Constructor: Michael Lieberman and Andrea Carla Michaels
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: MOVIE BUFFS (63A: Avid fans of cinema ... or a punny description of 17-, 31-, 40- and 47-Across) — I guess the "pun" is that these dudes are "buff" (i.e. muscly) and they are also in "movies"?
Theme answers:
JASON MOMOA(17A: Hunky star of "Aquaman")
CHANNING TATUM (31A: Hunky star of "Magic Mike")
MR. T (40A: Hunky co-star of "Rocky III")
DWAYNE JOHNSON (47A: Hunky co-star of the "Fast & Furious" franchise)
Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa (/məˈmɒə/; born August 1, 1979) is an American actor. He made his acting debut as Jason Ioane on the syndicated action drama series Baywatch: Hawaii (1999–2001), which was followed by portrayals of Ronon Dex on the Syfy science fiction series Stargate Atlantis(2005–2009), and Khal Drogo in the first two seasons of the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones(2011–2012). He went on to play the lead roles in the Discovery Channel historical drama series Frontier(2016–2018) and the Apple TV+ science fiction series See (2019–2022).
Since 2016, Momoa has portrayed Aquaman in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), including in the solo feature Aquaman (2018). Momoa has also played Duncan Idaho in the science fiction film Dune (2021), and has starred in the action film Fast X (2023). (wikipedia)
• • •
Not gonna spend much time on this because I just found it leering and slightly creepy. The TUSH part isn't helping, frankly (35A: Derrière). So the idea is ... these guys have nice bodies? They work out? "Hunky"? Oof, wow OK, sure, I guess, but if you did an equivalent theme about women's bodies, yeah, I don't think it would go over so well. Just strange, and more than a little ... I wanna say "dated." Tin-eared. Just ... I mean, I'm all for people being horny on their own time, but it's a bit much for a crossword theme. I think the wordplay in the revealer is super-awkward, too. These guys are (adj.) buff (i.e. they work out, have chiseled torsos, etc.) so they are (n.) BUFFS? I mean, by the transitive property of Wordplay, maybe there's something there, but it feels forced. Solving this Downs-only, all I could see was that there were actor's names in the grid. I could see a certain ... physical type developing, but I still wasn't quite prepared for the explicit reference to physique in the revealer. I also had no idea MR. T was a themer. In fact, I still don't quite believe he is. Not exactly hard to work MR. T into your grid. He's such common crosswordese, I think he just happened to fit in that space and the constructors were like "cool, let's just roll with it!" Overall, this was a [wince] from me. The grid is solid, and the Downs-only experience 98% easy.
When I say Downs-only was 98% easy, here's the 2% at issue:
All of the crosses had multiple possibilities. I thought ACA- could be a partial (and it could've been), which meant that any number of letters could've gone in that last position (A CAB, A CAN, A CAP, A CAR, A CAT ... the abbrev. ACAD. ...). And as you can see, all the other blanks had many many plausibles as well. So I was left just trying to guess a word meaning [Bitter criticism] with the "I" and the "O" in the second and sixth positions, respectively, and in retrospect it seems obvious, but, well, that screenshot is one I took in real time, so I was really ... there, at the end, just staring at -I---O-. Somehow, eventually, the ol' vocabulary kicked in and VITRIOL just came to me, but I was on the verge of giving up, for sure.
The only other issue was the [Quaker pronoun], which I had as THEE instead of THOU. That made "BY GUM" (!?) pretty dang hard to see. In fact, that answer is the reason I changed THEE to THOU. Nothing else in the grid put up much of a fight. It's a perfectly ordinary Monday puzzle, but the theme is extremely not for me. See you tomorrow.
Very easy because I knew all the theme answers. MOMOA and MRT show up in crosswords every now and then and CHANNING and DWAYNE are pretty famous...so easy. I liked this a whole lot better than @Rex did. Nice one folks!
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #850 was again mostly easy for me for a Croce. The SW, however, was tough and took me almost as long as the rest of it. Good luck!
Also solving down clues only, I blanked on the first 3 answers which was scary, but then I got the next 6. So on returning to fix things I needed to guess the across themers. Looking at ---ONMOMOA I was lucky cuz there's no way I would have got his last name, but somehow remembered JASON which helped fill the blanks. And CHANNING as well as DWAYNE The Rock were obvious.
One quite odd downer was CERAMIC. It just seemed such a general answer for such a specific clue. I tried to make ARTISAN work as an adjective but no go. Unlike Rex, VITRIOL came pretty easy, and that was it!
I forgot to mention yesterday that in case anyone hadn't noticed, at xwordinfo.com the missed puzzles appear to be back in the database. However there are still no regular writeups about the puzzles.
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0. My shortened week, Tues to Sun: 0, -3, 0, 0, 0*, 0. Sat. has a * because I got the last 2 words this morning.]
Perfectly fine Monday. If I were to make a list of hunky female actors, I'd go with Zoe Saldana for that green woman she plays in Guardians of the Galaxy, Uma Thurman for everything she's ever filmed, Angelina Jolie for those Tomb Raider movies, and Emma Watson for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies. I think Scarlett Johansson does hunky roles too, but I've never made it through any of her shows.
