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Hi, everyone, it’s a Clare Tuesday! Hope you all have had a good month and are staying safe and healthy while it seems like everyone is getting sick. I’ve been enjoying work and also enjoy all the biking I do with my commute and otherwise — and it’s getting even better now that the weather is becoming a bit cooler as we head into fall. Fall also means that football is back. (Go, Steelers!)! My Steelers had a rough opening game but have been looking better. And Liverpool has been doing great so far this season, with some new players on our team, so I’ve been pretty happy. We’ll see if any of this changes by next month, though…
Anywho, on to the puzzle.
Relative difficulty: Fairly easy (one of my faster Tuesday times)
THEME: FOOD WEB (38A: Dietary network in an ecosystem … or a punny hint to the answers to the starred clues) — All theme answers related to both food and computer terms
Theme answers:
- SPAM FILTER (17A: Program that detects junk emails)
- SPAGHETTI CODE (23A: Slang term for convoluted and unstructured computer programming)
- HAMBURGER MENU (49A: Online icon comprised of three parallel horizontal lines, familiarly)
- JAVA UPDATE (60A: Download that may improve streaming lags)
Chloé Zhao (born Zhao Ting, 31 March 1982) is a Chinese-born filmmaker. She is known primarily for her work on independent films. Her debut feature film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015), premiered at Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Zhao garnered international recognition with the western film Nomadland (2020), which won numerous accolades. Earning four Academy Award nominations for the film, Zhao won Best Picture and Best Director. Throughout her filmography, Zhao carries relatively the same styles and techniques. The main actress in her film Nomadland, Frances McDormand, told Rolling Stone about Zhao's process, saying "she's basically like a journalist... she gets to know your story, and she creates a character from that" and that she "draws a razor-sharp line between sentiment and sentimentality". A Filmmaker Magazine article quoted Zhao saying "I want to find new ways to place the camera to evoke more of a feeling. My goal is to put the camera inside of [the character]". (Wiki)
• • •
This was a rather enjoyable puzzle! The theme was pretty cute and fun — it was nice that all of the theme answers were not only food items but were tied to computers. FOOD WEB (like the World Wide Web) worked really well as a revealer. I also liked that it was smack dab in the center of the puzzle. That’s a standard place for a revealer, but I thought the placement added extra meaning because the term functions as the center of a sort of WEB that’s reaching out to the theme answers. I love the visual that I get with SPAGHETTI CODE and am happy I’ve now learned the term. I also learned what a HAMBURGER MENU is. I will say that I’m not sure how a JAVA UPDATE relates to a streaming lag, but maybe my lack of data/computer knowledge is showing. To extend the food theme, there were some other answers in the puzzle that related back (whether intentionally or not). CHOP (6A: Hack (off)), which could be a pork chop; ALLA (19A: Penne ___ vodka); JAM (60D: Toast topping); FAT (48A: Major component of a ketogenic diet), that one gets from meat or nuts in the diet; ACME (63A: Tiptop), a supermarket chain where they sell food; and MOLE (67A: Beauty mark), which is a Mexican sauce. I liked how those were woven in there.
Other than the theme, I really liked the long downs in the NE and SW corners. I especially loved SALAD BARS (11D: Places to see the romaines of the day?) because it made me chuckle, and I for some reason really like the word HUNCH, so 32D was fun. I’LL BE FINE (12D: "Don't worry about me") was the only long down that I thought was just fine. For another long-ish down, I liked RAMPART (4D: Fortification in "The Star-Spangled Banner"), which isn’t a word you often see. And the clue/answer for 45D: Parent in a blended family as STEPDAD is nice.
There were a lot of clues with quotation marks, which I don’t always enjoy but didn’t mind too much in this puzzle (see: 10A, 12D, 18D, 33D, and 53D). Except I would like to never ever see the word NEATO (53D: “Cool beans!”) again.
