THEME: "SO WHAT'S THE STORY?" (62A: "Care to fill me in?" ... or a hint to 17-, 23-, 37- and 55-Across's final words) — last words of themers are components of stories:
Theme answers:
ARABIC CHARACTER (17A: Alif, ba, ta or hamza)
SCATTER PLOT (23A: Math diagram with an array of dots)
EARTH TONE (37A: Color such as khaki or ocher)
GOAL-SETTING (55A: Preplanning activity)
Word of the Day: BABOONS (41D: Monkeys with long snouts) —
Baboons vary in size and weight depending on the species. The smallest, the Kinda baboon, is 50 cm (20 in) in length and weighs only 14 kg (31 lb), while the largest, the chacma baboon, is up to 120 cm (47 in) in length and weighs 40 kg (88 lb). All baboons have long, dog-like muzzles, heavy, powerful jaws with sharp canine teeth, close-set eyes, thick fur except on their muzzles, short tails, and nerveless, hairless pads of skin on their protruding buttocks called ischial callosities that provide for sitting comfort. Male hamadryas baboons have large white manes. Baboons exhibit sexual dimorphism in size, colour and/or canine teeth development.
Baboons are diurnal and terrestrial, but sleep in trees, or on high cliffs or rocks at night, away from predators. They are found in open savannas and woodlands across Africa. They are omnivorous and their diet consists of a variety of plants and animals. Their principal predators are Nile crocodiles, leopards, lions and hyenas. Most baboons live in hierarchical troops containing harems. Baboons can determine from vocal exchanges what the dominance relations are between individuals. (wikipedia)
• • •
[GIBBONS (not pictured: BABOONS)]
Oof. That was rough. Those 7s (the longish Downs in the corners) really roughed me up, particularly in the NW, where neither PORSCHE nor ATAHALT would come. At all. Plus, never heard of a SCATTER PLOT, so I just stared at S--TTERPLOT like "???" Maybe I have heard of SCATTER PLOT, because eventually that's what I (tentatively) guessed, and that helped me see PORSCHE, but yeesh and yikes. PORSCHE is so far down my mental list of German automakers. Me: "BMW, AUDI, VOLKSWAGEN, MERCEDES ... OPEL? ... man, I am out of ideas." And ATAHALT, so ugly. That section was the toughest overall, but it was not the section that really did me in. That honor belonged to the southwest, but in that case, the problem was All Mine. See, I had -ONS at the end of 41D: Monkeys with long snouts, and while my brain definitely pictured BABOONS, my brain wrote GIBBONS. And the "G" worked and the "I" worked and the "B" (!) worked and the second "B" ... didn't. It gave me MBAT at 58A. And I knew that was wrong. I prayed that was wrong, anyway ... and it was. So I just kept pulling GIBBONS out and then ... putting it in ... and then ... trying to think of other monkeys, and then ... wondering if anything else might be wrong (it wasn't). I kept thinking "OK, what if that cross is MCAT? MEAT?" Only after a bit did I decided to run More of the alphabet, hit the "O," and go "O .......... d'oh! It's BABOONS!" It's BABOONS. (And MOAT)
As for the theme, it feels a little off to me, somehow, starting with the revealer. I found it really hard to parse, and even when I got it I wasn't sure I had it. I can definitely hear someone saying it, exactly as written, but the "SO" part also feels a little extraneous. Beyond that, it's just a "last words"-type theme. CHARACTER, PLOT, and SETTING make sense. TONE ... less so. I mean, yes, stories have tone, but all writing has tone, whereas the other words are all associated much more strongly with fiction in particular. Also, as I say, no idea what SCATTER PLOT. That's on me, for sure; it just seems very non-Monday, as theme answers go. But while that answer is merely somewhat harder than normal, I think GOAL-SETTING is actively not good. I had it correct but could not conceive how it would be clued. I just looked at the phrase like "what ... is that?" Turns out it's the setting ... of goals. PLACE SETTING and JET-SETTING are much much better SETTING answers. TREND-SETTING too. GOAL-SETTING feels forced somehow. BURIAL PLOT & JET-SETTING are the same length and seem like better themer options than their counterparts here.
["Me and Rex took the car, ha ha! Stay home ... Stay."]
Other than the [German automaker] and GIBBONS debacles, my only issue was how to spell NASSER (50D: Egypt's Lake ___, near Aswan Dam). I had NASSAR at first, which gave me ATON in the cross, which is a totally plausible answer. But NASSER ended up feeling more right. Or, rather, NASSAR started feeling wrong. Started looking like a typo of NASCAR. And since ETON > ATON (barely), I decided to gamble on ETON, and it paid off. That's enough for today. See you tomorrow
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Happy 17th birthday to ... this blog :) Thanks to everyone for reading and hate-reading me all these years. I really appreciate it.
Medium. SnUb before SHUN ate up some nanoseconds. BonobOS before BABOONS was also costly (fortunately, gibbons never crossed my mind). A smooth and solid Monday, liked it.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #845 was on the easy side for a Croce. The SW was the toughest part for me. Good luck!
Like all of Ms. Lempel’s puzzles, this was fun, clean and clever. Have never met a puzzle of hers I did not like.
Editorially, I think this was hard for a Monday. I have been doing Monday puzzles with my 14 and 16 year old granddaughters for several months and I this was the toughest for them yet. Not like Connections today with moldy sitcom families but hard nonetheless. IDA, AT A HALT, ORINOCO, ARABIC …, NASSER all tough sledding for a Monday.
I’d like to be among the first to say that very few, if any, of us are hate-reading you,Rex. You’ve been the anchor for a solid community where we care about each other and, especially, about you. I can’t thank you enough for the time you put into this blog. Rest assured that you are much loved. And congrats on your 17th!!! I’ll be back in the morning with my puzzle comments.
And hands up for every single thing that you said in your first paragraph, and in fact in the whole write up. "Never heard of SCATTER PLOT", agree; I figured it had to be something like SCATTER SHOT. Or SHUTTER SLOT, if that's a thing.
And solving down clues only, when I finally put in the last answer and got the Happy Pencil I thought... really? I spent a minute trying to figure out what the heck the theme was (without reading the revealer's clue, of course). Then when I gave up and read the across clues it was... really? The "fill me in" part worked with TONE... you can fill in a tone, literally (think painting). I guess you can "fill in" all of them, in a way. Oh, well; finished without "cheating" and reading any of the across clues, so all is good.
[Spelling Bee: Sun. at 10pm local time currently -1, missing a 7er. 79 words is a lot!]
OPUS was sitting on her PORSCHE eating an EGG CRISP when IDA (who was a bit to a TOTAL DOTE) decided to MONA on over and join OPUS.
IDA was a bit of a SCATTER brain. Although quite the CHARACTER, she never wore a BRA (even though her ORINOCO was a TOTAL SAG)..but her EMOTION would run high when she'd tell a RICH STORY about her DEBUT with an OGRE an ORC and a BABOON.
