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Relative difficulty: Easy/Medium (9:49)
THEME: Missing letters / homophones — Letters that are missing from clues appear in entries
Theme answers:
- [Lip_on produc_s] for INSTANT TEAS (Ts)
- [_lum-colored _lants] for PURPLE PEAS (Ps)
- [_usy _uzzers] for BUMBLE BEES (Bs)
- [Fr_endly fac_al tra_t] for SMILING EYES (Is)
Word of the Day: PURPLE PEAS (see clue above) —
Bullets:
A pea is a most commonly green, occasionally golden yellow, or infrequently purple pod-shaped vegetable, widely grown as a cool-season vegetable crop. [wiki]
• • •
Hi friends, and happy Malaika MWednesday! This is a big weekend for Crossword Events, and I hope I'll be able to see some of you at Crossword Con (where I'll be speaking) or ACPT (where I'll be hanging out on Friday evening).
I solved today's puzzle smoothly and with no stumbling blocks... But I also didn't really focus on theme, I just zoomed through. I did clock that there was something going on with letters and homophones (T vs "tea") but I didn't take the time to figure anything out.
 |
| Me, breezing through this puzzle at a dive bar on a Tuesday |
Looking at it afterwards, I actually still don't get it! At first I thought the blanks in the clues would correspond to the circles in the entries, but I don't think that's right. (For example, in the clue [Lip_on produc_s] the fourth and thirteenth letters are missing. But in the entry INSTANT TEAS, the T is fourth and seventh.) I was also looking for the entry to reference the fact that the letter was missing (like "cutoff tees" or even "iced teas") but I don't think that's the case either. Can you help me out in the comments if I'm missing something?
My other beef with the theme answers is that only one of the four is a familiar phrase to me. I'm very unconvinced INSTANT TEAS is a thing at all-- many people use "tea" as the plural, and can you tell me what a non-instant tea would look like?? (Edit: While proofreading this, I looked up the phrase and unfortunately it exists. I'll admit that I'm wrong, but I'm still grumpy.) PURPLE PEAS are a plant I've never heard of, and SMILING EYES feels like it should be "kind eyes" or else some sort of reference to smizing.
The rest of the puzzle was simple enough, with cute long answers like I LOVE YOU and LEGO SETS and CATAPULT and MEEMAW. I just built my first ever lego set a couple weeks ago, and it was so much fun that I immediately ordered another-- pictured below.
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| My second Lego Set-- the first was a garbage truck |
Bullets:
- [House of cards?] for CASINO — Such a great clue that my first thought is "Surely this has been done before??" But I've never seen it!
- [Stately country homes] for CHATEAUS — Would you rather live in an estate or a manor or a chateau or a chalet or a villa or a dacha?
- [Do some work as a teaching assistant, maybe] for GRADE — Undergrad readers: I used to work as a teaching assistant. If you feel something was graded incorrectly, you should absolutely request a re-grade!! When I was a mere freshman, I thought that a TA's word was law. As soon as I became a TA, I realized that we were all very competent, but underpaid and usually grading at midnight or later and prone to mistakes.
- [Anheuser-Busch product whose ads once featured a penguin] for BUD ICE — If I were constructing this puzzle, I would have done "bodice" crossing "rode."
P.S. I kept a pretty neutral tone throughout this write-up because I'm convinced there's something I'm missing! A E-S is known for his layered and complex themes, so it must not have clicked for me! But if the answer is as simple as "remove the B's, and then have the word BEES randomly with another word that has nothing to do with anything and no explainer and no revealer and no rationale, no purpose or motivation for these entries or choices" then.... I must say, I am not a fan :(
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Easy-medium. Meh…or what @Malaika said.
ReplyDeleteAs simple as INSTANT Ts, PURPLE Ps, BUMBLE Bs and SMILING Is. Very underwhelming theme.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI figure that we got Wednesday on Monday this week due to April Fools, so it's okay if Wednesday's puzzle is on the easy side for a Wednesday. Only two overwrites:
My weak Spanish strikes again: ESTAtO before ESTADO at 4D made GRADE hard to see at 23A
56D: Meg before MIL, quickly corrected by SLEDGE.
