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Rude rejoinder popularized by the Fonz of 1970s TV / WED 9-6-23 / Phonetic initialism along Canadian roadways / 1964 title role for Anthony Quinn / Rocksteady precursor / North Holland cheese town / Second rule of waste reduction / Flap of skin hanging from a bovine's neck
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
Constructor: Blake Slonecker
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- GHOST RIGHT (“ghostwrite”) (17A: Suddenly cut off all communication with ... but do so nicely?) [so ... "to 'ghost' someone ... properly" ... is the surface meaning here]
- CIVIL WRIGHTS (“civil rights”) (23A: Cordial shipbuilders?)
- WRITES OF PASSAGE (“rites of passage”) (35A: Pens a seafaring tale?)
- RITE BROTHERS (“Wright Brothers”) (48A: Sacramental friars?)
1a
: sanctioned by Jewish law
especially : ritually fit for use
kosher meat
: sanctioned by Jewish law
especially : ritually fit for use
kosher meat
b
: selling or serving food ritually fit according to Jewish law
a kosher restaurant
: selling or serving food ritually fit according to Jewish law
a kosher restaurant
2 : being proper, acceptable, or satisfactory
is the deal kosher? (merriam-webster.com)
Puns using these various "right" homophones have been the basis for crossword wackiness for eons. This puzzle tries to use all the homophone puns at once, and tie them together with a punny revealer. None of it really works for me. The themers are all just, well, corny puns, of a very ordinary type, and the revealer ... I don't know why you couldn't use that for *any* homophone-based set of themers. Is it that "GOOD" and "RIGHT" (!) are synonyms of a sort? Because otherwise, yeah, that's the basic idea of all homophones: same sound, different meaning / spelling. I think the revealer is supposed to elevate this otherwise ordinary pun-based puzzle to another, more special level, but it's far too generic to do anything of the sort. The whole theme ends up having a rather listless quality. With a set-up as basic as this, you need a killer revealer, and you simply don't get one.
• • •
Another thing that's listless: the fill. It's not that any one answer is so bad, it's just that the repeaters come in waves that ultimately amount to a flood. Acceptable but overfamiliar answers just pile up. I had the misfortune of finishing the puzzle on a particularly unlovely one-two combo, AROAR crossing INRE, but even before that, the Stuff You See All The Time was really coming hot and heavy. SATE OSHA ... HOYA EDAM ASSAM ... AFT and ACH and OTOE and ESSO, RAVI and SKØR. Lots and lots of 3- 4- 5s, many of which ran to the overexposed side of the answer spectrum. The puzzle does have a rather impressive set of long Downs, two towering columns, both two answers wide, and those it's hard not to like. Good stuff. Would've been right at home in any Friday or Saturday puzzle. Solid. But except for "WELL, NO" (which I really liked) and maybe BASE COAT, there wasn't much to write (!) home about. Unless you're a "Happy Days" fan. "SIT ON IT!" is a nice throwback TV answer (27A: Rude rejoinder popularized by the Fonz of 1970s TV). I do wonder what kind of sense it's going to make to anyone under 45, but it was certainly in my pop culture sweet spot.
"Happy Days" was the first sitcom I can remember watching. The Fonz was my first TV idol. I remember my mom bringing me home a Fonzie coloring book from the supermarket one day, must've been '76 or '77. Oooh, no, wait—a little googling shows me it wasn't just a coloring book but a full-on Activity Book! And a "Cool Fun Activity Book" at that. I recognized the cover instantly, even 45 years later.
Thrilling. Thanks, mom. "Happy Days" was Tuesdays, 8pm, followed by "Laverne & Shirley," then bed. That "Laverne & Shirley" theme can still give me that wistful, bittersweet "dang, it's over, gotta go to bed now" feeling that I had any time I was allowed to watch nighttime TV as a child.
Two answers I don't really understand in today's puzzle. The first is KOSHER. I thought I knew what KOSHER meant, both literally and figuratively, but ... apparently not? [For real]? I do not see that meaning (or anything like it) in the Merriam-Webster definition I quoted above (Word of the Day). I always thought it mean "permissible" or "allowed." But "for real"? You got me there. News to me. And then there's WAD ("... and then there's WAD!"). It's a spit WAD. Also known as a "spitball": "A balled-up piece of paper, moistened with saliva (by chewing) and shot through a drinking straw." You shoot spit WADs at the teacher, or whomever, or whatever. It's one term. You cannot separate the "spit" and the "WAD" when you are talking about [Classroom projectile]s. And please dear lord do not say "Well, what about a WAD of paper, or a WAD of chewing gum? A child could throw that and then that would be a 'projectile,' no spit involved, you ever consider that, huh?" I did, and then I rejected the idea out of hand because it is an unsatisfactory and frankly dumb rationalization, but thanks for asking. The projectile that is famously, classically projected in classrooms is the spit WAD. You cannot just say "WAD" and not indicate what the WAD consists of. Not KOSHER.
