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Law enforcer in the Harry Potter universe / SUN 1-14-24 / Disney villain who's the grand vizier of Agrabah / Emulate Jack Sprat / Old SeaWorld mascot / Albatross, metaphorically
Sunday, January 14, 2024
Constructor: John Kugelman
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- SUPER DUPER (20A: Great ape?) (a "duper" dupes (i.e. "apes" or "imitates") ... people)
- JUNK DRAWER (22A: Erotic artist?) (a "drawer" draws ... genitalia, in this case ("junk"))
- WANDER AROUND TOWN (37A: Street magician?) (a "wander" wands ... wait, what?)
- CHICKEN TENDERS (60A: Farmers?) ("tenders" tend ... livestock)
- FLICKER OF LIGHT (71A: Switch hitter?) (a "flicker" flicks ... a light switch)
- NUMBER OF THE BEAST (95A: Animal tranquilizer?) (a "number" numbs ... pets, in this case)
- AN OFFER YOU / CAN'T REFUSE (113A: With 117-Across, the Grim Reaper?) (an "offer" offs ... people)
The Aurors are an elite group of witches and wizards who battle the Dark Arts. They operate in some ways as soldiers but more often as intelligence agents, seeking out Dark wizards and defeating them, often in fierce wizard duels. Alastor Moody and Frank and Alice Longbottom were famous Aurors, and after leaving Hogwarts Harry Potter and Ron Weasley became Aurors. Aurors are sometimes refered to as Dark Wizard catchers. (The Harry Potter Lexicon)
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***THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU*** Today is the last day of my annual week-long pitch for financial contributions to the blog. This week is always a bit overwhelming for me, as I usually only have a very vague idea of who my audience is, where they live, etc. And then all of a sudden, in a gush, I get a bunch of messages from actual people with actual names from actual places on the map (Portugal!? Portugal!). I'm usually very content to live my life just writing (and teaching) and not otherwise interacting with humans too too much. This is the one week of the year when I feel the most ... visible, and it's not necessarily the most comfortable feeling in the world for me, if I'm being honest, but you all have been So Nice—so generous, so encouraging, that any social anxiety I might've felt has been dwarfed by feelings of gratitude and good fortune. I have said every possible permutation of "Thank you" this week, and it still doesn't feel like enough. I can't tell you what your readership and support means to me. Your cards and letters began arriving this week, and I'm excited to dig into those (I'm expecting many cat cards, cat pictures, and cat stories, and I couldn't be happier about that prospect). For those who contributed via regular mail, my thank-you cards are a bit late coming from the printers, but they should arrive early this week and I'll start mailing them out immediately.
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| [They're coming ...] |
If you were able to contribute this year, that is thrilling to me, but if you weren't able, that's also OK. Money is tight for many and you can only manage what you can manage. This blog is free to anyone who wants it or needs it, whether you are a financial backer or not. I just want you to keep solving and keep reading. Thanks for taking the time to pay attention to any of this. One last time, here are the various ways you can contribute (now, or at any time during the year).
There's PayPal:
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Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
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Binghamton, NY 13905
All this contact information lives full-time in the sidebar of my website, in case you feel inclined to contribute months from now :)
OK. That's it. To all my readers (and my hate-readers)—You're a strange lot of beautiful puzzle-obsessed people and I'm really glad you're here. Mwah! You're the best. Thank you thank you. Now here's your Sunday puzzle!
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Then there was EAT NO FAT, which, come on (88D: Emulate Jack Sprat). That's just a long partial. If you want to clue FAT or NO FAT in relation to Sprat, be my guest, but when you get out to three words there, that's ... well, that's EAT A SANDWICH territory, frankly. Does not stand alone well at all. I guess I should be happy that it's not ATE NO FAT. But I'm not. The theme is already forcing me to deal with language pressed to its breaking point—like imagining that a DUPER is someone who does imitations, or that a WANDER is ... well, anything. A WANDER? Do magicians do a lot of wand...ing?
I admire the boldness of JUNK DRAWER (as clued), and NUMBER OF THE BEAST is kind of cute (and deploys a time-tested trick use of "number," which is sometimes used in crosswords to clue things like ETHER, the way "flower" can be used to clue a river...). So it wasn't all bad. There's an interesting idea here. And you could definitely argue that I should loosen up and just let the wackiness flow, man. You may have a point there. But that is not currently where my head is that. My head is stuck back at how bad "I NAILED IT!" sounds.
