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Salamander named after an Aztec deity / SUN 2-4-24 / Qualifier for a date / North American fish with toxic roe / It's signed after a break / Shot in the arm, slangily / Anatomical stabilizer / One role in a classic interrogation trope
Sunday, February 4, 2024
Constructor: Daniel Grinberg
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (12ish minutes (I printed out a new puzzle for my wife before I wrote down the exact time, but it was about two minutes over my average))
Theme answers:
- "GUILTY AS CHARGED" (23A: Fault line?) (said by one who is at fault)
- "CAN'T COMPLAIN" (31A: Fine line?) (said by one who is fine)
- "TELL ME I'M PRETTY" (47A: Fishing line?) (said by someone fishing for a compliment)
- "SIX-INCH OR FOOTLONG?" (63A: Subway line?) (said by an employee at a Subway sandwich shop) (!?)
- "PLEASE BE SEATED" (81A: Assembly line?) (said by the principal, perhaps, at a school assembly, I assume)
- "YOU'RE THE BOSS" (98A: Power line?) (said to one in a position of power)
- "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN" (110A: Subject line?) (said of the Queen by her subject)
- "SIR, YES, SIR!" (15D: Private line?) (said by a private in the Army)
- "MAKE A WISH" (75D: Party line?) (said at a birthday party)
Leslie Feist (born February 13, 1976), known mononymously as Feist, is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene.Feist launched her solo music career in 1999 with the release of Monarch. Her subsequent studio albums, Let It Die, released in 2004, and The Reminder, released in 2007, were critically acclaimed and commercially successful, selling over 2.5 million copies. The Reminder earned Feist four Grammy nominations, including a nomination for Best New Artist. She has received 11 Juno Awards, including two Artist of the Year. Her fourth studio album, Metals, was released in 2011. In 2012, Feist collaborated on a split EP with metal group Mastodon, releasing an interactive music video in the process.
She has released six studio albums as of 2023, Feist received three Juno awards at the 2012 ceremony: Artist of the Year, Adult Alternative Album of the Year for Metals, and Music DVD of the Year for her documentary Look at What the Light Did Now., additionally she was nominated for four Grammy Awards including Best Pop Vocal Album for The Reminder and Best New Artist. (wikipedia)
• • •
Well, I *can* complain, but this puzzle has made me so weary and depressed that I don't think I have the energy to do so at length. The theme is weak ... but also so convoluted, with such arbitrary, random-seeming answers, that it played slow. So the experience was ... slow and painful, just like the best dentist appointments. Again, the idea seems to be that quantity will make up for quality. Is your theme kinda meh? Well, just add an extra heaping of themers, that should ... solve ... it. The whole "line" thing doesn't quite work. Is the line said by you ("TELL ME I'M PRETTY") or by me, about you ("YOU'RE THE BOSS")? I guess it's just ... any line, which anyone, in any context, might say? Is the question "SIX-INCH OR FOOTLONG?" really so iconic, so deeply established in sandwich lore, that it can stand alone, as the Central Answer in a Sunday puzzle? Is it even a standard "line" at Subway? (I don't know if I've been in one in the past two decades, ever since my then-young daughter convinced me that they "smell weird.") Over and over again, I could not get from the theme clues to the various "lines," even with lots of letters in place, so completely made up did they seem—or so tenuous did the answers' connection seem to the clue. You could do [___ line?] clues all day long. Chorus line? Hair line? Bee line? Offensive line? Defensive line? Date line? Border line? Tan line? Battle line? Telephone line? There's no end. And yet *these* are the best lines the puzzle can offer? There's something so contrived and pathetic about "TELL ME I'M PRETTY ([Fishing line?]). And I had "YOU'RE THE BEST!" instead of "YOU'RE THE BOSS" for way too long ([Power line?]). Why? Because why not? Do you know how far it is from "Assembly" to "PLEASE BE SEATED"!?!?!? I think of "Assembly" as something kids have in grammar school. But "PLEASE BE SEATED"? That seems too formal. We would all file in and already be seated before anything began. Oof.
The worst part of the puzzle for me had nothing to do with the theme; it was encountering a Textbook Example of why I hate the repeated clue gimmick. [49D: Volunteer's declaration] = "I CAN"—yes, that makes sense. That answer does, in fact, go with that clue. But "ON IT"? "ON IT"???? There is nothing necessarily "volunteer"-ish at all about "ON IT" (29D: Volunteer's declaration). If you say "ON IT," you are declaring that you are taking care of something, but perhaps That Is Your Damn Job, not something you're "volunteering" to do. Also, you aren't volunteering if you say "ON IT." You are just ... declaring that you are doing it. "I CAN" is a volunteer's statement. "ON IT"? Bah, throw your repeated clue gimmick in the ocean. Please. Getting that second answer to "work" for the same clue usually involves some kind of torture.
That's it. See you next time.
So many of the clues just didn't compute. [Qualifier for a date] ... no idea (CIRCA). Figured the date was the potentially romantic kind. Your TOE is an [Anatomical stabilizer]? What the HELL? Is JOGGLE really a word? GO A-courtin'?!?!?!! ALLEGORIC should be ALLEGORICAL, first of all, and also [Rich with metaphor] doesn't even begin to get at what allegory is. Not nearly specific enough. That clue on COOPS (CO-OPS) was so hard. I think of CO-OPS as communally run businesses, not living arrangements (32D: Communal housing arrangements). So many errors today. DONUT before BAGEL (1D: There's a hole in one). EEKS (almost fatally) before EGAD (17D: "Crikey!"). ONE DOWN before ONE AWAY (115A: Two outs left, in baseball). So I had to wade through this unbearable and inscrutable theme, and then, in the non themers, also needed an AXE to hack my way through. Pleasureless from stem to stern, this one.
Notes and explanations:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
- 18A: Nipple rings (AREOLAE) — one of my least favorite solving things—waiting to see if the plural will be regular English "-S" or Latin (today, Latin)
- 25A: Qualifier for a date (CIRCA) — when you're not sure of the exact date ... CIRCA is the "qualifier" you'd use
- 27A: Nickname that drops "An-" (DRE) — wanted ARI or ARY ... which is grim. I see (now) that the hyphen comes *after* the "An-"
- 36A: Preserves things? (JARS) — because preserves ... come ... in them?