Two answers I don't really understand in today's puzzle. The first is KOSHER. I thought I knew what KOSHER meant, both literally and figuratively, but ... apparently not? [For real]? I do not see that meaning (or anything like it) in the Merriam-Webster definition I quoted above (Word of the Day). I always thought it mean "permissible" or "allowed." But "for real"? You got me there. News to me. And then there's WAD ("... and then there's WAD!"). It's a spit WAD. Also known as a "spitball": "A balled-up piece of paper, moistened with saliva (by chewing) and shot through a drinking straw." You shoot spit WADs at the teacher, or whomever, or whatever. It's one term. You cannot separate the "spit" and the "WAD" when you are talking about [Classroom projectile]s. And please dear lord do not say "Well, what about a WAD of paper, or a WAD of chewing gum? A child could throw that and then that would be a 'projectile,' no spit involved, you ever consider that, huh?" I did, and then I rejected the idea out of hand because it is an unsatisfactory and frankly dumb rationalization, but thanks for asking. The projectile that is famously, classically projected in classrooms is the spit WAD. You cannot just say "WAD" and not indicate what the WAD consists of. Not KOSHER.
Enjoy your Wednesday, or as I like to call it, "Last Rabies Shot Day!"
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113 comments:
This was a hard one for me! Took much longer than my average Wednesday for some reason.
Can someone please explain the pun behind “ghost right”?? I don’t get it.
The two places where I got really held up were 1) What on earth does a saw have to do with a maxim? I had lAWS there for forever (that’s a lower case L), but then remembered SIT ON IT after a few crosses. Still don’t understand the cluing. Unless there’s a brand of saw called Maxim?
2) I’ve only ever heard quaff to mean a haircut, so took me forever to get SHANDY. Apparently that’s also a name for a drink!
Yay for last rabies shot day! We had a bat in the house a couple months ago and it was not a pleasant experience. I was able to get them out by turning on only the porch light and opening only one door and waiting for them to find their way to the light. But in the meantime, I had to keep reminding myself that they would not in fact go for my hair, which I later learned was an old wive’s tale invented to keep young women from going outside at night, sigh. Having one in the house for ~10 minutes was enough so I’m really glad the saga is nearly over for you Rex.
Speaking of sagas, yay also for my mother finally being out of the woods after some dangerous and entirely preventable post-surgical complications. My family has learned the hard way to never let a loved one have an operation before a major holiday weekend if at all possible. Hopefully she’ll be home soon and able to focus on the planned PT and recovery from the actual surgery.
Anyway, today’s puzzle. I didn’t dislike it as much as Rex, but I didn’t much like it. At least there was some good trivia? And I appreciated the inclusion of Chang-RAE Lee - I read “My Year Abroad” recently and it is excellent and strange, the kind of book where you’ll remember the oddball characters no matter how many other novels you read after it.
I also don’t think of KOSHER as meaning “for real” but then again I don’t use “for real” to mean “legit” either. In my family KOSHER in this sense of the word might be something like “I took a quick look at the paperwork and it seems like everything’s KOSHER,” aka, above board or solid. So I’m not saying the cluing is unacceptable, just maybe pretty far down the list of words I’d accept as synonyms.
Hopefully I’m back now - missed y’all!
Oh, another theme that tries hard but misses the mark - GHOST RIGHT ? Give me a break. Stand alone it doesn’t SOUND GOOD, it just sounds like nonsense. Oh, I get it - rearrange all of the rights (and which ones build the ships ?) . . . ZZZZZzzzzzzz . . .
I wish the NYT would get on the same page regarding AROAR (yes to the Xword, no on SB).
Generally agree with Rex's comments about this one, but I thought it was a bit harder. OPPO crossing DEWLAP was a Natick for me. Still weirded out by KOSHER. I was really trying to make FATHERS work before I realized it was BROTHERS. I've also never heard the phrase "run RIOT". So lots of sticking points, a fairly callenging Wednesday for me.
Some weird stuff for a Wednesday … I don’t know who RAE is or what OPPO means. But I liked it.
Wad and Kosher made sense to me, but I also took umbrage with the theme. How many times can they say "right" and then have the reveal be "sounds good"??? Also, what human being has ever said Ghost Right/Rite?????
How is oppo dirt-digging research?
Ghost right=Ghost write, as in writing someone else's book for them.
Despite the unfortunate AROAR and INRE and EDAM and such, the themers and other long answers were just fine. The whole puzzle was just fine — not stellar but not deserving of opprobrium. But yeah, KOSHER was weird and a real stretch.
As in, I had a ghost writer for my autobiography
Omg, those nights where Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley were on were sacred in my house! Everyone actually sat and watched that together. Period. No matter what. Loved that hour. I read a whole series of hilarious books by Henry Winkler (and Lin Oliver) to my daughter about a dyslexic child with ADHD and it turns out he has dyslexia and his child has dyslexia. We adored those books, he is such a huge talent and to think he basically could not read his scripts. Ever. Lots of improv. Also didn’t love the puzzle, though.
A ghost writer is someone who literally writes for someone else and that person gets the credit. “Saw” is a synonym for “adage,” as in, “The early bird catches the worm,” is an old saw.
Unless I'm missing something, the pun is on "ghostwrite", as in "He hired her to ghostwrite his autobiography."
