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1980s TV role for Brosnan / TUE 2-6-24 / Designed with passageways / Game with Lollipop Woods and Gumdrop Mountains / Kellogg's cereal with a purple box / Automaker with a Cybertruck / Book after II Chronicles
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Constructor: Victor Barocas
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (untimed)
Theme answers:
Kind of a placeholder puzzle. It's got a real basic core concept that renders the kind of low-key, mostly sub-chuckle wackiness that I associate with last-century puzzles. But the revealer really saves it from outright ordinariness and blandness. MOVE DOVER has the kind of big, weird wackiness that wacky puzzles need if they're gonna work (nothing worse than tepid wackiness). There's something so strange and improbable and cartography-specific about moving Dover. Like, where did you have it in the first place? In a Bristol suburb? I also just like imagining that "MOVE DOVER!" is some kind of all-hands-on-deck cartographical emergency, like an alarm is going off and siren lights are flashing in some secret subterranean mapmaking lair. 'The Queen's atlas is wrong! All wrong! MOVE DOVER! I repeat, MOVE DOVER!" So the puzzle put that image in my mind, if nothing else. Also, I like that the revealer is itself a theme answer. Usually revealers just point at the themers, but this one exemplifies *and* explains the theme concept. Neat trick. I also like that the best of the rest of the themers is sitting midpuzzle, in a marquee position. FORGED ALLIANCES is the biggest of the lot, and also the one that has the most transformative power, i.e. the biggest sound change (ALLIANCES to DALLIANCES, with the stress moving from the "I" to the first "A"). So the theme idea is a bit dull, but at least one of the first four themers came to play, and the revealer had enough juice to make the whole endeavor seem worth it. Arguably. I don't know if I'm arguing that, but it's arguable.
- SPICE DRUM (17A: *Large container for cinnamon or coriander?)
- LOVE DONE (21A: *Gist of a Dear John letter?)
- FORGE DALLIANCES (39A: *Play matchmaker?)
- CHIME DIN (54A: *Tinkling racket on a windy day?)
Nel Ust Wyclef Jean (/ˈwaɪklɛf ˈʒɒ̃/ WHY-clef; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper and musician. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated to the United States with his family. He first achieved fame as a founding member, co-producer and guitarist of the New Jersey hip hop trio The Fugees, alongside Lauryn Hill and Pras Michel. The group released the albums Blunted on Reality (1994) and The Score (1996), the latter becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. Jean would follow this with the release of his first solo studio album, Wyclef Jean Presents The Carnival (1997), which contains the top ten hit "Gone till November". [...] He is the recipient of three Grammy Awards, the BET Humanitarian Award, and a Vanguard Award from the NAACP Image Awards, in addition to being nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his musical work. In 2011, President Michel Martelly of Haiti awarded Jean with the National Order of Honour and Merit to the rank of Grand Officer. Jean has also been inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. // Named after the biblical scholar John Wycliffe, Wyclef Jean was born in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti on October 17, 1969. (wikipedia) (my surprised emph.)
• • •
The rest of the puzzle had fewer high points. Like the theme concept, it felt old. Creaky. Lots and lots of names, and lots and lots of things that felt last-century, including (especially?) EGG TIMERS. Do those still exist? Don't we just call them ... timers, now? I guess traditional EGG TIMERS came in the form of miniature hourglasses. So ... not so much last century as the century (and many centuries) before that. It's supposed to measure the time it takes to boil an egg. You're probably using your phone or your microwave timer at this point. I wonder if people under 40 have even heard of EGG TIMERS. Or TALIA Shire. Or "Remington STEELE" (9D: 1980s TV role for Brosnan). These answers were all right over the plate for me, but then again I'm old. Wyclef-JEAN old (seriously, we were born one month apart! It goes Wyclef JEAN, me, Jay-Z—your important late-'69 birthdays!).
AISLED is bleh (41D: Designed with passageways), but mostly the fill just feels stale. ENOLA ADESTE IDES OREO OPEC ANTE INBED DOSED (a verb I only see in xwords). And names. A ton of names. TALIA DRNO IDRIS EMMA EZRA ELSA JEAN STEELE. Even the longer answers feel last century. Is RAISIN BRAN still a big seller (3D: Kellogg's cereal with a purple box)? Do people still play CANDYLAND? (10D: Game with Lollipop Woods and Gumdrop Mountains) This puzzle feels like it's from my teenage years. Except for E*TRADE. But when your one (non-IDRIS) modern answer is E*TRADE, which is itself old by now, I don't think you've improved things much. It's good for puzzles to have some balance, but this one feels heavily tilted toward yesteryear. Clues on TESLA (33D: Automaker with a Cybertruck) and EMMA (5A: Stone on a set) and ENOLA (27D: "___ Holmes" (streaming film about Sherlock's sister) try their best to add some currency, but to little avail.