- 46A: Not down, in a way (SIP) — so you don't down it (i.e. chug it), you SIP it
- 21D: Moved like a cat burglar (CREPT) — the worst wound of the puzzle was self-inflicted; that is, I wrote CREEP here, and this error (plus stupidly clued "ON IT") made the already tough "CAN'T COMPLAIN" nearly impossible
- 68A: Tittle (DOT) —wanted JOT, since that's the word that goes with tittle in the only tittle-containing phrase, "jot and tittle"
- 69A: 1970s-'80s Supreme Court justice ___ F. Powell Jr. (LEWIS) — well, that's from my lifetime, but I swear I've never heard of this guy before in my life.
- 97A: North American fish with toxic roe (GAR) — I mentioned recently that GAR (that crosswordesiest of fish) was mostly retired now. Apparently he still gets out.
- 106A: It's signed after a break (CAST) — again, superhard. Saturday level. Not even a question mark. CASTs are only sometimes signed. I don't know the stats, but ... not a given.
- 95D: Light-headed sorts? (MOTHS) — because they "head" toward light. Very good clue, but again, very hard.
- 6D: Sense of orientation (GAYDAR) — so, sexual orientation.
- 111D: Shot in the arm, slangily (VAX) — wanted JAB
- 64D: Gives a hand? (CLAPS) — irritating "?" since [Gives a hand] is basically what CLAPS means, but the "?" makes it look like the answer's going to be card-related, something like DEALS
- 65D: Hot spot (HELL) — but no "?" here???? And HELL isn't even hot. Read Dante. It's a damn lake of ice down there!
P.S. for the Sunday-only solvers. I feel bad that I don't like Sundays more than I do. I don't know why they seem the hardest day to do right. I have loved many puzzles this year. I loved yesterday's puzzle! I've even reinstated my Puzzles of the Month feature, which I posted on Jan. 31, but which I think I should post (or repost) on the first Sunday of the month, so that there's consistency, and so more people can see it (Sunday is the Big Traffic day). I have redacted the themes / marquee answers, so that the puzzles aren't spoiled for syndication solvers (no idea why syndicated Sunday is two weeks back while M-Sat is five weeks back, but that's the way it is):
These were my January 2024 Puzzles of the Month:
Themed:
- Damon Gulczynksi (Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024)
- Jake Halperin (Monday, Jan. 22, 2024)
Themeless:
- Hoang-Kim Vu (Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024)
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123 comments:
Medium for me. Strongly agree with @Rex’s comments about ON IT, ALLEGORIC, and JOGGLE. That said, I liked it more than he did.
FEIST was a major WOE which I was sure was going to prevent the happy music.
I thought this was relatively easy, did not really get hung up on any the things @RP did, yet it still took me more than 3 times as long to solve.
I also liked it a lot better than OFL did, but still not a lot.
webwinger
I thought the puzzle was okay. Rex ripped it to shreds, but that's basically his job. I actually liked SIX INCH OR FOOT LONG just because it is so Subway specific.
And speaking of theme answers GOD SAVE THE QUEEN has been the proper phrase my entire life, all 64 years of it, until very recently. We sang it at the start of every school assembly in the 1960s, then we sang O Canada at the end. Or was it the other way around? So long ago. I can't imagine singing it with "... King"! I've only heard that in movies set before I was born.
Typeovers: JUNK in a trunk before JACK, OPIOID before OPIATE (KeaLoa?), and for "Scams" RIPOFFS before RIPS OFF because plural noun rather than verb. And why would anyone clue BET using a name abbrev when it's not necessary?
[Spelling Bee: Sat 0; last word this 4er which so often eludes me. QB streak 10 days.]
I'm so glad I liked the theme and some the clues an answers quite a lot. Otherwise it would have been a huge slog as I take about ten times as long as Rex to do a Sunday puzzle.
I do agree that "on it" a questionable answer for the clue. And I had "jiggle" for 10D before barcode turned it
.into joggle- which doe not sound like a slight sake to me. It sounds rougher.
I especially liked "siryesir" It has a sort of crisp sound to it. Was already thinking army private so it came quickly.
Really liked "Make a wish" as a part line - despite the fact that I was very dense about it and had to get all the crosses to see it.
"Please be seated seemed very apt for an assembly line. There are all sorts of assemblies and I think that line could be used at more than one.
The line that inspired the theme was much weaker.IMO Too obviously a "fishing" line.
The only things I really didn't like were Feist and Lola and Tessa and Josie and any other of those names I never know
Smiled at "aisle",( when I finally got it).
and "loan shark"
All in all a good Sunday puzzle
Oh yeah, Smiled at106 A "cast" and 95 D "moths" They were a bit hard but well worth it.
DNF for me at GAYDAm crossing JAmS. GAYDAM of course looked wrong, but the only cross was not "certain" of was BIFLAG. Changing JAMS never occurred to me.
Challenging Sunday for me. It took a long time to get my first themer, so I have this big skeleton grid with all shortstuff filled in but none of the long stuff.
ZUNI makes me think of Trilogy of Terror, the classic Karen Black movie.
Croce Freestyle 882 took a log time before I got my first entry, but after that was very easy (for a Croce). As a point of reference, it took me less time than today's NYT puzzle.
Need to polish up on my Aztec deity named salamanders. Naticked on tittle.
Found it easier than @Rex did, and (perhaps because of that) hated it less than @Rex did.
FEIST goes beyond WOE, almost to WTF.
Communal housing is coops, as in chicken coops
I wonder how long OFL’s complaints would be if he DID go on “at length.” 😜
I thought this was fine. Relatively easy, but ok for a Sunday. And if Sundays had to meet Rex’s standards we might never see one again.
Coops as living arrangements are a big thing in NYC.
I disagree with Rex about COOPS (which are common in college towns). But JOGGLE was a new one for me.
À chacun son goût.. Maybe it was the good cup of coffee, sitting by the fire, watching the sunrise, doggy happily shredding a toy at my feet, but this puzzle just completed my morning vibe. Right up my alley, flew through it, near record time for a Sunday. Yes, some of the fill was lame but I enjoyed the theme, and the puzzle never turned into the dreaded Sunday slog. Feeling peppy and ready for the day.
I clocked in PB for Sunday (which was definitely longer than 12 minutes, lol) so I guess I didn't find the clueing as difficult, but I don't know why the themed answers were "punch" lines: I was looking for some violence-themed punniness which never materialized. FEIST/ELSA/LOLA was a *triple* Natick that required a bit of Googlery I'm not particularly ashamed of.
Allegoric - not a word.
tc
And I thought last Sunday’s whack-a-mole was about as bad as it could get - but today we have a hold my beer situation. Rex was too nice.
