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Hi, everyone! It’s Clare, back for the last Tuesday in March. I’m coming off of a third-place finish in trivia, which I’ll accept given that it was our first time back in a while. This month, I’ve been watching a lot of March Madness (particularly the women) and getting way too invested in my teams winning (and in Caitlin Clark). It’s also a rather busy time at work — USCIS has decided to increase filing fees on April 1, which means my firm is trying to get a whole lot of filings out before then. And all this has been happening while I’ve been dying a bit from this second winter that made me nearly freeze to death (before getting some hot cocoa) at a Washington Spirit NWSL game. (We won in dramatic fashion with an extra-time goal.)
Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday)
THEME: AD HOMINEM (34A: Kind of fallacious argument … or, phonetically, a hint to the answers to the starred clues) — Add a homonym at the end of the word/phrase that sounds like the prior word or syllable
Theme answers:
- HOTEL SUITE SWEET (17A: Mint on a pillow, maybe?)
- PIGTAIL TALE (27A: "Pippi Longstocking," for one?)
- MR RIGHT RITE (46A: Marriage ceremony for the perfect guy?)
- SECOND TO NONE NUN (57A: Mother superior?)
Lars and the Real Girl is a 2007 American comedy-drama film written by Nancy Oliver and directed by Craig Gillespie. The film stars Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider, Kelli Garner, and Patricia Clarkson. Its plot follows Lars, a kind-hearted but socially awkward young man who develops a romantic yet nonsexual relationship with an anatomically correct sex doll, a RealDoll named Bianca. Though a commercial failure, the film was positively received by critics, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. (Wiki)
• • •
I thought the theme was quite fun and inventive. As a result, I enjoyed the solve more than I often do. Who doesn’t like a SUITE SWEET or a TAIL TALE or a RIGHT RITE or especially a SECOND TO NONE NUN — though I had to puzzle out that final one for a while. I realize three of the four final words are homonyms of the previous word, while the fourth (PIGTAIL TALE) uses a homonym of the previous syllable, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this was one of the more clever themes I’ve seen on a Tuesday. And I rather enjoyed it. The rest of the fill surrounding the theme was on the tougher side, which contributed to my slower-than-usual time. SUI (57D: ___ generis (unique)) and MIEN (46D: Appearance) felt like words for puzzles later in the week. I wanted AEON (31A: Many millennia) to be eons, even though I knew the answer had to be singular.
Some of the downs were nice — I Iiked having CROATIA (2D: Country that adopted the euro in 2023), OUTRAGE (3D: Indignation), STATURE (44D: Reputation), and REDUCES (40D: Simplifies, as a fraction) in the puzzle, although I thought TIE IT UP (12D: Force a game into extra innings, say) was pretty meh. And THE SUNS (11D: Phoenix basketball team, familiarly) isn’t really a nickname for the team. The name of the city’s men's basketball team is just “the Phoenix Suns.” I suppose you could make the argument that by adding “the” you’ve turned it into a nickname, but then you could claim almost any sports team is a familiar name if you just add “the” (such as “the Steelers,” “the Warriors,” “the Giants,” “the Penguins,” etc.) The team nickname is part of the name — there’s nothing familiar about it.
There were a couple of mini themes in the puzzle — with 1A: Get moving (SCOOT) and 6A: Get moving? (PROD), along with 36D: Fairy tale monster (OGRE) and 47D: Fairy tale monsters (GIANTS) — which I thought added to the puzzle and the theme especially.
Misc.:
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Misc.:
- I knew the answer to OHIO (16A: Dayton’s state) because my cousin is an assistant coach at Dayton for the men’s soccer team!
- I absolutely love The Sports BRA (24A: (Portland bar dedicated to women's athletics) and have been following along ever since it opened. It’s unique and lovely and amazing, and I love that it was in the puzzle. I’m jealous of everyone who can go.