This was a typically easy Tuesday puzzle in most respects. Hardest part for me, by far, was the 1-Across / 1-Down crossing. I have no idea where EZRA is in the Bible, it turns out (1A: Book after II Chronicles). If it's a book of the Bible in four letters, I tend to want ACTS, but not today! And that clue on ELSA, yeesh (1D: Woman's name that's also the first four letters of a Central American country name). You really have to run through your Central American rolodex before you alight on EL SAlvador. I didn't even bother to try—just got the letter entirely from crosses. After that, my only stumbles were FORMED ALLIANCES (instead of FORGED) and a bizarre inability to get INCENTIVES, even after I had IN-ENTI-ES in place (31D: Deal sweeteners). Kept seeing INTESTINES. Sigh. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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78 comments:
Enjoyable puzzle. MOVEDOVER was a neat revealer, which helped with the starred clues.
My only sticking point was having "formedalliances" instead of FORGEDALLIANCES.
Easy-ish for a Tuesday. Same problem as OFL in the NW, with 1Ax1D, but no overwrites. Liked FORGE DALLIANCES a lot.
I enjoyed the theme more than @Rex. Before I parsed the theme I had FORGEs ALLIANCES--I figured a matchmaker could make ALLIANCES just as much as DALLIANCES. The tenses didn't agree so I knew something was off, and finally got MOVE DOVER and changed it to FORGED. Otherwise I had the same trouble with EZRA/ELSA as OFL; everything else was in my sweet spot as well (I'm even older than @Rex!). It felt like more trouble than it was.
Just what I hope to find on a a Tuesday — light, easy, with a clever theme and revealer. And old. Did I mention old?
Yep, I thought the fact that I plunked in STEELE for Brosnan without a nanosecond of reflection was really showing my age.
Doing mostly downs so didn't see the themer clues but experience with wordplay meant that I saw right away that SPICED RUM could also be a SPICE DRUM. Also got LOVE DONE entirely from downs. Got a tad stuck on 39A with FOR_E etc my first thought was FORGEt because I hadn't quite realized it was a D we were moving.
But by the time I had some of the revealer in place it said to me, "MOVE D OVER"" and it wasn't until I read @Rex that I realized...
Going a bit too fast there!
Thought it was fun, good Tuesday.
Yes, not a bad theme, and FORGE DALLIANCES is good! I also couldn’t figure out INCENTIVES for too long. I knew EZRA right away (learned a song to memorize the books of the Bible, back in the day). But I couldn’t get TALIA or STEELE for a while (I’m a bit younger than Rex). It was interesting and fun for the start of my day!
I played CANDYLAND with my 5 year old last night. Still a crowd pleaser with the kindergarten set.
Like Rex, I wasn't crazy about the fill, but I did thoroughly enjoy the revealer.
IDRIS ? Elba, Able ? No clue - looked up IDRIS and it just seems to be someone’s name. Religion, mythology - was she Napoleon’s wife ? Is theisa PPP clue or a play on words ? Can’t remember drawing such a blank on a Tuesday clue. Can anyone shed some light on that one ?
Rex said: P.S. re: "ENOLA Holmes" (27D), why "streaming film" and not "Netflix film" or just ... "film"?
I think that Enola Holmes was released in 2020 during the lockdown, so “streaming film” seems relevant. As for why not “Netflix film”, the less corporate advertising the better in my opinion.
I liked it. Cute theme. Solving pre-coffee I somehow got the revealer but could not grok what it meant. I think I even got a few of the themers on enough crosses
but still wasn’t getting the trick 😆😆😆
When it finally hit me it gave me a good morning chuckle.
Idris ELBA is a very ABLE actor. I thought this clue was one of the stars of the puzzle, and made the clue for EMMA Stone funnier.
I liked the theme and enjoyed the puzzle. Definitely a last-century vibe, which was not a problem for me! TALIA, STEELE, RAISINBRAN - all gimmes.
IDRIS Elba is an actor. The clue for IDRIS was pretty much of a mystery to me (got it from crosses only) although I know his name well, but looking back I think it’s pretty clever.