One thing this puzzle has in its favor is a remarkable lack of esoterica or even highly unusual words. Everything felt very, very familiar. Before I got the answers, I was a little worried about the ELSIE / MESSI clues. Wasn't sure about either one at first glance, and crossing proper nouns ... always a potential disaster. But even if you don't know ELSIE (and I mostly did, in that that was the name I wanted—just wasn't sure), MESSI is one of the most famous athletes on the planet, so just a few letters from crosses should've been enough to tip solvers there. I don't really get [Straws in the wind] for OMENS. Are those ... a kind of omen? Looks like "straw in the wind" is an idiom meaning "something that suggests what might happen." I've heard of "Candle in the Wind" and "the straw that stirs the drink," but not this one, somehow. I also hadn't heard the Indigo Girls song, "POWER OF TWO," which is slightly weird, in that I have all those first Indigo Girls albums, and saw them in concert twice, once in Edinburgh, once in L.A. (also, relatedly, briefly dated the sister of an Indigo Girl, true story). I must've tuned out a bit in the mid-90s, though, because I missed 1994's Swamp Ophelia entirely (and that's the album "POWER OF TWO" appears on) (14D: Indigo Girls song with the chorus "Adding up the total of a love that's true / Multiply life by the ..."). The song title was easy to figure out from the clue, with the help of crosses, but it's arguably the most "obscure" thing in the grid today. Unless you've never read Harry Potter, in which case AUROR is definitely the most "obscure." Oof, I forgot about IN A PET (13D: Peeved). If you're younger, or a newish solver, *that's* the most "obscure" thing. I can't see any real sticking points in this grid beyond the stuff I've already described, although I will say I imagined that both a CAR and a BAR might be a [Bit of decoration at a beach house] before crosses forced me to alight on OAR.
One last thing about the theme—the clue on that first themer, SUPER DUPER, is a real outlier (20A: Great ape?). All the other clues imagine the -ER answers as jobs. The clues themselves aren't tricksy at all, it's just [Street magician?] [Farmers?] etc. But rather than just say [Master impressionist?] or something like that, we get the simian pun. It's not in keeping with the theme cluing conceit as a whole. Sometimes you gotta know when to lay off the wacky. I mean, in this case, you've Already Got Wacky baked in, why extra-whackify, especially when it breaks the cluing norms that you yourself have established?? OK, that's all. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Come On Now Social is an underrated Indigo Girls album
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109 comments:
I liked the theme answers a lot more than Rex Did. Except the last.
I disliked it for a different reason. All the other clues/answers seemed to match up in parts of speech. The idea in the last one matches, but not the actual words. The grim reaper is not the offer. It is the being making the offer. That bugged me a lot and made me wish he'd just left that one out. I thought Super Duper was cute and worked well.
Particularly liked Wander Around Town, Chicken Tenders and the first one I got: Junk Drawer. ( a bit risqué )
Number of the Beast didn't resonate with me because the phrase doesn't. But I don't think that's a fault.
Having read all the Harry Potter books at least four times I was appalled at how long it took me to remember auror.
Have to go got TimCook to learn why he is a Big Apple Figure
I see I let the beginning capital on"big" fool me into thinking NYC Apparently I'm not familiar with Tim Cook anyway or I would not have needed to Google.
I Naticked on LURCH x SUNK, since I had LARCH x SANK, and I dunno from weird Addams Family names.
But I thought my error was IN A PET, which is stupid, so that didn’t help. :(
Also don’t love the themers, except maybe JUNK DRAWER.
All told, not really for me.
Though it's not really a thing, howzabout "Pro con-man?" as a clue for SUPER DUPER? A con-man dupes people; a super duper is a real pro at it. Plus, you get the clever pro/con juxtaposition.
Ok, ok, maybe I didn't nail it.
I liked this puzzle: it didn't strive to be esoteric, it's not loaded up with conversational snippets, and I think the themers all work nicely — I'm fine with AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE even if it's not the actual film line.
When things get Messi, it helps to have a Maid.
@SharonAK: No, the Grim Reaper isn’t making an offer. He *is * the off-er: one who “offs” someone
A truly dreadful puzzle, not because of the theme which was a bit problematic as Rex has astutely noted, but because of the naticks. I got lucky on on the first, ELSIE/MESSI, which could have easily been ELlIE/MElSIE for all I knew. Not so lucky on tbe second, JAFAR/DEF, where I chose, JAbAR/DEb... I mean, it's just pick your consonant here... Bit I struck out in the WANDERABOUTTOWN/INAPET dynamic duo. This is the all-time worst natick I have ever seen! I chose WANDERABOUTgOWN/INAPEg, thinking that, well, magicians dress in gowns, and maybe a wander-about gown is a thing, and "in a peg" seemed plausible at least. Imagine my shock to learn that "in a pet" is apparently a thing. Who knew? I Have never heard or read that phrase anywhere. Who talks like that? I t doesn't even make sense! This is conclusive proof that the New York Times needs a new puzzle editor!
Medium. Costly erasures - ENtire before ENBLOC, aetna before GEICO, yeR before FAR, AUROa before AUROR (which was a WOE)…
Fun Sunday with a bit of crunch and an amusing theme, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did.
Medium here, but I didn't have a lot of overwrites or WOEs (except for AUROR -- I never read Harry Potter). That may be because I was solving while the Dolphins-Texans game was still competitive. I agree with @Rex. Maybe a better clue for 37A would have been "TSA agent on a night off?"
Medium for me. Have never heard INAPET; feels much more obscure to me than DANDER from a couple of days ago. Had IkilLEDIT (which I do think people actually say) for a long time and was stuck in the NW.