The plural of chateau is chateaux. Always.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 5:46 AM
DeleteOui, toujours -- en français. But the clue is in English. Chateau, like garage, chalet, kindergarten, and many other English words, is "borrowed" from a foreign word. In English, the standard pluralization is the addition of an "s".
Played like a Monday for me. And Monday played like a Wednesday. So I have no idea of what tomorrow’s puzzle may be like. Blah.
ReplyDeleteRe: "what [would] a non-instant tea look like": Tea typically needs to steep for about 3-5 minutes, so an INSTANTTEA is a powdered version that you would just mix in.
ReplyDeleteA longish Monday.
ReplyDeleteInstant teas are a thing, mostly the iced tea mixes that come in many flavors. Oldsters like me have a jar of unsweetened Lipton Tea because the mixes are too sweet.
I had a friend in college who was the epitome of smiling eyes - she would cover the lower half of her face with a book and you could always tell when she was smiling.
I hope to see you at ACPT!
Cute, the missing letter isn’t the clue is in the circles. The last word of the answer is also a homophone of the circled letter.
ReplyDeleteHi Malaika! [House of cards?] has been used a number of times for CASINO, including the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and NYT (three times). Indeed, it is a great clue!
ReplyDeleteHalf the time I don’t pay attention to the themes, which was the case today. Fortunately the theme answers at least seem plausible (like PURPLE PEAS, for example). It’s really a bummer when they start with the upside down and backwards stuff so the grid turns into gibberish (this past Monday seemed like an exception on that score though). So, I’ll take it, even if there is a meta-theme that I am missing - I frequently miss the “main” theme and just wait for OFL to explain it.
ReplyDeleteProbably the only linguistic equivalent of an alien life form today is MEEMAW - which is pretty rare for the NYT. Usually by mid-week we get a healthier dose of made-up stuff, b-list anctors and/or pure arcana, so good job by the constructor and editors today.
I also feel like I must be missing something with the theme. Came here to find it. No joy at this early hour, I'll check back later!
ReplyDeleteI was also confused. Fr_endly fac_ial tra_it had three i's missing and the third 'i' in the answer was actually 'eye', so maybe there's something there? No eyedea
ReplyDeleteHi Malaika! Ditto on the theme, which didn’t quite work for me but was fortunately ignorable.
ReplyDeleteWhere I grew up, in East Texas, we occasionally ate PURPLE hullS, a kind of PEA. Nobody could cook ‘em up like MEEMAW!
Teas, Peas, Bees… and Eyes?!?!?! I was expecting Rex to go ballistic on that. I’m pretty tolerant of whatever’s in the crossword and things rarely bother me… but this bit of inconsistent thematic inelegance really does. Except for those non-rhyming I’s, the rest was fine.
ReplyDeleteYeah this theme seems like either it’s unfinished or not thought out or just WAY over my head. My problem is the consistency. There are 3 T’s in INSTANT TEAS, yet only two are circled. 3 P’s in PURPLE PEAS, yet again only two circled. 3 B’s in BUMBLE BEES, yet two are circled. Then 2 I’s in SMILING EYES, but it breaks the pattern by not having the EYES part be some other kind of I word? Why have the circled letters at all? I even thought “well maybe the circled letters represent the removed letters from the clues, like were filling in the blanks somehow, but then in the clue for SMILING EYES there are three I’s missing and still only two circles!
ReplyDeleteWeird and super unfulfilling. Liked the rest of the puzzle though, which was maybe why I’m so frustrated by the theme.
First, one of my favorite grid designs of all time was made by Alex. It melts my heart every time I see it, and I believe it’s worth a reprise: https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/13/2020 .
ReplyDeleteSecond, what an elegant, tight, and quirky theme concept today, three qualities I love in a theme. I love how three of the theme answers rhyme – it’s a shame there wasn’t a theme answer that could end in “ease” or “seize”.
My brain let out a big “Huh!” at learning the concrete fact. It also keeps reparsing DARK ALES as DARK ALLEYS.
I can’t believe TREE RING has never appeared before today in a NYT crossword! (It has elsewhere, once clued "Circle of life?")