I hope I’m not alone in my immediate association with the Bart Simpson-style prank phone call name Ben Dover… remembering that generated almost enough good will to overlook AISLED and ELSA!
Definitely a reactionary type theme - cute but well worn. The revealer flexes here - I liked it. Overall fill was flat - but not ugly. Nice to see TALIA - EGG TIMERS assists with the old timey feel of the grid.
Pleasant enough Tuesday morning solve.
OMD
I didn't mind the plethora of crosswordese. Sometimes it's nice to see old friends gathered in one place.
I've been re-doing old NYT puzzles (1994) and often smile at seeing a word that used to be common but isn't anymore.
Oh, man, did I adore this theme.
First of all, you have to come up with it in the first place. How did Victor do that? This is a theme that comes from the nether reaches of left field. Maybe he saw, say, LOVED ONE, in a book, his brain tapped him on the shoulder with LOVE DONE, and he thought, “Hmm…”. But then…
How do you come up with more of these? And of specific lengths to meet the requirements of grid symmetry? AND have them be “Hah!”-worthy. There have been some stabs in the comments at more of these theme answers, but, IMO, none as good as the ones in this puzzle.
Then there’s the revealer actually being a theme answer as well, with its own moved D! And with its marvelous bonzo clue. That's a mic drop of a finish -- perfecto!
And CHIME DIN! CHIME DIN! What a sweet phrase and concept. I can actually hear actual lovely chime din in my head just from thinking of the phrase. In fact, I will be awash in a cloud of chime din at various points throughout the day today because of this answer.
Standing O, Victor, on this sparkling theme. Your puzzle entertained and amazed me, and I’m ever so grateful to you for making it!
I liked this one considerably more than OFL, which must mean that it's a day ending in "y". Saw what was going on after a couple of themers and thought the revealer was brilliant.
If I knew there was an EZRA in the Bible I had forgotten, and reading Central America as Central Africa for some reason was no help. Oops. And if AISLED is in fact a word it shouldn't be.
We still play CANDYLAND with granddaughter EMMA, who is now 6. Very hard at first to explain the concept that if you decided to play a game involving other people, you're accepting the fact that you might lose. Eventually she has agreed to this basic concept unlike certain ex-presidents I could name.
Nicely dsone indeed, VB. A veritable Bouquet of fresh answers, and thanks for all the fun.
Put in "Viciously attack" MAim for 7D and then ""Gist of a Dear John letter" mOVingon for 21A. Seemed right on until I got to the revealer and wondered about a dup of MOVE. Rex cleared that up.
Very old times but I do love the Fugees!
As someone fairly new to crosswords, may I ask a question? Why do people seem to hate seeing proper names so much? I’m a trivia geek and those are always my favorite parts of crosswords, but I keep seeing posts talking about how too many names are a bad thing. Why is that? (Forgive my newbie crossword confusion)
Clever word play, the reason I started doing crosswords. A really good Tuesday.
Like to start seeing cluing for Ezra as the brilliant _____ Klein.
And if you have Stone, Shire, Steele, Jean, you ran through some generations very well. Inclusion. Congrats.
Super easy, pretty fun, and I LOVED the revealer — nifty!
In the TV series 'Sherlock", Sherlock's sister is Eurus, another five-letter word beginning with E. The scene where she reveals herself to John Watson is one of the best in the series, with the music amping up the tension.
For what it's worth, "dosed" is used a lot in the serious coffee and espresso community.
as an under 40 solver, i definitely know EGG TIMER - or at least enough to put TIMER down, get an E, and remember from there.
however, both TALIA and STEELE were total unknowns to me - and it felt cheap to cross them on a Tuesday of all days
Can someone explain how flag is the answer to “lose steam”
Hey All !
Interesting Theme. Revealer let's you know to MOVE D OVER to make the Themers make sense. Pretty neat that the Revealer follows the same pattern, ala MOVED OVER changes to MOVE DOVER when you actually MOVE the "D" OVER.
Not sure I know what DALLIANCE means, let me Goog it ...
Ah, it says, "A casual romantic or sexual relationship". Is that where Dilly Dally came from? NYT playing risque today.
Low Blocker count, only 32 (38 normal Max). Close to a Pangram. Missing a Q and a W, oddly.
SANTAS - Every year here in town, they have the Great Santa Run, a 5K charity thing where everyone dresses in SANTA suits. When you look, it's a sea of Red. Pretty cool. Some go whole hog, replete with beards and all. Around the second week of December.