Tee-Hee: I've been working on making a complete list of movie buffs... well, movies with women in the buff... you know, showing off a shapely TUSH occasionally crossing a NUT, but it's taking longer than I thought. Maybe I could get help from the slush pile editor who knows his tushes and nut crosses.
1 OLE TUSH ART 2 FLAT MOVIE BUFFS 3 NON-FAT LASER TAG (~)
And a brief personal note: Based on a rather vitriolic note in last year's blog comments, I apparently have been stuck with my dog for a year now, and it turns out she's not the horror I portrayed. She's actually the best thing ever.
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Headline in an interior design magazine for a piece on the shortage of blue foot stools. AQUA OTTOMAN SETS AWOL.
PAPA ZITS is ZOOMIN down the OZONE DOMES of the OZARKS. He ZIPS down with his SKIT and POOF, just like that, he lands on his TUSH and LEGS. His DEAR MOMOA knew this wouldn't BODE well in the town of NON FAT...She would have to sing an ANTHEM.
You see, MOMOA was his POSH little DOJOS. She would ENTREE a room and SPARTA would FLARE everywhere. She was a piece of CERAMIC ART that made you sing OLE. A MOSAIC in the TATUM ALMANAC. She would UNCAP the EGGOS of your heart and, IMO, she was a MOVIE NUT
PAPA ZITS needed to see some EMTS. His OLE TUSH hurt and he wanted to go back to his FLAT.
A young LAD named EURO, who was a GRADUATE student in OZONE DOMES, happened to be living in a DORM near PAPA ZITS. He only had a SLIM chance of helping ASAP since there were YENTAS in NON FAT who would STALK the FLAT and hope for some ZOOMIN SPARTA. EURO would call MOMOA. MOMOA was filled with VITRIOL when she heard that her DEAR was in trouble. BY GUM, the AXES and a RIFLE would come out.
The YENTAS fled the FLAT...POOF, gone. MOMOA was now GOOD. A DIM ORA could be seen in the LIV area and CHER was singing "UNCAP my OBOE" on the MR T VEE. MOMOA brought an ENTREE filled with ACAI NUT on a STALK of EGGOS. It was GOOD and, BY GUM, no one dared a YAWN.
The folks of NON FAT could SEA the DOMES of OZARK with just a SPARTA bit of OZONE. I was a MILNE stone in their lives, though, and it was getting HAZIER as each OLE day passed. They didn't care. In a NUT shell, it was a GOOD life. They were on a MAP with ZIPS codes, PAPA ZITS and MOMOA were GOOD and even DWAYNE JOHNSON came for a visit.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance):
1. Ones doing some heavy lifting before retirement? (5) 2. Doc to consult when confused (3) 3. Auto-correction? (3) 4. Former governor of Georgia? (4) 5. About whom an early critic said "Can't act, can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little" (7)
Well, BY GUM and for PETE’S sake, I had exactly the same downs-only experience as Rex, except I could not see VITRIOL and threw in the towel to check a couple of acrosses.
I saw the names coming in as I solved, and I knew them all, so that made the downs-only pretty easy. Except MR T, of course, since he crossed VITRIOL. I did fill in ACAI, and that meant the center letter of M-T was not likely to be a vowel. MR T came to me as a likely non-vowel option - but even after putting him in I didn’t see VITRIOL. And I didn’t realize he was a themer until I read the across clues. But he is in the center spot.
I thought I might have a DNF with the YENTAS / DATA crossing. Spelling Bee accepts YENTA, and YENTe and DATe would have worked too. But YENTA seemed more likely.
As an admirer of BUFF male bodies, I had no problem leering my way through this one. Agree with Rex that a female version would have been creepy. But that’s because women’s bodies have been objectified by male creators for centuries, but male bodies not so much. So it seems OK.
I guess if you are going to have a PPP theme, it’s better to do it on a Monday so you can just plug and chug the crosses until you get what looks like a person’s name. Personally, I think it is terrible form to have the PPP crosses (like MOMOA x MILNE) - but it’s probably also good that they dropped one in today so that all of the noobs learn quickly that Shortz is fine with it, since he lets it slide all of the time.
What I think Rex misses is that the "hunkiness" is not just incidental, but is integral to the characters played by these actors in the named films. The constructors are identifying a character type, not just an incidental attribute of the actors.
I did downs only, and it was pretty easy. Didn't get the theme until the revealer because I had no idea what JASON MOMOA looks like, and while I've seen the name CHANNING TATUM before, I thought he was a girl.
I liked it. The descriptor “hunky” felt a little dated, but for three of the four of them I can confirm that some women talk about them as sex symbols. MR T was a huge star and super muscly but I don’t recall him being considered a “hunk” when I was a kid. Maybe they should have used the word “muscly” instead of “hunky”. But to me that’s such a minor quibble.
My bigger question is….. are we really calling him DWAYNE JOHNSON now? I mean I know it’s his given name but we, as the entire human population of the planet, call him THE ROCK. and we can smell what he’s cooking.
Four happy pings stood out. One, LIV, CHER, and the NIAs to balance off the theme. Two, the lovely word VITRIOL right in the middle. Three, the eight long O’s in the NW (counting OBOE and MOMOA). And four, the hearty “Hah!” when I uncovered BUFFS.