Also, I love the misdirecting clue – [Not fantastic], for REAL – which had me thinking along the line of SO SO. And, in the GRUB category we have RIB, PURPLE PEAS, OAT, LEG, OREO, EGGS and FILETS.
Alex, there was much I liked about your puzzle, but your theme is what sealed the deal. This was a jewel that made my heart smile. Thank you!
House of cards would be a good clue for BUSCH STADIUM too. Should probably have a capital C in that case, tho.
ReplyDeleteThis wouldn’t be a proper clue. If a word is shortened in the clue (Cardinals to Cards) then there must be a shortened word or slang in the answer.
DeleteHad COcacola instead of CONCRETE for the longest time, which made NW tough for me. When I saw that I couldn’t get Coca Cola to work based on acrosses, I thought, “good lord could it be cocaine??” Fortunately it was not!
ReplyDeleteSmiling eyes annoyed me simply because the clue was missing three letters and only two were provided in the answer, breaking the pattern.
ReplyDeleteThe “T”s belonging to INSTANT, the “P”s belonging to PURPLE etc. seemed straightforward. And crazy easy. ~RP
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons I read this blog is because I usually miss something about the theme. I finished this and thought “ok, missing letters from the clue appear in circles in the answer? Is that it?” I didn’t catch the homophone AT ALL. I was a little annoyed because the theme clues were vague and to me the answers had an EAT A SANDWICH feel. Most of them required tons of crosses to get either because they were thing s I had never heard of (purple peas) or because the clued just weren’t specific enough. If I had caught the homophone after my first theme answer it would have made the solve MUCH easier for me!
ReplyDeleteI also think I misdirected myself because I was expecting something where taking out the circles letters would reveal a different word.
On the easy side for a Wednesday, I thought. My only (temporary) glitch was in the SE, where I had LOGOSETS and assumed that someone had made a choice to sit on a log for Thanksgiving. When the music didn't appear I realized it was LEGOSETS. I kept looking for a theme connected to the circled letters, but finally realized there was no revealer other than the actual clues.
ReplyDeleteOne nit to pick..the plural form of "chateau" is "chateaux," not CHATEAUS.
I enjoyed the theme, personally. You can think of the answers both literally and as homophones of the missing letters.
ReplyDeleteFor example: Fr_endly fac_al tra_t is missing smiling I’s. Also, friendly facial trait could be answered SMILINGEYES.
It doesn’t hold up as a perfect theme, but I thought it was interesting and fun nonetheless.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteStraightforward theme, seems like there's an extra layer that's just not there. The TEAS (T's) aren't INSTANT, the BEES aren't BUMBLing. The Themers do describe the clues, with the second word spelling out the circled letters, but that's it.
SMILING EYES is the outlier, in that all the other three have the circled letter in the second word, ala T-TEAS, P-PEAS, B-BEES, but that one is I-EYES. And it has three words in the clue instead of two. Odd.
Anyway, turned out on the easy side. A nice WedsPuz. Only 31 Blockers, low count. Good fill. Interesting CONCRETE fact.
Happy Wednesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
A little confused at the end, what with TEAS, PEAS, BEES... looking for SMILINGEEES?? It feels off to have one be EYES. Better to have each themer be a different sound. And the circles definitely made it Monday easy.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 5:46. In French it is. In English it can be either chateaus or chateaux. Look in any decent dictionary. (Merriam-Webster, in fact, lists "chateaus" first.) And don't get me started with how many "incorrect" plurals we have from borrowed languages (or "incorrect" singulars that are actually plurals in the language they're borrowed from.) When words cross languages and are adopted, they often take on the rules of the adopting language. This is not unique to English.
ReplyDeleteThis was a Tuesday-level puzzle at best. Very easy.
A E-S has set us up: he forces the last rhyme by replacing the expected 3rd “i” word with a homophone that begins with an “e”, then he winks at us with another “I” that crosses appropriately in the phrase “I love you.”
ReplyDelete“Some joke, eh boss?”
Another easy peasy one, both theme and fill. Seems like we are a day behind after Monday’s trickery. I hope that does not bode DARKly for Thursday. I stumbled right out of the gate with COCA-COLA at 2D, MANSIONS at 20A, wondering what on earth a poke menu is, and thinking purple plants were FOOD. Didn’t take long to straighten that out though and breeze through REST of it.
