Midwesterner's embarrassed interjection / WED 11-6-24 / Gobi desert grazer / Inspiration for Toblerone's shape / Hip-hop's Madvillain or Mobb Deep / Baxter, "Poor Things" protagonist / Composer with a namesake horn / Green roll / Patterned fabric named for a Mideast capital

Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Constructor: Adam Aaronson

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: LONG AND SHORT OF IT (63A: General idea ... or a hint to the clue/answer pairings at 14-, 29-, 39-, 41- and 53-Across) — long theme answers contain a second short answer inside of them (in the shaded squares):

Theme answers:
  • PLATINUM (14A: Silvery element)
  • BLACK SABBATH (29A: Band in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame)
  • SOMALIA (39A: African country)
  • LIMEADE (41A: Sweetened beverage)
  • MEADOWLARK (53A: Bird with a distinctive call)
Word of the Day: MEAD (see 41A) —
a fermented beverage made of water and honey, malt, and yeast (merriam-webster.com)  
Mead has a reputation for being extremely sweet. Many people are hesitant to even try it after having tasted one of those syrupy-sweet honey wines that so many commercial meaderies make. People assume that it’s sweet just because it was made from honey. What they don’t realize is that the sugar in the honey gets fermented and turned into alcohol, just like the sugar in grapes. Whether the final product is sweet or not is up to the mead maker. People have even asked us if mead is thick like honey. That of course is not the case, since the honey is broken down by the yeast and turned into alcohol and CO2, meaning there’s not much left of the original honey except flavor. [...] 
There are two main methods of making a sweet product. The first is to simply add honey to the mead after it is done fermenting (with steps taken to prevent it from fermenting again). The second is to add more honey than the yeast is capable of converting into alcohol, which leaves some sugar behind. Each strain of yeast can only tolerate so much alcohol before the alcohol they make actually kills them. This method is fairly unpredictable, in part because there are usually several strains of yeast in any given fermentation, not just the one added by the wine or mead maker. The nutrient regimen and other factors can also impact how much alcohol the yeast can produce. ("Is Mead Sweet?," Contrivance Wine & Mead Co.)
• • •

[DRAX]
This puzzle felt somewhat harder than a typical Wednesday—the clues all seemed to be Really trying (to be tricky, or ambiguous, or pop culturally current). But I just set the difficulty back to "Medium" because my brain was addled by disrupted sleep (I fell asleep at 9 and woke up at 1 (?)—it's 2:15 now; the cats are very confused). From the very first clue, I just couldn't wrap my brain around a lot of little things. A [Gobi Desert grazer] is a what now? After GNU and ELK, I'm out of three-letters grazers. Oh, do ASSes graze now? Of course they do. Lots of animals graze, but I didn't know grazing was classical ASS behavior (I have no idea what lives or doesn't live in the Gobi, to be honest). I don't think of SOD as green, though of course it is (for some reason when I see SOD, I just see dirt). I figured the [Domain suffix that most people can't register] would be GOV. So that's strike 1 2 and 3 on the first second and third Across answer. "UH UH" instead of "UM, NO." And so forth. Things evened out and got slightly less disorienting through the middle of the grid, only to get sludgy again at the bottom. "OK, GOOD" (like it's cousin, "UM, NO") was not quickly forthcoming. Totally forgot DRAX was a name in the MCU (I have tried to forget every Marvel movie I ever wasted time watching—though to be fair, the "Guardians" movies were my favorite). I tried to make 73A: Dave Bautista's role in "Guardians of the Galaxy" be GRÜT ... but the character I was thinking of is GROOT. Alas. And then there was the SW corner, which slowed me down some more, as I assumed 48D: "My plans aren't set in stone" was "I'M something" ("I'M OPEN?") rather than "I [space] [verb]" (in this case, "I MIGHT"). BLOW was somewhat tough to get to from its clue (56D: Major setback). No idea what making a KNOT with one hand even means, rockclimbing-wise (58D: Something a rock climber might make with one hand). ... [looks it up] ... Oh, a KNOT in your rope. LOL I thought you were "making" your hand into a KNOT somehow. Like KNOT was a special grip or something. So you can see ... much of this just wasn't clicking. Probably more apt to say my brain wasn't clicking. But I never got really stuck, and much of the rest of the grid was simple enough, so as I say, I'm just calling it "Medium" today. Seems like the safest bet.

