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Relative difficulty: Easy (Easy-Medium to Medium if you were solving Downs-only, as I was)
Theme answers:
- APPLES TO APPLES (16A: *Mattel offering with cards for making "hilarious comparisons")
- PICKLEBALL (23A: *Washington's official state sport since 2022)
- CORNHOLE (35A: *Beanbag-tossing sport)
- CANDY CRUSH (46A: *App craze of the early 2010s, familiarly)
Apples to Apples is a party game originally published by Out of the Box Publishing Inc., and now by Mattel. Players start with a hand of seven "red apple" cards, which feature nouns. A player is selected to be the first judge, and that judge plays a "green apple" card, which features an adjective. The round is won by playing the "red apple" card that the judge determines to be the best match for the "green apple" card. The role of the judge rotates, and the number of rounds is determined by the number of players. The game is designed for four to ten players and played for 30–75 minutes.Apples to Apples was chosen by Mensa International in 1999 as a "Mensa Select" prizewinner, an award given to five games each year. It was also named "Party Game of the Year" in the December 1999 issue of Games magazine and received the National Parenting Center's seal of approval in May 1999. The popularity of the game led to an increased interest in similar card-matching/answer-judging party games. On September 8, 2007, Out of the Box Publishing sold the rights for Apples to Apples to Mattel. (wikipedia)
• • •
Downs-only would've been easier if I could've just remembered Megan RAPINOE's name. I could see her face, but then ... blank. Should've been a gimme. Wasn't. When I (finally) got it, I had a big "D'oh!" / headslap moment. But for a while there, the NW looked dicey; I had GLADES and MALT, but neither of the 7s in between. Had to wait for APPLES TO APPLES and EPIPEN to (eventually) give me the letters I needed to make sense of those longer Downs. I also struggled a bit to get the 7s in the NE. And the 6! LASTLY was oddly hard (12D: "In conclusion..."). I had ELL- in the cross at 30A and was considering only "E" or "A" as a last letter there, not "Y." Not sure I would've ever gotten ALL TALK if I hadn't had DOR-Y at 33A and reasoned (reasonably) that it had to be DORKY. That "K" made all the difference in that NE corner. Elsewhere, the only other issue I had was with 37D: Apt rhyme of "caches" (STASHES). I was hearing it as "cachets" ("cachés"?) and so wrote in SACHETS!!! But the themers eventually came along and helped me correct that error.
OK, I gotta run along now. This Daylight Saving baloney (abolish it! Standard Time Forever!) has me behind schedule. I've got a (virtual) meeting in 25 minutes, so ... bye!
Medium, mostly because I had onset before START which PICARD fixed.
ReplyDeleteI have played none of these GAMES but I have seen THE HUNGER GAMES movies and read the books.
Cute theme with a very smooth grid, a fine Monday, liked it.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #892 was mostly easy for a Croce. The right-center was the toughest section for me. Good luck!
Also down clues only, I rely on any obvious long acrosses to help suggest the downs I can't get. For 16 across, looking at ---LE-TOAPP--- all I could come up with was FAILED TO APPEAR. I had no idea APPLES TO APPLES is a game. RAPINOE was a big problem for me too and I ended up cheating by looking at a couple of across clues. bocamp would have aced this. Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteESSO again clued as "Canadian gas brand". I'm not sure how that happened; it's just from S.O. abbrev for Standard Oil, right?
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0; QB streak 2 whole days! A few stupid words I somehow got.]
Ah Monday. I've played zero of those games. OOO. I played a few MISSES in college and my strategy normally involved a bottle of wine. Last week during the BANANA SPLIT Incident of March 4, I professed my love of the vanilla MALT and here we are. My wife has a thing for Jean-Luc Picard I've never understood.