- I distinctly remember wanting to be like Pippi Longstocking (27A) when I was younger; one time I slept upside down on my bed with my head where my feet were supposed to be. I was also Pippi Longstocking for Halloween one year with a wig and everything — including pipe cleaners to make my pigtails stick out. I now have red hair… maybe she was the basis for my dying it that color.
- BEDSIDE manner (50A: (doctor's demeanor)) makes me think of Cristina Yang from “Grey’s Anatomy,” especially because I’ve seen a million and one promotions for the show’s 21st season. (Cristina’s BEDSIDE manner was notoriously awful.) The fact that the show has been around for that long is simply wild.
- Fun fact: Something I learned tonight at trivia about “Shrek” (which features a famous OGRE) is that it doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test (i.e., do two women talk in a film about anything other than a man?).
- I’ve seen “My Cousin Vinny” with Marisa TOMEI (29D: Marisa who played herself in a "Seinfeld" cameo) more times than I should probably admit. I remember having a sleepover with my friend when I was younger, and we watched the movie three times over two days because it was just that good. If I ever have the chance to give my Letterboxd four favorites, that movie is definitely in there.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Thanks for the write-up, Clare!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that this puzzle played harder than a regular Tuesday. That might be due to totally whiffing on catching the "homonym" indicator from the AD HOMINEM clue, despite me dropping in the revealer answer straight away without any crosses.
The double R in the MR RIGHT clue gave me pause, and the M cross ended up being the final letter I placed before the happy music.
The nun clue was also difficult to suss out, even with a decent amount of crosses in place.
Enjoyable solve at the end of the night.
Tough Tuesday for me too with the top half tougher than the bottom. I needed a few crosses for CROATIA and SCOOT, the theme answers were not particularly obvious, EONs before AEON (Hi @Clare), HARDEDGE was a WOE…tough! This would have made a fine Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteSmooth, cute and clever, liked it.
Agree, the theme was f to suss ot. Did not think the puzzle was hard for Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteSome clues that were hard for me - like Test with a capital E - just filled with crosses. When I looked back to see what they test was it took my a second to understand. "Oh of course. They use capital letters on eye charts, Duh"
Before I caught on to the pattern in the theme answersI had hotel suite treat. That was easily fixed.
Now that I think about it , maybe was a bit difficult. I definitely took a while on 12D and couldn't quite remember what the tutsi were called, and definitely did not know the Suns because: sports team.
Has anyone anywhere ever said "tutee" about a student with a tutor?
Oh, Double duh. Even after reading the write up I did not get how the revealer worked until just now. You add a homonym. Clever. Makes the theme even better.
ReplyDeleteI solved “Downs Only Lite,” not reading the theme clues, and I did find it harder than a usual Tuesday. But a lot of my difficulty was my own fault, or the fault of my faulty typing: I knew OUTRAGE at 3D, but I typed OUTRAeg. That made 31A Ages instead of AEON, which made TOAD and BAND hard to see. Stupid fingers!
I wasn’t bothered at all by PIGTAIL TALE repeating a syllable rather than a word. Since I hadn’t read the clue, I figured it was supposed to be PIG TAIL TALE, something like a story about a porker’s behind.
Agree with many that it felt more like a Wednesday - not that there is anything wrong with that. That NUN grid-spanner was a bear to suss out. Also agree that the clue for the clue for THE SUNS could have / should have gotten reconsidered. It seemed like the grid held up pretty well with a theme that takes up that much real estate - so good job there.
ReplyDeleteFun Tuesday. Theme was interesting and pretty well done.
ReplyDeleteAlso, "Sports Bra" is such a simple and clever concept, it's amazing no one has thought of it before. Very cool idea and I hope they find a lot of success!
Fim puzzle, but it really irked my that the term for the central revealer is incorrect! The theme answers are all examples of homophones, not homonyms.
ReplyDeleteA homonym is a word that is spelled the same but has different meanings, like lead (the metal) and lead (to guide). A homophone is a word that sounds the same with a different meaning. The word breaks down to homo(same) phone (sound).
