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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Downs-only solve)
Theme answers:
- WORLD FOOD SUMMIT (17A: *U.N. conference seeking to eliminate hunger)
- LOSES FACE (24A: *Suffers humiliation)
- SLIPPERY SLOPE (34A: *Gradual, seemingly harmless course of action that ultimately results in bad consequences)
- NAVAL BASE (48A: *Place of warship?)
In baking and pastry making, streusel (German pronunciation: [ˈʃtʁɔʏzl̩]) is a crumbly topping of flour, butter, and sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, pies, and cakes. Some modern recipes add spices and chopped nuts. The mixture can also be layered or ribboned in the middle of a cake.
Some baked dishes which have a streusel topping are streuselkuchen, coffee cake, babka, and apple crisp.
The term is also sometimes used for rich pastries topped with, or mixed with, streusel. (wikipedia)
• • •
This theme feels strange, in that you descend the grid ... but then you're supposed to ... reclimb it to make sense of the revealer? Also, I think I don't know the difference between the FACE of a mountain and the SLOPE of a mountain. I'm guessing the FACE is ... higher? Maybe the last steep bit before the SUMMIT? I dunno. I keep trying to google the definition of "mountain face" but all I get are mountains that look like faces, or someplace called Face Mountain (in Alaska), which appears to get its name because, well, part of its peak looks like a face.
 |
| [not seeing it] |
The answers that caused trouble today were "IT WAS ME" (1D: Sheepish "I'm to blame") (absolutely no idea how that straightforward statement is "sheepish (!?!?!)); ROOTLESS (2D: Forever wandering) (just ... no clue, for a long time); GYM BAG (I had CLOSET at first) (10D: Holder of sneakers, athletic attire, etc.); ROTTED (12D: Biodegraded) (I wanted something ... fancier-sounding?); and IV PUMP (45D: Medical device that infuses fluids into the body, in brief) (got the IV part easy enough, but then ... YIPE (which should be YIPES!, come on, can we stop this dumb singular YIPE thing!?)—IV ... DUCT? ON-E was tough to infer, as I only wanted ONCE or ONZE ... didn't consider the two-word ON ME until very late). So, yeah, lots of flailing around. But I really thought I had it, in the end. But I did not. Ah well. Hope you fared better. See you tomorrow.
Medium-tough. The NW was hard. I sorta know what STREUSEL is but spelling it is not part of that knowledge. Plus I had ResTLESS before ROOTLESS and IV drip before PUMP. Cute idea and pretty smooth, liked it.
ReplyDeleteI just checked on Xwordinfo, it’s a ghost town.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #839 was on the easy side for a Croce or about 2 to 3 x a Saturday NYT. I found the bottom easier than the top with the NE the toughest section. Good luck!
AGAR had the ODDEST feeling this Monday morning. He was a MESS and his PECS were SORE. There was FOOD still stuck to his FACE after being a DOPE and eating ROTTED and OILY EGGOS at the STREUSEL diner last night.
ReplyDeleteHis BFFS followed him to the LOO to SPY on him. They were BLASE about not having a care in the WORLD. AGAR, though, would rather DYE than FACE the truth about his AGED ASSERTS.
He kept this ERIE ONEROUS BAG of FOOD hidden in the ODDEST places and it made his PALM itch. RAMONE, his ENAMOR, was BLASE about AGAR's needs. She would NAG him about the MOUNTAIN they had to CLIMB while DATING in the SLUMS. She would PEEK in at her little BOO and remind him about WORLD hunger. "It TAKES two to SNARK" he'd yell. "ISLE bet that FASO BAG of a SORE LOSER, ETA, could PUMP FOOD into his NAVAL and you'd be BLASE about that too!"...."You need to get off that MOUNTAIN SUMMIT of yours before your SORE ASSERTS SLIP into your ONO!" cried RAMONE....
The two were always SORE with each other ETCETERA, ETCETERA. AGAR's BFFS DON'T BET on them being A PIECE of A TEAM. RAMONE always SLAMS some SNARK at AGAR, and he's off BASE with his OILY ONEROUS remarks.