I found this surprisingly difficult. Finished about 40% above my average Wednesday time. I'm not entirely sure where the bottleneck was, but it was just little roadblocks everywhere. Not knowing 1A off the bat, and then getting ZORro for it instead of ZORBA cost me some time. KALEL means nothing to me. OPPO is appropriately an anagram of "poop." Did not like that one. DEWLAP wouldn't come to mind. OkiE instead of OTOE. Just little stumbles all across the grid.
Kosher is not for real.
For real is Emes or Emet.
Homophones on steroids - this played a lot more difficult for me than Rex. Corny trick but got a few chuckles. I think we had Tristam recently - today the beer. Liked the clue for IRRADIATES.
ACE
Agree with @Southside on AROAR - I still try to use it all the time in SB.
@anon 6:24a - coif refers to hair
@Weezie - good news about your mom
Pleasant Wednesday morning solve.
Know your RIGHTs
Oppositional research (on a candidate you’re running against, say) is commonly abbreviated to OPPO
Liked it more than Rex did, but then I’m not getting rabies shots. Thought “lighten up” was a clever clue.
Weezie , glad to hear your mom’s doing better. Welcome back.
@Anonymous 7:46 AM - It's short for opposition research, which is when a political team digs up dirt on an opponent
The two problems with DEWLAP for me were that (1) it's a word I did not know and (2) hELL NO seemed right for 44D. But things are not always what they seem.
Thx, Blake, for this crunchy Wednes. offering! 👍
Med.
Lots to learn today: SIT ON IT! (watched the show, but don't recall the 'rejoinder'); WKRP (never can remember anything past the 'W'); SAL; KALEL (always seem to want KArEL); Chang-RAE Lee; ASSAM (tea, yes; color, no); Myrmecologist/ANT; OPPO; SHANDY.
Added goal for the day; mnemonicize all the above into something weird enuf to add to my memory list (which is approaching 1000 + words/phrases).
Made a semi-educated guess at the SHANDY / RAE cross for the win.
Fun adventure; very much enjoyed the challenge (even tho my time was avg; seemed tougher).
@Weezie (6:54 AM)
Good news re: your mother, and best wishes for a full and speedy recovery! 🙏
___
Paolo Pasco's Mon. New Yorker was easy-med, except for the 2 cell dnf at 1 & 2 D. Initially had the right word for 1A, but changed it for the loss, :( Learned some stuff, tho! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Very fun puzzle!
Saw and maxim are both synonyms for proverb. As in: Dad’s always repeating the old saw “haste makes waste.”
Weezie - happy your mother is on track now for full recovery.
Thanks for explanations of OPPO, that’s a new one on me. I didn’t like the cluing on this puzzle and found the NW in particular to be brutal - although I eventually did manage to puzzle it all out! That’s what it’s supposed to be all about, right? ZORBA took awhile and I had amok before RIOT; women, then islam, before ASIAN; ZAGS could have been zigs; GHOSTRIGHT didn’t come easily with that clue (and is not very good as one of the themers). Anyway, harder for me than for Rex.
The haircut one is spelled “COIF” but, depending on where you’re from, could sound the same.
I believe you’re thinking of “coif”.
@son volt. Quiff is also a hair style.
Someone else covered saw, but for hair I think you're thinking of coif! Quaff is a verb and a noun for any drink, coif for hair.
Welcome back, Weezie! I'm very glad that your Mom is okay. Good advice about scheduling surgery!
(Very) minor kealoa at 1D (ZiGS vs. ZAGS). Like many others, I don't get the "For real" definition of KOSHER and I didn't know that a SHANDY was a drink. I really need to get out more.
This was so so so much harder for me than a usual Wednesday.
I had GUM instead of WAD
LAWS instead of SAWS
RITE instead of RIME
I tried so hard to fit Run AMOK instead of RIOT
And I had -ADE at the end of Lemony Quaff instead of -NDY
All that put a monkey wrench in my solving today. Happy Hump Day!
I can identify the age difference between OFL and me now. My TV shows were Phil Silvers (Sgt Bilko), The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, inter alia.
Here's a quote by Nikos Kazantzakis who wrote ZORBA:
“When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. ‘What vanity,’ they screamed, ‘what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!’ The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. ‘Forgive me, my sisters,’ said the tree. ‘I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.”
Hey All !
Puz SOUNDS GOOD to me. Fun repurposing of the RIGHTs spellings. We get a Z right out of the gate, which is nice. Some dreck as Rex mentioned, but hey, it'll happen.
Low Blocker count, 34. Had hELLNO first, ended up with DEhLA_, and wondered what in tarhooties that flap of cow skin could be. Finally the ole brain grokked DEWLAP, changed my hELL for WELL, and all was KOSHER.
Interesting fact about OXO (which I've said before, but in case y'all missed it), they chose that name because it reads the same vertically or horizontally.
AROAR is still not accepted in SB. C'mon Sam! 😁
Enjoy your Wednesday.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
This might kill Rex for me. Every day I enjoy doing the crossword then I read Rex to find out why I am wrong. This was delightful and clever. And YES the revealer was equating RIGHT and GOOD and it was perfect. But Rex managed to scorn it. And yes I am (or was) a contributor. Eyeroll.
