Red-cheeked Pokémon character / MON 1-15-24 / Not at all "whelmed" / Old name for Tokyo / Bailed-out insurance co. of 2008 / Cover for Claudius / Pain relief brand with an oxymoronic name
Constructor: Peter A. Collins
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME:BOUND TO HAPPEN (54A: Inevitable ... or a hint for 19-, 27- and 48-Across) — first words of theme answers are all words that mean "bound" (v.):
After the Meiji Restoration in 1868 the Meiji government renamed Edo as Tokyo (東京, "Eastern Capital") and relocated the Emperor from the historic capital of Kyoto to the city. The era of Tokugawa rule in Japan from 1603 to 1868 is known as the Edo period. (wikipedia)
• • •
This puzzle is pretty bad. I think about all the established and aspiring constructors out there having their work rejected by the NYTXW on a regular basis, sitting down to solve *this* puzzle and thinking ... "how?" I know I am critical of puzzles on a regular basis, but I actually end up on the positive side most of the time (this year I'm keeping track!). It's actually pretty rare that I think a puzzle is absolutely, irredeemably broken, but this is one of those times. It's Monday, and Mondays are always easy, so it seems possible, if not probable, that the specific badness of the puzzle isn't going to register with solvers the way it does (or can) when badness is coupled with difficulty and successful completion of the puzzle is thwarted. But please, follow along with me here as I explain how, in terms of theme (somewhat) and fill (very much), this puzzle should not have made the grade. To start with, even if it were executed perfectly, the theme feels stale. These are phrases where the first words are all JUMP or synonyms thereof. I suppose they are all ... metaphorical jumps? So maybe that gives them some special elevated status, beyond just being synonyms. Sure, let's extend that benefit of the doubt. OK. Still, not exactly exciting. Worse, though, is that you establish a pattern—something that might, actually, take the theme slightly above the humdrum—and then you absolutely dash it? In your final themer? I'm talking about the grammatical and rhythmic pattern established by the prepositional phrases in the middle of each answer: HOP ON THE ... JUMP IN THE ... LEAP AT THE ... I mean, look at that? You've got a sound pattern, a grammatical pattern, you've changed the preposition each time ... it's not bad. Again, this theme is never gonna be stellar, but after three themers, you've kind of got ... something. But then you wrap it all up with BOUND ... TO HAPPEN!? I know it's the revealer, so maybe it gets to be a different *kind* of answer from the others, but still, all I could think was: Where's that sweet [preposition + THE] action? It was the one little bit of extra that the theme had, its sole real possession, and it goes and squanders it in the final answer. At the climactic moment. Hard, hard oof. And "... TO HAPPEN" ... does that even really express anything specific about the themers (besides the fact that they are verb phrases and thus things ... that happen)? Puzzle would've been better off with just three themers. Or you could've run it around the time Daylight Saving Time starts, and had SPRING FORWARD (13) be the revealer ... because the word meaning "spring" ... is at the "forward" (or front) part of each answer. . . nah, you're right, just keep it to three themers, that's better.
But worse, much worse than this (i.e. the theme execution) is the fill. I need you all to appreciate both how subpar the fill is, and also how completely unnecessary the subparness was. I need you to know that the *reason* the fill is bad is *because* the puzzle chose to be a pangram. That is, it decided to do this dumb feat (include every letter of the alphabet), one that most people don't care about and aren't going to notice, and *because* of that *intentional* move to "achieve" the pangram, we are all "treated" to, let's see: ASAMI SIL (crossing!), ONA UNAWED (?) (crossing!), NUIT OUI (crossing!) HOC QUO (srsly, two Latin partials? Two?!), THO AIG ANNI (more Latin!) ERE EDO ESP CHIA, and then ... not only olden "F-TROOP" but miserably "F"-less TGI to boot. Someone is going to have to explain to me how a pangram is a virtue, how it's at all "worth it," if the resulting grid is this full of gunk. STUNTWOMAN (10D: Daring body double, like Debbie Evans in "The Fast and the Furious") and MALIAOBAMA (29D: White House daughter of 2009-17) are fine, no fouls there, but the rest of the grid ... is a mess. And it's all so unnecessary. You can't (shouldn't) treat the non-marquee (i.e. shorter) answers as just so much filler, an unimportant afterthought, a place to play your largely private pangram games. Your first and only duty is to make the whole grid as smooth and/or sparkly as it can be. Bookmark this puzzle, and then, the next time I talk about a beautifully polished grid (as I have, at least a couple times this year already), please refer back to this one and compare. I mean, just look at *last* Monday's grid. Much better ... even with more theme answers. Clean short fill *and* lovely banks of non-thematic 7-letter answers! Nice grids! They're possible! But you have to care about polish. Not pangrams.
As far as Downs-only solving went today, there were no problems. In case you're wondering "how do you even do that?," here's an example of how even getting a few Downs can lead you to infer longer answers (which then in turn helps you get the Downs you couldn't get before you had any crosses):
Slightly confused about SOIR v. NUIT, but "HOPOS..." looked much worse than "HOPON..." so I went with the latter. Then I only needed a few crosses, as you can see, to figure out what was being hopped on. My brain wanted BUS, but there was too much room. There are no functioning passenger trains where I live (anymore), whereas I take the bus to school every workday. None of this matters, just letting you know how my brain works and why, to the best of my ability. Anyway, Downs-only is a very doable mode of solving—you don't have to get all Downs at first pass. You just. have to get enough to begin to infer some of the crosses, and then let those Acrosses help you get the Downs, and so on, and so on. Today, only PIKACHU gave me any trouble (8D: Red-cheeked Pokémon character), and that's only because I saw -NTER in the cross and decided it had to be ENTER. It did not. It was, in fact, INTER. Once I flipped the "E" to an "I," I remember PIKACHU existed, and that was that. Nothing else in the grid caused a lick of trouble. Except UNAWED. I had UN-[no idea] for a bit. But then TWISTS had to be TWISTS, and there was the "W," and whammo, UNAWED for the "W" (i.e. win). As I'm reliving my solve via narration, I'm realizing how much entertainment value solving Downs-only can add to otherwise not very enjoyable puzzles. Puzzle was still easy, even Downs-only, but there was still ... a kind of interesting unfolding of answers that made things engaging. I hope you liked literally every part of your solving experience more than I did. See you tomorrow.
So easy I didn’t even really register that there was supposed to be a theme! Being non-American I had a slight hesitation over Exxon and Shell being “oil” companies rather than “gas” and I’ve never heard of “Ft. Roop” either… 😁 But other than needing the downs to switch Tsar to Czar I think the other answers went in about as fast as I could type them.
Came here to say this about the "even" redundancy. More surprising that Rex didn't lose his mind over it! Guess he was too busy freaking out about the fill. Sheesh.
I have to agree with OFL, and he didn’t even note what was to me the biggest head-scratcher. INTERmural? Really? Yes,it is a word, but it’s not used. INTRAmural is 200x as common in Google. With all the ways of cluing it, they came up with that clunker. SMH.
Liked it better than OFL did. My only overwrite was LOll before LOAF at 1A.
But I have a gripe. I thought the convention was that the old Russian rulers were Tsars, while heads of official agencies were Czars. Not a formal definition, just a crossword convention. I have no problem with deviating from convention, but not so much on a Monday, when inexperienced solvers are out there.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance):
1. Wrinkles in time? (4) 2. It doesn't run below the bridge (6)(4) 3. Butt-dials? (5)(5) 4. Who might mistakenly respond to a statement beginning "Seriously..." (4) 5. Switch hitter? (7)(2)(5)
AGES STUFFY NOSE BOOTY CALLS SIRI FLICKER OF LIGHT
The theme became clear only after i finished it. But I don't understand Rex Parker's diatribe against the puzzle. It seemed to me like a normal, easy Monday with a mixture of categories.