["I DO x 5"]

As for the theme, I really liked it. It does what it tells you it does. You get a "long" and a "short" answer for each clue, with the latter embedded inside the former. "Long" and "short" in one answer. Nifty trick, consistently executed. The only answer I balked at was MEAD, which, while being made from fermented honey, is not what I'd call "sweetened" (41A: Sweetened beverage). But a little research shows that mead makers (who work at "meaderies," a word I just learned—see "Word of the Day," above) do "sweeten" some of their meads (by adding honey after fermentation or starting with more honey than the yeast can convert to alcohol; again, see above). So calling MEAD "sweetened" seems fine. All other theme pairs seem right on the money. No issues, perfect fits for their clues. Not sure I'd've called TIN (or any metal, besides silver) "silvery," but it seems like a reasonable description. Overall fill quality feels about average. STINK BOMBS good (3D: Foul-smelling prank items), HEALTH BARS meh (10D: Indicators of remaining energy for video game characters), everything else fine. Very little wincing today. 


The one answer I was truly happy to see today was AGNES Varda (54D: ___ Varda, director with an honorary Palme d'Or and Oscar). I've been (intermittently) shouting for years that, like fellow legendary film director Yasujiro OZU, she should be in more puzzles. Then last year, Erik Agard and Malaika Handa finally used a [French film director Varda] clue for AGNES, and I was elated. And now I'm re-elated. Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7 is one of my three favorite movies (along with Wilder's The Apartment and Hitchcock's Rear Window). Varda had a long and varied career. Her documentaries are particularly exceptional. I have a beautiful, massive Criterion Collection box set of her films (haven't come close to watching all of them yet). Still haven't seen VARDA in the grid yet, but, baby steps, baby steps. And this puzzle's cinephilic streak keeps going, extending from DRAX and AGNES to BELLA (22D: ___ Baxter, "Poor Things" protagonist). That seemed like a somewhat tough BELLA clue. Yes, it's a recent role, and an Academy Award-winning role, but I don't know how widely known Emma Stone's character's name is. I saw the movie in the theater and the name still didn't come to me quickly. But crosses seem fair. Anyway, Marvel movie reference notwithstanding, I love this puzzle's movie-mindedness. It's the one part of the puzzle that did, in fact, click with me.


Notes and explainers:
  • 19A: Northernmost city in North America with over one million people (EDMONTON) — brain, not clicking, assumed that "North America" meant "United States of America," and so tried to invent a city called EDISON, AK.
  • 20A: Inspiration for Toblerone's shape (ALP) — weird clue. Yes, the inspiration is an ALP, but more specifically, a very famous ALP: The Matterhorn. This is a little like cluing PRESIDENT as [Person on the five-dollar bill]. I mean ... yes ... but
  • 2D: Composer with a namesake horn (SOUSA) — yes, the SOUSAphone, which is a horn, and (sadly) not a telephone you use when you need someone to compose a march, stat!
  • 8D: Hip-hop's Madvillain or Mobb Deep (DUO) — a tough clue if you know nothing about hip-hop, which experience tells me is a lot of you. I've heard of both these acts and DUO still didn't leap to mind.
  • 11D: Actress Tracee ___ Ross of "American Fiction" (ELLIS) — Diana Ross's daughter. 
  • 67D: Midwesterner's embarrassed interjection ("OPE!") — I forget which Midwesterner says this. Minnesotan? Hmm, looks like it's common across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. According to this 2020 article from "Oshkosh Northwestern": "['OPE' is] said after bumping into someone, dropping something, or as an alert of someone needing to get around or “sneak right past ya.”"
See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

***

Important Note:

As of Monday, 11/4/24, the NYT Tech Guild is on strike. 


The Guild is asking that readers honor their picket line by boycotting the Times’ selection of games, including Wordle and the daily digital crossword, and to avoid other digital extensions such as the Cooking app.

Annie Shields, a campaign lead for the News Guild of New York, encouraged people to sacrifice their streaks in the wildly popular Wordle and Connections games in order to support the strike.

You can read more about the strike here (nyguild.org).

There were some anti-union talking points being credulously repeated in the comments yesterday, so just to be clear (per Vanity Fair): "The union said Tech Guild workers' main concerns that remain unresolved are: remote/hybrid work protections; “just cause” job protections, which “the newsroom union has had for decades”; limits on subcontracting; and pay equity/fair pay.

Since the picket line is "digital," it would appear to apply only to Games solved in the NYT digital environment—basically anything you solve on your phone or on the NYT website per se. If you get the puzzle in an actual dead-tree newspaper, or if you solve it outside the NYT's proprietary environment (via a third-party app, as I do), then technically you're not crossing the picket line by solving. You can honor the digital picket line by not using the Games app (or the Cooking app) at all until the strike is resolved. No Spelling Bee, no Connections ... none of it. My morning Wordle ritual is was very important to me, but ... I'll survive, I assume. 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

NYT Tech Guild Strike (no puzzle write-up today)

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Dear readers,

The NYT Tech Guild is on strike. 