It didn't matter, though....Neither one LOSES FACE since they would solve WORLD hunger.. The folks in the SLUMS would be fed LESS OILY EGGOS with ROOTS of PALMS, some tater TOTS with LESS FONDA and a MESS of STREUSEL shoo FLY pie that ISLE bet all the ILKS could enjoy....
This might've been a TMI TOME, but it was Monday after all. To be sure, though,...AGAR was now happy he could skip to his LOO...So was RAMONE....
DNF due to getting stuck on 36D Egad! / 46A Pull a fast one on / 46D Seeing romantic partners… I knew it had to be DATING, but I had YIKE and DUKE made no sense! Thought maybe JUKE? but JATING made no sense! YIPE, I got DUPED! Can’t remember when I ever haven’t gotten the Monday Xword!
ReplyDeleteRex, you could dial back the drama a bit. "Tragic. What a betrayal"... really? I do "downs only" to make Mondays more fun, and when it fails, as it will -- because how can it not now and then? -- that's the price of "gaming" the rules this way.
ReplyDeleteUm... wait, actually, now that I think about it, Rex don't dial back the drama, because you wouldn't be Rex. Ignore my first sentence.
But, for some of you out there who comment "Oh, I hate that 'downs only' thing, they're just showing off saying 'look how smart I am'"... just no. I do it because it's more fun. Way more fun. After I got faster from experience, I used to not even bother doing Mondays because the solve was so straightforward. But now Monday is arguably my favorite day! And I spent 22+ minutes on this, because where Rex had STREUDEL so did I,... but wait there's more! For 36 down I had YIKE, which made 46 across DUKE. So a double fail. But get this: I "failed", but it was fun. Kind of like my early attempts at windsurfing in a strong wind, but without the nose full of water and the bruise from where the mast hit me on the head. (And my brother in law racing out in the boat to save my life, when I was just sitting on the board bleeding, thinking: man, that was fun.)
Okay now I need to dial back the drama.
In other news: thanks Jeff Chen for all those years at xwordinfo.
Maybe don’t be so literal? It’s a jokey, self-mocking blog post. Very funny.
Deletethe s from YIPE slid down and over to form the similarly terrible plural ILKS
ReplyDeleteThe Old Man of the Mountain, aka Old Stone Face, was a series of five granite cliff ledges in Franconia, New Hampshire, that appeared to be the jagged profile of a human face. It was a symbol of significance for several Indian peoples and became a cultural icon for NH.
ReplyDeleteIt collapsed on May 3, 2003, prompting folk singer Tom Rush, who is from NH, to comment: You know you're old when you outlive geological formations.
Two items from yesterday:
On diamond theft/stolen base. The Hudson Valley Renegades play minor league ball in a stadium that sits on the one side of US Route 90 with a prison on the other side. When my kids were little and we drove by, I told them most of the inmates were there for stealing second base.
On LIVER. Back in 1969, I joined Weight Watchers for a time. Its food plan back then required us to eat liver once a week. It worked but I gained it all back, as often happens. I have never eaten liver since.
My five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Place where employees may all be holding together (4)(6)
2. No-brainer? (6)
3. Building installations that work with beams (5)(6)
4. Susceptible to burning, in a way (4)
5. Match making? (4)
CALL CENTER
ZOMBIE
SOLAR PANELS
FAIR
FIRE
Fortunately for me, STREUSEL filled itself in via crosses before I could start scratching my head over the spelling (as I’m sure I would have been in the STRUDEL corner as well).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of MOUNTING CLIMBING has anyone noticed that EGGOS are slowly inching up to the rarified air of OREOS territory? I wonder if there are chocolate EGGOS - or maybe you can put OREOS in your waffle batter instead of the Ice Cream sometimes.
Took Wednesday time to finish. Failed completely at only downs. Most fun for a Monday is ages.