I had "loll" instead of LOAF for 1-Across, and was briefly fooled because the first two letters matched. Then i remembered FTROOP and that solved the problem.
I was awoken unfairly early and I'm grumpy so I'll add a gripe. I've always thought that CZAR is the American "someone in charge of something" and TSAR is the Russian leader. Sounds like this might not be a rule, more of a guideline, but it still felt a little unnecessarily misleading. This didn't feel like it put up much resistance but time-wise it was a pretty slow Monday for me.
Downs-o was almost successful; had PeKACHU. At least guessed right on the 'P'. lol
Had ICeHOT, but eIP made no sense; finally twigged on the 'Y'.
Lovely coincidence going from AUROR yd to AURORA td. What are the CHANCEs? I guess these things are just BOUND TO HAPPEN.
A most enjoyable romp down the downs! :) ___ Eagerly awaiting @jae's pick for our Croce challenge. Meanwhile, there's Wyna Liu's Mon. New Yorker to keep me busy. 🤞
David Balton & Jane Stewart's NYT acrostic was wonderful. A very slow start, but gradually picked up steam, and ended with a bang! :)
The puzzle just had a weird vibe as I was solving it - almost as if something was “off”. Maybe OFL put his finger on it, or maybe it’s just because of PIKACHU, the convoluted clue for STUNT WOMAN and the fact that they spelled TSAR wrong (in CrossWorld convention).
Straightforward early week theme and grid - no different than most we’ve seen to start the year. When you look at the typical pangram outliers I actually think they’re covered pretty well today - PIKACHU x KNUTE, OUZO x CZAR, JOSTLE x JUMP, TAQUITO x QUO etc. Hard to base your critique on that.
The grid layout does result in a bunch of 3s and 4s and as the big guy highlights - we get some ugly ones. Never like the full proper name - just feels lazy to me.
Liked HEROIC x AURORA, STUNT WOMAN and love Larry Storch.
Thought I’d try solving downs only, and was really cruising, but didn’t get the happy music. Then I realized that my brain had combined Nuit et Soir into Noir, and I never noticed the 22- and 34-Across nonsense that ensued (because I was only looking at the down clues/answers). Think I’ll just stick to the traditional x-word approach from now on.
Agree puzzle was bad...why not an MLK themed puzzle? (was hoping for one--but instead got this lame one... and a themed Monday puzzle..so it is possibly to have a themed Monday)...guess we got Rosa Parks and Malia Obama at least...*sigh
It;s not Ft. Roop it’s F Troop, which is a show about a very silly regiment of soldiers made in the 60s in black and white and which I watched avidly as a child in reruns, in the 70s. Definitely not something anyone growing up now would now and I’m sure it did not get exported to any other countries as it made American soldiers look like idiots. But I loved it. 😂
I think this is a tight theme – haven’t seen commenters coming up with stellar alternate theme answers, as they would do if they were there. Lovely theme answer set, Peter!
My favorite moment was when, as I was zipping along in the solve, I uncovered JOSTLE and simply had to pause, to drink in this word I love but haven’t thought about in many a moon. It was a pause with an “ahh” and a “thank you for beautifying my day”.
I also liked, as I looked over the finished grid, seeing all the O-enders (THO, QUO, AERO, PLATO, OUZO, and TAQUITO), and the schwa-enders (TOGA, AURORA, ERA, MALIA, OBAMA, ROSA, PAPA).
I especially liked the fruit mini-theme, with ORANGE, apPEAR, and toDATE.
So, much to like. Congratulations, Peter, on your 119th NYT puzzle, and thank you so much for this one!
I’d argue it’s not tight because the phrases themselves could be swapped around: HOP IN THE SHOWER (is what I actually say, for example), JUMP AT THE CHANCE also works equally well. And in a Rex ‘EAT A SANDWICH’ way, one can also HOP ON THE BUS (Gus). And HOP/JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON, while too long for this puzzle, is a better phrase. My two cents
A fun little Monday puzzle . Winced at "unwed" Was that ever said , by anyone? Otherwise thought the fill was fine Did not remember F Troop and with the FT in place kept trying to think of a fictional fort name. Ft. Roop left me nonplussed until I finally parsed it correctly. Don't think I 've ever used the word nonplussed before but it seemed the best term for my reaction to Fort Roop.
And I briefly had a raised eyebrow at an answer that turned out to be wrong. LID IT for put a cap on. Before I saw Obama I had the LI and the IT and thought of lid for cap but could not believe it. And rightly so, because it was wrong.
All of these stumbles were over in seconds so I found it quite easy and the theme pleasant,
INTERmural is just wrong. It would mean “between institutions” which is usually expressed by “intercollegiate.” The word for sports within an institution is “intramural.” Bad clues are worse than subpar fill, IMHO.
When has anyone ever said UNAWED?
Soir vs. NUIT was not a problem for me, though, as soir = evening and NOIR = night.
Wicked easy, even for a Monday. I wanted LAZE to begin, then saw OUZO, which eliminated LAZE but did give me the Z. No other real problems except for PIKACHU, and even then if you asked me to name a Pokemon character I's say PIKACHU. I bet there are others too but not in my world.
I thought there was a progression going on in the theme, from HOP to JUMP to LEAP to BOUND but maybe I was just trying to make this into a better puzzle than it was.
MALIAOBAMA is welcome any time. ORANGE, though.....
Nice enough Mondecito for me, PAC. Perfectly Acceptable Collection of themers and fill, and thanks for a reasonable amount of fun.
Aha... not ONLY does my (and others' here) paper have "Evenly divisible by two" as the 59D clue, but ALSO - in a laughable bit of editing/printing screw-up - the grid of the 2nd KenKen puzzle IS COMPLETELY FILLED IN WITH ALL THE ANSWER NUMBERS! Doesn't even show the math "clues". Maybe NYT has ceded editing responsibilities to "AI" (any idiot)!
The print edition breaks a major rule, which was apparently caught in time for the online version most of you guys use ... In the print edition, the clue for 59 down is “evenly divisible by two“!
As I read the constructor notes where he INSISTED to the editors that he “could not” fix FTROOP because all the alternatives were worse, I was thinking exactly what Rex said: “yeah, because you were so stuck on keeping the pangram, you were willing to ruin the NW corner where Monday newbs always start.” Don’t know why it’s so hard to remember that it’s about the solvers, not the constructor.
Today I actually appreciate learning why I shouldn't like a puzzle, so no beefs with the write-up. It was just normal Monday fare with some interest in seeing HOP progress to BOUND, but I get what's not to like now. I couldn't remember the sitcom I thought must be FT. RiOt, or FT ROOP, when I got there, and thought it was appalling that 'Fort' was in the clue, LOL, but do remember F-TROOP now. I also prefer to leap into the shower, but fine.
I would note that if you're going to go with a pangram puzzle, which I hadn't noticed, there's some elegance in covering PIKACHU, given the "gotta catch 'em all" Pokémon theme.
Agree with all the concerns listed by earlier commentators and @Rex, yet feel the puzzle was OK for a Monday. If it could have resolved @Rex’s criticism of the missing verbal cadence, it would have been much improved. I think maybe the quasi-clunkers like CZAR and INTER may have floated by on Mr. Collin’s reputation, but were easily overcome by the crosses.