Thought the theme was cute and clever all the way through, especially the DUPER and OFFER clues. And I learned something very interesting about Anthony Hopkins … he was so terrifyingly good and memorable in Silence of the Lambs and I never would’ve realized his had so little screen time.
“Great ape” for “Superduper” is probably the worst crossword clue of all time. NEVER have I ever seen “dupe” used as a synonym for “imitate.” The rest of the puzzle was not my cup of tea either. Really weird linguistic permutations.
Seems I'm the first one to comment who really liked the theme. Chuckles for all except SUPER DUPER, which was the very last answer to fall for me (struggled in NW corner) and laugh out loud for AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE. Some of the best punny wackiness I've seen in a Sunday in a very long time. The slight stretches of languages that bother wrecks are irrelevant to me when I'm giving it such pleasure by a puzzle.
Theme is innocent enough - but just doesn’t support the entire Sunday sized grid. JUNK DRAWER is a little cheeky for the Times - liked WANDER and TENDER.
The Triffids
Little side eye to the non-themed POWER OF TWO - not sure hot you get away with a long sporting the ER. Overall fill was pretty poor - starting with another plural at 1a and including EWS, ICK, MOPIEST etc. Disney and Apple references today.
As with recent Sundays - I think the theme would have worked better in a smaller scale - by the end I was disinterested.
Why can’t I get just one F-BOMB
For 50A, "Bad thing to drop in polite company," really wanted TROU but it wouldn't fit.
I agree withJoel — the Grim Reaper is the off-er (one who offs).
Also, like Rory I had never heard of “dupe” to mean “imitate”, only to deceive. But apparently it can also mean “duplicate” (looked it up just now). Huh.
Two of these theme answers were simply brilliant, IMO.
Oh, I’ve seen similar plays on DRAWER, WANDER, TENDER, NUMBER and OFFER before in clues, so those theme answers drew smiles and were great fun to guess at, but no jaw drop.
However, I’ve never seen such plays on DUPER or FLICKER, and they each drew a mighty “Hah!” for that reason alone. But what made them especially brilliant was the additional wordplay in their clues. [Great ape?] – A standalone phrase with each word paralleling the words in another standalone phrase SUPER DUPER. Wow!
And [Switch hitter?], another standalone phrase with the splendid play on “switch”, for FLICKER OF LIGHT – wow again!
John, to have two brilliant jaw-droppers in one puzzle is spectacular and memorable. Trust me, “Kugelman” has entered my look-for list. More, please, and thank you for this!
He’s the offer in that he offs (kills) people.
@Conrad 5:18 AM I did it while watching the Dolphins-Chiefs game. The Dolphins must have been tired playing twice!
I kid. :-)
Came for the commentary, stayed for Sinatra and Basie. Love your musical choices, Rex!
Do NOT “loosen up and let the wackiness flow,” Rex. Wouldn’t recognize you if you did.
I could've done without JUNK DRAWER, personally. Female here.
“Dupe” is often used for “duplicate.” It’s used in such a way in lots of different arenas, like photography, data work, etc.
I'm here to say you can fill in the whole puzzle correctly and never be aware of the ER gimmick, because the themers are common enough phrases, and yes, I really did do that. The only totally unknown was AUROR and the crosses took care of that. It still looks like a misspelling of "author" to me. To prove my case, even when I changed SOMEONEYOU to ANOFFERYOU, I still missed the OFFER connection. Duh.
Anyway I still had a good time solving this one, JK. Just Killed me to miss the trick, but thanks for all the fun.
In better news I did complete yesterday's Stumper after a tough battle, so I feel a little smarter at least.
I got a kick out of all the themes. John, you are so clever! Junk Drawer was fantastic!
I understand Rex's annoyance with "I nailed it," but people do say that -- unlike "in a pet," which Rex shrugs off as routine crosswordese. But somehow it knocked Rex into a hyperliteral mode in which it seemed sensible to gripe that one the theme puns resembles yet isn't a movie quotation. Pshaw. "An offer you can't refuse" is legit clever. I neither love nor hate the clue for "super duper" as much as some commenters above; for me it's the weakest part of the theme, but Lewis makes a fair point. Overall, I really enjoyed this.
I liked this puzzle - I thought it was clean and clever and fun - but i paused on PETER (Pan handle?). I get it, but to me it felt too close to a themer, what with the ER and the question clue. Why not just clue it straightforwardly to avoid mucking up the works?
Medium for me. The fill was difficult enough at times that the themes helped.
ENBANC/ ENBLOC write over.
NOBET: Where the Brahmaputra doesn't flow.
yd -0, @okanaganer, good luck with that 8 pointer even the Scrabble Dictionary doesn't include it but interestingly it's on the menu board at Chipotle
It's funny, I was *just* watching The Godfather for the umpteenth time last night. And it still took me some time and head-scratching to figure out ANOFFERYOU/CANTREFUSE. The ER-thing did feel forced at times. I had to read Rex's analysis to understand DUPER. Overall, the theme was OK.
