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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- INTRO CLASS (17A: 101)
- BOND (19A: 007)
- CANNABIS (31A: 420) (explained here)
- THE BEAST (47A: 666)
- INFO (62A: 411)
- FULL CIRCLE (64A: 360)
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid support to the glazing of the window. Its secondary purpose is to provide structural support to an arch or lintel above the window opening. Horizontal elements separating the head of a door from a window above are called transoms. (wikipedia)
• • •
As usual, I had the greatest amount of trouble right out of the gate. No idea how to make sense of 1D: Arizona in Hawaii, e.g. (SHIP), completely forgot what a "mullion" was (2D: One in a mullion? => PANE), and thought 1A: Twitch, e.g. (SPASM) was for sure going to have something to do with the live-streaming service. Further, I thought 5D: Be a sponge (MOOCH) was gonna be SOP UP. So I was striking out like crazy up there. I don't know where I went from there. I feel like I started getting traction somewhere in the west, with BANJO or ALAS, somewhere in there. I know the first themer I encountered was [666], but I didn't know it was a themer. Also, when I got THE, I wanted BEAST but didn't write it in because it seemed incomplete (see above). Then I thought "Oh, maybe all the theme answers are going to be missing their initial 'MARK OF' or 'NUMBER OF' ... I wonder how they're going to tie that together?" But still, I abandoned that answer and moved on. The first themer I completely *got* was FULL CIRCLE (64A: 360), and I thought that since it was last, maybe there were a bunch of early clues that went through the other segments of a circle: you know, 180, 90 ... 45? I don't know. I must've forgotten I'd already seen [666]. I was just desperate to make any of it cohere. Eventually I worked up to CANNABIS and realized none of it was going to cohere, the theme was just 3-digit numbers, that's that. Again, I'm genuinely surprised that this was deemed sufficient, and I'm genuinely sorry if I'm missing what makes the whole thing special.
Had to think for a bit about the [Eponym of a neighborhood in Queens] but then remembered My Daughter Lives There (ASTORia). Still not totally used to the fact that she lives in NYC now. Outside of the NW, I don't see any real troublemaker clues today. Is "a noodle" a brainstorming session or something like that? I inferred IDEA from the expression "using one's noodle (i.e. brain)," but something about the phrasing on 16A: End of a noodle? struck my ears as awkward. CTRL-C is certainly the ugliest thing in the grid, but it's accurate enough, I suppose (45D: Copy command on a PC). Funniest thing that happened to me was confusing the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges (14A: Marx brother with a curly wig => HARPO). I had the "R" from ARTS and wrote in LARRY. Wish I had more zaniness like that to relate, but this was a pretty plodding experience overall. Hope you found it more delightful than I did. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. I'll be reminding you all week that These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 is now available. Here is my description of the details (from this past Sunday's write-up):
These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 (four!) just dropped this past week—over 20 original puzzles from top constructors and editors—and you can get the collection now (right now) for a minimum donation of $20 (donations split evenly among five different abortion funds—details here). You can check out a detailed description of the collection and a list of all the talent involved here. I not only guest-edited a puzzle, I also test-solved puzzles. I have now seen the finished collection, and it's really lovely, across the board. General editors Rachel Fabi and Brooke Husic and C.L. Rimkus put in a tremendous amount of work ensuring that it would be. The attention to detail—test-solving, fact-checking, etc.—was really impressive. Anyway, donate generously (assuming you are able) and enjoy the puzzle bounty!
Agree that the theme was thin today, but what was going on in the NW corner? HARPO and PESACH both WOEs for me (only know Groucho).
ReplyDeleteWhich would be fine except 1D and 2D are both clued trickily! And why is 1A clued with “e.g.”? SPASM and twitch are synonyms. Why not “Skin care product, e.g.” or “Steep banks, e.g.”? Total disaster!
Also KAREL/NEMEA!
Silly me, I tried down clues only again and that didn't last very long; there were too many Kealoa type choices for so many clues. "Nina" = CHILD before CHICA. "Contemplate" = MUSE before MULL. And right beside it, "Down" = BLAH before BLUE, etc.