”They made you a moron” is apt for this solve
Rex seems to be in a particularly curmudgeonly mood today. "Qualifier for a date" was fine, CIRCA 1900 or CIRCA 2002. And, it's not the fault of the puzzle or puzzle-maker that one takes a while to get EGAD, ONEAWAY (which I hear on the radio all the time), and BAGEL. But I do agree completely that the theme was meh... nothing outstanding. (Who says TELLMEIMPRETTY? Was it some adolescent Daniel heard? Is this a "line"?)
Other thoughts:
- I'm amazed at the staying power of Josie and the Pussycats. I used to watch a lot as a kid growing up in the 1970's. I can still hear the catchy intro theme in my head. Can't remember any of the episodes, but the music, sure.
- Had RIPOFFS for "scams" for a while, before realizing RIPSOFF would work too (a tip of the hat to my wife).
- JILLBIDEN has not been featured in a NYT crossword yet? Really?
- I really didn't want NCIS for "long-running police procedural" - I watch this almost every day, and I kept thinking, "They're not the police! They're Federal agents!" Would you call the FBI police? But, Wikipedia labels this as a "military police procedural".... okay then, uncle.
- And SIRYESSIR was funny. Kinda getting back to the Marines and NCIS again, too.
Well, this one lit up my play-dar, my love of worldplay.
Every theme answer was a riddle that, when the answer became clear, brought a “Hah!”. On top of that, outside the theme, again and again there were excellent pun-based clues – more riddles that brought more smiles.
Such as:
[Light-headed sorts?] for MOTHS.
[Not down, in a way] for SIP.
[Sense of orientation] for GAYDAR.
[Passage of rite?] for AISLE.
All the time I hear “Dad joke” as a put down. But, IMO, there are good and bad ones, and the good ones entertain. Daniel (the constructor) is of the same bent per his notes: “I tried hard to include only answers that activated my dad joke sensors and made me simultaneously smile, chuckle, and groan.”
Well, Daniel, they did all that for me. I left your puzzle thinking, “Now THAT was fun!”, feeling like a kid leaving a playground. Thank you, Daniel. This was a hoot!
Rex, the story behind Lewis Powell's nomination is pretty interesting. Nixon's two southerners, Haynsworth and Carswell, were rejected after months of controversy. At the time Nixon and Mitchell were promoting the concept that the president could violate the Constitution if he, and he alone, determined national security was at stake. The case to test this theory would end up at the Supreme Court. Here's what i wrote in my article "Watergate, Wiretaps, and the White Panther Party":
In October Nixon nominated Rehnquist and lawyer Lewis Powell to the Supreme Court. Nixon advised Mitchell to “emphasize to all the southerners [in Congress] that Rehnquist is a reactionary bastard, which I hope to Christ he is.”
Powell had published an article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on August 1, 1971 headlined: “Civil Liberties – Fact or Fiction,” in which he wrote:
“The question is often asked why, if prior court authorization to wiretap is required in ordinary criminal cases, it should not also be required in national security cases. In simplest terms the answer given by the government is the need for secrecy…Court authorized wiretapping requires a prior showing of probable cause and the ultimate disclosure of sources. Public disclosure of this sensitive information would seriously handicap our counter-espionage and counter-subversive operations.”
“The radical left,” Powell continued, “strongly led and with a growing base of support, is plotting violence and revolution.” He concluded that “the outcry against wiretapping is a tempest in a teapot…Law abiding citizens have nothing to fear.”
Powell was confirmed 89-1. The wiretaps case reached the Supreme Court. Rehnquist recused himself (he'd written the Mitchell doctrine) but Powell not only held that warrantless wiretaps were unlawful − he wrote the opinion of the 8-0 decision against Nixon.
“History abundantly documents the tendency of government…to view with suspicion those who most fervently dispute its policies. Fourth Amendment protections become the more necessary when the targets of official surveillance may be those suspected of unorthodoxy in their political beliefs.”
History lesson for today!
And, Daniel, may I add: I also learned from your notes that this final puzzle is the culmination of 22 previous iterations. Twenty-two iterations of a Sunday puzzle! That is SO inspiring to me, your drive for excellence and your persistence. Bravo, sir!
So I thought a jot was the dot above a lower case i or j and a tittle was the cross of a t. I think the clue and/or answer was wrong.
Re: 4D LOLA. Sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s, while visiting partner's family in Springfield, Mass., my brother in law treated us to the Kinks concert at the Hartford (CT) Civic Center. GREAT show, highlighted by the whole place singing along with "Lola" as Ray Davies held the mic to either side of the arena for the chorus. Lots and lots of pot was smoked both direct and second-hand.
By the time we got back to Springfield around 2AM, we were hit with a strong case of the munchies. The town was mostly closed up but we spotted a pizza/sub shop and stopped. No one was there except the one person working, a teenage boy. Staring at the menu board, we were all too stoned to make sense of it, mumbling and hemming and hawing while the worker waited patiently. Finally brother in law said: "F*** it, man. Just make us a bunch of food." The boy's face split into a huge grin and he said, "I get it. You got it."
Very unusual in that I thought the theme answers were pretty discernible and Rex struggled - it’s usually just the opposite.
The fill was pretty typical, with the usual smattering of questionable cluing (Rex pointed out a bunch) and of course the “look how smart I am” salamanders clue.
I know way more about Japanese capitals than I ever need to know, and I learned all of it in CrossWorld.
You need look no further than the clues for BET and TOE to realize that it’s time for an editorial change at the Old Gray Lady, but unfortunately we may be stuck with the current regime for the remainder of the decade. I don’t know how you screw up TOE and BET - but it is sad to witness (remember the great Willie Mays looking lost in center field at Shea?) .
Rex, your daughter's note about Subway is completely on target; just seeing its name conjures nothing but that cloying smell, and like you, it's been decades since I was in one. And speaking of "on target" as I did, same with Target, whose smell is more cloying and worse.
Until this puzzle I had never heard the word JOGGLE in my almost 69 years. I doubt I will see it again outside of this day's comments section.
I could live with a lot of the triteness of this puzzle but I would like a show of hands for the number of people who have seen or used the a’word” JOGGLE. Here is my first time. JKOGGLE your head if you have seen it.
I though this puzzle was pretty easy. 17 minutes quicker than my average Sunday. I didn't mind the silly puns but, I'm not as critical as OFL.
