. So, I went to Word Play, and all it said as that there was a technical failure in the digital presentation of the puzzle. No mention anywhere that one should go to the web version to see it correctly, just that the digital version didn't work.
The NYT fucked it up, realized they fucked it up, then fucked up correcting it.
Solved this in under my usual Thursday time, then tried to figure out what the theme was by looking at the answers to the black box clues. Ugh. Finally gave up and came here. Been using the app on my iPad for 10+ years. Never had such a complete foul-up before. Too bad. The theme seemed kinda cool. If I were the constructor, I’d be pissed.
Anyone have an app problem?
I had to do this online as the printed version was cut off, as usual, and I know some folks have offered suggestions on how to fix that, but so far no luck for me.
As for the puzzle, it took me forever to catch on, which I finally did with BALLERINA, and it was the nicest Aha! I have had in quite some time. I do read music and the keys were known to me--diabolical to start with something in C , just looks like a blank staff.
MEGAMAN? Never a gamer, and as for SLOFIE, the next selfie I take will be my first. I do spend quite a lot of time on my laptop but never walk around looking at my cell phone, because I don't have one. One thing that drives me crazy is parents who take children to restaurants, sit down, and whip out their phones and give their kids ipads and such to play with. I can only imagine their home lives. I mean, really.
So this took far longer than it should have, but immensely rewarding. Heck of a job, RO. Really outdid yourself and thanks for all the fun.
Weird. With apologies for adding more tech clutter to the discussion here, I solved on my iPhone (using the main NYT app, game section) and could see the musical clues just fine. And actually, i quite liked Slofie—I nearly always enjoy new slang for the experience of watching language evolve right in front of your eyes, and I have a soft spot for portmanteaus.
Oh the irony - esp in the context of OFL’s tech rant. With which I agree. Solve it on paper, peeps! Put. The. Screen. Down.
I usually enjoy the comments, but today's comments are the worst of all time. A bunch of you were in an elevator and someone farted. You all smell it. I get it.
I solve on my IPhone via browser and clues showed up fine.
Hey All !
Perusing the first few posts, I see good ole technology mucking up the works again. Baffled how those with just black boxes could solve this completely. Bravo/a to you. I had the Musical Clef Graph thingie, and it still took me a minute to figure out the IN A, etc. stuff. Silly brain.
NYT Crossword App did it's job again. Although it went up $11 this year, still worth it.
Har on the last Themer, IN G FLAT. Good stuff. Some odd words here and there, but there's also open corners, so it's a compromise I can live with. NE corner toughest spot for me. Having DOTcom sure didn't help. Who knew Wikipedia was a DOTORG? Sneaky. Also couldn't get martinis out of my mind.
Different type puz. Think it'd have been better as a WedsPuz, though. My two cents.
@pablo
Another half-pint for a city in your state. (Trying to help you out! 😁)
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
on my iphone they were white boxes but maybe due to using dark mode :shrug:
yet another example of why i’ve taken to trying to solve without looking at theme clues.
Sorry for everyone who had the technical problems. This played like an average Thursday for me, although I felt like I was slogging. Took a while to suss out the theme, which proved useful in getting somewhere with the eastern part of the grid. The SLOFIE/POLLOCK cross was my last entry as well, and I share the "blech" reaction to that. Only recently watched a video on making potatas bravas, so it was a fun spark of recognition to put in TAPASBAR with no crosses. Haven't played hacky-sack in decades, but I used my feet as much as my KNEEs Back In The Day. All in all, a very nice solve. Thought I would get stuck/need to resort to Google, but nope, everything came together after some mental exertion. Thanks, Ricky!
Welp, the redacted clues sure added to the Degree of Difficulty!
Little Boxes Clued in Tacky Black and They All Look Just the Same
Same here on iPhone. It looked like the clues were redacted, and I was trying to figure out how censorship related to the answers!