ReplyDeleteYeah the theme idea of the number clues is fine, but the answers are a bit of a stretch. "101" makes me think BINARY. "420"... I dunno, DRUGGIES? POT BREAK? There are a lotta possibilities there.
BISTRO again so soon?
[Spelling Bee: Tues 0; QB streak 5!]
Arizona in Hawaii - is the Battleship Arizona, sunk at Pearl Harbor.
ReplyDeleteThe USS Arizona is a battleSHIP that was sunk at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was left in place as a memorial to those who died in the attack. It's very moving and worth a visit.
ReplyDeleteWell, I learned something. 420 is cannabis ( Why, still not clear) Did I want to know that?
ReplyDeleteNeed I say no?
Actually, I found the theme kind of fun.
And most of the answers came easily, but I was looking for something very different for 44A This sucks! With all but one letter in place I still couldn't see leech for a minute.
Should there have been a "!" after sucks? Seems to me that was misleading.
Oh yeah, I had team before fish for 10A
I should be in bed
I had the same exact issue with cannabis but never could have stated my own reaction more clearly. I can not recall last time I dnf a Wednesday puzzle. I am wondering , was this puzzle playing younger?
DeleteI’m 60yo and “420”, as a term for cannabis, goes back at least to my college days.
DeleteIt got popularized starting in the 90s. Wikipedia has the origin story: “In 1971, five high school students in San Rafael, California,[5][6] used the term "4:20" in connection with a plan to search for an abandoned cannabis crop, based on a treasure map made by the grower.[7][8] Calling themselves the Waldos,[9][10] because their typical hang-out spot "was a wall outside the school",[11] the five students—Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravich[12]—designated the Louis Pasteur statue[13] on the grounds of San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 pm as their meeting time.[11] The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase "4:20 Louis". After several failed attempts to find the crop, the group eventually shortened their phrase to "4:20", which ultimately evolved into a code-word the teens used to refer to consuming cannabis.[7]
DeleteSteven Hager of High Times popularized the story of the Waldos.[14] The first High Times mention of 4:20 smoking and a 4/20 holiday appeared in May 1991[15] and erroneously attributed the origin of the term to a police code; this and other spurious incorrect origin stories became common.[16] The connection to the Waldos appeared in December 1998. Hager attributed the early spread of the phrase to Grateful Dead followers[17]—after "Waldo" Reddix became a roadie for the Grateful Dead's bassist, Phil Lesh[12]—and called for 4:20 pm to be the socially accepted time of the day to consume cannabis.[17]
I’ve heard that milepost 420 keeps disappearing on certain interstate highways, so at least one has started putting up one that says 419.999 or something like that.
DeleteAh, here’s the reference: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/41999-and-change/
When Elon Musk thinks 420 is funny, you know it’s an old reference.
DeleteEasy-medium except for the NW which consumed a boatload of nanoseconds. Guessed on the mullion clue, did not know the Seder holiday and had Mop up before MOOCH (Hi @Rex)…tough corner for me too. Also, lIe before FIB, crete before NEMEA, yEECH before LEECH, and SPotty before SPARSE.
ReplyDeleteCute, liked it more than @Red did. Three numbers = some sort of word(s) worked for me.
ReplyDeleteI had trouble with the Czech Charles at 35A. First tried KARoL, but NoMEA (32D) didn't look right. Changed it to KARiL/NiMEA and finished without the happy music. Finally ran the remaining vowels and came up with KAREL/NEMEA.
Other overwrites:
@Rex sop up before MOOCH at 5D.
@okanaganer CHIld before CHICA at 18D
@okanaganer again MUse before MULL (56D)
KAREL crossing NEMEA. Natick PPP
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 5:33 AM
DeleteI disagree about Nemea being obscure enough to be a natick.
Rex coined the term. He thought of it when he saw the cross of NC Wyeth (an early 20th Century illustrator much less well known than his son) and Natick a small town in the suburbs of Boston
He defined natick as a cross at an uninferable letter of 2 names. Nothing more uninferable than an abbreviation for example.
Nemea has not infrequently been in the Times puzzle and is after all one of the Labors of Hercules, one the most well known elf Greek myths. Might be an age thing because Greek myths were regularly taught in public schools at one time.