Shouldn't the clue for SIXINCHORFOOTLONG be "Pickup line?"it might be heard right after the "Tell me I'm pretty" PICKUPLINE. You could, were you desperate enough, even use "I'll pick you up at 8:00, Hong Kong time" for INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE, or "Next time I'll hit ya even harder" for PUNCHLINE.
I assume that LOLA and GAYDAR both crossing BIFLAG will be a PuzzPair plus one for @Lewis, but I'm sure he can find a better term for it.
I liked the struggle and vagueness of this puzzle. I inaudibly whooped when I finished it (in fairness, it might have been a touch of indigestion from last night's pork belly in Kitzbuhel). Anyway, thanks, Daniel Grinberg. Great puzzle.
COOPS as in chicken COOPS?
Really clever. All the of the themers made sense. DNF though on Feist/Tittle because I was spelling it Ariolae (doh) and thought Tittle meant giggle.
If the the SB tells doesn't tell me I'm a genius I'm gonna be really depressed.
I always enjoy getting Rex’s perspective, even when we don’t agree — as, for example, with today’s pretty-darn-good-for-a-Sunday offering. (I do think Sunday-only solvers have got it backward, though.)
A fine puzzle, if not quite as beautiful as today’s gorgeous Vermont sunrise, eh, @vtspeedy?
CIRCA is often used in referring to dates, Rex -- especially ancient ones. Bit it was still a stupid puzzle for many of the reasons you mention.
I thought the quality of the themers was noticeably uneven but, despite that, I think Rex was too hard on the puzzle. The low point was TELL ME I’M PRETTY and the high point was probably GOD SAVE THE QUEEN or maybe SIX-INCH OR FOOTLONG (hi, @okanaganer). I was sure that [Fine line?] was going to relate to being fined, so CAN’T COMPLAIN took me a long time to see. (I wanted something about driving distracted or violating noise by-laws, but the answer was so short.) I found a lot of the clues hard, so I was slow to get started and had to wander all over the grid looking for TOEholds.
I made lots of errors: doG for NAG, upcCODE for BARCODE (which makes no sense as it duplicates CODE), pampa for LLANO, eel for GAR (fell into the three-letter-fish-in-a-crossword-must-be-eel trap), uno for WAR (never played either), jAb for VAX and OPIoid for OPIATE. Dumbest mistake was identifying Sven as [Olaf’s creator in “Frozen”]. Given that Sven was the reindeer, he probably didn’t spend his time making all that many snowpersons.
I was glad to see Rex’s cat IDA with the correct reference to IDA Lupino – surprised Rex didn’t comment on that. And particularly happy to see my home city OTTAWA with reference to our tulip festival. It’s got a colorful(!) history, which dates back to WWII. The Dutch royal family took refuge in OTTAWA from 1940 to the end of the war. Specifically, this was Princess Juliana, heir to the throne, and her family. One of her daughters, Princess Margriet was born in Ottawa, and the Canadian government temporarily designated her birthing room in the Civic Hospital as Dutch territory so she would be able to inherit the throne (she never had to). In gratitude for this and for Canadian soldiers’ role in liberating the Netherlands, Princess and then Queen Juliana and then her successors have sent vast numbers of tulip bulbs to OTTAWA annually. They’re planted en masse in many locations around the city and the display is quite dazzling. Various events accompany the festival, including the literary – Salman Rushdie gave a lecture one year. I was in the book trade then and got a chance to meet him and talk with him for maybe 5 minutes. (Ever since, my husband always calls SR my close, personal friend, and hey – who am I to disagree?) There are or used to be a raft of concerts every year. I don’t know if FEIST has ever played the tulip festival, but her name wasn’t so difficult for this Canadian solver.
[Spelling Bee: Fri 0, Sat. -2. Missed out this pair, which I’ve managed to get in countless other Bees – grr. Hmm, you’ve got to wonder why there was such a usage spike in 1815.]
My only consolation in this slog was Axolotl. It’s not often (or ever) that I’ve seen that in a puzzle. Fun word to spell too.
Allegoric really annoyed me. It even autocorrects to Allegorical. Same complaint also about Joggle. May as well be Moggle or Zoggle. Just make up a word! Why not!
I can’t even say “Gamely”. Wow the New Yorker and AVCX have such better puzzles these days. I only do this one for your write up!
I’m living for the moment when a constructor crosses LOA and KEA and clues both as MAUNA ___.
Please stop this chicken coop nonsense, commenters. It’s definitely CO-OPS. See for instance https://scl.cornell.edu/residential-life/housing/campus-housing/upper-level-undergraduates/cooperative-housing
As a Canadian watching US politics with a measure of horror, I have to smile when the NYTXW throws in stuff that will get Republicans in a tizzy.
Today, we started off with BIFLAG crossing GAYDAR and then JILL BIDEN shows up clued with a reference to Michelle Obama, then got a quick VAX down at the bottom. Too bad they could've have snuck in a Taylor Swift reference, too!
Thought the peacock parent was a COB and thought the SCOTUS justice was spelled LOUIS rather than LEWIS, but at least I'd heard of him.
And is AAH really an exclamation of amazement? More like an exclamation of relief. OOH is amazement.
Nearly crashed and burned in the west because I read "ground grain" as "ground gain" and I was so sure of YARD that I didn't want to take it out.
Was fun to see OTTAWA crossing GOD SAVE THE QUEEN, because reasons, then UCONN clued as a homophone for a Canadian territory (and if you've not been, the Yukon is lovely and offers some of your best chances at seeing the Northern Lights).
AX_LOTL/D_T was my one letter no happy music. I was thinking dit or dot.
I enjoyed this even if it felt slow-going for a while. Bottom half was pretty quick. JOstLE>JOGGLE. So much variety, along with playful or mind-bending clues - what a xword should be.
ALLEGORIC is a word, even if not as common as allegorical. As for "rich in metaphor", not so sure, although I guess there is an underlying big metaphor by definition.
I got the idea that 1A would be some kind of flag, but three colors didn't lead me "straight" to BI.
I don't think of fishing as something so direct as TELLMEIMPRETTY, more something like passive like "I think this shirt isn't flattering" expecting listener to affirm your beauty.
I think RP's complaints are at least more about his solving experience this morning and not as much ripping the puzzle to shreds. Most wounds seem self-inflicted or non-wheelhouse issues. Can someone fix the copy machine jam? ONIT volunteers someone. Try walking while missing a TOE, or just having it seriously injured and see how stable you feel. Seems hardly worth mentioning that HELL is commonly understood as hot, Dante notwithstanding. COOPS are all over NYC, sitting in one now (still guessed dOrmS first). Gives a hand also means assists, or even volunteers, so double-misdirect.