ReplyDeleteAverage difficulty for a Monday. Didn't consider the theme until I was finished. One nit... ITWASME isn't grammatical, "It was I" is, but I realize that everyone says "ITWASME." I had "it's on me" at first.
ReplyDeleteWasn't sure of the spelling of STREUSEL, but the crosses made it easy.
I was looking at that photo of the mountain that is supposed to look like a face and thinking “Hmm, I don’t see it” and then I saw your tiny comment! Too funny. I had Streudel too and then realized MEDS although it is a thing, did not go with the clue. Very hard answer!
ReplyDeleteHarmless theme - but I thought so elegantly filled it felt like a mid to late week puzzle. STREUSEL, ODDEST, ONEROUS, ENAMOR, PEEK A BOO - all top notch stuff. Our new friend TMI again and a few unfortunate 3s - ESE, OAS and others but I can deal with those.
ReplyDeleteI’m a MESS
MOUNTAINs or hills have SLOPEs or grades that can be calculated. The aspect is the compass direction that SLOPE is facing so the north FACE of a mountain could have a different SLOPE than the south FACE.
Pleasant Monday morning solve.
I want to walk up the side of the MOUNTAIN
A “Down-only nightmare” for me indeed. I’ve lately been able to get 80-90% of the puzzle Down-only, but with this I was getting nowhere fast. With pitifully few answers in place and my head banging firmly against the wall, I quickly gave in and started looking at Across clues to end my misery. Then it turned into a perfectly nice Monday.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t like having to keep trying to find the across answer when I needed to go back to it. It made me a little dizzy and made the solving harder than necessary. Perhaps that was the point, to show how tough it can be to climb a mountain. But since I’m doing the puzzle in my living room, with a cup of coffee beside me, I don’t need to pretend I’m actually climbing Mt Everest.
ReplyDeleteThx, Tom & Zhouqin; a fun adventure from top to bottom! 👍
ReplyDeleteMed.
Started on TOT of the WORLD, and from that SUMMIT, LOST FACE, slid down the SLIPPERY SLOPE to the BASE, and was PUMPed to make the CLIMB back up.
Enjoyed the scenery along the way down, tho! :)
Thx @jae; on it! :)
___
Joel Fagliano's NYT PandA variety puz was on the easy side. Lots of fun, as always.
___
On to Croce's #839. 🤞, with Paolo Pasco's Mon. New Yorker in the wings.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Ditto @okanaganer on downs-only Mondays. Yes, today it was fun to struggle a bit. Hand up for the STREUdEL fail, which was nothing compared to the NE, where I confidently started with “locker” for GYMBAG. That took a while to sort out.
ReplyDeleteI’m a relative newbie (and learning much about crossword strategies from reading this column, thx!!) but had to share that synchronicity saved the day for me here. Yesterday my husband came home from the farmers market with the best Jersey peaches so far this season and asked if I wanted dessert prepared “cobbler, streusel, or crumb?” Both the word and the delicious streusel-topped baked peaches were fresh on my mind when I solved the puzzle. Yummmmmm…
ReplyDeleteTough? I thought it was easy for a Monday, though I know both words for streusel. I didn't have to do my late week search for "where" is the typo. If Rex had to do that occasionally, I bet he would have found his mistake.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I don't get "down only" . Part of the fun is seeing words emerge, seeing the crosses interplay. I guess that means I 'll never be a great solver like most of this list. But I have fun.
Same mistakes on STREUdEL/YIpE.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, Jim Horne wrote a nice sendoff for Jeff Chen of the now mostly defunct XWordInfo.
<a href="https://xwordblog.com/2023/09/02/i-wont-miss-jeff-chen/“>I Won’t Miss Jeff Chen (spoiler - headline is a misdirect</a>
A very me-centric puzzle with IM LATE, IT WAS ME and ON ME in the grid.
ReplyDeleteA definite step up from the usual Monday, both in theme and cluing.
If 31A had been SURE, we would have had a DUPE dupe.