Just because I didn’t know what a mullion was doesn’t mean it is obscure. Too many people know Nemean for it to be part of a natick.
I think you're splitting hairs. Nemea is hardly a common word. There is an intersection of two more or less little known words for most people.
DeleteStarted off with DALMATIANS for “101” and proceeded downhill from there. Finally recovered, but bored.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I liked this much more than OFL. The theme is fine. I’m not picky. And the theme answers, while not sparkling, made sense. This is a Wednesday. Let’s not get our panties in a wad at 6 AM over small things.
ReplyDeleteStruggled on this - BMC before BMW, SEEK before SEEM, I misremembered the place as NIMEA and had no idea about either Charles nor the Diamondbacks. One person's smooth fill is another's cross-country trek, I suppose. I agree with Rex that THE BEAST is a stretch at the very least.
ReplyDeleteTeam before FISH, THE dEvil before THE BEAST, and I couldn't get SPRAWL to save myself (I wanted SPlAy, which didn't fit, and almost put in SPlAin even though I knew it was wrong). But yeah, I got the theme relatively quickly with 007 and then 420 and then 101 and the rest was easy enough. I usually expect wordplay or fun on Wednesday; this fell kind of flat.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the theme because it’s straightforward and helped me parse together the sporadic PPP scattered about - such as NEMEA and BOBA (and I had not heard of PESACH). Fortunately I recognized ASADA from recipes and SENOR is common usage enough that it registered.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t know ASADA/ALDO or PANE/PESACH and neither was particularly inferrable if you didn’t know it.
ReplyDeleteLiked it a lot more than Rex. The theme was simple and straightforward, but they all worked, and the fill was decent. One big kealoa for me - no matter how many times I see it in crosswords, I’ll never remember NEMEA, and crossing that first vowel with an explicitly non-English name like KAREL was … not ideal. E was the third vowel I tried.
ReplyDeleteEasier than yesterday’s, I thought, despite quite a few overwrites:
ReplyDeletesOpup before MOOCH
BoNgO before BANJO
KARoL before KAREL
blECH before LEECH (between these last two and having no idea who makes a Mini, that little center section was the hardest part of the puzzle by a mile.)
I never knew HARPO wore a wig. Today’s rabbit-hole also tells me his birth name was Adolph, later changed to Arthur. Groucho’s was Julius. Chico’s was Leonard. Gummo’s was Milton. Zeppo’s was Herbert. Also, Zeppo’s wife cheated on him with Frank Sinatra.
I'm just happy to see WHOA spelled correctly. At some point in the last several years everyone seemed to decide that "woah" is the way the word is spelled and it's everywhere on the internet.
ReplyDeleteI came here to see if there was more to the theme that I may have missed. Guess not.
ReplyDeleteOnly real troubles were finding the right vowel in the KAREL/NEMEA cross and the fact that I spelled SPARSE as SPARcE. AcADA looked good enough until I remembered carne ASADA!
I thought the theme was fine. Never heard of 420 as a synonym for CANNABIS, so I learned something new and that’s always a bonus.
ReplyDeleteThe clue for SHIP was tone deaf, given that the USS Arizona was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, resulting in the death of almost 1200 sailors. There’s a thousand ways to clue SHIP. Why invoke a horrible tragedy where said SHIP now lies on the ocean floor with most of the dead still entombed within her?
Short term fun with this - no pushback. Theme was cute - flawed as the big guy highlights but cute nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThe BEAST In Me
Mostly well filled - liked WENT TOO FAR and I DONT SEE IT. LEECH, ASADA, CASABA etc are all solid. 4:20p used to be slang for the acceptable time of day to smoke - now it’s taken on a broader meaning.
Enjoyable Wednesday morning solve.
Kilkelly Ireland
On the way to my daughter's house, I pass by the Morris County (NJ) School of Glass. So I told my punster friend Carl that I signed up for a course in PANE Management but the prof wasn't very good: I could see right through him. Carl asked if they served glazed donuts.
ReplyDeleteEasy for a Wednesday, except I needed trial-and-error for the ASADA/ALDO cross in the SE. Didn't know 420 for CANNABIS, but the crosses made it work.
ReplyDeleteI thought the clue for SHIP was terrific. If this had been Pearl Harbor Day, it would have been even better.