Sorry, RP, this is decent Monday puzzle. I do agree the revealer was slightly off but... close enough You seemed to cherry pick some of the garbage-y fill to support your view, but it also has some nice answers like AURORA, PIKACHU and JOSTLE as well as the downs you mentioned. Fill not that bad for a Monday. Hope the new semester isn't getting you down!
I'll top the LOaf-LOLL crew with my Laze-LOaf-LOLL. And yes, tsAR before CZAR. But my longest kealoa was sAshAOBAMA before MALIAOBAMA. Even with all those wrong guesses, came in about average for a Monday.
As I type this, I'm watching an episode of Columbo in which F TROOP's Larry Storch plays a driving instructor.
I agree with Rex about the revealer; I spent way too long trying to make TO HAPPEN relate to tthe three themers, but finally gave up. It would have been better not to clue it as a revealer, but just another theme answer, if an outlier. BOUND for glory might be a little better, as it at least ends with a noun. BOUND TO the ___ leaves you room for only three letters, which is tough; 'bound to the soil' ("status of serfs") is one too long.
I liked the fill better, with kind of a "bug or feature?" approach. Five French words! Two of them crossing! (I'm counting both CHIC and PASSE, though only the former is clued as French). Agreeable Yves meeting the Emperor in the NUIT. Then C'MON, ASAP -- TGI(F)! The gender balance of LATINO and STUNTWOMAN. Three Latin words! No, four with AURORA. EDO and PIKACHU representing the twin peaks (or ALPs) of Japanese culture. (Is ASAMI something in Japanese? It looks like it should be.)
Some superfluous clue wording -- "Citrus" would be enough for ORANGE, and "Northern lights" for AURORA--but no harm done.
The CZAT/tsAR thing is like the secret handshake of crossword insiders -- the solving experience is better if they're treated as a kealoa, needing a cross or two.
And finally, ONA TOGA AURORA just has a nice lilt to it.
Easy and perfectly pleasant, with no junky fill. But the revealer doesn't really nail the theme; it just vaguely alludes to it.
I had a similar idea once and don't remember what happened to it or why. Did I try it out on one collaborator or more than one? And what was the stumbling block?
Why don't I try it out now on y'all?
1) Go a little farther than others might dare (15) 2) Be overly formal when the occasion doesn't call for it (15) 3) Use influence to get something you want (15) 4) What you might do in a church choir (15)
5) And the revealer clue: Finesse the gym "workout" - - - - - - - - - - 1) PUSH THE ENVELOPE
This is the type of commentary I like—a detailed analysis why this puzzle did not “make the grade.” I would imagine that only a very few Americans , particularly Crossword solvers, are familiar with the word TSAR much fewer the discussed distinction between it and CZAR.
From my perspective your critique of a puzzle has always been fair although I sometimes do not understand your effusive praise for certain ones. Examples are those of Robyn Weintraub . They are certainly ok but in my amateurish opinion nothing to write home about .
would have 'sang' better if answers were past tense jumped, leapt, etc. but agree kind of of a stuffy solve and could have worked better if it didn't settle on so many meh answers - it kind of worked though..
I want a big sandwich. A fearless bunch of meat and cheese and a mass of manly HATCH chiles on an unyielding long roll. I want a sandwich that's HEROIC.
LACE and INTER at 14 & 15A seems like a missed opportunity to cross-clue INTERLACE.
In Monopoly I'm kinda meh about the Community Chest, but I LEAPATTHECHANCE.
He was so hot under the collar that you could SEETHE veins in his neck.
I've known many a STUNTWOMAN who was more powerful than any two guys. In a fight, those STUNTWOMeN could STUN TWO MeN (usually after they RANAT them).
I pronounce this puzzle a doozie (garbled portmanteau for Easy Downs Only). Still, plenty fun for a Monday. Thanks, Peter A. Collins (aka PAC Man).
Unable to solve downs only. Not familiar with KNUTE so I could not infer that across from its crosses. Also unfamiliar with F TROOP. Etc. There’s always next Monday.
My Concise Oxford English Dictionary (left over from my student days in England) has these two entries with their definitions: These are the complete entries:
Very unhappy about KNUTE (seriously - a coach who died in 1933 in a Monday puzzle?) crossed with a Pokémon character? I had no chance. I guess you have to be a Pokémon player to solve a Monday puzzle? And poor Malia Obama’s ears must be burning, it’s her second appearance within a week. What’s with all the repeat answers lately?
Bound is past tense its not present like the verbs used here so Rex is on point here its literally Illiterate..
comparing a present tense verb with a past tense verb or participle is... Inane... literally! Hopped on the train etc. that's legit... I vote Weintraub for editor!!
Not sure which language you're talking about, but in English "bound" is just as "present tense" as "leap", "hop", etc. Gonna bound outta here now. (You're prob thinking of the verb 'bind")
Despite the stated goal of explaining why bad puzzle bad, some confusion remains here because OP did not explicitly state the aesthetic standards being applied. Some of these standards are fairly niche, but others are of wide currency and there should really be no argument about the badness of much of the fill here. There are many beautiful or interesting entries to use in a puzzle. One can come upon, say, Lewis's JOSTLE, and savour it in the knowledge that the constructor made a deliberate and defensible choice to include it. Then there are entries the only explanation of which is that they contain a particular string of letters that the puzzle needed to fit everything together. These are less attractive for the solver because (by hypothesis) their sole purpose is to make the constructor's job easier. A reasonable proportion of bad fill is allowable in so far as it permits other better answers, but that does make it good fill. Even if I could drum up the whimsy to believe that the constructor here has a real connexion to ASAMI or ONA (and it is before breakfast), these are cliché in the context of crosswords. Whatever flavour they once had is long chewed out like old gum, here sold fraudulently in a new wrapper.
Yep, the puztheme did evoke a pretty loud moOOo, today. It was real odd to have a pangrammer on a MonPuz, tho. Also weird to have stuff like PIKACHU & TAQUITO drop by on a Monday.
Sooo ... I heard tell they are gettin somewheres around 200 NYTPuz submissions a week, nowadays. Of course, a much smaller % of them 200 are likely suitable for MonPuz beginner-level solvequestadors. But still … HOP, JUMP, LEAP? I reckon the cute BOUNDTOHAPPEN revealer musta put it in the runnin.
staff weeject pick: EDO. Crossed by the ever-popular UNAWED. Whelm on that, noob solvers.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Scotland's Ness or Lomond} = LOCH gets the noob solvers in the rodeo, nice and pronto.
other fave things: FTROOP. MALIAOBAMA. JOSTLE.
Thanx, Mr. Collins dude. Deep stuff, this here theme. har
No one here has noted that the Editor(s) have SKIPPED today's celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King. Well, sure, there are 3 Black persons in the fill, including one actual civil rights figure. You'd think they'd LEAP AT THE CHANCE to recognize this federal holiday.
I learned that I didn't like the taste of anise when I tried some 2D OUZO years ago. I ordered the drink trying to impress my date with how worldly and sophisticated I was. She was UNAWED. Should have just ordered a beer.
Being reminded of that episode did predispose me to view this puzzle favorably. Yeah, some of the fill like F TROOP, KNUTE and EDO was a tad PASSE but overall I thought it was pretty smooth. Nothing to make me SEETHE. And the almost complete absence of POCs (plurals of convenience) was HEROIC.
