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Form of algae also known as rockweed / SUN 12-31-23 / Crispy Japanese cutlet / Condo-organizing Kondo / Reality star Theresa of "Long Island Medium"
Sunday, December 31, 2023
Constructor: Matt Linzer and Rafael Musa
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
- BALL DROP (86D: End-of-December tradition depicted five times in this puzzle)
- NEW YEAR'S EVE (29A: When to see the 86-Down)
- TIMES SQUARE (119A: Where to see the 86-Down)
Theme answers ("Before Midnight"):
- HERBIVORE (23A: Before midnight: Sloth, e.g.)
- POWER BROKER (25A: Before midnight: One with major influence)
- WATER BILLS (68A: Before midnight: Some household expenses)
- FOOT BATHS (62A: Before midnight: Devices with warm water and massaging rollers)
- GO BEYOND (87A: Before midnight: Surpass)
Theme answers ("After Midnight"):
- HERBAL LOTIONS (36A: After midnight: Ointments infused with cottonwood or calendula, e.g.)
- POWER BALLADS (40A: After midnight: Journey's "Open Arms" and Guns N' Roses' "November Rain," e.g.)
- WATER BALLET (85: After midnight: Synchronized swimming)
- FOOTBALL GAME (77A: After midnight: Event for Cowboys or Broncos)
- GO BALLISTIC (109A: After midnight: Totally lose it)
(n.) resuscitation of an unconscious judoka (merriam-webster.com)
JUDOKA (n.) — : one who participates in judo (merriam-webster.com)
Katsu (Chinese: 喝; Pinyin: hè, Wade-Giles: ho; Cantonese: ⓘ, rōmaji: katsu) is a shout that is described in Chan and Zen Buddhism encounter-stories, to expose the enlightened state (Japanese: satori) of the Zen-master, and/or to induce initial enlightenment experience in a student.[1][2] The shout is also sometimes used in the East Asian martial arts for a variety of purposes; in this context, katsu is very similar to the shout kiai. (wikipedia)
Tonkatsu (豚カツ, とんかつ or トンカツ, pronounced [toŋkatsɯ]; "pork cutlet") is a Japanese dish that consists of a breaded, deep-fried pork cutlet. It involves coating slices of pork with panko (bread crumbs), and then frying them in oil. The two main types are fillet and loin. Tonkatsu is also the basis of other dishes such as katsukarē and katsudon. // The word tonkatsu is a combination of the Sino-Japanese word ton (豚) meaning "pig", and katsu (カツ), which is a shortened form of katsuretsu (カツレツ), an old transliteration of the English word "cutlet", which was in turn adopted from the French word côtelette. (wikipedia)
• • •
How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage):
Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker"):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)
• • •
I do think the theme is both more ambitious and just generally better than yesterday's theme, and I think the "Before / After midnight" concept is pretty ingenious. The execution just felt a little clunky. And again, the Saturday premature NYE puzzle didn't do this puzzle any favors. Today's theme took me a little while to pick up because of the confusing way the thematic clues were numbered, as well as because SIN was sitting right underneath the theme answer whose clue was [Sloth, e.g.], and I was certain, *certain*, it was thematic—that somehow [Sloth, e.g.] with SIN right underneath it was part of the whole "It's Going Down" theme. Like ... if you look Down (one row), you can see a different meaning for the theme clue (!?). SIN would certainly make perfect sense for [Sloth, e.g.]. Anyway, red herring, and one that probably only I could see.
Seems like NIGHT (60A: "What hath ___ to do with sleep?": Milton) is a bad answer to have in a grid where your theme clues all have "night" in them. That was probably the hardest answer for me to get in the whole grid (and I teach Milton regularly—is that Paradise Lost quote*** famous? If so, it somehow eluded me). Never heard of a BUG OUT BAG (39D: Evacuation survival pack). That reeks of overstuffed wordlist. The term is GO BAG. I'm not saying BUG OUT BAG doesn't exist, just that it seems far less common. I've heard GO BAG a lot. BUG OUT BAG, as I say, never. SEA OAK also seems like something you'd never know existed unless your wordlist told you (94D: Form of algae also known as rockweed). Impossible to imagine voluntarily watching even one second of something called "Long Island Medium," so CAPUTO!? (32A: Reality star Theresa of "Long Island Medium"). CAPU-no! No way on god's green earth. All crosses. Most of the rest of the fill seems fine. A little heavy on the preposition-ending phrases (EYEING UP, RANTS AT, NEW TO). Pretty sure the term is SAW LOGS, not SAW WOOD (10D: Snore, idiomatically).
Time now for the last Holiday Pet Pics of the year (don't worry, I have enough to last many days into the new year (again, please, no more submissions this year). What do we got today? Puppies under trees!
Another Hanukkitty!