Themeless. Booooooo. Booooo. Those numbers do not add up to a theme. I had almost note for note the same solve as 🦖.
ReplyDeleteWas never going to grok PESACH or KAREL.
Every time I see the racist, sexist trope CHICA, I want to have the editors and constructor try to explain why. Just why.
A note on Mini maker BMW: Thanks to cartoonishly high repair bills on my beloved Cooper S with turbo, I now own a Toyota instead. Way to go German engineers. Sigh.
Tee-Hee: Dude, there's totally CANNABIS in this puzz, like right there bro. No, serious dude, check it out. Like pshaw, mind blown.
Uniclues:
1 Result of good ole boys bringing home dinner using a car battery or an extension cord.
2 When we're all in the dark.
3 "I think I am having a heart attack. Take me to the emergency room."
4 Where undergrad composers get stuck.
5 Buzz buzzed camelids.
6 Why I signed up for chemistry class.
7 Asian freeloader.
8 Greek lion owner.
9 Start using your real name.
10 Tried not to be Shawn.
1 AC/DC FISH SPASM (~)
2 INTRO CLASS BOND
3 CANNABIS BAWL (~)
4 ATONAL TRAP
5 BOO NUMB LLAMAS
6 ARTS WENT TOO FAR
7 KOREAN MOOCH (~)
8 BLUE NEMEA CHAP (~)
9 KIBOSH ALIAS
10 HAD TO SEEM SEAN
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Exclamation when your hero explodes. UH OH ... SALAMI LAP.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Can you elaborate on the racist/sexist nature of chica as a synonym for niña? I’m studying Spanish and I see them used interchangeably.
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteThe First Themer is INTRO CLASS, the last FULL CIRCLE, so there's another aspect of the Theme?
Pretty neat how many numbers represent things. Something you wouldn't normally think of, if not pointed out. Makes for an interesting Theme.
Too bad the 007 one couldn't have been expanded to BOND, JAMES BOND.
No UIE (or UEY) clued as 180? Har.
I liked it. I normally like most puzs. Hey, the constructor put in the time, stressed over fill, sent it in and got accepted. Sometimes with having to redo parts. I say bravo SEÑOR (well,with just initials as the name, unsure if this person is a SEÑOR or señorita.)
Happy Wednesday! Huuump Day!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I'm no pot smoker, but even I know how the cool folks celebrate on April 20.
ReplyDeleteEasy fun themer, with the only resistance being KAREL crossing NEMEA, as many have already noted.
Not sure why a number of my recent posts never made it past the mods, but here's trying again . . . . .
Queens is not New York. h/t Quiz Show
ReplyDeleteWhat boggles my mind is the fact that the Pearl Harbor clue rattles people, and yet everyone has a Japanese car (remember, they're the ones who attacked) or a German car (allies.)
ReplyDeleteI usually do the "Connections" puzz in the NYT before I tackle the XW, so "things (or people) associated with numbers" worked just fine for me as a theme.
ReplyDeleteI may have heard PESACH at some point, but needed all the crosses. Thank goodness for HARPO. And OFL, Larry? Larry Marx? Really? Also took me nearly every cross to come up with KIBOSH, which is a great word but not an everyday word. And some day I'll remember MCAT right away. Not today though.
Very nice to see FULLCIRCLE, which is the name of the twenty-or-so member choral group I was in for thirty years. We sang everything from medieval to modern with a spring and Christmas concert every year. We finally disbanded in 2020 when our director moved. I still have files of all our concerts and I have to say we sound pretty darned good.
I liked your Wednesday offering just fine, EMC. Everything Mostly Connected, at least for me, and thanks for all the fun.
First off, congratulations to Ms. Capassakis on her NYT debut. Quite an accomplishment. I do have some comments but none really taking away from the puzzle itself, which I found to be an enjoyable solving experience. And that for me is the bottom line, so thank you.
ReplyDeleteI had a little trouble with the theme to start for two reasons - the NW corner and 31A. SHIP and HARPO were gimmes, but I had SOP UP at 5D, didn’t know a mullion from a Seder holiday and “ceramics,” which SEEM more like a craft, threw me as an odd way to clue ARTS. So that left me with IXXXXPCLASS on the first themer. Then even after finishing the entire puzzle, I still didn’t know why CANNABIS was the answer to 420. After googling some basic INFO, I now know all I ever want to know about that.