Lack of esoterica? Gotta disagree on that one. Had REEDS before OMENS for "Straws in the wind." Indigo Girls song... not esoterica? AUROR?? INAPET??? (INASNIT wouldn't fit...) I know Zeno's Paradox, but he's from... ELEA??? Author Gaiman, actress Fisher - all esoterica to me. I don't mind this - it's all part of puzzle-solving - but lack of esoterica, this is not.
And also funny (or not): The Times Magazine just ran a story recently on how police BODYCAMs are *not* the accountability tools they were meant to be.
But all in all, I s'pose any puzzle that includes George TAKEI has got to be OK!
Joe D’s “Pro con-man” is WAAYY better of a clue. A bit of DUPER’s Delight there!
This puzzle took me 33:33 (hey, isn’t that half the NUMBEROFTHEBEAST? sorta?), 6 minutes longer than norm. Hated it for first 20 minutesand the Potter and other obscure (to me) references.
Went down an idiotic rebus RTE, thinking the FCLEF was bassCLEF (forgot that Bass was in the clue) leading to BassLICKER. Big ASSLICKER? well, they had JUNK and love to use ASS so why not?
But as it came together and I was disabused of rebus and assLICKER logic, began to appreciate the cleverness of it all. Appreciated it more after solving when I figured out the why the seemingly nonsensical themers made sense when taken in different contexts.
Overall a challenging and mostly fun xword. Do hope to see ASSLICKER (or LIQUOR - maybe clued “Donkey Hootch?”) in a future puzzle…
Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple
I thought this was one of the more enjoyable Sundays in a while, and the wackiness was just out there enough to make you squint, then smile on realization.
I thought the clues were good, and like Joe's and Conrad's suggestions also. RP suggestion for theme clue format good, but lacks the punch of "great ape"
I love this blog because I got Tim Cook without understanding it at the time, but moving on. As soon as I saw that it was being mentioned, it dawned on me. Not thrilled about another 2 Apple, inc. clue day, but you can't deny their penetration.
My one head slap mistake was iNBLOC, nothing suggesting a foreign-ism, leading to MiSSI. Why would I accept some unknown Missi as Athlete-Of-The-Year when Messi is right there one vowel away??!!??
LOTS of fun in the fill today: PIPEIN elevator music, picturing VORTEXES, ROBOCALLS, Let me be perfectly QUEER as slogan, a 16 minute BESTACTOR Oscar, letter C as an EAR, RATFINK, remembering how to spell PEREMPTORY, PINOTNOIR, the term "quadcopter", the onomatopoeia synonyms MEEK and Demure, etc.
You probably were not a “radio listener” because “Power of Two” was one of the Indigo Girl’s big hits! I know it and I have none of their albums and have never seen them in concert. You are probably more attuned (see what I did there) to the deep cuts. Anyway, the puzzle had “spots” that were harder but mostly very easy. I thought Offer you can’t refuse was kinda cute actually. Because, you can’t! So that’s fun. Also recently read The Book Thief for the very first time and it’s narrated by Death so glad to see them? He? Her? in a puzzle. anyway, I totally agree though about I NAILED IT. No. Just no.
My brother and I were made to attend years of ballroom dance classes, and the male supervisor was a guy we called LURCH. So that's who I think of when I see the name.
I dunno, if you choose “Wander around gown” as a phrase over “wander around town” when the clue mentions streets, I don’t think all of the blame goes to the puzzle editor.
Can’t believe I’m the first one to ask about the “dating the sister of an Indigo Girl” story. Rex, do tell!
Ugh, I had a hard time staying awake through this one - parsed together enough clues to get SUPER DUPER, then tried to retroactively make sense of the whole clue, which is pretty much backasswards of the normal CrossWorld process.
Then there is so much junk like JAFAR, AYER, IN A PET, AUROR, ELEA. . . . . Indigo Girls, “Eighth Grade” ELSIE, and even the Jetsons nudge us further into “cure for insomnia” territory.
On a more positive note, a bit of a shout out to the commenter here who advised me years ago to learn the various European words for King and Queen, as they will be appearing at a theatre near you, so I at least knew the French chess piece.
The past tense of “sink” (44A) is sank. The past participle is sunk. Therefore, the clue should’ve read “HAS made, as a putt”.
The puzzle had a super start with the top clues/answers, then gradually lost its way. The theme was a distraction more than an asset
Liked the Big Apple clue, sure to mislead NYT readers!
Hey All !
I thought the reparsings were quite funny, and punny! JUNK DRAWER got the biggest chuckle here (is my inner 12 year old showing?)
Took a second for the OFFER to sink in. Har, Grim Reaper being something that OFFS. Actually, isn't the Reaper just a collector? It doesn't do the OFFing, does it?
Almost had a misstep at cLICKER OF LIGHT. Luckily read back through the Themers, and realized that a FLICKER was better than a cLICKER. (And added an F!) Whew! My Streak is alive still at 29 Days! If I can get through the Weekend puzs intact, that's a big win for me!