Another cat in tree... or ... wait ... is Clementine *in* the tree? If so, she is ornament-sized:
Here's Henry, trying to act casual:
Some cross-species siblings today, Moose and Lucy!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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| [Bella and Cody are dreaming of Christmas cookies, I'm told. I don't know how Martha knows that, but it seems plausible (thanks, Martha)] |
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| [CJ looks ready to battle the flames. Again, I don't know how Hanukkities aren't constantly on fire (thanks, Mara)] |
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| [This one makes me laugh every time because I just cannot see the cat until ... I see it ... quietly plotting my death (thanks, Richard)] |
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| ["Yeah, I know, Charred Skeleton Elf and Elf-on-the-Shelf, right behind me. Just be cool, man. Ignore them, maybe they'll go away..." (thanks, Mary)] |
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| ["I am overwhelmed, please come get me"] |
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| [I am good elf, please give me assorted foodstuffs to wrap, I won't eat them this time I promise" (thanks, Spencer)] |
And finally, because it's appropriate, my first (and so far only) New Year's Pet Pic! This is photo-shopped, but I don't care. A cat in a monocle is a cat in a monocle, and it's gonna win me over every time
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| [Thanks, Suzanne] |
Happy New Year, everyone.
***The Milton quotation is from Comus, not Paradise Lost. I lazily trusted Google, which returns the following as the top response (from Quora) when you Google the quotation:
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102 comments:
Yes, Rex, I DID go with SEAOAt/tATSU, but this wasn't even the worst natick in this dreadful PPP fest. The worst was LOHAN/NES. In a month of Sundays I could not have reasoned my way to that obscure crossing. Fie on naticks, and editors who countenance them!
Easy-medium seems right. I caught the BALL going down part of the theme pretty early, but I didn’t realize what was really going on until FOOTBALL GAME. This was very clever and fun to solve, an excellent NYE puzzle. Liked it a bunch!
I almost had the theme figured out just from the title. It was odd that in the first themer, the "after midnight" answer 36 across LOTIONS fit the clue as is. And two of the four other "after"s were actual words: LADS and LET.
Big hands up for SEA OAT crossing TATSU so finished with an error. In fact that whole area was a nightmare of Naticks crossing each other: WEASLEY crossing SEA OAK crossing ONO crossing OTTO crossing KATSU. All of them Things I Did Not Know.
Daily KeaLoa: ADVIL before ALEVE. Both have a V!
[Spelling Bee: Sat 0; now 8 day streak. I didn't get the pangram for ages: "Must be some word I've never heard of?" Then finally "Oh, right!"]
Mostly flow-ey kinda grid despite some intense architecture. The right turn BALLS eluded me clear up to LISTIC when I got stuck.
Lots to love in the fill, a little to loathe, and too many gimme clues for a Sunday.
Tee-Hee: Takes a lotta BALLS to publish a puzzle like this. Am I the twelfth person with that joke?
Uniclues:
1 Iceberg influencer.
2 Breaking the law in Bangkok on Dec. 31.
3 Boys burgled balms.
4 Drinking establishment's fame came from egg, oil and vinegar.
5 Signature in Sharpie on your chest from a guy in New York you're pretty sure was Ryan Gosling.
6 Asylum celebration.
1 HERBIVORE POWER BROKER
2 ASIAN SIN NEW YEAR'S EVE
3 LADS ROB LOTIONS (~)
4 MAYO LET BAR GO BEYOND
5 TIMES SQUARE AUTOGRAPH
6 PSYCHO'S BALL DROP
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: A summary of my intellect circa 1979. SPY VS SPY? SO DOPE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Meh
I also got thrown by SIN under HERBIVORE; after figuring out that it was a case of misdirection, I thought the theme execution was clunky. And yes I toyed with SEAOAT for a split second.
The Milton quotation was from Comus, not Paradise Lost—I’m a Renaissance scholar and I haven’t read that one in at least a decade, so it had me (frustratedly) stumped for a bit.
Any time you have five BALL drops, that's a lot of EROS. If I were the manager, I'd be lining up three or four guys I could TAKEASHOT prospects at the ANNUAL draft.
At first I thought Bart Simpson said AYCARuMBA, but that makes 113A really nasty.
I thought the Father of American Literature might be GB Shaw's brother Paul instead of TWAIN. But then I saw that I had used PSHAW earlier at 42D.
Pretty nifty theme idea and mostly good execution. I think it's almost tragic that each of the early "after midnight" answers is a real word, leaving me scratching my head as to how LOTIONS, LAD and LET were valid answers to their clues. Until I got to LGAME and knew that none of the paths I was trying to head down could be helpful. I think if there had been an actual word at 77A instead of LGAME, and one at 109A instead of LISTIC, the puzzle would have been great, rather than real good. But I still loved it. Thanks, Matt Linzer and Rafael Musa, ya PSYCHOS.
When I didn't get the congrats it took me a long time to find SEAOAt crossed with TATSU. I remembered KATSU and made the correction but that's still finishing the year on a dnf. On paper I'd have left that in. There is such a thing as sea oats but it's not spelled without that s. SEAOAK I'm unfamiliar with but on another day I might have remembered KATSU on my own.
The Saturday SB went much better -0
POWER BALLADS works precisely as well as WATER BALLET does. BALL does not mean BALL in the dropped answer; it isn't POWERBALL ADS.
Thanks for the link to the Freudian puzzle. What a delight!