Actually they either changed the meaning of homonym in my lifetime, or taught us incorrectly in early-1960s elementary schools, because I learned homonym was a sound-alike word, and didn’t hear the word homophone until after graduating from college.
DeleteOn the other hand, my recollection of argumentum ad hominem from middle school is that it isn’t really a fallacy so much as a distraction from the argument, e.g., calling people vermin instead of discussing why you want to exclude certain humans from being treated with dignity. The clue deterred me from filling in the answer even when I had AD_OMIN_M in place.
As hominem is a fallacy in that you use a personal attack as justification for your argument, instead of addressing the issue directly. E.g., “we should not listen to you, because you’re a fool.” It would not be as hominem to insult someone if you also argue the issue, e.g., “you are a fool; here is why you are wrong…”
DeleteIt’s a fallacy. A famous one. Look it up.
DeleteIt took me a bit to get into this puzzle and get used to the style and the cluing: it just wasn't a comfortable fit right away for me at first. But as I got more and more into the swing of it, I was finding greater and greaert enjoyment in the solving experience.
ReplyDeleteSo I just wanted to share with you all my acclimation acclamation.
This was my toughest Tuesday in a long time but I enjoyed it. Played like an average Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the puzzle but it played a lot more like a Wednesday than a Tuesday. I somehow had statute instead of statute which made no sense. But , as a lawyer, the word is seen so often in my practice I simply slipped it in and it took me long minutes to figure out why no happy music. Unrelated , is it me, or have the puzzles felt different that what we have seen —more of an academic tilt or maybe the right way to describe it is it appeals to a less diverse group of solvers?
ReplyDeleteThat's 2 puzzles in a row with positive preys praise, he prays - I guess Mr Fagliano has now figured out how to edit;)
ReplyDeleteLots of fun, especially for a Tuesday - I worked around the longer phrases until they all went down like dominoes at the end. I think that is an all-time great revealer, using hominem as a homonym for homonym.
Off to look up HARDEDGE, not a term I know, but can picture the style.
My ode to Lewis: TIEIT is a vowel heavy palindrome. If the garbage bag is a little ripe, you can say PUTIEITUP! Prodding myself along with the question: is there any thematic possibility to a YETIEYETEST?
Using SARI and SIRI nearby is walking right up to the line of xword taste, but not crossing it.
Now that’s a wow theme, a can’t-help-but stand, applaud, and holler “Encore!” theme.
ReplyDeleteSparkling theme answers, every one of them a riddle, every one tinged with wit. Even after getting the first and realizing that all will end with a pair of homonyms, the ensuing theme answers are still not obvious, still delightful riddles to crack.
All topped by an OMG brilliantly clever revealer. Truly, what masterful thinking to turn the term “ad hominem” to “add homonym”!
And the fact that every theme answer has never appeared before in the 80 years of Times puzzles brightens the entire grid.
A wow theme.
Plus, I learned a new painting style (HARD EDGE), loved LOFI (which I’d never heard of but makes perfect sense), smiled at SCHLEP, and let out a “Hah!” when I figured out [Exam with a capital E] for EYETEST.
Oh, I, a veteran solver, know Tuesdays will be relatively easy to fill in, but I never skip them because too often gems like this show up. Too often delight like this shows up.
Brava Laura Dershewitz (not to be confused with constructor Ella Dershowitz) and Katherine Baicker, and congratulations, Laura, on your NYT debut. Thank you for this generous helping of virtuosity and beauty. Encore!
Siri was seriously sorry she wore a sari while riding in a surrey with a fringe on top.
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable puzzle with a clever theme that helped me get HOTELSUITESWEET, after catching on with SECONDTONONENUN, a terrific creation. I thought it was a bit harder than most Tuesdays.
ReplyDeleteMy only sticking point, once i had grasped the theme, was PLURAL, which had a devilish misdirect clue that had be searching my brain for a banking term that fit --URAL. I didn't know LOFI, and PROD didn't seem to fit the clue until I realized the context was to get (someone else) moving.