I wrenched my brain once again, uncovering the theme answers, leaving the revealer blank, and trying to guess what it was. I did suss out MOVIE, and I figured the remainder had to be some synonym of “hunky”, but I just couldn’t get to BUFFS. Small steps, yes, but this just steels my resolve. Next time! Next time!
Speaking of challenges, here’s one each to our constructors. Andrea, you’ve had 84 NYT puzzles, every one of them themed – how about a themeless? And Michael, you’ve had a NYT puzzle for every day of the week except Saturday -- go for the cycle!
To the two of you, this lively outing was a lovely mood lifter. Thank you so much!
Just not right to make actors the theme on a Monday. I never heard of any of them except Mr T. Saturday with a theme, Thursday almost without one, and now this. Are they giving up their day of the week rules ?
Filled in down and across from top to bottom. Movie Buffs, now I get it. Never saw any of 'em in a movie, other than walking past the TV when husband was watching the Fast & Furious stuff. Cher must be loving it down there in the middle.
Rex - Thee is right to stumble over "thou" for it is not used in Quaker "plain speech." I was a non-Quaker kid in an historically Quaker town in NJ in the early '60s. A few Friends of my parents' generation still spoke this way, mostly women, and one of them once very gently corrected me on this very point.
Easy (downs only speaking; otherwise somewhere between Tues-Wednes time).
Only holdup was VITRIOL, which eventually fell.
Knew all themers save CHANNING TATUM. Apparently he's BUFF, so all's well.
Good workout; enjoyed it a lot! :)
Thx @jae; on it! :) ___
Rosalie Moscovitch's cryptic from Sun., June 23, 2013 (on xwordinfo.com) was on the tough side, but doable. @okanaganer (1:12 AM) Thx for the heads-up, but there weren't any new variety or cryptics yd, hence going back into the archive for Rosalies, puz. ___
On to Croce's #850 🤞, with K.A.C's Mon. New Yorker on tap for tm. ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Downs only, this was tough for me. I could see names emerging that were probably actors or other pop culture folks, but I never heard of the first two so even when I gave in and looked at some across clues, it was still rough going. Going downs only, I had the very reasonable YENTe, which gave me the very reasonable DATe, but what can you do?
Hey All ! Could one describe todays puz as Hunky-Dory? 😁
MRT was muscly, yes, but he never seemed to be in the "Hunky" catagory like CHANNING TATUM. Of course, I don't know what goes on in the mind of women. It just seems he's an outlier.
Seems slightly odd (to me) to be put off by this theme. It's just muscly/good looking men who are movie stars. They're out there, in movies, sometimes shirtless, turning women (and men) on. It's akin to not talking about the elephant in the room. IMO. 😁
Anyway, nice to see ACME again. Quick puz for me. I don't try to speed solve, but if I did, this seems like it would've been over in about half my time (came in 4 seconds less than 7 minutes.) Neat Revealer to tie it together.
Monday, why do these come around around so quickly?
These guys *are* movie hunks. By definition. Not offensive. (Well, 3 out of the 4. Mr T, while well built (to put it mildly), didn’t play as that type.)
I'm glad you downs-only folks had some fun with this one, but I thought it was pre-Monday easy. Maybe a wheelhouse thing, but eventually I was glad that GOOD was not clued as "opposite of bad". Also, when the revealer involves a pun, do we need to describe it as "punny"? I mean, really.
I went to a matinee to watch "Magic Mike" with my wife and liked it fine. I think I was the only male in the audience though.
Here's SEALEGS again. This is also a term in the food service industry for things that look a little like crab legs but are actually made out of various kinds of cheaper ingredients. Have not seen or heard BYGUM in forever. Sounds like a hillbilly caricature. And can BUFF be a noun? Hey, look at those BUFFS over there! Don't think so.
Appreciate the nod to first-timers, ML and ACM. Maybe Lacked Any Clever Monday clueing, but thanks for a bit of fun on a dreary morning.
So incredibly hunky that I've never heard of a single one of them. And no theme or wordplay or anything interesting that links them together, either. This may be my top candidate for most boring puzzle of the year. It does, I suppose, have some competition, but not all that much.
I have no idea who Jason Momoa is, the others were easy enough. Very Mondayish. if there were a puzzle with MOVIEBabeS you’d hear it from the rafters. just saying.
I haven't been to a movie theater in ages, and didn't know any of the actors' names except Mr. T. But the puzzle was easy enough because of the fill (and lack of tricky cluing).
I'm leaning toward @Rex on the theme and reveal. Favorite moments: BY GUM and For PETE'S sake.
**Spoiler alert re: New Yorker puzzle of October 9:** @Alice Pollard - I had a similar thought about the babes, being reminded of a clue in the NYorker puzzle: "Brigitte Bardot and Ann-Margret, in mid-twentieth-century press coverage" - the horrible thing was, I knew right away the answer was "sex kittens." Ugh.
Remembered to try solving down only today and was successful except for VITRIOL and HAZIER. Needed a couple across clues for crosses to suss out both of those. Fun way to solve a Monday!