ReplyDeleteUniclues:
1 Make a Boomer cry.
2 Nickname for one with a peanut allergy.
3 Click on the Rex Parker blog.
4 You put yer weed in there.
5 What Megan's mule carries.
6 Fuss with a Ferrari after coffee.
1 END PICKLEBALL
2 DORKY EPIPEN (~)
3 START UNEASE
4 HERB CURE CASE
5 RAPINOE STASHES
6 TINKERS AMPED UP (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Monastery that's just sick of it all. OH HELL ABBACY.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Almost solved downs only. Had to use somes acrosses in th NE and SE. Still didn't get the happy music because I had SOUR crossing RICARD and hadn't checked the across clue for SOUP!
ReplyDeleteComplete agreement about making standard time permanent. There’s a bill in the NYS legislature - A5733 - to make this happen. Write to your state senator and assemblyperson
ReplyDeleteand the Governor to urge them to pass this bill.
In the town of RAPINOE, YOU might ASK where the best CANDY APPLE CORN CRUSH is eaten. GRAM, the town CONN and a bit of a WACO, would point YOU to the SITE MAP and tell YOU (in her HOG BROGUE) that it was at a MALT shop on ELLY road. She was EARNEST and knew that the CORN CRUSH was the best.
ReplyDeleteLIAM, the ALDA of RAPINOE, felt HUNGER... he wanted an APPLE with PICKLE SOUP.....GRAM shook her HEAD NOS. MISSES OWENS, the DORKY OLE RED HEAD in the SOUP kitchen, was the one who could STIR up a PICKLE SOUP. She was EARNEST about the DONT's of AMPED UP DIETS and felt that neither PICKLE nor CORN SOUP was a CURE for HEAD DIETS.
MISSES OWENS, once in her MALT shop, would START a CANDY CORN APPLE HERB CRUSH. IDEALLY, the BRIM of the CRUSH had to BE REAL LAMA CONCH and not ALL TALK. It was a culinary ART and became the TAT of the town. LASTLY, she'd add CORN and APPLES to the CONCH and STIR in GLADES of an HERB called ESSO. APPLE PICKLE SOUP with CANDY CORN was a BALL to eat.
LIAM no longer TINKERS with any EMAIL that might SCATHE his DIETS CASE. He was going to BE REAL about his UNEASE of eating an APPLE with PICKLE SOUP but he really didn't want to STIR up a BALL of APPLES Into a PICKLE HOLE. He knew the DONT'S of this CASE and he certainly wanted MiISSES OWENS to IDEALLY be AMPED UP.
His UNEASE, altho EARNEST, would soon END. He finally ate MISSES OWENS APPLE with PICKLE SOUP. He also knew he could CRUSH a BLT like a HOG out of a PEN.... It certainly would CURE his HEAD of a CASE of the STASHES.
LASTLY, GRAM, MISSES OWENS and LIAM could be seen playing BALL under the GLADES of Lake UNEASE. The SITE was REAL. After their GAMES, they'd eat a HOG BLT and HEAD back to town for some CANDY APPLE PICKLE CORN CRUSH at the MALT shop on ELLY road.
It was delish!
@GILL I. 3:46 AM
DeleteI need a seat belt on Mondays for your short stories. Another nerve wracking thrill ride where the careful delineation between the comfortable concepts of noun, verb, and adjective gets tossed around in the trunk screaming to get out.
Don’t know about what level of colloquial vs technical use is appropriate in a clue like this, but a gram is a unit of mass not weight.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I was thinking the same thing. Europeans can give us some grief over our lack of metric system, but at least we measure weight in weight units. Grams are mass.
DeleteThank god a few of us noticed. Will shortz should have caught that.
Delete
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I disagree with @Rex. Not about the puzzle. The puzzle was a fine, fun Monday. But about year 'round standard time. We should have year 'round DST. The early darkness in winter is much more depressing than it has to be. But I'd prefer year 'round standard time to what we have now.