She SAT DOWN one day with OPUS and told her STORY about this OGRE in her ROOM. She was TIED up when this ORC from DOWN under started to PLOT this UNHIP OPUS that would REND LOTS of ARABIC music from his STEREOS. The MINARET DOWN the END of the street began to BANG a TONE that was the STAPLE DEBUT of RAPT music . To her, it felt like the TOTAL END of her EPA RIMS.
The PLOT would thicken. The BABOON was NYSYNC with the OGRE and they had LOTS in common. They were RAPT up in their EVER evil CHARACTER and their PLOT to SEND IDA to her END was RICH.
IDA became a TOTAL wreck. This ATE AWAY at her LOTS. She needed to tell her STORY so that she could PARDON the BABOON and the OGRE and the ORC She needed to END this...It ATE AWAY at her EMOTION...She needed a LATTE with ARABIC SOW milk to put her nerves AT A HALT.
OPUS would bring IDA back down to EARTH. The EGG CRISP (her STAPLE snack) that she'd eat on her PORSCHE were gone. She set a TONE. From now on IDA would SET a GOAL and she would PARDON OGRE, ORC and BABOON. No more RAPT AHS...No more BRA that would make her SAG ....LOTS to END!
And that's her STORY. LOTS of folks don't believe it and will be TORN with EMOTION, but lets be OVA this...We need to set a RAPT TONE and sing an ORINOCO OPUS...Sail away, ail away, sail away.
I'll come out in defense of SCATTERPLOT, that old Excel stalwart. I can vouch that it exists, and I would have booked it under common knowledge (but I have a science background).
Wish there would have been a more solid link between the revealer and the themers...felt a bit forced to me.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance):
1. Contest featuring Apollo (5)(4) 2. Stand up during a presentation (5) 3. McTwist, for one (10)(5) 4. Whirred processor? (7) 5. Key board players (4)
Hilarious! I always enjoy your Tales From Crosslandia, stifling my laughter at three in the morning so as not to wake up my wife, who no doubt thinks I’m a TOTAL BABOON
Have to stretch a bit to really call that a theme - especially with the license they took with the TONE entry. Not really worth it when it comes with stuff like MINARET, ORINOCO and NASSER (which sounds like a law firm). A fine, workable Monday - but nothing special, and a little heavier on PPP than usual (PORSCHE is German?).
Let me add my congratulations on your longevity, @Rex! May there be many more!
Fun, easy-ish puzzle. Three overwrites: 23A: @okanaganer SCATTERshOT before SCATTER PLOT without reading the clue 41D: @jae BonOboS before BABOONS 45D: ORoNOCO before ORINOCO
Happy 17th Rex! I love reading your blog! And the commentary as well. I always learn something.
My husband doesn’t do the puzzle, but sometimes he participates in the end of my solving, especially for the late-week puzzles. Our most frequent exchange: “what does Rex have to say?” “OMG, he thought it was easy??”
Thanks for making doing the puzzle that much more fun!
What makes GOAL SETTING a preplanning activity, as opposed to a planning activity?
I'm willing to believe that to writers, those things are important elements to a STORY. But I've never heard of that foursome in that context (or any context), so I’m going to call this a theme failure.
Had no idea that PORSCHE was German or that latte had espresso in it. Cars and coffee; it does not get much more outside my wheelhouse than that.
Croce Freestyle 845 was hard for me. No idea what the 1A clue is getting at, even now. 42D/61A cross yielded a DNF, as 61A clue meant nothing to me and I had a very reasonable (but wrong) answer for 42D.
Lynn has been making NYT crosswords for 44 years, yet her puzzles always feel fresh. How fresh? Lynn has had 331 NYT answer debuts – 331! – including today’s revealer and all the theme answers except for EARTH TONE.
Her offerings are also always junk-lite and impeccably clued for the day they appear. I always leave them thinking, “Man, that was a quality puzzle.” I love what comes out of LL’s bean.
Today, I filled in the theme answers, left the revealer blank, and tried to guess what it was. I love doing this – it’s a bonus puzzle on top of filling in the grid, and it’s something I’m not very good at, but getting better, I think, and it’s always fun. I did see that the last words of the theme answers were elements of fiction, but was still lost on what the revealer could be. “Something with NOVEL?” I wondered. Oh, well. Small steps.
I liked seeing a backward APE keeping company with the BABOONS. I loved seeing two abutting gorgeous words MINARET and ORINOCO. And I liked the theme echo in ARC (Hi, Darcey O’D!).
Lynn, I always light up when I see your name atop a puzzle, because I know that in addition to experiencing a lovely solve, I will be spending time immersed in beauty, today being no exception. Thank you so much!
Cute early week puzzle that LL has nearly perfected. Not the most splashy theme - but it is nuanced and follows along with the solve. Well filled overall - liked the ORINOCO + MINARET stack.
Eroded is more of a wearing away. UNHIP is a little off as is the RICH to calorie-laden connection. PORSCHE helped develop VW and by association Audi so they should be well known.
Congrats, @Rex; amazing dedication all these years! 🌟
Med (I guess?).
Went downs only; didn't seem too hard, except for laying an EGG at NASSaR / a TON.
Love the challenge of the downs only solve. Will look much more forward to Mon. puz's from now on. Forgot last week, so've asked my assistant (Siri) to remind me every Sun. at 3:00 PM.
Had fun slippin' and slidden' down to PLOp in Lake NASSER with 'A' big splash! 💦
Thx @jae; on it! :) ___
David & Jane's Sun. acrostic on xwordinfo.com was med. dif; I love their work! :) ___ On to Tim Croce's #845. 🤞 with Brooke Husic's New Yorker Mon. on tap for tm. ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
12 seconds from a Monday record. Not sure why, but this one seemed easy. Maybe because I took a math class or two instead of simply rhetoric, so scatterplot jumped out?
I thought that the revealer would be A NOVEL APPROACH. Or A NOVEL ENDING. Something like that.
High point of the puzzle: Learning some ARABIC CHARACTERS. I knew "alif" from crossword puzzles, but I didn't know the others. I imagine I'll always remember "hamza" because it's so Wowza.
Or perhaps not.
No junk in the fill and the fill was pretty sophisticated for a Monday. A good thing. But to me, the joy is always in the cluing and as far as that was concerned, the puzzle left me cold. Not a spark of wit or imagination anywhere.
Wow. It's always interesting to see how different people's brains work with these puzzles. I did downs-only and thought it was phenomenonally easy, at least until I was stumped at the very end by NASSER and INTERIM (the latter being mostly just a brain fart by me).
@Rex: as someone in academia, I'm surprised you haven't heard of SCATTER PLOT. Then again, I've never really known what those Humanities faculty actually do all day. It's standard fare in the Sciences, no stranger than bar graph or pie chart.