I join others who have mentioned Pearl Harbor and The USS Arizona Memorial as a place every American should visit. Husband and I happened to visit on December 7 during the anniversary observance, and it was very difficult not to be overcome with emotion. One of the most moving and solemn moments I’ve ever witnessed.
For Anonymous: Thanks for commenting. To avoid talking about Pearl Harbor is to ignore the lessons of history. Brave men died aboard the Arizona; let's not treat Pearl Harbor as a taboo subject and minimize their heroism.
ReplyDeleteMy late father was wounded in Aachen, Germany in 1944 and returned home (in 1946) with a Purple Heart.
My wife and I visited ASTORia often when we would go to Queens to be with her family. A few decades ago. It had a huge Greek population at the time. It was a delight walking down Steinway. Buildings along the street had speakers hanging out of its windows playing bouzouki music. There was a terrific restaurant there named Papa George's, open 24 hours a day.
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect, the fact that I chewed my way through this puzzle fairly steadily but in the end got hung up on SIRI/OREOS is ridiculous, but there it is…many of the clues including the numbers were sort of “ballpark” references, just enough to hint at a possible but not literal answer. Some fun solving but no real attempt at humor, maybe that’s what’s missing. On balance, liked the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteKAREL/NEMEA is a yucky cross on a Weds
ReplyDeleteA rare Wednesday DNF. Didn’t know MEDEA. Had an inking about KAREL but not how to spell it. I suppose I could have played the alphabet game but just not worth it.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I’m losing my mind. Where was MEDEA an answer?
DeleteIn 2001 my space odyssey began as I was leaving 21 and packing a 357 in my 409. I did a 180 to file my 1099 when I heard a 45 of 9 Inch Nails covering 10 Years After. Decided to 86 the whole thing and called 911. 10-4?
ReplyDeleteThis constructor really has my number, which is 420. I've always loved blackbirds baked in a pie!
This BOO and BAE stuff as substitutes for "sweetie" made me wonder if you might (54A) shout BAE after sneaking up on someone.
Jolson: Hey Count! Which did you like better, my jazz piece or the one written without any key?
Basie: The jazz was ok, but I liked the ATONAL A TON AL.
Isn't BAWL just an AWL with a B in its bonnet?
Good theme concept. Nice debut. Congrats, E. M. Capassakis.
Thought this was on the hard side for a Wednesday. I thought of SPASM right off for "Twitch", but didn't write it in because Twitch was capitalized, and I thought it might be some sort of dating app or other kind of app I hadn't heard of.
ReplyDeleteI also thought the trick today might be that the answer to the "ceramics, cinema," clue might be CART. As in "C"ART.
Sometimes I tend to outsmart myself. HARPO straightened me out to the much simpler ARTS.
Another stupid car to flummox me. I had to wait to see if it would be an aMc or a bMw.
It was hard to see CANNABIS, which in my grid began with an N. I had CHILD instead of CHICA for "Nina". Did I know that CANNABIS is called 420 for some unknown reason? Of course not! It's bad enough I'm being assaulted by that vile smell every time I walk out the front door. I don't need to know all its nicknames.
(Yes, Dear Reader, I will go into a brief rant every time that vile stuff is mentioned in the NYTXW.)
A new clue for OREO. Bravo!
This puzzle made me have to do a lot of thinking and I very much enjoyed it.
I'm in the MOPUP camp (I got SPASM first, and the incorrect O then gave me HARPO, so I *thought* I was onto something). I didn't have much trouble for a Wednesday, except in the NW. I only remember going with the incorrect gLUm before BLUE.
ReplyDeleteIf I understand what a MULLION is... then the PANE isn't exactly "in" a MULLION, is it? It's more like the mullion itself is (in)between the PANEs.
This CHICA felt BOBO, or in my case, boba. I couldn't remember HARPO's name {of all things) and Go game was team instead of FISH. What a way to start a Wednesday puzzle. Can you dial 911 and tell the operator that your emergency is needing help with brain cell restoration? I was so off the wavelength today, that I almost cried.