Yes. Corrected. Thx ~RP
Thank you. Corrected, with footnote explaining how I was led astray 🙁 ~RP
Theresa Caputo is vile, preying on grieving people. She's a fraud. No thanks.
SEA OAK/KATSU is a *much* more brutal crossing than this write-up suggests. Two extremely obscure terms, and “sea oat” remains a viable guess for a plant name. Surprised it got through.
SEA OAT/TATSU had me for awhile, but I vaguely recalled TATSU was Japanese for "thank you" from the name of a restaurant I once frequented.
I was trying to figure out what was so good about that New Yorker puzzle while I was completing it - played like an average Tuesday. Then I got to the reveal. Now I need therapy.
I love this place. We have a regular gang, a beautiful quilt that warms the heart, supplemented by the bowl of popcorn – infrequent and one-time drop-ins – that, aside from a few uncooked kernels, add zing. It is a group formed by and infused with passion for a pastime we are smitten with.
What a gift, this neighborhood! It will once again, I know, bring Happy into the New Year, and I’m ever grateful for it and to you all. Wishing all much sweetness in the year ahead.
Didn’t get the trick at all until reading here. Got everything (just assuming words like LISTIC or LADS were references I just didn’t know - same with LGAME: “maybe it’s some football term for a losing game? I know nothing about football.”
Biggest problem for me was IDEST crossing ADA. Didn’t know the legislation and have no idea what IDEST means or what it abbreviates to. Frustrating solve for me.
Yesterday’s holiday offering was more pleasing than this one for me. Graphically I would have liked to seen vertical spanners that included a BALL relocated from top to bottom to represent the DROP. There’s only one BALL on NYE.
THAT’S LIFE
Sunday sized grid with lackluster fill doesn’t help. The theme is dense and restrictive but there is some unfortunate stuff here. Most will highlight the SEA OAK cross but there are others - HEPA x PSHAW, GRU x BUG OUT BAG etc. As someone who has surfed forever - SHAKA was nice to see. But WATER BILLS, PYSCHOS, FOOT BATHS are not my idea of a good time.
Not exactly a thrilling jaunt to ring in 2024.
Trampled by Turtles
Mighty clever hors d’oeuvre to the Times Square main event tonight. A lesser puzzle would have simply had a BALL DROP theme, with “ball” going north to south, maybe hidden in other words or phrases, maybe highlighted with circled letters.
But no, we have NEW YEARS EVE, TIMES SQUARE, and BALL DROP as answers setting the scene, then the riddles to crack – the gymnastic word manipulation aspect, made more riddly by the before- and after-midnight angle.
Beauteous, a mic-drop to a stellar year of puzzles.
I enjoyed the spark of 14 NYT debut answers, including SO ARE WE, WATER BALLET, and a couple of answers I can’t believe have never appeared before: BALL DROP and HEPA. Plus, the spark of some sweet cluing, including a pair of question-markers: [Rapid transit?] for RAFT and [Star sign?] for AUTOGRAPH.
Matthew and Rafael, you not only perked up my brain, but you propelled me into the NYE mood with this jewel. Thank you so much!
I loved this! It felt like Rex is almost penalizing it for the NYT decision to run a different NYEve puzzle yesterday. This stands on its own. And I could not even remotely follow the explanation of “the issues that kept this one from landing perfectly.” I detected only the tiniest wobble in the landing because the first three of the “after midnight” answers are acceptable (if unclued) words while LGAME and LISTIC are not. So this judge gives it a 9.85.
I just kept discovering new complexities to this as I went along. 29-across directs you to the BALL DROP answer very early on, but that did not help me figure out the theme at all. Then I got one descending BALL, and then its partner dropped on the other side of the puzzle. (Ahem. My mind id in the same gutter as @Gary Jugert’s.) At first I thought it was an unacceptable dupe and then realized, “Oh, there’s the theme.” But it still took me a while to get the before and after midnight part and see the snaky “after “ answers. I especially liked that each BALL was given its own unique clue. In a lot of puzzles, those downs would have been clued “-“. It helps that the word means many different things, of course.
Then add to the joy some fabulous clues. Two days in a row for a risqué misdirection. Yesterday’s “Strips in a club” for BACON is equalled by today’s “hookup that might get kinky” for HOSE. I also loved “Star sign?” for AUTOGRAPH, “Rapid transit” for RAFT, and especially “device placed under a tongue” for SHOE TREE. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one trying to come up with an eight-letter word for thermometer. (BTW, what is tree-like about the thing you stick in your shoe?)
I did think briefly about SEA OAt and tATSU, but KATSU did sound familiar to me, and SEA OAts are in the dunes, not in the water, so I went with the K. My almost Natick was the crossing of TREO and GELEE. TRiO seemed possible and I don’t know what GELEE is, so I almost went with the I. Luckily GiLEE just looked wrong.
Anyway, my favorite Sunday in quite a while. NY Eve is my LEAST favorite holiday, so let’s see if I manage to stay up to see the BALL DROP.
Yep, SEA OAt for me. Once I got that sorted out, I still didn’t get the happy music. Then I realized the Palm phone was a TREO, not a TRiO (GiLEE felt only slightly more silly than GELEE).