The Guild is asking that readers honor their picket line by boycotting the Times’ selection of games, including Wordle and the daily digital crossword, and to avoid other digital extensions such as the Cooking app.

Annie Shields, a campaign lead for the News Guild of New York, encouraged people to sacrifice their streaks in the wildly popular Wordle and Connections games in order to support the strike.

You can read more about the strike here (nyguild.org).

Since the picket line is "digital," it would appear to apply only to Games solved in the NYT digital environment—basically anything you solve on your phone or on the NYT website per se. If you get the puzzle in an actual dead-tree newspaper, or if you solve it outside the NYT's proprietary environment (via a third-party app, as I do), then technically you're not crossing the picket line by solving. Still, my blog is going dark today, in solidarity with the striking workers, and I'm asking readers to consider honoring the digital picket line by not using the Games app (or the Cooking app) at all until the strike is resolved. No Spelling Bee, no Connections ... none of it. My morning Wordle ritual is very important to me, but ... I'll survive, I assume. 

Maybe the strike will be resolved today in time for Election Night coverage. Let's hope. At any rate, this blog will return to normal operations tomorrow, though with daily reminders about the Tech Guild strike and the digital picket line.

Feel free to discuss the puzzle in the Comments. Take care, and ... well, vote, obviously. 

See you tomorrow,

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Egyptian god with the head of a falcon / MON 11-4-24 / Noggin, in slang / Dónde está la library?," for example / Make a loud exploding noise / Marlboro offering, informally / British punk rocker with the hit "Rebel Yell"

Monday, November 4, 2024

Constructor: Colin Adams

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)


THEME: FASHION FORWARD (52A: Following the latest style trends ... or a hint to the starts of 16-, 26- and 42-Across) — the "forward" (or front) part of each theme answer is an element of "fashion" (i.e. something you might wear):

Theme answers:
  • WATCH CAREFULLY (16A: Keep a close eye on)
  • BELT OUT A SONG (26A: Perform karaoke with passion, say)
  • "SUIT YOURSELF!" (42A: "Fine, ignore my advice!")
Word of the Day: BILLY IDOL (32D: British punk rocker with the hit "Rebel Yell") —

William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English and American singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of the group Generation X. Subsequently, he embarked on a solo career which led to international recognition and made Idol a lead artist during the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" in the US. The name "Billy Idol" was inspired by a schoolteacher's description of him as "idle".

Idol began his music career in late 1976 as a guitarist in the punk rock band Chelsea. However, he soon left the group. With his former bandmate Tony James, Idol formed Generation X. With Idol as lead singer, the band achieved success in the United Kingdom and released three studio albums on Chrysalis Records, then disbanded. In 1981, Idol moved to New York City to pursue his solo career in collaboration with guitarist Steve Stevens. His debut studio album, Billy Idol (1982), was a commercial success. With music videos for singles "Dancing with Myself" and "White Wedding" Idol soon became a staple of the newly established MTV.

Idol's second studio album, Rebel Yell (1983), was a major commercial success, featuring hit singles "Rebel Yell" and "Eyes Without a Face". The album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of two million copies in the US. (wikipedia)

• • •

[My Sunday]
Despite a long day yesterday (~5 hours of driving back and forth to Rochester) and a relatively late night last night, neither I nor my cats seem to have adjusted to the time change yet. I was hoping simply being very tired would push my body through that extra hour of sleep, but nope, stupid body functions like stupid clockwork, so up 2:45AM (!?) instead of the usual 3:45. I actually lay there for a while just to try to acclimate the increasingly demanding cats to the "later" feeding time. I tried to explain "spring forward, fall back" to them, but they just continued walking all over me and pawing anything that would make noise (windowpanes are a favorite). I usually solve the Monday puzzle on Sunday night, so it was weird to try solving "Downs-only" first thing in the morning. I wondered if my brain would be less ... sharp (!) ... somehow. I tend to think better in the morning (which is why I wake up and write rather than stay up and write), but it also feels like I think ... slower. And yet today's Downs-only experience was quite like any other, despite the daunting twin 9s that greeted me right out of the gate. The longer the answer, the harder it is (generally) to get without any crosses, so twin 9s, yeesh. But POWERED UP went right in and SPANGLISH wasn't far behind, and those answers got me the front ends of the first two themers, which was all I needed to get significant traction. It took a little work to get the W/NW settled, but once I did, everything flowed pretty easily from there. Finished cleanly and ironically, with TRUE NORTH down south. 


