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Online news aggregator founded in 2004 / WED 10-25-23 / Doctor who lent his name to a therapeutic system / Ballpark fill served with raspberries? / Leader prominent in the 1956 Suez Crisis / Poetic form featuring lexical repetition rather than rhyme / Dwarfs' representative in the Fellowship of the Ring / First name in "wabbit" hunting / Flowering plant that lent its name to a lane on "Desperate Housewives"
Wednesday, October 25, 2023
Constructor: Aimee Lucido
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- MEG WHITE (17A: Half of a 1990s-2000s rock duo with six Grammys) [The "duo" in question is The White Stripes]
- JOHN BONHAM (8D: Member of Led Zeppelin)
- RINGO STARR (28D: One of the Fab Four)
Franz Anton Mesmer (/ˈmɛzmər/; German: [ˈmɛsmɐ]; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorised the existence of a natural energy transference occurring between all animated and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", sometimes later referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the 19th century. In 1843, the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term "hypnotism" for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word "mesmerism" generally functions as a synonym of "hypnosis". Mesmer also supported the arts, specifically music; he was on friendly terms with Haydn and Mozart. (wikipedia) /// Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmerin the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (Lebensmagnetismus) possessed by all living things, including humans, animals, and vegetables. He claimed that the force could have physical effects, including healing. // The vitalist theory attracted numerous followers in Europe and the United States and was popular into the 19th century. Practitioners were often known as magnetizers rather than mesmerists. It had an important influence in medicine for about 75 years from its beginnings in 1779, and continued to have some influence for another 50 years. Hundreds of books were written on the subject between 1766 and 1925, but it is no longer practiced today except as a form of alternative medicine in some places. (wikipedia)
• • •
OK, wow, so ... I was wellllll into my write-up before I realized that the theme wasn't just the rolling "DRUM," that there were actual drummers in the dang grid. This is to say, I Literally Didn't Read the Revealer Clue (completely), Even Though I Typed It Into The Theme Explanation Above, WTF!? I was all "Oh, huh, the 'DRUM' thing's cute, but this is basically a Wednesday themeless blah blah blah." Here's what I had written before the very, very belated "Aha / OMG!" kicked in. As you can see, I'd written A Lot:
***
So, theme shmeme, let's look at the grid ... it looks good! Little heavy on the names—and again, as with one of last week's puzzles, it's musical names that dominate—but the names are all legit famous and the crosses are fair. There were no dull or unpolished parts of the grid, even if things do get a little (BY) GUMmed up in the "DRUM" areas (I'm looking at you, UNDOER). The thing about this theme is that while you don't really notice it (much), it still puts a lot of pressure on the grid. Very hard to construct cleanly around a spinning "DRUM," and I thought this puzzle met that challenge pretty well. There was no one part of the grid that stood out, but it really felt like it was shimmering all over. The JEERING RUTABAGA crossing MEG WHITE and COME TRUE is all very nice. RINGO STARR and JOHN BONHAM feel like stan...
***
That last sentence was supposed to read: "RINGO STARR and JOHN BONHAM feel like stand-ins for proper theme answers." Cue infinite LOLs. The theme answers are staring me in the face and I'm just walking past them like "Hey guys, weird that you're all music people, right? Anyway, where's the theme?" Wow. OK, so ... my appreciation of this puzzle just went through the roof. That's a *lot* of theme material. There's theme *everywhere*. And yet it feels like a snazzy themeless-ish grid!? All that theme and a JEERING RUTABAGA too!? Feels like magic.
WISTERIA SICK DAY! The constructor has truly GUSSY'd up this grid, BY GUM! Just cramming themeless-worthy entries into the non-thematic nooks and crannies of this grid. It's so nice. And now that the Musical Names (we've established) are actually part of the theme, the grid looks much more varied in its overall concerns. ONEIDA JARGON STAKEOUT WHITTLE NEW CAR, these are all really good answers, especially in a puzzle with this much thematic density. The more demanding the theme, the harder it is to keep up the vibrancy of your fill, but this grid makes it look easy. I did fumble around a little more than usual for a Wednesday today, starting with COME TO BE at 14A: Materialize (COME TRUE). I then couldn't quite figure out what the clue on JEERING was doing (7D: Ballpark fill served with raspberries?) so I imagined there was some kind of extended fruit pun going on and I wrote in JEERIES (slang for 'jeering' that is also a pun on 'cherries'!?!?).