DNF at SEA OAt/tATSU. That is one horrible, completely unfair, ridiculous cross. Basically ruins the puzzle.
I did consider SEA OAf/fATSU, which would have been funny.
Other WoEs: SHAKA, CAPUTO, DEL, OTTO, COHEN
But my biggest problem before I hit KATSU was that my first two themers worked just starting from BALL: BALLADS and BALLGAME. So then I had to figure out why BALLOTIONS wasn't working. Turns out that's the only one that is completely wrong without the first part: BALLET kind of works alone, and BALLISTIC doesn't but you could imagine it as slang.
Surely MAYO is the fifth ingredient in a BLT, with bread being the fourth.
KATSU was a gimme, since we live in an area with lots of Japanese restaurants. It seems most every societal group has its equivalent, from Chick-fil-A (controversy on the New York State Thruway!) to Indiana's breaded pork tenderloin cutlet to wienerschnitzel. I kinda got the theme, but didn't really see the answers (seeing only BALLADS, BALLGAME, etc. - which left me scratching my head as to what a BALLOTION was!). So, the theme construction was cool, although the fill was a lot of short answers (perhaps unavoidable?).
To all: May you have a healthy, safe, and happy New Year!
I very much enjoyed this puzzle. I thought it was timely, well-constructed and clever and it was a joy to play. My only (small) complaint is how much easier it got after solving the theme answer, 86D. Nevertheless, lot’s of fun.
BTW, I don’t see the logic of judging the quality of a puzzle based on how one feels about a different puzzle that was published on a different day. That makes absolutely no sense. It’s also unfair to the constructor, who, obviously had no control over the publication of the older puzzle.
Apparently Rex hasn’t spent much time in Hawaii, where the shaka originated and is a commonplace hand signal. 🤙
I thought today’s NYT puzzle was a nice complement to yesterday’s. Today’s had a lot more going on though not as enjoyable as yesterday’s. Prefer both to that New Yorker puzzle, an homage to a debunked and discredited shrink.
@Lewis (7:26). Amen to that. Well said.
This one felt like a solid way to bid adieu to 2023. (I was trying to forget yesterday's horrorshow Rex).
Today is my first day of a little over a week off from the restaurant, so a low-resistance Sunday was welcome. (Also, for the last couple months the restaurant has served a GyuKATSU Tenderloin so I was locked and loaded for that one).
I'm grateful I dedicated some time this year to an ANKI deck learning the world's countries and capitals. Saint LUCIA and DOHA dropped into the grid like a dream.
I got to 40A and wanted to put the BALL in a Rebus. I like rebuses, mostly, but I'd already filled in BALL at 24D and wondered if the NYT had decided Cinderella went to a gala for a moment. It almost seemed like something Shortz might do. But all the BALL action seemed suspicious (auspicious?) today. So I gave myself a break and checked out SW I'd seen light up earlier. Seemed like all might be revealed down there, and it sure was. It was pretty much a cakewalk from there.
Anyone else think of ACDC today with today's theme? It's pretty infantile, but this has always been one of my favorites by them.
Not much else to say. I'll put a hand up for Advil before ALEVE.
My brain has a hard time wrapping itself around EMEND, but it wouldn't tolerate SATELLITaS and the happy music has played.
@lewis Lovely sentiment in your post about the community here.
More Pets for '24!!
Yes, I was a sea-oater! That K took me quite a while to find.
A Happier New Year to all😀
The name of the game is SPOT THE BALL. Once you've spotted it, the parsing of the trick clues becomes much easier. Not easy, mind you, but easier. Except for (in my case)...
HERBIVORE. Because what I don't know about the [animal] sloth would fill a library. I only know about sloth as a SIN -- a sin I am definitely prone to. So that once I parsed all the other themers and I saw SIN (28A) right under HERBIVORE, I was trying to parse that in the same way. I'm looking for a combo of letters dropping down that will form DEADLY SIN or MORTAL SIN. But it's not there.
Right before coming here I realized that a sloth is an HERBIVORE. The answer needn't be "parsed" at all. Yay! And Whew!
This is a very intricately constructed puzzle whose intricacies I applaud. Some livelier clues everywhere else would have made this more fun to solve. It's Sunday and there's a very big grid, so you've gotta keep those HAHAS coming. But it's a very sophisticated job of construction that I imagine was hard to pull off.
Also went with SEA OAT / TATSU. Quite a bit of EROS in the puzzle given the Urban Dictionary definition of AER LINGUS starts with the puzzle’s theme title…
Hey All !
Going to tend to my SEA OAK, be right back.
Har.
Holy KATSU, Batman. That one space was holding me up from continuing my streak, so I went to Goog to look up the Japanese dish. Wanted SEAOAt/tATSU, or maybe SEAOAr/rATSU, even put in SEAOAf/fATSU. Dang. Again, don't consider looking up a Natick square to keep a Solving Streak alive to be a DNF. My puz solve, my rules. 😁
Took me until nearing the end of the solve to finally figure out what in tarhooties the Theme was doing. Up til then, all the "After midnight" entries were real words. Then I hit LGAME, and said, "Wha? What the h-e-double-hockeysticks is an LGAME?" Then I saw my previous unknown ___TBATHS was FOOT, which went with FOOTBALL, then continued on to be FOOTBALL GAME, then the Aha! bonked me over the head. Was wondering what BALLOTIONS were. Har
So pretty neat NYESunPuz. Hope y'all have a great time, but be safe. Crazy drivers out tonight.