My only comment on the theme is that it's offering a pretty ragtag set of "fashion" items. Two of them are accessories, one of them a full SUIT, but they don't ... add up to anything. They don't seem to go together as a set, beyond being parts of the very very very general category of "fashion." Where's SKIRT THE ISSUE, SCARF DOWN, CAP OFF, TIE THE KNOT, HEELS ... OF BREAD? SOCKS ON THE JAW? Seems like a lot of "fashion items with homonyms" were left on the table. The WATCH, BELT, SUIT set seems arbitrary, is what I'm saying. Yes, you could definitely wear all those together, but you'd still be only partially dressed. I like the revealer, I like the concept, but themer set felt thin and insufficiently coherent. Still, this was fun to solve. The long Downs in the NW and SE really elevate the fun factor, and the grid is generally clean overall, so no groans or winces or disappointed head-shakes today.


It took me several readings of 2D: Dónde está la library?," for example for me to realize that the question switched languages. I kept trying to think of the Spanish word for "question," which I was pretty sure was just "question," or some near equivalent (cuestión?). Real "d'oh" (as opposed to "OHO!") moment when I finally actually saw "library" sitting there, all out of place. "Library" got me SPANGLISH immediately. And then it was like falling dominoes. I could see the first word of the first long Across was gonna be WATCH, and WATCH not only got me the (much-needed) "H" for HORUS (17D: Egyptian god with the head of a falcon), but it also helped me infer BELT once I had the "-ELT" (WATCH and BELT seemed like potential theme elements, and they were), and inferring that "B" was vital in getting "GO BOOM," which I hadn't been able to get at first pass (19D: Make a loud exploding noise). Having WATCH and BELT in place definitely helped me get SUIT later on, as well as FASHION, and the back ends of almost all of the themers were easy to infer from their fronts. Well, WATCH wasn't terribly helpful on its own, but getting the first few letters in CAREFULLY was a cinch. My post-NW screw-ups were minor. I stupidly misspelled SUNNI (as SUNII) (?) (38D: Largest branch of Islam), which left me with ALIGI at 49A, which made me think "that's gotta be ALIBI..." So dumb. I also kinda wanted ODDITY (rather than ODD ONE) at 43D: Strange case. And I'm less familiar with TRUE NORTH than I am with DUE NORTH, so there was some slight puzzlement and hesitation there, but TRUE really wouldn't be denied, and that was that.

[50A: Shakespeare's "Much ___ About Nothing"]

A few notes:
  • 30A: Ferret-like mammal with prized fur (MINK) — it's just a ferret-like mammal. No need to turn it into fur. I know it's a "fashion"-themed puzzle, but there's no reason to lean into animal cruelty if you don't have to. I know it's Monday, and you wanna make it real easy, but still, boo to fur.
  • 15A: ___ Bunny, Bugs's love interest in "Space Jam" (LOLA) — some Mondays I'm really happy I didn't have to read the Across clues. I was too old for Space Jam and LOLA Bunny means absolutely nothing to me. I did, however, hear "LOLA" in the car ride on the way home from Rochester yesterday, that was cool. Here's another musical LOLA:
  • 54D: Noggin, in slang (NOB) — "Noggin" in slang is ... "Noggin." The clue should just be [Noggin]. Also, who (still) says "Noggin"? Or NOB, for that matter? Is that British?  (looks like yes, it is, but in a different context: NOB (n.)  "one in a superior position in life" (merriam-webster dot com). There are a million (give/take) ways you could've filled that tiny portion of the grid (true south). I'd've scrubbed it free of NOB. Something about the word ... just don't like the look of it.
A note for classical music fans in the KC and NYC areas: Yunchan Lim's performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations at the Eastman School in Rochester yesterday was really beautiful. I'm so glad we made the hike up to see him. After winning the Van Cliburn Competition at age 18 two years ago (the youngest person ever to win), Lim has become something of a rock star. The audience was so much younger than I'm used to seeing at classical concerts. There's a music school there, so maybe the youthfulness of the crowd isn't that surprising, but still, it was refreshing and inspiring to see a multi-generational turnout. Anyway, he's got three dates in KC and four in NYC at the end of this month, so if you live in or near those cities, treat yourself. I don't know what the program for those shows is going to be, but it hardly matters. Whatever he's playing, you're gonna want to hear it.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Boozy holiday confection / SUN 11-3-24 / Word with the wave of a wand / Tower in a port / Relatives of narwhals / Calming oil compound, for short / Popular video game franchise since 1997, for short / Actress Krishnan of South Indian cinema / Land inhabited by the Alutiiq people / Doppler effect phenomenon / Eponym of a popular root beer brand / Like Thor, shortly after arriving on Earth in 2011's "Thor"

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Constructor: Sid Sivakumar

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: "Can I Have a Raise?" — words meaning "money" (which appear in circled squares) hop over one shaded square each, creating a literal "raise"—or PAY BUMP, which is what the shaded squares spell out (when read from top to bottom):