Full disclosure (but still taking puz as a correct solve 😁), got down to AURO_/_ETE_, and just plumb didn't know the Harry Potter Enforcer, and couldn't grasp that PETER was what was wanted there. Googed for AUROR, finally saw PETER, which let me finish ELEA/PEREMPTORY with the crossing E, as that was flummoxing me too.
Neat puz. No BULL. Har.
Nine F's (That's an FBOMB 😁)
RooMonster
DarrinV
EAT NO FAT seems different from EAT A SANDWICH because it's part of the rhyme.
I have never seen Jafar in the actual films, but I knew the name from the parodies Aladdin IV: Jafar May Need Glasses and Aladdin V: Jafar Answers the Census.
Fun Sunday puzzle - a rarity
Sure, but is it ever used to describe imitating a person's behavior? That's what "ape" is used to mean in this clue and it's definitely not a use case for DUPE.
I slogged my way reluctantly through all the "no, I do NOT want to know this and, guess what, I don't!" pop names in order to get to the good stuff: the themer puns. Only they weren't all that good. Some were forced and a bit off-kilter, like SUPER DUPER and WANDER AROUND TOWN. Some were yawn-inducing, like CHICKEN TENDERS. I perked up a bit for NUMBER OF THE BEAST -- the only one that was on target enough for me to guess it just from the NU. And I did think that JUNK DRAWER was an amusing double entendre.
But the marquee themer for me was AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE, which was actually quite funny. Or at least it was the only one that made me chuckle out loud.
But was it worth the usual lineup of Disney and Marvel (I think) and Star Wars and Harry Potter and the Addams Family and the rapper? Not to me it wasn't. It never is. And certainly not on a long and sloggy Sunday.
I am using wander-around as an adjective for the gown (so on the streets) and "gown" as a stand-in or nickname for a magician, in the same sense that we call an executive a "suit"... AFAIAC, calling a magician a "gown" makes at least as much sense, especially grammmatically, as calling him a "wander"... Who's ever heard of a wander?
Thx John, ER, still looking for some OTHER WORDS! 😊
Downs-o approx 90% complete, with two hitches in the Carolinas, and three other sp issues.
Assuming HAZES / SALZA is correct, can't suss out the 'Insurance giant' (G_L__) nor the 'Lock' (T_A__). Want 'tress', but that doesn't play nice with the potential crosses.
For the 'Disney villain', have JA_AR, and for the 'court decision', LERAMBTORY, with iffy crosses, e.g., PILE IN, ELEA, AVA & BETEL. The 'L' in BETEL is also iffy, as I don't know the 'Harry Potter enforcer', which I have as AUROL.
As an ironic aside: I'm into the penultimate Harry Potter movie, so should know the 'enforcer'… 🤔
Anyhoo, very much enjoying the battle! 🤞
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As for the Fri downs-o, 7 hrs in, and still perplexed in the NE and central East coast.
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On to Balton & Stewart's NYT acrostic.
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I think “made” here is in the sense of a past participle (if I’m remembering correctly what Mrs. Brown taught me in 7th grade), as in a mafioso being a “made guy”.
"As an ironic aside: I'm into the penultimate Harry Potter movie, so should know the 'enforcer'" -- @bocamp, 10:46
There's a "penultimate" Harry Potter movie? Meaning there's also an "ultimate" Harry Potter movie? Meaning we're finally, finally finished with all this wizardy nonsense? YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Er, Yes! Smiled at SUPERDUPER, laughed out loud at JUNKDRAWER, marveled at FLICKEROFLIGHT (the clue was spectacular) - and still can’t get my jaw off the floor after ANOFFERYOUCANTREFUSE. Thanks to the constructor for a memorable Sunday puzzle.
Haha
I liked this puzzle. The theme answers made everything worthwhile. Not that I had problems with the fill, but the themers were the star today.
SUPER DUPER, and FLICKER OF LIGHT were fine but JUNK DRAWER, NUMBER OF THE BEAST and AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE were truly great and WANDER AROUND TOWN and CHICKEN TENDERS weren't bad either.
Write-overs ibeam before REBAR and prim before MEEK. I'll never remember JAFAR and QUASI was tough to get until EDNA got me to QUEER.
John Kugelman, thanks for the Sunday entertainment.
I'm here to do the same!!
Couldn’t agree more. Seems like a lot of us have forgotten that the purpose of crossword puzzles is to relax and have fun. Rex seems to have changed us into a bunch of complainers.
Is is vortexes or vortices?
Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so between them both, you see
They licked the platter clean
Natick at ELROY & AYER. Could have been ELRON and ANER or ELROD and ADER. If you don't speak Spanish and are too young for the Jetsons not sure this was inferable
Thx, again, John; what a blast! 😊
Yippee! Got it! (downs-o; 4 hrs).
Took a break to do some chores, while listening to NPR's 'CONSIDER → THIS' podcast:
"Andrew Limbong talks to Catherine Price. She is author of "The Power of Fun" and writes the Substack newsletter, "How to Feel Alive.""