Happy Tuesday, all.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Loved this puzzle! Best Tuesday in years. So playful -- and with such funny and offbeat themers.
They supplied a welcome level of puzzlement that I wasn't expecting so early in the week. I fell completely for the first themer, SPICE DRUM. "They make spice containers that big?" I wondered. "Gee, my spice containers are really small. Do I not have a SPICE DRUM because I'm not much of a cook? Or is it because my NYC apartment kitchen is too small to accommodate one?"
I still hadn't completely figured out the gimmick at LOVE DONE for the gist of a "Dear John" level. "Gee, what an usual way to put it," I thought. "But I suppose, when you come to think about it..."
The parsing aspect dawned on me at FORGE DALLIANCES/FORGED ALLIANCES. I went and re-parsed all my previous answers before moving on to complete my solve.
MOVE DOVER!!!! What an inspired revealer and how wonderfully clued. And so funny.
An enormously entertaining puzzle that has to have been FORGED by a wonderfully playful and inventive mind. Really nice work, Victor!
Really liked the theme and oooh, that revealer.
Yea the puzzle tilted old, but a little disingenuous to say IDRIS and E*TRADE are the only modern answers. We’ve got TESLA (surprised didn’t get the Elon Rex rant)), EMMA stone, the 2020s ENOLA movie,
And I guess cereals should stay out of XWs since really any of the top selling brands are all long established. Cheerios, Frosted Flakes, fruit loops, fruity pebbles, etc. Not a lot of turnover on cereal best sellers. One industry trade pub had RAISINBRAN clocking in with ~50 million boxes sold which ranked 11th in 2022.
Also, food for thought: From Amazon’s Best Seller Lists:
Thermometer and Timers - the venerable EGGTIMER #10 (and that’s just one particular product, there are others on the list as well).
Board Games - CANDYLAND #4
Born in ‘67, I’m probably a couple years older than Rex, but I’d like to think that just because something has had a long shelf life, doesn’t make it currently irrelevant, dated, un-modern. Old, as in age, sure, but are still very much “things”.
Able was I ere I saw Elba. 23a.
@anon 8:00, the thought is that a crossword is more about word play and clever clues to make you think about words you know in new ways than exploring the depths of arcane knowledge. A few proper nouns add some spice, but are frustrating if you don't know them. Sometimes you get to learn about someone or something new, other times there is no way to surmise or intuit the answer if you don't know it, leading to the feeling that the clue might as well be "random letter string that sounds like a name". Names with non-standard English spellings are particularly frustrating to many.
The crosswords over at the New Yorker are rightfully highly praised, but are much more likely to be liberally sprinkled with more obscure names, generally of people who aren't household famous but worth knowing. They would elicit howls here.
This puzzle Tuezzed quite well
Liked it a lot. Filled in the grid rather easily but it took me a while to see the D's moving over.
CANDYLAND is still for sale at Target.
Another clue for OREO at 43A. Is it the most used four?
Only four threes. Wonderful!
Thx, Victor; clever piece of work! 😊
Very easy downs-o.
No idea of the theme until post-solve analysis; what a beaut! :)
Moved smoothly down the downs, but had to return to the top for MER, MAUL, STEELE & CANDY LAND (which the granddaughters and I LOVED to play).
Big IDRIS Elba fan here, going back to 'The Wire' (Crave TV).
Really LIKEd ENOLA Holmes (Netflix).
My EGG TIMER is my Apple Watch.
A most enjoyable adventure; LOVED it! :)
___
Croce's 882 was med, with the NW being a bear! (hi @jae)
Will Shortz' NYT Misprints xword was mostly easy except for a very tough lower right quad.
Wyna Liu's New Yorker Mon up NEXT, with Stella Zawistowski's New Yorker Sun. cryptic on 'deck'.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a dap to all 👊 🙏
"Letter", not "level" in my comment above.
No wonder I liked this puzzle so much. Here's what Victor Barocas wrote in his Constructor's Comments:
"I believe that the fundamental message of the puzzle should be “Look how smart the solver is for figuring this puzzle out,” not “Look how smart the constructor is for constructing this impressive puzzle.” So I hope that solvers got a mini “Aha!” moment from the theme entries, and that they enjoyed solving the puzzle as much as I enjoyed making it."
Amen, Amen, Amen, Victor! And this solver definitely did have both reactions mentioned in your last sentence.
FUN TOME! thUmbsUp.
Didn't catch on until FORGEDALLIANCES, where the theme mcguffin kinda globbered U over the head and joggled U into full awareness. Cool wordplay.