While the solve was pretty smooth and easy for me, I did have a few hang-ups. I had SPAM “folder” instead of FILTER for a while, which threw me off from the start. I could not wrap my head around 22D: Pre-year 1, in brief (BCE) and understand that it wasn’t referring to a specific year but rather an era. I was thinking the answer related to a kid being in pre-k or pre-school or something along those lines. I also had a hard time getting HIT IT (7D: Bandleader's direction) because I had no idea this is something a band leader ever says/said – no band I follow has ever uttered the phrase. My dad tells me HIT IT is actually a thing, but even Google doesn’t give me much information about it. When I think of HIT IT, I think of going water skiing or being in a tube on a lake and telling the driver of the boat to HIT IT (and then go faster). I also couldn’t get PHOTO (31A: Camera output) for a bit because that was just so obvious that it didn’t even cross my mind it would be the answer.
I found GAVEL (51D: Courtroom banger) to be amusing. And then it tied in with ONE L (59A: First-year law student, for short) for a mini legal theme. HOE (28A: Groundbreaker?) also got a laugh out of me, which I think is more a sign that I need sleep than anything else.
Misc.:
Signed, Clare Carroll, your resident INTERNET COOKIE
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Misc.:
- With LOVER (34D: 2019 Taylor Swift album with a romantic theme), we have to talk about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce and their (completely PR, methinks) relationship. She went to his game yesterday and was in a box with his mom and seemed invested in the game. The Chiefs blew out the Bears, and then he rented out a restaurant for the Chiefs and Taylor Swift, fueling talk that maybe Kelce is Swift’s new LOVER.
- When I see the topic of the mercator MAP (46A: Mercator projection, e.g.), I will always think of this clip from The West Wing where C. J. Cregg (the press secretary) meets with cartographers who argue for a different map. It’s absolutely incredible (and mind-blowing to realize just how distorted the sizes of some countries and continents are on the mercator MAP!)
- I loved seeing CHLOE Zao (6D) and AVA Duvernay (56A) in the puzzle. They’re both incredible directors. If you haven’t seen Zhao’s movie “Nomadland” or Duvernay’s show “When They See Us,” do yourself a favor and go watch them now.
- My family of professional writers has shaped me (warped me?) enough that a grammatical mistake in the clue at 49A (Online icon comprised of three parallel horizontal lines, familiarly) jumped up and bit me on the nose. It should be “composed,” not “comprised.” As my dad has drilled into me, the whole comprises its parts, but the whole is composed of, or made up of, those parts.
- For 13D, I was thinking about what a steeped drink was and had a kind of brain freeze. And then I took a sip from my mug… of TEA.
And that’s it from me! Stay safe and have a great and ~spooky~ October.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
I always think of that West Wing episode too! Love your grammar comment too!
ReplyDeleteMedium but it seemed tougher. ACCRA, CHLOE, FOODWEB, JAVA UPDATE...are not the usual early week fare. That said, I’m with @Clare on this one, it was delightful. Very clever theme and smooth with some fine long downs! Liked it a bunch!
ReplyDeleteHi Clare! I actually wish those other sports would step aside til we get the baseball season resolved.
ReplyDeleteMy last job before retiring (unwillingly) was website programmer. This theme should be really up my alley, but in fact not so much. FOOD WEB is a pretty weak revealer, especially for JAVA, don't really think of it as a food, but also see below.
SPAM FILTER okay; SPAGHETTI CODE never heard that but I'm sure it's legit. But I think HAMBURGER MENU may not be the preferred term for that thing. Google Ngrams rates it a bit higher than say HAMBURGER ICON etc; but I think this is greatly distorted by the fact that a lot of food establishments offer a "hamburger menu" that has nothing to do with web sites!
And then we get to JAVA UPDATE. I'm sure in the vast internet universe, there are some Java updates that improve streaming lags, but a weak themer with a terrible clue. I wanted something like DATA BUFFER.