No, no, no--make DST permanent. I'd much rather have more light later in the day; having the sun set at like 4 or 4:30 in the winter is depressing as hell. But agree about making one or the other (but really DST) permanent--this springing and falling is for the birds. Actually for the bugs and for golf--look it up. It has nothing to do with farmers, or children, or saving energy, and it is a fundamentally stupid exercise.
ReplyDeletePretty average Monday. Begin before START. Then onset. That wasn't great for my time, but otherwise not much trouble. I've played all of the games but have never seen the movies or read the books. Maybe if we stop playing around with the clocks I'll have the time to do so. :-)
I have a big problem with 1A. A GRAM is not a unit of weight (i.e., the force gravity imparts on an object). It is a unit of mass. A 1 gram coin would weigh less on the moon than here on Earth and in outer space it would be weightless. But, its mass would be identical: 1 gram. That may seem pedantic, but it would have been so easy to reword the clue in a way that doesn’t perpetuate scientifically illiteracy.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of the puzzle, I thought it was fun, well-constructed, and had a very clever revealer.
Came here just to see if anyone else had as much an issue with this clue, glad I wasn’t the only one
DeleteNever caught the theme, but didn't need to. Good Monday puzzle with some interesting answers, like SCATHE (that is a word, but has anyone ever used it in conversation?).
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Washington - is PICKLEBALL really a “state sport”? That’s a little like having CANDY CRUSH as your “state app”. Seems bizarre, but then a lot of what I hear about Washington State seems bizarre to me.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rachel & Rebecca for the fun Monday solve.
ReplyDeleteHBO is no longer thanks to the pointless rebranding to Max (56D. “True Detective” airer).
Happy DST,
Liam Hemsworth was my eye candy crush of the first 3 hunger games movies, I see what you did there Rachel and Rebecca, grateful puz!
ReplyDeleteAnyone who wants permanent DST has never, ever thought about what winter *mornings* would be like. You wouldnt get “more light”—you’d just push more darkness to the morning, making it Impossibly, ridiculously dark as kids go to school. All studies suggest permanent Standard Time is better for humans on every level. Permanent DST will win because chambers of commerce like it. And it’s better than switching every six months. But permanent Standard Time is the manifestly superior option.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/public-health/sleep-doctors-orders-use-standard-time-365-days-year
A little tough for a Monday - more six- to seven-letter entries than usual. Revealer doesn't really work, but I'll allow it anyway. I have never played any of these games but they are all known to me.
ReplyDeleteMy dream is we (and all the world) simply change to UTC. No seasonal changes. One time, the same everywhere in the world. The only downside is the song and movie 9 to 5 wouldn't make sense in the US.
@jae – as with last week my Croce experience was completely different. I did finish with no errors, but it took 2-3 times as long as an average Croce.
ReplyDeleteThe theme with its revealer is a reach - no logical connection - it’s just kind of contrived enough to fit. I liked PICARD, BROGUE and EARNEST. The entire center is rough.
ReplyDeleteGRAM
Didn’t love the clue for 4d - MALT is not the grain itself but the process of making a grain usable to ferment or distill. We’ve had the mass or weight discussion a few times before. Close enough for an early week grid but just not correct as presented.
I typically like Rachel’s puzzles - I’ll pass on this one.
Pigpen
Not a huge fan of the puzzle but am a huge fan of Daylight Saving Time. Nothing better than the setting close to 9 pm on summer nights in NYC. Can’t make it year round because it would be unsafe for school children in December. The current system is the best system.
ReplyDeleteThank you ,@Anonymous 7:08. I’m an early riser — not as early as Rex, but early enough that all winter long it’s still pitch black when I rise. At this time of year, as the days lengthen, I’m up at first light, which is a magical time that I dearly love. Then DST comes along and throws me back into the night. Grr. I vote for year-round standard time.
ReplyDeleteGreat fun, as every theme game had a catchy name, and there was pop strewn around the grid as well – GLADES, SCATHE, TINKERS, BROGUE, KIOSKS, BE REAL, ALL TALK. A spate of spark pumping energy into the fill-in. AMPED UP indeed.
