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Literally "Three teeth" / SUN 9-24-23 / Reaction to the 1950s culture of commercial consumerism / Insurance company with a purple heart logo / First plant on earth it's thought / Marine character whose name has four consecutive vowels / Product once marketed with dancing silhouettes / Dutch explorer Tasman for whom an island is named / SNL characters who coined the term parental units
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Constructor: Joel Fagliano & Christina Iverson
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- LITTLE SEIZERS (23A: We've rebranded! Now we sell tiny tongs!) (Little Caesars)
- WALL GREENS (We've rebranded! Now we sell ivy!)
- BUD WISER (35A: We've rebranded! Now we run an advice column on friendship!) (Budweiser)
- HOLE FOODS (49A: We've rebranded! Now we sell doughnuts and bagels!) (Whole Foods)
- BEST BYE (52A: We've rebranded! Now we help write breakup letters!) [probably shouldn't use "write" here since another of your themers is WRITE-AID (see below)] (Best Buy)
- AMERICAN HEIR LINES (68A: We've rebranded! Now we do genealogy for the U.S.'s rich and famous!) (American Airlines)
- PROCTOR / AND GAMBLE (84A: We've rebranded! Now, with 86-Across, we operate a test-taking facility/casino!) (Procter & Gamble)
- TALK O' BELLE (98A: We've rebranded! Now we produce a "Beauty and the Beast"-themed podcast!) (Taco Bell)
- WRITE-AID (101A: We've rebranded! Now we sell only pens and pencils!) (Rite-Aid)
- EMBASSY SWEETS (115A: We've rebranded! Now we sell candy to diplomats!) (Embassy Suites)
Morris Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, Berg was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball".A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, Berg spoke several languages and regularly read ten newspapers a day. His reputation as an intellectual was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information Please, in which he answered questions about the etymology of words and names from Greek and Latin, historical events in Europe and the Far East, and ongoing international conferences.
As a spy working for the government of the United States, Berg traveled to Yugoslavia to gather intelligence on resistance groups which the U.S. government was considering supporting. He was sent on a mission to Italy, where he interviewed various physicists concerning the German nuclear weapons program. After the war, Berg was occasionally employed by the OSS's successor, the Central Intelligence Agency. (wikipedia)
• • •
Then there's PROCTOR AND GAMBLE, which, right now ... honestly I don't know which part is misspelled (or "rebranded"). Is it PROCTER normally? Yep, that's it. Really hard to get excited about wordplay that tepid. I'm not even sure that counts as play. The most inspired answer may be TALK O' BELLE, but that one made me mad because it was the Only one to play the "rebranding" game in both parts of the company name. All the others just change one element (SEIZERS, WISER, WALL, HOLE, etc.) but both "Taco" and "Bell" get new looks in TALK O' BELLE. I don't know if I'm mad because it's odd man out or mad because the other answers are nowhere near as good. Probably the latter. Anyway, not really my thing, but as I say, It's been a long and very puzzly day.
Felt like I was getting assaulted by "?" much of the time, though I think that there are only eight such clues in total, so maybe I just had the misfortune of running into a bunch in quick succession. None of them was particularly bad, I just had that "oh cut it out already" feeling after I'd seen like what felt like one too many. I think they're all clear enough. Christmas (or Yule) ORNAMENTs might be "ball"-shaped. A person UNZIPS (or "drops"?) their "fly" (well, some people, sometimes, with some pants). You "roll" dice to win "dough" at a CRAPS TABLE. Bakers use whisks, so a BAKERY is a [Whisk-y business?] (pun on "risky business"). Etc. The only answers that gave me any trouble all seemed to be concentrated in NW. The POP ART clue was tough for me (1A: Reaction to the 1950s culture of commercial consumerism). If I'd know the "reaction" was aesthetic, that might've helped. I was looking for ... I dunno, some kind of movement, like, oh, the Luddite movement or something like that (but more modern). Maybe some kind of religious revival or consciousness-raising group or something. But no. It's Lichtenstein and Warhol. Tough. But not as tough as the clue on TEEN, my god (6D: Louis Braille, when he invented Braille). I guess the "when" part was supposed to clue me into a "stage of life" answer. but all I could think was nationality or ethnicity. "Uh, SERB? LETT? CELT?" I'd've been guessing all day without crosses. TEEN. That has to be the most esoteric way of getting at something as banal as TEEN that I've ever seen. Nothing else in the puzzle was nearly as hard as those two (crossing!) answers. Nothing non-thematic, anyway.