If you’ve never heard of DWAYNE “The Rock” JOHNSON or JASON MOMOA that is very much a *you* problem. These are two of the most famous Hollywood celebs alive today. You have to know some pop culture to do the puzzle.
As I solved in my head, I couldn't visualize the grid as a whole. I was trying to recall if there's a feminine side of this puzzle. Now, viewing the solved puzzle here on the blog, BY GUM I ZOOM IN and SEE CHER, then NIA and LIV. Pretty SLIM representation, IMO.
I'm getting sloppy. I put in cAp for the lt.-col inferior, which gave me cRT in the middle. That was puzzling, but I figured it was some movie thing -- maybe a well-built robot?--and the constructors were having their little joke. If I had just thought a bit, and checked the crosses, I would have figured it out. I think putting MR T there was, indeed meant as a joke, but technically he qualifies.
The revealer felt thin to me, just in that "hunky costar" is a little too close to "movie buff." Maybe leave hunky out of the clues, but then those of us who go to few movies would not have figured it out. Ah well, it's Monday.
I thought VITRIOL was a common, well-known word. Oil of VITRIOL is another name for sulfuric acid, but it's mostly used metaphorically -- or was so used back in the 1960s!
Today’s “character type” theme lacked the typical Monday cleverness or humor for me. Could be just because the types of movies that feature the “hunky buff guy” protagonists are not my jam so I was not super familiar with the names but they weren’t tough to get. Overall, this was kind if an”meh Monday” for me.
A few people mentioned not knowing these actors. As someone who hasn’t kept up on current movies in 20 years I empathize.
JASON MOMOA is probably most famous as playing Khal Drogo in the first season of Game of Thrones. You may have seen him there.
CHANNING TATUM has been in a ton of movies, but I’ve only seen two of them: THE HATEFUL EIGHT, where he really didn’t seem to fit well, and 21 JUMP STREET where he was hilarious.
DWAYNE JOHNSON is the actor and former professional wrestler better known as THE ROCK. I think for a while I tried to act under his name and the movies didn’t do as well so he went back to being billed as THE ROCK or at least DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON. I Don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of his movies but he’s definitely a name I know. I think he mostly does action (FAST AND FURIOUS) or comedies where the whole bit is he’s this huge muscle guy getting in touch with his sweet/sensitive side.
MR. T, we’ll he’s got a real cool haircut and a mean mean look in his eye. At according to the jingle for the Mr T action figure from the 80s that is still stuck in my brain decades later. For some real fun google “Trevor Wilson Mr T” to see one of my favorite stand up comedy sets.
Semi-tough MonPuztheme, due to two themer hunk no-knows: JASONMOMOA. CHANNINGTATUM. M&A watches mostly schlock flicks, sooo … those folks evidently ain't made their "call for help" flick debuts, yet. And no, I don't do Marvel Comic flicks much, JASON. Still, not many precious nanoseconds had to be sacrificed. Pretty friendly solvequest, overall. Was relieved, that the revealer weren't MOVIEBUTTS.
staff weeject pick: ORA. Fork, definitely. fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Dinner's main course} = EGGOS … er, no … make that ENTREE.
A mere Q short of the coveted p.g. Q's are kinda hard to just sneak into yer fillins, I'd grant.
other faves included: BYGUM. LASERTAG. ALMANAC. VITRIOL. MASKS.
Thanx for gangin up on us, ACME darlin & Mr. Lieberman dude. Nicely buffed puz.
A dear close friend in the movie biz informs me that not only are Jason Momoa, Channing Tatum, and Dwayne Johnson MOVIE BUFFS, all three are incorrigible YENTAS. Or whatever the word for a male yenta is. Mostly they spread dirt about each other, but they also dish their co-stars' private lives relentlessly. They can be quite vitriolic.
Mr. T is above such behavior, however. He said in one interview, "I pity the fool that would tell those fools anything personal."
Milne is a pretty famous name and very common crosswordese. Also Channing Tatum is a reasonably well known actor. Don’t see anything wrong with that particular cross. Not all p.p.p. crosses are bad.
Had to post even though late so my avatar can shine. Not sure how ol' AA got in there with those, um, other dudes. The point of the whole thing was lost on me as I don't really know who those other dudes are, except I recognize CHANNING TATUM and JASON MOMOA from xwords. And I didn't get it. Downs only, still one handed :).
I never remember that CHANNING TATUM IS a guy, and I did not know The Rock was in the Fast and Furious movies, and I can never remember how to spell M_MOA, but I did know all the names.
Strange that it's now un-pc to salivate over dreamy members of the opposite sex. Makes you wonder how the human race will continue. But I guess, as Jeff Goldblum said, "Life will find a way."
Nice timing, as I was just reading an article about "Coyote vs. ACME." Seems the studio head scrapped it for a tax shelter...but again: "Life will find a way." Always nice to see a work from our friend.
Good, tight theme; certainly MRT deserves a place here. Maybe not center stage, but hey.
On the distaff side, NIA does nicely as DOD; honorable mention to CHER. Birdie.