ReplyDeleteAnd plenty of brainwork for me, as well, because I left the revealer blank and tried to guess what it was without reading the clue (something I have trouble with). And I indeed had plenty of trouble with that today, much to my brain’s delight. I finally started uncovering the revealer’s letters, starting with the first, and finally, after THE HU, did it come to me. Small steps.
But still my brain wanted more, so I scanned the grid for serendipities, and there was:
• HEAD next to CASE
• The PuzzPair© of START and END
• A backward MAIL to complement EMAIL
• A, Boggle-style YOO crossing a Boggle-style HOO (between CANDY CRUSH and the revealer).
• SIR next to TAT led me to search to find a former with the latter, and Sir Ian McKellan came up, as he got an arm tattoo as a memento for his “Lord of the Rings” stint.
So, Monday, easy Monday, was brimming with treasure for me today, underscored by fun. Thank you so much for this, R&R.
My five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. What a clutch lacks (5)
2. Seeing sound? (3)
3. Needle on a thread? (5)
4. It's handled at a bar (5)
5. Range rover ... or something to do in a Range Rover (5)
STRAP
AHA
TROLL
STEIN
STEER
Downs-only FAIL for me as I had wtS for “ozs. and ozs.” and wAKE and tRIM both looked fine. But amazingly, when I had to look at crosses to find my error, I still didn’t get it at first. wAKE seemed plausible for something about water-skiing and tRIM for the edge of a hat. Finally realized a wake isn’t a “spot” for water-skiing.
ReplyDeleteI’ve played all of the games except CANDY CRUSH - pretty good at CORNHOLE, terrible at PICKLEBALL. Oh, and I guess I haven’t played THE HUNGER GAMES - yet. It might become a thing if the orange menace is elected again.
I am in the “make STANDARD time (not daylight-savings) year-round” camp.
Someone I actually know won an Oscar last night. Watch Mstyslav Chernov’s moving acceptance speech for winning best documentary for “20 Days in Mariupol.” He said he may be the first winning director ever to wish he’d never made his movie.
FWIW, the grain is barley, which is then malted to extract sugar
ReplyDeleteVery cute theme! Perfect for a Monday :-)
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I started this one I knew it was going to be good. And of course the constructors are among the group I favor. Apples to Apples is our favorite family game. Tons of fun.
ReplyDeleteAlso had the ?? Moment of Hunger to Food but so much is good it’s hard to complain. Especially for a MOnday that is usually so boring.
The ‘beans’ in the beanbag are dried corn!
ReplyDeleteWe have Daylight Savings Time for eight months of the year. Making Standard Time permanent would be way more jarring than making DST permanent. Plus, where I live at least (Chicago), Standard Time in the summer would mean sunrise around 4:30 am. I mean, I’d prefer either one be permanent to switching the clocks every March and November, but DST would make more sense to me.
ReplyDeleteCaches and stashes do not rhyme.
ReplyDeleteFood is not the same as hunger.
This puzzle did not do it for me.
Cache is not pronounced like catch. It's pronounced like cash, which rhymes with stash.
DeleteI have not checked this, but I recall someone telling me it's called corn hole because that's what's actually inside the "bean" bags.
ReplyDeleteAnother great example of an easy puzzle with freshness and lack of crappy fill/crosswordese. Keep this up, NYT! Maybe it's the female touch.
ReplyDeleteOpinions on DST tend to be based on: morning people vs night owls, rural vs city, cold vs warm climate,etc. Out here in the rural heartland, where workers and school buses are on the road en masse between 6 and 7 am, standard makes more sense most of the year.
My vote would be to keep it the way it is, switch 2nd week of April and switch back first week of November (after Halloween) , based on northern climate. Since our population is moving south, I'm probably in the minority !