ReplyDeleteSo I did what all smart humans do, I stopped doing the puzzle until I could re-adjust thinking. It worked....sorta.
I was sure of exactly two of these numbers. I knew 007. BOND and I was vaguely sure of 420 and its CANNABIS. I got to 666 and thought SHE DEVIL....SHE BEAST?....Oh, it's THE BEAST. That JOHN SEAN thing had me confused because I've never head of Bela Fleck and her BANJO. A BOBO moment.
I will say, without a doubt, that the clue for OREOS got me good. There was an ad campaign that said Twist on it?...I'm not sure what to say.
Well, I managed to finish this. It took me longer than normal for my usual hump day voila's. Pepper my puzzle with a bunch of Spanish, Brit speak and words like PESACH and KIBOSH and there you have it.
I'm betting Thursday will kill me.
Bela Fleck is a dude, man!
DeleteIn post-solve 20-20 hindsight, M&A'd give it around an 8 outta 10; lacked only a 180 (UTURN;yo, @Roo dude) and an 86 (DITCH) or somesuch, cuz it takes 2 to tango, themer-wise. No biggie, tho. No need to dial 911.
ReplyDelete009 weejects -- staff weeject pick: NOT (999, in German lingo).
some faves: KIBOSH. WENTTOOFAR. MOOCH. 007.
trouble with foreign lingoes dept: CHICA/KAREL. That crossin tended to SPRAWL the nanosecond usage, a bit.
Thanx for the mind-number, Ms. Capassakis darlin. Nice #001 puz (debut) … congratzes!
Masked & Anonym003Us
**gruntz**
Ode to obscurity, this one. Naticked 2-3 times, joyless unthemed theme.
ReplyDeleteDelightful!
ReplyDeleteI kept waiting for the sparks. There were none today. I didn't know 420 for Cannabis until I came here & Rex explained it. And when nothing else worked I had BLECH for LEECH since that didn't make sense to me either & played around with YEESH too Kinda blah I'm sorry to say. But congrats on your debut E.M.
ReplyDeleteMy issue is, any of the themers could be clued as their 3-digit numbers in a regular puzzle without being part of a theme. You could clue 360 as FULL CIRCLE in any regular puzzle. There was no trick to this, nothing to figure out.
ReplyDelete@jberg, still on my phone while my computer is in the shop, ALAS! I knew all the numbers except 420, and agree they were a little thin as a theme.
ReplyDeleteI did a puzzle yesterday that used Twitch to clue the app. It’s common to start a clue with a word in order to disguise the fact that it is a proper noun. Here it works the other way around, a nice twist.
I only know two of the labors of Hercules, but that NEMEAn lion is one of them, so I lucked out there. And I knew KAREL Chapel from his plays R.U.R. (Which gave os the word “robot” and War with the Newts—but I didn’t know it was a form of Charles.
Of course we should talk about Pearl Harbor, but using it in such a flippant clue seems off.
OT ... I can't open Amy Reynaldo's CrosswordFiend site and it's an indispensable part of my daily crossword life. I installed Malwarebytes Chrome browser add-in the other day and thought that might be the problem, but I can't open the site using Edge either and there's no add-in installed there (that I know of). Is anyone else able to open her site today?
ReplyDeleteSure, 411 is the number to dial for "Information", but it's also a slang term. When someone asks for the 411 on something, they want info about it, the skinny.
ReplyDeleteHi, @Gary
ReplyDeleteYou refer to CHICA as a "racist, sexist trope," but I'm pretty sure that @GILL has addressed me that way quite often in her emails to me in what has always seemed like a delightfully affectionate way. That's what I was thinking earlier this morning -- and how that I see @GILL referring to herself as CHICA at 11:41 ("This CHICA felt..."), I'm sure it's affectionate. Any word, of course, can be used snidely or nastily by people with bad intentions.