Great revealer, too boot.
staff weeject pick [of a mere 4 choices]: MER(maid/man).
some fave fillins: RAISINBRAN. CANDYLAND. END SIT. EMOJI.
AISLED. har
Thanx for the fun gusto day, Mr. Barocas dude. Great job!
Masked & Anonymo1U
**gruntz**
I struggled on a few of these!! I’m pretty young compared to some of these clues, so there is no chance I’d know them. And others may have just been a lack of crossword knowledge. Ides, Idris, Isto, Talia and Steele :( I have also never heard of a chime din? phew. But made it to the end!
Reminded me of the Sean Connery character on SNL's Celebrity Jeopardy who would intentionally and hilariously botch the reading of the categories. 'Le Tits Now' for 200. 'It's 'Let It Snow', Sean. 'Jap Anus relations for 400, Trebek'. 'It's Japan US Relations'. One of the all time great recurring skits. Cool puzzle for a Tuesday and a great concept and revealer.
Perfectly enjoyable puzzle, but holy cow what is this theme? Every one has been tortured in a basement -- and not in the "made for TV hug your boyfriend afterward in front of the cops" kinda way, but in the "these scars will require surgery and a lifetime of therapy" kinda way.
And AISLED. {Bloated word list says *burp*} BOFF-o.
Here's how you know life is OK: "Nothing worse than tepid wackiness." -- 🦖
Uniclues:
1 Submit Christmas cocktail for adjudication.
2 A pretty face, a wonderful smile, and a lights-out recipe for Texas chili.
3 A little one made out of ice cream, ideally.
4 Make note of one prepared to do the perfect twist.
5 How we wish NyQuil worked.
6 Jaded gardener's contrary advise to one planning on harmoniously coexisting with another species.
7 🍬
8 "If you can just hit a few of those higher notes, we'll give you soprano salary and a parking space up front."
1 ENTER SPICED RUM (~)
2 LOVED ONE ASSETS (~)
3 IDEAL OREO FLAG (~)
4 FLAG IDEAL OREO (~)
5 DOSED. ENDS IT. (~)
6 "NOPE. MAUL MOLES." (~)
7 CANDYLAND EMOJI
8 ALTO INCENTIVES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Put Super-Glue on it before insertion into the orifice. LIMIT Q-TIP EASE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What is idris?
Rex, believe me, you're not old. Old is when it feels like you need a complex pulley device to get yourself out of bed each morning.
Many old folks will tell you it snuck up on them -- out of breath climbing stairs, eyesight getting blurry -- but I can pinpoint the exact time and place that I became old. It was at a minor league ballpark years ago - beautiful Waconah Park in Pittsfield MA.
I was meeting friends for the game and arrived early and went up to the little ticket booth/shack to buy my ticket. A torn-out notebook page was taped to the window that said: General Admission $3; Seniors $2. Inside was a gum-chewing high school girl glued to a paperback book. (This was pre-cellphones.) She turned her head to me, and I said: "What constitutes a senior by you?" She looked at me for a few seconds, and then said "I'll give it to you."
So at that precise moment (1) I learned was old, and (2) I saved a dollar!
Fer cryin out loud!...I had to cheat on EGG TIMERS. I had FORcED ALLIANCES. Yep. So I'm stuck with EC. I couldn't figure out FLAG at 42A and then to make me hurt even more, I had those kitchen counters as some kind of TILERS.
I'm crushed that I couldn't reach the finish line all because of an EGG TIMER. I don't think I've ever timed my eggs. Well, maybe a hard boiled one. Put your eggs in cold water, bring to a boil and set your phone to ring at 11 minutes.
I also had a problem with remembering EMMA Stone, so MER (maid or boy) made me want to smoke a cig. I didn't and I finally solved after a sip of Peet's.
Having said what I said, I thought this was brilliant. I actually squeaked with delight when I saw MOVE DOVER. Que clever. But getting there!.....Ay Dios Mio. SPICED RUM. You were my first "What in hell is a SPICE DRUM or even SPICED RUM relating to the clue?"....It took DOVER to make me see the end of the finish line.
I'd say this was the cleverest Tuesday (and hard in some parts) I've ever done.
I'm impressed and in awe. Shall we dance?