Would suggest that the FACE of a mountain is any surface you would scale and that the slope is well the slope - the steepness of ascent. Inasmuch as one would almost only descend the mountain after reaching the summit (hopefully) I was not as put off but having to reclimb. Seemed to be about average for a Monday but now I am hungry for something with a STREUSEL topping. Hmmm. Have a great holiday - will be vegging watching as much of the US Open as I can. One of my favorite sporting events of the year.
ReplyDelete@Liveprof-True dat about The Old Man of the Mountain. If you're ever in MH on May 3 and wonder why everyone is wearing black of what the "two minutes of silence" are for, that's it.
ReplyDeleteNah-just made that up. We do have two nice pieces of art depicting The Old Man, and you can look through special telescope type things with inserts at where he used to be to see what he looked like, if that's your idea of a good time.
Thought something mountain-related was up after SUMMIT and FACE and was not disappointed. Liked the progression upward from BASE to SUMMIT. Also I think the SLIPPERYSLOPE analogy is vastly overused. Enough already.
I liked seeing LOSESFACE (where is it?) and PEEKABOO (there it is!) in the same puzzle.
Very nice Monday with some crunch, TP and ZB, Took some Patience and not a Zany Batch of clues but a nice theme and execution. Thanks for all the fun.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteFormer In-store Bakery worker here. STREUSEL is the crumbly-brown-sugary-deliciousness that covers some cakes. Bakes to a golden brown. Yum.
Neat puz, yes, Rex, you need to CLIMB back up the puz. You start at the BASE, go up the smaller SLOPE, hit the side FACE, reach the SUMMIT. Why? Because it's there... as these crazy MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS say! (Ala Mt. Everest. If you want to climb your local small mountain, fine.)
Was that SNARKy? AM I being ONEROUS? IT WAS ME.
Could've worked the symmetric pair of UPS and LAT into the theme. 😁
Anyway, Monday. What can you do. Although, Happy Labor Day. Big UPS if you're off work today. Alas, not I.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Had the same experience as OFL, except mine was the crossing kea/loas at 36D (YIKE/YIPE; DUKE/DUPE). I thought that was wildly unfair, particularly on a Monday.
ReplyDeleteDuke is not an option.
DeleteMaybe you were thinking of deke?
I don’t think it was unfair, at all
We speak of Mount Susitna, in southwestern Alaska, locally referred to not so much as "face" mountain as "The Sleeping Lady." Viewed from downtown Anchorage, it appears to be the full-length silhouette of a woman lying on her back. It is important enough to the locals that a cab driver felt compelled to point it out to us on the way in from the airport to the Anchorage Hilton. There is a "face" of sorts at the left-hand side of Rex's picture, but the whole body is easier to see (toes to the right.)
ReplyDeleteSo, if you look at the print version (the word dinosaur comes to mind), the across clues start with #64, and end at #1….
ReplyDeleteRex’s comment about descending the grid/reclimb are weirdly prophetic!
@okanaganer: I also do down-only on Mondays. And I almost always DNF, but it's still fun. I'm not trying to beat the puzzle, just enjoy myself.
ReplyDeleteThe NW was my downfall (so to speak) today. I had "IT's on ME" for 1d and couldn't figure out whether 18d was "iMS" or "pMS" and didn't even think of "DMS". So I was stuck with the nonsensical "sOul? FOOD SUMMIT"... I revised a bit but didn't figure it all out.
When I read "STREUSEL", I thought, "Of course." I'd forgotten that Streusel can be a topping for a cake as well as an entire pastry. ("Streusel" literally means "something you sprinkle/strew" on top of something else, which didn't occur to me.)
I loved Jeff Chen’s comments on Xwordinfo. Sadly, now he’s left the blog. And it’s Jim Horne running the shop. Also sadly, a paywall went up so you can’t look up the constructor’s stats (for free) anymore.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@thefogman 9:51 – I notice that today's puzzle has been added to the pages for Zhouqin Burnikel and Tom Pepper on XWord Info, but with only a blank grid showing. I guess Jim Horne is going to continue to update the constructor stats.