To those spreading MASS hysteria regarding grams:
ReplyDeleteThere are 28 grams in an ounce. This unit conversion can be expressed as 28 grams = 1 ounce or 28 g = 1 oz. However you write it, there are 28 grams in one avoirdupois ounce. In a more precise conversion, 1 ounce is equal to approximately 28.3495 grams (or 28.35 g).
An ounce in this instance is a measure of mass. If you read to the end of the Wikipedia page you checked, there is a unit called the ounce-force, which is equivalent to some amount of NEWTONS - a unit of weight like the pound. The crossword was wrong.
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDelete14 wider, today. Acceptable, as the Revealer was 14, plus middle Themer is an 8. As if the constructors care what I think!
Nice puz, ladies. A bit crunchy, in the fact a smaller puz took me slightly over average reg-puz-size solving time. With four Themers and a Revealer.
One oof, though. OOO. Hey, it happens. We have an L fest in NE (three sets of Double-L's), for a total of 7 of 'em up there.
But, it MISSES F's. Dang. K's have a strong showing today, four. Weird what the ole brain notices.
Monday. UNEASE. Har.
No F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
The brain fog from switching times is hardest on Monday morning…i had SNAIL for spiral-shelled mollusk…i do love snails, but aha, I love CONCH even more! We played Apples to Apples a lot on family vacations since anyone who can read can play, and we love to play BAGS which is what we call cornhole in this part of the world. It was a fun puzzle, maybe my brain will recover today. Ready for Pi Day and St Patrick’s…☘️
ReplyDeleteAgree with the sloppy MALT and GRAM clues.
ReplyDeleteRex - please bring back your monthly video Xword solving experiences with your friend Rachel F. These were fun to watch for the solving processes you go through and the positive/negative criticisms of the puzzles.
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle — a nice, playful Monday! I’m in favor of year-round Daylight Saving Time.
ReplyDeleteTennis has been around, like, forever, whereas PICKLEBALL arrived about ten minutes ago. So anyone who's picked PICKLEBALL over tennis as their "State sport" will never be chosen as my "State State." I'm looking at you, State of Washington.
ReplyDeleteBut at least I've heard of PICKLEBALL. I've even watched it. Had it arrived at an earlier time in my tennis-playing life, I probably would have taken a stab at playing it. I didn't know any of the other games. Not that that spoiled this smooth and lively puzzle for me.
A word about APPLES TO APPLES. Rex explains it well and it sounds like a lot of fun to play. Especially for us word-loving types. Once again, something that arrived really late in my life.
Quick question: Is there ever going to be a RAP face-off between the all the "DA"s and all the the "LIL"s? Just asking for a friend.
4-down is wrong. Malt is not a grain - it is a process. We can malt grains - barley, wheat, rye, oats... The malting process changes insoluble starches to soluble starches through starting and arresting germination. It preserves the amylase enzymes to change the starch to sugars to feed yeast during fermentation.
ReplyDeleteA little late this AM as I had to transport my guitar to a luthier for repair. Not that that's terribly interesting but it does give me a chance to use the word "luthier".
ReplyDeleteEasy breezy here and SCATHE was the only side eye. although I may try to find a way to work "Don't SCATHE me bro" into a conversation.
I made my own CORNHOLE target boards and ordered the beanbags online and used to play with my sons. For reasons you can imagine, we always referred to it as "the beanbag game". And as usual, any clue starting with "App" fills me with dread, but since I was still around high schoolers in 2010 I did know about CANDYCRUSH, as in "Stop playing that and pay attention".
Very nice Mondecito, RG and RF. Relevant GAMES and some Real Finesse in this one. Thanks for all the fun.
@Nancy 9:55
ReplyDeleteFor a famous rap face-off scene, see
Don DeLILo's "DA Underworld
@Mr. Grumpypants -- "Caches and stashes do not rhyme."
ReplyDeleteThey do in a General American English accent.