Difficult for a Wednesday. I really strongly disagree with the clue for KOSHER. Also, I’ve never heard DEWLAP and had HELL NO in place of WELL NO. HELL NO is a much, much better entry than WELL NO, and DEHLAP, though it looks odd, is about as plausible as DEWLAP for someone unfamiliar. Also not familiar with this meaning of SAWS. So overall, some sticky spots for me. I liked the theme though.
An old saw is a saying or maxim.
I may be reading too much into it but I feel like the revealer itself is a bit of a joke. Like they e set you up to expect SOUNDS RIGHT but they say SOUNDS GOOD instead. It helps if you imagine it with ellipses between the words. SOUNDS… GOOD?
Think of it like a 90s SNL skit where a character has a famous catchphrase that they say at inappropriate times. Then when it’s finally appropriate, they don’t say their catchphrase.
An old saw is an old saying.
I think Rex is dead-on balls accurate about Kosher. But I’ve never heard of a spitwad. True I’m almost 60 years beyond doing that to a nun but we threw wads or spitballs. Not spitwads.
I don't get MAXIM = SAWS or CON ED = UTIL. Anyone?
OPPO crossing DEWLAP. So ends the puzzle and that's not RITE, WRIGHT, RIGHT, WRITE. I need 🦖 to tell me what OPPO is (but he didn't). Sigh. I think it was begging to be OREO.
Doesn't sound so good to me now. I'M OUTRAGED.
Never heard of a SHANDY, but it sounds gross.
I was so excited to see HELL NO so I can write out my tee-hee, which have been in sad supply lately, probably because the NYTXW slush pile editor went into sixth grade and is trying to act big in middle school, but then it turned out to be it's poorly clued milquetoast cousin WELL NO.
Uniclues:
1 Your drunken boyfriend at a football game.
2 Bad boss's opinion of safety organization.
3 Why my face looks like this.
4 Feature of breakfast at all Hampton Inns.
1 AROAR ARM WAD
2 OSHA IRRADIATES
3 TOILETRIES RIOT (~)
4 TROUGH SAUSAGES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The career path I've been hoping for all my life. DON JUAN TEMP JOB.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Same here, went with hell no, never heard of dewlap & had the op-o
& just couldn't see it.
What the hell is oppo anyway? Never used it, or heard it used ever.
Con Edison is a utility company. Don’t understand saws either
And apparently Saw is a direct synonym of maxim. 3rd definition down when googling it
Lotsa longballs helped to give this puz some writeous dig-in-nation. Liked.
staff weeject pick: LBS. Plural abbreve meat. honrable mention to that there no-know RAE variation.
faves: HITTHEWALL [Nice WALL SIN follow-up]. SAUSAGES. SITONIT [and jump the shark]. ACH & ACHE. CUTUP.
Agree with @RP … extra-easy WedPuz. fave themer was definitely the sacramental friars. Revealer didn't add much of an ahar moment, I'd grant. Woulda gone with a fifth, extra-desperate, closin themer, instead. Somethin like:
{Puztheme that keeps em aroarin in the aisles?} = *
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Slonecker dude. Well writ.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
p.s.
* = THE RIOT STUFF.
**gruntz**
Rae crossing Shandy was deadly to me.
I thought the puns were cute, or at least cute enough. My favorite was the oxymoronic GHOST RIGHT. Oxymoronic because the practice today of "ghosting" someone -- a practice that pretty much didn't exist back in the day and, when it did, certainly didn't have a cutesy name for the practice -- is so coarse and unCIVIL and unpleasant that the idea of doing it "nicely" is pretty funny.
I sailed through the top, finding no resistance at all, but the bottom got a bit harder -- mainly because of a lot of pop culture names.
The revealer doesn't land for me because "right" doesn't really = "good". I took a few minutes to try to come up with a more apt revealer and couldn't -- but the day is still young.
Can we please stop with such ugly, gibberish-y, non-sensical clues as "Uh...huh-uh"? Please??? Sub-verbal communication, I'd call it.
Still, a lot more here I liked than didn't. The theme answers are well-chosen and completely in the language. The puzzle is fun.
I agree that there were two things that went flying in classrooms in my day:
* spitballs, which were saliva-moistened pieces of paper made into a ball and launched with a cafeteria straw
* paper wads, which were folded pieces of paper into a small rectangle that could be folded in half and launched via a rubber band
Which makes "wad" a fine enough answer for me.
Back when Life Magazine would occasionally publish something that some prudish people considered inappropriate, a barrage of letters would ensue. This became known as the Write to Life movement.
DELI customer: KENYA give me a BAGEL?
DELI owner: KOSHER?
DELI customer: Yes, for real.
Perhaps 33A (Classroom projectile) refers to the practice of throwing a WAD of money at fellow Andover students while the teacher wasn’t looking.
I liked this far more than @Rex did, but I love wordplay in general. Also, I’m getting a bit tired of him listing every three and four letter word in the puzzle and calling them old, or tired or dreck. Crosswords generally have some three and four letter answers and there aren’t tons of new ones being minted these days. No one is ecstatic over seeing AFT or OTOE. It’s just a part of getting to an enjoyable end. Would anyone go to a baseball game and complain that there were four routine groundouts to second in the course of 9 innings?
Puzzle was fun. Thanks, Blake Slonecker.
For 44A detractors, I suggest you note the “…” between “uh” and “huh-uh”; it indicates a bit of reticence (“milquetoast” ala @Gary Jugert) not heard in “hell no!”
@SUTSY (9:48) see Anonymous (8:07) an “old SAW” is a adage/maxim/saying
Con Ed= Consolidated Edison= UTILity
Female detective sergeants are always quaffing SHANDIES in British mysteries, while the guy downs a pint…
I don't click on Rex's Tangential Links (™) very often, but something prompted me to click on the one that said "and then there's WAD", which (if you didn't click) linked to a youtube video of the title sequence for Maude (the early 70s sitcom). I'm old enough to remember the show, but I hadn't remembered that Bea Arthur (the show's title star) was credited in that title sequence as "Beatrice Arthur".
I only bring it up -- and we're getting really tangential here, but Rex started it -- because in last week's Friday WSJ contest puzzle, one of the grid answers that turned out to be relevant to the contest was BEAARTHUR, and the relevance was that BEA was a nickname for BEATRICE, and one of the other answers in the grid was THRICE, which added the letter H to the part of the name that was dropped (TRICE) to give the nickname BEA, and the letter H was necessary for solving the meta contest (whew!).
Now that I've typed it all out it seems far less interesting than I thought at first, but it struck me as weirdly coincidental to be reminded twice in five days that Bea Arthur's full name was Beatrice, both in the context of a crossword puzzle (sort of). Thanks for listening.
My first puzzle after bailing out for an extended holiday and I’m so tired after all the festivities that it nearly put me to sleep. Interesting application of the RITE/RIGHT/WRITE/WRIGHT homophone theme though and the finished product deserves some admiration. Easy enough but I did get tangled up on the revealer, not knowing the lemon or the novelist name and no idea Rocksteady was a Jamaican music term. I had AKA thinking it was a stage name for a rapper. Having all three of those running through the revealer was not good.
For me the best part of today was the picture of The Fonz, who happens to also be a big fan of my favorite pro football team. Thanks Rex P and although I missed the back story, I’m glad to hear your rabies saga is over. Yikes!!
Easy-medium. Wacky homophones work for me, liked it more than @Rex did.
Did not know RAE (as clued - Issa would have been OK), and I briefly mixed up my sleeve contents.
Maybe this was a typo...but, you'd think you'd really, really want to be careful of those in crosswords. "56 Across-CON ED, eg."--this isn't anything. COM ED, eg. is a UTIL(ity)
I agree with Nancy. This could have been a winner if it had a zingy revealer.
I'm loving the US Open this year. A delightful nineteen-year-old American girl has an excellent chance. A humble twenty-year-old Spanish kid is making shots I've never seen before. An American twenty-year-old who can hit a 149-mph serve played consistently off the ground last night to get into the semis. Great stuff.
For me, the puzzle had two things going for it: it was on the tough side for a Wednesday and it had a clever theme that was fun to see evolving in its permutations. I agree with @Nancy on the amusing oxymoron of GHOST RIGHT, enjoyed envisioning CIVIL WRiGHTS at work, and thought WRITES OF PASSAGE was really really good. Also liked the touch of SOAR crossing the RITE (Wright) BROTHERS.
Hardest clue for me: dirt-digging = OPPO. Help from previous puzzles: KAL-EL. No idea: BAGEL, WKRP, RAE.
@Rex, happy end of your ordeal, from a fellow PTBS sufferer.
@SouthsideJohnny and @Son Volt - I join you in simmering OUTRAGE over AROAR and the Spelling Bee. I, too, try it every time, hoping they've yielded.
@anonymous at 6:24 a haircut is a coif
Completely bamboozled by OPPO.
I started out really liking this puzzle. Then as I continued (or didn't), I finished it but felt like the clues were playing with my head. Call me crazy (no, don't).
Perhaps because of my background in the theatre, perhaps because I watched the latest episode of "Only Murders ..." last night, I was convinced when I got the first themer (GHOST RIGHT) that it was a play on ghost light (the light left on the stage when the theatre is empty), and that all subsequent answers would swap an "L" sound for an "R" sound. Oops.
Also, much prefer my DEWLAPs on Basset Hounds.
The mid-south was my biggest hang-up. Couldn't think of SHANDY at first and put in SHiNer (as in Shiner Bock Brewery, I suppose). Also forgot SKOR candy and wavered over KALEL. OPPO new to me. All this made for a Wednesday that was not, for me, easy.
@Weezie (6:54) Happy for you that your mom is doing better.
@Dr A (8:06) Thanks for the tips on the children’s books. Timely for me because I’m starting to think about Christmas and have a great nephew who’s getting to be about that age. I would not have expected Henry Winkler to be a WRITER of books but never knew about his dyslexia either.
@Liveprof (9:04) Interesting way to describe your age group by naming TV shows. SOUNDS like a GOOD party game. I fall somewhere in between you and Rex because my favorites were more of the 60s era: Andy Griffith, Dick Van Dyke, Beverly Hillbillies, Bewitched - but I still watch I Love Lucy reruns to this day.
Zippity zip...until it wasn't. My mind kept running into Dudley Do-Rite territory. Kicked off the field when I wanted RITE WRINGERS. I liked that wrong answer. Wrong it was.
Of course I started with ZORBA which I watched probably about 421 times. Finished with POSY and wanted a tissue, a tissue. Sat back when I finished and circled the huhs. OPPO. You are digging dirt, you research it and et voila you cry OPPO!....? I move on over to the myrmecologist which I thought was an entomologist. One little ANT. While all of you have had BAT problems, I had ANT problems. I never killed them but I found out they hate the smell of vinegar. I also took away their food privileges. Eventually the
Queen Mother gave marching orders and they were off to greener pastures.
I didn't know a SHANDY; I've never eaten a SKOR, I didn't know about SAWS and I never met HOYA.
I finished, though.
Then I began to think about HIT THE WALL at around mile 20. MILE 20??? Ay Dios Mio. I'd need a stretcher. I used to jog about 2 miles every morning and sometimes I'd do a 5K. I know that feeling you get (like euphoria) when you can't breath or take another step... but I'd get it after just one little itty bitty mile.
I forgot about The Fonz and his SIT ON IT. I remembered his Exactamundo....I think... And then there was the "Jumping the Shark" episode. I always stayed awake to watch "Laverne and Shirley" just to hear their schlemiel song.
@Weezie. Welcome back and happy mamacita is better.
Coco Gauff had a "bagel" (7d) in the first set of her Quarterfinal match yesterday, at the US Open.
Yikes, I think somehow my comment did not go through. Not gonna reproduce it but just wanted to tell @Weezie I’m so happy to here that your mother has gotten past her post-op complications and is on the road to recovery!
I once had to take a series of Rabies shots. Most general practices don't have them in stock, so I got them at the hospital. I was bit by a dog on a century bike ride in Outter East Bumble, so went back to find the dog, went with the Sherriff to the house where the dog that bit me came from. This was to check and see if the dog had a rabies vaccine. But it wasn't their dog. Off for shots series I went.
My primary care physician, every time I saw him after, would say: hey did you ever get rabies? Like No Doc or I'd be dead! Are you sure you went to medical school?
completely agree with Rex about wad and kosher--must be because I too was watching Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley--same time, same age, same gotta-go-to-bed sadness...
I have a different take on Ghost Write. On Social Media when you stop communicating with someone without any explanation, you are "ghosting" them. Must be a way to do this correctly - right. This is my take on it.
"Wad it up and throw it in the trash" works for me for an error-ridden (written?) essay on a piece of notebook paper. Same paper could also be the spit-wad through a straw, or the folded over rectangle from a rubber band.
I see now that WELLNO fits the tone of the clue, but DEHL... had me thinking Delhi, where cows are sacred.
No problem with "kosher" as clued but totally agree with Rex re "wad"
I like the sort of wordplay in this them so enjoyed the puzzle. The lower right got difficult - couldn't think of 49D"trues", did not know 54D"Hoya" and still don't understand 59D ska" - need to go google it.
Bye the way Rex, those over 80 may also have a little trouble with "Sit on it". Was aware of "Happy Days" and the Fonz but did not watch it enough remember that phrase
Con Ed is an abbreviation for Conway Edison, an electrical utility, and util. is an abbreviation for utility.
A saw is an old saying, or maxim. It is, no doubt, a colloquialism.
@Jason and anon 1:04:
"Today still among the nation's largest gas utility companies, Consolidated Edison, Inc. — known as “Con Edison” or “Con Ed” — began on November 11, 1884, when six New York City gas-light companies..."
Conway Edison may also exist, perhaps as a joke here? I assume they would be going with the one that provides ELEC to the NYT.
Sounds like a rough day for you. Part of the fun of the blog is so much of it seems to be tongue in cheek or maybe drama for the sake of drama. And even if it is not , it’s fun to read it that way.
And she served in the USMC. (Just thought it made sense to continue the tangent.
This was hard for me too and I came to this page hoping Rex would say anything but “Easy” but the Happy Days clip above made it all worth it. I can just imagine my kids saying “Sit on what?” while rolling their eyes if I said “Sit on it” to them.
Once for some reason, I decided to figure out of the homophones, which had the most versions that people actually use. Turned out there are a LOT with 3, but RIGHT RITE WRITE WRIGHT was the only 4.
At 46 across, looking at ----LDI I exclaimed "VIVALDI"! Nope.
Like several other commenters, every time I see AROAR in the xword, I think: maybe, someday, Sam will allow it in Spelling Bee.
Speaking of, [Tues 0. I was stuck at -3 for ages, then suddenly got all 3 of them bam bam bam!]
"I know that feeling you get (like euphoria) when you can't breathe or take another step... but I'd get it after just one little itty bitty mile." --@GILL
Gosh, @GILL -- That sure doesn't sound especially euphoric to me!
@Mike in Bed-Stuy i had the same problem and error, which i could have fixed and finished...except i also had no idea what OPPO was. having DEHLA_ i cheated and ran through the entire alphabet for the last square, but no happy music. so i had to check the blog for the answer. that mess wasn't really acceptable to me on a wednesday.