A dead giveaway that gibbons is not the right answer: gibbons aren't monkeys. Neither are bonobos for that matter.
Porsche seemed like a gimme to me; it's one of the classically quintessential German brands along with BMW, Audi, and VW (in fact, the latter two are part of the same company as Porsche) and the only one of those four that fit.
As for the theme, it seems generally ok for a Monday. All except EARTH TONE. Tone seems like one of those things that people mention in passing as though it's actually a part of writing, but doesn't really exist. Like a book's "warmth " or "spirit" or "energy". Do people really sit around and discuss a book's tone? Maybe. Like I said, I don't know what those Humanities folks actually spend their time doing at work.
Anyone who has ever taken any type of statistics course would be familiar with the term "scatter plot." I would think that would be quite a few people. But maybe that's the kind of thing you learn in school and then forget, if you never use it again.
Hey All ! Slightly tougher MonPuz here. A couple minutes over average. Nice, for a Monday. Wasn't a fly-through fill in as fast as you can puz.
Coherent Theme, in I can see a conversation sorta like: "You've got the CHARACTERs, a PLOT, a TONE and a SETTING." "That's right." "SO, WHATS THE STORY?" /scene
Haven't read @Gill yet, but with the entries here, I'm sure it's a good story.
Another good Lempel puz. She's taking the Monday Queen title from CC. (Not CC RIDER, har)
Monday, stop coming around so fast!
No F's (WHATS THE STORY with that?) RooMonster DarrinV
Here's my story. It's a RANT. As a classical guitar student and ukulele teacher, you can imagine the low esteem I'm held among my friends and family. It's a large part of the reason I take my morning crossword and coffee so seriously. That, and 🦖. I might be worthless, but among everyone I know, I have the best first hour of the day everyday.
Now tomorrow, because I don't pay attention to things the government mails to me about my PORSCHE, er, scooter, I'm required to be at the DMV at, get this, 7:30 am. This will REND my sittin' around time in an UNHIP way.
7:30 am.
It seems like a time you should be arrested for being outside unless you're an emergency room nurse. When I worked at Starbucks, I had to be there at 4:30 am, and by 5 am the same old men were in line for a LATTE everyday, and I'd bet money all of them had a dead body buried under their backyard gardens.
So I'm savoring today's crossword outing with EMOTION as tomorrow's will involve a to-go cup and a visit to the leper colony.
The theme here is delightful. I so enjoy the early phase of writing fiction. The CHARACTER back stories, the choices on the depth of SETTING, the very loose pre-PLOT you envision knowing the characters won't respect your wishes, and then the TONE of my grating verbosity goes to work and soon it turns into a secretarial affair filled with drudgery and wondering why every character is behaving like a lunatic.
Tee-Hees: BRA! BANG!
Uniclues:
1 Step 1 Grow beard. Step 2 Become leader of the free world. Step 3 End slavery. Step 4 Go to the theater. 2 The 1%. 3 Flirty filer.
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Childhood nickname for future Sci-Fi queen Croft after learning what those holes in the wall do when combined with a butter knife. ELECTRICAL OUTLET LARA.
Very similar to Southside Johnny - I did not know MINARET, ORINOCO and NASSER. And PORSCHE is German? Didnt really know that either. Medium puzzle . 6 minutes or so
@kitshef - I assume you would never watch Comedians in Cars getting Coffee, a Netflix series from Jerry Seinfeld. He gets together with old comedian pals in really expensive cars to go to diners mostly in Long Island, it would seem. This is what wealth from residuals looks like:)
Do people think Porsche is Italian because it is stylish or something? Check out the RSCH consonant cluster, what is more German?
Mack, you can't leave Mercedes-Benz off the list, THE quintessential German auto maker, with Bavarian Motor Works a close second.
I just worked this one normally today and didn't even see a lot of theme clues, just filled in the blanks Wheel of Fortune style.
@egs (1:03 am) -- my sentiments exactly -- well said! Bravo, Rex!
@Gary Jugert (9:36)-- I checked with my wife so I know I'm right -- there is no higher calling than classical guitar student and ukulele teacher - you're a lucky guy.
Congratulations Rex, and thank you for doing this blog. I miss it when I am unable to read it regularly. I have been away for a while but am glad I got back for today’s edition.
C'mon Rex - you gotta be playing a "birthday" joke on us (your write-up).
Anyway, this was the easiest Monday ever (thank you, Lynn!).
Happy Birthday! I don't remember when I discovered your blog) but I used to print the NYT Times "Gothic" & take it with me to work. So I know I've been here a while.
We'd all be lost without you (or should I say your comments) so HB again :)
Well, good -- but didn't seem quite as clever as most Lempel puzs. Sure did like her revealer, tho. Also, did seem a smidge bit challengin, for a MonPuz. OK, by m&e.
staff weeject pick: YDS. Plural abbreve meat. honrable mention to ARC, as it has sometimes been clued as a story line.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Ship alongside the Nina and the Santa Maria} = PINTA.
Congratz on 17 great years of bad-ass bloggin, @RP. M&A mostly tends to har-read the blog.
Thanx for thickenin the puzplot, Ms. Lempel darlin.
@Liveprof 10:42 AM 😜 Your wife is wise, powerful, beautiful, and (it might be time to lock the liquor cabinet) prone to getting into the hooch a little early on Mondays?
Oh, and I forgot to mention my German engineering factoid. BMW designed and built my Mini Cooper and to replace the oil pan gasket, a $20 piece of rubber, they need to pull out the entire engine, an $850 labor charge. Way to go Germany. Next car will be a Nissan.
Happy birthday Rex Parker! I assume that the birth of this blog triggered the nom de plume? Anyway, you were a valuable source of reference to me for several years before I ever took the plunge and joined the commentariat. But never once, before or after, did I ever “hate read” your reviews. It’s always a pleasure, even when we disagree. I don’t know how you keep at it day in and day out but I hope you will keep on having birthdays. Thank you for your years of dedication and especially for fostering the daily discourse among this quirky crowd of fellow cruciverbalists.
Congratulations for 17 years! I'm in the love/hate read crowd, depending on the day, but always appreciative and impressed by the dedication to keep this going EVERY day for this long - it takes time and effort even to find a sub, sometimes even more. Your ability to drive engagement here and in life is a real model!
I can't remember how long I've been on here and wonder if there is a way to find my earliest post. Anyone know if that's possible?
Tone is actually a thing in literature, though not a concrete element in the story the way the others are. But I don't mind its inclusion here. A nifty Monday puzzle. Now I'm off to read "The Domed Porsches of Atahalt" by Mona O'Nair.
Rex, Maybe id you didn't insist on doing downs only, you would have a few less complaints. "goal setting" is a great answer for the clue. And something I'm sure I've heard in other settings Did think "matter shot" washed for a Monday. Didn't have too much trouble filling it in. but never heard of it.