Theme answers:
  • ALASKA PENINSULA ("kale" jumps the "P") (23A: Land inhabited by the Alutiiq people)
  • GODDAUGHTER ("dough" jumps the "A") (39A: Zoë Kravitz, to Marisa Tomei)
  • FREQUENCY SHIFT ("cash" jumps the "Y") (46A: Doppler effect phenomenon)
  • GUTENBERG ("tender" jumps the "B") (69A: Inventor of the printing press)
  • MOOD CONGRUENCE ("green" jumps the "U") (86A: Psychological effect whereby memories are recalled more easily when they match one's current emotional state)
  • CIVIC-MINDED ("coin" jumps the "M") (93A: Conscientious of one's community)
  • SWITCHED PARTIES ("cheddar" jumps the "P") (115A: Moved across the aisle)
Word of the Day: The Franklin Mountains (7D: Texas city at the foot of the Franklin Mountains = EL PASO) —

The Franklin Mountains of Texas (SpanishSierras de los Mansos) are a small range 23 miles (37 km) long, 3 miles (5 km) wide that extend from El Paso, Texas, north into New Mexico. The Franklins were formed due to crustal extension related to the Cenozoic Rio Grande rift. Although the present topography of the range and adjoining basins is controlled by extension during rifting in the last 10 million years, faults within the range also record deformation during the Laramide orogeny, between 85 and 45 million years ago.

The highest peak is North Franklin Peak at 7,192 feet (2,192 m). Much of the range is part of the Franklin Mountains State Park. The mountains are composed primarily of sedimentary rock with some igneous intrusions. Geologists refer to them as tilted-block fault mountains and in them can be found 1.25 billion-year-old Precambrian rocks, the oldest in Texas. (wikipedia)

• • •

It's pretty literal, this one. Consistent and well made, but also pretty dull. The gimmick is awfully simple and there's really no element of surprise here, nothing fun to discover once you grok the basic premise. Well, there's one surprise, which is MOOD CONGRUENCE, whatever the hell that is (86A: Psychological effect whereby memories are recalled more easily when they match one's current emotional state). If you need to write an entire paragraph in order to justify your clue or make it make sense, that's a good sign you should rethink the answer itself. Seriously, that clue is three times longer than every other theme clue LOL. I'm sure this so-called "Psychological effect" is a real thing to someone, somewhere, but it really looks like something an uncurated wordlist coughed up ... I'm reading the wikipedia entry for MOOD CONGRUENCE and there's nothing up front about "memories" at all, so ... no idea what this clue is doing. Some super-specialized stuff. Real outlier. The rest of the theme answers were fine as answers, but the basic concept here, however neatly executed, just didn't seem that interesting. Very one-note. I can see what's happening ... and it keeps happening. Also, I made the mistake of reading the "Puzzle Notes," which spelled out the shaded-squares portion of the gimmick. 


Would've been much more fun to discover that on my own. Also, only crosswords think "KALE" is a slang term for "money." Never seen it anywhere else. Maybe in some hardboiled crime fiction of the '20s. That's possible. But KALE makes even CHEDDAR seem modern (it isn't). I can't say the idea isn't cute. I like that the revealer is actually built into the theme answers themselves—that is, if PAY BUMP played like a regular revealer (that is, if it were its own separate answer), the puzzle wouldn't have any charm at all. If you're jumping over letters, those letters really need to do something, and today, they do. So it all makes sense. It just wasn't terribly exciting. Not bad. Just ho-hum.


Aside from MOOD CONGRUENCE, which I had to get almost entirely from crosses, there were only two thorny patches today, and "thorny" is perhaps exaggerating the amount of pain involved. The first such patch was in and around BARQ (such a horrible answer to begin with—the root beer is BARQ'S; BARQ on its own is ridiculous). I had -A-- for the [Eponym of a popular root beer brand] and wrote in DAD'S. Now, DAD'S is the full name of the root beer, not an "eponym," but, see, I just ... I ... it was wishful thinking, in that I was wishing (desperately) that 41A: Word with the wave of a wand might be TADA because, well, the first thing that occurred to me there was ABRA, and there is no more horrible piece of crossword fill than ABRA. It is not, as the clue claims, a "word." It's an incantation partial. Oof. I die a little every time I see it in a grid. And so my brain willed it away. Refused to accept it. "Maybe we can write in DAD'S and TADA and everything will be OK." Nice try, brain. DAD'S gave me --D for 30A: Member of the fam, and the only answer I could think of there was ... DAD. And DAD crossing DAD'S seemed, let's say, unlikely. So I tore it out, worked out SIB, then BARQ, then sighed the world's deepest sigh as I defeatedly wrote in ABRA. Allow me to resigh. Sigh. You know how you can tell ABRA is completely invalid? First of all, would you really spell "Abracadabra" as two words? When have you ever seen that? And second, imagine seeing CADABRA in the grid ... yeah, that's right: you can't. No such "word" as CADABRA, so no such "word" as ABRA. Case closed on this worst of all possible "words." (Note: this is the fifth ABRA of the year, more than any year since 1991; not a promising trend!)