Another chance for your New Year Resolution to last longer than three days! 😁
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Cheers to you and to Rex and to all the commenters!
KATIE Couric at 75A.
Remember this?
COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this—to stay informed and to understand the world?
PALIN: I've read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media, coming f—
COURIC: But like which ones specifically? I'm curious that you—
PALIN: Um, all of 'em, any of 'em that, um, have, have been in front of me over all these years. Um, I have a va—
COURIC: Can you name a few?
PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news too. Alaska isn't a foreign country, where, it's kind of suggested and it seems like, 'Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C. may be thinking and doing when you live up there in Alaska?' Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.
After the election, Couric was on with David Letterman and the Palin interview came up.
COURIC: I'm not sure whether she was afraid to offend certain people, by, she would offend conservatives by saying she read the New York Times.
LETTERMAN: Or people who don't read. She was afraid of offending people who don't read. Maybe that was it.
I had a very difficult time with ID ENTITIES - it just didn’t look like it was the correct answer or even an actual term, but it turns out it is both. Wow, that one was a workout for me.
Picked up the theme/gimmick early in the solve which enhanced my momentum greatly as I could drop in BALL all over the grid and the theme clues actually made sense.
Loved seeing a double dose of SLOTH, which of course is my all-time favorite of the Deadly Sins (and believe me, I’m familiar enough with all of them to make an informed decision).
I don’t get too concerned anymore when I see the NYT’s daily dose of WoE (SEAOAK) crossing something from Japan (KATSU) crossing the Spanish quiz (OSO). In fact, I admire their grit and determination to demonstrate to the world that they don’t care if they turn your leisurely enjoyable solve into a slop-ass slog (or maybe they are just embracing their inner SLOTH).
You know who’s been discredited? Cops.
Answers that didn’t fit, one way or another:
27A Like about 60% of the world’s population: OBESE (that applies only to US)
35A ___ Lingus: CUNNI (all this SEEDY, WEASLEY talk of BALLing caused a misdirection away from air travel.
Note to self for 2024: “You must remember this, AT IT is not A TIT.”)
80D Bart Simpson catchphrase: EATMYSHORTZ (as REQS Parker constantly RANTSAT!)
Happy Armageddon Eve, everybody! (the year we’re all CAPUTO!)
Fastest Sunday time ever but finished the puzzle without understanding the BALL DROPping bit. Just thought the BALLs were appearing farther down the grid, and was confused about some short across answers but assumed it would all somehow work out in the end. Was very confused to enter the L in “LISTIC” as the final square and to get the happy music anyway. Sort of a bummer, but my fault I suppose.
Interesting that this puzzle was almost a direct answer to one of @Rex’s main criticism of yesterday’s puzzle—the body of the puzzle contained many answers that were substantively related to the theme. The level of PPP did drive me to Google, but felt the complexity of the theme/construction made it worthwhile to unravel.
Thx Matt & Rafe; a fine New Year's challenge! 🎉
A pretty good downs-o effort (2 1/2 hrs); needed a couple of cross-checks, e.g., LADS / DOHA (had bOHA) D'OH!, and didn't know COHEN; couldn't make sense of LISTIC, so had to trust the 'C'.
Still working on grokking all the 'before' and 'after' midnights, altho getting BALL DROP fairly early on was a definite help along the way.
Fave answer: BUG OUT BAG.
All said and done, a fun battle! 🥳
___
Bombed badly on the Sat. downs-o attempt. Lost my thinking cap somewhere in the process. :(
On a much more positive note, Matthew Sewell's Sat. Stumper (6x NYT Sat.) provided a goldmine of terrific clueing. Was over the moon to get it right! :)
On to Balton & Stewart's NYT acrostic.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I remembered the term Bug Out from watching M*A*S*H, so I didn’t have a hard time with the answer here. But then I made the mistake of Googling BUG OUT BAG and learned the term is largely co-opted by the prepper community.
It’s just IDENTITIES. The plural of what an identity thief would steal.
Does anyone anywhere say SAW WOOD? I have only ever heard sawing logs. That answer really annoyed me.
@bocamp 11:02 AM
Downs-only on Sundays. 🤪 That's some ball-dropping bad-assery. The novice in me celebrates the champion in you.
And another one who DNF’d on SEA OAT/TATSU. Sea oat is a thing, and I’ve never heard of sea oak. And Katsu is an unfamiliar Japanese term. (And I like and often partake of Japanese cuisine.)
And as others have noted, ir is not SAW WOOD. And it never will be.
@Southside Johnny (10:22) -- I just love your comment that sloth is your "favorite" of the Deadly Sins. Of course, I would love such a comment! The unapologetically slothful Fran Lebowitz said it best:
"I can tell you, the same way basketball players say 'game recognizes game,' sloth recognizes sloth."