Absolutely forgot DIGG existed (31A: Online news aggregator founded in 2004) and then partially remembered and wrote in DUGG. But then SESTINA was right up my English Professor alley (36A: Poetic form featuring lexical repetition rather than rhyme), and the musical names were all in my wheelhouse, so though the "DRUM" areas were a little thorny, the overall difficulty on this one was probably only a little north of normal. All in all, a truly enjoyable experience. If you can ever engineer one of these extremely delayed theme revelations, I highly recommend it, it's a rush. Drummers drummers everywhere. [whispers] "I see drummers." "The drummers are coming from inside the house!" Was NASSER a drummer? (32A: Leader prominent in the 1956 Suez Crisis). Anything seems possible right now. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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89 comments:
The only possible improvement I can think of would be to include KARENCARPENTER in the grid. But that's probably asking too much of what's already a marvel.
Absolutely lovely puzzle from Aimee Lucido.
Overwrites: DRag before DRIP at 5D, DeNt before DING at 31D and BeEB before BIEB at 25A.
MEG WHITE (17A) was a WOE; not my generation (see also BIEB, above). Never heard of DIGG (31A) and didn't remember GIMLI (11D) from when I read LOTR back in college. But all were fairly crossed.
Got it through trial-and-error in the NW. Didn't know MEGWHITE or TCM. I used the theme for a change, and guessed that DRUMROLL referred to the rotation of the circled letters D-R-U-M.
I also had "dent" before settling on DING. I didn't know Dr. Mesmer, either, and was slow to pick up MOM as a tattoo subject. I thought this was tough for a Wednesday.
as a Canadian, always get annoyed by super-regional names such as "Duane __" (drugstore chain). NO idea. Duane who???
One of the more enjoyable puzzles in a while. Misspelling of RUTABAGA had me tied up for a while but once I realize that it was easy to get a round. Had been kind of ignoring the circles until I had Ringo and John Benham filled in,
I hear this, but Duane Reade is a major drugstore chain in New York and this *is* the New York Times so I think it’s fair game.
I got the “drummers” bit, but literally did not see the circled DRUM letters until I came here. Maybe I need an iPad. My old man eyes are having a hard time seeing things that small on my phone.
Finished the grid and it still hasn’t hit me how a COPARENT is different than a PARENT. Maybe to differentiate him or her from a “single parent” ? Just seems like a single parent would still have a counterpart. Maybe it’s a gay marriage thing - one can probably tell that the times are quickly passing me by.
This one is tough for a non-trivia fan like myself - there’s a lot of real estate allocated to stuff like MEG WHITE, JOHN BONHAM, GILMI, ODEUM, SESTINA, DIGG, NASSER, MESMER and even the revealer DRUM ROLL meant nothing. Hopefully the NYT will attempt to salvage what‘s left of what has become the dreariest month in recent memory by running an actual CrossWord puzzle or two over the next few days (I know, slim and none - and slim just left town).
This is a beast of construction. Those four rolls clog up – constrict – all the squares in their neighborhoods. To make things more impressive, no rolls are repeated, that is, pick any letter of DRUM and follow its location in the four rolls, and you’ll find that it occupies north, south, east, and west!
That’s enough to make a grid hard to fill, but on top of that are those three drummers, occupying 28 squares.
All this, and yet this grid has hardly a whiff of junky answers. Amazing!
But wait, you would at least expect that Aimee, in the cloud of desperation caused by these restrictions, would understandably only be able to fill the puzzle with mundane answers. But no – JARGON! COPARENT! WHITTLE! DRUM ROLL! GUSSY! RUTABAGA! WISTERIA! SESTINA! MESMER! Scintillating jewels to bring sparkle to the grid.
A beast of a job, I reiterate. Brava, Aimee, for not only a fun theme with a terrific revealer, but also for the formidable skill underlying it. You succeeded in morphing what could have been a decent puzzle made by lesser hands into a spectacular one. What a gift to start my day coursing through this field of beauty. Thank you!
Stupendous Wednesday! I didn't know all the proper names but the crosses did. I wish I could work puzzles this fine all the time.
Yes 🙏
I excitedly caught on to the theme with RINGO STARR and was stoked to solve more drummer clues, only to discover I had already solved all of them. That was disappointing.
Clue for GIMLI should be spelled "Dwarves' representative".
Fantastic midweek puzzle - neat theme and well filled. I could do without the circles but whatever. The drummers were gimmes - this played so slick and smooth. GIMLI and the other trivia based entries went right in - I guess I needed crosses for SESTINA.
Liked the down home GRAMMA x BY GUM. For those non-NYers - Duane READE first opened on Broadway between Duane Street and READE Street downtown. Add REM to the musical theme.
Enjoyable Wednesday morning solve.
It’s a chore to tame WISTERIA
Oh my god, I haven't thought of DIGG in friggin' years. I had to go check if it's still a thing, and it is, but who cares now I guess? It appears to be a clickbait aggregator now. Joyful.
Like others, I didn't really know MEG WHITE. But Ringo? My dude, I was all up on the drummer stuff by then.
absolutely naticked by Reede/Reade and Ome/Oma
Thank you (no thank you) Nasser for invariably triggering “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in my brain all day.
Watts up with today's banger of a puzzle? I've been Mullen it over and all I can say is...Gadd zooks, what Appice o' work this one is -- it sent me to the Moon! Thanks to Ms. Lucido for taking the Helm today -- we're on Paice for a great week!
[Rimshot CUED]
I love that you showed your “misread” of the puzzle before your “aha” moment of realizing it was a great puzzle. It’s fun to see that even you can miss something in the first “look”.
Anyhoo, any puzzle that mentions MEG WHITE is going to be a winner for me!! White Stripes was one amazing band and live show.
Thanks for your blog, Look forward to it.
RINGO, for sure, JOHNBONHAM, eventually, but no idea MEGWHITE was a drummer. Also put in DRUMSOLO before the far more elegant DRUMROLL had to be right.
Add me to the DENT/DING crowd. Also had ALTAR before ORGAN as a church fixture. Not a Duane READE within miles of here, but thanks to the NYT xword, it's a semi-familiar answer. I think of JEERING as consisting of raspberries, not as a side feature, but that's a real nit.
Heck of a Wednesday from a real pro. Absolutely Lovely, AL, and thanks for all the fun.
@Southside - Coparent is primarily a divorce thing. Parents who aren’t still together but both active in child raising responsibilities. I thought clued fairly. If it makes you feel better, it took me only getting to MEGWHITE, before thinking “Oh man, SSJ ain’t gonna like this one.”
Loved this puzzle, and I was like @David Grenier, got the actual drummers and sailed right by the “rolling” drums, but didn’t have the excuse of solving on an iPhone. So I got the same magic as Rex when I stared at the grid post solve and saw the circles. OHEMGEE.
As a Brit doing this puzzle for 20 years, I always catch myself if I get annoyed with a US puzzle for having US-specific answers. And now I have a whole stack of completely useless knowledge about US things that I don't care about and no US citizen I ever meet wants to talk about (the celebrities I've never heard of are the decent end of this; I'm talking here about radio station acronyms and host names, endless baffling info about baffling sports, TV channel names for programmes I've never watched or indeed heard of, restaurant and shop chain names, ventriloquist dummy names for the love of the mighty zombie lord). But this has been my choice and I can't get annoyed about it, and on bad sleep nights I'll think of them all and the big wide world of things - in the US and everywhere else - that go on going on and that I don't own.
meg white? where was phil collins?
like the canadian, as a californian the hyper-regional "duane reade" was also a non starter.
Co-parenting is the term for both parents staying equally involved post divorce.
Hey All !
Rex, Rex, Rex, what are we to do with you? 😁 I usually come here to find whatever missing elements of the puz I, well, missed. But the shoes on the other foot today! I knew the three symmetrically placed (mind you) names were Themers! Disclaimer: they do get highlighted when you are on the Revealer clue. So not tooting my own horn too loudly. (Maybe a small *toot*)
Pretty neat grid configuration today. Two Across Themers, two Down Themers, and a DRUM ROLL in four sections. All with not terrible fill, and only using 33 Blockers. Great job, Aimee!
Natick Alert! The R of NASSER/READE. Haven't heard of either one, here. Ignorance on my part, absolutely, but how really common are they? Duane READE? Where are they? I know CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid. That's about it!
The UNDOER would be a good villain name. Got a chuckle on COPARENT. Technically, yes, but no one introduces their parents that way. "Hello, this is my mom, and my COPARENT." / scene
Those tiny bits aside, am impressed by this puz. Good start to Hump Day. YAS tis. Har.
However...
No F's (JEERING!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Wow, great Wednesday puzzle! Only write over was endS before AIMS. Had the DRUM in the NE corner but not much else up top and working my way down I came to "member of the Fab Foir" and plunked in RINGO and then it was whoosh whoosh. Oh, also DRUMsOLo before DRUMROLL for a hot sec but LSD fixed that.
Off to the OT hand therapist hoping for help with my "non-typical post-wrist surgery" (per orthopedist) finger paralysis, pain and swelling 🙄
@SirHillary 8:10. That’s Rich - a Krupa the Best drummers (Trucks full!) Some, sadly, have rolled their last - my con-Dolenz-es!
Coparenting refers to the practice of sharing parental duties equally, either through legal necessity (e.g. parents who split custody) or for cohabitating parents who don’t believe that one partner should bear the cognitive and emotional burden of caring for the child(ren) on their own.
Traditionally, fathers haven’t taken on much of the actual parenting responsibilities, so coparenting is a hot topic these days as many parents are looking to improve and be more equally involved. Also- Gay parents don’t require their own nomenclature. 🫠
UNDOER is not a word on corporate-speak. Seems a tad “unfair” along with the extremely archaic/little know MESSMER as a cross for BYGUM which is also extremely archaic.
Otherwise enjoyable.
Don't try to teach grandma how to suck rutabagas, please
coparenting is when you’re not in a relationship but parenting the same child/children. gay parents in a marriage/partnership are just… parents
What is a “yas queen “?
I was also unsure of what co-parenting meant. Apparently (ouch) it's when a child's parents are living apart but work together pretty closely on the child rearing: keeping him or her to the same schedule, pushing the same activities, etc.
And I just learned the difference between EGOTISM and egoism. With a T it's believing you are better than everyone else -- not a nice quality. Without the T it just means you look at things from a self-centered perspective.
But may I revert to yesterday's BEERSNOB discussion? I'd like to put in a plug for a Michigan beer I like better than Bell's -- Founder's ALL DAY SESSION IPA. It's available in Jersey, happily.
The missus and I were just over in Ireland for a week to celebrate a big birthday of hers and our hotel in Killarney was right across the street from the Killarney Brewing Company. Our tour bus driver pointed it out and noted that we gents could "have a Killarney Blond" there without the wives getting upset.
So I popped in planning to get a half pint of the Blond and a half of their IPA, but noticed that they offer "flights," i.e., smaller samples of a wider variety. I asked the waitress about them and misunderstood her answer to mean that a flight of 6 came to just one pint in total. So I ordered it. But she brought me six half-pints. D'oh! There was no way I could come close to finishing that much. So I brought two glasses over to the gents at a table nearby and explained my situation. One of them grumbled "no thanks," but the other beamed and said he'd love to try one. Then he raised it to me and said "Cheers!" But I didn't feel comfortable wandering all over the place trying to give away any more, so a good pint or so got wasted, to my eternal shame. Loved Ireland, though. Hated to leave.
I usually hear "Co-Parent" in the context of an unmarried/divorced couple who still make a good-faith effort to share child-rearing duties, FWIW.
I enjoyed this up until I got stuck at the Justin Bieber clue — I thought it might be about him but there wasn't enough space for "BIEBS," which is the thing people actually say! There's no such nickname as "the BIEB" afaict and that left a bad taste in my mouth
Ringo's a funny guy. I once heard him begin an interview by saying, "I was born at an early age." He also said: "The trouble with leaving your feet on the ground is you never get to take your pants off."
About his drumming he said: "I'm left-handed and I'm playing a right-handed kit... That's why everyone thought, 'Wow, he's a genius,' but all I was doing was trying to play backwards... It's one of those mad accidents, you can't learn it."
EGOTISM is what you're guilty of if you've won all 4 major show biz awards. If you've won three, but not a Tony, it's EGOISM. If it's the Emmy you're missing, then GOTISM.
If, on the other hand, you overdose on LSD, you're an ODIST, suffering, at least temporarily, from ODISm. Maybe you should have thought twice before donning your Hi-Hat.
Claude Debussy grew up speaking both French and Spanish. This left him confused both linguistically and grammatically. Hence his initial stab at an impressionistic piece about the sea was titled ELMER. He also considered Le Mar, before a kindly editor stepped in.
Juliet: Oh, Romeo. Wert thou a book, a bound and massive tome, I should treasure the chance to turn and devour each page.
ROMEO: Then sayst I to thee, fair Juliet, Read-a-THON.
Aimee, my verdict on this puzzle is (drumroll).......................5 STARRs! Thanks a bunch.
I had the opposite experience—I only saw the circled letters at the end, but saw the three drummers right away. Maybe because JIMMYPAGE didn’t fit.
I knew Duane READE from a few visits to NYC. In 1999 I visited the store in the mall below the WTC, then saw its ruins in a documentary.
I’ve never had a RUTABAGA, though I imagine it’s a lot like the equally crossword-worthy kohlrabi.
Great puzzle, great write up. I only wish Rex had included a link to the “Big W” scene in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”
A hard Wednesday for me! It was very difficult for me to get a foothold up top, so I had to solve from the YOU, GRAMMA and MOM (yes, that's me) area and work my way up. Since I knew only RINGO and not MEG WHITE or JOHN BONHAM, my DRUM ROLLS are for RUTAGAGA, WISTERIA, and WHITTLE and for the tricky clues. Seeing the DRUM pattern early did help me fill in later squares, but I only saw the round DRUM shape and didn't appreciate the ROLL - d'oh! Thanks once more to @Rex for helping me better understand a theme.
Really liked this one. A lot.
I'll trade you my RINGO STARR, DR J and NASSER for your MEG WHITE, JOHN BONHAM and GIMLI. Deal?
The sad truth about proper names in puzzles is that's it's no more thrilling to write them in on auto-pilot than it is frustrating to not know them at all. They're either one great big yawn or one great big "Huh?"
Today's Wednesday snoozefest is the penance we pay for yesterday's unexpected Tuesday delight.
I was today years old when I learned that john lennon and ringo starr both have 10 letters.
Sir Hillary for the win today!
@Fun_CFO, it only took me logging on to the NYT to know SSJ would have complaints:)
Great blog today, RP!
Definitely challenging for me since the only drummer I knew was RINGO. But I gradually got there thanks to the circle hints and the very fair crosses. The kind of puzzle you wish you could get every day. Thank you Aimee, for this excellent Wednesday.
For those of you who want a really good laugh today, check out my profile picture. It’s a few years back from my when my high school girl friends and I did our best imitation of our idols, The Beatles. Believe it or not, that’s me on the drums and that’s my real hair. Hopefully no one will have any nightmares from having seen it. Tomorrow we’ll return to our regular programming.
ODEUM looks like a Latin translation of a Greek theater, but I already had the M, and LUC was unquestionable, so I went with it. Dictionary.com is murky about the difference, if any.
I was once wandering around in lower Manhattan, looking for Pace University, I think, so I was reading the street signs. I noticed DUANE and READE, then saw the eponymous drugstore and thought "Aha! I know where that name came from." Somehow that stuck in my memory, and then as I heard the name mentioned in other locations I realized it was a shame. Anyway, I would never have got it otherwise.
I didn't know either MEG WHITE or TCM, so that was a pure plausibility guess. Coulda been pEG, but TCp seemed less probably.
And now I know what a SESTINA is!
👍 agreed!
Am I missing something at 7D? The clue is "Ballpark fare served with raspberries?" The answer is JEERING. I understand that giving a raspberry is a form of JEERING but it's not "fare" according to the definitions I've seen. BTW, Rex quoted the clue incorrectly.
Pretty dull puzzle.
This was a beauty. Just crunchy enough with surprises for a Wednesday.
I've come to know Aimee's puzzles from here (Rex's blog & the NYT) & The New Yorker so I'm not surprised. I loved
7D JEERING, CUED 44A, RANSOMS 28A & of course, DRUM ROLL.
Aimee, you should open a new constructor workshop!
Dressed (up) Gussy dress(up) ?
Count me in as one to rave about this crunchy, fun puzzle…what a splendid Wednesday surprise. Thank you Aimee Lucido! I really like White Stripes but did NOT know MEGWHITE was the drummer. I’ll have to look up where the John Wayne and Ian Fleming AIRPORTS are.
Yep, hand up for not knowing about DuaneREADE but it makes me happy to know that there are some drug stores left in the US that aren’t the ones that @Roo named, plus the crosses were fair.
@Egs. This is one of your BEST DAYS YET!
@Whatsername….that photo is priceless! I bet that was SO much fun!
I’ll quit now since I’ve already gone over my exclamation mark quota.
YAS? No idea. SESTINA? New to me. Good Wednesday challenge. Thanks, Aimee Lucido.
Yes!
Medium-tough works for me. Did not know SESTINA and DIGG. Fortunately I knew the drummers but, some of the PPP is pretty obscure for a Wednesday...GIMLI, ONEIDA, WISTERIA, MESMER...
Me too for DeNt before DING.
A good Wednesday tussle, liked it or what @Rex said.
Hilarious writeup 🦖! ❤️
This puzzle had too many names. And it's about drums. Clunkity clunk clunk clunk.
Yeah, drummers. At the university, we call them percussionists. In the jazz department, we call them an unavoidable nuisance. The only musicians easily replaced by a metronome. It's the oldest instrument in existence and it's version of a Stadivarius is a stew pot and a wooden spoon run by a two-year old on the kitchen floor. I do love a little glockenspiel from time to time. They give you a real hammer when you play tubular bells. I'm writing a short symphonic piece right now with four timpanis and they make such a bossy racket. I'll probably write four really difficult measures and then have the drummer sit everything else out. As a musician, you'd think, "SRSLY?" But as a percussionist, you'll think, "Drum solo baby." I wrote a triangle solo once, and labeled it "triangle solo ... bitches." It was a piece about starting up an old lawnmower and once it was finally running you can agree the pleasant noise of a child's triangle sounds exactly like a lawn being brought into manicured order. I took a conducting seminar once and mostly sat in the back next to the orchestral triangle and the ding was so friggen loud it left a hole in my hopes for the future. Drums. Whatever.
Tee-Hee: BIEB AIMS ORGAN (~)
Uniclues:
1 A stick.
2 Sad sacks of scratch.
3 Sent in the Boomer.
4 What one does when a vampire is in the hood.
5 Imagined sound as the brisket is about to be unveiled.
6 United Airlines {grr}.
7 Something I'd probably end up trying at these weirdo vegan places I go to now.
8 "What did you do do? Watch Price is Right?"
9 Feds monitor Craigslist for drug sales.
1 MEG WHITE HAMMER
2 DOUR RANSOMS
3 EGOTISM CUED
4 YOU STAKE OUT
5 GRAMMA DRUMROLL
6 AIRPORT'S UNDOER
7 RUTABAGA TEA
8 JEERING SICK DAY
9 NARCS READ E-LSD
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Toothpaste on the television. SONICARE OOPSIE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
An unintentional joke of this puzzle is: could any of these three drummers execute a real drum roll? All have been dissed to some degree as not having technically superior chops. But how often does a rock drummer *need* to play a drum roll anyway? Mostly never.
(Ringo did play a drum roll under the intro to "All You Need Is Love", and there are are two in "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite". And he does subdued rolls going into the bridge sections of "Nowhere Man". Whether the other two have any drum rolls on record, I have no idea.)
GRAMMA is an ugly answer (it’s grandma) and UNDOER is awful, so those two stacked made for a yucky SW, but given the demands of the theme it’s an acceptable sacrifice.
I believe it has gone unsaid until now, but it is worth appreciating that Ms. Lucido managed to keep some semblance of gender equality by including MEG WHITE despite the world of famous drummers being dominated by men.
Go ahead, try to think of another famous female drummer -- you'll probably end up saying "ummm ... well, I know there was one in the Go-Gos and The Bangles but I don't know their names." That's Gina Schock and Debbi Peterson, respectively. And there was of course the previously mentioned Karen Carpenter. Plus Moe Tucker from the Velvet Underground and Prince pal Sheila E. All fine drummers, but other than Carpenter, I doubt any of them are truly famous enough for a NYT grid, and anyone beyond those is definitely too obscure.
Thx, Aimee; a crunchy workout! 😊
Hard (could've run on a Fri. for moi).
Way off A.L.'s wavelength for this one.
Nevertheless, lots of stuff learned. 🤔
A most enjoyable battle and solve! :)
___
Natan Last's Mon. New Yorker was a disaster; 5 wrong cells, all avoidable by spending some extra thinking time. 😔
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Ay Dios mío...Where to begin with my frazzles.
MEG WHITE...Who dat? Do I know anything about Led Zeppelin? No. DR J. Doctor of what? BIEB doesn't spell his name BEEB? SESTINA DIGG Wouldn't you like to eat a ROLL?
Pat on the back...I remembered GIMLI. Then we get a little STOUT chap who WHITTLEs along with him.
@Liveprof. 9:46. I loved your Killarney Blond story. I laughed because I've encountered the same while entering a lovely pub and asking for a Martini.....
James Bond would explode. I got my Martini all right. It was that sweet ugh stuff from Rossi or whatever his names is. It came straight up (no ice) in a weird glass with a cherry in it. The bartender was cute so I chatted him up and told him about Americans and James Bond and Martinis. He winked at me and said he'd make a proper one for me. I told him I wanted gin...a true, very cold one. I wanted to see him put it in the shaker and shake till properly cold. I wanted a martini glass. He had one. I wanted three good olives. He had them. We both drank together. The bloke sitting next to me put his pint down and said he'd like "Whatever she's having." I remember that day as if it were yesterday....
@Stumping 8:53. Wecome to the US of A. I've tried your British puzzles and I get knackered after just one minute. They aint easy.
That’s also the point of it - that the drums roll…
I went from DRUMSOLO to DRUMFILL (talk about JARGON for both drummers and crossword solvers) to DRUMROLL. And only then did I realize the DRUMs were rolled up. So clever.
Hey @Roo-Was relieved to see your cheerful post. I was afraid you'd be devastated by the absence of any ROO's in today's puzz.
I enjoyed the puzzle, even though the only drummer I knew was RINGOSTARR. But thanks in part to the circled DRUMs, I managed to finish the puzzle. It helped that I guessed right on RUTABAGA and WISTERIA, and I knew of MESMER and SESTINA. But what in the world is YAS QUEEN?? Someone else asked earlier, and I was (and still am) hoping there would reply.
It is "THE BIEBS" with an S and "YASS" has a minimum two S's in its spelling. Dated and incorrect on the pop culture side.
Always interesting to see how pop culture influences the perception of ease of a puzzle. I found this one not exactly easy but very pleasant, I had a lot of fun solving it. Did have to recruit my husband for GIMLI (and my axe!) and JOHNBONHAM. Never heard of a SESTINA but I got it with the downs. Now I know!
As so often happens with me, I never figured out what the DRUM circles were supposed to mean. Solved it anyhow, though I meant to write in EGOTISM and somehow inked in EGOTISt instead.
I bet I am not the only person who saw GUM and immediately thought of that old song, whose chorus begins, "Away, away with rum by GUM, rum, by GUM, ru-um by GUM" (it's the song of the "Temperance Army" in the song, but the composer properly called it the Salvation Army).
Very clever puzzle. I remember the White Stripes and loved them, but forgot MEG was the DRUMmer. RINGO, of course, was a dead giveaway. Indeed, you could call this a STARR studded puzzle, for all the reasons @Lewis and others have cited.
I did not notice the drummers until Rex mentioned it! I really should read all the clues. That really ups the quality.
@keleng, I feel your pain. Unknown names are the worst. Fortunately I did know DUANE READE from somewhere; maybe when I was in New York 30 years ago?
The strange story of the GIMLI Glider, 40 years ago.
[Spelling Bee: Tues -2, missing a 5 and a 6.]
Franz Anton MESMER would have patients sit in a large wooden tub filled with water (an early hot tub?). The outside perimeter of the tub would be lined with powerful magnets. These were supposed to realign the energy fields of the patients to help cure whatever maladies they had. He is the eponymous source of the in-the-language "mesmerize'.
Whenever I see "podcast" I think of WISTERIA. In grad school I had a morning routine where I would sit by a screened window and read. One spring I started hearing these noises like someone was tossing small rocks or pebbles against the screen. I could never find the source.
My neighbors had a very large, beautiful WISTERIA vine not far from the window. The plant has seeds in long pods and I only learned later that it propagates these seeds by literally bursting or "exploding" and casting the seeds quite a distance from the plant. The noises were seeds from the WISTERIA hitting the screen! Podcasting.
Definitely not JEERING at this puzzle but there were too many unknown names, including two of the drummers, and that put a major damper on my solve buzz.
Oh!... and WISTERIA was used as a sassy little rhyme for "hysteria" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
Arrgh, today I finally send a message, and I wind up leaving out some words. In my earlier message, the last line should read "Someone else asked earlier, and I was (and still am) hoping there would [be a] reply." Oh well, I'd still love to know what YAS QUEEN means. And, while I'm at it, I gather that when people complain about PPP in a puzzle, PPP may refer to pop culture, but what do the letters PPP stand for? Others have asked in the past, but I don't recall ever seeing a response.
@Whatsername 10:37. COOL BEANS, Chiquita ....!
@Gary J 11:37..."Triangle solo..bitches." Another cool beans post!!!!
People, Places, Proper Nouns…..especially People.
@Juanita, I’d LOVE to tell you what YAS Queen means but, even though I have a “sense” for it, I recommend (seriously) that you Google “yas queen meaning” and scroll through the results. It might be that knowing what it means and being in a position to actually say it are two different things.
As for PPP…gah…our @Z retired from commenting but I THINK it means: Proper nouns, Product names, and Pop culture. A percentage of these types of clues are considered “suboptimal” and I forget what that percentage is. Sorry. Maybe someone else will chime in with better info!
Using the term archaic is a bit extreme
mesmerize/ mesmerizing are common words. And every once in a while I come across a discussion of their origin Because of that, I don’t think this one is that obscure. People might also make a connection once they get some crosses.
BYGUM. Well, if you’re in my age group you would have seen all those old movies on TV where characters said that. The clue is fair because it says “quaintly “. I like it because it’s something new. Undoer is unfortunate
What in the world is ugly about gramma (which I said as a child) ? Sounds nicer than switching from the nd to the m. If you listen to how it is often actually pronounced, gramma is quite common. It is after all an affectionate INFORMAL term of address. Crosswords are not dissertations. They often reflect how the language is actually spoken. Nothing wrong with that
@Beezer - MANY THANKS!! I did what you said and now know that "yas queen" is an emphatic term of endearment, encouragement, celebration, love, and/or show of support." And MANY THANKS, too, for explaining PPP! I did try Googling for that several times in the past, but I never came up with anything relevant. Your mention of "Proper nouns, Product names, and Pop culture" seems absolutely on target. I was pretty sure that pop culture was part of it, but I had no idea about the rest.
“Coparenting” refers to both parents involved in raising a child. Seems obvious but sadly it’s not.
Duane Reade is “fair game” because this is a publication of New York Times and DR is a major drug suppler in NewYork .
This is justification for including something no one has ever heard of other than a provincial New Yorker. Surely the NYT does not want to get near that logic. Also, does this rule apply only to New York obscurity? Should localized clues also be ok related to other states? Suppose the clue is a reference to a once popular restaurant in Indianapolis? Ok?
The subject clue ruined what could have been a great puzzle.
I enjoyed this one enormously. The DRUM ROLL theme brought back such good memories of our years at Illinois and all the friends. Especially all of the denizens of Room 6, Smith Music Hall, The percussion studio. One evening somebody started talking smack about drummers. One thing led to another and a DRUM ROLL competition ensued. The prize was for the percussionist who was going to play snare during the National Anthem at an upcoming welcome ceremony for a VIP. It’s a very big deal to serious percussionists and not an easy thing to do beautifully. Requires incredible control. Anyway, an entire puzzle dedicated to the DRUM ROLL was so much fun! Especially two of my husband’s favorite drummers, RINGO START and JOHN BONHAM. He revered them both for their skill and musicality in the rock genre. Yes, my friends, beyond the rhythmic interest, a truly skilled rock percussionist can deliver a truly musical solo.
I agree with @Rex today. This started out a bit “oh no, is that all there is” at the first D R U M in circles and when I finished BONHAM my solve was rockin’! So much variety and a theme that didn’t take over the puzzle but worked with the grid to create a very fun Wednesday.
Sorry, there is simply no such thing as an odist.
"Hair A-Phayre" isn't a pun at all, it's a direct reference to the inspiration for the hair style of several generations of rock stars (and wanna-bes).
We are Providing Themes and Plugins at very cheap Prices on Realgpl
Surprised at the love being showered on this this one. Felt like an awful lot of non-Wednesday fill (OMA, SETINA, READE, DIGG). And despite multiple explanations given here, I still don't see why "parent" is not an adequate word for "coparent".
Nancy has a good point about names often being dull, either because you don't know them at all or you know them too easily. But there is a sweet spot of names that you don't know immediately but you can get there. JOHN BONHAM for me today was one.
Duane Reade is valid for a xword, in fact, it's appeared before in this here NEW YORK Times puzzle.
Anonymous 8:46pm whined "something no one has ever heard of other than a provincial New Yorker" -- millions of people visit NYC every year, millions more than, in your example, Indianapolis. Surely many have stopped into a Duane Reade to buy a bottle of water or some tylenol. Or just passed by one on the street. It's a real thing, this Duane Reade
I don't live in California but have heard of In-and-Out Burger.
Also, the White Stripes started up over 25 years ago, y'all are old (I'm old, 52! Yet somehow I know whom Meg White is)
Yay! The link is finally successful! Hip-hip-hooray!!
I fully agree with the medium-challenging rating on this one. Tons of things I didn't know: MEGWHITE DIGG SESTINA GIMLI READE...but I managed. Man, Duane READE: that has got to be very regional.
Not that I would put RINGOSTARR in the same class as JOHNBONHAM, but it works well enough. The Wayne/Fleming clue threw me for a while, not knowing either was an AIPORT. Triumph points accrue. Birdie.
Wordle birdie.
NEW ROMEO, NEW YOU
No JEERING since JOHN was BORNE with a HAMMER,
all DAY SECTs-a-THON, dream COMETRUE for GRAMMA.
--- DR. ELMER "RINGO" READE
In 2010 Walgreens ate Duane Reade.
DRUMROLL please. So easy GRAMMA could do it. Or MOM. Or a COPARENT. Hardly MESMERizing, but fun on a Wednesday.
Wordle birdie.
Just happened to know the Duane READE drugstore from a trip to NYC in the last few years Probably "post" a crossword tourney like ACPT.
Keep those drums rolling (tho I had to guess some drummers' names).
The beat goes on...
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
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