ReplyDeleteI’ve only ever eaten PURPLE hull PEAS, very similar to black-eyed peas which I LOVE. OREOs on the other hand and IMHO taste like dirt and I hate them almost as much as I hate duplicate clues in a crossword puzzle.
That's the theme? Really? Like Malaika, I am, uhhh, _nderwhelmed
ReplyDeleteKids, an atlas was what us old folks had back in the day for collecting dust. It was like a really big, really heavy, always wrong Google map, for all of the places you'll never go. Yes, we really had those.
The English seem to have a lot of words to describe stupid people. Maybe their expectations are too high.
@pabloinnh Hope you found the box with the forks! Photographer came over to our house yesterday after three weeks of decluttering and depersonalization. She said, "Why are you moving, this place is amazing." I think Realtors make you do this stuff as a really complicated drinking game. I can't believe this was the easy part. Open house this Sunday. Hello creepy PRATS, come into my sanctuary and judge me.
Uniclues:
1 Punch a comedian in the face, or a grinning goat guise.
2 What you use to build a symphony hall.
3 Where the terminators will set up shop south of the border.
4 Where Peruvians keep their weed.
5 Cows who are late for dinner because their watercolor class ran over again.
1 RAM SMILING EYES
2 URBANE CONCRETE (~)
3 ROBOT ESTADO (~)
4 IN A LLAMAS KNEE
5 TYPE B FILETS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: How Horton heard the hoo. DR. SEUSS EDIBLES.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks to everyone for trying to explain the theme, but I still don't get it! Other than that, it played like an easy Wednesday for me.
ReplyDeleteWhich dive bar(s) do you favor?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite closed recently and I'm ISO a new (old) one.
Ron
Something about EGGS for "Animal crackers?" rubs me the wrong way.
ReplyDeleteI get it -- eggs come from animals, and you crack an egg.
But "Animal crackers?" implies either that the answer is a type of animal that cracks, or that "cracker" is a type of object and we're looking for the animal variety.
The former would have an answer like "chick" -- that it cracks the egg from within as it hatches. But the answer is "eggs", and it seems like a stretch too far to call an egg a "cracker" just because we crack it.
Like, you'd never clue a loaf of bread a "slicer" (e.g. "grainy slicer"), or a jar of pickles an "unscrewer" (e.g. "briny unscrewer"). So I just don't think an egg should be clued as a "cracker".
The person who cracks an egg is a cracker. The egg is not a cracker.
Somehow I'm not getting it, that is, not understanding the rationale for the missing T's from "Lip[t]on produc[t]s" being CATAPULTed into the word INSTANT. Et cetera. I saw the homophones, just don't get the circles part. Anyway. Plenty else to like, from learning about PURPLE PEAS and CONCRETE (and reading the alternatives in the comments), to ESTUARY, URBANE, and CASINO as clued (I thought it might be "comedy" with the missing "club" part of the theme).
ReplyDeleteFor those who missed the theme, it’s:
ReplyDeleteTTPPBBII
Monday puzzle with harder clues: CONCRETE "fun" fact, cutaneous, TOTO bidets (if you see a dog using a bidet, you're not in Kansas anymore.) Last themer clue was odd -- I'm guessing facial trait by itself wasn't quite on the nose? Fun, simple puz anyway.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I was gifted two orchids; neither has flowered the past 2 years. I would happily trade them in for that LEGOSET -- *very* cool.
What the hell is a "poke menu"?
ReplyDeletePoke is a Hawaiian raw fish salad. It’s typically chopped raw fish, seaweed, edamame, and other accompaniments.
DeleteThe crossword is down for me today. All other games working fine (66 day Wordle streak). I'm on a laptop.???
ReplyDeleteWhen Irish eyes are smilin’… an old Bing Crosby song. Listened to it while mixing my powdered instant Nestea and water, the most-used substance in the world.
ReplyDeleteA puzzle with cryptic-ish pretensions, but no teeth and no bite. You could remove the tiny little circles and it would essentially be the same puzzle. You could fill in the oh-so-obvious missing letters in the clues and it would still essentially be the same puzzle. Nothing for the solver to do here theme-wise at all -- except notice it.