Crazy, crazy, crazy puzzle. I would call it the worst in many years, but I've said that too frequently of late. Full of non-words, non-meanings, non, non, non. There was a time, if memory serves, when Sunday was a gimmick-free day. May that practice soon return.
Way too slow to grok the theme today and didn't catch on until FOOTBALLGAMES, which made things dramatically easier. Nothing as annoying as an obvious truth.
Strangely enough, SEAOAT never occurred to me, even though I have heard of that and not SEAOAK. I guess I knew that a SEAOAT is not a form of algae. Also took forever to parse IDENTITIES as the __IGHT could have been any number or things. HOSE was similarly long in arriving. I blame the presence of a 6-year old granddaughter as a major distraction, although a welcome one.
@egs--I know we've had the AYCARUMBA discussion before, I think OFL wanted to use it at some point and I've made some comment to the effect that it's one of those fingernails on a blackboard moments for me. That reminds me that OFL's commentary today nearly fell into the TLDR category, to use some text speak to make me feel all young and hip.
I thought this was cleverly constructed and led to a nice aha! moment, which is always a good feeling. Nice work, ML and RM. More Like this would Really Make me happy, and thanks for all the fun.
Amen to what @Lewis said about our little group earlier, and Happy New Year to all who celeb rate, which I hope is all of us.
@Anon 10:24 ‐ Thank you, Waldo Lydecker. Don't you have a gun you need to hide in a cuckoo clock somewhere?
Lewis (7:26). Happy to read your poetic take on what you call this neighborhood and what I call this playground. I come every day, even on Sundays when I don't do the puzzle. I suppose that I like hanging out with people who share this thing with me. Some are geniuses, others are unpopped kernels, but we all are alike in this way. Happy New Year, everyone! You're all my buddies. Also, Happy New Year to the grumpy guy who unlocks the gate every morning so that we can play.
Loved yesterday’s, loved today’s. Solving crossword puzzles (I am reminded when I take sabbaticals from this site) is FUN.
@Anonymous 7:31: IDEST is Latin for "that is", frequently used to clarify, i.e. make things clear ;-)
"anyone go with SEA OAT / TATSU?"
Yup. Me. That was a total NATICK.
But: I loved "What hath NIGHT to do with sleep" for a New Year's Eve puzzle. Brilliant.
Thank you, @Lewis (7:26am)! I’m a west coaster and often don’t solve until most of you have stopped commenting, hence rarely comment….but I still feel the warmth of the community here….the Commentariat!
As per Rex’s request:
A few of my favorites from this year were July 29 (liked the clue These don’t hold water), August 10 (the ID/EGO rebus puzzle constructed by a crossword class), and October 1 (film “adaptations” with the mixed Tricks).
But, of course, my very favorites are the Challenging ones, like December 22, that take their fair share of little grey cells!!
Happy New Year, Everyone!!
I started out thinking "this is gonna be a piece of cake." As I continued, I got tripped up on WEASLEY (I have no clue about anything Harry Potter/Hogwarts & never will), TREO, NES (Duck Hunt Console - what in the world is that?), & SHAKA.
But although I was wrong about the piece of cake, I enjoyed the struggle (with a couple of cheats).
Thank you & Happy New Year to you both :)
You were not alone. I suspected that was the error and just ran the alphabet until the app said Congrats!
BTW I already have a XMAS photo picked out for next year - LOL!
I enjoyed this one, though it took a while to see the whole theme - BALLADS and BALLET and BALLGAME standing alone, but I couldn’t figure out BALLOTIONS for the life of me. I finished it on the crossings and then figured out that you start at the same across. I agree with RP that it should have been clued together with a dash at the second parts. Part that tripped me up the most was the BAR/BAN kealoa at 86 across, as I’m very familiar with KATSU (which feature heavily at Hawaiian BBQ joints in my neck of the woods). Other than that, lots of fun. See you next year!
Better than yesterday’s for sure. My biggest problem was sussing out the BALL clues that were connected. Until I got to the LGAME (very late in my solve) the clues were all stand alone words: LOTIONS, LADS, LET (hi @egs!), but I finally figured it out and that was the proverbial BALLGAME - FOOTBALL as it happens. Still lots of it to see tomorrow!
The theme was not unexpected, and was handled fairly well, but the puzzle as a whole was a tad on the easy side for a Sunday. Not that I am an expert or a speed solver, but I have been solving a long time and prefer a Sunday with some real resistance. Something that requires additional coffee and another slice of coffee cake or a second muffin.
Next week my belongings and I take off for Santa Rosa CA. My sweet cat moved in with my kids and granddaughter at Thanksgiving to avoid the moving chaos. She has adjusted well. I, on the other hand have missed her dreadfully. Hopefully, I can be reunited with her and my possessions quickly, get unpacked and settled in my new digs and get busy urging the building of my granny flat to be completed. Hopefully, apartment life will only last a year.
Best wishes to one and all for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2024!
I prefer @Son Volt's idea that the "ball" should have dropped in a straight line down a single column. Also agree with @Rex that it was awkward to have the after-midnight clues numbered in the middle of their grid answers rather than the beginning.