I do find it a bit ironic to see someone complain about all this newfangled technology…on an internet blog. :)
Thanks for posting the images of those clues. I do the NYT Xword on my iPad and don’t even have an account for the main NYT site (not that it would help; if I try to load it on my iPad the NYT Xword site just redirects me to the app). So this is the only place I’ve been able to find the actual clues so far.
As for the clues themselves? I like them. They remind me that as a simple tuba player I need to look up the keys of anything other than B flat, E flat, and maybe D flat, but I do like the clueing. Too bad I couldn’t have experienced it during my solve.
The staffs with key signatures showed up in my paper, although they were almost too tiny for me to interpret them. This went very slow until I got the theme -- first the NASCAR driver (I wanted bIllIE/bee, but fortunately held off), then the video game hero, clued by the villain. But I took a guess at EROICA (I had never thought about whether Beethoven's first two symphonies were romantic or not; I think I would have said yes for the second, at least), which gave me ICING, and then GLADYS-- I was so happy to see her I didn't much care how she was clued.
The clue for STEERED struck me as a little over the top; OTOH, the misdirect of "Buddy ____" was brilliant. Fortunately, "Holly" wouldn't fit.
Here's a thought, the graphic clues were great if you can read music, but if you can't, it didn't matter.
I had no idea what the theme was and I could see the graphics. I did know that to start up there in the NW, I had to be a Nascar fan, have attended the symphony more than I did, be able to read music, and have played with a wii.
And yet, I managed to crawl to the finish. It wasn't pretty but it was fun. Toehold was across the south and then working up.
Question, why is a Tea Cup sitting on a Doily? Oh wait, there's a Violet down there too. Sweet corner for a granny to make up for the NW.
It was nice to come here and see what was SUPPOSED to go on with the clues. So I’m with everyone else!
Mega Man has been around for over THIRTY YEARS. You sound insane.
Aha! (Or is that Oho?) @Rex, thank you!
I was solving using the NYT app on an airplane above the Atlantic. When the clues showed up as black bars, I figured the plane’s wifi was to blame. I often solve trying to ignore themer clues, so I figured this Thursday simply forced that approach. Only when I got here did I realize that there was supposed to be something behind the bars.
It wouldn’t have mattered anyway; I don’t know anything about musical notation and I would’ve ended up solving the same way if I’d been able to see the staffs.
Side notes:
When I accessed the puzzle at my times.com, the musical notation appeared.
United Airlines, I take back everything I said about your wifi. Well, everything except about the price.
Came here to say the same. I eventually figured out the music theme but could not for the life of me understand how the black boxes figured into it.
Same same same. Finished anyway based on crosses but the app failed me.
I always always solve on paper. I hit the "Newspaper Version" icon and print it out. I don't like solving on screen--partly because of the kinds of tech glitches so many had today.
So, that aside, I expected a whole lotta comments about knowing a lot or nothing about key signatures. I know a little bit about music, I can actually carry a tune that doesn't make the dog howl. But I know nothing about reading key signatures. It was probably covered at some point in all the choir classes I was in in high school (more that 50 years ago), but key signatures are gone from the brain box.
And, embarrassingly, I didn't notice the "in" in all the answers, so missed the "in A" and "in C" parts.
I was able to solve all of them because the crosses were fine. But I had to come here to see what, for instance, PALESTINE and BALLERINA have to do with sheet music. The "FLAT" ending in 61A obviously tied in, but it was a mystery to me.
They're ALL key signatures, including G Flat, which Rex referred to as 'a note'. Six flats indicates the key of G Flat. And I also loved it as the last theme offering, nice way to end it.
Exactly! Can’t believe their own app failed like this
Same here, iPhone app. Finished thinking it was some sort of [REDACTED] theme. I can't believe they don't even test the puzzles in their own freaking app!!!
Same here. WTF, NYT? If you’re going to make us use your app then you’d damned sure better make sure the app works!
Fail.
So, for those of you who regularly deride and laugh at those of us who actually subscribe to and read the newsprint version of the puzzle and do it in pen and ink, a great big hah hah and nose-thumbing to you all. A great musical puzzle that was solved in minutes. No unknown songs from the 80s, no actors from obscure movies or long-dead television programmes. no garbage. Just plenty of cleverness and a great deal of sophistication.