As I was listening, I reflected on how much fun I get out of doing xwords, esp the NYT in downs-o mode. Td was esp fun, as I nailed my first Sun. downs-only. 🌟
Two major keys to success: 1) looking more carefully at the clue for 'Jack Sprat' I noticed I'd put in 'ate' instead of EAT (got to pay more attn to tenses)! That cured all my other probs in that area; 2) taking a closer look at that silly 'b' for the 'court decision', I could see that a 'P' would fit very nicely, which, again lead to repairing all the faulty crosses.
I was left with two guesses (somewhat intuitive, if not educated): 1) 'F' for JAFAR, and 2) 'R' for AUROR. Rationale: the 'F' made the cross DEF, which I thot had more potential than other options. 2) AUROR seemed to have more authority/punch than AUROS. Also, thot of AURORa and AroaR.
Now to look at all the crosses, get a better understanding of the 'ER' theme, and sit back and enjoy @Rex's write-up and all the blog comments.
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Back to the Fri downs-o. 🤞
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
It’s so cold outside we are forced to do the Sunday puzzle. Luckily it’s pretty decent with delightful clues that require more than the usual fill in the blanks slog. Enjoyed it far more than Rex, but that seldom surprises. Only two hangups today when PEREMPTORY just was lost in the 0 degree HAZES. And then AN angel YOU CANT REFUSE created havoc in that corner…..if an ape is a DUPER, then surely a reaper should get angelized it seems. That’s my judgment and by damn it’s PEREMPTORY!
Thanks for sharing your well engineered pangram John; it brought a FLICKER OF LIGHT into this dark day.
I liked this a lot. Whenever I wanted to take a break from it (which wasn't often) I just kept thinking "wait, you can get into this guys head." And when I did, it turned out to be a very enjoyable Sunday (not too hard, not too easy - well, Sundays can always be too easy, for me anyway).
Thank you, John!
Joel 2:46 Thanks. I see it now. .
I thought Rex's rant about it not being the film line was ridiculous. As he admitted the line "an offer you can't refuse" is much in the language. Much more so, I'd say, than the film line from decades ago.
@Andrew I disagree. Think Great Ape is much the better clue. If for no other reason than it sounds better.
1. Rolaids salesman?
2. Shellfish cracker?
3. Tedious blog commenter?
What do you call a skinny banker with a security interest in the property of an extraterrestrial? A LEAN ALIEN LIEN holder.
Gomez: Who was Time's 2023 Athlete of the Year?
Morticia: I don't know. Let me check with the others. Let's see, LURCH had Ohtani but changed his mind because Thing's got MESSI.
Wordplay and puns. What's not to like? Excellent puzzle. Thanks, John Kugelman.
1. RELIEF PITCHER
2. LOBSTER BUTTER
3. FOUR POSTER
And, after reading your comments, a VERY BIG THANK YOU to you, Rex, for providing us with your expertise and this blog (not to mention, getting up at 3:45 am to do so) :)
Fun Sunday, with an amusing theme. Worst hangup for me was refusing to give up 'check' for NOBET. So that middle section was last to fall. And then no chime for the LaRCH/SaNK problem. But the themers made it all worth it, IMHO.
Gotta agree.
But for me, what's truly obscure is Disney movies; most especially those based on stories I've known since childhood since none of the characters common in xword puzzles are even present in the stories (or, as in the case of Snow White, just aren't named).
Back in the 60s my mother didn't allow Disney in the house (interestingly, not because of his supposed anti-Semitism, but because she hated the way he portrayed women) so I "missed out" on all this stuff.
Can't say I'm sad about that, except when I do xword puzzles.
Since in all the other themers a noun becomes a verb when the -ER is dropped---DRAWER to DRAW, FLICKER to FLICK for example---I couldn't figure out how the -ER gimmick would apply to 20A SUPER DUPER. What's a SUP DUP? And for DUPER to make (tenuous) sense in this context, only the -R gets dropped. Bit of an thematic outlier there, no?
I had LARCH crossing SANK because, as @anon 9:38 points out, SANK is the grammatically correct answer to 44A "Made, as a putt" and since I've never watched the show, LARCH sounded reasonable for 35D "Butler on 'The Addams Family'".
I thought the plural of 1A VORTEX would be VORTICES but I see that Merriam-Webster lists the plural as "VORTICES, also VORTEXES". Speaking of POCs, CURRICULA is one of the rare plurals of convenience that shrink rather than boost letter count.
Shhhhh. Let people think what they think. ❤️
I have decades of attending church and Sunday School, and I was never taught that there were 12 DISCIPLEs. The group of 12 followers of Jesus were his apostles; the term DISCIPLE refers to any of his followers (even those following him today). In other words, the number of DISCIPLEs is significantly more than 12, according to the Bible. Acts 11:26 says this: The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. (I did some research and see that some use the word DISCIPLE to refer to Jesus' 12 apostles, but I still don't like the clue, because it says "biblically"--and biblically, the word DISCIPLE is used in the broader sense to refer to any of Jesus followers, not just the 12 apostles.)