Thanks @Shirley Freitas for the Lewis Powell/Nixon article. Some things never change...
Just tiring to do. So many answers filled in and sighing, sure I guess that works. This whole year has felt like a chore overwhelmingly. The NYTXW needs a shot in the arm.
That clue in allegoric? I hope Frederic Jameson doesn’t do the crossword.
Hey All !
Interesting Theme. Had some missteps. lApEL-BAGEL (thinking lapels have holes for a flower, or something)
JAmS-JArS (like JAMS better)
GRAnny-GRAMMA (toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe)
JunK-JACk (Really really wanted JUNK there)
GAMELY-GAMEto-back to GAMELY
ONEdown-downone-ONEAWAY (Baseballspeak)
RIPoffs-RIPSOFF (Dang verbiage)
aNimus-ENMITY (off just the N)
I'm sure there were a few more, but who's counting? 😁
Thought Theme was OKAY(ED). Sure, plenty of (whatever)Lines, but puz ended up being a good Sunday. Not too easy, not too difficult.
Sounds like a Goldilocks line "This puz is just right." Har.
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
In NYC, if you buy an apartment, it's can be condo or a co-op (cooperative) building. In the later, you buy shares in the co-op that correspond to a specific unit. Potential buyers must apply to the condo or co-op board & submittal slew of paperwork & Financials. Co-op boards approvals are rumored to be harder to attain, but condos typically cost more.
Strongly agree with Rex's entire post. I finished the puzzle waiting for some themed answer that would be worth it but alas, that was not the case. Difficult clues, confusing and convoluted theme with no aha's or cleverness on offer.
The reason for some of the clunky fill could be because the constructor made a pangram.
Solved it in around half my normal time.
Nice puzzle overall, don't mind a shallow but clever theme on Sunday, the day of rest.
RP in rare form today: overall in agreement but didn't let it spoil the puzzle for me. Probably enjoyed the rant and comments as much as the puzzle today!
Was hoping someone could explain JOGGLE and DOT, but no hero/ine has emerged regarding these head scratchers .
There were enough clues that were just a bit off that I started thinking about a side -theme including all of them, and looking for a connection between them. Nah, just quirky I guess
@Anonymous813 -- I think they meant CO-OPS , so it was legit clue
I print the puzzle and had toggle instead of joggle. The t worked with the cross giving me tab - as in several “tabs” are open on my laptop 🤷🏼♀️
Wiggle, woggle, toggle, jiggle, JOGGLE! All kinds of fun! Great rant in the review and some interesting comments from bloggers. Also liked the COOPS/CO-OPS double entendre. Had to Google for that last L in the salamander name, but no biggie, the punchline sayings were fun to get with as few cross words as possible. Still took me many EONS compared with @Rex’s time.
I thought the puzzle was enjoyable with all of the perceived warts. Yes, I looked it up and JOGGLE is a word (one I don’t use)…ALLEGORIC…debatable (it’s in vocabulary.com but not M-W). @burtonkd, I somewhat agree with your “take” on @RP, but mainly due to his sorry/not sorry at the end. I am always amazed at how quickly he can STILL finish a puzzle with more initial wrong answer than me, beat my time by more than half, and ALSO imply it’s something akin to a long period of torture….it’s 12 minutes man! I DEFINITELY agree 100% that “TELLMEIMPRETTY” goes WAY beyond the parameters of “fishing for a compliment.” I really liked the other “lines” and enjoyed the difficulty of many of the clues.
@anonymous 8:13…you may be brilliant! I hadn’t really thought of the possibility of COOPS instead of CO-OPS! I think a COOP fits the clue better UNLESS one is referring to university CO-OPS.
The vagueness of the themer clues added challenge to the puzzle and made me more reliant on the crosses -- which in most instances seemed pretty fair. My own preference is for a lot more humor in this sort of puzzle -- humor's what gives it zing, after all -- but there's no rule commanding humor in what Lewis likes to call Crosslandia.
Here's what I mean by vague answers. To "Fine line", the answer was CAN'T COMPLAIN -- one of the stranger answers, btw, -- but the answer could have just as well been:
I'M GIVING YOU A SPEEDING TICKET.
THAT PEN-AND-INK DRAWING IS RATHER INDISTINCT
"Fault line" is GUILTY AS CHARGED, but it could just as well have been:
MEA MAXIMA CULPA
SECOND SERVE, MR. DJOKOVIC
I KNOW WHO GOT KETCHUP ON THE CARPET!
"Assembly line" is PLEASE BE SEATED, but it just as well could have been:
SPEED IT UP OVER THERE, YOU IN THE HUBCAP SECTION!
IKEA MAKES D-I-Y PROJECTS EASY AS A-B-C
In short, it's all about the crosses when the theme clues are this open-ended and arbitrary. I didn't think the vagueness was a bug and I didn't think it was a feature. I thought it just...WAS.
Neither great nor bad. Somewhere in the middle. CANTCOMPLAIN I guess…
Back in 2008, the Onion ran a story: Foot-Long Hoagie Used as Ruler. It had a photo of a man seated as a desk with a lot of technical-looking paperwork in front of him with a large sub on top of it.
Thank you, Lewis, for always being so positive. There’s enough in this world to be depressed or angry about; it’s healthy and refreshing to look for the positives in a simple pastime like a puzzle!
I understood Fine Line/Can't Complain, as, "I'm Fine" or "Can't Complain," as similar answers as opposed to, say, "Great!"
I was also left in a JAm with the JAR/GAYDAR crossing. I'm gay, but out of it enough that I thought GAYDAm could be a thing with the Tik Tok and whatever Ru Paul's drag queens are doing. Can't keep up.
No idea what tittle means, and couldn't spell the salamander, so another Natick point for me. Otherwise played pretty easily.
Totally, but UConn gave me a chuckle.
I'm with Conrad on this one. Chuckled more than a few times
So the dispute on whether hell is hot (per Burtonkd) or cold (per Rex) pretty much proves there is nothing that can't be haggled over.
It seems like something there should be a definitive answer to, no? I found this posted on Quora.
"Most of his (Dante's) Hell is actually hot, but the lowest levels are cold, getting colder as you go down. The final level is actually frozen over. Satan is there, keeping it cold with beats of his six giant wings. He has three heads, in each mouth is an infamous traitor. This is the traitor’s level of Hell."
Makes sense to me.
I assumed coops as in chicken coops: communal housing
I probably shouldn't do this but on Sundays I come here first just to see what Rex rates the puzzle so Medium/Challenging got me thinking that I'll never be able to do it. But I did and surprisingly, it was a pretty fast solve for me.
Didn't know AXOLOTE (have to make a mental note to remember it in case it pops up again) but I worked it out.
Good to see LOLA.
In other words, I enjoyed it & thank you, Daniel :)
Certain harder than the usual Sunday, but do-able. Theme was ridiculous. All in all, didn't enjoy. Reading Rex on Sundays is a lot more fun than doing the Sunday puzzle these days.
Maybe when the constructor was at that party, he drank too much of the punch and punched another guest because they cut in the punch line. Otherwise, the theme lacks punch.
I've known several Andres, never known as DREs. Call the Doctor.
If you JOGGLE AREOLAE, are you jiggling tittles?
DOTs all I have.
First came across "Axolotyl" in MAD magazine 6 plus years ago
Many of the same complaints - JOGGLE, AREOLAs vs. AREOLAE, ONE down before ONE AWAY. Otherwise a pretty typical Sunday puzz.
Thx Daniel, this one did indeed have lots of PUNCH! 😊
Downs-o was a bust. Looks like my weekly downs-only results will be a woeful 2/7 (Thurs still pending). :(
Hard to judge the dif, due to having quite a few downs in place before embarking on the acrosses. I'd say @Rex's rating was about right for me.
All said and done, a worthwhile exercise of the mind. :)
___
On to Will Shortz' NYT Misprints Crossword.
Steve Mossberg's Sat. Stumper is beginning to look like an actual 'stumper', as the three longs in Texas & the SE are being very stubborn, and the crosses are not helping either. :(
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
This wasn’t a “glee at the cleverness” Sunday puzzle for me, but I certainly found it fine, even enjoyable to solve - it just trotted along for me, without any major hangups until the very end where I had “you be the boss” instead of “YOURE THE BOSS” which had me running the alphabet (unsuccessfully) for “TTOPS” . Time wise I was only about 30 seconds above my record, though, so it was pretty easy for me. I think it really is so much about wavelength - RP was clearly not on this constructor’s wavelength and I was.
25A CIRCA is Latin for "around" or "about/approximately" and is often used as a "Qualifier for a date", as clued. It also appears in "CIRCAdian rhythm", a cycle of physiological changes that repeats about (CIRCA-) once each day (-dian). The CIRCA part is accurate because when isolated from all external time of day clues, our internal clock cycle is closer to around 25 hours. (It normally gets reset every 24 hours by the day-night sunlight cycle.) That's why jet lag is more pronounced when traveling from west to east and why it's easier to sleep a little later than to get up a little earlier.
While much of Tokyo was destroyed during and then rebuilt after WWII, 45D KYOTO has lots of gardens and temples that pre-date WWII. I read that Eleanor Roosevelt talked FDR into sparing KYOTO from being bombed. When I was in Tokyo in the 80s, I took the bullet train (Shinkansen) down to KYOTO. Highly recommended.
I thought 74D ALLEGORIC was an over the counter medication for dyspepsia.
Easy here. I enjoyed trying to guess the various "lines" with the fewest crossing letters, and admired the constructor's creativity at coming up with so many varieties.
@bocamp, good luck with the Stumper. I reeeeeally had to work at it.
Some of the punch lines had more punch than others. Like @Nancy said, need to goose em up with as much humor as possible. Especially for a big ol SunPuz rodeo.
… sooo … how'bout: {Sewer line?} = JUSTPIPEDOWN?
Number of U's:4. Number of weejects: 30. Usually better to have them two numbers joggle a bit closer together, IM&AO.
staff weeject pick: DRE. Short for Andre, huh? Maybe. Kinda like rah is short for Deborah, I guess. Well, hey -- just call m&e Askedus, sports fans.
Pangrammer meat! Cool. Been a while.
Thanx, Mr. Grinberg dude. 9 themers & a pangram -- way to punch em in there.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
It’s unfortunate that conversations among commentators do not exist. This site could be a community of participants around the world.
Haven't completed the puzzle, kinda slogging along. Just dropped in to see what the general tenor would be...
So far, deAlS before CLAPS, had ican where ONIT was supposed to be and had to change it because the *other* place had enough going on that I had to CAN the first one and move it.
Laughing at self for putting in GODloVEourQUEEN off GOD_____UEEN. Guilty of being raised by G&S fans, so the first thing that came to mind was "For all our faults, we love our queen!" leaving me wondering who is this Tesla Thomson of Westworld?
Oh, well. We drove up to the base of the gondola at El Tiede today and then gondolaed up to 3715 meters, meters! The youngs, who are visiting, continued to hike up in their allotted hour while we looked at the view and ate lunch. Hard going on the lava rocks, like moon rocks, and the atmosphere is, um, thin up there, hence the 1 hour limit.
Late to puzzle. May have to let this one go.
Oh, and I was kinda bummed I didn't get a CAST when I broke my wrist because I had planned to draw on it, not let anyone sign it.
@ Kate Esq said "RP was clearly not on this constructor’s wavelength and I was."
I'm with you, Kate! And @Lewis, too!
I thought this was a lovely puzzle, and the best Sunday in a quite while. Humorous enough to keep me amused, just challenging enough to keep me engaged, lotsa new-to-NYTXW answers, and a pangram. All around, this is just what I want from Sunday puzzle.
I am sorry to write it, but I am absolutely baffled by all the carping and negative comments on this, and every Sunday's puzzle. One would think by now that having done at least two Sunday puzzles in the last ten years that a solver would already KNOW what's in store. Some pretty dreadful puns? Yes. Obscure "entertainers"? Yes. Misdirected clues? Yes. Bizarre and often three-word answers? Yes. These solvers should either just stop doing the Sunday puzzle, or come to grips with reality. These are what NYT Sunday puzzles are like. Oh, and my purple articulated axolotl sitting nest to my keyboard absolutely agrees with me.
I really liked the FEIST clue because the 1234 song video was a stunning one-take masterpiece of choreography popularized by some early Apple ads. https://youtu.be/Xi_F4RAMW3A?si=oV9EPDxnAAW5BBHs
@Carola (1:49 PM)
Congrats! 🥳
At least I now know it's possible! lol 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Very different experience than Rex, very whoosh-y. My answers led me to the perimeter of the puzzle, and I CREPT along the edges clockwise; finished up the middle and Bob's your uncle. I really CAN'T COMPLAIN, though I had no idea who Feist was. Inordinately proud of myself for remembering what AXOLOTL was, though I thought it was spelled AXYLOTL for a beat. Rex, your daughter is onto something with the Subway smell; I knew what she meant the moment you mentioned it. Disinfectant, maybe?
No idea what an "inventory scan" is, so no help there. Instead of JOGGLE I went with WIGGLE, then WEB, which threw off ODESA (I thought it had two "s"s?!). Had DOG for NAG, which resulted in OOH for AAH . . . etc.etc.etc.
Also Natick'd (as usual) on the two crossed names FEIST and ELSA.
Really glaring construction/editing mistake I'm surprised no one pointed out with a stink/stunk duplication at 112D, "Word after stink or pink" (EYE), and 116A, "Performed really badly" (STUNKAT). Amateur hour!
Surprised that no one brought up "jostle," as I spent a lot of time with that, rather than "joggle." But decided eventually that Jostle meant to bump into someone accidentally.
Got all the clues right but messed up on individual words.
p.s.
Is it just M&A's weirdball version of memory, or did AXOLOTL turn up quite a bit, in the real old Mad magazine/comic stories/satire ads? Seems like it and POTRZEBIE made lotsa wonky appearances, often together.
M&Also
Late again on a Sunday but this time because of skiing with a granddaughter. Conditions are less than ideal, if you're a NE skier you'll know what "boilerplate " is.
Thought the puzz was OK, some clues above-average for a Sunday, and the themers were definitely uneven but overall pleasant enough. Liked seeing TESSA, as she's a granddaughter, and especially AXOLOTL a wonderful word that is more special because of its rarity. Once a year or so is just right. My personal and unique, it seems, kealoa for the day was BALM for CALM.
Our local Subway is in trouble, because a Jersey Mike's just opened up down the street, and it's packed all the time. Oh oh.
UCONN completes the parallel by being the UCONN Huskies, which I have always thought is brilliant.
@Barbara S-Agree with you about OTTAWA, which is a lovely city. My college choral group had the opportunity to sing in Parliament, and I can report that the acoustics were outstanding and at a post-concert reception, I was introduced to caviar, which was my first and last experience with caviar. Non, merci.
Nice enough Sunday, DG. Definitely Good enough as an apres-ski pastime, and thanks for a generous amount of fun.
Sat. Stumpeople-Found the Stumper to be easier than usual, which is unusual. Good luck.
Yes to jar fruit means to preserve it.
Please explain aisle for 114 across…
"I feel bad that I don't like Sundays more than I do."
That's malarkey, with all due respect. If your shtick wasn't complaining about every puzzle—especially the most popular ones, Sundays—you'd probably get fewer hits on your blog and thus less money (I assume you're making money with this somehow). It's not rocket surgery. Bagging on the other constructors is your thing. You don't need to apologize or, worse, try to act disingenuous about it. Professional haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, all the way to the clout bank. <-- Wish someone would use THAT in a Sunday puzzle someday!
I liked it. The theme wasn’t really mind blowing or gimmicky but it was fun enough. Easy to grasp after I had about half of the first one filled in. I’ll take it over the “change some letters and clue wackily” themes that are the bane of my solving existence.
Played slow for me because every single proper name was out of my wheelhouse, as well as AXOLOTL. I had to guess on the DOT cross there because I have no idea what “tittle” is (and misread it as “title” on my first few passes). JOGGLE still doesn’t look right to me but all the crosses work so *shrug*.
@Barbara S (8:40) -- Welcome back -- and what a fascinating story about Ottawa and its special relationship with the Dutch Royal family. It's a story that was completely unknown to this Yank.
@Liveprof (12:25) -- Re: HELL: So cold is even worse than hot and is specially reserved for those who were traitors to their country?
How odd. First of all, I've always heard that hot is the worst section, indeed the only section of HELL. And secondly, that Dante reserved the "lowest circle" for...
...Here's what I dug up online and it's also the way I've always heard it:
Dante places Brutus and Cassius in the lowest circle of Hell because they had chosen to betray their friend Julius Caesar rather than their country Rome.
Jiggle, jostle, jangle… but JOGGLE?! Weird.
@M&A and other Mad Magazine fans: Here is Madi’s circa 1958 take off of Wordsworth’s “ I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”
“I Wandered Lonely as a Clod”
I wandered lonely as a clod,
Just picking up old rags and bottles,
When onward on my way I plod,
I saw a host of axolotls;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
A sight to make a man’s blood freeze.
Some had handles, some were plain;
They came in blue, red pink, and green.
A few were orange in the main;
The damnedest sight I’ve ever seen.
The females gave a sprightly glance;
The male ones all wore knee-length pants.
Now oft, when on the couch I lie,
The doctor asks me what I see.
They flash upon my inward eye
And make me laugh in fiendish glee.
I find my solace then in bottles,
And I forget them axolotls.
Most of what Rex had to say was just ridiculous and/or wrong. Overall a fun, if tough at times, puzzle.
Wow, I couldn't disagree more with Rex this time - thought this was lovely, swishy, smiled at ALL the themers and thought they made sense, I loved the TOE (anatomical stabilizer, it is crucial to balance), I liked the CIRCA clue, you JAR things to preserve them, I loved the clues for GAYDAR, MOTHS and CAST too. Definitely vibed with this constructor. It was fun!
My daughter lived above a subway in college. Any enjoyment I ever had was “cured” by the smell in the stairwell. Kind of a peppery oily scent.
@liveprof, thanks for the additional Dante info, which certainly entertains both possibilities. Since the clue didn’t mention Dante, I still aver that it’s hotter than Hades down there and the clue is fine.
@bonbonj - I also mentioned jostle.
@Al Rodbell, I also wish there was more conversational back and forth. Maybe the format isn’t so conducive since everyone checks in at different times.
Natick per Rex
Crossing of 2 obscure names at one uninferable letter. For most solvers
Tittle survives in modern English in the expression every jot and tittle. This isn’t an obscure name it it is not that obscure a word. A lot of people know it.
I don’t call something a natick just because I don’t have a clue about the letter. There are really very few naticks is what I am saying
ELSA is too well known to be part of a natick
Great write up on a meh-themed puzzle. One fishbone to pick for me. Rex wrote: "97A: North American fish with toxic roe (GAR) — I mentioned recently that GAR (that crosswordesiest of fish) was mostly retired now. Apparently he still gets out." By referring to the fish as a he, I think Rex dropped the ball (when he should have dropped the balls). Unless there's something peculiar about gar reproduction, the roe-bearing sort are female!
Shirley Freitas
About Powell
and the Supreme Court
I remember he ended up much different from what Nixon expected.
But even though it didn’t make any difference, I was struck by the fact that Rehnquist, however conservative he was (very) at least he followed tradition and recused himself in that case. Can’t say that about Thomas!
Rex nailed this one: dreadful. Natick review: FEIST/ELSA, AXOLOTL/LLANO (entirely 🇲🇽) GAYDAM (whatever that is) /DRE, YOURETHEBOSS/BET/MOTHS a d quai-natick at MIRO/TRIO. For that triple natick I had YOURETHEmeSS/mET/MeTHS... frankly, I like my answers better... a "power line" should be a statement FROM power, not TO power, IMHO. Out.
LOL
Southside Johnny
What’s wrong with the toe clue/answer? The clue tells us why we have toes ( to help stay stable walking upright).
A digit in the lower extremity would be a little too easy for Sunday, no?
I thought it was one of the better clues.
Ah, the journalistic talent back then, even (especially!) in MAD Magazine!
Ben about the dupe
Stink and stunk at
It wasn’t an error or editorial mistake
Shortz et al has been letting in dupes frequently and sometimes more than one a puzzle for a long time now.
Rex only comments when the dupes are close or otherwise annoy him
There is NO rule against it according to Shortz.
Just the way it is
Re: COOPS...my mind went to chicken coops. The ultimate form of communal living.
My daughter lives in a co-op in NYC….not a coop!
OMG, after reading @ROO MONSTER comment realize that "jam" was incorrect answer. Like Roo, I like it better than JARS, but c'est la vis.
Fastest I've ever completed a Sunday nyt puzzle, with very few write-overs - guess the constructor and I are on the same wavelength. Didn't know Dot for Tittle, but loved Axolotl - great short story by Julio Cortazar -
As is Lola! And there’s a character name from Frozen, a movie I’ve never seen, in seemingly every 4th NYT xword. If you do these things regularly, you ought to pick up on it
Ever heard of Dr. Dre?
JOGGLE! Wow.
Uniclues:
1 Glass-eater enjoys a round diet.
2 Popeye quote while suffering a self-esteem crisis.
3 "I will pay you $50 not to play that song. Please."
4 Alice with a Napoleon complex.
5 Mudhead with high interest in drugs.
6 Wow, so much complaining about G-mens' fast pursuit.
1 DIGESTS OVATE JARS (~)
2 "TELL ME I'M PRETTY OLIVE"
3 GOD SAVE THE QUEEN BRIBE (~)
4 I RULE ALLEGORIC MEAL (~)
5 ZUNI OPIATE LOAN SHARK (~)
6 EGAD! FEDS SPED RANTS (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Wherever my wife is. GORGEOUS SECTOR.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Like Rex, I generally don’t like Sunday puzzles. They tend to have insipid themes, like mild movie puns or this one’s theme. The themes generally result in a lack of vibrant clues or interesting entries so you get a lot of dull stuff to slog through since it’s a big puzzle. It’s so not worth it to me, that I usually don’t do them even though I suscribe. I look for interesting complicated themes or maybe a solving challenge before I do a a Sunday. I hoped this one, being more challenging than normal would be different. But no, most of the “challenge” comes from the hard to understand and vague theme. I think the regular Sunday puzzle audience is very different from me.
Thanks for reminding me to send my check to RP, OFL.
As a life long NYC resident, I've lived in co-ops all my life, they are common here. A co-op is not a "communal living arrangement" any more than any other apartment building or even group of townhouses with an HOA. Their distinction is technical and on paper. You own shares in a corporation rather than owning your own walls. But you do NOT LIVE communally.
I had DORMS for the longest time which pretty much the NorthWest impossible.
I think the "communal living arrangement" might refer to a CHICKEN coop!
@anon. 5:00: Rite as in rite of marriage, down the AISLE of a church. I know, I know, a stretch.
There was a lot of stretching in this one, particularly ALLEGORIC, which wants -AL. The actual entry makes me think of paregoric. And maybe want some.
As @M&A mentioned, any Mad Magazine aficionado knows AXOLOTL. I had one grunch but the eggplant over there. *Signed, Osgood Z'Beard*
OFNP was at his nitpicking best today, partly because, I suspect, his time was poor and he had to give it a M-C rating. My time was probably six times as long or so, and I liked it. I put it at easy-medium. I recognized, after a few letters, each theme quote without too much trouble. They all made sense to me. Plus it was cool to see a couple of down themers as well. A solid birdie.
Wordle birdie too.
Personally, I found this puzzle very tittle-ating!!!
JILL RIPS JACK OFF
"JACK, YOU'RETHEBOSS, ICAN'TCOMPLAIN,
but TELLMEI'MPRETTY", JILL said,
"AND SIR,YESSIR, PLEASE don't BE vain,
SAVETHE SIXINCHORFOOTLONG for BED."
--- JOSIE BIDEN
For 'punch lines' there wasn't much for humor. Not even a tehee nor heehee nor haha from those phrases, but there sure was a lot of them. As for write-overs, I JiGGLEd the JOGGLE and ooHed the AAH.
Wordle par after the birdie attempt went YGYGG.
AXOLOTL - sure. Who doesn't know that. Surprised it wasn't worked into a punch line.
Or maybe there was too long a line at the punch bowl. YOURETHEBOSS, you decide.
Diana, LIW for Crosswords
I came here just to say that the Dante comment in your review of the puzzle made me laugh out loud. Thank you!
@Jim in Canada: So what makes you smile is seeing things in the puzzle that you think certain other hypothetical people won't like. Well, I suppose that's one way of getting enjoyment from the puzzle.
My crossword style is to go through all the acrosses first, and be bold, putting in the first thing that occurs to me that fits, even sometimes the beginnings of things that don't fit, because even if what I type isn't correct, the way words work means that some of the letters probably will be, and that will help with the downs. So I charge through and put in all kinds of things that I know won't be in a crossword: profanity and in-jokes and things the editor wouldn't allow. I thought I was doing one of those when I filled BIFLAG in 1A and was pleasantly surprised when I got to 1D and BAGEL fir so nicely, with GAYDAR assuring me that I really am welcome in crosswords, plus there were two Canadian shoutouts.
I recently saw a CBC documentary on inclusivity in crosswords (https://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/episodes/across-and-down). I hope Nate Cardin, a constructor featured there, saw this puzzle.
I was so delighted by JUNK in the trunk that taking that out to fix the NE was the last thing I did.
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