Grammar nerd alert! I liked this twisty theme where moving a D also could mean changing parts of speech, making a whirl of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and where the transformations worked slightly differently - e.g. SPICE DRUM and CHIME DIN are both noun phrases but SPICED RUM (adj, + noun) and CHIMED IN (verb phrase) are no longer parallel. Fun with English! Anyway. Along the way, I saw what we were doing with the Ds but couldn't come up with the reveal, as Dorset blocked out all possibility of DOVER. Loved seeing CANDYLAND.
@pabloinnh - Your comment about your granddaughter needing to learn about the possibility of losing in a game struck a chord. For my second granddaughter that lesson came with the card game Old Maid. But since then, we've found we prefer games that we can adapt to play cooperatively and win - or lose - as a team. Current favorite: double solitaire. This non-competitive bent has rubbed off on me so that when my daughter and her partner enthusiastically introduced me to the board game Catan (where you compete to accumulate "victory points"), my only thought was, Why can't we cooperate and pool our resources? It would make so much more sense. (Bad board game player attitude, I know.)
Medium except for tracking down a typo plus TodoS before TIFFS was costly.
Great clue for IDRIS!
Smooth, subtle and clever, liked it.
What's wrong with old? Old is a very relative term. I feel old at 80, but my oldest friend just turned 90. And I have friends in their 50s who describe themselves as "old". Although EZRA, Nikola TESLA and SANTA are older, the OREO is 112 years old. Seeing OREO how-many-times weekly for how-many-years gets old.
"New" is also relative, of course. Today's puzzle has no new fill, but I enjoyed the few minutes I spent solving it. I don't really know how long I spent, as I didn't set my EGG TIMER.
I really loved this puzzle and was happy to see that most commenters did also. I figured @Southside would complain more about so many proper name “trivia” but I guess he just needs to brush up on the very fine actor IDRIS Elba…btw…FANTASTIC clue!
@anonymous 8:00…@burtonkd pretty much filled you in on your question. I don’t mind proper names either, but I guess if it gets close to 30% it’s “bad form.” What gives me a chuckle is when people complain that historical figures, geography, true classic literature is “trivia.” As for me, I’ve read books and authors, watched movies, tv shows, tried out listening to music and artists mentioned in the puzzle. It all depends on what YOU enjoy in a crossword…not everyone else. Just keep in mind @Rex sees his role as critiquing, so you won’t often see him heap effusive praise.
This theme was pure joy. Satisfying, clever, and at the perfect Tuesday difficulty. Ezra is a great read, a heroine of the Old Testament given her due.
@Carola 11:20 AM & @pabloinnh
We started playing a game called Pandemic with friends and it's the first cooperative game I can remember playing. You plot each move as a team and live with the consequences. It's overwhelming and we often lose, but by the time that happens you can eat pie and lick yer wounds together. Of note, you also tear up certain cards and put permanent stickers on things. It's designed to consume itself and then you throw it away after a year's play. All completely crazy to me, but super fun.
I always day Fridays are harder than Saturdays, but recently it seems Mondays are harder than Tuesdays. Today's was easy and often amusing.
And I want to thank OFL for so often including songs that are apropos, and, if unknown to me, worth hearing for the first time. That one about coming down from Dover was a real tear-jerker.
Rex complained about creakiness, but as a #youth I didn't really notice anything too old about it. Believe it or not, EGG TIMERS, RAISIN BRAN, and CANDYLAND were all also a part of my childhood! What stuck out to me is the number of wordplay/tricky clues; I think there are a lot more than usual for a Tuesday. I think it's nice to have a puzzle with that sort of cluing style for the early-week-only solvers.
@anon newbie-- the problem with proper names is that you either know them or you don't, and if you don't they may not be inferable. That's OK if they are fairly crossed, but the STEELE/TALIA cross is an example of how they can be unfair. I guessed right, but might not have. (I'm way older than Rex, but maybe too old -- I'd stopped watching TV by the time of STEELE, or whatever it was.)
OTOH, I thought those noisy tinkling things were a CHIME sIN; a funnier concept, but the wrong tense, so I should have known better.
@Southside and others confused by Idris, it's a play on a famous palindrome about Napoleon, which someone has quoted above. Next up: "What geese may see" 3 letters.
I agree with @Nancy, SPICE DRUM is at least as wacky as FORGE DALLIANCES.
Fun puzzle. I really liked the clue for IDRIS & had formed alliances before FORGED.
Being a "Godfather" aficionado, how could anyone not know TALIA SHIRE?
On many hikes, my energy FLAGs at about mile three.