In IPA, the dictionary says cache is /kæʃ/ and stash is /stæʃ/ -- and they're identical for both US and UK. They both end in /æʃ/ which rhymes.
And neither Merriam-Webster nor Cambridge list any alternative pronunciation for either.
What dialect or accent do you speak in that they don't rhyme? What does "cache" rhyme with for you?
Spent twenty six years working in a brewery. MALT is a grain???? Can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone planting and growing MALT. In most beer, MALTED BARLEY is the grain with Malt referring too what was done to the Barley prior to the brewery receiving MALTED BARLEY.
ReplyDeleteI agree with many here that this was a very nice Monday offering!
ReplyDeleteEvery year, two times a year, the great debate is renewed on DST v. Standard Time. If I had to guess, I’d bet that more people get upset when they are at the far side of each time zone. For instance, I am in the same time zone as NYC, but my latitude is closer to Chicago. I THINK this results in about a 45 minute difference in sunrise/sunset as between NYC and me. I just “go with the flow” and figure I’ll get used to it, but I confess, the older I get, the more the switch has an effect on me! That, AND jet lag!
third straight successful downs only Monday after a few failed efforts some time back led me to abandon the downs only effort. Full disclosure for this one--no Happy Music at first, but the mistake was quicly found and corrected: I had ptS for 5D (oz. and oz.) which gave me a reasonable tRIM for 14A, but a very unlikely pAKE for 6A. ptS to LBS and voila.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Rex, I immediately remembered Megan's name, just not how to spell it! So the NW was the last to fall, which is an apt turn of a phrase for a downs only solve.
The standard in standard time is "high noon". But in any time zone, "high noon" occurs exactly at only one line of longitude. Or put anonther way sunrise in Boston is a bit earlier than sunrise in Buffalo. We have been shifting the time by an hour without causing the end of the world. Maybe compromise and make the final shift to a new standard be one half hour i.e. between "standard" and "daylight savings.
ReplyDeleteI have an implement for opening my front entrance that's so seriously uncool that people ask "What's with the DORKY door key, Dork?"
ReplyDeleteI did this so quickly that I was really surprised. "I'm finished!" I said with a START.
This one was right in my wheelhouse because whenever I'm really hungry I eat a special melange of APPLE, PICKLE, CORN and CANDY.
In defense of Washington, PICKLEBALL was invented there and has been played in schools in many districts for years. When it became a big deal, the PIckleball community (full disclosure: that includes me) united to push its adoption as the state sport. Traditionally, the person or team on the side of the court closest to Bainbridge Island, birthplace of the game, serves first. This gets dicey when you're playing on Bainbridge Island, but works fine elsewhere.
Really a yummy puzzle for a Monday. Thanks, Rebecca Goldstein and Rachel Fabi.
Fun puzzle with excellent clues and a cute theme!
ReplyDeleteOpinions on DST will be divided based on how far west of a line you live. You could live a few yards from someone else and be almost an hour off. I am willing to be a little groggy for a day, and extra content on another 6 months later to balance out the AM/PM sunlight. System seems to work here in NYC. @ Andy Freude, a month or so from now, you'll be back to waking at first light.
@pabloinnh - luthier is a beautiful word, but I'm never sure if I should go with the French pronunciation or some local anglicization.
@Nancy - I'm a bit of a grumpypants regarding PICKLEBALL. I get no satisfaction from the ball meeting the paddle (a plastic thwock), whereas a tennis ball struck in the sweet spot is one of life's great pleasures, akin to a well hit golf ball, or a baseball off the wooden bat. The sound of PB is apparently a big point of contention for neighbors of public courts.
I had resigned myself to recognizing it as a fun social game that has easier accessibility and is lighter on the joints. But now that it is becoming hyper-competitive, I think "just play tennis already".