But otherwise it was a perfectly fine New Year's Eve puzzle. Happy 2024 to one and all! Got any plans for later?
Me too :(
Lindsay LOHAN was a household name for most of the 2000s, at least for those of us who grew up playing the NES.
I noticed the BALLs dropping pretty quickly, but it took a really long time for the penny to drop for the "after midnight" clues, all the way past LADS and LGAME to LISTIC. And even then I first saw only BALLADS, BALL GAME and BALLISTIC...so what in heck are BALLOTIONS?! Ohhhh! So, for me it was a very pleasurable peeling back, or maybe building up, of the several construction layers and a great New Year's eve treat.
@Lewis, thank you for your warm words about our neighborhood.
Happy New Year to all!
Name, name, name, brand name, brand name, name, brand name, name, name . . . Ugh.
DNF because of sea oat / tatsu
Amen about LGAME and LISTIC! I was surprised Rex didn’t offer up some choice words on both. I thought maybe they were real things I’d never heard of but google said nope.
I'da posted sooner, but spent quite a bushel of nanoseconds searchin for Clementine kitty in the foliage. Eventually think I found her, to the right of the big ornament and just below the rhesus monkey's head. Will go with 65% certainty, on that.
Clearly took a lotta BALLs to constructioneer today's SunPuz. [6 of em, I reckon.]
At first, M&A must admit to total confusion ensuin, when tryin to figure out the puztheme mcguffin. But I persisted, starin fixedly-like upon LADS, until I finally found the after-the-BALL way to arrive at a suitable ahar moment.
Good stuff. Happy Ball Drop's Eve, to y'all.
staff weeject pick: GRU. Despicably good Minion flick meat.
A few notable NYTPuz debuts: HEPA. CAPUTO. BUGOUTBAG.
Really luved the IMINLOVE clue.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Linzer & Musa dudes. Really liked the long downward spiral squiggly thing, in the middle of the puzgrid's design.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
p.s. My nephew is visitin us from abroad for the holidays, and had paid a fee to have Chat-GPT splatzed into his phone … so, we've been askin it all kinds of goofy questions, to try and get his moneybuck's worth. The runtpuz below summarizes at least most of our findins ...
**gruntz**
Magnificent. Nice to end the year on a high note. HNY everybody!
IE
Id est is a Latin phrase that means "that is" or "in other words". It is an abbreviation for i.e., which is a Latin phrase that means "in other words".
I hear Sturgis Simpson has a couple severed heads in his BUG OUT BAG.
Your Bart Simpson catchphrase gets my vote!
Ugh is right... considering what these Sunday puzzles are becoming, they should stop calling thwm "crosswords" and more honestly call them "crosspersonalities".
Interesting, you calling someone grumpy. Do you ever read your posts? Gnothi Seauto
Sadly did not get the before and after business, although the balls dropping popped out pretty quickly. Really messed myself up writing TAHOE in the wrong column (darn those tiny numbers in the magazine!). And DNF because could not see/parse 109A, having not caught on to the after piece, and stuck thinking Ypres for the river (another Belgian river) could not unstick.
Well, tomorrow is another... year! Happy New Year to any late readers.
And I bet I'm the only commenter with a pic of ENRICO Fermi on the refrigerator. Long story.
Fortunately I didn’t think of SEA OAt. I put in KATSU. Natick avoided. because I tried oak.
I had confidently put in pAnko originally.
About LOHAN
I am not sure what she looks like as never saw her hitshow but her name was ubiquitous for several decades. (Lots of scandals) She still appears in the news: she was interviewed by the Times last after she appeared in a movie. So I don’t think she can be called obscure. Lots of people I don’t know aren’t obscure! BTW NES has appeared in the Times puzzle frequently also. I only know it from the puzzle It would pay to remember it.
ONO’s son having her last name as his middle name is not obscure. They were just trying for a n original clue for crosswordese. I agree that the others are pushing the limits except for maybe the Harry Potter one.
Egsforbreakfast
I dnf’d a Times puzzle once because I put in a u instead of A
Unfortunately, I didn’t know the cross. In this case I remembered and I had tentatively put in I CAN’T etc. anyway. Good catch about the cross today!
@greendot I hear you pain as another living west of the Rocky Mountains. I almost always skip the early week grids and really hadn't thought to at least drop into @Lewis's neighborhood (does he have a sweater like Mr Rodger's for comfortable solvin?) to enjoy the commentariat....maybe a NY resolution there? Over the years I've truly enjoyed any number of unique voices from an early appreciation of @evildoug's sarcasm through @LMS's language lessons and a host of others too numerous to recall.....though that longish poem celebrated many. Thanks to all & best wishes for the year ahead.
Oh, and I'd be DROPPING THE BALL not to say I actually enjoyed a Sunday grid🎉
BTW Anonymous 7:31
ADA is very frequently in the Times puzzle. It is the very definition of crosswordese.
It would pay to remember it because it will reappear!
Along time ago some school kids were told , as was I, the origin of IE. It might show up again.
Wishing a Happy New Year to Rex and all of you. Keep commenting, everyone. May 2024 be darn sight better than 2023. Loved the Christmas pet pictures. Good night Loren Muse Smith, wherever you are!