I'm not sure where the idea came from that CZAR has traditionally been clued only as a government honcho, industry big wig or the like. Just checked at xwordinfo.com and of the 91 times CZAR has appeared during the Shortz era it has been about 50-50 for honcho vs old Russian leader. TSAR with its grid fill friendlier letter sequence has appeared over 300 times and always with a former Russian leader type clue.
My first thought, on seeing the constructor's name: Doesn't @Rex usually dislike Peter Collins's puzzles? Still, I was surprised at today's evisceration. I thought the theme was delightful, with the three vigorous verbs describing actions that are done quickly, rather than necessarily energetically. And I also loved the switch-up of the reveal, a witty TWIST with its play on BOUND.
Easy-medium. SEE red before SEETHE ate nanoseconds. Me too for Loll before LOAF. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to not check crosses on early week puzzles.
I agree with@Rex about the fill/pangram plus I thought there was an “eat a sandwich” vibe going on. Didn’t hate it.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle # 876 was on the easy side for a Croce. Unfortunately I got majorly hung up in the SW where I had the wrong answer for 41a for a very long time. When I finally remembered the right answer I was able to finish quickly. May your luck be better than mine!
I did downs only; it took a while and I had to figure out why there was no Happy Pencil. Turns out like @bocamp, had PEKACHU cuz about Pokemon I know nothing. At first I thought it must be the C that was wrong, so ran the alphabet on its crossing word: HOB, HOD, HOF, HOG... etc. When that didn't work, changed ENTER to INTER and... done!
F TROOP was tough because I thought I'd seen all those 60s comedies, but never that one. And for typeovers, like @Glen Laker for some reason had NOIR for night even though I had 5 years of high school French. 5 years!
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0, then had a second look at Friday's -1 and got the last word instantly. Funny how that happens.]
I agree that it ought to be intramural -- "within the walls," as internal sports teams. But one half the clue needed "inter" and one half needed "intra" -- that was my biggest complaint of the day!
Every time I look at row seven -- ONA TOGA AURORA -- all my brain hears, because the rhythm is identical, is In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
By the way, a bit of background on that song (recorded by Iron Butterfly), per Wikipedia:
According to drummer Ron Bushy, organist-vocalist Doug Ingle wrote the song one evening while drinking an entire gallon of Red Mountain wine. When the inebriated Ingle then played the song for Bushy, who wrote down the lyrics for him, he was slurring his words so badly that what was supposed to be "in the Garden of Eden" was interpreted by Bushy as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".
Well, I am having a heck of a time getting my comments to go through and be published these days. I will keep trying! I hope I'm not being purposely axed, but I am a bit obnoxious, so maybe?
It's currently -3° Fahrenheit and the Electric Company is having a power outage in our neighborhood, so I may be dead in the next few hours and I want my last gasp on Earth to be a post on the Rex Parker crossword blog.
The theme on this puzzle in no way makes up for all the crummy fill. Boo.
FTROOP pairs nicely with yesterday's FBOMB.
Uniclues:
1 Goddess of the dawn preparing to create the Anemoi. 2 Remain obnoxious. 3 Dark rolled-taco truck visit in France. 4 Instruction given to a cop in my neighborhood on how to cop (apparently). 5 "Hairy" pet for Pokémon fan. 6 Daddio worried his daughter will end up deadio.
1 AURORA ON A TOGA 2 LIMIT TACT APEX 3 TAQUITO NUIT 4 STUN LATINO 5 PIKACHU CHIA 6 STUNT WOMAN PAPA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Shakespearean heroine finally owns her buggies. BIANCA PAYS OFF AUTOS.
@Sgt. Mac 1:07 pm... when people say "downs only" they usually mean "down clues only". Guessing across answers without looking at their clue is a huge part of the fun, especially the themers because guessing the theme helps as well.
Not a great puzzle, to put it mildly. After "HOP," one expects "SKIP" followed by "JUMP," and it's jarring when we go from "HOP" to "JUMP" and wonder what this puzzle is all about. Also, is it kosher to clue "EVEN" with the word "evenly"?
It should escape no one's notice that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and that it is actually falling on his birthday, which won't happen again until 2029. That is, unless a certain orange nightmare doesn't get reelected and abolish elections and make himself dictator for life, and further decree that anything that even hints at offending his cult followers' snowflake-like sensibilities, such as the existence of slavery and Jim Crow in our nation's history, necessitating the civil rights movement, must be eradicated, including today's holiday. Given that fact, it's upsetting that today's puzzle included only one reference to any of that (ROSA Parks).
Finally, I like to nominate another word pair for the "kealoa" category: "apexacme." If you are solving and come up with "a" as the first letter in a cross and a clue referring to the top or summit of something and have no other letters, you're stuck deciding between the two unless you can solve the other crosses.
Yeah, I opened up the physical paper, looked at the totally messed-up Ken Ken, and groaned. Then went to the crossword and saw evenly divisible by two and groaned again. Glad they fixed it online.
Today's RexRANT was well deserved. And if he had the printed paper, he would have gone ballisticker about EVEN being in its own clue. And can we give ASAMI and his cousin ASdoI an indecent burial?
I'm here to explain that the rulers of Russia and Germany were cousins of a sort, back before WWI. Czar and Kaiser are both derived from those Roman Caesars of old. TSAR was just the way the Russians pronounced CzAR.
Old timer 6:38 PM About tsar v. czar Tsar is a transliteration from the Russian alphabet of the Russian word Apparently Czar is a centuries old English spelling variation of Tsar. It would be more “correct “ if the puzzle used only tsar for the ruler but constructors will do what is convenient
I didn’t enjoy this one very much and it actually played quite hard for me for some reason. I think it was the arguably crappy fill in various places that was off putting, and a lot of stale stuff that I (as a non-native American) had never heard mentioned before ever (F TROOP, KNUTE). Somehow some of the clueing just didn’t do it for me today, either (like the wording on the clue for AURORA).
Rex makes a good point about the impact of the pangram on this puzzle, which I have a hard time understanding why it’s considered such a feat if it deteriorates the quality of the puzzle this much, though the revealer being misaligned with the pattern of the three themes really doesn’t bother me at all.
I did think it was funny to see Rex say he’s positive about puzzles most of the time, because I really feel that in the past months, positive write ups have been extremely sparse and far in between.
Yeah, Shortzie really fell asleep on that one. Perhaps the clue should have been "un-odd." Not to be confused with UNAWED, which certainly applies to me.
New kealoa: White house daughter..." is it SAshA or MALIA? The west central was a bit interesting because of this, and also where did JUMP and LEAP go? JUMPATTHECHANCE is for sure in the language...only after getting SALE did I lock down that area.
But the fill. OFNP was SEETHing, ASAMI. First annoyance was FTROOP, one of those single-letter add-ons that grind my gears. And it got worse. Double-bogey. NEXT!
Wordle par. Congrats to Hideki Matsuyama and his 62 (!) to win the Genesis from 6 (!) strokes back.
Write-overs on the first two across answers and SEEred before SEETHE. A real inkfest up there. After being perfect yesterday it was BOUNDTOHAPPEN. Wordle eagle!!!
Dear Rex: I don't know if you were kidding or not, but I go to several other crossword blogs, and you are almost always the most negative in your critique of the NYT Xwords.
Czar and tsar are the exact same word. Cz is the Cyrillic transliteration of the first letter of the Russian word, while ts is the phonetic transliteration. Growing up, the czar spelling is the only one I can recall seeing. The phonetically correct spelling has become the preferred one now.