The other (minor) trouble spot today came from Pirate's Cove (you know ... the bar on Love Boat ... where Isaac, Your Bartender works (nights) ... no Love Boat fans, eh? Philistines ...).  


Annnnyway, I expected my pirate to make one sound and she made another, and man you would not think a three-letter [Word from a pirate] could cause significant havoc, but ARR(gh)! What does the pirate say? The pirate says "ARR." That is what the pirate says. Yes, ARR is usually [Flight board abbr.] or [Sheet music abbr.], but four times in recent years it has been a "word from a pirate" (three [Pirate's exclamation] and then one [Talk Like a Pirate Day greeting] earlier this year). AYE, on the other hand, while very sailory, is not very piratey. AYE has made 155 appearances in the modern (i.e. Shortz/Fagliano) era, and only once (once!) before today has "pirate" been used in the clue (the other time being only just this year). So for decades and decades, pirates never ever said AYE in a crossword. If they said anything, they said ARR. And now all of a sudden in 2024 they're all good little obedient sailors!? Bah. Give AYE back to Popeye and the Scots and people voting in favor of things, and let pirates say weird pirate things. Things like ARR. 


Notes and explainers:
  • 23A: Land inhabited by the Alutiiq people (ALASKA PENINSULA) — minor issue, but I thought it was the ALASKAN PENINSULA, with an "N." And in some places (like the NASA website!), that is how it's spelled. But the official name of said peninsula appears not to have that extra adjectival "N" at the end of ALASKA.
  • 52A: Actress Krishnan of South Indian cinema (TRISHA) — never heard of her, but she's a huge star. They don't call you "The Queen of India" for nothing, I'm guessing. Look at all these damn awards! According to wikipedia, she works primarily in Tamil and Telugu films. 
  • 81A: Word following a comma in an alphabetized list (THE) — my brain could not process this clue at all. But yes, in an index, say, you will see book or movie titles that begin with "THE" written out this way (with the THE following a comma). Here are a couple examples from the index of a book that just happens to be sitting next to my desk—David Thomson's How to Watch a Movie:
  • 109A: Popular video game franchise since 1997, for short (GTA) — stands for Grand Theft Auto. You get to do horrible things to people, if I remember correctly (I haven't played or even thought about the game since roughly the turn of the century)
  • 18D: One willing to take the hit? (STONER) — a "hit" on a joint or pipe, for pot (marijuana) smokers. You probably knew that, but sometimes these idioms will be strange to non-native speakers, so I'm explaining, just in case. Although I'm hardly the one to be explaining this stuff, as last time I "took a hit" was ... well, before the last time I played GTA, that's for sure.
  • 19D: Like Thor, shortly after arriving on Earth in 2011's "Thor" (TASED) — about as niche a film clue as I've ever seen. Look, you know TASED evokes awful things, most notably police violence, so maybe just don't use it, rather than asking us to remember one specific scene in an old superhero movie. There are too many superhero movies for anyone to be able to keep track of this junk. There have been four Thor movies alone. 34 films in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). 10 more in development. Make it stop. 
  • 73D: Sign of a packed house (SRO) — Sold Right Out!*
  • 88D: Sites of conch piercings (EARS) — so ... [Sites of piercings]. You didn't need "conch" there at all. So why is it there? To misdirect me? Toward the ocean? Well, that didn't work, just FYI. ("conch piercing" involves the piercing of the upper ear cartilage)
  • 94D: Cushion upon which a ball rests (INSOLE) — "ball" as in "the ball of your foot."
  • 104D: What's seemingly impossible to find when storing leftovers (LID) — I'm not a particularly well organized person and yet this is not a problem I've ever had. The lids go with the containers ... why are you separating them? 
  • 87D: Calming oil compound, for short (CBD) — short for "cannabidiol," a compound found in marijuana. This is CBD's seventh NYTXW appearance in just two years (debuted in 2022).
  • 73A: Where a ham might be on display (STAGE) — a "ham" is a bad (over-) actor.
  • 118D: Tower in a port (TUG) — this is like the old trick of using "flower" to clue a river. Not "tower" like Tower of Babel or Tower of London, but "tower" as in "thing that tows." A TUG (boat) tows. It's a tower.
I'm headed up to Rochester today to see piano prodigy Yunchan Lim play Bach's "Goldberg Variations," which makes me sound way more "cultured" than I am. But sometimes I do indeed like to leave the Love Boat and experience the broader artistic world. Also, sometimes I just need to get out of town for a day, and the kid can play, apparently, so I'm excited. 