If my many childhood years of piano lessons -- popular, not classical music, with all the chords written out for me over the score (like CEG, for instance) -- had been about actually learning something rather than about having fun playing the piano, I might have seen the very clever theme sooner. But I didn't even know I was looking for a musical key, much less what that key was.
And yet before getting to PALESTINE where I suddenly became aware of the theme, I came very close to rage-quitting this puzzle.
Oh, dear, Ricky. The video game over the energy drink crossed by Princess what's her name, followed by the vampire and the smartphone video portmanteau and the texter initials and "Hacky Sack", whatever that is -- well, do you see where I'm going, Ricky? You had a crack at having one of the best puzzles of the year and you futzed it up with a lot of junky fill that certain demographics that do this puzzle (like me) will neither know nor care about.
I haven't checked out your own demographic, Ricky, but I suspect that it's rather young. You have some talent for puzzle-making, and I hope that like other once-young constructors before you, you'll eventually grow out of your passion for pop culture clues.
We enjoyed this one. Solved it on our iPads with the NYT app. All the key signatures showed up correctly!
Like Rex, I finished with the O in SLOFIE after misspelling POLL-CK with an A. And probably because I'm a boomer who's never taken a selfie, I still can't figure out the portmanteau behind SLOFIE. Can someone explain?
I am literally laughing aloud at the thought of going over to the blog to read everyone's thoughts on this uhhhh mess (?), er, 14¢ of pure genius.
At this moment I have no idea why four seemingly random clues were blocked out. Maybe I will learn why I should care after reading 🦖. {Crap, I am now learning it's a musical theme that doesn't show up on the digital version. 😫}
Unfortunately though, that's not the dumbest thing in the puzzle.
JET doesn't need a question mark clue.
Video games. Yawn. Take a SLOFIE {ack} of yourself playing one and Twitch it to me.
I suppose MONSTER SINC is a typo describing where ghouls wash up after a long night of scaring, or a typo describing a USB hookup for ghoul synchronization.
The PGA Tour: Privileged Gross Asses? Same dudes as in NASCAR, I think.
I've never heard of pasta alla Norma, but then I learned through research it has eggplant in it and now I know there's a good reason why I never need to know about it. I only know NEGRONIS from crosswords, but wow is it fun to mispronounce, quietly, in your head.
I usually can overlook so much tired fill if the theme is complex, but this isnt.
STEERED for [Made a semi circle.] is a new level of SOO LAME. Congrats to the brain that came up with it.
Good stuff:
DOT ORG got me good. Last thing to fill in.
I know EIDETIC thanks to Sheldon on Big Bang Theory.
ACOLYTE is a great word. I added it to my favorite word list under BLOOP. I like the word SINEW too, but not enough for it to make the list. And who doesn't love a SLEDGE hammer or a DANDELION?
Love the Eroica, and recently learned scallions is a fancy name for the green onions I've been picking out of food my whole life.
Tee-Hee: BONE IN. In your dreams.
Uniclues:
1 Websites for lily livered nits.
2 Degas product.
3 Northeast affixer
4 Hazard for one proposing in a park.
5 Horrible hue or rude rhododendron.
6 C'mon, don't be ridiculous, it's shots of tequila.
7 Why every Broadway show seems the same.
1 MINI MEH DOT ORG
2 EASEL BALLERINA
3 NASHUA NAILER
4 DANDELION KNEE
5 IMPOLITE VIOLET
6 EL PASO NEGRONIS (~)
7 STAGE ACT SYSTEM
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: British cheerleading try-out judge explains the level of enthusiasm they're looking for. "IN L.A. PEP," I SAY.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mega Man 2 is probably my favorite game of all time. O/A in Pollock got me too though
Having the same problem on my ipad when i go to my Twitter app.
What once was a pretty bird is now just a black square that is literally X’ed out. Even the word Twitter now just says X.