It helped that JASONMOMOA was just on SNL, I knew the others. Not surprised that OFL was not in a positive state with ACME in the mix. Wordle eagle from nowhere BBYBB to GGGGG. One less for the birdie column.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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55 comments:
Very easy because I knew all the theme answers. MOMOA and MRT show up in crosswords every now and then and CHANNING and DWAYNE are pretty famous...so easy. I liked this a whole lot better than @Rex did. Nice one folks!
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #850 was again mostly easy for me for a Croce. The SW, however, was tough and took me almost as long as the rest of it. Good luck!
Also solving down clues only, I blanked on the first 3 answers which was scary, but then I got the next 6. So on returning to fix things I needed to guess the across themers. Looking at ---ONMOMOA I was lucky cuz there's no way I would have got his last name, but somehow remembered JASON which helped fill the blanks. And CHANNING as well as DWAYNE The Rock were obvious.
One quite odd downer was CERAMIC. It just seemed such a general answer for such a specific clue. I tried to make ARTISAN work as an adjective but no go. Unlike Rex, VITRIOL came pretty easy, and that was it!
I forgot to mention yesterday that in case anyone hadn't noticed, at xwordinfo.com the missed puzzles appear to be back in the database. However there are still no regular writeups about the puzzles.
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0. My shortened week, Tues to Sun: 0, -3, 0, 0, 0*, 0. Sat. has a * because I got the last 2 words this morning.]
Welp, at least there's no ZIT nit to bring on the minor blemish police today.
Honey, what's that letter that comes between M and O?
ENDEAR.
Where you can eat clams and learn judo: hOJOS DOJOS.
50D (NONFAT) could have been clued as "Dairy-like descriptor for 17-, 31-, 40- and 47-Across"
O Canada has a more stirring tune than the Star Spangled Banner, ANTHEMS the facts!
Kind of meh, IMHO, but immaculately constructed. Thanks, Michael Lieberman and Andrea Carla Michaels.
Perfectly fine Monday. If I were to make a list of hunky female actors, I'd go with Zoe Saldana for that green woman she plays in Guardians of the Galaxy, Uma Thurman for everything she's ever filmed, Angelina Jolie for those Tomb Raider movies, and Emma Watson for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies. I think Scarlett Johansson does hunky roles too, but I've never made it through any of her shows.
Tee-Hee: I've been working on making a complete list of movie buffs... well, movies with women in the buff... you know, showing off a shapely TUSH occasionally crossing a NUT, but it's taking longer than I thought. Maybe I could get help from the slush pile editor who knows his tushes and nut crosses.
Uniclues:
1 Playboy.
2 Cinephiles underneath a falling piano.
3 Lightly shooting skinnies.
1 OLE TUSH ART
2 FLAT MOVIE BUFFS
3 NON-FAT LASER TAG (~)
And a brief personal note: Based on a rather vitriolic note in last year's blog comments, I apparently have been stuck with my dog for a year now, and it turns out she's not the horror I portrayed. She's actually the best thing ever.
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Headline in an interior design magazine for a piece on the shortage of blue foot stools. AQUA OTTOMAN SETS AWOL.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
PAPA ZITS is ZOOMIN down the OZONE DOMES of the OZARKS. He ZIPS down with his SKIT and POOF, just like that, he lands on his TUSH and LEGS. His DEAR MOMOA knew this wouldn't BODE well in the town of NON FAT...She would have to sing an ANTHEM.
You see, MOMOA was his POSH little DOJOS. She would ENTREE a room and SPARTA would FLARE everywhere. She was a piece of CERAMIC ART that made you sing OLE. A MOSAIC in the TATUM ALMANAC. She would UNCAP the EGGOS of your heart and, IMO, she was a MOVIE NUT
PAPA ZITS needed to see some EMTS. His OLE TUSH hurt and he wanted to go back to his FLAT.
A young LAD named EURO, who was a GRADUATE student in OZONE DOMES, happened to be living in a DORM near PAPA ZITS. He only had a SLIM chance of helping ASAP since there were YENTAS in NON FAT who would STALK the FLAT and hope for some ZOOMIN SPARTA. EURO would call MOMOA. MOMOA was filled with VITRIOL when she heard that her DEAR was in trouble. BY GUM, the AXES and a RIFLE would come out.
The YENTAS fled the FLAT...POOF, gone. MOMOA was now GOOD. A DIM ORA could be seen in the LIV area and CHER was singing "UNCAP my OBOE" on the MR T VEE. MOMOA brought an ENTREE filled with ACAI NUT on a STALK of EGGOS. It was GOOD and, BY GUM, no one dared a YAWN.
The folks of NON FAT could SEA the DOMES of OZARK with just a SPARTA bit of OZONE. I was a MILNE stone in their lives, though, and it was getting HAZIER as each OLE day passed. They didn't care. In a NUT shell, it was a GOOD life. They were on a MAP with ZIPS codes, PAPA ZITS and MOMOA were GOOD and even DWAYNE JOHNSON came for a visit.
CHER asked...How POSH can that be?
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Ones doing some heavy lifting before retirement? (5)
2. Doc to consult when confused (3)
3. Auto-correction? (3)
4. Former governor of Georgia? (4)
5. About whom an early critic said "Can't act, can't sing. Balding. Can dance a little" (7)
JACKS
FAQ
UEY
USSR
ASTAIRE
A little skeevy- the BUFF play is odd. Did like VITRIOL dead center and SEA LEGS. BY GUM x THOU sums this one up well.