See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*I know, I know ... SRO actually stands for "Seats Ran Out"**
**I know, I know ... 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

Noted name in lithographs / SAT 11-2-24 / Hanes brand once sold in ovoid packaging / P, B, D, T, K and G / English folk singer Billy / Temple Square letters / Galley command / Ward off bad luck, in a Greek tradition / Word on many "No Trespassing" signs / Sub's reference / Media-based learning sites, informally / What always ends well? / Home to England's Jurassic Coast

Saturday, November 2, 2024

Constructor: Blake Slonecker

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: INA May Gaskin (21A: ___ May Gaskin, author of Spiritual Midwifery") —
Ina May Gaskin
 (née Middleton; born March 8, 1940) is an American midwife who has been described as "the mother of authentic midwifery." She helped found the self-sustaining community, The Farm, with her husband Stephen Gaskin in 1971 where she markedly launched her career in midwifery. She is known for the Gaskin Maneuver, has written several books on midwifery and childbirth, and continues to educate society through lectures and conferences and spread her message of natural, old-age inspired, fearless childbirth. According to Carol Lorente (1995), the work of Gaskin and the midwives might not have had the impact it did, if it hadn't been for the publication of her book Spiritual Midwifery (1977): "Considered a seminal work, it presented pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding from a fresh, natural and spiritual perspective, rather than the standard clinical viewpoint. In homebirth and midwifery circles, it made her a household name, and a widely respected teacher and writer."  By the early 1990s, after multiple reprints, Spiritual Midwifery was acknowledged as a "classical text on midwifery" with a "lasting impact". // The Gaskin Maneuver, also called all fours, is a technique to reduce shoulder dystocia, a specific type of obstructed labour which may lead to fetal death. Gaskin introduced it in the U.S. in 1976 after learning it from a Belizean woman who had, in turn, learned the maneuver in Guatemala, where it originated. In this maneuver, the mother supports herself on her hands and knees to resolve shoulder dystocia. Switching to a hands and knees position causes the shape of the pelvis to change, thereby allowing the trapped shoulder to free itself and the baby to be born. Since this maneuver requires a significant movement from the standard lithotomy position, it can be substantially more difficult to perform while under epidural anesthesia, but still possible, and can be performed by an experienced delivery room team. (wikipedia)
• • •

A proper Saturday. In terms of difficulty, just about where I want it to be. In terms of excitement, less so, but I'm OK with Saturday being more about the grind and less about the sizzle. The spanners today just didn't do anything for me. Hard to get excited about CLASSROOM ROSTER—dull and old-fashioned-sounding, somehow (17A: Sub's reference). Over and over, I'd get part of a longer and still have no idea about the rest of it, so the phrases just weren't ... clicking, for me. Got CLASSROOM and ... no idea. Got CLASSICAL and ... no idea. I knew I knew who Andrés Segovia was, but I just couldn't retrieve it in the moment. I had him as a singer (Andrea Bocelli?) or a classical pianist (Alfred Brendel? Claudio Arrau?) at various points before that blessed "ovoid packaging" took me back to the drug stores and grocery stores of the '70s, where I found the L'EGGS (37A: Hanes brand once sold in ovoid packaging), which gave me the "G," which immediately gave me GUITAR (and a "d'oh, of course"). But back to partial answers being no help. I had ROTATE and ... no idea. I had -DETAILS and ... no idea (JUICY? GORY? Gah!). The problem was that once I got the full answers in all these cases, I didn't have that fulfilled "click" or "aha" feeling. Just a shruggy kind of "yeah, I guess that is a thing." The term SLOTTED SPOON clicks. The term SLOTTED SPATULAS ... not really (8D: Kitchen flippers). I mean, we have one of those in our kitchen, so they're real enough, but ... I dunno, there's just something kind of flat—"yes, that exists" as opposed to "wow, nice"—about the marquee stuff today. Still, I liked that I had to fight for it today. I love a Saturday that makes me work.

[Spin right round?]