Can’t figure it out…
(B4 anyone tries to help me, I’m like Ms. Rowling - that is, JK)
Mega Man was arguably the third-biggest game series to come out of the mid-late ‘80s Nintendo Era (behind Super Mario and Zelda). Really surprised that this one was new to a Gen-Xer. Here’s hoping ____ the Hedgehog doesn’t foul up our fearless leader in the near future.
Did this on paper, finished perfectly, and had no idea of the theme until reading it here
Sloth vomit = my laugh of the day. This is why I read Rex. And because it makes me feel less bad about not being able to remember the second vowel in Jackson P's name.
What a creative idea for a theme! But I feel bad for the constructor - first and mostly, because of the app failure, and second, because after IN C, the IN A and IN E followed so easily - making FALL IN G FLAT all the sweeter.
I usually solve on the app, but I've learned that on Thursdays, before starting to solve, I need to check the newspaper version (either the real one we get delivered or the one on the Times website) to ward off disappointment when a Thursday trick isn't rendered accurately on the app.
@Lewis 7:46 - Thank you for pointing out the extensive arts-related supporting cast!
how things have changed. the Thursday puzzle has become a "hey look at the constructor, so clever." I'm all for "TC;DC". too clever, didn't care.
not many comments about the puzzle, only the app and the black box. the NYT is just like every other customer service fail. promise too much and deliver too little.
Exactly the same for me…the O in SLOFIE was the very last letter I got. Rather annoying, as a professional musician, that the app only showed black boxes for the four themed clues…so I solved not knowing what the gimmick was…and well, maybe because I’m either too literal or too generationally in the cracks (I’m the last year of X or the first year of the X-ennials), I still don’t get what FALL IN G FLAT is supposed to mean. Oh well, solved it pretty quickly considering.
Glad I still get the paper-paper. Being a musician I certainly enjoyed this one.
Same with the black boxes. Would have been super nice to have a clue what I was solving and not relying on downs/inferences.
And WTAF is a 'Slowfie'?
Yep, Ricky’s puzzle was great! NYTXW app again sucked. Not having a music theory background helped level the playground. Nice restraint on the ? Crutch usage.
Found myself stymied by the app at 3/4 done - had gotten a couple of the themers but couldn’t figure out the theme. Had about given and up and went to the info page so I could read the wordplay column for a hint on the theme, and saw that it wasn’t rendering properly. Solved it easily in the browser. If they couldn’t render it, they should have added a pop up or some other note before you got to the puzzle in the app.
Har. Well, I worked the printed version of the puz, but considerin what little I know about music(al) notation, the clues might as wella been all black redaction boxes.
In all my schoolin days, I only ever attended one music class. Unfortunately, I got splatzed into it in mid-semester [transfer student meat], so everyone there was just speakin in code.
"staff" weeject pick: IDK. As in IDK music notation. And weeject stacks alert, NE & SW.
It was a very cool idea for a theme, but it sure weren't in my wheelhouse.
Also, lotsa no-know stuff, such as: MEGAMAN. EIDETIC. DAN. ALLA. SLOFIE. TOM. JIMMIE. EDWARD. Hacky Sacks. BONEIN, sorta -- but made for a primo Ow de Speration fill entry.
Plus, some of the clues seemed extra feisty, but that just makes for extra ahar moments, sooo … OK, on that note.
fave thing: Any clue, such as 24-A, which mentions the cinnamon rolls. honrable mention to: TAPASBAR. yum.
Thanx for the key info, Mr. Cruz dude. Especially enjoyed the FALLIN GFLAT -- whereby we got a bonus LEAF word in its clue, too boot. Come back again, anyoldtime, especially when yer clues are printable. har
Masked & Anonymo1U
**gruntz**
and on another note:
**gruntz**
I wonder if Don DeLillo has met DANDELION.
What did Walt Whitman call putting frosting all over his hot lover? …. ICING the Body Electric.