My compliments to the constructor.
I was prepared for Rex to bash this, for no apparent reason. I thought the themers were super cute and fun, very enjoyable, and I had no problems or complaints about anything else. And thanks, Clare. I’m a happy solver today!
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this puz. Hard to predict if OFL would've liked it, or tore it to shreds. I can imagine him saying something like, "Why these homonyms?" Har.
Nice to see you again @Clare. How 'bout them Steelers trading every one of their QBs for new guys? All they have to do now, is get better play calling...
Only 34 Blockers today. Nice flow-y puz with light dreck. And constructed by two women! Where's the RexPraise when it's needed? 😁
EYE TEST was neatly clued.
Happy Tuesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
In a movie about OGRES...and FAIRY TALE creatures.....you're worried about the Bechdel test?!?!?! Donkey....and his INTER-SPECIES sex with a dragon is fine, the TORTURE of Ginger is fine.....but you want the women to talk more? Wow. Talk about missing the point.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:02 AM
DeleteShrek is a movie in the fairy tale tradition, which is an important part of virtually all cultures. Ogres and all nothing minor about Shrek.
A major part of its audience is of course children and like all fairytales the movie has an educational component as well as entertainment. Regardless of criticism of violence in the movie (fairly tales in the European tradition are often incredibly violent- see the Brothers Grimm.) I see nothing wrong with the guest blogger pointing out a glaring problem in the structure of the script, with so many young girls - and young boys- who have watched it and will watch it in the future. Perhaps I am wrong but I don’t remember the early Disney movies having the Bechtel problem.
ReplyDeletePlayed a little hard for Tuesday. I knew about CROATIA because we were there in 2021 and I had a handful of Kuna to get a snack in the airport on our trip home BUT I was pulled out of line for the serious search and we ended up running for the gate, and last year my neighbor went to CROATIA but it was too late for the Kuna because they had switched to the Euro...
Clare, about USCIS...in June 2022 I requested *and paid for* a copy of my father's naturalization certificate, with C number and a scanned copy of the original so no search required, just send me a copy (we wanted a backup copy for a citizenship application). It took them FOURTEEN MONTHS and what they sent is hideous and just about illegible, a black and white copy that looks third or fourth generation. In the meantime, within 6 months I had received 6 docs from Germany that all together cost less than this one crappy copy *and* my son and I submitted our application 8 months before USCIS responded. I had tried following up but they send a form email that says "our turnaround time for email response is 90 days" and when I did get a response it was December 2022 and it read "We are currently processing requests received in December 2021." This is my own government! It must be awful to deal with them on a regular basis!
Puzzle: it always bothers me when it's "THE...." sports team. I don't know them anyway, and then to start with THE seems weird. Don't they all start with THE? The Mets, The Giants, The Knicks, idk...
But the theme was fun, especially liked SECOND TO NONE NUN!
A solid Tuesday puzzle with an appealing theme and the hint of a challenge. A couple of things triggered a TINY bit of persnicketiness, the first being the use of “fallacious” to clue the revealer. Some AD HOMINEM arguments could certainly be called false and misleading, but I would not use that word as a general adjective to describe that general term. The other is the reference to homonyms, as noted below. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it and want to say congratulations to Laura on her NYT debut.
ReplyDeleteI only skimmed the comments, but noticed a couple mentions of homonyms versus homophones. I had that same question, so did a little research before posting and here is what Merriam-Webster had to say: Homonym can be troublesome because it may refer to three distinct classes of words. Homonyms may be words with identical pronunciations but different spellings and meanings, such as to, too, and two. Or they may be words with both identical pronunciations and identical spellings but different meanings, such as quail (the bird) and quail (to cringe). Finally, they may be words that are spelled alike but are different in pronunciation and meaning, such as the bow of a ship and bow that shoots arrows. The first and second types are sometimes called homophones, and the second and third types are sometimes called homographs—which makes naming the second type a bit confusing. Some language scholars prefer to limit homonym to the third type.