I could not think what the theme was so did not enjoy it as I was doing the puzzle, but did enjoy it once I got the revealer And no the "So" is not superfluous.
Fair play. That's another brain fart by me. MB absolutely belongs on that list. That's what I get for trying to formulate thoughts immediately after waking
I saw a PORSCHE in a parking lot only yesterday, so that probably helped me think of it. Much harder was seeing that I had to change ARABIan to ARABIC to make it fit. Also SnUb/AT An end.
That's all from me today, I have to go read C.P. Snow's essay on "The Two Cultures" to see if he discusses the SCATTERPLOT.
I'm surprised at the little uproar about "tone" as part of a story. As a longtime English tutor, I can confirm that tone in fiction is taught first in middle school. Kids have considerable trouble understanding and identifying a story's tone.
@Rex - Thanks for doing this, it’s something I look forward to every day.
@Kitshef - Re: Croce 845 - Changing 1a was my last entry, it definitely deserves a side eye. I did know 42d otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten 41a or 61a.
@Gill, The Baboon was Ensync with the Ogre, hilarious!
Saturday was so difficult for me and Sunday was a lot of going back and forth but today was super simple. If I hadn't thrown in Trim for Thin, I would've finished this in my fastest time ever, 5 minutes and change, nothing to brag about here, but relatively none of my relatives are faster.
@Gary Jugert, The heating and air went out on the driver's side of my Mini Cooper. Cost to repair, $3,600. Not going to do it. I'll freeze to death first. Ever put in a new battery. Just wait. My son still drives our 1999 Toyota Sienna. My next car will be a Toyota.
All the car chatter reminds me of the wonderful Car Talk guys Ray and Tom, may the one who passed away rest in peace.
Here's a story for RP -- they once had a caller who described an assortment of troubles with his old car. One of the car talk guys said -- "With a car like that, you must be a student." And the other one said: "Or worse -- a professor!"
I thought it was a good Monday puzzle although the reveal SO WHAT'S THE STORY didn't quite stick the landing for me. CHARACTER, PLOT, TONE and SETTING are four elements of a STORY but they are not THE STORY itself, which is what the reveal is asking.
Today's assignment for the Commentariat: Analyze the four elements of @Gill I.'s 1:26 charming and witty STORY. Hint---part of the TONE is set toward the end with "sail away, sail away, sail away". It connects with the crossword STAPLE Enya who has appeared in the NYTXW 140 times during the Shortz era, nine of those times clued as her song ORINOCO Flow.
By the way, did yous know that a small, young BABOON is called a BABOONLET?
@burtonkd 11:44 -- I don't know much about how Blogger works, even though I have a blog profile on this site myself, so I'm not sure if you can have a Blogger account (or whatever it is) prior to coming on the Rexblog. But if you can't, @burtonkd, then I have you pegged as having come to this site in 2007.
Here's what I've cut and pasted from your profile:
PORSCHE -- Not at all a "luxury" car if you're in what passes for the "back seat".
The year: 1962. I'm in Berkeley for the summer -- and being driven to S.F by new friends for a Giants game at Candlestick Park. (It's only been 5 years since my beloved NY Giants were pirated out of NYC and it's my first chance to see them in the flesh.)
The car I'm being driven in is a PORSCHE. (No, I don't know the model or the year.) Who will sit in the "back seat", the group asks itself. The answer? "Oh, Nancy's short, so she won't mind."
But Nancy DID mind. Nancy minded A LOT. The most uncomfortable car ride I've ever been on. And then I had to do it again going back. I have hated the PORSCHE ever since. You could not give one away to me for free. That's how much I hate the PORSCHE. You call yourself a car? Hah! I call you a sardine can.
PORSCHE -- Not at all a "luxury" car if you're in what passes for the "back seat".
The year: 1962. I'm in Berkeley for the summer -- and being driven to S.F by new friends for a Giants game at Candlestick Park. (It's only been 5 years since my beloved NY Giants were pirated out of NYC and it's my first chance to see them in the flesh.)
The car I'm being driven in is a PORSCHE. (No, I don't know the model or the year.) Who will sit in the "back seat", the group asks itself. The answer? "Oh, Nancy's short, so she won't mind."
But Nancy DID mind. Nancy minded A LOT. The most uncomfortable car ride I've ever been on. And then I had to do it again going back. I have hated the PORSCHE ever since. You could not give one away to me for free. That's how much I hate the PORSCHE. You call yourself a car? Hah! I call you a sardine can.
Cogratulations on 17 years and thank you for 17 years. I don't know if I've know of the blog that long, but I have been checking it for many years. Never commented till this spring. Like many - I don't always agree with you, and I rarely have the same sense of ease with puzzles that you have - but I have learned from you and I always appreciate your views. The guest bloggers are lovely, but they are almost too lovely for my taste!!
As for other today news - I found the puzzle fairly easy and enjoyable AND my mother celebrates her 93rd birthday! All in all a good day!
@Rex -- 17 years and yet every day your piece feels fresh, with new stuff you've never said before, funny stuff, insightful stuff, with words put together in often dazzling ways. Remarkable.
A huge gift in two ways -- Your talent, and what we get from you.
@Rex....What in the world did I do without you in the morning before you came along.. Peet's coffee, Sacramento Bee, feed and walk the dogs...stare at my calendar...Nothing of TV...Sigh. I remember tippy toeing in when I first discovered you..so many smart people, will I fit in? I even remember one of your commentators telling me my English was awful. It made your blog so much more fun..... I hope you continue everything you do - I like it.
@Anoa 4:21. So you caught on with sail away? I'm going to try and fit in BABOONLET next time I write my silly's.....:-)
what does it mean to solve "downs-only?" I'm wondering how Rex solved downs-only yet still had "-ONS at the end of 41D." Wouldn't the -ONS come from an across?
Thanks for pointing that out. There's no way you can solve a crossword using "downs only".
Suppose the clue is "Foreign farewell". How would you know if it's ADIOS or ADIEU without looking at any crosses?
Rex is all about "writing" in (on screen) the first thing that comes into his head, and then "erasing" it later. But if he's not reading the across clues, how would he possibly know what to change? I call B.S.
This is some ignorant shit. No wonder you posted anonymously on a day when no one was looking. Please find a child to explain to you how one might distinguish between ADIOS and ADIEU when solving Downs-only.
Maybe a little harder than usual for a Monpuz, but I don't like read/write ones. But my puzzle was much harder at the bottom. Because of a typesetting error, my puzzle was missing the last 6 down clues, and the 43A clue had only the last word of the 53A clue, plus the 44A clue had the first word of the 54A clue replacing its first word. Bizarre!
Congrats on 17 (you know what I mean) but especially commemorating it with Stevie on the edge. She even LOOKED like a white-winged dove.