@Nancy 1:09 PM
DeleteIf a woman wants to own the word, especially a woman with Latin blood, hi @GILL I!, it's an absolutely fine word. There's a rather more famous word used casually by Mark Twain, Harper Lee, and rap musicians, but it's not for most of us, and not for crosswords. I am definitely not well versed in this subject, and I suspect its somewhat regional, but having spent a lot of time in New Mexico, I would never consider CHICA open for general usage like MERER. I think it's analogous to men using any number of unkind words to refer to women. Stick to BAEs and BOOs or maybe just first names. I'm hoping the last man to call women "chicks" was in 1970, or is a paid comedian, but I doubt I'm right.
I’m sure no one will see this but @Gary, CHICA doesn’t translate to chick (🐥). Chica just means young girl and is NOT (at least in the Spanish speaking world) neither pejorative, nor sexist and definitely not racist.
DeleteNOW that I see...
ReplyDelete@SFman
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I was able to access https://crosswordfiend.com on my Mac using Safari (with Malwarebytes installed).
Yes, it's the USS Arizona. I appreciate the attempt to up the clueing to a more midweek level with "Arizona in Hawaii, e.g." but as such a somber icon of the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, without the honorific USS I would have gone with another clue for SHIP. No biggie and certainly not casting any editorial aspersions, just a personal preference.
ReplyDeleteBit of a Spanish flare in this one with CHICA, SENOR (with the missing tilde in the clue), OLE, LLAMAS and ASADA.
Does 15A WHOA rhyme with Anoa? Shouldn't it be spelled WO or maybe WOH?
One letter from having two Marx brothers in the same corner. Seemed hard while I was doing it but normal Wednesday time at the end.
ReplyDeleteCommenting on Rex’ reaction to last few puzzles, I think there is a clear difference in editorial style since Joel stepped in. While I don’t hate it, I hope Will makes a full recovery and comes back soon. I find his editing more on my wavelength and more comfortable. I have scratched my head on way more clues than usual the past week.
Oye @GILL I-Since I have made exactly this kind of mistake before, I have to say that Bela Fleck is a guy, and I think he has the notes-per-second record for the banjo. At least it seemed that way when I saw him in person.
ReplyDeleteClue for CHICA seems off to me—admittedly I’m no native speaker but I learned niña and chica as different words for different ages. We might translate both as “girl” in English but doesn’t seem like they should be treated as synonyms if you’re putting Spanish in the grid (and I agree with @Nancy that as far as I know it’s not offensive per se).
ReplyDeleteCrossword Fiend works for me today.
Oh, and
ReplyDeleteHappy First Day of Spring!!
RooMonster Springy Guy
Re 420, I heard a radio segment (or might have been a podcast) about its origin, and they mentioned a number of different stories. Their favorite candidate was: in the 70's, some guy owned a grow-op along a Route 420, and told his friends to just help themselves. So they referred to it as "420 time" or something.
ReplyDeleteMy friend is a teacher, and says certain of her students think dropping "420" into any conversation is hilarious. Kinda like Elon Musk mentioning it as what his shares would be worth.
Nothing difficult about singing "Atonal" music if you studied fixed do, at least in the Western tradition. Certainly nothing difficult about singing "atonal" music in many other cultures which don't use the West's system of limited, tempered scales.
ReplyDeleteI found this puzzle rather engaging. The theme was a bit bare, but it's Wednedsay.
I enjoyed the theme and the puzzle as a whole. On entry in the NW, the only thing I got at first was HARPO. So I did that last.
ReplyDeleteMy woe was the cross of PESACH and PANE. The first must be a pretty minor Jewish holiday. I don't feel like I need to know something like that, no disrespect to other people's religions.
I did enjoy the references from other languages, Spanish and Czech here. And the Bela Fleck clue.
Jeff B
DeleteI am not Jewish either. But Pesach is simply the Hebrew word for Passover.
For me it was a hard clue as I was unsure of the English transliteration. But it a major holiday
It has been said that “666” (47 across) is the Devil’s sign, and the Devil is often depicted as THE BEAST.
ReplyDelete@Jeff B: Pesach is not a minor Jewish holiday but, rather, one of the most important. It commemorates the story related in the O.T. book of Exodus, Moses (or Charlton Heston?) leading the enslaved Jews from Egypt along with the parting of the Red Sea, receiving the Ten Commandments, wandering in the desert for 40 years, etc. I think most people are more familiar with its name in English, Passover.