@Joe Dipinto : LOL
I went with sea oat and tatsu, so yes.
@JC66 – re Acrostic (late yesterday), I finally got back to it today. It was my preferred level of difficulty, I'd say: very few answers were obvious at first, but after plopping in a few (thankfully correct) guesses it started to fall in pretty Answer O.-ly.
btw, @Son Volt – cool Springsteen cover. That album looks interesting.
Here's one more song to close out 2023. For after the clock strikes XII.
Same with HERBAL LOTION (actually I think this is the best execution of the entire theme, as lotion actually fits the clue by itself as well, and BALL is very hidden) BALL also doesn't mean BALL in BALLISTIC, so that whole comment doesn't make sense. I do agree LGAME and LISTIC are awkward, but ither than FOOTBALL, none of the longer words have BALL in their meaning at all.
Living in North Florida, we have many signs asking us not to disturb the “sea oats” at risk of severe financial penalties so that’s where I went.
I almost hate to admit this, but as a child I often ate Pb&J sandwiches with Mayo. Very sweet yet tangy. Also I’m not a fan of « eyeing up » or other phrases ending in prepositions. I got the ball thing early but still don’t understand the before and after midnight thing. Still a fun puzzle.
Rex mentioned that the fourth long across answer wasn't an exclamation as much as a lament. There's another reason to dislike it. The first three include double Os (duckduckgOOse, ticktickbOOm, hiphiphOOray). The fourth falls flat with a single O (theretherenOw). There are two intersecting OOs (bOOm & gOOs, rOOk & OOh). And then the SE corner has a lonely double O (iglOO). So, how much of that was an intentional part of the theme, and how much coincidence? Is the "O" theme three doubles, two intersecting, one solitary? An unclear theme is unusual for the NYT.
Back from our December road trip, I've solved all the puzzles I missed, now that I have a printer. This one worked fine as an easy themeless. Happy New Year!
A lot of fun stuff after being intially somewhat paralized by ROMANTIC PROFESSION, thanks boys. Yet I finished on LOOP and remain flummoxed. How is BRING IN, LOOP, other than the rather vague reference to returning to the beginning? EARN, REIN, surely but how LOOP? I just don't get it, sorry.
A BUGOUTBAG full of stuff I didn't know; about half of this solve was guesses. That they were all right is a minor miracle.
Until very late in the GAME, I thought I had the theme trick when in fact I only had 2/3 of it. BALLADS made sense. So did BALLET and BALLGAME. I was scratching my head over BALLOTIONS, however. Only when I noticed GO in front of BALLISTIC did the light turn on. An extra aha.
Agree with @anon 4:33 about LOOP. I think it means, like, keep me in the LOOP, but first (I guess) you have to bring me there. Very poor clue, for sure.
Tough for a Sunday, with plenty of clues to obfuscate. SHOETREES, FOOTBATHS and AIRLIFTS smack of a bygone era. Let's DROP the BALL on the NEW YEAR with a birdie.
Wordle bogey: too many thINGs to choose from.
Loop in
Did not have a ball with this, but must admit it has its clever moments that made my questions go away!
Diana, LIW
Annoying puzzle. Finished without ever figuring the conceit. Gimme break.
EROS NEWYEARSEVE BALL
ICAN'TDECIDE about MARIE,
she's EYEING me UP REAL good,
she'll TAKEASHOT AT LOVE, you SEA,
last NIGHT MARIE SAWWOOD.
--- SENOR ENRICO DEL RAY
When my younger, less experienced colleagues are looking for answers, they 'LOOP me in' to the conversation (or email chain) to get the benefit of my knowledge. I guess these days to be in the LOOP, one must be LOOPed in. The verbing of America continues. Even for my 'bring (in)' I had to change reaP to LOOP.
The rest? Well, it's Sunday.
Wordle birdie.
Rex, I think you will be the only one to read this comment, or maybe a mod will read it, and pass the comment on to Rex. I'm a week late posting it even so, but I want to make the point to people that you've really trashed the December 30 puzzle for the folks in syndiland. Comments about the puzzle the day before this were a big part of today's write-up, but we won't be seeing that Saturday puzzle until next week, or for most folks, two weeks after they read the review for this one. Our daily puzzles are 5 weeks late; the weekend puzzle is dated a week late but is the puzzle from two weeks prior. Now that I'm a week late reading this review, I will see that December 30 puzzle next weekend on February 3. It would help to have a spoiler note at the top of the review, and encouragement for commenters to not spoil a daily puzzle in weekend comments.
I'm sure it's hard to remember this issue at the time, but maybe if I remember to mention it now and then, you'll think of it, if in fact it gets read by anyone. Thanks.
wcutler, different syndicators must do it differently, because I'm seeing this today, having done tomorrow's puzzle the evening before, yet Rex is addressing syndicated solvers in mid-January. I guess my paper does it wrong. It's weird getting the NYE puzzle in February!
@Aviatrix, nice to know somebody read my comment. And bizarre to learn that newspapers run the puzzles on different schedules, though I had a hint when our weekend puzzle always has the wrong date.
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