Funny that so many brag about solving “downs only”, but when presented with a puzzle that — in the App anyway— requires four acrosses to be solved downs only, act like they’ve been shat upon by the universe. I actually thought it was possible that our constructor was a reader of this blog and thought that a forced bit of downs only solving would be amusing. This seemed like a weak idea at best, but I solved easily enough and shrugged it off. I’m pleased to now see that it was a very clever theme and I rue (hi @Roo) not having had the opportunity to discover it while solving.
Sympathies to Ricky Cruz for what the NYT did to your great idea.
Medium. Yesterday my knowledge of linguistics was helpful and I enjoyed the puzzle. Today a knowledge of music notation would have been helpful, but alas, that knowledge is some distance from my wheelhouse. Predictably I found this more frustrating than fun.
Yes, the app didn’t work so I solved on the NYT web site which did work.
STREEP is excellent in the latest season of Only Murders in the Building!
@Rex thanks for explaining SLOFIE which I’m still not sure I fully get.
I happily solve on paper so no tech issues here. I had lovely musical scales but unfortunately the only themer that made sense to me was FALLING FLAT. I was never a student of music and IDK, it’s just not my thing. I don’t even listen to it on the radio. The Sirius people have been all but begging me to buy a package for my new vehicle and, as I told the last guy who called, I don’t even want the free trial. But that’s not the fault of this brilliant puzzle which I found very easy otherwise and entirely enjoyable.
One point of contention with Rex today. I agree social media has “ruined” all of us to a certain extent. However I don’t feel that television had a detrimental effect on the boomer generation. It didn’t ruin us so much as it shaped us, often profoundly. That early version of television was not a negative influence at all, much to the contrary. Most shows emphasized high ideals and moral values and all of them had strict standards of propriety. In many ways, I think we are all the better for having been exposed to that on a regular basis.
Another musician here. I'm so disappointed I didn't get to enjoy the theme! It's such a pleasure when I get to call on my otherwise useless bank of knowledge. It's a nice contrast to the many, many (*many*) sports-themed clues I struggle with.
I'm in Portugal too! No problems here on my phone but I'm solving much later, maybe they fixed the problem? I'm in the beautiful city of Tomar...house hunting...
Hopefully some of the increase to $50 for the app will be spent on technology to keep us who use it exclusively from having to guess what would be in that black box on a Thursday puzzle.
I have no excuse for being stuck on the theme. This was very creative & I could kick myself.
Thank you, Ricky for an enjoyable Thursday. And for hearing "Midnight Train to Georgia" over & over in my head now!
Hand ✋️ up here too.
Hilarious (but horribly unfair): while I was solving on my desktop computer, I mused that the many solvers who can't read music (who, if they did puzzles, would have included John, Paul, George, and Ringo) are going to have no clue in the themers. When I found out that the app omitted the graphics completely, I realized that many more millions had no clue!!
I pay an annual fee for NYT app and got black boxes on light screen so changed to dark and got white boxes. This is what we pay for?
I just figured it was some Thursday weirdness with the white boxes. Still solved it and quicker than a usual Thursday for me.
I accessed it via the Times website on my android and the clues displayed just fine. But wow, what a debacle for such a large number of solvers.
Well, even if you were able to see the clues, you have to be familiar with musical key signature notation for the theme to make sense, which is rather a niche area. For those who got it, I'd assume this was very enjoyable. I think the constructor used the only four key-sigs you could do this with. The fill was also above-average, and junk-free except for the godawful SLOFIE. Didn't Meryl win one of her Oscars for that— "Slofie's Choice"?
Salad green in B-flat
I love that Rex can get to the middle of a rant about newfangled references like MEGAMAN, then acknowledge that it doesn’t fit his complaint, but decide to leave it in, anyway. Never change.
The black boxes didn’t give me too much grief but they did add some doubt that slowed me down from noticing my mistake of entering RaVES, rather than ROVES.
Black bars on Android, even with latest update to app!. Works on laptop
Agreed. This is just unacceptable.