Hands up for HIT IT recalling water skiing; that would have been a much better clue!
[Spelling Bee: Mon currently -1, missing a 6er. Surely not ending my streak here, after surviving Sunday's 79 word marathon?]
I’m also a programmer. Your critique of Java update is spot on.
DeleteNo comment on computers because I am clueless in that area.
DeleteBut hit it is very much an expression that came from bands. Again this is an age issue. Band as in big bands school bands etc. Not as in rock band. I am a baby boomer and saw those old movies where the band leader said hit it! I can see why Claire didn’t get the reference. Gen Xers may not also.
ReplyDeleteNot a lot of difficulty with this puzzle, but after I got 17A, SPAM FILTER23A, SPAGHETTI CODE and thought the theme might be somehow SPA-related.
@Claire, thanks for the West Wing clip!!
I had the same reaction as Clare to "before year 1" (I was thinking kindergarten). But BCE (Before Christian Era) was evident from the crosses. I enjoyed the puzzle, but found it very easy.
ReplyDeleteBCE is “Before the Common Era,”
Deletespecifically to be more neutral with regard to one specific religion. Not all of the world is dominated by christianity
Only the creators of the world calendar in use today.
DeleteHuge stretch on JAVA as a food. Like massive. Like basically a broken theme. Maybe a as a cuisine, like Javanese. But then you’re just naming countries of origin (Chinese, Italian, etc), not the actual food. Maybe ground java beans used in things like coffee ice cream or tiramisu, but JAVA as a food doesn’t work for me at all. Particularly when grouped with SPAM, SPAGHETTI, and HAMBURGER. Connections wouldn’t even try to shoehorn those 4 into a food-related grouping. Surely you could find something else better. If only the largest tech company in the world was named after a food…
ReplyDeleteRest of puzzle ok. Nothing really remarkable good or bad. Below avg Tuesday time for me.
Maybe the food is the date of update.
DeleteComposed/comprised is not a grammatical confusion. Grammar has to do with sentence structure and the proper cases of words, or whether verbs do or do not take a direct object, & that kind of thing. Using words to mean something they don’t mean is a usage error. For instance, using “reticent” to mean “reluctant,” a very common error that bugs me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, great West Wing clip.
Thank you for pointing that out. And yes, the meaning of "reticent" is obviously changing. But whyyy? There is no good synonym, so when it's gone, we'll have lost something valuable.
DeleteIt's a lexical error. And "comprising" instead of "comprised of" would have been correct.
DeleteI wonder if OFL has any idea of what this blog means to some of us. I have a large supportive family. I have life long supportive friends. Yet while in sitting here on Sloane Kettering the one thing that can completely distract me is this blog. I know , it makes no sense at all. But often times life does not. So to OFL, and the regular folks who take the time and energy to contribute , thank you. Life is good.
ReplyDeleteI have some idea 😊 but thank you for saying so, and all my warmest wishes ~RP
DeleteI hear you, totally get it and I agree except for me what does it is the Spelling Bee👍
DeleteToday I learned what a Mercator projection is - neat concept and pretty cool that it’s been around for so long. I also fell for the BCE snare - hook, line and sinker; just reel me in. Don’t know that the JAVA themer fits (or even if it’s reasonably well known, since I have never heard of it and haven’t consulted Uncle Google yet).
ReplyDeleteAnother of those daily reminders that one’s sands are quickly slipping through the hourglass - there seems to be an entire generation (or two?) who never heard a band leader say “HIT IT!”.
I love a good Tuesday like this one, and Claire, your write-ups always brighten my day. Your dad sounds like me; I’ve said “the whole comprises the parts” to many students, none of whom, I’m sure, remember hearing it. As his proxy, I’ll suggest that you watch a tendency to overuse qualifiers. Go back to your first sentence about today’s puzzle, strike out “rather” and “pretty,” and see how much stronger it is. End of grammar rant.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, someday I’ll remember whether that actress I’ve seen only in crosswords is IONa or IONE. Today she led me into a FOODWay, not a FOODWEB. I also stepped into a step-kealoa. And learned one thing to call those three horizontal lines that I look at every day. A fun one!