DeleteSame DNF with YIKE/DUKE for YIPE/DUPE.
ReplyDeleteDuke seemed a fair answer to PULL A FAST ONE as in “put up your DUKES!” As a call to a fist fight …
Same here.
DeleteCroce Freestyle 839 was an odd one. I really thought I was heading for a DNF in both the SW and the NE, but would up finishing in an 'easy' time. Once I fixed a wrong guess on 17A the NE fell quickly, and once I fixed the spelling (of an unknown word) on 60A the SW did so.
ReplyDeleteThis is about as much fun as not being able to find your eyeglasses when you want to read the NYT or not being able to find your keys when you're standing at your front door.
ReplyDeleteWhere the hell is the 9A clue? Where the hell is the 29A clue?
What's worse is I can't see any reason why the constructors have chosen to annoy me so much. I mean everything about the solve seems exactly the same except for the placement of the Across clues.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the game won't be worth the candle, so I'm stopping. Bam. Just like that.
(I have a very low threshold for being annoyed.)
Hysterical. Thanks for sharing. Actually grinned.
DeleteMore annoying than fun.
ReplyDeleteNice one, mostly easy but getting into medium territory toward the BASE. After SUMMIT, FACE, and SLOPE, the average bear might have been thinking "Hmmm, MOUNTAIN," but not me; I was even ready for a NAVAL yard. So the reveal was a happy surprise, and I enjoyed following the CLIMBER's progress up from the BASE to the SUMMIT. Otherwise...I liked the clue for ROTTED: I can now refer to certain refrigerator items as having biodegraded. No problem here on differentiating STREUSEL, which can be stirred together in a trice, from strudel, which rises into the truly ONEROUS level for a baking project.
ReplyDeletepabloinnh - Thank you for pointing out the connection between LOSES FACE and PEEK-A-BOO!
I did the exact same thing (confidently wrote in STREUDEL instead of STREUSEL) and had to go back and figure out which of my answers was wrong. Once I saw MEDS wasn't really a chaotic situation, the other shoe dropped. Streudel is a thing, isn't it? I see it's underlined in red as I type it here so maybe I've been spelling it wrong my whole life?! YIPE
ReplyDeleteWell, the Across clues started with 64-Across and ended with the 1-Across one. But the Down clues were in the usual order, and the numbers on the puzgrid were normally-placed. Weird. M&A kinda likes weird, but like @Nancy darlin, lost precious nanoseconds tryin to find each of the dern Across clues.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: DMS. M&A don't speak text, so this was a no-know.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Western treaty org.} = IRS. or somesuch.
other fave stuff: GYMBAG. PEEKABOO. ITWASME. {Place of warship?} clue.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Burnikel darlin & Mr. Pepper dude. Downright rappellin.
Masked & Anonymo?Us *
p.s. M&A has always gotten his *official* U-counts from over at xwordinfo.chen. But they stopped countin em, as of today. Kinda sudden. Sorta like suddenly startin to number yer puzs backwards. or somesuch. Or like not takin regular M&A comments at runtpuz.gov anymore. Confuses the M&A.
p.p.s.s.
* U-count = 4, I think. That's about average, for a daily NYTPuz, btw.
**gruntz**
Who was that that you went to dinner with last night.
ReplyDeleteI may be DATING myself, but ITWASME.
Oh! Who paid?
It was ONME.
If you cross a “Biology lab gel” with a”Holder of sneakers, athletic attire, etc.” (as happens at 10D) do you get a scumBag?
I went down in flames on my downs-only attempt, but had a good time trying. Thanks, Tom Pepper and Zhouqin Burnikel.
@Nancy, your comment made me open up the Arts section so that I could see what I'd missed: even though we get the daily paper, I almost always solve on my iPad using the app, which has improved as far as accurately mirroring what's in the print edition. But not always and not today! On Thursdays I've gotten into the habit of checking the paper first to see if there are grid hi-jinks going on that the app can't handle, but it never occurred to me that I should check on a Monday, and so I missed out on some of the fun. By the way, my Midwest edition of the paper has the clues for 9A and 29A.