Well, color me old and not caring a whit. I couldn’t avail myself of a format with the themes visible so I went for the brute force method which turned out ti be doable. Thankfully. I have to admit that I react much as OFL to the plethora of tech-related “stuff” we see that passes for “new.” No thanks. Too many screens Seeming to demand too much of our attention.
Clever puzzle theme though. Very clever, and I spent quite a bit of time trying to imagine what those black blobs contained - to no avail. Darn it. Came here and was delighted though.
Very good Thursday offering. Epic tech fail on the part of the publisher though. The NYT needs to work through these issues to insure that folks paying for their subscription get what they pay for. I mean c’mon, if I have to learn how to navigate this stuff, you’re way older than I, Times. Get with it.
I think the black boxes were from all those crashed airplanes they couldn't find.
On Across Lite, the theme clues were hilarious; here is 17 across:
Key signature with zero sharps or flats --> "Some energy drinks" <img alt="Key signature with zero sharps or flats, followed by the clue " src="https://www.nytimes.com/games-assets/image-clues/xwordmusic4.svg"/>
Whenever this happens, I just look at the web page to see what's supposed to be going on. No big deal. But the theme was tough to understand cuz I don't read music; only after finishing did I "get it".
Nice to see hackeysack after all these years. Oh the hours we wasted doing that back in the 80s!
[Spelling Bee: Wed 0; no weird words!]
@RIch Glauber 9:55 – @Rex was alluding to how they usually appear as answers in the puzzle. INA, INC, INE are often clued in terms of key signatures of pieces. GFLAT is more likely to appear as a note (clued as "F-sharp equivalent", say).
Same as RooMonster and anonymous, I was utterly convinced it was wikipedia DOTCOM. Gave in and checked the puzzle after banging my head against the NE corner for a long time because of this.
That said, the theme was awesome and I am sad the app users had that glitch. Typically these things go the other way around (app works fine but website is buggy).
And for this solver who doesn’t read music, I couldn’t be sharp and felt like a minor failure.
best part of the puzzle by far was the booker t & the mg’s clue “green onions” with the stan freberg yulenet answer “most folks call them little green onions, but they’re really SCALLIONS. do you ever notice that, joe?”
:) dandelion knee
I am a musician and solved all the themers by reading the key signatures (finally put some niche knowledge to work in the "real" world!). I'm wondering how many of us did the same. Loved this!
i have seen eidetic before but, you know... must have forgot it
See my advice above. Get the NYT Replica Edition, print the puzzle, pick up your BIC and enjoy!
Great comment!
What a quick Thursday! It's taking me way longer to write comments here than it did to solve the puzzle, even though I have no clue about NASCAR drivers, Wii anything, video games, vampires named EDWARD, SLOFIEs, Hacky Sack, or Parks and Rec. And I don't have an EIDETIC MEMORY of key signatures from my music classes, except for C.
Ok, I'll try again :-)
Every week or so, I come here and see complaints that the app doesn't work right.
Today's Rex rant has a lot of SINEW. Trust me. I'm a retired techie. I do the NYT puzzle on paper, like a crossword.
Put down your little device and pick up your BIC.
Do you know where to print a copy?
@Roo-Thanks a lot for the half pint. I will try earn a full pint, which is what I prefer when I'm drinking an IPA/
We don't all have printers, John!
+1 for black bar. But still easy-medium time.
Solved via the NYTXW online site on my desktop PC and the clues were displayed like OFL shows them. I don't read music but got the theme idea up top and knew the themers would end in some variation of "IN _". The G FLAT finale was a bit of a curveball but crosses straightened it out.
I was excited to see a bit of a segue from yesterday's CHOMSKY theme when another psych related term showed up at 34A "___ memory (ability to recall images with high precision)" clue for EIDETIC. Got that with no crosses.
But the one that really jumped out at me was the clue for 44D "Big name in stream-of-consciousness writing". I wanted to put in JAMES as in American psychologist William JAMES. Didn't fit of course but he was the one who coined the term in his 1890 Principles of Psychology. Here's how he put it:
"Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as "chain" or "train" do not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A "river" or a "stream" are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life." [James's emphasis]
I totally agree with OFL's critique of how screens dominate so many people's lives and is why yesterday I put in LIFE SUCK (rather than the correct TIME SUCK) for 41D "Doomscrolling, e.g.".