Colloquial vs scientific usage: I get that grams are a unit of measurement for mass, but what do you say when someone asks you how much you weigh, or you have to fill in a form? "Since I'm in a 1G environment, my mass of x pounds is currently synonymous with my weight?". "I'm currently on top of a roller coaster hump, so I weigh nothing?"
@okanaganer: I remember ESSO from my childhood, and how it was rebranded EXXON (1972). I was surprised to see ESSO on more recent trips across the border, as the name never changed elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe that I struggled with CORN HOLE!
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle, thank you, ladies!
Sorry for multiple posts: rhyming clues are dangerous because mileage may vary.
ReplyDeleteI've usually heard CACHE pronounced like cash money. I was looking for a one-syllable rhyme for the other pronunciation, but couldn't find one. "nat" in nation or sat in sensation. This is apparently not recognized by dictionaries...
@ Teleiotes
ReplyDeleteMy father was a Marine. I was born in North Carolina and have lived in Boston, Virginia, northern California, southern California, Illinois, Sweden, Oregon, and Washington. I have no idea what my accent is, but, for me, stash rhymes with cash, and cache rhymes with facial or lace. Make of that what you will.
@egsforbreakfast 11:24 AM
ReplyDeleteI find this exposé on the roots of PICKLEBALL adds to the disturbing nature of the mania. Dark forces are AFOOT, and this is how it ends.
@Anon 7:08 AM says "Anyone who wants permanent DST has never, ever thought about what winter *mornings* would be like."
ReplyDeleteBut where I live, winter mornings are already like that. With year-round DST, at least I could drive home from work in the daylight.
Liked the puzzle. Seemed more like a Tuesday, just slightly more challenging (and interesting) than your typical Monday.
Wow. This one had me shaking my head in disbelief. We get four GAMES with edibles in their names. Then the reveal is....HUNGER GAMES? Shouldn't that be EDIBLE GAMES? (Or maybe FOOD GAMES if you're willing to give food status to CANDY. I'm not.)
ReplyDeleteTo make the connection between the themers and the reveal requires several mental steps along the line of "The themers contain things we can eat. If we don't get enough to eat for long enough, we experience HUNGER.". Maybe that gets a pass from the close-enough-for-crosswords folks but it's a stretch too far in my book. Still shaking my head in disbelief on this one.
Who decided on CORNHOLE as the name for a game of tossing a beanbag at a hole in a slanted board? Was it a purposeful joke or just being tone deaf? CORNHOLE has had a very vulgar sexual slang meaning as a noun and a verb going back over a century. Even wiki has an article on the slang meaning. It's likely to produce UNEASE in the faint-hearted.
FoodPlay. Solid MonPuz theme.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject picks: BLT & OOO. Food & games.
RAP clue was real instructional. Learned two new rap artist names. [bts-briefly]
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Dalai ___ (spiritual leader)} = LAMA.
other fave staff: ALLTALK. RAP & RAPINOE. DORKY. IDEALLY & LASTLY. KIOSKS.
Was real impressed that the MonPuz only had 71 words, until I realized it was a 14x15-er.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Goldstein & Fabi darlins. Nice Scrabble puz follow-up, not that y'all had any say about that.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
Yay for Standard Time forever!
ReplyDeleteI call foul on the GRAM clue as well. I even started with KILO because I do recognize many people use that word colloquially for weight. I can't recall ever seeing GRAM used that way.
ReplyDelete@Nancy, @egs, and @burtonkd…
ReplyDeleteI dunno @Nancy….as YOU know,I LOVE LOVE LOVE tennis! With that said, I didn’t really “take it up” until my mid-to late 30s. Why? I couldn’t afford to…it was a “country club” game when I was growing up in my part of the world. I think Pickleball swept the nation because of what @burtonkd said…PLUS the equipment (to start) is in the words of A.E. Neumann…CHEAP! You can get a set of two decent enough paddles with 4 balls (they last!) for about 50$. But yeah…at this point in my life I’m looking for the social thing with a tad bit of exercise thrown in. I think that means that even if @egs were MY age…he wouldn’t be playing pickleball with the likes of ME!