I find it amusing that @GILL, the great cook, gives SPICE DRUM the back of her hand, saying "What in hell is a SPICE DRUM?" whereas I, the non-cook, worry that the only reason I've never heard of it is either that I don't cook or that my kitchen's too small.
…I forgot to mention that MAim before MAUL was also costly.
The theme was just fine; quite a good Thursday. But it was kinda ruined for me by: you guessed it, too many names.
Here, I'll list them: EZRA, EMMA, TALIA, IDRIS, OREO, OPEC, JEAN, ELSA, RAISINBRAN, STEEELE, CANYLAND, ETRADE, VERDI, ENOLA, TESLA, IKEA, SIMON, DRNO. It would have been even worse if I hadn't known almost all of them but jeez, that's just too many!
Which brings up @Anonymous 8:00 am's question, with @burtonkd and @Beezer's replies. I agree that it's the unknown names that are super super annoying if there are a lot.
Quite a few typeovers: OLD before MER -man/-maid, BOND before LIEN, TODOS before TIFFS, BIRDS before MOLES because "early birds get them", ORDER before STEAD, VAXED before DOSED, FIDELES before ADESTE almost fit, TIDY before NEAT, IRK before VEX. Okay enough listing things.
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0, and yd got Sunday's last word so I'm taking it as a win which means QB streak 12 days!]
Two absolutely terrible clues (for IDRIS and for ELSA) really took this puzzle down a notch for me. The theme and reveal are fine, and normally that's all I ask for. But really, really bad fill or really, really bad clues can spoil things.
I have to go over and stand in the other corner. This one didn't work for me. In order to de-whackify the the themers you don't MOVE D OVER, you MOVE D BACK. D has already been MOVEd OVER to change the sensible to the whacky versions.
So I went looking for other amusements and found that the following weren't up to the task of filling their slots: ASSET, END IT, MOLE, INCENTIVE, FORGED ALLIANCE, TIFF, EGG TIMER, SANTA, SOD and LIKE. POC (plural of convenience) to the rescue!
Seems like it wanted to be a Thursday but since it was a Tuesday, there had to be easier non-starred clues. But because gimmicks still require some massaging to make them fit, the easy clues were just ambiguous, boring, and ultimately lacked a sense of payoff. "Ends it," "sods," "egg timers."
@Rich Glauber 10:41 HAH!...Thanks for my morning laugh...
@Nancy 12:50. Another HAH! I actually had time to look at a picture of a SPICE DRUM and it might've come from NASA as far as I can tell. It's this contraption where you (I guess) pour in your spices and the DRUM rolls around to mix them. Just what you wanted to learn today, huh! Oh, and I've never had a SPICED RUM. I'm more of a "Mojito" girl.....
@anonymous 8 am. Because more of us are word lovers than trivia lovers. I didn't mind being asked to know the names of rivers (more common when I first was doing crosswords) but being asked to know the name of a Nobel winner from 6o years ago that no one outside their field or family is likely to know, or- much worse- the name of one of the thousand of rock musicians whose music mostly hurts my ears (literally hurts)
not what I want in a crossword puzzle.
No one has heard of a “chime din.” That’s the wacky parsing. Presumably you ~have~ heard of the phrase “chimed in.”
Famous palindrome about Napoleon — “Able I was, ere I saw Elba.” (The island where he was exiled.) I thought this one was very clever.
Many of you regulars know I’m an “old solver” or heck, I’m just “old”. Can’t buy that 70 is the new 30 or even 40. Falling into that category also tends to allow me to be quite nostalgic. It just happens. The more experiences we have (especially good ones,) the more we seem to enjoy being reminded of them.
This was one of those nice recalled experiences.
We haven’t seen this specific theme in quite a while, and I didn’t pick up on it immediately. The NW got me stuck on the EZRA thing and up top in the center even with ENDS IT, EMMA and NEAR my brain just would not see MAUL. It was the very last to fall. Accordingly, I didn’t “get” the theme until I MOVED OVER and then suddenly saw that what I really needed to do was MOVE DOVER! It put me immediately back to my 10or 11 year old self, sitting next to Gran’s old green recliner leaning over her shoulder as we worked through a Sunday NYT puzzle.
As for this one, my solve route from the center top went counter clockwise al around. The little middle pieces were easily filled in as I wended my way around.