I had BULKY before BURLY (52D: Powerfully built) and PSG (Paris Saint-Germain!) before POR (Portugal) (59D: Cristiano Ronaldo's team: Abbr.). The latter mistake is what happens when you simultaneously know both too much and too little about soccer. Messi played for PSG, but Ronaldo never did, as far as I can tell. Oh well. Got confused by the clue on OTTAWA, / ONTARIO, mostly because I didn't understand "selected" (15D: With 22-Across, world capital selected by Queen Victoria). "Selected ... for what?" I wondered. But I guess she just .... chose that city to be the capital of the country? For some reason? Why? Did she just close her eyes and plunk her finger down on a map? I think that's what she did. I like the image, so that's the reality I'm going with. Over at Bluesky, the newish Twitter (now, stupidly, "X") alternative, posts are most commonly referred to as SKEETs, so look for that definition of SKEET to appear in crosswords ... some time. Probably. Maybe. For now, [Sport with clay disks] will have to do.
It's almost time for the Boswords Themeless League to start up again. Registration is open for the Fall League. It's a fun way to "compete" from the comfort of your home. If you love crosswords and want to add a new, entertaining dimension to your weekly solving repertoire, consider signing up. Here's the blurb from League co-ordinator John Lieb:
Registration for the Boswords 2023 Fall Themeless League is open! This 10-week event starts with a Preseason puzzle on Wednesday, September 27 and features weekly themeless puzzles -- clued at three levels of difficulty -- from an all-star roster of constructors and are edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to solve a practice puzzle, to view the constructor line-up, and to learn more, go to www.boswords.org.
The constructor line-up looks good, and Brad is a wonderful, experienced editor, so these should be a treat. That's all from me today. And a mini shout-out to everyone at the Finger Lakes Crossword Competition who came up and talked to me and said nice things etc. I had a blast. I was particularly excited (literally bouncing on the balls of my feet at one point) when younger people (Cornell students! Several! Hi, Ben) would tell me they solved and read the blog on a regular basis. So cool (to me) to see people their age so enthusiastic, so ready to embrace their word nerdiness and hang out with their elders. I took pictures with people, signed autographs (!!!), it was great. Great. More than I deserve. This was the first tournament of any sort I'd been to in person since before the pandemic. The whole event had a laid-back and friendly vibe. I hadn't realized how much I missed being around fellow enthusiasts. Very wholesome. Very energizing. I mean, I'm tired right this moment, but energized overall, and very grateful to be doing what I'm doing every day. See you tomorrow, or next week, or whenever.
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91 comments:
LMTR. Though I liked TALK O' BELLE lessvthan Rex... I didn't feel that themer landed very well. Bit hey, a workable puzzle with some engaging clues for the fill (UNZIPS certainly guffaw-worthy, but I guess Rex is not AMUSED). Anyway, thanks to our constructor for a very enjoyable Sunday puzzle!
You meant to write "Bakers use whisks", I think.
Easy-medium. I was AMUSED! Fun and breezy, liked it a bunch more than @Rex did, but then I took a nap this afternoon.
Bakers use whisks, not whisky.
The theme is cute; I wish it were a little more exciting. I have actually heard of all the company names, even the ones we don't have here in Canada, so it wasn't too hard I got waylaid by 23 across, looking at "..tiny tongs" = -------E-ZERS had to be (something) TWEEZERS! They are literally tiny tongs!
In the 22 across combo, looking at -NT--IO all I could think of was ANTONIO. SAN ANTONIO?... um, no. I just didn't expect our good ol' OTTAWA with its province following. Speaking of which, Queen Vickie has 2 count em 2 of the 10 provincial capitals named after her: Victoria (BC) and Regina (Sask.)
'German "you"' = SIE. Well, German is an impressively logical language, but for some reason they use the exact same word for "you", "she", and "they". In fact, "Sie liegen falsch" means either "you are wrong" or "they are wrong". Good luck knowing which!
[Spelling Bee: Sat 0, 6 straight!]
Hi Rex. You need to add a credit for Christina Iverson.
That’s the joke.