ReplyDeleteI've lived in Spain and studied and taught Spanish for quite a long time, and I can't say I've ever heard "chica" used in an insulting way.
ReplyDeleteMy two cents.
The ASADA/ALDO Natick was pretty bad; by OFL's account the rest of it was, too.
ReplyDeleteGot naticked at the Nemea/Karel cross. Thought Nimea at first, and had to go through the entire puzzle checking for typos before it came to me.
ReplyDeleteGenuinely shocked that so many didn’t know 420 was a synonym for weed! That’s as much a synonym for “cannabis” as pot, grass, weed, etc…
ReplyDeleteLate to the CHICA comments (Hi @Nancy, @Gary J and @pablito.....
ReplyDeleteOye me, CHICA...A smile and usually a sweet wink followed by Chiquita. Nothing wrong with the word. I use it all the time and frankly I love the sound of it. It's used affectionally in most part.
@Gary J. It's not the same as calling women "Chics." That word sorta grates but I guess it depends on how you use it.
@pablito. Oh, of course...There is a Bela Lugosi after all!
@Nancy. Mi chiquita amiga.......! :-)
For me it was a DNF but I liked the puzzle. I forgot the first vowel of PESACH and didn’t go back to recheck the cross. I don’t think it is a natick because what other vowel could possibly go at the end of PAN- and because pane is not a name.
ReplyDeleteOh, A PS to @Gary J. Amiquito....I have zero latin blood running through my veins. I feel as if I do since Spanish was my first love. Alas...I'm of the Siobhan, Clemmie clan. There's also a drop of French Huguenot. Special thanks to "Ancestry DNA."
ReplyDelete@Anon (6:17) There was no MEDEA. Maybe you’re thinking of NEMEA at 32 down.
ReplyDeleteI guess that was it? They referenced MEDEA in their comment so I was confused.
DeleteVery interesting thing about the Arizona is that its oil reservoirs had just been filled prior to the attack. Now when you visit, there is a perpetual oil slick in the water just outside the memorial bridge. The oil leaks and floats up to the surface. One drip every few minutes. For 82 years now. It’ll continue for decades more.
ReplyDeleteNEMEA/KAREL? Worse than Natick. Full-on Attleboro.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rex; the puzzle's theme is not cohesive. It's like word association when you shout out a number. The concept is good, but it should have been sent back to the constructor for re-working.
ReplyDeleteThis was HARD, for a Wednesday! Most of the clues were of the sideways, Fri/Sat variety. Not complaining, except for the too-early placement. Shoulda run this tomorrow, at least.
ReplyDeleteOf all the trouble spots, no one has mentioned the one that almost derailed me for good: 18 down. With starting CHI__, naturally I wrote CHIld! Well, wouldn't you? Eventually corrected, but it took time.
Fill like CTRLC, NLWEST and MCAT didn't help. Overall, I liked the cerebral workout. I know 420 = CANNABIS, but still have no IDEA why. Par.
Wordle par.
Yes, I did write down CHIld instead of CHICA. And that made all the difference in the middle section, where I remained flummoxed.
ReplyDeleteDiana, LIW
Maybe it's just an age thing, but I found this to be a fairly easy Wednesday puzzle. My only write over was CHIld before CHICA. Loved the number clues. Once again I don't understand Rex's complaints. 666 = The Beast, I learned in grade school. Edith Hamilton's Greek mythology book was part of my first Latin class, because Roman and Greek mythology are quite intertwined. And even though I am from the hippie era, I'm still shocked at how many people on this blog did not know that 420=marijuana=cannabis. It's not exactly a new term for it, even if you don't partake. Plus, recreational marijuana is now legal in almost half the states.
ReplyDeleteINTRO TO KIBOSH
ReplyDeleteI fell in TO SIRI's TRAP,
I ASTOR, "DEAR, why do you BAWL?"
"We WENTTOFAR, NOT good my CHAP,
ALAS, IDON'TSEEIT at AWL."
--- SEAN BOND
We just had 4-20-24 the other day, same forwards and backwards, too much CANNABIS and you wouldn't know which way. I had some snacks.
ReplyDeleteThree putt VOTER TROVE OVERT for a wordle par.