Huge congrats to Norah Sharpe (Shannon Rapp)! Enjoyable puzzle all around, clever and quite unique. To top it all off, a pleasant review by Clare. Good start to a Tuesday :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe it’s because I solved while shaking off the effects of a stomach bug, but I found this one pretty tough for a Tuesday. SPAM FILTER was the only theme answer that felt like a widely known, easily accessible term. JAVA UPDATE may have been at one time, but with the security vulnerabilities of Java it’s not something most people have or need on their computers anymore (and it was weirdly clued). The others were terms that seem more specialized, even the revealer - I’m sure I’ve heard of FOOD WEB, but it didn’t leap to mind and required most crosses. And then the fill, especially up top - ACCRA, CHLOE, ITALO, ALLA all seemed pretty difficult for a Tuesday. I enjoyed it, but it was more of a challenge than I expected.
ReplyDeleteAtypical day where we get some decent fill but just an overall flat theme. Liked the colloquial I’LL BE FINE and OH SPARE ME. A weak theme such as this should not have resulted in the need for the unfortunate AVES, ADS, RAH etc. Still amazes me that someone like JKR gets shredded and CHE gets a pass.
ReplyDeleteI’ll pass on this one.
The JAM
As a programmer I am all too familiar with SPAGHETTI CODE and occasionally write some of it when I’m cutting corners trying to get a feature committed quickly. Although I think the real origin of the term may be older languages that had a GO TO LINE # command in long procedural code.
ReplyDeleteHAMBURGER MENU was good, although the icon itself is the HAMBURGER ICON. the menu is what is exposed when you clock the hamburger. But there’s no good way to clue either without using the word ICON or MENU in the clue, so I get it.
JAVA UPDATE is probably an anachronism going back to the days when internet video requires real player, which constantly needed to be updated. I’m guessing real player was written in Java to be cross platform so maybe your real player updates occasionally required Java updates. But all of that has nothing to do with what we think of as streaming (Netflix, Hulu, etc) now. I don’t think I’ve been asked to update java in a decade and a half. Long story short this one felt super forced.
Oddly enough while I knew all of the themers, I’ve never heard of the revealer. What in the heck is a good web? Is that rebranding the four food groups / food pyramid?
A food web is a description of an ecosystem rather than a diet: i.e. this animal eats this plant, this animal eats this animal, etc. Predator-prey diagram, basically.
DeleteWe used to describe predator-prey diagrams as a “food chain”, now it’s called “food web” since it’s not a single straight line.
DeleteLots of loveliness here today.
ReplyDeleteLovely cluing skill, where gettable crosses enabled me to comfortably fill in a couple of long computer terms I didn’t know.
Lovely freshness, with five NYT debut answers, three theme answers plus the terrific I’LL BE FINE and OH SPARE ME.
The lovely [Places to see the romaines of the day?] – for SALAD BARS. My thumb, already up on this puzzle, ascended even higher.
Lovely PuzzPair© of GAVEL and HIT IT.
Lovely dookiness in RAMPART which can be parsed as RAMP ART as well as RAM PART.
Lovely nuanced revealer in FOOD WEB, a non-computer related term that perfectly relates to the computer-related theme answers.
Lovely backstory of Shannon finally getting a NYT puzzle acceptance after a parade of rejections. Congratulations, Shannon, on that, and thank you, Rebecca (with 10 puzzles in less than two years!), for bringing this over the finish line. Thank you both for a splendid outing!
Clearly not a fan of old big band movies. But “Hit it!” was the way the band leader started off a hot or fast number.
ReplyDeleteFOODWEB crossing IONE (two terms I've never heard of) on a vowel was a Natick for me. I have never known anyone named IONE, nor do I think I ever will.