Once again, RP's write-up is more interesting than the puzzle. For the love of G-d, NYT, please produce more challenging, thought-provoking Sundays. These childish word games insult your readership.
tc
I'm with @okanaganer with {something}twEeZERS at 23A. I would think "Little Seizers" would be miniature pirates or some such.
Had problems similar to OFL's in the NW, with the oddly-clued POP ART x TEEN.
Other than those, not a lot of trouble. I thought the real name of the company at 84/86A might be Procter & Gambol and the themer was a twofer, but no -- only the first word changed.
Thought sure the answer to 52A, now we help write breakup letters, was going to be Deere John!
THANK YOU 🙏 ~RP
Yes, absolute worst place to make a typo, thanks for the correction 😃 ~RP
I loved the idea of punning on company names. It immediately got me trying to think of alternative theme answers. The best I could come up with was TRAITOR JOE’S, but I couldn’t think of a worthy clue.
The “rebrand” conceit was an ingenious way to pull the theme off. It’s one thing to come up with company name puns, but another entirely to spin it into a puzzle in a way that clicks. Bravo and brava, Joel and Christina!
The grid is impeccably put together, junk free, despite the high number (10!) of theme answers. It was sparked by some lovely cluing, like [Drops like flies?] for UNZIPS. I like that WESTS is properly placed on that coast, and I liked TEST right next to TEST in the bottom row. LITTLE SEIZERS was worth the price of admission, IMO, closely followed by EMBASSY SWEETS.
The theme kept me smiling, and there was enough bite to satisfy my brain’s work ethic. A prime Sunday that hit the spot, a gem, and thank you for making it, Joel and Christina!
Well, I thought TALK O BELLE was the worst themer and the huge outlier, as the others do not change significantly in pronunciation, but that one does.
GAMBLE/gambol was just begging to be used. PROCTOR and gambol: We've rebranded: now we help exam monitors celebrate when they get off work.
This may just be my own confirmation bias, and it’s a reflection on society and culture not on one editor, but it seems that rarely a day goes by that the NYT xw doesn’t have a clue/answer related to alcohol or gambling.
Something I could do without. Sigh.
Rex decided to trash this very fine puzzle, and then blame his rant on not enough sleep. It had to take a lot of effort to put this puzzle together, and to make it an amusing solve. It deserves much better than a Rex rant.
Geeky enough - cute idea to riff on company names and some chuckles. Liked TALKO BELLE although it is an outlier. The overall fill feels very Sam like - takes a while to get the voice. The long downs were pretty sweet - CRAPS TABLES, AS YOU LIKE IT, AISLE SEAT etc are all fun.
SKEETer and NRBQ
19d always reminds me of MASH - “to Bess Truman, TO ERR is Truman”. Some unfortunate plurals here but it’s a big grid to fill. Never like to see UEY. Side eye to the MAISON x SIE cross.
Pleasant enough solve for a stormy Sunday morning.
Robert Randolph
I'm with @Mike at 5:06 am, as the thing started to come together, I was wondering about and hoping for DEERE JOHN as the break-up themer, with maybe the theme being reversed two-word company names that are clever in this way.
For OTTAWA/ONTARIO, I used to live in eastern Ontario and knew this story, at least. In Kingston, Ontario, there's a story that it was expected to become either the capital of Canada or the capital of Ontario at confederation in 1867, but was passed over for both, in favor of Ottawa and Toronto, respectively, and has been showered with public works ever since. This "explains" why Kingston has an enormous city hall for such a small city, and many fine prisons and hospitals and a top-tier university. Queen Victoria picking Ottawa is of course part of the story.
I've never seen evidence of these assertions, but also have never particularly sought it out.
So I had unzips which made me 100% certain the cross was little tweezers ("tiny tongs!"). Which doesn't fit, but that didn't stop me from staring at it for 10 minutes trying to make it fit.
Otherwise mostly enjoyed it.
Thx, Joel & Christina; COOL production! 😊
Med (bang on Sun. avg time).
Loved the theme; it was actually helpful to the solve.
Fave themer: TALK O' BELLE.
Fun adventure; liked it a lot! :)
___
Anna Stiga's Sat. Stumper was med-hard (4 x NYT Sat.). Came down to one cell: the Sony / Nuremberg cross; guessed wrong, but learned something, tho. Good workout! :) On to David & Jane's Sun. acrostic on xwordinfo.com 🤞 (thx to @kitshef for the heads-up :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I was thrown a bit by TALK O' BELLE. All the other themers are (I believe) exact homophones of companies, but depending on your dialect of English, 'talk o' and 'taco' are not pronounced the same (the L is not silent where I'm from). But it's close enough and kind of cute.