Bauhaus covering ENO
Well, BY GUM and for PETE’S sake, I had exactly the same downs-only experience as Rex, except I could not see VITRIOL and threw in the towel to check a couple of acrosses.
I saw the names coming in as I solved, and I knew them all, so that made the downs-only pretty easy. Except MR T, of course, since he crossed VITRIOL. I did fill in ACAI, and that meant the center letter of M-T was not likely to be a vowel. MR T came to me as a likely non-vowel option - but even after putting him in I didn’t see VITRIOL. And I didn’t realize he was a themer until I read the across clues. But he is in the center spot.
I thought I might have a DNF with the YENTAS / DATA crossing. Spelling Bee accepts YENTA, and YENTe and DATe would have worked too. But YENTA seemed more likely.
As an admirer of BUFF male bodies, I had no problem leering my way through this one. Agree with Rex that a female version would have been creepy. But that’s because women’s bodies have been objectified by male creators for centuries, but male bodies not so much. So it seems OK.
I guess if you are going to have a PPP theme, it’s better to do it on a Monday so you can just plug and chug the crosses until you get what looks like a person’s name. Personally, I think it is terrible form to have the PPP crosses (like MOMOA x MILNE) - but it’s probably also good that they dropped one in today so that all of the noobs learn quickly that Shortz is fine with it, since he lets it slide all of the time.
What I think Rex misses is that the "hunkiness" is not just incidental, but is integral to the characters played by these actors in the named films. The constructors are identifying a character type, not just an incidental attribute of the actors.
I did downs only, and it was pretty easy. Didn't get the theme until the revealer because I had no idea what JASON MOMOA looks like, and while I've seen the name CHANNING TATUM before, I thought he was a girl.
I liked it. The descriptor “hunky” felt a little dated, but for three of the four of them I can confirm that some women talk about them as sex symbols. MR T was a huge star and super muscly but I don’t recall him being considered a “hunk” when I was a kid. Maybe they should have used the word “muscly” instead of “hunky”. But to me that’s such a minor quibble.
My bigger question is….. are we really calling him DWAYNE JOHNSON now? I mean I know it’s his given name but we, as the entire human population of the planet, call him THE ROCK. and we can smell what he’s cooking.
Four happy pings stood out. One, LIV, CHER, and the NIAs to balance off the theme. Two, the lovely word VITRIOL right in the middle. Three, the eight long O’s in the NW (counting OBOE and MOMOA). And four, the hearty “Hah!” when I uncovered BUFFS.
I wrenched my brain once again, uncovering the theme answers, leaving the revealer blank, and trying to guess what it was. I did suss out MOVIE, and I figured the remainder had to be some synonym of “hunky”, but I just couldn’t get to BUFFS. Small steps, yes, but this just steels my resolve. Next time! Next time!
Speaking of challenges, here’s one each to our constructors. Andrea, you’ve had 84 NYT puzzles, every one of them themed – how about a themeless? And Michael, you’ve had a NYT puzzle for every day of the week except Saturday -- go for the cycle!
To the two of you, this lively outing was a lovely mood lifter. Thank you so much!
Just not right to make actors the theme on a Monday. I never heard of any of them except Mr T. Saturday with a theme, Thursday almost without one, and now this. Are they giving up their day of the week rules ?
Filled in down and across from top to bottom. Movie Buffs, now I get it. Never saw any of 'em in a movie, other than walking past the TV when husband was watching the Fast & Furious stuff. Cher must be loving it down there in the middle.
@Rex, you struggled with Vitriol?
Also ended up in the same VITRIOL situation and looked at a couple of acrosses to get it.
Had to laugh this morning because I thought the buff connection was that they're all bald and polish their heads. Muscly makes more sense.
Rex - Thee is right to stumble over "thou" for it is not used in Quaker "plain speech." I was a non-Quaker kid in an historically Quaker town in NJ in the early '60s. A few Friends of my parents' generation still spoke this way, mostly women, and one of them once very gently corrected me on this very point.
Thx, Michael & ACME; a BUFF production! 😋
Easy (downs only speaking; otherwise somewhere between Tues-Wednes time).
Only holdup was VITRIOL, which eventually fell.
Knew all themers save CHANNING TATUM. Apparently he's BUFF, so all's well.
Good workout; enjoyed it a lot! :)
Thx @jae; on it! :)
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Rosalie Moscovitch's cryptic from Sun., June 23, 2013 (on xwordinfo.com) was on the tough side, but doable. @okanaganer (1:12 AM) Thx for the heads-up, but there weren't any new variety or cryptics yd, hence going back into the archive for Rosalies, puz.
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On to Croce's #850 🤞, with K.A.C's Mon. New Yorker on tap for tm.
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Downs only, this was tough for me. I could see names emerging that were probably actors or other pop culture folks, but I never heard of the first two so even when I gave in and looked at some across clues, it was still rough going. Going downs only, I had the very reasonable YENTe, which gave me the very reasonable DATe, but what can you do?
Hey All !
Could one describe todays puz as Hunky-Dory? 😁
MRT was muscly, yes, but he never seemed to be in the "Hunky" catagory like CHANNING TATUM. Of course, I don't know what goes on in the mind of women. It just seems he's an outlier.
Seems slightly odd (to me) to be put off by this theme. It's just muscly/good looking men who are movie stars. They're out there, in movies, sometimes shirtless, turning women (and men) on. It's akin to not talking about the elephant in the room. IMO. 😁
Anyway, nice to see ACME again. Quick puz for me. I don't try to speed solve, but if I did, this seems like it would've been over in about half my time (came in 4 seconds less than 7 minutes.) Neat Revealer to tie it together.
Monday, why do these come around around so quickly?
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
These guys *are* movie hunks. By definition. Not offensive. (Well, 3 out of the 4. Mr T, while well built (to put it mildly), didn’t play as that type.)
I'm glad you downs-only folks had some fun with this one, but I thought it was pre-Monday easy. Maybe a wheelhouse thing, but eventually I was glad that GOOD was not clued as "opposite of bad". Also, when the revealer involves a pun, do we need to describe it as "punny"? I mean, really.
I went to a matinee to watch "Magic Mike" with my wife and liked it fine. I think I was the only male in the audience though.
Here's SEALEGS again. This is also a term in the food service industry for things that look a little like crab legs but are actually made out of various kinds of cheaper ingredients. Have not seen or heard BYGUM in forever. Sounds like a hillbilly caricature. And can BUFF be a noun? Hey, look at those BUFFS over there! Don't think so.
Appreciate the nod to first-timers, ML and ACM. Maybe Lacked Any Clever Monday clueing, but thanks for a bit of fun on a dreary morning.
So incredibly hunky that I've never heard of a single one of them. And no theme or wordplay or anything interesting that links them together, either. This may be my top candidate for most boring puzzle of the year. It does, I suppose, have some competition, but not all that much.
I have no idea who Jason Momoa is, the others were easy enough. Very Mondayish. if there were a puzzle with MOVIEBabeS you’d hear it from the rafters. just saying.
I haven't been to a movie theater in ages, and didn't know any of the actors' names except Mr. T. But the puzzle was easy enough because of the fill (and lack of tricky cluing).
All of these hunks remind me of that shot of Putin, shirtless -- was he on a horse? I should scare up a copy to use as an appetite suppressant.
I'm leaning toward @Rex on the theme and reveal. Favorite moments: BY GUM and For PETE'S sake.
**Spoiler alert re: New Yorker puzzle of October 9:**
@Alice Pollard - I had a similar thought about the babes, being reminded of a clue in the NYorker puzzle: "Brigitte Bardot and Ann-Margret, in mid-twentieth-century press coverage" - the horrible thing was, I knew right away the answer was "sex kittens." Ugh.
Remembered to try solving down only today and was successful except for VITRIOL and HAZIER. Needed a couple across clues for crosses to suss out both of those. Fun way to solve a Monday!
If you’ve never heard of DWAYNE “The Rock” JOHNSON or JASON MOMOA that is very much a *you* problem. These are two of the most famous Hollywood celebs alive today. You have to know some pop culture to do the puzzle.
Pretty quick & easy.
I never heard of "By gum"
I don't consider Mr. T hunky
Have to remember Jason MOMOA since he's been showing up a lot
I consider DON Johnson a hunk (guess I'm showing my age).
Thanks to you both!
Ooohhh a little sauce for the gander here. Rex didn't like men's bodies being objectified? Found it creepy? Well try being a woman for a hot minute.
I had a good time solving this puzzle and showing my 95 year old mom google images of all the buff themers. She enjoyed it too.
@Bob Mills (9:54 am)
Me too, not my wheelhouse and only heard of Mr. T. For me it was a difficult but doable (without lookups) Monday.
As I solved in my head, I couldn't visualize the grid as a whole. I was trying to recall if there's a feminine side of this puzzle. Now, viewing the solved puzzle here on the blog, BY GUM I ZOOM IN and SEE CHER, then NIA and LIV. Pretty SLIM representation, IMO.
I'm getting sloppy. I put in cAp for the lt.-col inferior, which gave me cRT in the middle. That was puzzling, but I figured it was some movie thing -- maybe a well-built robot?--and the constructors were having their little joke. If I had just thought a bit, and checked the crosses, I would have figured it out. I think putting MR T there was, indeed meant as a joke, but technically he qualifies.
The revealer felt thin to me, just in that "hunky costar" is a little too close to "movie buff." Maybe leave hunky out of the clues, but then those of us who go to few movies would not have figured it out. Ah well, it's Monday.
I thought VITRIOL was a common, well-known word. Oil of VITRIOL is another name for sulfuric acid, but it's mostly used metaphorically -- or was so used back in the 1960s!
Got to exactly the same place, Downs only. Even the same THEE/THOU process. But I couldn't come up with VITRIOL. 🤫
Today’s “character type” theme lacked the typical Monday cleverness or humor for me. Could be just because the types of movies that feature the “hunky buff guy” protagonists are not my jam so I was not super familiar with the names but they weren’t tough to get. Overall, this was kind if an”meh Monday” for me.
A few people mentioned not knowing these actors. As someone who hasn’t kept up on current movies in 20 years I empathize.
JASON MOMOA is probably most famous as playing Khal Drogo in the first season of Game of Thrones. You may have seen him there.
CHANNING TATUM has been in a ton of movies, but I’ve only seen two of them: THE HATEFUL EIGHT, where he really didn’t seem to fit well, and 21 JUMP STREET where he was hilarious.
DWAYNE JOHNSON is the actor and former professional wrestler better known as THE ROCK. I think for a while I tried to act under his name and the movies didn’t do as well so he went back to being billed as THE ROCK or at least DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON. I Don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of his movies but he’s definitely a name I know. I think he mostly does action (FAST AND FURIOUS) or comedies where the whole bit is he’s this huge muscle guy getting in touch with his sweet/sensitive side.
MR. T, we’ll he’s got a real cool haircut and a mean mean look in his eye. At according to the jingle for the Mr T action figure from the 80s that is still stuck in my brain decades later. For some real fun google “Trevor Wilson Mr T” to see one of my favorite stand up comedy sets.
@bocamp re xwordinfo... oh yeah, I forgot about those puzzles, I was just referring to the daily NYT Crossword.
Semi-tough MonPuztheme, due to two themer hunk no-knows: JASONMOMOA. CHANNINGTATUM. M&A watches mostly schlock flicks, sooo … those folks evidently ain't made their "call for help" flick debuts, yet. And no, I don't do Marvel Comic flicks much, JASON.
Still, not many precious nanoseconds had to be sacrificed. Pretty friendly solvequest, overall.
Was relieved, that the revealer weren't MOVIEBUTTS.
staff weeject pick: ORA. Fork, definitely.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Dinner's main course} = EGGOS … er, no … make that ENTREE.
A mere Q short of the coveted p.g. Q's are kinda hard to just sneak into yer fillins, I'd grant.
other faves included: BYGUM. LASERTAG. ALMANAC. VITRIOL. MASKS.
Thanx for gangin up on us, ACME darlin & Mr. Lieberman dude. Nicely buffed puz.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
A dear close friend in the movie biz informs me that not only are Jason Momoa, Channing Tatum, and Dwayne Johnson MOVIE BUFFS, all three are incorrigible YENTAS. Or whatever the word for a male yenta is. Mostly they spread dirt about each other, but they also dish their co-stars' private lives relentlessly. They can be quite vitriolic.
Mr. T is above such behavior, however. He said in one interview, "I pity the fool that would tell those fools anything personal."
Since I never heard of any of these guys, it was a medium. Had to do all cross clues.
Maybe to you they are famous. Quite a lot of folks couldn't care less about low brow twaddle & rightly so.
@okanaganer (1:48 PM)
Oops; my misread! :(
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
For the record, THOU is not a Quaker pronoun. Friends use only THEE and THY,
Milne is a pretty famous name and very common crosswordese. Also Channing Tatum is a reasonably well known actor. Don’t see anything wrong with that particular cross. Not all p.p.p. crosses are bad.
To be fair, he was doing downs only
Remember hearing by gum in old movies on TV when I was young.
Another age indicator I knew it instantly.
Had to post even though late so my avatar can shine. Not sure how ol' AA got in there with those, um, other dudes. The point of the whole thing was lost on me as I don't really know who those other dudes are, except I recognize CHANNING TATUM and JASON MOMOA from xwords. And I didn't get it. Downs only, still one handed :).
I never remember that CHANNING TATUM IS a guy, and I did not know The Rock was in the Fast and Furious movies, and I can never remember how to spell M_MOA, but I did know all the names.
Strange that it's now un-pc to salivate over dreamy members of the opposite sex. Makes you wonder how the human race will continue. But I guess, as Jeff Goldblum said, "Life will find a way."
Nice timing, as I was just reading an article about "Coyote vs. ACME." Seems the studio head scrapped it for a tax shelter...but again: "Life will find a way." Always nice to see a work from our friend.
Good, tight theme; certainly MRT deserves a place here. Maybe not center stage, but hey.
On the distaff side, NIA does nicely as DOD; honorable mention to CHER. Birdie.
Wordle par.
@Anonymous 8:12am :
Thou art wrong. Thou is the nominative, thee is the accusative. This comes from way back when even English had declensions.
Ah Monday...brings out the tough guys. Made it a bit harder for me, when a puz is designed around proper names. But still, a Monday.
And many Quakers use thee, thou, and thy, but many more no longer do. Tis an old and long story about "common" language.
Diana, Lady and Friend
BUFF ASAP!
CHER and LIV would STALK some TUSH,
not SLIM, NONFAT OAR plain,
"SEND a big JOHNSON IN a rush,
like JASON, CHANNING OAR DWAYNE!"
--- MR. PETE S. MILNE
Note: Bible-->Quakers-->Vulcan. How art thee, T'Pau?
It helped that JASONMOMOA was just on SNL, I knew the others. Not surprised that OFL was not in a positive state with ACME in the mix.
Wordle eagle from nowhere BBYBB to GGGGG. One less for the birdie column.
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