ReplyDeleteThe slope of a mountain is an angular part of a hill side - think the hypotenuse of a triangle. A face is a vertical - like a cliff.
ReplyDeleteWell, once you're at the top of the mountain you have to descend it, and on the way down you'll encounter the same things you did on the way up, so no big deal which way the clues were ordered, imo. Not to sound blasé or anything.
ReplyDeletenothing wrong with a singular yipe....bugs bunny did it all the time.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVZFhT6tz_Y
My printout had the clues in the normal order. But if I had done it in the newspaper, I still wouldn't have filled it in from the bottom up, as was intended. I go through all the clues, filling in the gimmes, and then I put in the words where I know some of the letters.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping that Jim Horne would replace Jeff Chen in doing the daily commentary on the puzzle, but it seems not. I'll miss reading the comments by the constructors. I'd rather not go to Wordplay.
I know that it's bad form to criticize a Monday puzzle, but 29 of the 76 clues were gimmes for me and I'm not an elite solver. That's too many, isn't it?
Really hated this today! Don't do again please! I love this crossword, usually! Devra
ReplyDelete@Kitshef - I had a similar experience with 17a and 60a on Croce’s #839.
ReplyDelete@Nancy - I brought the print version of today’s puzzle up on my iPad and the across numbering was bizarre to say the least.
In my print version (San Francisco area) the across clues start with 64A and end with 1A. Most confusing. The Downs are in the usual format.
ReplyDeleteThe Replica Edition has all the clues - and yes, the acrosses are upside-down. That made my usual Monday solve-it-in-my-head a bit more difficult than usual, but that likely would have been the case had I printed it out.
ReplyDeleteMy only gotchas were IV DRIP before PUMP and YIKE before YIPE.
More fun than the usual Monday.
Why is today not like any other day? Today I finished a Croce in less than an hour.
ReplyDeleteErgo, an easy Croce.
thought this was a beauty... plus most folks solve top to bottom so reveal would be 'last'... love the clues..
ReplyDeleteway better than Sunday puzzles too! at least this was fun..
Agreeing with johnk (above). The puzzle was only difficult because my printed NY Times copy had the across clues printed "upside down" with the No. 1 across clue at the end and the No. 64 clue printed first. Of course it took a few minutes to realize that although the clues were printed in reverse order, the spaces allotted for the fill were
ReplyDeleteactually correct from top to bottom. But as soon as I saw that No. 64 came first, my only reaction was it was done on purpose to tone down's Rex "boasting" that he always did the puzzle trying to fill on only the down clues. And... if the clues were only wrongly printed in the print edition, and 90% of solvers seem to do it online and those clues were "right" how can anyone claim they were intentionally printed that way to make the solve to climb the mountain? Just a terrible way all 'round to begin a week of puzzles.
The worst thing about the solutions not being posted at XWord Info will be not having the clues and answers in one big list anywhere now. I used to refer to that list quite a bit when formulating my comments.
ReplyDeleteGoodness sakes DUKE/DUPE and YIKE/YIPE. I looked the puzzle over a half-dozen times and couldn't find my error. And Jeff Chen's early postings are done, so Rex is more important than ever.
ReplyDeleteI added BLOOP as my 37th favorite word.
Uniclues:
1 When they become lums.
2 Jeez, everybody dresses so matchy-matchy, and, I would paint those boats way prettier colors since you're not going to sneak up unannounced in a floating skyscraper.
3 Punk rocker couch surfing.
4 Why my belly looks like it does.
5 The sad and shocking stories from your 20s.
6 What mom does rather than go to horror movies.
1 SLUMS LOSE S-FACE
2 NAVAL BASE TAKES
3 ROOTLESS RAMONE
4 STREUSEL IV PUMP
5 DATING LOO-LORE (~)
6 GYM BAG PEEKABOO
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Over perfumed poet. CHANEL-HOT DREAMER.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve been late, or absent, to the game of commenting recently. I’ll just say the puzzle was fine for a Monday.