@SouthsideJohnny i feel the same way about AROAR being so commonplace in the crossword and yet SB says no. i still try it every time though. maybe someday...
@Johnny Mic i also guessed faTHERS first, which was "confirmed" by my guess at "dOff" for "take off." bit of mess there for awhile and even after i sorted it out, naticked in the same spot as you as well.
ComEd in Illinois; ConEd in NY
@anon 12:56pm it's both. "ghost right", i.e., to ghost someone "correctly" is the ~wacky~ answer to the clue as written, and is a play on ghostwrite. (just like "writes of passage" is the ~wacky~ answer to someone writing about a sea voyage, and is a play on "rites of passage.")
Many. The noun ghostwriter is more common but the verb ghostwrite does occur, usually in the past tense
I don't get 36Down: Heath Bar Shelfmate. "SKOR". First, did they mean HeaLth? Either way, what does SKOR have to do with it?
OPPO is a pretty common term among political strategists -- it's short for "oppositional," and it involves "digging up dirt" on one's opponent (e.g., a love affair or an early drug bust).
I know what the homophone version GHOSTWRITE means but the wackified version GHOST RIGHT, no. The clue was no help in this regard and judging from other comments, I'm not alone in giving the side eye to GHOST RIGHT and its clue.
I thought the other homophonic themers, however, stuck the landing. I especially liked CIVIL WRIGHTS. Usually WRIGHT is preceded by its specialty---the PBS show The WoodWRIGHT's Shop comes to mind---but at least the "ship" part of this WRIGHT is supplied in the clue "Cordial shipbuilders".
And then there's the issue of whether SOUNDS GOOD is clever word play or just simply wide of the mark as an apt revealer. I'm in the wide of the mark camp.
So I think this puzzle would have worked better with CIVIL WRIGHTS, WRITES OF PASSAGE and RITE BROTHERS as themers and then make the reveal SOUNDED RIGHT. That gives the reveal 12 letters to match a symmetrically placed CIVIL WRIGHTS.
Another plus with three themers and a reveal would be more open grid space with increased degrees of freedom for emphasis on quality fill.
Just saying.
The word kosher has entered the (American) English language and once it did , non speakers of Hebrew (or Yiddish) will do what they want with it. The clue didn’t refer to another language. Personally, I haven’t heard kosher used that way , but I assume the editors found examples. In context, a hard clue/answer for a Wednesday.
It's spit ball. Nobody ever said wad when I was in school (okay, way, way back). But I got Wad and also Kosher.
This was one of those puzzles where I struggled mightily - cheated just a tad - and still finished with one mistake in the SKOR KALEL neighborhood. And Rex says EASY! Well, he kind of does this for a living (aside from his life in Binghamton on my - and other's - tax dollars.) Actually I am quite proud of our State Universities here in New York and all of their staff - including Rex. I only say stuff like that when the puzzle beats me up like this one did.
But tomorrow is another day in which I get older and the puzzle gets harder. At 77 years of age, that should be my biggest problem!
Consolidated Edison
@Nancy 2:02. Sounds crazy, right? But ask any runner (I'm lucky to walk fast now since I did several numbers on my knees) and they will tell you that you do reach this sorta high in your brain. I'm not sure euphoria is the RIGHT term but it's a feeling hard to describe...like maybe you're going to die.....
This was awful for me. I gave up. Did proudly get SAUSAGES after considering golf course. And got WKRP (I'm 34, fwiw) but forgot all about SIT ON IT. GETBENT fits, you know?
I had ZORro instead of ZORBA (huh). Also didn't understand KOSHER. GHOST RIGHT meaning nicely is awkward to me. Did get TOOTHBRUSH, that was easy, not enough help.
Maybe with more diligence, Weds is usually quick for me.
@jberg— came here at 3 AN, Rex hadn’t posted, came back just now and it’s all been said. @Weezie, glad to hear your mother’s better!
But everyone: learn your basic farm animal anatomy!
When you stop texting with someone suddenly, it’s called “ghosting”… as in, the woman I took out last month isn’t texting me anymore…she’s ghosting me.
Whoa! I instantly recognized the cover of that Fonzie book, too. I loved the Fonz.
Com Ed is Commonwealth Edison. Con Ed is Consolidated Edison.
I liked it because all the "rights" were wrong but were right as wackily clued. Nice concept. Amusing to me anyway.
Runners high caused by some opiate-like substance the body produces. Literally gets you addicted to exercise.
Runner's wall was a freezing up of the body that was the brain telling you to quit it stupid. According to legend hitting about mile 20 in a marathon.
But my info based on memories of long ago. Maybe thinking has changed or never was.
@GILL (4:48) -- Oh, sure, I know all about "Runner's High". We tennis players don't live under a rock, after all. It's just that I thought runners would be enjoying their high long, LONG before they "couldn't breathe" or "thought they were going to die". My feeling is: Grab your euphoria as early on in the race as you can and then get the hell off the track as fast as your little feet will carry you. I call it "avoiding Runner's Low." :)
@Nancy
Be advised. I'm going to stop erasing your duplicate posts.