ReplyDeleteMetro: I know you could’ve looked it up yourself and were being rhetorical, but anyway:
ReplyDeletePoke (pronounced POH-keh) means “to slice or cut” in Hawaiian referring to cubes of marinated sushi grade fish which is then tossed over rice and topped with Asian- inspired sauces. While sushi and poke are similar in featuring raw fish, they are different in many ways.
I, too, Carola, thought that House of cards would be a comedy club (obviously it did not fit). Easy puzzle. Why did we stop being given things and start being gifted things? Given worked so well for the longest time.
ReplyDeleteWhy did three of them rhyme and then EYES stood out? Also agree w/ Malaika that there was no tie-in to the clues missing the letters or having the circles.
ReplyDeleteI think that "air" might get used even more than CONCRETE.
ReplyDeleteThose who are insisting that CHATEAUx is the correct plural are speaking from higher plateaux than the rest of us. They'll probably report us to one of the Useage Bureaux.
If you've been taking PURPLEPEAS, next time HOLDIT.
I shouldn't be encouraging you but this is a really funny comment!
DeleteSorry, I did not like this puzzle :(
ReplyDeleteI thought this was pretty simple for a Thursday. In the South we do have Purple Hulled Peas, but I have never seen or heard them referred to as Purple Peas.
ReplyDeleteDo you time travel? 😂
DeleteWait, what? No FRUCTU-LUTEO YEWS? Near-totally Unacceptable. [Woulda been totally, except M&A'd never heard of em before.]
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: SOS crossin SUSS. ENDLESS SE ESSES.
other fave stuff: ILOVEU. CATAPULT. ESTUARY. ROBOT clue. CASINO clue. CONCRETE & its clue.
I prefer Dr. Pepper with my Concrete Chips, tho.
Thanx, Mr. Eaton-Salners dude. Interestin puztheme slant. Still look_n for that third I in SMILING, tho.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
**gruntz**
I saw the little circles and thought "Thursday puzzle on Wednesday". Then, solving it, "... but Monday difficulty level."
ReplyDeleteYawn.
"You can't hide your smiling eyes..." Oh, wait, that was LYING EYES!
ReplyDeleteThe theme was indeed a bit inconsistent, but it was fun. Never heard of PURPLE PEAS and only BUMBLEBEES was a solid keeper.
[Spelling Bee: in a slump, -1 -1 -2 last 3 days!]
This was the Monday puzzle that they switched with this Monday’s for April Fool’s purposes…silly.
ReplyDeleteBut not the end of the world - I enjoyed getting record time on this one!
Hey, maybe they got things mixed up and this was supposed to be the April Fools' Day puzzle.
ReplyDeleteFirst we get clues with two missing letters. Ha ha, fooled you! The last clue "Fr_endly fac_al tra_t" has three missing letters.
Then the missing letters in the clues appear an equal number of times in the answers. Ha, ha, fooled you! In one case the two missing letters in the clue "Lip_on produc_" appear three time in the answer INSTANT TEAS. In another case the three missing letters in the clue "Fr_endly fac_al tra_t" appear two times in the answer SMILING EYES.
And then the "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, it must be April Fools' Day!" The final word in the answers are all homophones. Ha, ha, fooled you! We get three homophones, TEAS, PEAS and BEES and then, ha ha ha ha, EYES.
I guess the ultimate April Fools' Day "Ha, ha!" joke was that they didn't even run it on April Fools' Day!
Several people complained that the plural of chateau is chateaux. But as someone else pointed out, this is is an English language crossword. And chateaus is fairly standard plural. No one complains when beaus is an answer yet if French the plural is beaux. Same situation here There are innumerable words imported from foreign languages which have the s plural in English but not in the source language.
ReplyDeleteDon’t understand the complaint about this one word.
I thought the puzzle was very easy. Interesting that instant tea was confusing to the blogger. Smiling eyes. The expression is definitely a thing.
I never heard of purple peas but tied up very easy down leads to 2 p’s Had to be purple peas, no?