ReplyDeleteIONA, though... made sense, even though FOODWAB didn't.
Le sigh.
As for BCE, it was a gimme for me. And no, Bob, BCE doesn't stand for "Before Christian Era". That's a backronym that came about when Christians lost their minds about Christ being left out of their year identifier lingo (even though the dates still correspond to the birth of Christ as the tipping point, so what's the big deal?)
BCE is "Before Common Era" and CE is "Common Era".
As someone who remembers the 40s and 50s, I can tell you that "Hit it" was definitely a thing, something that might be said by Tommy Dorsey or Harry James. But--also as someone that old--I also can say that "Neato" was never a thing. Maybe in the 1910s? It's strictly crossword-ese.
ReplyDeleteThe surprising clue that threw me off was street crosser. Where I live streets and aves don't cross, they're parallel to each other!
ReplyDeleteNot in New York City. This is the New York Times after all.
DeleteI didn’t like JAVA UPDATE either nor did I enjoy “HIT IT” as something a bandleader says. I’ve heard it but mostly on TV or cartoons. I’ve been in many bands and we count before starting to get the tempo as in “1,2,3,4) so yeah, sort of a corny clue.
ReplyDeleteAs alluded to above: SPAGHETTICODE is a real thing, a real term from long ago. When dinosaurs roamed the earth and new hires actually wrote new code using third generation languages.
ReplyDeleteOff to a flying start with SPAMFILTER, and that was the end of the themers that I had heard of. Also, FOODWEB? Food chain, yes, the other, not so much.
ReplyDeleteHi AVA. I finally learned your name. Sorry CHLOE and IONE. I'll keep trying with you.
I always guess wrong on the ITIS/ISIT dilemma. Always.
Agree with Clare on NEATO, which may have been said at some time by someone, but now is relegated solely to crosswords.
And I know we're basically out of clues for ORE, but today's was beyond a stretch.
Chewy Tuesday, SR and RG. Theme Seemed Reasonable and some Really Good clues. Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
Thx, Shannon & Rebecca; a 'tasty' MENU! 😊
ReplyDeleteHi Clare; good to see you again. Thx for your write-up! 😊
Med.
Good start in the NW, working clockwise, ending at MAP.
Fun adventure! :)
___
Tim Croce's #845 was very tough (over 7 NYT Sat's). One cell dnf at the cross of 26D/ 32A (a d'oh!, for sure!). On to Brooke Husic's New Yorker Mon. 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I liked the food, but WEB in the revealer is weak -- not all those computer things have to do with the web. But I can't think of a better one.
ReplyDeleteSaying that FLAX is also known as linseed is like saying the oak is also known as acorn.
@Bob Mills, it's "Before Common Era" -- the whole idea is to make the dating system acceptable to all religions (or none).
Gotta run.
In Animal House, Otis Day, of Otis Day and the Knights, famously says “Hit It” when singing “Shout”.
ReplyDeleteImmediate groan of dismay when “Clare Tuesday” appears: can’t “Rex” get a better substitute?
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteA theme to make you hungry. Neat so many foods relate to computers. I'm sure the clever commentariat will regale us with more. Not me, as my cleverness took a hike a while ago!
@pablo
😁 Got one.
Pretty good fill, nice handling of the 13's, not huge blobs of Blockers surrounding them. Two stacks of 9's in the NE/SW, adding to the difficulty of filling cleanly.
Are these new constructors? Haven't read @Lewis yet. Maybe @Lewis can take over xwordinfo?
I think of Jim Carey in "The Mask" when I see HIT IT. After he boards and chains up the park entrance, then turns to see the entire police force waiting for him. After a cartoony eye and tongue shock reaction, he jumps into the street and yells HIT IT!
Anyway, hope y'all have a good Tuesday.