This was surprisingly pleasant to solve with so many theme entries - usually that stresses the grid to such an extent that we end up with fill that is barely recognizable (only one such entry today, and it is literally unrecognizable*). I thought BEST BYE was the weakest of the theme entries - and even that one isn’t too bad.
Nice job by the constructors providing a theme that requires quite a bit of parsing to get the PPP-type entries without turning the grid into a complete slog-fest and loading it with junk fill. This is the type of puzzle that the NYT should aspire to publish every Sunday.
* ສະບາຍດີ
Hi there - I thought some were good and some clunked but my biggest objection was "Talk o' Belle". All the themers were phonetically the same as the original companies except this one. I.E. "Talk o' " is NOT the same as "Taco" !!
Cute puzzle . Agree with kitshef. All theme answers are homophones except TALK O’ and TACO. Total outlier.
Puns and dad humor are the bane of crosswords and a big reason for why I've cut back to just Fri - Sun. The constructors kept today's word play to a minimum which may disappoint some but made it more bearable for me.
The fill was pretty mild too. I never had that "Where am I going to natick?" feeling Sundays often generate. Not getting the congrats just meant there was an obvious mistake I'd somehow overlooked. I quickly found it in ABiL. The PETROLiuM gaffe was just one of my typical misspellings that I obviously didn't cross check. What took me much longer to find was ARONO. I can't recall if that A got in there because I confused IPAD with IPOD or if I typed it in when I realized the down entry was that crosswordese 101 college town. I've put it in a zillion puzzles but that A at the start somehow didn't register as a mistake today. It reminded me of yesterday's arraignment/ arrangement confusion only worse.
Still recovering from covid. I've been wondering why the coffee hasn't tasted that good lately. This morning I sniffed the coffee bags to see what was wrong and discovered that I can't smell coffee. Even the Starbucks bag has no aroma whatsoever. That's a weird lack of sensation and hopefully a temporary one.
yd -0
.
Every Canadian was told in high school that Queen Victoria chose Ottawa to be the capital city of the "Province of Canada," one of the constituent parts of the present Canada. That was in 1857, ten years before Ontario was created. So, an argument can be made that the Queen did not select "Ottawa, Ontario." She selected "Ottawa, Canada."
The NE corner was very hard for me because I was dead certain that a chill dude was a snowman, which I confirmed with the answers noEND (wrong, but close enough to fit other crosses), wAN (wrong, but close enough to fit other crosses), and AIMEE. I came back there after the rest of the puzzle and convinced myself that 19D really did have to be TOERR, took out the snowman, and finally got through the rest. Oof.
@Mike - I thought the same thing! I realized it didn’t fit the way the other answers were structured, but I still think that it’s a better punny answer than BESTBYE.
Hey All !
Theme has grown on me as time has passed since completing the puz. At first I was like, "That's it? Same names, only spelt slightly different?" Then it was, "OK, some are pretty good." Now, for some odd reason, these are tickling my fancy. Retrospect? Hindsight? Who knows. But it feels good when your fancy is tickled. Eh, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
First one I got was PROCTORANDGAMBLE, which may have led to my slow appreciation. "Isn't that how it's spelled?" Said I. "Hmm..." Next was HOLE FOODS, then BUDWISER, and started to see the thingamajiggy puz theme. TALKOBELLE was a grunter. Funny now, but "Really?" when I first got it.
Wondering if Joel gets paid for this puz on top of his regular NYT paycheck? Or no bonuses allowed?
The Queen Victoria clue says "world capital", not just Canada capital. Why wouldn't the world capital be London? According to her. Wither Canada? 😁
Yesterday was the first day of Autumn, in case you missed it. Great time of year, but don't like what it leads into! At least the heat will dissipate here in the desert. Still in the 90's, but by October gets to low 80's/high 70's, which is quite lovely.
Happy Sunday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
It's like Christmas Story and the decoder ring...a bunch of crummy ads... don't forget to drink your Ovaltine...snooze...
I loved the misleading clues. And I got several chuckles from this puzzle.
UNZIPS!! STEALTH!!
AMERICAN HEIR LINES, EMBASSY SWEETS!