@Joe Dipinto (12:59) -- Thanks for sharing the Stones' "Dandelion." It was first released way back in 1967. Ouch.
Wikipedia says Lennon and McCartney are singing the backing vocals, and that the Stones have never performed the song live.
Your local library has computers and printers, although a daily trip could be difficult for some. Also, believe it or not, there is a print edition available at supermarkets, drug stores and other brick and mortar establishments.
Just black boxes on mobile.
Then when I looked it up… I don’t have the requisite musical knowledge to make sense of the clues even if I could see them.
For what it’s worth (which isn’t much), my iOS app at least flashed a note that said the “picture clues are currently not rendering on iOS and Android…” and that I should solve on the web for the “full solving experience”
@Liveprof – despite what Wikipedia says, there doesn't seem to be absolute certainty that John and Paul sang on "Dandelion". 0ne account has Mick and Keith saying they didn't. They did sing on the flip side, "We Love You", which was the A-side in Britain. "Dandelion" had been recorded much earlier but was apparently finished up at the "We Love You" recording session, whatever that entailed.
The background vocal is Beatle-esque in style, but I'm not sure it really sounds like *them* singing it. So who knows?
I just went to the NYT site and printed out the puzzle.
Not exactly rocket science.
Sir, this is the internet
I don’t get it. My wife and I use the app on our iPads. I got the black boxes on mine, but she got the visual clues on hers. We cannot figure it out. Does this mean that she was the only person in the world with a haunted iPad?
As a music person it would’ve been nice to solve those clues that no one had the images for. But, crosses were fair and didn’t really need them. Even as a young person (<30) I didn’t know slofie and just had slafie in all the way til the end.
Still not possible for all of us! Some can enjoy it on paper, others can enjoy it online. No need to shame anyone any way they enjoy.
LOL "Sound of a sloth voting. Loved it. Disliked the word - and don't see why it exists.
Actually, today's puzzle was impossible for me. So many words I've never heard of. Even after I cheated to see what they were they meant nothing. And since I did not get the theme gimmick until I came here...
I may have known key signatures at some time in my life. Like when I played flute in the school band over 70 years ago. Or maybe when I took a music appreciation course a few years later. But no more. Even if someone had clued me in on what the clues were doing, I would not have gotten them except by crosses .
I go to every classical concert I'm near, but I just listen without knowing or caring what the key is- and anyway I would not normally see it printed in the program except as part of the name of the work, not as a musical notation.
The puzzle looked cute with those four musical staff clues. And I agree the concept is clever. Just way beyond me.
I was laughing so much at Rex's sloth vomit that I came straight to the comments.
Nw I've read previous comments I am confused.
What is this NYT Ap that did not show the music clues?
I see the puzzles on lineon a game subscription from the NYTimes. It showed them just as they should be.
Now I'm starting to wonder if this is 'guest editor' week at the NYTXW, and the guest editor hates EVERYONE. Four days, four awful puzzles. (PS no display problems for me).
For all those harping on the app users (with whom I am also sadly adjoined), keep in mind not everyone has access to newspapers or printers… Getting a paper in the Bay Area is as next to likely as landing a job with a living wage or finding an edible sandwich.
And to my friend with the box of Bics and apparently daily tirade, take a deep breath and go buy yourself a proper pen.
I honestly thought the black boxes were the clues themselves. I was trying to find some common theme amongst the answers: black, rectangles, black box. Nope nothing worked. Now that I’ve learned the true intention of the clues I feel more disappointed; I really would have enjoyed the theme.
I spent too much time trying to suss out theme on blank rectangle clues. I thought there would be a revealer somewhere. Was able to solve with enough crosses. Finally checked here to find out I wasn’t an idiot.
I solved it, but I still don’t get it. And “slofie” really is stupid. But, maybe I’m old. PS - I spelled Pollock wrong, too…had to google that one!