Five F's (NEATO! [Hi Clare! 😁])
RooMonster
DarrinV
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the theme but it was a bit wobbly. SPAGHETTI CODE predates the emergence of the web by a decade or two and is not web specific. Spam Filters are more email than web page related, but I thought the whole thing was cute nonetheless.
ReplyDeletePlayful, imaginative cluing combined with extremely colorful fill. What's not to love about this much-better-than-average Tuesday?
ReplyDeleteAnd for tech-challenged, nearly computer-illiterate me, it was no slam-dunk, either. I breezed through SPAM FILTER (where I came close to writing in SPAM FOLDER, but never mind) and then stumbled upon three more computer functions -- but this time ones I never heard of.
(Small aside: When I bought my first computer in December 2008, I raved about it to friends. "This incredible machine can do 21,563 different things!!! Imagine that!!!! Whereas I can do exactly three of them -- and none of them very well.")
But I had SPAM FILTER and also, through crosses, SPAGHETTI CODE. What was the revealer? SPA PROGRAMS, of course.
But no -- "programming" has been used in both clues. Well it has to be SPA something-or-other, right?
Wrong. I knew it of course when I got to HAMBURGER MENU.
I don't know what a FOOD WEB is anymore than I know what a HAMBURGER MENU or a JAVA UPDATE are. Whatever. That didn't keep me from having a perfectly swell time. A very entertaining puzzle.
"I always guess wrong on the ITIS/ISIT dilemma. Always." --@pabloinnh
ReplyDeleteDo what I do, Pablo. Write in I?I? and wait.
The West Wing has helped me with so many clues over the years :)
ReplyDeleteCookies and hash come to mind as computer + food terms that might be worked into something a bit more substantial than JAVA.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a new Nintendo game out based on The DaVinci Code. It’s written in SPAGHETTICODE.
What did the ONEL say to the IONE? ILLBEFINE.
The theme made me feel like the puzzle—well filled. Thanks, Shannon Rapp and Rebecca Goldstein.
Interestin computer terms, a few of which I'd heard of before. M&A used to do some computer programmin at the office … Albeit long ago and far away from the Java galaxy. But, hey -- shift happens*.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: ORE. Really funky clue. Took a while to digest its intent. Nice weeject stacks, lurkin in the mid-E/W puzgrid margins, btw.
[* We COBOL structured programmers first saw this "shift happens" slogan, when we sat in on the first Javascript programmin class offered at our company. Thought some of them sample Javascript program statements were like decodin a tricky word puz. "Gee, what could go wrong with a program full of these…" we mused. "Brother, can U paradigm?" M&A retorted with a har.]
This puz had it four great vertical longball answers. Two of em built with the help of ALLA/ITALO, I'd grant. fave of the foursome: HADAHUNCH. RAMPART and STEPDAD also had a kinda fresh vibe.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Rapp and Ms. Goldstein darlins. And congratz to Shannon on her half-debut. Are y'all computer programmers? Bet U hardly know what a punched card program deck is.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s. Congratz to the NYTimes mini-puz on its recent 11-year anniversary.
I think the runtpuz should be "celebratin" a 13-year anniversary sometime soon; but I try not to think real hard about when; it was a pretty conflicted launch, here. Some commenters went sorta berserk, etc.
**gruntz**
Oh what a tangled WEB we weave.....I've not heard of you! But it involved FOOD.
ReplyDeleteSPAM, SPAGHETTI, HAMBURGER and JAVA. I'm not a FOOD snob - well, I guess I am - but I'd rather go to places to see the romaines of the day. I'm even leery of a SALAD BAR.
My husband likes all the foods mentioned. Fried SPAM sandwich with a side of baked beans. SPAGHETTI and meatballs made with Bison meat. Same with his HAMBURGER. Must be Bison...Bread must be from Sprouts....Only topping: Cheese and sour pickles. Then he might drink a cup of JAVA...
And so, as usual, I digress..On to thoughts of the day....