Nice work, Joel and Christina. Thanks!
Does anyone out there “hang a UEY” on the highway? Thought the puzzle was fun and fair. At least there was no obscure Star Wars characters with Natick crosses.
In this case, simplest is best. While I found both the clue and answer for LITTLE SEIZERS forced and the answer for PROCTOR AND GAMBLE awkwardly split in half, I laughed out loud at HOLE FOODS and the way it was clued. I was also thoroughly charmed by the clue/answers for BEST BYE, AMERICAN HEIRLINES and BUDWISER.
There's a high percentage of puns that really, really land in this one. And to think, I was almost ready to drop it before I started. Oh, good grief, I'm thinking -- corporations doing weird things. Who cares? Turns out I did. Because the corporations are so familiar and the clues are generally so funny and clever, it was a real hoot to solve this.
I have this strong suspicion that HOLE FOODS was the seed (on a bagel?) entry. I looked up the Constructor Notes, but they don't tell me. Maybe you'll tell me now, Joel and Christina? Anyway, thanks for a fin puzzle.
I pronounce "talk o'" the same as "taco." Maybe it's Chicagoese.
Fun puzzle.
Who knew that Little Caesar was a fast food company? Certainly not me. Also, ‘ovO’ for ‘ovi’ had me tearing my hair out trying to figure what lOttle… might be.
Am I the only one who noticed “Littlest teams” as a clue with LITTLE SEIZERS as a theme entry? And the two constructors are editors for the NYT crossword.
Not to mention UNZIPS — one of the only non-theme puns — is beyond cliche according to the Ginsberg clue database.
These are the hands the NYT puzzle is in…
Clean up from yesterday.
Gemboy— Spain didn’t bring us the inquisition, France did. The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition that you’re glibly mocking came three entities later.
By the way, the Church still has an office dedicated to combatting heresy and other error.
Today it’s called the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Obviously, a terrible name. But of course what can you expect from a papacy which is this very minute sponsoring the Synod on Synodality🙄?
Rex was tired I guess. This was so nice a break after yesterday’s AXON-fryer. POPART just POPped into my head after the PO and TEEN filled itself in so I learned something about Braille. Cute and relaxing puzzle!
@lewis. How's this re: TRAITOR JOES? We've rebranded! Now we defend Army defectors!
Loved the idea and loved figuring out the rebrandings, some coming to light quickly - AMERICAN HEIR LINES, EMBASSY SUITES, and some eluding me for some time - LITTLE SEIZERS, BEST BYE. My favorite was TALK O' BELLE - I thought that was really inspired - but concede that "talk o'"="taco" is a stretch. Fun Sunday!
@bocamp, re: the Stumper - I went wrong on that same square. On the difficulty - I think I had more trouble with it than you - I needed a lot of brain-racking and a couple of "new eyes" sessions to finish (I thought). I had to claw my way up through the east side.
Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as a compromise between Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec)--it's right on their borders. It was a compromise between Anglophone and Francophone Canada. Similarly, Washington, DC was a compromise between North and South.
@Carola (11:05 AM)
Sounds like our results and solving experience was pretty much the same. My first thot was to go with the correct fill for that cell, but went with the other due to the 'abbr' clue (which threw me). I've added that 'abbr' to my mnemonics list.
___
On an aside (speaking of REX), just now watching the landing and recovery of the asteroid sample from 'Osiris REx'.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Worst Sunday in a long, long time. Totally consumed by the gimmick.
In crosswordese, why are capitals of states called state capitals but capitals of nations are called world capitals?
Villager
1. Now we sell very loose-fitting one piece suits made of precious metal for males
2. Now we offer mortuary services featuring the founder of Marvel Comics
3. Now we sell stone columns produced in a small country on the Arabian Peninsula
4. Now we offer a wedding planning service specifically geared to preventing a group ring dance
5. Now we sell a buttocks enhancement product that is guaranteed to go farther than any of our competitors
(Answers below)
I liked the domesticated animal mini theme with PETNAME, COOLCAT and PETROLEUM.
If an anti-diarrheal medicine works well, it CRAPSTABLES.
Bad puns and Dad jokes are my life, so you can imagine how I felt about this lovely groaner of a puzzle. Thanks, Joel Fagliano and Christina Iverson.