ReplyDeleteMy mind is on @Weezie and her mother. I’m concerned that @Weezie has not commented and HOPE everything is okay.
@Mathgent, I think you ARE an elite solver.
@Nancy. I KNOW you want to work as GOF intended ((hi, @Z) but MAYBE download the NYT app on your computer so you can refer to a missing clue. You can look at the clue, but still work it on paper. Forgive me if I misunderstood the problem.
Came down with a nasty cold on Friday. Not CoVid as per 3 days of testing, but I’ve been working the puz, looking at the comments, but then going…meh…I have nothing to say…foggy mind for sure.
I would agree that a slope is something moderate that you walk up: the trail went up the north slope.
ReplyDeleteWhereas a face is much more likely to be a technical climb: the west face is a class 5.5 climb.
As a lifelong hiker but never a climber I would never say that I ascended the face of any mountain.
Villager
Did find it a little annoying at first that the clues were reversed (I learn here only in the paper). I actually put three answers in the wrong place before I realized what was going on. I am not surprised Nancy bailed but I thought it was a decent puzzle after all. Liked place of warship. My mind did read worship at first. Very good clue for a Monday.
ReplyDeleteOne thing. Someone commented that “it was me” is ungrammatical. Many argue in response that this is perfectly fine English and I agree.
For centuries, no one ever, I mean no one, ever said there was anything wrong with this. Until the 17th and 18th Centuries. Scholars who then were all steeped in Latin, turned their attention to the study of English. You can’t use the Latin version of me with “esse” to be. So they illogically said you can’t do it in English either. But English is not Latin. No matter. They pronounced the “rule “ anyway. Their mistake still affects us centuries later! French of course descended from Latin is perfectly fine with their version of it was me in that situation. C’etait moi.
People say it was me because they are speaking English, not Latin.
Well, I didn't get any tomfoolery of reversed clues on the NYT app! I call Shenanigans! The app (which went from $39/yr to $50/yr) is 99% (usually) accurate with how the puz is supposed to be. Dang, how can you raise the price, and drop the ball like that? Where's my pitchfork...
ReplyDeleteWould've given this puz a "Cool" rating had I'd seen it done correctly.
Was thinking it was a fairly straightforward puz for CC...
RooMonster Disappointed Guy
A rare DNF on a Monday. Had IFS and fOOTLESS. And it wasn’t a TYPO.
ReplyDeletePS The reason I screwed up with IfS instead of IRS is the stupid reverse grid. I looked at the clue for 64A in place of 1A. Almost any letter combo is possible for an international treaty, but there’s only one IRS. Add me to the list of folks who did not like this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteNot that much of a puzzle, really. Reversal of the across clue list is, for sure, a way to catch the editor's eye--and this editor's eye is, shall we say, easily caught. Plus, it sorta fit in with the climbing theme, so why not?
ReplyDeleteI had the same misstep as OFNP with STREUdEL, but also had ResTLESS at 2d and iMS for 18d. Made finding the WORLD part of the WFS hard to find. Also: IVdriP. Much more commonly said than IVPUMP.
Solved it bottom up, fast becoming my usual way, because that's what I thought the constructors wanted me to do. Pretty ordinary though. Noted: SLAMS/SLUMS, anagram neighbors at 43 & 44d. Par.
Wordle birdie.
DON'T BET ONME
ReplyDeleteFrom SUMMIT to BASE,
ITWASME who's the DOPE,
so OILY to FACE,
IT's A SLIPPERYSLOPE.
--- RAMONE FONDA
Bottom up Monday. OK.
ReplyDeleteWordle birdie.
The upside-downness was hardly worth the effort for the constructors.
ReplyDeleteBut it added a bit of a story to this Monday.
Diana, LIW
BTW, I have met both of those constructors. Nice people.
ReplyDelete