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So easy I didn’t even really register that there was supposed to be a theme!
ReplyDeleteBeing non-American I had a slight hesitation over Exxon and Shell being “oil” companies rather than “gas” and I’ve never heard of “Ft. Roop” either… 😁
But other than needing the downs to switch Tsar to Czar I think the other answers went in about as fast as I could type them.
I have never seen the cardinal rule broken until today. In 59 down, the answer is in the question?! EVENLY was completely unnecessary in the clue.
DeleteCame here to say this about the "even" redundancy. More surprising that Rex didn't lose his mind over it! Guess he was too busy freaking out about the fill. Sheesh.
DeleteWow! It looks like in my app version it updated to be “divisible by two,” so I guess they caught that at some point
DeleteThe app version didn't include EVENLY in the clue!
DeleteI have to agree with OFL, and he didn’t even note what was to me the biggest head-scratcher. INTERmural? Really? Yes,it is a word, but it’s not used. INTRAmural is 200x as common in Google. With all the ways of cluing it, they came up with that clunker. SMH.
ReplyDeleteAgreed
Delete
ReplyDeleteLiked it better than OFL did. My only overwrite was LOll before LOAF at 1A.
But I have a gripe. I thought the convention was that the old Russian rulers were Tsars, while heads of official agencies were Czars. Not a formal definition, just a crossword convention. I have no problem with deviating from convention, but not so much on a Monday, when inexperienced solvers are out there.
Tsar always means emperor. Czar can mean emperor or person in charge of something. It’s English convention, they’re the same word.
DeleteMy five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Wrinkles in time? (4)
2. It doesn't run below the bridge (6)(4)
3. Butt-dials? (5)(5)
4. Who might mistakenly respond to a statement beginning "Seriously..." (4)
5. Switch hitter? (7)(2)(5)
AGES
STUFFY NOSE
BOOTY CALLS
SIRI
FLICKER OF LIGHT
As an aspiring constructor who has indeed only been rejected thus far, this was EXACTLY what I was thinking about this puzzle.
ReplyDelete“Really? They accepted this, and yet said no to some of mine that were objectively stronger?!?”
That makes rejection more disheartening.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
DeleteThe theme became clear only after i finished it. But I don't understand Rex Parker's diatribe against the puzzle. It seemed to me like a normal, easy Monday with a mixture of categories.
ReplyDeleteI had "loll" instead of LOAF for 1-Across, and was briefly fooled because the first two letters matched. Then i remembered FTROOP and that solved the problem.
Agree. Thought it was fun in and cute. Pretty good themer for a Monday.
DeleteI was awoken unfairly early and I'm grumpy so I'll add a gripe. I've always thought that CZAR is the American "someone in charge of something" and TSAR is the Russian leader. Sounds like this might not be a rule, more of a guideline, but it still felt a little unnecessarily misleading. This didn't feel like it put up much resistance but time-wise it was a pretty slow Monday for me.
ReplyDeleteThx Peter; fun puz to start the week off with! 😊
ReplyDeleteDowns-o was almost successful; had PeKACHU. At least guessed right on the 'P'. lol
Had ICeHOT, but eIP made no sense; finally twigged on the 'Y'.
Lovely coincidence going from AUROR yd to AURORA td. What are the CHANCEs? I guess these things are just BOUND TO HAPPEN.
A most enjoyable romp down the downs! :)
___
Eagerly awaiting @jae's pick for our Croce challenge. Meanwhile, there's Wyna Liu's Mon. New Yorker to keep me busy. 🤞
David Balton & Jane Stewart's NYT acrostic was wonderful. A very slow start, but gradually picked up steam, and ended with a bang! :)
Lily Geller's New Yorker cryptic is in the queue, as well.
And, finally, last Fri's downs-o hasn't been forgotten or abandoned (yet). 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Light-hearted Monday. Nice way to start the week.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle just had a weird vibe as I was solving it - almost as if something was “off”. Maybe OFL put his finger on it, or maybe it’s just because of PIKACHU, the convoluted clue for STUNT WOMAN and the fact that they spelled TSAR wrong (in CrossWorld convention).
ReplyDeleteStraightforward early week theme and grid - no different than most we’ve seen to start the year. When you look at the typical pangram outliers I actually think they’re covered pretty well today - PIKACHU x KNUTE, OUZO x CZAR, JOSTLE x JUMP, TAQUITO x QUO etc. Hard to base your critique on that.
ReplyDeleteThe grid layout does result in a bunch of 3s and 4s and as the big guy highlights - we get some ugly ones. Never like the full proper name - just feels lazy to me.
Liked HEROIC x AURORA, STUNT WOMAN and love Larry Storch.
Pleasant enough Monday morning solve.
UB40
I think 31D, hatch, is careless. To concoct a plan is to create one; to hatch it is to execute or launch it.
ReplyDeleteThis is incorrect. "to make a plan, especially a secret plan:
DeleteHe hatched a plot to forge documents that would embarrass the company."
Thought I’d try solving downs only, and was really cruising, but didn’t get the happy music. Then I realized that my brain had combined Nuit et Soir into Noir, and I never noticed the 22- and 34-Across nonsense that ensued (because I was only looking at the down clues/answers). Think I’ll just stick to the traditional x-word approach from now on.
ReplyDeleteAgree puzzle was bad...why not an MLK themed puzzle? (was hoping for one--but instead got this lame one... and a themed Monday puzzle..so it is possibly to have a themed Monday)...guess we got Rosa Parks and Malia Obama at least...*sigh
ReplyDeleteIt;s not Ft. Roop it’s F Troop, which is a show about a very silly regiment of soldiers made in the 60s in black and white and which I watched avidly as a child in reruns, in the 70s. Definitely not something anyone growing up now would now and I’m sure it did not get exported to any other countries as it made American soldiers look like idiots. But I loved it. 😂
ReplyDeleteI loved it too, especially Wrangler Jane.
DeleteWrangler Jane. Yes.
DeleteWe had it in Ireland (on our solitary TV channel too!)
DeleteI think this is a tight theme – haven’t seen commenters coming up with stellar alternate theme answers, as they would do if they were there. Lovely theme answer set, Peter!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite moment was when, as I was zipping along in the solve, I uncovered JOSTLE and simply had to pause, to drink in this word I love but haven’t thought about in many a moon. It was a pause with an “ahh” and a “thank you for beautifying my day”.
I also liked, as I looked over the finished grid, seeing all the O-enders (THO, QUO, AERO, PLATO, OUZO, and TAQUITO), and the schwa-enders (TOGA, AURORA, ERA, MALIA, OBAMA, ROSA, PAPA).
I especially liked the fruit mini-theme, with ORANGE, apPEAR, and toDATE.
So, much to like. Congratulations, Peter, on your 119th NYT puzzle, and thank you so much for this one!
I’d argue it’s not tight because the phrases themselves could be swapped around: HOP IN THE SHOWER (is what I actually say, for example), JUMP AT THE CHANCE also works equally well. And in a Rex ‘EAT A SANDWICH’ way, one can also HOP ON THE BUS (Gus). And HOP/JUMP ON THE BANDWAGON, while too long for this puzzle, is a better phrase. My two cents
DeleteStandard Monday fare - surprised to see the bad review, puzzle is perfectly fine.
ReplyDeleteA fun little Monday puzzle .
ReplyDeleteWinced at "unwed" Was that ever said , by anyone?