On to the memory. Once I understood the theme, it reminded me of a big fat Sunday puzzle decades ago. I wasn’t close to solving anything but most of a Monday by myself and I was always reluctant to even think that I might have seen something that my Gran (my true parent, life guide and lifelong person I relied on as I grew up) had missed or not yet figured out. But I did see “something” and Gran saw that I did. It’s been 6 decades and I can’t remember the exact puzzle or the theme answers, but I remember Gran looking at me and saying “have you gotten it? You see something I missed.” I reluctantly said something like “Well, um, er, do you see that the long ones actually spell two things?” And from that little experience I remember two things.
The two things are not the clue answers, those are too far back, but I remember Gran clapping her hands (just once as always when she was excited) and gleefully saying “You figured it out and now we can finish!” But before she went back to the grid with bee trusty Parker ballpoint, she took my hands in hers and said, “Don’t ever be shy about sharing a well-reasoned opinion, but always do so respectfully and with clarity, so others will listen.” Another Gran gem that shaped my life.
Once after a particularly long and contentious month in Federal Court, after the case finally settled rather than going all the way to a verdict, the judge asked to see me in chambers. This same puzzle came to mind when the judge thanked me for my “reasoned, calm professionalism,” (my opponent being a ranter got on her nerves repeatedly). She continued: “your demeanor and delivery are always exceptional and people listen to you.” Gran was always right.
I enjoyed this one both for the memory and especially for the spots with some resistance. Thanks Mr. Barocas for a splendid Tuesday experience!
Kitshef
Interesting that many people liked the Idris clue and you hated it.
When I first saw it, I thought it was one of overly cute wordplay clues. But it did grow on me for its play on the famous palindrome
The Elsa clue is one of those types that Shortz loves. I don’t dislike them like you do, but I don’t think they add much to the puzzle.
At least it was easy.
(At we didn’t have to read the complaints about Disney characters)
As someone else pointed out, some older people, like me had stopped watching TV series on the networks when Remington Steele was on. We are too old to recognize the name of the actor’s name. But getting some of the letters I recalled the name of the series, that memory helped.
I liked the gimmick and so a fun puzzle.
Not hard
A crossword with older references? Sign me up! Whooshed through it, and I liked the wordplay—above par for a Tuesday, I think, and I didn't notice lot of gunk. Breezy and fun.
CDilly 5:04
I love the stories you tell us about you and your "gran." They are sweet. Hope you're enjoying Santa Rosa and you didn't get blown away.
My son (4) also has trouble with this. He likes to play so the person who makes it first goes back and starts again so everyone can make it to the end. So the winner still wins but everyone has a chance to finish the game. Maybe eventually he’ll similarly accept the concept of winning and losing.
Proper names are dull in crosswords. They're usually easy and leave a "so what" aftertaste. Seem to me to be the lazy way out.
Dave Grohl
Michael Sheen
Jennifer Aniston
Mariah Carey
Hideki Irabu
Me
Cate Blanchett
What is "people with early 1969 birthdays"?
I loved this puzz for its themers but also the NEAT quality of its clues: OVERT, DARE, SCALD, DIRECT, MOLES all tickled my brain with new information or efficient definitions.
Great puzzle, Dan! My only hangup was thinking that the dance was HORA, and then somehow convincing myself that it was spelled HOLA, and then taking forever to realize the carmaker was LUCID, which made HULA obvious. That was my bad, and I loved the theme.
I was also confused by this clue, and I don't know if this is relevant, but Iris Elba and his wife own a skincare brand named s'ABLE labs.
MOVEDOVER's cousin BENDOVER says hi. It's rare that a revealer can serve as a themer all in one, but here it is. Cool beans.
Long downs are 3/4 food-related, and even the fourth, INCENTIVES, can be "dessert if you eat your veggies," etc.
No fewer than 9 stray D's, ex-theme. A pretty common letter to try excluding, but it would've been elegant. No deduction.
Come on, DOD TALIA Shire isn't THAT old, and her fame as Rocky's girl is iconic. Give her some love. In the corners I DOTE on her.
Good, tight theme and perfect revealer. Fill, while name-heavy, is easily handled, with nothing awful. Birdie.
Wordle bogey.
I give this one a D.
NO TEASE
Don’t DARE TO be STEELE,
FORGEDALLIANCES IN STEAD,
the INCENTIVE’S IDEAL
to get your LOVEDONE INBED.
--- DR. EMMA JEAN SIMON
Every time EZRA or Amos shows up I remember my mom teaching me a song so that I knew all the book of the Bible. In order, of course. I was five. About a year after I earned my first Bible by reciting 10 verses in 10 weeks in front of the congregation. And they were long verses.
So - I may not know the Periodic Table, but there is hope.
Ta Da!
Lady D
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