1. GOLMANSACKS
2. MORGUEANDSTANLEE
3. QATARPILLAR
4. HORACULL
5. FILLUPMOREASS
its not fatigue it is cornball dad joke level - Sunday are entry level now to keep newbies interested that's got to be the motivation for the general ease of Sundays since some point years ago.. thanks for all you do!
I thought uncovering the brand names was fun. My least favorites were TALK O' BELLE and BUD WISER, but LITTLE SEIZERS, HOLE FOODS and AMERICAN HEIRLINES hit the funny bone spot for me.
It took me a moment to finalize LITTLE SEIZERS because I had forgotten the French for house and had MAnSON in place. Other erasures were the OVo, OVa, OVI, ANT farm before HILL, and "I dunno" before NO IDEA.
Thanks, Joel and Christina, nice Sunday!
@egs
🤣🤣
@johnny mic -- I like it! Someone elsewhere suggested: We’ve rebranded, now we’re only going to sell Benedict Arnold’s favorite coffees
Haven't read the comments yet cause I don't want to hear any nay-sayers about it being too easy, whatever.
I absolutely loved this puzzle. And you can't fault the constructors because they're pros.
Thank you Christina & Joel for a great Sunday solve.
This was a fun one to figure out!! Like @Mike 5:06 I also thought Deere John until I saw the actual theme unfold.
@mathgent yd….. thank you! Dictum. It came to me in the middle of the night. Right after I figured out a good wordle word for today. (… but like @Penna Resident I generally choose one from that day’s xw!)
I thought it was the perfect Sunday puzzle. I am 84 and sometimes it takes a little time to bring up words I haven’t seen in a long time. It was funny and was not a slog which happens sometimes on these big puzzles. Great job!
I liked this puzzle a lot, maybe because it was the first one in several months that I solved perfectly. EMBASSYSWEETS was the first theme answer I came up with, and TALKOBELLE was the last.
The theme helped solve the puzzle, which is a big plus. Too often the theme isn't revealed until after the puzzle is solved.
I liked this puzzle, puns and all. Remember last Sunday where all the song titles went in “as is”? with no twists? I prefer the puns much better. I had UNZ_PS and wondered what the heck is THAT? I was thinking baseball and insects for “flies”. great clue.
@egs, I can't wait to see the finished puzzle with your themers!
Fun puzzle
I enjoyed all the themers except 35A Budweiser. That one fell flat for me, too.
The one that actually made me chuckle was 52A BestBye.
I dislike the clue for 88D. I suppose Bakers do use whisks, but I can't think when. Chefs making sauces use them far more. And a "bakery" does not call to mind any whisking. So, BAH.
har. Luv m&e a humorous SunPuz theme.
TALKOBELLE was definitely the so-desperate-it-was-funny winner, themer-wise.
Not as bad as MYDADSMUFFLER woulda been, tho.
And definitely a notch up from INNERROUTEBOOGER.
staff weeject pick: UEY. Better clue: {Like a superb vowel choice?}. Or maybe {Cockney Donald Duck nephew?}.
other fave stuff: CONEHEADS. OTTAWA/ONTARIO. SOTOSAY. ASYOULIKEIT. UNZIPS clue.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Iverson darlin & Mr. Fagliano dude.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
**gruntz**
and if that weren't enough …
**gruntz**
Puzzle was worth it if just for introducing me to Ernie Dancing Myself to Sleep.
@egs - I double @roo 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Wow. Ouch. Sooooo much work. And fun all the way through. I suppose those who hate homophonic puns will rant, but I love 'em. Way way way over my typical time, which is laughably slow anyway, but who cares.
I had ANT FARM forever and boy that messed up the northwest. And I had NAVY bean instead of FAVA bean. Sheesk.
Loved the clue for UNZIPS.
Uniclues:
1 Trash entertained poser.
2 Tweezie McTweezer.
3 Suitor's helmet-like do says, "Neeeeedy."
4 Why your grandchildren will be living in caves if they're lucky.
1 POP ART AMUSED COOL CAT
2 LITTLE SEIZER'S PET NAME
3 CASANOVA GELS YELL
4 PETROLEUM AS YOU LIKE IT
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What people say about my style. "CAST OFFS, I BET."