Otherwise thought the fill was fine
Did not remember F Troop and with the FT in place kept trying to think of a fictional fort name.
Ft. Roop left me nonplussed until I finally parsed it correctly.
Don't think I 've ever used the word nonplussed before but it seemed the best term for my reaction to Fort Roop.
And I briefly had a raised eyebrow at an answer that turned out to be wrong. LID IT for put a cap on. Before I saw Obama I had the LI and the IT and thought of lid for cap but could not believe it. And rightly so, because it was wrong.
All of these stumbles were over in seconds so I found it quite easy and the theme pleasant,
INTERmural is just wrong. It would mean “between institutions” which is usually expressed by “intercollegiate.” The word for sports within an institution is “intramural.” Bad clues are worse than subpar fill, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteWhen has anyone ever said UNAWED?
Soir vs. NUIT was not a problem for me, though, as soir = evening and NOIR = night.
59D?!?! Isn’t there a law against this?!?!
ReplyDeleteWicked easy, even for a Monday. I wanted LAZE to begin, then saw OUZO, which eliminated LAZE but did give me the Z. No other real problems except for PIKACHU, and even then if you asked me to name a Pokemon character I's say PIKACHU. I bet there are others too but not in my world.
ReplyDeleteI thought there was a progression going on in the theme, from HOP to JUMP to LEAP to BOUND but maybe I was just trying to make this into a better puzzle than it was.
MALIAOBAMA is welcome any time. ORANGE, though.....
Nice enough Mondecito for me, PAC. Perfectly Acceptable Collection of themers and fill, and thanks for a reasonable amount of fun.
Any puzzle that clues with "evenly" the answer EVEN, as in 59d, is a total disaster.
ReplyDeleteMy version had “divisible by two” for 59D. No “evenly” there —MMcC
DeleteAgree
DeletePaper version "Evenly divisible by two".
DeleteAha... not ONLY does my (and others' here) paper have "Evenly divisible by two" as the 59D clue, but ALSO - in a laughable bit of editing/printing screw-up - the grid of the 2nd KenKen puzzle IS COMPLETELY FILLED IN WITH ALL THE ANSWER NUMBERS! Doesn't even show the math "clues". Maybe NYT has ceded editing responsibilities to "AI" (any idiot)!
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteIsn't CZAR reserved for the Head of a Governmental thing? TSAR is the old Russian ruler.
Revealer kinda doesn't match the Themers. Sure, I see the BOUND, but TO HAPPEN doesn't correlate to TRAIN, SHOWER, CHANCE. Or am I missing something?
Took a sec to realize it was F TROOP, not FT ROOP. Har. TV show a bit ahead of my time, but have heard of it. Unsure anyone under 45 will know it.
More playoffs today. Go Team!
Happy Monday. (Or as Happy as you can be on a Monday)
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
The print edition breaks a major rule, which was apparently caught in time for the online version most of you guys use ... In the print edition, the clue for 59 down is “evenly divisible by two“!
ReplyDeleteSoir is evening and nuit is night.
ReplyDeleteWhat’s with the clue “Evenly divided by two” (59 down) for the word “even”?
ReplyDeleteShocked that OFL missed this.
DeleteFor those of us who remember, or those who are curious, the F Troop theme song.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/-K4BvF_sb3Y?si=pq8EbfsFaMUlZ3-6
As I read the constructor notes where he INSISTED to the editors that he “could not” fix FTROOP because all the alternatives were worse, I was thinking exactly what Rex said: “yeah, because you were so stuck on keeping the pangram, you were willing to ruin the NW corner where Monday newbs always start.” Don’t know why it’s so hard to remember that it’s about the solvers, not the constructor.
ReplyDeleteToday I actually appreciate learning why I shouldn't like a puzzle, so no beefs with the write-up. It was just normal Monday fare with some interest in seeing HOP progress to BOUND, but I get what's not to like now. I couldn't remember the sitcom I thought must be FT. RiOt, or FT ROOP, when I got there, and thought it was appalling that 'Fort' was in the clue, LOL, but do remember F-TROOP now. I also prefer to leap into the shower, but fine.
ReplyDeleteI would note that if you're going to go with a pangram puzzle, which I hadn't noticed, there's some elegance in covering PIKACHU, given the "gotta catch 'em all" Pokémon theme.
Agree with all the concerns listed by earlier commentators and @Rex, yet feel the puzzle was OK for a Monday. If it could have resolved @Rex’s criticism of the missing verbal cadence, it would have been much improved. I think maybe the quasi-clunkers like CZAR and INTER may have floated by on Mr. Collin’s reputation, but were easily overcome by the crosses.
ReplyDeleteSorry, RP, this is decent Monday puzzle. I do agree the revealer was slightly off but... close enough You seemed to cherry pick some of the garbage-y fill to support your view, but it also has some nice answers like AURORA, PIKACHU and JOSTLE as well as the downs you mentioned. Fill not that bad for a Monday. Hope the new semester isn't getting you down!
ReplyDeleteI'll top the LOaf-LOLL crew with my Laze-LOaf-LOLL. And yes, tsAR before CZAR. But my longest kealoa was sAshAOBAMA before MALIAOBAMA. Even with all those wrong guesses, came in about average for a Monday.
ReplyDeleteAs I type this, I'm watching an episode of Columbo in which F TROOP's Larry Storch plays a driving instructor.
I agree with Rex about the revealer; I spent way too long trying to make TO HAPPEN relate to tthe three themers, but finally gave up. It would have been better not to clue it as a revealer, but just another theme answer, if an outlier. BOUND for glory might be a little better, as it at least ends with a noun. BOUND TO the ___ leaves you room for only three letters, which is tough; 'bound to the soil' ("status of serfs") is one too long.
ReplyDeleteI liked the fill better, with kind of a "bug or feature?" approach. Five French words! Two of them crossing! (I'm counting both CHIC and PASSE, though only the former is clued as French). Agreeable Yves meeting the Emperor in the NUIT. Then C'MON, ASAP -- TGI(F)! The gender balance of LATINO and STUNTWOMAN. Three Latin words! No, four with AURORA. EDO and PIKACHU representing the twin peaks (or ALPs) of Japanese culture. (Is ASAMI something in Japanese? It looks like it should be.)
Some superfluous clue wording -- "Citrus" would be enough for ORANGE, and "Northern lights" for AURORA--but no harm done.
The CZAT/tsAR thing is like the secret handshake of crossword insiders -- the solving experience is better if they're treated as a kealoa, needing a cross or two.
And finally, ONA TOGA AURORA just has a nice lilt to it.
Easy and perfectly pleasant, with no junky fill. But the revealer doesn't really nail the theme; it just vaguely alludes to it.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar idea once and don't remember what happened to it or why. Did I try it out on one collaborator or more than one? And what was the stumbling block?
Why don't I try it out now on y'all?
1) Go a little farther than others might dare (15)
2) Be overly formal when the occasion doesn't call for it (15)
3) Use influence to get something you want (15)
4) What you might do in a church choir (15)
5) And the revealer clue: Finesse the gym "workout"
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1) PUSH THE ENVELOPE
2) STAND ON CEREMONY
3) PULL SOME STRINGS
4) LIFT UP YOUR VOICE
5) (revealer)
DON'T BREAK A SWEAT
This is the type of commentary I like—a detailed analysis why this puzzle did not “make the grade.”
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that only a very few Americans , particularly Crossword solvers, are familiar with the word TSAR much fewer the discussed distinction between it and CZAR.