Many people missed the pattern The first word had 2 letters, circled making it easier, and the second word was a homophone of the letters as a plural. . Smiling eyes- eyes is still a homophone of i’s even if it doesn’t begin with i.
I think Maleska expected a more complicated theme and got annoyed when it wasn’t.
I liked the puzzle.
I’m bummed that Rex didn’t do the write up. I was looking forward to his rant about how stupid this theme is.
ReplyDeleteLate again, long day again. My cat has emerged from under the covers on our bed and is keeping me company and wondering where I've been.
ReplyDeleteTheme flopped for me, as it did for many. Interesting to learn about CONCRETE. That's it, that's the list.
@Roo- A real PAUL. I'm way ahead of you. In my dreams.
@Gary J.-Never did find a fork. I wound up toasting some bread and using it to scoop food into my tired mouth. I think many other cultures do this on a regular basis and they all have my sympathy. As for open houses, our strategy has always been to be elsewhere, even if there's a ball game on tv that I would normally be watching. Good luck.
A what's it? Wednesday for me. Approximated Entertainment Somewhat, AES, but not worth waiting all day for. Thanks for a smidgeon of fun.
For Nottingham nincompoop I had __AT and my mind went someplace else—while accurate, not exactly NYT style.
ReplyDeleteI have a lovely “Starry Night” LEGO set awaiting me downstairs, thinking the puzzle says I should go get it started.
I’m perfectly fine with slapping an S on borrowed French words to pluralize them, if only because that counterbalances the habit that LSU fans and such have of slapping EAUX on normal English words to pluralize them…yuk yuk yuk our home state is so French don’t you know.
ReplyDelete(Which…okay, sorta? New Orleans is as Italian as anything, though, if truth be known…and the northern half of the state is basically just West Mississippi.)
(Bet you can’t tell I live in SEC country, can you?)
Oh, and the CONCRETE clue felt off to me. Are we sure that that substance is used more than, say…air?
ReplyDelete(And was I wrong to be surprised when the answer turned out to be a thing manufactured by humans, not a natural substance?)
I liked the puzzle. It’s probably hard to construct a very consistent theme inside a puzzle since you don’t see it very often.
ReplyDeleteMr. Jugert, I love atlases. I have several. You can see the relative locations of surrounding states, countries, continents and geographic features.
I have no particular problem with CHATEAU(S) over chateau(x). However having spent a lot of time in the Loire Valley which is famous specifically for it's CHATEAUX, I have a big problem with "stately country homes" as a clue for a chateau regardless of how you spell the plural. I needed all the crosses for that, and I've visited at least 15 of them in the past 10 years. Manor/Manse/Villa/Dacha are stately country homes. A Chateau is a different sort of place altogether. It is more of a fortified castle.
ReplyDeleteMore like a Tuesday than a Wednesday, and the theme helped a great deal. No idea why the final themer was not clued "Fr_endly fac_ial feature" ... why the third missing 'i'?
ReplyDeleteMeh.
ReplyDeleteNot a ton to say about this; it's a place-holder. Fine theme, as far as it goes (not very). Consistent. OK fill, not ugly and not beautiful--except ILOVEYOU. But that's not enough to lift it out of par.
ReplyDeleteWordle birdie.
ABET’S ABET
ReplyDeleteDARKALES made the GRADE,
SEW did INSTANTTEAS,
with the OREOs YOU ATE,
YULE have PURPLEPEAS.
--- PAUL FOGG
I figured it out!
ReplyDeleteThe first 3 theme answers are real things with the 2nd word starting with the circled letter. So you have 3 T's, P'S, and B's. If the 4th answer followed suit, it would be smiling i's, but that's not a real thing, and smiling eyes are a real thing, so A E-S put the missing i in the clue .
You're welcome.
Let the groaning begin.
And one last thing about the theme, in the 4th answer we were all looking for the 3rd i, but as we all know from Hinduism, the 3rd i is invisible. The meaning of the theme is now complete.
ReplyDeleteThird Eye Blind. Haha. Talk to Prince. Ooops, sorry, phentynyl, which everyone mispronounces.
ReplyDeleteWordle bogey. Wasn't on that wavelentgh.