I too felt a "one of these things is not like the others" jolt with TONE, but it does belong. The others are the Big Three of writing, but if you have to come up with a fourth themer, TONE will certainly do. STYLE would also work.
A typical Lempel puzzle: no junk. Birdie.
Wordle par; a 50-50 shot for birdie. Wrong one again.:(
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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76 comments:
Medium. SnUb before SHUN ate up some nanoseconds. BonobOS before BABOONS was also costly (fortunately, gibbons never crossed my mind). A smooth and solid Monday, liked it.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #845 was on the easy side for a Croce. The SW was the toughest part for me. Good luck!
Like all of Ms. Lempel’s puzzles, this was fun, clean and clever. Have never met a puzzle of hers I did not like.
Editorially, I think this was hard for a Monday. I have been doing Monday puzzles with my 14 and 16 year old granddaughters for several months and I this was the toughest for them yet. Not like Connections today with moldy sitcom families but hard nonetheless. IDA, AT A HALT, ORINOCO, ARABIC …, NASSER all tough sledding for a Monday.
I’d like to be among the first to say that very few, if any, of us are hate-reading you,Rex. You’ve been the anchor for a solid community where we care about each other and, especially, about you. I can’t thank you enough for the time you put into this blog. Rest assured that you are much loved. And congrats on your 17th!!! I’ll be back in the morning with my puzzle comments.
Rex happy 17th! Way to hang in there!
And hands up for every single thing that you said in your first paragraph, and in fact in the whole write up. "Never heard of SCATTER PLOT", agree; I figured it had to be something like SCATTER SHOT. Or SHUTTER SLOT, if that's a thing.
And solving down clues only, when I finally put in the last answer and got the Happy Pencil I thought... really? I spent a minute trying to figure out what the heck the theme was (without reading the revealer's clue, of course). Then when I gave up and read the across clues it was... really? The "fill me in" part worked with TONE... you can fill in a tone, literally (think painting). I guess you can "fill in" all of them, in a way. Oh, well; finished without "cheating" and reading any of the across clues, so all is good.
[Spelling Bee: Sun. at 10pm local time currently -1, missing a 7er. 79 words is a lot!]
OPUS was sitting on her PORSCHE eating an EGG CRISP when IDA (who was a bit to a TOTAL DOTE) decided to MONA on over and join OPUS.
IDA was a bit of a SCATTER brain. Although quite the CHARACTER, she never wore a BRA (even though her ORINOCO was a TOTAL SAG)..but her EMOTION would run high when she'd tell a RICH STORY about her DEBUT with an OGRE an ORC and a BABOON.
She SAT DOWN one day with OPUS and told her STORY about this OGRE in her ROOM. She was TIED up when this ORC from DOWN under started to PLOT this UNHIP OPUS that would REND LOTS of ARABIC music from his STEREOS. The MINARET DOWN the END of the street began to BANG a TONE that was the STAPLE DEBUT of RAPT music . To her, it felt like the TOTAL END of her EPA RIMS.
The PLOT would thicken. The BABOON was NYSYNC with the OGRE and they had LOTS in common. They were RAPT up in their EVER evil CHARACTER and their PLOT to SEND IDA to her END was RICH.
IDA became a TOTAL wreck. This ATE AWAY at her LOTS. She needed to tell her STORY so that she could PARDON the BABOON and the OGRE and the ORC She needed to END this...It ATE AWAY at her EMOTION...She needed a LATTE with ARABIC SOW milk to put her nerves AT A HALT.
OPUS would bring IDA back down to EARTH. The EGG CRISP (her STAPLE snack) that she'd eat on her PORSCHE were gone. She set a TONE. From now on IDA would SET a GOAL and she would PARDON OGRE, ORC and BABOON. No more RAPT AHS...No more BRA that would make her SAG ....LOTS to END!
And that's her STORY. LOTS of folks don't believe it and will be TORN with EMOTION, but lets be OVA this...We need to set a RAPT TONE and sing an ORINOCO OPUS...Sail away, ail away, sail away.
So...WHAT'S THE STORY?
.
Solving across and downs, it was easy. Liked the theme. Well done! —— SoCal CP
[Spelling Bee update: got that pesky 7er by guessing a word I have never heard of; QB streak at 7 days.]
Happy blog birthday, Rex!! 🥳
This reminds me how long you’ve been helping me along this puzzle solving and understanding experience .
Thank you!
Happy Anniversary to you Rex!
I'll come out in defense of SCATTERPLOT, that old Excel stalwart. I can vouch that it exists, and I would have booked it under common knowledge (but I have a science background).
Wish there would have been a more solid link between the revealer and the themers...felt a bit forced to me.
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Contest featuring Apollo (5)(4)
2. Stand up during a presentation (5)
3. McTwist, for one (10)(5)
4. Whirred processor? (7)
5. Key board players (4)
SPACE RACE
EASEL
SKATEBOARD TRICK
BLENDER
CEOS
Quick solve. A well-constructed grid, I thought. Didn't see the theme until I was finished.
Hilarious! I always enjoy your Tales From Crosslandia, stifling my laughter at three in the morning so as not to wake up my wife, who no doubt thinks I’m a TOTAL BABOON
Have to stretch a bit to really call that a theme - especially with the license they took with the TONE entry. Not really worth it when it comes with stuff like MINARET, ORINOCO and NASSER (which sounds like a law firm). A fine, workable Monday - but nothing special, and a little heavier on PPP than usual (PORSCHE is German?).
Let me add my congratulations on your longevity, @Rex! May there be many more!
Fun, easy-ish puzzle. Three overwrites:
23A: @okanaganer SCATTERshOT before SCATTER PLOT without reading the clue
41D: @jae BonOboS before BABOONS
45D: ORoNOCO before ORINOCO
Happy 17th Rex! I love reading your blog! And the commentary as well. I always learn something.
My husband doesn’t do the puzzle, but sometimes he participates in the end of my solving, especially for the late-week puzzles. Our most frequent exchange: “what does Rex have to say?” “OMG, he thought it was easy??”
Thanks for making doing the puzzle that much more fun!
What makes GOAL SETTING a preplanning activity, as opposed to a planning activity?
I'm willing to believe that to writers, those things are important elements to a STORY. But I've never heard of that foursome in that context (or any context), so I’m going to call this a theme failure.
Had no idea that PORSCHE was German or that latte had espresso in it. Cars and coffee; it does not get much more outside my wheelhouse than that.
Croce Freestyle 845 was hard for me. No idea what the 1A clue is getting at, even now. 42D/61A cross yielded a DNF, as 61A clue meant nothing to me and I had a very reasonable (but wrong) answer for 42D.
Lynn has been making NYT crosswords for 44 years, yet her puzzles always feel fresh. How fresh? Lynn has had 331 NYT answer debuts – 331! – including today’s revealer and all the theme answers except for EARTH TONE.