From my perspective your critique of a puzzle has always been fair although I sometimes do not understand your effusive praise for certain ones. Examples are those of Robyn Weintraub . They are certainly ok but in my amateurish opinion nothing to write home about .
ReplyDeletewould have 'sang' better if answers were past tense jumped, leapt, etc. but agree kind of of a stuffy solve and could have worked better if it didn't settle on so many meh answers - it kind of worked though..
ReplyDeletenot a diamond more faux jewelry..
I want a big sandwich. A fearless bunch of meat and cheese and a mass of manly HATCH chiles on an unyielding long roll. I want a sandwich that's HEROIC.
ReplyDeleteLACE and INTER at 14 & 15A seems like a missed opportunity to cross-clue INTERLACE.
In Monopoly I'm kinda meh about the Community Chest, but I LEAPATTHECHANCE.
He was so hot under the collar that you could SEETHE veins in his neck.
I've known many a STUNTWOMAN who was more powerful than any two guys. In a fight, those STUNTWOMeN could STUN TWO MeN (usually after they RANAT them).
I pronounce this puzzle a doozie (garbled portmanteau for Easy Downs Only). Still, plenty fun for a Monday. Thanks, Peter A. Collins (aka PAC Man).
Unable to solve downs only. Not familiar with KNUTE so I could not infer that across from its crosses. Also unfamiliar with F TROOP. Etc. There’s always next Monday.
ReplyDeleteMy Concise Oxford English Dictionary (left over from my student days in England) has these two entries with their definitions: These are the complete entries:
ReplyDeleteTSAR = Variation of CZAR
CZAR = see TSAR
Very unhappy about KNUTE (seriously - a coach who died in 1933 in a Monday puzzle?) crossed with a Pokémon character? I had no chance. I guess you have to be a Pokémon player to solve a Monday puzzle? And poor Malia Obama’s ears must be burning, it’s her second appearance within a week. What’s with all the repeat answers lately?
ReplyDeleteI lived overseas for the two years FT ROOP ran. And that was 57 years ago! Talk about stale.
ReplyDeleteBound is past tense its not present like the verbs used here so Rex is on point here its literally Illiterate..
ReplyDeletecomparing a present tense verb with a past tense verb or participle is... Inane... literally! Hopped on the train etc. that's legit... I vote Weintraub for editor!!
Not sure which language you're talking about, but in English "bound" is just as "present tense" as "leap", "hop", etc. Gonna bound outta here now. (You're prob thinking of the verb 'bind")
DeleteVery easy. I seem to recall a Peter Collins collaboration with another constructor a little while ago that also fell flat.
ReplyDeleteWhile I didn't dislike it as much as Rex did, it was an unbelievably easy solve. But that's ok - it's Monday :)
Despite the stated goal of explaining why bad puzzle bad, some confusion remains here because OP did not explicitly state the aesthetic standards being applied. Some of these standards are fairly niche, but others are of wide currency and there should really be no argument about the badness of much of the fill here. There are many beautiful or interesting entries to use in a puzzle. One can come upon, say, Lewis's JOSTLE, and savour it in the knowledge that the constructor made a deliberate and defensible choice to include it. Then there are entries the only explanation of which is that they contain a particular string of letters that the puzzle needed to fit everything together. These are less attractive for the solver because (by hypothesis) their sole purpose is to make the constructor's job easier. A reasonable proportion of bad fill is allowable in so far as it permits other better answers, but that does make it good fill. Even if I could drum up the whimsy to believe that the constructor here has a real connexion to ASAMI or ONA (and it is before breakfast), these are cliché in the context of crosswords. Whatever flavour they once had is long chewed out like old gum, here sold fraudulently in a new wrapper.
ReplyDeleteYep, the puztheme did evoke a pretty loud moOOo, today. It was real odd to have a pangrammer on a MonPuz, tho. Also weird to have stuff like PIKACHU & TAQUITO drop by on a Monday.
ReplyDeleteSooo ... I heard tell they are gettin somewheres around 200 NYTPuz submissions a week, nowadays. Of course, a much smaller % of them 200 are likely suitable for MonPuz beginner-level solvequestadors. But still … HOP, JUMP, LEAP? I reckon the cute BOUNDTOHAPPEN revealer musta put it in the runnin.
staff weeject pick: EDO. Crossed by the ever-popular UNAWED. Whelm on that, noob solvers.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Scotland's Ness or Lomond} = LOCH gets the noob solvers in the rodeo, nice and pronto.
other fave things: FTROOP. MALIAOBAMA. JOSTLE.
Thanx, Mr. Collins dude. Deep stuff, this here theme. har
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
Too bad OFL doesn't do the dead trees version. Would have, I expect, generated a generous rant.
ReplyDeletep.s.
ReplyDeleteAlmost forgot to mention…
{Evenly divisible by two} = EVEN. Tricky! Last thing U would expect. Like.
M&Also
No one here has noted that the Editor(s) have SKIPPED today's celebration of the life and work of Martin Luther King. Well, sure, there are 3 Black persons in the fill, including one actual civil rights figure. You'd think they'd LEAP AT THE CHANCE to recognize this federal holiday.
ReplyDeleteI learned that I didn't like the taste of anise when I tried some 2D OUZO years ago. I ordered the drink trying to impress my date with how worldly and sophisticated I was. She was UNAWED. Should have just ordered a beer.
ReplyDeleteBeing reminded of that episode did predispose me to view this puzzle favorably. Yeah, some of the fill like F TROOP, KNUTE and EDO was a tad PASSE but overall I thought it was pretty smooth. Nothing to make me SEETHE. And the almost complete absence of POCs (plurals of convenience) was HEROIC.
I'm not sure where the idea came from that CZAR has traditionally been clued only as a government honcho, industry big wig or the like. Just checked at xwordinfo.com and of the 91 times CZAR has appeared during the Shortz era it has been about 50-50 for honcho vs old Russian leader. TSAR with its grid fill friendlier letter sequence has appeared over 300 times and always with a former Russian leader type clue.
Can I assume that those who are complaining about CZ vs TS don’t know LOCH or OUZO?
ReplyDeleteMy first thought, on seeing the constructor's name: Doesn't @Rex usually dislike Peter Collins's puzzles? Still, I was surprised at today's evisceration. I thought the theme was delightful, with the three vigorous verbs describing actions that are done quickly, rather than necessarily energetically. And I also loved the switch-up of the reveal, a witty TWIST with its play on BOUND.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteEasy-medium. SEE red before SEETHE ate nanoseconds. Me too for Loll before LOAF. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to not check crosses on early week puzzles.
I agree with@Rex about the fill/pangram plus I thought there was an “eat a sandwich” vibe going on. Didn’t hate it.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle # 876 was on the easy side for a Croce. Unfortunately I got majorly hung up in the SW where I had the wrong answer for 41a for a very long time. When I finally remembered the right answer I was able to finish quickly. May your luck be better than mine!
How is it Downs only if you “infer” an Across like “Hop on the train” ?
ReplyDeleteI did downs only; it took a while and I had to figure out why there was no Happy Pencil. Turns out like @bocamp, had PEKACHU cuz about Pokemon I know nothing. At first I thought it must be the C that was wrong, so ran the alphabet on its crossing word: HOB, HOD, HOF, HOG... etc. When that didn't work, changed ENTER to INTER and... done!
ReplyDeleteF TROOP was tough because I thought I'd seen all those 60s comedies, but never that one. And for typeovers, like @Glen Laker for some reason had NOIR for night even though I had 5 years of high school French. 5 years!