"'Though some make slight of libels,' Selden protests, 'yet you may see by them how the wind sits. As take a straw, and throw it up into the air; you shall see by that which way the wind is, which you shall not do by casting up a stone.'" ("Table talk: Being the Discourses of John Selden", J. m. Dent and Company, London, 1689, p. 76)
Agree with Joe DiPinto. Loved the puzzle and laughed at the themes once I figured them out. This is the first Sunday in ages that I've really cared to finish (the absence of irritating trivia did not hurt at all). I know a lot of people love to pick nits, but not this solver. I will go with the overall impression every time. This was just a Sunday delight.
Ouch, a big fail for me here. Got two answers wrong: NEAL instead of NEIL Gaiman (I was thinking of Neal Stephenson!), and PRE-EMPTORY instead of PEREMPTORY because I would swear it's pronounced that way. Because of "preemptive", right? Oh well, learned something today.
[Spelling Bee: yd currently -1. I'm on a streak of 3... three -1s, that is! @ puzzlehoarder, the word I missed on Fri, as soon as I clicked Show Answers, I recognized it right away as one I have missed several times before.]
Although it is picking a nit, the proper answer for the clue "great ape" (i.e. copy) should be SUPERDUPE without the final R, the grammatically parallel (and hence more clever?) clue would be "great aper". I found the theme a bit irritating until I got to FLICKEROFLIGHT, then coasted home. Enjoyable, but hopefully NOT a candidate for best Sunday of the year, going forward (as if there is any other direction available to us?)
Themers were excellent. No nitpicking allowed. They helped me fill in some of the crosses. But the jetsons, Apple Inc, Harry Potter, etc references can get out of hand. The audiences for these puzzles is so diverse, however, that you’ve got to cut the constructors and editors some slack I guess.
I was UNinterested halfway through. Certainly not DIS.
Vortexes or Vortices? Who cares? I’m with @teedm and @ellen— it was a fun puzzle to solve, took me rather a long
time to figure out the theme. But I sunk my teeth into the big Apple, and, Rex, I finally did nail it!! Thank you,
Mr. Kugelman of Virginia!
Not that it matters, but what I meant to say in my post is "Sundays can never be TOO easy for me, anyway" Don't want to come off as a braggart which I am certainly not!
That's all - see you tomorrow.
Sorry I did not get this in a single post. Re the question about "magician" and WANDERAROUNDTOWN -- magician wields a magic wand!
I think “vortices” is the plural of vortex. I kept holding back on entering it because it felt so wrong.
Yes of course but you wouldn’t call a magician a “wander”
Enjoyed the funny themers … always a good bet, for a SunPuz mega-solvequest.
Also liked:
* PETER & ALIEN clues. Downright clever.
* ERRS. Too bad it didn't get to participate more in the puztheme. Cuz, to ER is human.
* OMENS crossin OMANI.
* FLCLEF & FBOMB mini-theme.
* Siamese twin Jaws of Themelessnesses.
staff weeject pick: PER. In consideration of the puztheme … {Urinal user, for short?}
honrable mentions to EWS & ICK, then.
no-knows weren't too overwhelmin, at our house. Mostly just: AUROR [debut word]. TBH. AYER. JAFAR.
Thanx for the SunFun, Mr. Kugelman! Good job.
Masked & Anonymo11Us
**gruntz**
Agree with person who said disciple does not refer to the twelve followers of Jesus. They were apostles. I feel an apology is required from NYT.
Anonymous 1:58. - the misuse of UNinterested vs DISinterested has been a pedantic pet peeve of mine - now it appears either term can be used correctly for NOT. (I still think DIS means impartial, but guess I will yield to Merriam-Webster’s disinterested final word).
DIS v. UN
Guess I’ll have to let my hackles get raised in the great Vortexes/Vortices debate instead…
DNF. Because of two squares. Had pEAK instead of LEAK for 65A and CPEmR (As in Cardio Pulmunary Emergency) instead of CLEAR for 61D which left ELEm instead of ELEA for 78A. All of which were plausible, but wrong. You win Mr.Kugelman! I hope you’re happy now…
Pluralizing by turning a loan word fron Latin back into its origin is common, but often pretentious. We see it a lot in crosswords when constructers need to end a word with 'i'. In this case, we see the opposite. Perfectly correct.
I slogged through this boringish puzzle on and off, mostly off, for several hours. Now I'm trying to fit ER into a humorous comment; but, er, I can't come up with one.
I’m getting up in years and never have I ever heard the phrase “in a pet.” I’m still peeved about that. Even so, an enjoyable puzzle. There were a few names I didn’t know, so I struggled for a while, finally googled the names, and then it fell together. “An offer you can’t refuse” made me grim-ace.
SharonAK at 12:32 AM
Rex said OFFER might refer to one who offs.
That would work.
If you like that sort of word play.
@andrew 3:44p - I’m down with you on the nuance between un and dis. When I start a puzzle I am never uninterested - the process can end up in disinterest - but there is an associated neutrality with that - I’m not predetermining or taking sides.
Ken Freeland 3:03 AM 10:40 AM
I agree with Anonymous.