Based on that, I’d say the puzzle has it covered.
Oh, this is so, so good!!!
ReplyDeleteEven before I got to the wonderfully amusing theme -- two answers of which made me laugh out loud -- I sensed I was in very good hands. My first three non-theme answers in -- SCOOT, SCHLEP and CRUDE (as clued) -- were so lively and so colorful that I knew the constructors were very much in the entertainment biz.
And the theme choices -- Wow! I adored MR RIGHT RITE and thought it was definitely today's marquee answer, that is until SECOND TO NONE NUN came along. Two inspired answers I'll never forget.
Well, actually I WILL forget them, being me. Only now I won't, because this puzzle is going into the running list I've decided to keep this year for POY nominations at the end of the year. I absolutely can't rely on my memory.
I can practically hear Laura and Katherine chuckling with delight as first they made this and then they clued it with so much verve and imagination. I experienced the same sensation of delight while solving it.
Solved from the bottom up, as the first few clues were leading nowhere, and ended in the middle with the revealer, which took some thought before the aha! kicked in. Thought it played tough for a Tuesday, as others have said.
ReplyDeleteI'm all too familiar with the "exam with a capital E" as I take, or retake one every six weeks or so. I have one eye with permanent damage from a detached retina so it is not treated for the macular degeneration that is going on in the other eye. When I try to see the big E with the bad eye, there is just a black spot where it should be. And that's your TMI for today.
LARS. OK, you filled in from the crosses. How do you do?
Clever theme indeed, LD. A Little Demanding for a Tuesday, and that's fine. Thanks for all the fun.
We've seen EYE TEST a couple of times lately, and I still want it to be EYE exam.
ReplyDeleteLiked the puzzle.
@Anonymous, @Dr. L:
ReplyDeleteThe first two entries in MW for "homonym" reveal that homonym is a flexible term that means two words with *either* the same pronunciation *or* the same spelling -- so this puzzle is definitely correct:
1 a grammar : HOMOPHONE
the homonyms there and their
b grammar : HOMOGRAPH
The words lead, as in the metal, and lead, as in the verb, are homonyms.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/homonym
@Anonymous Why would the Bechdel test be irrelevant just because a movie is about fairy tales or involves other fantastical or disturbing elements? I think you might be the one missing the point here. It's also pretty insulting to suggest that "wanting women to talk more" is somehow a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteMighty fun TuesPuz theme.
ReplyDelete{Runners and vaulters and hurlers and such?} = ?*
staff weeject pick: ETA. Admired its clue's "when will U b here" sentiment.
fave stuff included: PLURAL clue. SCHLEP. Marisa TOMEI. TIEITUP.
Thanx for ganging up on us, Ms. Dershewitz & Ms. Baicker darlins. Great job. And congratz to Laura D. on her half-debut.
… and thanx, Clare bear darlin.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
p.s.
* = TRACKMEETMEAT.
**gruntz**
It was a cute and breezy Tuesday, and I generally enjoyed the theme, except for a fairly glaring flaw -- as I say them, at least, "hominem" and "homonym" are not homonymous: I say the final syllable of "hominem" as to rhyme with "hem," and that of "homonym" to rhyme with "him."
ReplyDeleteBut an ad hominem attack is not fallacious, it's personal.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, I liked it. I think this is a good level of hardness for a Tuesday -- nothing really obscure or vaguely clued, but it still took me several passes to complete the puzzle.
AD HOMINEM is absolutely, specifically a logical *fallacy* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
DeleteI spent years looking for Ms. Right, but when I finally found her and asked her out, she told me she was looking for Mr. Right.
ReplyDeleteWith three of its top executives bounced from their positions, Boeing today announced it was changing its name to Boing.
I agree it was challenging. Yeesh. I had TROD for PROD which made me miss the PLURAL in six down. I also had HUTUS instead of TUTSI because I thought the answer would be plural per the clue. I think this is more of Thursday level difficulty than a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteWhat a SUITE SWEET puzzle! The SECOND TO NONE NUN theme answer is inspired. No OUTRAGE here!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laura and Katherine, for a nice Tuesday.
@burtonkd -- PUTIEITUP -- Hah! Good one!
ReplyDeleteIt was a meta puzzle for me. I noticed that the last two words of the themers were homonyms and used that to solve. After, I worked on finding out what ADHOMINEM had to do with it. Ah, yes. HOMINEM and "homonym" nearly rhyme.
ReplyDeleteLiked it a lot. My idol, Nancy, explained why, beautifully.
Loved learning about the Bechdel test. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhen they saw the first one, no one thought much about it. But when the Hawaiians saw their SECOND TONONENUN, they put it in the running for Official State Fish, ultimately opting instead for the better-known humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa.
ReplyDeleteWaiter: I'm pleased to inform you that we have a new main course on our MENU tonight.
Diner: Entre nous, is this entree new?
Sarah: I asked SIRI for the answer to the clue "Delhi wrap" and she came up with "Chinese chicken on Naan."
Abraham: That's a sorry SIRI SARI story, Sarah.
If 11D (Phoenix basketball team, familiarly) is THESUNS, what would be the less familiar version, The Balls of Superheated Gas?
Thanks for a great write up , Clare. It didn't grate at all. And thanks for a very good puzzle, Laura Dershewitz and Katherine Baicker. The first themer made me groan, but it has grown on me.
@ whatshername (9:16)
ReplyDeleteA clarification: the clue was "fallacious," not "false or misleading. Fallacious refers to it being a logical fallacy, and, by definition in logic, an ad hominem is a logical fallacy. The fallacy is about the validity of the logical reasoning itself, not to the truth or falseness of the statement. For example, I may be engaged in an argument with someone about topic X. As long as we focus on topic x, the arguments would likely be valid; but should I argue that the other person is wrong about fried chicken because his is a an idiot, then I have engaged in an ad hominem argument. And while it may be true that the person is an idiot, the argument itself is still fallacious because it is and argument unrelated to the topic: it about the person arguing, not the topic being argued.
I couldn't figure out what was going on, even after I got the revealer, until SECOND TO NONE NUN--I think I had SECOND TO NO and suddenly realized what it had to be. Nifty concept, in retrospect, and a fun puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of OUTRAGE about 22 across. After visiting Rwanda, it is more than evident that the use of sect names has been forbidden in order to foster reconciliation. It is difficult to imagine anyone who can reconcile herself or himself with people who have murdered their family members but that is what the country's philosophy is able to do. Hard to forgive the puzzle editor, and the constructors, for being so tone deaf.
ReplyDeleteWait..Is it a HOMINEM or is it a HOMONYM. All this talk and all I know is that learning English was the Bane of my existence. Oh wait, is it Bain? Thank you @whatsername for clearing that one up. Now...should I know what a Bechdel test is? What about USCIS? I'm confused.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle....Clever and entertaining. I actually assisted a friend of mine with her ESL class. How to explain that the English language is so convoluted or, as some say "a slippery little devil." Explain to someone learning English that there are so many variations and contradictions and words that are spelled differently. My best answer? Watch TV. Especially re-runs of "All In the Family." You'll learn quickly. If you need someone to write a letter for you, ask you grocer....End of problem.
I only have a teensy little nit to pick. I'm not a fan of repetitive type clues: Get moving/ Get moving?...Made level/Level....and our two Ogres. It's probably just me, but now that I think about it, worse things are happening in the world so my nit doesn't mean nada.
I'll take Tuesdays like this every Tuesday.. I'll show it to my Latin friends struggling with our language and see what they think.....
I agree that this was harder than the usual Tuesday - fun all the same & a nice change.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Katherine :)
Extremely easy, but somewhat repetitive. I have no gripes, but I hear that SIRI is sorry about the SARI.
ReplyDeleteAnd Laura!😊
ReplyDeleteI call foul on AEON, which is a billion years, not just many millenia. And apparenwtly it was just 100 years in ancient Greece. Caused an unfair DNF as I had "Ages" instead.
ReplyDeleteAnd back in the day I read many arguments ad hominem that suggested no one should get the COVID vaccine because the former President was touting them. (Yeah, that's a common response for me when people say he did nothing right). I certainly got my Fauci ouchie, and boosters too).
If only every Tuesday were like this.
ReplyDeleteI had a tough time getting the theme, with a lot of missteps muddying the waters, like OREO before HOHO and PIE before POT. And the revealer didn't help at all, until suddenly it did and I said "ADD HOMONYM!!!" It was the best thing about the theme.
ReplyDelete[Spelling Bee: Mon 0; Sun -1 breaking my streak.]
I'd say that the top half played harder than the bottom. I did NOT get the HOMINEM-homonym connection while solving - and even after I was done, I saw the "homonym" bit but not "add homonym" - that's clever. However, once I got PIGTAIL TALE with crosses, the gimmick was easy to see and helped a lot. SECOND TO NONE NUN was my favorite theme entry.
ReplyDeleteOne other reason why the northern half felt tougher is the PROD/PLURAL area. Forced clue duplication (that admittedly isn't all that bad in this case) and the PLURAL trick? On a Tuesday? Seriously, you can literally never see that one coming without a bunch of crosses. A more Tuesdayish clue for PLURAL would be something like ["Fish", for "fish"]. Or maybe that would make things even more confusing.
[Cows that go "baa", e. g.?] - MISHEARD HERD
Wow. Challenging for a Tuesday and really fun to tackle. The theme was solid, and the fill wondrous with so much pressure on the grid. I would have beat it, but I couldn't remember LARS and Yiddish isn't in my list of languages. Tried to tell myself SCHMEP sounded close to SCHMEAR and it seemed kind of haul-ish. Clare to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteWe've covered this many times, but the Times aren't a changin': On NO known planet in the discoverable universe are HoHos an alternative to Twinkies. It's like saying a llama is an alternative to a Cadillac since they both have double LLs.
Tee-Hee: [Areola] = CRUDE BRA SPROUT.
Uniclues:
1 One fascinated by the story of Heidi.
2 Gamer girl.
3 Smart toilet in a nursing home.
4 Can you see Split from here?
5 Happy result of getting stupider, usually.
6 What you may hear when Apple's robot can't believe you didn't know that.
7 The best thing to use your mouth for.
8 Future ruler's list of punishments.
9 El Bsol starter (in English).
1 PIGTAIL TALE NUT
2 NERD-AGE MISS
3 BEDSIDE IOS LAV
4 CROATIA EYE TEST
5 OUTRAGE REDUCES
6 HARD EDGE SIRI (~)
7 HOHO DIET PLAN (~)
8 "HOW TO EMIR" MENU
9 THE SUN'S SILENT B
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Paint the monkeys green. STAIN TOTO FOES.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Gary J - I have moved ob to cleaning tasks but am still chuckling at NERD-AGE MISS!!
DeleteMy simple minded brain got the point that the last two syllables in each theme rhymed fairly quickly, but it took a minute or two to register the word play in ADHOMINEM. For sure a “doh” moment there. I was initially concerned as many were that the focus of ad hominem was in personalizing an argument, but taking it as a fallacy is I think within the range of crossword meanings, just made it a bit tougher to see without crosses. I see this as a gem of a puzzle and a good reason to keep the current NYT focus on themes. We get many a clunker but probably would have missed this enjoyment if there were no incentive for a theme…
ReplyDeleteI’ve been hit or mostly MISS lately, and am so glad to see your las Tuesday post, Clare. I got the theme’s trick right from the start with the SUITE SWEET and really enjoyed the solve from there since it had more crunch than a typical Tuesday. And. Clare review is the cherry on top.
ReplyDeleteSuch a bounty of great sports this time of year. I’m very envious that you saw the NWSL match in person, Clare! I follow them closely and am so happy to see nearly all the matches are televised. It’s about time! And the women’s NCAA tour ament is vastly more exciting this year than the men’s! It would be an embarrassment of riches if it hadn’t taken decades since Title IX to create even a modicum of something approaching a scintilla of parity between men’s and women’s programs. As “that girl” 60+ years ago who picketed (all by myself) at Little League Baseball registration and only got patted on the head and heard the “aww, isn’t she cutes” that only made me angrier, I keep hoping. We are finally making progress. Caitlin Clark is a great example. She is the headliner of the NCAA tournaments this year.
Oh, the puzzle. Liked the crunch, got the AD HOMINEM homonym reveal, and thought the theme and its execution were fresh and fun, even though hominem and homonym don’t really sound exactly the same.
@eggsforbreakfast: In France, entre nous, the entree would not be the main course. Only here in the USA. The entree is the appetizer--the entry to the meal. How it became the main course on this side of the ocean is something I wonder about.
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle and exta fun write-up! But mostly I’m commenting because I agree: My Cousin Vinny is a near-perfect movie and I also could watch repeatedly (only flaw IMO is the disrespectful treatment of stuttering).
ReplyDeleteAnyway the puzzle was a relief from the woes of the day.
I immediately understood what the puzzle was up to when I saw SUITE and SWEET would fit in the third line, and then what else could it be but HOTEL? I quickly went on to fill in RIGHT ane RITE, TAIL and TALE (though not having read Pippi L. it took me a while to get PIG), and NONE and NUN. But it was only after I'd finished the puzzle that I puzzled out the way in which AD HOMINEM is a 'phonetically' a clue to those answers. Once I'd figured it out, I was puzzled why it took me so long. I'd never noticed the resemblance of HOMINEM to HOMONYM, I guess. (And in my loose way of speaking, those two words are pronounced almost identically. Or even identically, some of the time. Making AD HOMINEM as an answer be itself a clue whose meaning was derived phonetically then seemed to me mighty clever.
ReplyDeleteLO FI amused me. I tried LOO before finding LAV.
I tried ERA instead of BRA for a while, thinking of the Equal Rights Amendment -- remember that?
Delightful puzzle. More resistance than your typical Tuesday, and a wonderful little theme.
ReplyDeleteA little more METE on the bones, for the day, than usual. I was floundering around with that theme, until I finally realized the HOMINEM/homonym homonym. Indeed clever theming, and especially revealing.
ReplyDeleteNice open grid with roomy corners. The score DIPS with that SILENTB thingie, but redeems itself with the central prominence of DOD Marisa TOMEI. Birdie.
Wordle birdie.
Too many non-English or abbreviated words. LOFI, IOS, IRS, LAV, SUI, ROIS, ENTRE, TUBED, ETA. The quality of the NYT xword has plummeted with the absence of Will Shortz.
ReplyDeleteVery fun puzzle that I also found easy. Probably just an age thing since I don't think there was anything outside my wheelhouse. Latin phrases most of the time are gimmes, since I was a Catholic boy during the Latin mass era, and started learning it in kindergarten. Even public high schools had Latin as a language option when I was young. When my dad was that age, there were 3 classes that were requirements in order to graduate. Latin, typing, and shorthand. Back then, most secretaries were men.
ReplyDeleteThe capital E eye test clue/answer reminded me of the test given when I was in grade school. It was given in school, and the only letter used was the capital E, and you had to tell the examiner if the E was pointing left, right, up, or down. That was the whole test start to finish.
ReplyDeleteHOTEL STORY
ReplyDeleteHOWTO turn OUTRAGE TO fun?
By THE BEDSIDE we'll METE,
MR., you're SECONDTONONE,
SCOOT RIGHT UP TO my SUITE.
--- MISS TUTSI TOMEI