Her offerings are also always junk-lite and impeccably clued for the day they appear. I always leave them thinking, “Man, that was a quality puzzle.” I love what comes out of LL’s bean.
Today, I filled in the theme answers, left the revealer blank, and tried to guess what it was. I love doing this – it’s a bonus puzzle on top of filling in the grid, and it’s something I’m not very good at, but getting better, I think, and it’s always fun. I did see that the last words of the theme answers were elements of fiction, but was still lost on what the revealer could be. “Something with NOVEL?” I wondered. Oh, well. Small steps.
I liked seeing a backward APE keeping company with the BABOONS. I loved seeing two abutting gorgeous words MINARET and ORINOCO. And I liked the theme echo in ARC (Hi, Darcey O’D!).
Lynn, I always light up when I see your name atop a puzzle, because I know that in addition to experiencing a lovely solve, I will be spending time immersed in beauty, today being no exception. Thank you so much!
Cute early week puzzle that LL has nearly perfected. Not the most splashy theme - but it is nuanced and follows along with the solve. Well filled overall - liked the ORINOCO + MINARET stack.
STAPLE my hands to my heart
Eroded is more of a wearing away. UNHIP is a little off as is the RICH to calorie-laden connection. PORSCHE helped develop VW and by association Audi so they should be well known.
Pleasant Monday morning solve.
Well done Rex - keep rocking you.
Jerry killing it
Thx, Lynn; another beaut! 😊
Congrats, @Rex; amazing dedication all these years! 🌟
Med (I guess?).
Went downs only; didn't seem too hard, except for laying an EGG at NASSaR / a TON.
Love the challenge of the downs only solve. Will look much more forward to Mon. puz's from now on. Forgot last week, so've asked my assistant (Siri) to remind me every Sun. at 3:00 PM.
Had fun slippin' and slidden' down to PLOp in Lake NASSER with 'A' big splash! 💦
Thx @jae; on it! :)
___
David & Jane's Sun. acrostic on xwordinfo.com was med. dif; I love their work! :)
___
On to Tim Croce's #845. 🤞 with Brooke Husic's New Yorker Mon. on tap for tm.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
12 seconds from a Monday record. Not sure why, but this one seemed easy. Maybe because I took a math class or two instead of simply rhetoric, so scatterplot jumped out?
I thought that the revealer would be A NOVEL APPROACH. Or A NOVEL ENDING. Something like that.
High point of the puzzle: Learning some ARABIC CHARACTERS. I knew "alif" from crossword puzzles, but I didn't know the others. I imagine I'll always remember "hamza" because it's so Wowza.
Or perhaps not.
No junk in the fill and the fill was pretty sophisticated for a Monday. A good thing. But to me, the joy is always in the cluing and as far as that was concerned, the puzzle left me cold. Not a spark of wit or imagination anywhere.
Wow. It's always interesting to see how different people's brains work with these puzzles. I did downs-only and thought it was phenomenonally easy, at least until I was stumped at the very end by NASSER and INTERIM (the latter being mostly just a brain fart by me).
@Rex: as someone in academia, I'm surprised you haven't heard of SCATTER PLOT. Then again, I've never really known what those Humanities faculty actually do all day. It's standard fare in the Sciences, no stranger than bar graph or pie chart.
A dead giveaway that gibbons is not the right answer: gibbons aren't monkeys. Neither are bonobos for that matter.
Porsche seemed like a gimme to me; it's one of the classically quintessential German brands along with BMW, Audi, and VW (in fact, the latter two are part of the same company as Porsche) and the only one of those four that fit.
As for the theme, it seems generally ok for a Monday. All except EARTH TONE. Tone seems like one of those things that people mention in passing as though it's actually a part of writing, but doesn't really exist. Like a book's "warmth " or "spirit" or "energy". Do people really sit around and discuss a book's tone? Maybe. Like I said, I don't know what those Humanities folks actually spend their time doing at work.
Congrats Rex! I do hate-read you as I disagree with you on just about everything, but I do respect and appreciate your wit and expertise!
September 25, 2006 was a Monday Lynn Lempel puzzle. A little wink to RP? Happy Birthday, dear blog!
Congratulations on the 17th birthday. Hope you get a car.
Happy 17th Birthday Rex. Hope you get a Porsche.
Anyone who has ever taken any type of statistics course would be familiar with the term "scatter plot." I would think that would be quite a few people. But maybe that's the kind of thing you learn in school and then forget, if you never use it again.
Hey All !
Slightly tougher MonPuz here. A couple minutes over average. Nice, for a Monday. Wasn't a fly-through fill in as fast as you can puz.
Coherent Theme, in I can see a conversation sorta like:
"You've got the CHARACTERs, a PLOT, a TONE and a SETTING."
"That's right."
"SO, WHATS THE STORY?"
/scene
Haven't read @Gill yet, but with the entries here, I'm sure it's a good story.
Another good Lempel puz. She's taking the Monday Queen title from CC. (Not CC RIDER, har)
Monday, stop coming around so fast!
No F's (WHATS THE STORY with that?)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Seventeen years! Woo hoo. 🎉
Here's my story. It's a RANT. As a classical guitar student and ukulele teacher, you can imagine the low esteem I'm held among my friends and family. It's a large part of the reason I take my morning crossword and coffee so seriously. That, and 🦖. I might be worthless, but among everyone I know, I have the best first hour of the day everyday.
Now tomorrow, because I don't pay attention to things the government mails to me about my PORSCHE, er, scooter, I'm required to be at the DMV at, get this, 7:30 am. This will REND my sittin' around time in an UNHIP way.
7:30 am.
It seems like a time you should be arrested for being outside unless you're an emergency room nurse. When I worked at Starbucks, I had to be there at 4:30 am, and by 5 am the same old men were in line for a LATTE everyday, and I'd bet money all of them had a dead body buried under their backyard gardens.
So I'm savoring today's crossword outing with EMOTION as tomorrow's will involve a to-go cup and a visit to the leper colony.
The theme here is delightful. I so enjoy the early phase of writing fiction. The CHARACTER back stories, the choices on the depth of SETTING, the very loose pre-PLOT you envision knowing the characters won't respect your wishes, and then the TONE of my grating verbosity goes to work and soon it turns into a secretarial affair filled with drudgery and wondering why every character is behaving like a lunatic.
Tee-Hees: BRA! BANG!
Uniclues:
1 Step 1 Grow beard. Step 2 Become leader of the free world. Step 3 End slavery. Step 4 Go to the theater.
2 The 1%.
3 Flirty filer.
1 ABE GOAL SETTING
2 PORSCHE BABOONS
3 STAPLE TABS HON
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Childhood nickname for future Sci-Fi queen Croft after learning what those holes in the wall do when combined with a butter knife. ELECTRICAL OUTLET LARA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This must be your nightmare.
😋
@GILL I. 1:26 AM
❤️❤️❤️
I would add Mercedes Benz to that grouping. Not that it would have fit today.