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0, then had a second look at Friday's -1 and got the last word instantly. Funny how that happens.]
[Holy cow... just started today's Spelling Bee... 34 seconds to Genius. Yikes!]
ReplyDeleteI agree that it ought to be intramural -- "within the walls," as internal sports teams. But one half the clue needed "inter" and one half needed "intra" -- that was my biggest complaint of the day!
ReplyDeleteI think we're lost. Where the heck are we?
ReplyDeleteEvery time I look at row seven -- ONA TOGA AURORA -- all my brain hears, because the rhythm is identical, is In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, a bit of background on that song (recorded by Iron Butterfly), per Wikipedia:
According to drummer Ron Bushy, organist-vocalist Doug Ingle wrote the song one evening while drinking an entire gallon of Red Mountain wine. When the inebriated Ingle then played the song for Bushy, who wrote down the lyrics for him, he was slurring his words so badly that what was supposed to be "in the Garden of Eden" was interpreted by Bushy as "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida".
Well, I am having a heck of a time getting my comments to go through and be published these days. I will keep trying! I hope I'm not being purposely axed, but I am a bit obnoxious, so maybe?
ReplyDeleteIt's currently -3° Fahrenheit and the Electric Company is having a power outage in our neighborhood, so I may be dead in the next few hours and I want my last gasp on Earth to be a post on the Rex Parker crossword blog.
The theme on this puzzle in no way makes up for all the crummy fill. Boo.
FTROOP pairs nicely with yesterday's FBOMB.
Uniclues:
1 Goddess of the dawn preparing to create the Anemoi.
2 Remain obnoxious.
3 Dark rolled-taco truck visit in France.
4 Instruction given to a cop in my neighborhood on how to cop (apparently).
5 "Hairy" pet for Pokémon fan.
6 Daddio worried his daughter will end up deadio.
1 AURORA ON A TOGA
2 LIMIT TACT APEX
3 TAQUITO NUIT
4 STUN LATINO
5 PIKACHU CHIA
6 STUNT WOMAN PAPA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Shakespearean heroine finally owns her buggies. BIANCA PAYS OFF AUTOS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Sgt. Mac 1:07 pm... when people say "downs only" they usually mean "down clues only". Guessing across answers without looking at their clue is a huge part of the fun, especially the themers because guessing the theme helps as well.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNot a great puzzle, to put it mildly. After "HOP," one expects "SKIP" followed by "JUMP," and it's jarring when we go from "HOP" to "JUMP" and wonder what this puzzle is all about. Also, is it kosher to clue "EVEN" with the word "evenly"?
ReplyDeleteIt should escape no one's notice that today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and that it is actually falling on his birthday, which won't happen again until 2029. That is, unless a certain orange nightmare doesn't get reelected and abolish elections and make himself dictator for life, and further decree that anything that even hints at offending his cult followers' snowflake-like sensibilities, such as the existence of slavery and Jim Crow in our nation's history, necessitating the civil rights movement, must be eradicated, including today's holiday. Given that fact, it's upsetting that today's puzzle included only one reference to any of that (ROSA Parks).
Finally, I like to nominate another word pair for the "kealoa" category: "apexacme." If you are solving and come up with "a" as the first letter in a cross and a clue referring to the top or summit of something and have no other letters, you're stuck deciding between the two unless you can solve the other crosses.
@Lewis (2:26) -- your point/story is illustrated in this Simpsons scene.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulDC1w1ydLI&t=4s
Yeah, I opened up the physical paper, looked at the totally messed-up Ken Ken, and groaned. Then went to the crossword and saw evenly divisible by two and groaned again. Glad they fixed it online.
ReplyDeleteVillager
Decades ago told my secretary I had to run and catch a plane. She laughed. “Listen to what you said - you’re not going to do either one.” Point taken.
ReplyDeleteSo I thought the theme was somewhat amusing. But the fill, as Rex says (or implies), was ASS,
And “inter”mural, as pointed out above, was inexcusable. Or intrascusable. Anything goes these days. Hey, I feel a song coming on.
“Maleska’s days, the clues were scrutable,
Shortz’ flaws are irrefutable,
Heaven knows.
Anything goes!”
Today's RexRANT was well deserved. And if he had the printed paper, he would have gone ballisticker about EVEN being in its own clue. And can we give ASAMI and his cousin ASdoI an indecent burial?
ReplyDeleteI'm here to explain that the rulers of Russia and Germany were cousins of a sort, back before WWI. Czar and Kaiser are both derived from those Roman Caesars of old. TSAR was just the way the Russians pronounced CzAR.
Old timer 6:38 PM
DeleteAbout tsar v. czar
Tsar is a transliteration from the Russian alphabet of the Russian word
Apparently Czar is a centuries old English spelling variation of Tsar.
It would be more “correct “ if the puzzle used only tsar for the ruler but constructors will do what is convenient
Sorry if I missed this in the comments but a question: isn’t “even” as an answer to “evenly divisible by two” a serious crossword transgression?
ReplyDeleteI didn’t enjoy this one very much and it actually played quite hard for me for some reason. I think it was the arguably crappy fill in various places that was off putting, and a lot of stale stuff that I (as a non-native American) had never heard mentioned before ever (F TROOP, KNUTE). Somehow some of the clueing just didn’t do it for me today, either (like the wording on the clue for AURORA).
ReplyDeleteRex makes a good point about the impact of the pangram on this puzzle, which I have a hard time understanding why it’s considered such a feat if it deteriorates the quality of the puzzle this much, though the revealer being misaligned with the pattern of the three themes really doesn’t bother me at all.
I did think it was funny to see Rex say he’s positive about puzzles most of the time, because I really feel that in the past months, positive write ups have been extremely sparse and far in between.
Duplicate of EVEN with evenly in its cluing makes this one an editor’s failure.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Shortzie really fell asleep on that one. Perhaps the clue should have been "un-odd." Not to be confused with UNAWED, which certainly applies to me.
ReplyDeleteNew kealoa: White house daughter..." is it SAshA or MALIA? The west central was a bit interesting because of this, and also where did JUMP and LEAP go? JUMPATTHECHANCE is for sure in the language...only after getting SALE did I lock down that area.
But the fill. OFNP was SEETHing, ASAMI. First annoyance was FTROOP, one of those single-letter add-ons that grind my gears. And it got worse. Double-bogey. NEXT!
Wordle par. Congrats to Hideki Matsuyama and his 62 (!) to win the Genesis from 6 (!) strokes back.
Everyone knows it's "hop on the bus, Gus."
ReplyDeleteBut I won't make a new plan for this Monday puzzle, which I enjoyed.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
ICYHOT CHIC
ReplyDeleteThe stuntwoman is HEROIC,
'THO not by HAPPEN stance,
TODATE her, APPEAR stoic
and SHE'll LEAPATTHECHANCE.
--- PAPA KNUTE ASHE
Write-overs on the first two across answers and SEEred before SEETHE. A real inkfest up there. After being perfect yesterday it was BOUNDTOHAPPEN.
ReplyDeleteWordle eagle!!!
Dear Rex:
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you were kidding or not, but I go to several other crossword blogs, and you are almost always the most negative in your critique of the NYT Xwords.
Czar and tsar are the exact same word. Cz is the Cyrillic transliteration of the first letter of the Russian word, while ts is the phonetic transliteration. Growing up, the czar spelling is the only one I can recall seeing. The phonetically correct spelling has become the preferred one now.
ReplyDelete