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
glad i'm not alone in thinking the tiny tongs themer had to be something about LITTLE TWEEZERS. i feel like, actually, it probably was that at one time but they couldn't make it work. it's just obviously and infinitely better than "seizers." i was opposite rex on his picks - i actually liked BUD WISER the best and thought TALK O' BELLE (ugh, just ugh) was the worst. (ok, i actually thought EMBASSY SWEETS was the worst but only because it was an "embassy...sweets...hm...suites? embassy suites? like a hotel chain or something? is that a thing?" situation for me, where the rest were instantly recognizable brands.) couldn't remember which was which between PROCTOR and procter today until i spelled it out and only one looked weird. (a bit embarrassing, as i am a proctor for CFA exams.)
had one misstep at the end because i always misspell OTTAWA as OTToWA for some reason. KRONo seemed like a fine word. also had one of those mega brain farts because i knew it was DEWEY but i couldn't remember how to spell it. first i thought douie (like louie?) then...dooey? duwey? sheesh. reminds me of the time i didn't get a perfect score on a spelling test in elementary school because my brain just momentarily and completely deleted how to spell "tough" and i wrote "tuff" knowing it was wrong but not wanting to leave any blanks. why do i remember this decades later? your guess is as good as mine. thank you for coming to my ted talk about spelling errors today.
Our Little Caesar’s is a drive thru.
Talk is “tawk” for a New Yorker like myself, but it’s closer to “tock” for many of my fellow Americans, so “tock-o” is not a deviation in pronunciation from “taco” for many people.
A classic, dare I say vintage, Sunday puzzle. Enjoyed the solve. Both the corny puns and the clever clues, some of which are excellent. Took me a minute to understand the truly corny one for UNZIPS (a real groaner-but excellent).
I’ve said it before, the NYT “schedule” of types of puzzle one expects on certain days is its “thing.” I appreciate when it sticks to what has driven folks to subscribe and enjoy solving for a long, long time. Change can be exciting. I also enjoy the occasional, what I call “oddball days,” but after 60+ years of regular solving, I freely admit I’m a creature of habit, and I still enjoy the NYT and look forward to its rhythm just as much as I enjoy all the other of my less “scheduled” regular solves.
Loved this classic Sunday. Great work Joel Fagliano and Christina Iverson. Thanks!!
This took longer than it should have, but I blame lots of hard work closing our camp on the lake today. I am thankful for two big strong sons who are doing stuff I no longer can.
I like puns and I tell Dad jokes, so fine with me. The clue for Budweiser missed the sort of pun we used to make about it, "The sadder Budweiser girl for me". Don't know if you can make a company out of that.
I liked your Sunday Fust Fine, JF and CI. Comic Interest and some good misdirection. Thanks for all the fun.
I thought TALK O’ BELLE was by far the worst also. At least in my accent it doesn’t sound at all like taco. I generally liked the others.
Different enough spelling for me anyway. Thought American Heir Lines was very good.
I thought the clue for Ottawa was a bit confusing also. But I liked it once I got it.
One senses a dislike of a non right wing pope.
@egsforbreakfast 11:48 AM
❤️
Fun to solve. Challenging enough, but fair. What’s not to like?
Like @Rex, I didn't think this theme really worked. Since all the "rebrandings" are pronounced exactly the same way as the original –except, arguably, TALK O' BELLE – you need the spelling change-ups to make it visually fun. But half the entries add/remove/change only one letter, which isn't much of a payoff as they barely look any different. LITTLE SEIZERS, BEST BYE, AMERICAN HEIRLINES and EMBASSY SWEETS do a little bit more, but none is spectacularly wacky. And TALK O' BELLE is pretty tortured.
Not horrible, but not great either, imo.
The music of George Anthill, I mean Antheil
Didn’t get the happy music cause I had Guns for Gels (tsa no nos). Didn’t bo either of its crosses so I didn’t notice.
When I got to TALKOBELLE (that took me an hour) I realized the theme clues were supposed to be intentionally misspelled. Haha I’m slow but I keep at it! But… I thought the CRAPSTABLE answer was also part of the theme, like Lunchables or some such lol oh well. Then I gave up after another 45 minutes, stuck in the SE corner. Sometimes I miss the days of having to wait til the next day for the answers…
I agree totally. Found this puzzle fun and amusing. And finished it.
Can someone explain 38 Down to me? I know RHO is a Greek letter, but I don’t get the clue, and my googling is falling short.