It does say street and wander around town is a phrase that is heard from time to time. Your phrase could only be a one of a kind thing. None of the others are.
Town is much more likely.
In a pet is not rare in the Times puzzle. I have never used it or heard it said but probably have seen it written somewhere else.
For long time puzzlers at least it is crosswordese. It will come up again.
Messi has appeared quite often in the Times puzzle. He is a hugely famous athlete. I pay almost no attention to soccer but I have heard of him.
Not knowing someone does not make the answer a natick Messi is most definitely not obscure. (There is a lot of stuff I don’t know here but I find out that it’s not obscure like yesterday’s download abbreviations , which I dnf’d on,)
The original natick referred to N. C. Wyeth and the Mass. town of Natick. A random initial of the FATHER of a painter and a small town on the path of the Boston Marathon. Now that’s obscure.
Yesterday we had BABYMOON
Never ever heard of it myself. Today
I asked my nieces and nephew and their spouses (six 30 something’s Everyone knew the term)
Cart 10:28.
Dupe
Rex thought it was a bit of a stretch but crosswords do this type of thing all the time. It’s irrelevant that people don’t use dupe that way. It’s a pun. Maybe a dad joke. Crosswords clues are not definitions, especially when part of a gimmick. Nothing unusual about this one.
Puzzlehoarder 8:51
Very funny
Land of Nobet.
I liked the puzzle. Usual do when I get everything right.
I noticed a discussion arose about disinterested and uninterested
I do remember being taught the difference. For a long time it irked me to see disinterested used to mean uninterested, in the Times and every else. But I am now trying to get over that, because it is like holding back the tide.
It is now acceptable usage. Sad because the distinction was useful. But unavoidable.
Thank you!! And 12..... Disciples?
Made me uncomfortable as well.
That was me—thanks!
I loved starting with Elroy and Astro in NW but it was downhill for me from there.
An all time fave — and perfectly describes me and the husband.
Love the blog and community, but can there be anything more obnoxious than solvers posting their times?
A safecracker doesn’t jack (steal) a safe, they crack (open) a SAFE.
@Nancy, the final movie was made in 2011.
sorry, but a Pass in a casino is a successful turn in the game of craps.
I am glad I had a last look for additional comments re the numerous nits to pick in this nevertheless enjoyable puzzle -- I agree with Anonymous 3:17 PM. A better clue for SAFE is "what a crackerjack jacker cracks". And a thumbs-down to NYT editors for passing on (hopefully not creating!) this and several other details discussed.
Still, a puzzle which inspired some fun, and mostly accurate, chat. in addition to the solve.
I am now about to make up my own mind re the DIS vs. UN unpute. Er, dispute!
I am glad I had a last look for additional comments re the numerous nits to pick in this nevertheless enjoyable puzzle -- I agree with Anonymous 3:17 PM. A better clue for SAFE is "what a crackerjack jacker cracks". And a thumbs-down to NYT editors for passing on (hopefully not creating!) this and several other details discussed.
Still, a puzzle which inspired some fun, and mostly accurate, chat. in addition to the solve.
I am now about to make up my own mind re the DIS vs. UN unpute. Er, dispute!
Was stuck with clicker of light for a long time. Not musical, so thought C clef was possible. Flicker of light is definitely more clever since it’s a common phrase.
Yes! Did not care for this one at all. Two weeks in a row. Bah!
Surprised at Rex (and some of the comments). I thought this was a clever theme, and the puzzle was entertaining and well clued. Probably better than all but two Sunday puzzles from all of 2023.
THE POWEROF LUV (KNOW NO-NO)
ELSIE would DRIVE OAR WANDERAROUNDTOWN
and A NUMBEROF DISCIPLEs accuse
THE MAID OF laying her TENDER BODY down
with ANOFFER OAR TWO YOU CAN'T REFUSE.
--- ROBIN PETER COOK
Some fun Sunday wordplay, and not a lot of JUNK fill. On ANOFFERYOUCANTREFUSE, It'd be more fun to play on RE- as well as -ER: "A broken electric chair?" BTW, complaining about YOU vs. "he" is nitpicking at the subatomic level.
CARDIB for DOD. Birdie.
Wordle par.
After the last two days this was a breath of fresh air. Didn't even need to ER or ERR. And my first three answers were all rappers! What will happen next to me in puzworld?
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
My paper publishes the syndicated puzzles on a schedule that doesn't always match Rex's Syndicated link. After being burned a few times that way by spoilers, I learned to find the puzzle of the day by googling Rex Crossword coupled with one or two of the distinctive answers. This usually gives the correct puzzle on this blog as the first hit.
But today I found one of those boring ad-infested websites that is probably put together by an AI, without human intervention. The interesting part is that the purported author was Rex Parker'son. Maybe this is old news, but Rex, you're famous enough that a link farm is impersonating you.
"nitpicking at the subatomic level" - rofl, love it, spacecraft.
I had _U_KDRAWER for a while, with wide-eyed wonderment that there might be two FBOMBS in the puzzle.
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