CHE...pero que boludo. You're back again even though you are dead. Might you say: OH SPARE ME?
I had to sing 4D in order to remember RAMPART - although I thought it had an S at the end?
Cute puzzle that I enjoyed figuring out.
I have to say that Clare's days here are so much more upbeat and sunny than the usual grumpiness that we have become accustomed to. So thanks, Clare, for that.
ReplyDelete@GILL
ReplyDelete1 RAMPART, 2 or more RAMPARTs.
@Nancy-Actually I don't write anything in, I just make a mental guess and then look at crosses to see which one is more likely. My first guess is always wrong though, which is why I don't do any writing. Probably should guess and then write in the opposite.
ReplyDelete@Roo-OK, +1 for you, but you're so far ahead it feels a little like piling on.
Agree with Clare - fresh, fun and enjoyable. It’s not easy to take geeky computer terms and make something entertaining out of them but this worked surprisingly well. What I especially liked was that even with a technology based theme, it was easily doable for someone not well-versed in computerese. I’d say my knowledge is basic and all except SPAGHETTI CODE were commonly familiar to me. Nicely done, constructors and congratulations Shannon on your NYT debut.
ReplyDeleteAs a serious Kansas City football fan and Travis Kelce being one of my IDOLS, I wanted to EVADE the Taylor Swift clue altogether. Really nothing against the lady but the media hype the past few days is becoming cringeworthy.
Haha…..@Masked and Anonymous…I showed a young friend my old punchcards (they make dandy list making material) and explained how we had to run down to the computer centre several blocks away. She was blown away!
ReplyDeleteThen I was explaining streets and avenues to the same friend….and had to tell her how the first digits of an address say what cross-street it’s near. Again….blown away. She exclaimed “how did you even get anywhere before Google maps!!” Hahaha
Fun puzzle…I agree with the JAVA comments. Maybe java ice cream….
@Anonymous (6:49) I agree with you completely about this blog being a unique and welcome distraction. Like a good book, it’s a brief escape from reality and a chance to spend time with some pretty fascinating characters. Whatever the circumstances for your presence at Sloan Kettering today, I wish you well.
ReplyDelete@Jim in Canada (7:49) Thanks for the BCE explanation. My first thought was also Christian Era but I vaguely recalled that somewhere along the line it had become politically evolved.
Hi Clare!
ReplyDeleteI solved as a themeless then saw the theme.
A fun puzzle - thanks Shannon & Rebecca!
HIT IT is definitely a thing, and I was taught HAMBURGER MENU in my brief time learning web design. They were both pretty obvious to me, HAMBURGER MENU especially was a solve with no crosses.
ReplyDelete@Nancy yesterday, thanks for trying: I was on blogger for something else in 2007. Been here somewhere between 4 and 10 years - terrible time/date stamp in my brain...
ReplyDeleteCan we please SPARE ME all this Taylor Swiftness? I wonde if her handlers pay the NYT to mention her name every damn day.
ReplyDeleteI began just filling the acrosses. When I arrived at SPAGHETTI CODE, I got a sense of the theme. But then I got to FOOD WEB and said to myself, "No! SPAGHETTI CODE is about procedural programming, not the WWW's HTML, CSS or scripting. Amateurs!"
Anyway, very easy puzzle.
@gill, O'er the rampartS we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
ReplyDeleteFunny I never even wandered what they were but here it is, "a protective barrier, broad embankment raised as a fortification and usually surmounted by a parapet"
How they were streaming I couldn't say.
Fun little puzzle.
@JD.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't the RAMPARTS, but our flag that was so gallanting streaming:
Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
DNF. The SW corner did me in. I had HAMBURGERMEat instead of MENU. I used the t at 54D for toTaL instead of UNTIL. The T & L worked! Couldn’t get the rest to work though :(
ReplyDelete@JC66-Spot on.
ReplyDeleteAnd as Kurt Vonnegut points out, the only national anthem full of question marks and exclamation points.
JAVA is not food. OH SPARE ME and ILL BE FINE are terrible answers with terrible clues. On to Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteWell thanks, folks, for the RAMPARTs thing. That's why I thought the clue was off. It wanted the "Fortification" to have an S. I never quite understood our song anyway. I'm pretty sure I mangled it at age 13 or so. Now I can sleep in peace.
ReplyDeleteI survived the DMV. It was actually a lovely peaceful experience and it was over too quickly. No time to sit and work on the puzzle. Almost spent more time in the Starbucks drive-thru. America is in chaos, but the license plate people are killin' it. I'm regretful I called it a leper colony yesterday.
ReplyDeleteFOOD WEB feels underwhelming, but SPAGHETTI CODE and HAMBURGER MENU are brilliant, and I think our constructors might have been sharing a bottle of wine when they wrote these clues. We don't get anywhere near enough silliness from the buttoned-up Masters of English toiling away in the less than amusing salt mines of the NYTXW. Today was refreshing.
The only place a band leader has ever said HIT IT is in the movies.
Uniclues:
1 "We brought this dude on board who imagined he'd save the world putting up these panels, but guess what? Earth? Not saved."
2 How to make a coyote extra Wile-E.
3 "I bang you and you bring order to my universe / No, it's not weird, so stop thinking perverse."
4 Thoughts in Texas when they learn there's another less-murdery food group.
5 ...they show the previews for the scary movie releases around Halloween time.
1 SOLAR HIRE TALE
2 ACME AGED SATIN
3 HIT IT: GAVEL ODE
4 SALAD BARS? NEATO.
5 I'LL BE FINE UNTIL...
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: That which follows the sound of a body thudding on concrete. CLIMBING GYM ADO.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
JAVA UPDATEs don't affect streaming lag, that's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteSo I've decided to reinterpret it. JAVA is a diuretic, and sometimes you have a little trouble getting started when in the bathroom. A quick JAVA UPDATE will solve that pretty quickly.
So basically, the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" should be recited in Upspeak.
ReplyDeleteNon-techie here, so I was unfamiliar with all the themers--including the revealer. What is "FOODWEB?" To me it exists solely for this puzzle, to combine the two words. Or, I suppose, the Spiderverse.
ReplyDeleteWriteover: SPAMFIndER before FILTER.
Nice to include SALADBARS beside all that spaghetti and hamburger. In fact, all those down 9s are pretty cool--not "NEATO." Par.
Wordle bogey, needing three shots at BGGGB.
Enjoyed doing this Mondayish puzzle, but after looking at the completed grid, I wanted to see Pepto Bismal lurking in it. Must run off to the gym now.
ReplyDeleteDiana, not a SPAMBURGER
UNTIL DEN . . .
ReplyDeleteOH, I’LLBEFINE under ONE SATIN cover,
HITIT ONE time, my AGED Latin LOVER.
--- CHLOE BEAM
I loved reading the comments from the pre-Java coders today. It reminded me that my sister went to IBM school in Chicago, back in the mid-sixties. Because she worked with computers 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, she swore that she would never have a home computer. But eventually, she caved and along with her best friend, they both got home computers. If I remember correctly, they were Dells, back when they were considered one of the better brands out there.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of any of those terms. Good on you if you have. And I'd be your father or grandfather. But I could quiz you on FORTRAN and MSDOS. I used to program in those. And you thought highway engineers only were concerned about the TAR mistakes.
ReplyDeleteWordle par.
Check that. I knew SPAMFILTER. But now that I checked on some previous comments, it's amazing how many supposedly intelligent folks are so oblivious to so many other things. @JD thought RAMPARTs were streaming!? For an entire lifetime? Worry over what BCE stands for? And they wonder why our children are so dumb? Or should I say stupid because dumb means unable to speak? Incredible.
ReplyDelete