If you’re UNHIP, are you a warmCAT?
Hey Nora Ephron. What are you thinking? Nora, do you hear me? EARTHTONE, are you there?
The Pope is rumored to be working on a letter to all Bishops concerning Justin Timberlake’s former band. It’ll be an NSYNClical.
It used to be the WONT of the Who to get fooled again.
You’ve gotta love that BRA is positioned to be holding up SAG.
Monday’s aren’t much fun, even solving downs only, but Lynn Lempel is certainly great at constructing them. Thanks, Lynn.
Very similar to Southside Johnny - I did not know MINARET, ORINOCO and NASSER. And PORSCHE is German? Didnt really know that either. Medium puzzle . 6 minutes or so
@kitshef - I assume you would never watch Comedians in Cars getting Coffee, a Netflix series from Jerry Seinfeld. He gets together with old comedian pals in really expensive cars to go to diners mostly in Long Island, it would seem. This is what wealth from residuals looks like:)
Do people think Porsche is Italian because it is stylish or something? Check out the RSCH consonant cluster, what is more German?
Mack, you can't leave Mercedes-Benz off the list, THE quintessential German auto maker, with Bavarian Motor Works a close second.
I just worked this one normally today and didn't even see a lot of theme clues, just filled in the blanks Wheel of Fortune style.
@egs (1:03 am) -- my sentiments exactly -- well said! Bravo, Rex!
@Gary Jugert (9:36)-- I checked with my wife so I know I'm right -- there is no higher calling than classical guitar student and ukulele teacher - you're a lucky guy.
Happy Anniversary, Rex! Thanks for all the fun (and snark).
Oh, and if you did Spelling Bee regularly, BABOONS would have been a gimme!
Congratulations Rex, and thank you for doing this blog. I miss it when I am unable to read it regularly. I have been away for a while but am glad I got back for today’s edition.
C'mon Rex - you gotta be playing a "birthday" joke on us (your write-up).
Anyway, this was the easiest Monday ever (thank you, Lynn!).
Happy Birthday! I don't remember when I discovered your blog) but I used to print the NYT Times "Gothic" & take it with me to work. So I know I've been here a while.
We'd all be lost without you (or should I say your comments) so HB again :)
@Rex
MAZEL TOV!!!
Well, good -- but didn't seem quite as clever as most Lempel puzs. Sure did like her revealer, tho.
Also, did seem a smidge bit challengin, for a MonPuz. OK, by m&e.
staff weeject pick: YDS. Plural abbreve meat. honrable mention to ARC, as it has sometimes been clued as a story line.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Ship alongside the Nina and the Santa Maria} = PINTA.
Congratz on 17 great years of bad-ass bloggin, @RP. M&A mostly tends to har-read the blog.
Thanx for thickenin the puzplot, Ms. Lempel darlin.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
**gruntz**
and also…
**gruntz**
@Liveprof 10:42 AM
😜 Your wife is wise, powerful, beautiful, and (it might be time to lock the liquor cabinet) prone to getting into the hooch a little early on Mondays?
Oh, and I forgot to mention my German engineering factoid. BMW designed and built my Mini Cooper and to replace the oil pan gasket, a $20 piece of rubber, they need to pull out the entire engine, an $850 labor charge. Way to go Germany. Next car will be a Nissan.
Happy birthday Rex Parker! I assume that the birth of this blog triggered the nom de plume? Anyway, you were a valuable source of reference to me for several years before I ever took the plunge and joined the commentariat. But never once, before or after, did I ever “hate read” your reviews. It’s always a pleasure, even when we disagree. I don’t know how you keep at it day in and day out but I hope you will keep on having birthdays. Thank you for your years of dedication and especially for fostering the daily discourse among this quirky crowd of fellow cruciverbalists.
Congratulations for 17 years! I'm in the love/hate read crowd, depending on the day, but always appreciative and impressed by the dedication to keep this going EVERY day for this long - it takes time and effort even to find a sub, sometimes even more. Your ability to drive engagement here and in life is a real model!
I can't remember how long I've been on here and wonder if there is a way to find my earliest post. Anyone know if that's possible?
"I don't like your TONE, Ms. Lempel."
Tone is actually a thing in literature, though not a concrete element in the story the way the others are. But I don't mind its inclusion here. A nifty Monday puzzle. Now I'm off to read "The Domed Porsches of Atahalt" by Mona O'Nair.
Folks in the NYC area in the 1970's will remember these commercials
Happy birthday to the blog.
Rex, Maybe id you didn't insist on doing downs only, you would have a few less complaints. "goal setting" is a great answer for the clue. And something I'm sure I've heard in other settings
Did think "matter shot" washed for a Monday. Didn't have too much trouble filling it in. but never heard of it.
I could not think what the theme was so did not enjoy it as I was doing the puzzle, but did enjoy it once I got the revealer
And no the "So" is not superfluous.
Fair play. That's another brain fart by me. MB absolutely belongs on that list. That's what I get for trying to formulate thoughts immediately after waking
I saw a PORSCHE in a parking lot only yesterday, so that probably helped me think of it. Much harder was seeing that I had to change ARABIan to ARABIC to make it fit. Also SnUb/AT An end.
That's all from me today, I have to go read C.P. Snow's essay on "The Two Cultures" to see if he discusses the SCATTERPLOT.
Problem doing acrosses only with SNUB for SHUN and the 23/37/55 themers.
But SO WHAT?
I'm surprised at the little uproar about "tone" as part of a story.
As a longtime English tutor, I can confirm that tone in fiction is taught first in middle school. Kids have considerable trouble understanding and identifying a story's tone.
Happy anniversary! You’re so fun to read and I appreciate the work it takes to do this every day
@Rex - Thanks for doing this, it’s something I look forward to every day.
@Kitshef - Re: Croce 845 - Changing 1a was my last entry, it definitely deserves a side eye. I did know 42d otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten 41a or 61a.
@Gill, The Baboon was Ensync with the Ogre, hilarious!
Saturday was so difficult for me and Sunday was a lot of going back and forth but today was super simple. If I hadn't thrown in Trim for Thin, I would've finished this in my fastest time ever, 5 minutes and change, nothing to brag about here, but relatively none of my relatives are faster.
@Gary Jugert, The heating and air went out on the driver's side of my Mini Cooper. Cost to repair, $3,600. Not going to do it. I'll freeze to death first. Ever put in a new battery. Just wait. My son still drives our 1999 Toyota Sienna. My next car will be a Toyota.
About Porsche
Yes.
All the car chatter reminds me of the wonderful Car Talk guys Ray and Tom, may the one who passed away rest in peace.
Here's a story for RP -- they once had a caller who described an assortment of troubles with his old car. One of the car talk guys said -- "With a car like that, you must be a student." And the other one said: "Or worse -- a professor!"
@ Gary (11:35) -- You've met her!
I thought it was a good Monday puzzle although the reveal SO WHAT'S THE STORY didn't quite stick the landing for me. CHARACTER, PLOT, TONE and SETTING are four elements of a STORY but they are not THE STORY itself, which is what the reveal is asking.
Today's assignment for the Commentariat: Analyze the four elements of @Gill I.'s 1:26 charming and witty STORY. Hint---part of the TONE is set toward the end with "sail away, sail away, sail away". It connects with the crossword STAPLE Enya who has appeared in the NYTXW 140 times during the Shortz era, nine of those times clued as her song ORINOCO Flow.
By the way, did yous know that a small, young BABOON is called a BABOONLET?
@burtonkd 11:44 -- I don't know much about how Blogger works, even though I have a blog profile on this site myself, so I'm not sure if you can have a Blogger account (or whatever it is) prior to coming on the Rexblog. But if you can't, @burtonkd, then I have you pegged as having come to this site in 2007.
Here's what I've cut and pasted from your profile:
On Blogger since November 2007
Profile views - 1525
PORSCHE -- Not at all a "luxury" car if you're in what passes for the "back seat".
The year: 1962. I'm in Berkeley for the summer -- and being driven to S.F by new friends for a Giants game at Candlestick Park. (It's only been 5 years since my beloved NY Giants were pirated out of NYC and it's my first chance to see them in the flesh.)
The car I'm being driven in is a PORSCHE. (No, I don't know the model or the year.) Who will sit in the "back seat", the group asks itself. The answer? "Oh, Nancy's short, so she won't mind."
But Nancy DID mind. Nancy minded A LOT. The most uncomfortable car ride I've ever been on. And then I had to do it again going back. I have hated the PORSCHE ever since. You could not give one away to me for free. That's how much I hate the PORSCHE. You call yourself a car? Hah! I call you a sardine can.
PORSCHE -- Not at all a "luxury" car if you're in what passes for the "back seat".
The year: 1962. I'm in Berkeley for the summer -- and being driven to S.F by new friends for a Giants game at Candlestick Park. (It's only been 5 years since my beloved NY Giants were pirated out of NYC and it's my first chance to see them in the flesh.)
The car I'm being driven in is a PORSCHE. (No, I don't know the model or the year.) Who will sit in the "back seat", the group asks itself. The answer? "Oh, Nancy's short, so she won't mind."
But Nancy DID mind. Nancy minded A LOT. The most uncomfortable car ride I've ever been on. And then I had to do it again going back. I have hated the PORSCHE ever since. You could not give one away to me for free. That's how much I hate the PORSCHE. You call yourself a car? Hah! I call you a sardine can.
Happy 17th!!! Thanks so much for continually brightening my morning coffee and solve!!
Cogratulations on 17 years and thank you for 17 years. I don't know if I've know of the blog that long, but I have been checking it for many years. Never commented till this spring. Like many - I don't always agree with you, and I rarely have the same sense of ease with puzzles that you have - but I have learned from you and I always appreciate your views. The guest bloggers are lovely, but they are almost too lovely for my taste!!
As for other today news - I found the puzzle fairly easy and enjoyable AND my mother celebrates her 93rd birthday! All in all a good day!
@Rex -- 17 years and yet every day your piece feels fresh, with new stuff you've never said before, funny stuff, insightful stuff, with words put together in often dazzling ways. Remarkable.
A huge gift in two ways -- Your talent, and what we get from you.
Thank you!
@Rex....What in the world did I do without you in the morning before you came along.. Peet's coffee, Sacramento Bee, feed and walk the dogs...stare at my calendar...Nothing of TV...Sigh.
I remember tippy toeing in when I first discovered you..so many smart people, will I fit in? I even remember one of your commentators telling me my English was awful. It made your blog so much more fun.....
I hope you continue everything you do - I like it.
@Anoa 4:21. So you caught on with sail away? I'm going to try and fit in BABOONLET next time I write my silly's.....:-)
Doesn't anyone by Ford's, Chevys, or Dodges anymore? Where's the love?
what does it mean to solve "downs-only?" I'm wondering how Rex solved downs-only yet still had "-ONS at the end of 41D." Wouldn't the -ONS come from an across?
@anonymous 1:59:
Thanks for pointing that out. There's no way you can solve a crossword using "downs only".
Suppose the clue is "Foreign farewell". How would you know if it's ADIOS or ADIEU without looking at any crosses?
Rex is all about "writing" in (on screen) the first thing that comes into his head, and then "erasing" it later. But if he's not reading the across clues, how would he possibly know what to change? I call B.S.
This is some ignorant shit. No wonder you posted anonymously on a day when no one was looking. Please find a child to explain to you how one might distinguish between ADIOS and ADIEU when solving Downs-only.
A fine Lynn Lempel Monday to all you SyndieCats! Aren't the Futureland comments hilarious!
Diana, you-know-who
Good puzzle, but more of a Wednesday-level on the challenge meter.
Maybe a little harder than usual for a Monpuz, but I don't like read/write ones. But my puzzle was much harder at the bottom. Because of a typesetting error, my puzzle was missing the last 6 down clues, and the 43A clue had only the last word of the 53A clue, plus the 44A clue had the first word of the 54A clue replacing its first word. Bizarre!
Congrats on 17 (you know what I mean) but especially commemorating it with Stevie on the edge. She even LOOKED like a white-winged dove.
I too felt a "one of these things is not like the others" jolt with TONE, but it does belong. The others are the Big Three of writing, but if you have to come up with a fourth themer, TONE will certainly do. STYLE would also work.
A typical Lempel puzzle: no junk. Birdie.
Wordle par; a 50-50 shot for birdie. Wrong one again.:(
@Burma Shave has been absent due to attending U2 at the Sphere in Vegas, so catching up.
Today:
LET'S BANG
THE ARABICCHARACTER SATDOWN
in THE MINARET with MONA to beg,
"HON, my GOAL ain't SETTING 'round,
SOWHAT'STHESTORY, ain't OVA an EGG?"
--- ABE SAMSON NASSER
From Sunday:
HOP ON POP
An OLDFASHIONEDIDEA BY LIZ,
SAYs the PLAINTRUTHISN'T, or IS,
where the EVIDENCE LED
to EXPRESSION IN BED
BY MISSING the KNEADS TOO PERSIST.
--- LADY DAISY & MR. LEO NELSON
from Saturday:
GO RIDER, GO
I RIDEOUT a SKATEBOARDTRICK
IN a STUPOR, a last RESORT,
they say ISO STONE, DIS STICK,
AND EARN an APPEARANCE IN COURT.
--- ROBERT SMITS
from Friday:
ORGANDONOR
YOUHADONEJOB for LANA,
TO ACT as a NORMAL male,
YES, LIFEORDEATH TO wanna
be GOOD and TOOBIGTOOFAIL.
--- EVONNE JAMES
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