Re; all the stuff I needed to learn from today's puz in the form of a zany mnemonic story:
'SAL's Paradise & Happy Days Dude Ranch' was a donkey ranch, which included his fave ASS, ANDY. He did SIT ON IT early each AM, and often had to admonish his friend, "SH ANDY, it's too early, you'LL wake the guests" (remember those two 'l's; they'LL show up later in Kal-El). Now, ironically, SHANDY just happened to be the name of the mixed drink he was holding (comprising beer and ASSAM 'black tea', or at least it looked 'blackish', as the sun had yet to rise).
Later at breakfast, he and some of the dude ranchers were reading Rex Parker's xword blog and listening to WKRP, featuring an interview with Fonzie of Happy Days and his pal, Kal-el (with the two 'l's), aka, Superman, who was part owner of the station, along 'W'ith Rex Parker. Btw, the 'W' stands for 'east of the Mississippi', but 'SAL's Paradise & Happy Days Dude Ranch' was in the West; go figure!
Just then, someone noticed a trail of arMY ANTs filing through the kitchen, and almost exactly at that moment, an unbelievable coincidence occurred: Sal's OPPO (English pal; not a dirt digger, per se) booked into the ranch. It just so happened she was an ANT enthusiast, well-versed in the secrets of the tiny creatures. This skilled myrmecologist, let's call her 'Myra the ecologist' (who eventually lost her (a) to an (m), soon had the Myrmidon warriors marching out of doors. Myra had been 'On the Road' with Sal & Neal back in the day, so it was a Happy reunion in more ways than one.
The final event of the morning was the arrival of Chang-RAE Lee who wanted to get the hang of realee riding donkeys. He planned on writing a book featuring the unique "Sal's Happy Days Paradise Dude Ranch". (A collaboration with ChatGPT)
Now I need to connect them to 'pegs or hooks', assign the list of 9 to a series, e.g., the 1100s, and Bob is my uncle.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I was thinking the same thing...
Under 45 reporting in to say this one was a slog. Took me a long time to get the theme and the fill took forever. Never seen happy days, didn’t even know what show the Fonz was from though I’d heard the name. Certainly didn’t know the phrase, needed every cross but one.
Never heard of anythony Quinn and though Zorba the Greek is a phrase I’ve heard, again needed most of the crosses. Had to look up Superman’s birth name because A) it’s a weird made up name and b) why would I know that.
Thanks for that!
It's October: "Thriller" time. Is this an example? WELL, NO.
Can't we please put AROAR to bed? It's starting to give me an ACHE.
That is all I will WRITEOFPASSAGE on this clunker. Bogey.
Wordle par.
Not very stimulating.
I'm an old geezer who got into Xword puzzles a few years ago and attempting to solve the NYT version every morning makes for a great start to my day.
I've gone from solving the Monday versions to now being able to successfully complete most of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday challenges.
That being said, I've never begrudged the fact that many of references to modern music and culture fly beneath my radar. I welcome learning about people and things that I would never encounter otherwise in my daily life. I'm confused by those - including Rex - who often criticize certain puzzles as skewing old.
Is there a prescribed age a puzzle should aim for, and if so, what is it? 30? 40? 50?
I use every answer I'm unable to come up with as a learning experience. I don't blame the constructor or attempt to find excuses for my ignorance. Yes, sometimes the answers are obscure, sometimes strained, and sometimes 'unfair'.
Use it all as a learning opportunity and leave your ego at the door. You may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.
So what?
DEW IT RIME?
WELLNO, IT's not RIGHT,
but BROTHER IT SHOULD
be SEEN as THIS might
ELICIT, "SOUNDSGOOD."
--- ZORBA ROMA
The title of this puzzle should have been: Right Word, Wrong Phrase.
This was a very easy Wedpuz.
I've known what a dewlap is since being a little kid. Many animals have one besides bovines, including a number of dog breeds. But one of the most obvious dewlaps is on the turkey, aka wattle.
The answer to 1D could only be zags, not zigs. You zig zag, not zag zig. First you go one way (zig), then you go the other way (zag)! The constructor handed it to you on a silver looking chrome plated platter.
Rex, the clue says projectile, no saliva is mentioned. Even in your day, I'm sure many a kid WADded up a piece of paper they tore out of their notebook and threw it across the room at another kid. And it is called a spitball! Spitwad is it's non-kosher cousin.
Speaking of kosher, I can't believe more people haven't heard of the kosher asana. Yes, it is one of the more difficult yoga poses, but the harder the pose, the more you have to stretch to get it right.
One very last thing. I was a little surprised that more people didn't know what a shandy was. I've never had one, but I knew it was a beer. The Leinenkugel Summer Shandy is the top selling one in the country, and it is sold in all fifty states , and I'm sure many microbreweries also make shandys. Perhaps it helps that my best friend went to U of W Eau Claire back in the 70's, not far from Leinenkugel's brewery, which is when I learned about that local brewer, and then other small breweries that were around the Chicago and Wisconsin area. Miller bought Leinenkugel, and eventually came out with the Summer Shandy. Then Anheuser-Busch gobbled up Miller.
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