Re Daylight Savings Time... when I retired several years ago I decided to leave all my household clocks on DST year round. My computer, phone, and TV automatically switch so I don't miss appointments. Turns out it is not that hard to think in "house time" vs "world time".
ReplyDeleteOne detail is: when the world switches to DST, the puzzle comes out at 7pm rather than 8pm (Pacific time).
A bit OT, but what the *hell* was up with the Mini-Crossword today? I went through all the Downs and Crosses, and zippo! Not a one would fall. I had to cheat on three items before I could fill in the rest. Not a happy start. The big puzzle was a breeze.
ReplyDeleteSince I come here for a discussion on people’s take on time settings, must add my 15 minutes.
ReplyDeleteGet rid of everything related to time. It’s misogynistic (women are known to be late) and xenophobic (imagine having different time ZONES just because one lives - just as validly, I might add - in different parts of the world!)
In fact, get rid of all things TIMES (except for an occasional Thursday puzzle)!
Good Times (hey, maybe that makes it racist too. Tee-Hee.)
I'm surprised that Rex didn't comment on the misogynistic, condescending, "Don't worry your pretty little...". Given the thousands of possible clues for HEAD, these 2 women came up with that?
ReplyDeleteActually, gazpacho is not a SOUP. It's a liquid salad. But because most American menus list it as a SOUP, the error is forgivable.
Because the clue says that a BLT is usually toasted, I crisped some bacon, sliced a tomato, schmeared some mayo on a couple slices of bread, then put the bacon, tomato and some lettuce between the bread slices. Then, as the clue suggested, I toasted it. Man, what a mess! I think they must have meant "Sandwich that's usually made with toasted bread, informally".
Since when is ELLY short for Elizabeth? I have always associated it with Eleanor.
ReplyDelete@anoabob 12:46
ReplyDeletePEG? CORNHOLE? Think NYTXW is “edging” towards the nasty.
God help us when we find out the real origins of PICKLEBALL…
Almost 7pm and still light out in early March ! Thank you Woodrow Wilson. Your presidency wasn’t a complete failure after all.
ReplyDeleteI'm a couple days late with this (I print out the puzzles and do them when the mood strikes) so I know it might not be seen, but re. grams as mass not weight: science, technically, sure. However if you're cooking elsewhere in the world you are measuring (and weighing) ingredients in grams. Seems fair to me for everyday folks.
ReplyDeleteThe clue for 4D is wrong. Malt is not a grain. Is Will Shortz back yet as editor?
ReplyDeleteYeah, that clue for HEAD seemed really off the mark. Reminds me of the after-dinner scene in "Giant" when the men light up their cigars and talk politics while the women get out their knitting. Bick said something similar to his new wife--and she was having none of it.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of APPLESTOAPPLES; thankful that oranges wouldn't fit. Gimme & DOD (over her own objection, no doubt) RAPINOE helped in the NW. I like "All hat & no cattle" but ALLTALK will do. OK, enough from Texas.
Good theme and nice revealer; roomy open corners; no junk fill. Birdie.
Wordle birdie--like so many carded by Masters winner Scottie Scheffler. Congrats on a well-deserved green jacket.
"Easy" enough. A tasty treat for a Monday solve.
ReplyDeleteDiana, LIW
DIET GAMES
ReplyDeleteELLY would ASK if CORNHOLE was REAL,
STARTs to TALK, her face ENDs UP RED,
LASTLY a CURE would BE IDEAL,
THEHUNGER was ALL in her HEAD.
--- SIR LIAM OWENS
Big hitter, THE LAMA.
ReplyDeleteCORNHOLE used to be such a different thing.
YOU CONN. Basketball elite.
ZZ Top might say the corners got LEGS.
Wordle par.