Never mind my question about 38 Down. We printed the app version, so the clue we got was just a dot, not the Greek lowercase rho. 🤷🏼♀️
Pulled the Sunday paper off the doorstep at 5:35 a.m. Sunday morning. Just got to and finished the Sunday puzzle after 9 P.M. (C.D.T.); it's been that kind of week.
One of the most cloyingly annoying and would-be "cutesy" Sunday puzzles I've ever done, and I've been doing the NYT daily and Sunday crossword since the late 1970s. Absolutely hated the whole nudge-nudge, wink-wink of the theme clues ending with question marks ("Get it? Heh, heh! Get it?" Yeah, I f***ing get it. You are f****ing annoying, not clever and not funny).
Good God, I hated this damn puzzle.
Very disappointed to see this tired old answer: ETAIL. Does anybody use this term anymore?
@Anonymous (5:38) - thanks for the clarification re: TACO/TALK O'. I could not understand how people were saying they weren't homophones. I've been saying them over and over! I'm also a New Yorker, but due to growing up in New England, surrounded by various accents in my family (also all New Yorkers), my accent is "Standard American" (whatever that means) - people occasionally think I'm Canadian or from the Midwest. All that to say, in my accent, "TACO" sounds pretty dang much like "TALK O'."
One question: what does "Whisk-y business" have to do with a BAKERY? I understand a whisk is a kitchen tool--I have one myself--but can't imagine it being specific to bakeries. That K was my last letter in, and I frowned as I wrote it.
All the rest was fairly straightforward, once it's established that the spelling of company names gets tweaked. (I think it is "Procter" IRL). Not that much of a slog, which for Sunday equals birdie.
Wordle par.
@Petey D 7:45am :
Perhaps you should try the crossword puzzles in the Salt Lake Tribune, or The Budget , a paper put out various Anabaptist groups. There probably no alcohol or gambling references in them.
@Villager 11:43am :
When I was a kid my younger brother and I each had a pencil box. One box had a gear on the cover that showed you states and their capitals, the other box was for world capitals. We would quiz each other all the time. Hell, this was so long ago that there might have been only 48 states. But that reminded me that even back then, they were called world capitals.
@SharonAK 2:48pm :
Those big stand mixers they use at bakeries have different attachments and one of those attachments are whisks. They are used all the time. My mom worked at a bakery.
Talk O Belle was the groaniest of the groaners, ergo: it was the best. ZOD has spoken!
BlueStater, you should stop doing the xword puzzles before you have a myocardial infarction. I've been doing Xword puzzles for over 60 years and at times went back and forth over the phone with my dad, mostly over what the hell does that word in the clue mean. Many of the clues were very obtuse, or arcane, or involved very specialized occupations. No thank you!
Also, Ace Hardware would like some of their get off my lawn signs back.
By the by, on a different note, are you perhaps a masochist at heart?
CALL LURE IDEA
AIMEE IS NO BURLY BELLE,
I SO HOPENOT, anyway;
SMALL, SO try PETROLEUM GEL,
ASYOULIKEIT, SOTOSAY.
--- ERNIE LEE WELLES
Oh SO wacky. AIMEE Mann the highlight.
Wordle par.
I grew up in and around Philadelphia, and Mr. W went to college in Ames, IA, so that is a great combo IMHO. (See note regarding the constructors' locations.)
What a lot of fun for a wordplay fan like me. A fantastic way to begin or end the crossword week.
Perhaps my only "major" write over was turning CATS into CEOS - you know, the Keyboard Cat.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
The Greek letter rho looks exactly like a P.
You are partly right on Ottawa. It was between kingston and Montreal. At the time it was felt that both those cities were too close to the American border (in case of an invasion lol) so Ottawa was decided upon and queen Vic made it so…
@Anonymous 11:11 PM
No, if you think /tɔk/ and /tɑkoʊ/ sound basically identical, whatever your idiolect is, it ain't General American. The [cot–caught merger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cot%E2%80%93caught_merger) that would make that happen's standard in Canada and the Great Lakes but not in most American dialects.
Not much of challenge here, though my time was slower than average, but two answers just annoyed me. SEAEEL? That’s a stretch at best. There are saltwater eels, and there are eels in the sea, but never a “sea eel”.
And who pulls a UEY on the highway? I suppose other areas maybe the term differently, but up in New England, highways are eight lanes wide with a large divider. There’s more than enough traffic to obliterate you while you turn and drive the wrong way.
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