How is this a brilliant or ingenious theme when there could be millions of people, like me, who don't know how to read key signatures? I was able to fill it in anyway by getting the main part of each clue. But this was a bummer.
good grief. NYT, if you can’t figure out how to display the special clues for this puzzle, maybe don’t run it until you figure it out. ruined the solving experience.
Same. Came here to see how the black boxes should be interpreted.
My app presented the theme clues as a literal black box, so that made the solve a bit tough. "How are Monsters Inc and Ballerina a black box??", I wondered...
Yup, the theme clues were literal black boxes for me, so that made the solve quite hard!
Hmm
Why would Rex not mention the NYT couldn’t wouldn’t put the clues in their own app correctly
Why wouldn’t the editors check that. Pathetic disregard for their paying customers.
All they had to do was put a bracketed explanation (5 flats) (3 sharps) etc. Weak substitute… but a black box?? Shortz you suck.
Same on my Android phone. Also finished with the crosses, but I was still baffled until I read this comment.
Started in SW with gimme POLLOCKS, and soon worked out PALEST + 3 spaces. Saw right away they should be -INE, and the game was afoot. Of course, I couldn't actually read the keys because the print was too small--but it wouldn't have helped. Not a music reader. Turned out, I didn't need them.
One of the easier Thursdays in recent memory. A little bothered by the clue for STEERED: Made a semi circle, say. That's a bit off the wall.
Nice 8-stacks NE & SW. Birdie.
Wordle bogey.
I can play/read music, but the "notes" didn't help. Even after getting the answers, I wasn't sure what they were trying to do. Falling flat was the only one close to meaningful regarding the note clue.
Got all the puzzle but the tiniest part of the NE.
Not a rebus - a good thing.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
I solve in the St. Paul Pioneer Press and no music signatures were printed, just a long blank space. So no help there.After DOTcom became DOTORG that area filled in. Small 'word' ladder IFS INS RNS RNA.
Wordle par.
Thankfully, I do the puzzle on paper with pen as Gof intended. I can't read music, and still found this puzzle to be one of the easiest Thursdays in recent memory. Figuring out the theme was the hardest part for me . Just before coming here, I finally grokked it.
Inc, Ina, Ine, Ing were: in c, in a, in e, in g.
Music keys!
Clever!
I think I'll make a slofie now.
MONSTERS SINEW
GLADYS was the BALLERINA, IN fact,
FALLINGFLAT whe she MET DAN.
She STEERED it IN, a EIDETIC ACT,
BONEIN fro her MEGAMAN.
--- JIMMIE DAN POLLOCK
I printed a copy of the puzzle on my desktop. The themed clues all started with.[aria-label], then the clue, and then: having a particular number of sharps or flats. For example, clue 17 read: .[aria-label], some energy drinks, having zero sharps or flats. I was able to solve the puzzle and figure out the answers were in the key of either c, a, e or g. What I couldn’t work out was the significance of [aria-label]. The explanation on Google was little too high tech for me.
Solving this one as a syndicated puzzle (https://nytsyn.pzzl.com/cwd/#/s/231102).
The theme clues show up as "[aria-label] Leaf-raking time, having six flats". The HTML attribute "aria-label" is supposed to be used by screen readers for the blind, but I guess it's a decent way to make the puzzle available for an app that can't do graphical clues. Of course you're not supposed to display the attribute name, just its value, which in this case is "having six flats". It's just a coincidence that the graphical clues and the attribute name are both musical in this puzzle.
I counted 11 three-letter words. Isn’t that too many?
I solve in the newspaper every day. But the number of times my local paper has messed things up (from clues that don't match the grid to one totally blank "answer to yesterday's puzzle") has me wondering if the East Bay Times is a real newspaper. After completing this grid I scoured the clues multiple times looking for a revealer that didn't exist. I mean, it was clear to me that these were clue answers followed by musical keys, I just didn't know WHY.
Thanks for including the key signatures, Rex. Now it makes sense.
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