Even my successes today started out as failures. Here, check out my screenshot from early on, when I finally (and proudly) got traction in that NW corner:


I was excited to get SPIT (well, about as excited as you can be about a disgusting word like "SPIT") (26A: Ward off bad luck, in a Greek tradition), and even more excited to "confirm" it with the colloquially perfect PULL UP (2D: Arrive curbside). So I struggled in the NW a little bit more wondering why PULL UP didn't work. I will say that ROLL UP was an answer I was happy to see, one that didn't end up kind of flat or disappointing once it finally showed. ROLL UP and PULL UP both work great, both right-on-the-money and in-the-language ... but only ROLL UP works with the crosses. But at just a two-letter difference, PULL UP is a rough mistake. But as I say, the mistake *did* help, a bit, with the 4/6 (so ... 2/3) of the letters that were correct. I also botched 30D: Mass apparel, but botched my way into one important and correct letter—I had ROBE, the answer was ALBS, but that "B" came through for me anyway, helping me get the LABS part of AV LABS (35A: Media-based learning sites, informally). I also threw an "S" down at the end of 1D: What passwords unlock, figuring "passwords" might indicate a plural answer. I was wrong, but the "S" there was what got me to see SPIT in the first place. So it was a good day for accidental success.


Aside from the very beginning (often the toughest part of a late-week grid, since you have no answers to play off of yet), there was no part of the grid that stood out as more difficult than the others, though the INABRAGG section over there in the NE felt like a real proper noun challenge. I didn't know INA from Adam, so no hope there. On the other hand, I know Billy BRAGG really, really well (28A: English folk singer Billy). I listened to his music a lot in college and through the '90s, and still own a handful of his CDs to this day. But "folk singer"? If you wanna hide Billy BRAGG from me, yes, call him an "English folk singer." Look, it's not wrong. Not wrong wrong. But for us college radio kids of the 80s/90s, he was more of an indie rock singer-songwriter. More electric, more modern than "folk" suggests, although he could be painfully earnest and he's definitely deeply political (big labor / union supporter, lots of protest songs to his credit). He worked with people like Johnny Marr (The Smiths) and Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs). I see that wikipedia has his "genre" as "punk folk." Anyway, huge "d'oh!" when the "English folk singer" I was struggling to come up with turned out to be someone I've been listening to most of my life.

["But I never made the first team / I just made the first team laugh"]

Nots and explainers:
  • 19A: What always ends well? (ELS) — a "letteral" clue. I saw right through this one, but wrote in "ELL," which is how I've been trained to spell the damned letter. For example, November of last year: [Late start?] = ELL. What is this "EL" nonsense? ELS are trains, ELLS are letters (or building annexes, I guess).
  • 27A: Noted name in lithographs (IVES) — had the "I" and thought "how am I supposed to know this?" Then remembered the printing team of Currier & IVES. Why do I know them? I think maybe they were in a song lyric? "Like a ... something from Currier and IVES?" What am I thinking of? Ha! Yes! "Sleigh Ride!" Tis the season!
["It'll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and IVES"]
  • 29A: Inveigled (COAXED) — totally forgot the meaning of "inveigled." I thought it meant "hid" or "cloaked." Must've been thinking of "veiled" (?!).
  • 36A: Word on many "No Trespassing" signs (POSTED) — I think you have to live somewhere fairly rural to see these. Luckily, I do. Or at least live rural-adjacent. If you walk in the woods around here for any length of time, you'll definitely see "POSTED!" signs eventually. 
  • 42A: The case, so to speak (TRUE) — "that's not the case," "that's not TRUE" ... a tough but fair swap-out.
  • 4D: Temple Square letters (LDS) — "Temple Square is a 10-acre (4.0 ha) complex, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah." (wikipedia)
  • 7D: P, B, D, T, K and G (PLOSIVES) — tough one! I was gonna make PLOSIVES my Word of the Day, but turns out I already did that earlier this year (1/28/24). Basically, it's a linguistics term for the letters that require you to stop airflow and then expel a burst of air when you say them.
  • 13D: Outspoken parenting critic, maybe (TEENAGER) — I liked this clue a lot. It's a bit caricature-y, but any well-raised teenager is gonna push back at their parents' authority at some point, so ... fair.
  • 18D: Subject of the 2021 documentary "Once Upon a Time in Queens" (METS) — Citi Field, where the METS play, like SHEA Stadium before it, is in Flushing, Queens.
  • 28D: Certain Thanksgiving dish (BOAT) — anyone out there trying to serve GOAT for Thanksgiving? Anyone? No, just me? Ah well. (I've never seen "BOAT" without "gravy" in front of it, but for the GOAT mistake alone, I approve this clue)
  • 40D: Home to England's Jurassic Coast (DORSET) — got it off the -SET, having never heard of "England's Jurassic Coast" at all.
  • 46D: Galley command (STET) — tough misdirection on this one. I thought "galley" as in "ship" and "galley" as in "kitchen" before I thought "galley" as in "not-yet-final version of a book or article."
See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

Read more...

  © Free Blogger Templates Columnus by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP