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Greek heroine tempted by golden apples / SUN 4-14-24 / Carpenter's curve cutter / Coupon stipulation / Game with annoying pop-ups? / Pinnacle achievement, metaphorically / Like Constantinople from 1453 to 1922 / Langston Hughes poem about racial inequality / Existential threat in 2021's "Don't Look Up"
Sunday, April 14, 2024
Constructor: John Rippe and Jeff Chen
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- LIMIT ONE / MITE (2D: BEFORE: Coupon stipulation / 56D: AFTER: Tiny amount) [LION "goes extinct"]
- GET IN GEAR / GENA (36D: BEFORE: Begin operating effectively / 96D: AFTER: Actress Rowlands) [TIGER "goes extinct"]
- CRASH INTO / CAST (19D: BEFORE: Rear-end, e.g. / 74D: AFTER: Like some statues) [RHINO "goes extinct"]
- WHAC-A-MOLE / CAMO (9D: BEFORE: Game with annoying pop-ups? / 70D: AFTER: Military pattern) [WHALE "goes extinct"]
- CORPOREAL / PORE (21D: BEFORE: Having physical form / 75D: AFTER: Target of a facial cleanser) [CORAL "goes extinct"]
- MALL SANTA / ALL'S (40D: BEFORE: December temp worker / 101D: AFTER: Shakespearean title starter) [MANTA "goes extinct"]
- SEA WORLD / WORD (16D: BEFORE: Theme park chain / 64D: AFTER: Slangy "Amen")[SEAL "goes extinct"]
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) is a landmark United States federal law which aims to curb inflation by possibly reducing the federal government budget deficit, lowering prescription drug prices, and investing into domestic energy production while promoting clean energy. It was passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 16, 2022.
It is a budget reconciliation bill sponsored by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Joe Manchin (D-WV). The bill was the result of negotiations on the proposed Build Back Better Act, which was reduced and comprehensively reworked from its initial proposal after being opposed by Manchin. It was introduced as an amendment to the Build Back Better Act and the legislative text was substituted. All Democrats in the Senate and House voted for the bill while all Republicans voted against it. (wikipedia)
• • •
My favorite thing about the puzzle, by a country mile, was the clue on CHINA SHOP (74A: A bull market it is not!). CHINA SHOP sits almost dead center of the grid like it knows it's the best thing. All those animals getting murdered all around it, and it's just floating peacefully on a COMET, which is floating on a ROC on the south side of CHICAGO. It's poetic, that middle section. Far more poetic than what's going on down below. The theme stuff down there, the two revealers, are fine, but ASATEAM and INALARM are both wincey prepositional phrases, and ADSITES, ANOD, YORKER, none of these are helping brighten the place up. I have no idea what Roman numeral belongs to which space mission, so APOLLOI was a shrug (110A: Mission honored by the "Fallen Astronaut" lunar memorial). I had DISCO before DANCE (103D: Get down, so to speak) and (more catastrophically) TUTTI before TUTTE (89A: Mozart's "Cosi Fan ___") (I blame Squeeze's 1985 album Cosi Fan TUTTI Frutti). This left me staring at very confusing letters for 90D: Pinnacle achievement, metaphorically. Something that looked like "I'VE ..." up front and "...BEST" down below. But then "I'VE REST!" didn't really track, and thus I saw my error. I also had "IT ISN'T FAR" before "IT'S NOT FAR," but that's an incredibly boring mistake, so let's not speak of it any further.
Fast out of the gate with a 1-Across gimme (1A: First name in 1990s alternative rock = ALANIS). Wasn't sure ALANIS (Morissette) counted as "alternative rock," but she has a very crosswordy "first name" so I just went for it, and was rewarded. Just taught a Donne poem that mentions "ATALANTA's balls" (balls/apples, same thing), so her name was oddly fresh in my brain (3D: Greek heroine tempted by golden apples). I also teach the Aeneid on a regular basis, and would have described Troy as besieged, not just SIEGED (6D: Like Troy in the "Iliad").
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| [Yes. Thank you, Google] |
My final comment is "who is responsible for Biden's branding?" and "can they try harder?" I can't think of a more confusing, and therefore useless, term for your "signature legislation" than IRA ... an initialism that already exists— multiple times over. "Thank god for Biden's IRA, right?" "Uh ... you mean his retirement account?" "No, the IRA! Biden's signature legislation!" "The Irish Republican Army? He legislated that?" "No, the *other* IRA! It's very well known, why don't you know it!?" I had to look up what it stood for. I wasn't aware he had any "signature legislation," but then I have tried very hard not to pay attention to national US politics since 2016, so the IRA could've been any three letters and I'd've bought it. "Oh, of course, the ZWO, I absolutely knew that Biden ... did ... that."
Bullets:
- 15D: Member of an elite fighting force (U.S. MARINE) — seems like the clue should contain an abbr. indicator of some kind
- 78D: Houston sch. (TSU) — Had TCU. I'm guessing TSU is Texas State University. (Nope, it’s Texas Southern, an HBCU)
- 23A: A.P. Stylebook entry that lost its hyphen in 2011 (EMAIL) — took me roughly 12 years to catch up to this change
- 40A: App used to track fertility (MIRA) — MIRA, of course, is Spanish for "Look! You're fertile!"
P.S. earlier this week, I said "citation needed" when the puzzle insisted that OREO was a "common name" for a tuxedo cat. Well reader Barbara N. decided to go ahead and provide that citation in the form of a picture of her own tuxedo cat, who is, in fact, named OREO. Like all cats, he is perfect.
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106 comments:
Easy. I had no idea what was going on with the theme while solving and, as I wasn’t getting hung up anywhere, I didn’t stop to figure it out.
That said, this was a pretty clever PSA. Liked it.
Kmart before KOHLS but not for very long.
BETTY was a WOE.
Natick’ed at fretsaw/betty (had freesaw/betey neither of which I’d heard of and both of which seemed plausible). Otherwise not too much and agree with Rex.
This one was not for me. The theme on its own would be fine, except then it feels like it wasted the after clues by, uh, killing off the animals? As Rex said, not a great way to celebrate endangered species!
Other issues:
Golden goals are a soccer thing. Two problems here. First, soccer goes to extra time, not overtime. Second, golden goals don't exist in professional soccer anymore. I might be one of a few that picks up on this, but it annoyed me! So many other ways to clue that. (On the other hand, soccer knowledge gave me Atalanta as an answer, so I guess take the positive with the negative?)
I pieced together sapphic and Adler, but that seems like a potential natick to me. Same with Uta crossing Atalanta.
And then Uta. It seems like a name from software. Reading her wikipedia page, it sounds like she was a very influential acting teacher and worthy of a crossword. But she died 20 years ago and the book referenced in the clue was published over 50 years ago. I think if this were a puzzle that didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth for other reasons, I would gloss over this. Instead, it's another thing that annoyed me about this puzzle.
Just not for me. Oh well. Maybe next Sunday... (probably not...)
Not particularly inspired by this theme, but I guess it worked. The important point is that we had for a change a workable Sunday puzzle, and for that I say, alhamdulilah. Some of the cluing was a bit off base, but some was quite clever. On the whole, a pretty decent puzzle for a welcome change!
Finished quickly without ever getting the theme. So, just a bore. I’ll point out that Kohl’s isn’t really a Target competitor; it’s a bit more upscale.
Puzzle schmuzzle. Let's talk about Barbara's Oreo. Those eyes. Those mittens. Eyebrows and whiskers that say, "I absolutely dare you to yell PADIDDLE and then try to kiss me."
@Gary J 1:16 AM I couldn’t agree more. Oreo is feline perfection - and he is well aware of his status. Tuxedos are such special cats. Puzzle schmuzzle indeed.
This is a perfect example (as @Rex alluded) of a “constructor’s puzzle.” No doubt it took much effort and time to create and fill a grid that would allow animal names to “disappear” leaving behind perfectly fine words. What a feat!
I was speeding through, stubbed a toe every now and again and never really stopped to focus on the circles until I was nearly done. When I started to read the clue at 104A, for GO EXTINCT and the letters for ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT lit up, I stopped solving in order to actually notice the circled letters, and said to myself, “Good job!” I enjoyed the fill, I got an “aha,” and am suitably impressed with our two able constructors today. Often, I find constructor’s (or in this case constructors’) puzzles cause very tedious solves. Not so today.
Today we have a quick solve with a clever and meaningful message rather than a tedious solve with zero payoff. This is the best example of a constructors’ puzzle I have seen in recent memory - heck, in much longer than “recent” memory! Thanks!
Can anyone help me with FORA? I have no idea what that answer means or how it relates to “meeting places”.
I got lucky in that area - As an undergrad theatre major Uta was a gimme, but I figured that would be a total unknown to most people. And in that same section, as a current grad student in psychology, Adler was also a gimme! But similarly, can’t imagine many people know him that aren’t well versed in psychoanalytic history.
Golden goals basically are not a thing anymore - and if we’re talking soccer it’s IN ET not OT (extra not over).
I was fine with the puzzle theme - it’s grim but all animals (including humans) are endangered and Sunday is a good day to give A NOD to the problem.
I couldn't get a toehold in the NW, nor the North. I finally got one in the NW and worked my way back to the NW and North before heading South. My one big problem aside from that was past DUE before OVERDUE at 97A. I totally ignored the BEFORE and AFTER because even without them the clues fit the answers. Basically I liked the puzzle, aside from the @Rex killing of animals.
Tough day to be British, with LOMA LINDA crossing ELWAY.
Sundays just continue to be rough. Noble pursuit here - I love the idea but the solve is all over the place. Midweek level fill and circles never end up well in a large scale grid layout.
Waltzing on the TITANIC
Did like SMACKER, CREASES and ITS NOT FAR. Loads of short stuff forced by the themers - ATS, USA, TBS, HSN, WAY, SRO just not worth it.
I hope that one Sunday morning we’re all here gushing with praise. Off to run a 5k on this beautiful morning in honor of a local US MARINE.
CHINA Crisis
UK Lords are cannot be MPs. This is like saying US senators are in the House of Representatives. Astonishing rookie mistake.
Fora. Plural of forum
Well, I was moved by this, I, an animal adorer and bleeding heart.
The puzzle itself got me thinking about disappearing species, but then John Rippe’s notes did me in, where I learned that the Endangered Species Act has prevented the extinction of 99 percent of the species listed as threatened or endangered.
I suddenly went still, bemoaning what a world would be like minus so many species, followed by a deep gratitude for the work this act has engendered.
And deep gratitude for this puzzle, which brought it to my attention. What a brilliant puzzle design to get the point across. It is a technical marvel, but more than that, it is the product of John’s love and passion, and Jeff’s kind generosity (and talent) in helping to implement it.
So, for me, this was more than a brain pleaser. It was a thought provoker and heart pleaser. And deeply moving. Thank you so much for this, John and Jeff! Bravo!
So much three-letter fill! Like many feats of construction, a tedious solve. And a downer theme. I come to the crossword for escape from serious topics.
Yesterday I finished by hunting down and correcting AREPo/BONo to AREPA/BONA. Today it was EXACTo/CoST instead of EXACTA/CAST. (OK, I failed to read the down clue.) Those masculine and feminine endings are tough to keep straight.
“Fora” is the plural of the Latin word “Forum”
I felt equivocal about this puzzle. The theme is medium-clever, but is not 100% coherent, agreed. The first I solved was WHACAMOLE (whale-camo) and I thought this had to do with a WHALE camouflaged? And all the animals would be "hidden" - but no. Lots of PPP, including some annoying crosses. The NW took me the most time to complete.
APOLLO1: Apollo 1 was (in)famous for the deaths of Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on the launch pad during a test, when a fire consumed the cabin. The cause was faulty wiring in the context of a pure oxygen environment. The entire program underwent investigation, and the engineering problems had to be addressed. This was even mentioned in the movie, Apollo 13. Apollo 1 should never be shrugged off.
Hopefully it’s just me - but I never got the theme, which is a shame since they put so much time and effort into the grid construction. They gave me plenty of hints with the circles and the before/after stuff - I’m admittedly terrible at groking themes, so hopefully many solvers will appreciate the effort.
Some of the PPP seems really “out there in left field” (UTA, MACEDON, PIET for example) - but that’s not a surprise since pretty much anything is game at the Gray Lady.
Agree with Rex that the bull in the CHINA SHOP stole the show today.
I agree that it was easy and didn’t have a lot of zip but I’m a bit more impressed by the architecture than a lot of commenters. I didn’t understand the BEFORE/AFTER concept till I came here but now that I see it, I like the puzzle a little more.
I figured CREASES would be the answer for 21A, but aren’t they actually the result of NOT an iron deficiency? You put a nice crease in your slacks when you iron them. Wrinkles are the result of an iron deficiency.
Same on Betey/Freesaw
Theme seems a bit of a mess, in that what is left over after the species go extinct is ... random words.
The OPRY is a reason to stay away from Nashville, not an attraction.
Also, what is GATOR doing in there, but not part of the theme? It's probably the most famous example of a species that recovered after ESA listing.
Interesting article on young crossword developers:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/13/style/gen-z-crosswords.html?searchResultPosition=1
WHACAMOLE adds to the overall animal slaughter
@POC, Is not the upper British chamber still part of Parliament? I think it’s okay to call both Senators and Representatives Members of Congress. Even though the term Congressman usually refers to Members of the House.
Add to the afore list of PPP’s, DESI, ALANIS and ATALANTA. Made the NW very difficult.
No mention of the three television channel initialisms? Who looks at USA and says, "The best way to clue this is as another TV channel!"?
@Glen Laker, 7:55 AM: YES! Spot-on.
I spent some time trying to figure out if uflage should fit at 70D. If I'd noticed that the middles of the extinction downs slid to the next down, well, I might have saved myself a few seconds of solving time.
This was a complicated theme that took a while to unfold. I had Rex's TUTTi and also misremembered 17D as HSc which had me wondering if Constantinople was Oceanic. The NE was my last sector to fill because of that small error.
And I also had no idea that Biden's legislation was the IRA but crosses filled it in.
I liked the clue for SONG as something you might break into. My answer to "Are we there yet?" would not be as tame as 43A. (More like, "Does it look like we've stopped?" )
Thanks for the Sunday puzzle, John and Jeff.
I had the exact same soccer fan reactions to those two clues!
As Sundays go this one was a bit of a nothing burger. In order to accommodate the theme the rest of it was extremely choppy and not much at all in the way of interesting fill. Just left me kind of feeling a bit meh about the whole thing.
Interesting, I had never heard of the clue for GIANT (Brobdingnagian), and that exact clue/answer combination is contained in today’s LAT grid as well. Seems like we have had about as many Sundays with dupes as without this year - at least one a month if not 50/50.
I've written an article about how the 1971 oil spill under the Golden Gate Bridge, disastrous as it was, because of the tremendous response of the mostly counterculture community in the Bay Area, resulted in most of the environmental legislation we have today (including the Endangered Species Act), in the creation of the world's primary bird rescue organization, and brought the nation's attention to ecological problems.
https://www.necessarystorms.com/home/the-san-francisco-oil-spill-of-1971
Any comments, please email me at sf27shirley@gmail.com
Whac-a-mole seems like an odd sentiment to include in a “save the animal” theme. In species preservation, Mole Lives Matter too!
That’s ALLS I’m saying today, lest someone wants to whac-my-post (pity, had a good whac-a-molester joke in mind).
Okily PADIDDLy, Andrew OUT!
Generally easy but never got the theme, and naticked at fretsaw/fora
I actually liked the theme much more than @Rex. It's talking about something really important in a meaningful way. Also it seems to me that the grid art is an important part of it as it clearly represents the Tree of Life.
What I found most impressive about John and Jeff's puzzle is that by their "act" of dropping the non-animal portions of the "BEFORE" answers into the "AFTER" section of the puzzle (and doing so immediately beneath their "BEFORE" versions) is that the animals have, in effect, survived -- been dis-ENDANGERED -- due to said "ACT!" Thanks for the 2nd AHA moment, John and Jeff!!
Had an error somewhere and spent about 30 minutes overanalyzing BETTY, UTA, TUTTE, and PAESE. They all felt correct but something was off. Thought I finally found it when I had FRETSAW over FREESAW.....but still no luck! Then finally, somehow, caught an embarrassing typo - I had TSN over HSN (you know, THE Shopping Network??). Once that was fixed, everything clicked. Even FRETSAW.
But many of those answers were really tough and are what often make Sundays so frustrating! Little pockets of "could be this vs. that"
No, I didn't do this puzzle. I started...and then I stopped.
First of all, my heart sank when I saw the randomly placed annoying tiny little circles. That usually means that there will be nothing for me, the solver, to do. Or am I wrong today? Let's fill in some clues and see. A buck to me is a SMACKEROO, not a SMACKER, so I'm looking for a ROO rebus, maybe. A rebus would be fun.
Nope, that won't work. No rebus.
I see that the tiny circles inside LIMIT ONE contain the word LION. But if there were no tiny circles at all, the answer would still be LIMIT ONE. So what's the big deal?
Yawn. I drop the puzzle. Nothing there to pique my interest or to hold my attention.
I hate randomly placed annoying tiny little circles. Always have and always will. I think there may have been a couple of exceptions where the solver was actually involved in the process in some way -- but I can't now remember what those puzzles were. But this was a great big bore.
Hey All !
Is it me, or does the Blocker pattern make the puz look like it's looking at me and smiling? Maybe sticking it's tongue out, too.
Interesting puz. Came in on the easy side here. Once I realized the AFTERs were the non-circled letters in the above BEFOREs, it was helpful in the filling in of said BEFOREs.
SEAWORLD and EPCOT. Are we in Florida?There's also a GATOR. But wait, we have CHICAGO and a New YORKER. Plus EVEREST and a part of the OTTOMAN Empire. So I guess it's a World Tour via ARENAs (ARENAe?)
MythBusters busted the myth (apropos) of the Bull in a CHINA SHOP. They set up shelves of plates, etc. in an area, set loose a bull, and several times the bull deftly made its way through without knocking over a single plate.
Nicely handled three-long section in North Center. Especially having the middle one as a a Themer.
Enough blather outta me. Happy Sunday.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@poc 7:10 Not true. You can be a lord and an MP. You just have to resign membership in the House of Lords before becoming one. Title can be retained.
Loma Linda crossing Adler and Paese is absolutely a natick. Who goes around memorizing the names of psychoanalysts? If you're going to use a non-capital city, then you shouldn't be crossing it with obscure Austrian psychoanalysts who died in 1937! I'm an east coaster, so I am vaguely aware of a "loma something" out in CA. Ultimately those crosses are what forced me to use a reveal to finish the puzzle. Other than that, I actually enjoyed the theme. It was a nice relaxing Sunday morning solve.
@OxfordBleu 10:00 AM I refer you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peerage_Act_1963
"A peer who disclaims the peerage loses all titles, rights and privileges associated with the peerage; if they are married, so does their spouse."
@OxfordBleu 10:00AM
I retract ny earlier reply to your comment. The rules were amended in 1999 and it's true that peers may now sit in the Commons without disclaiming the peerage.
I strongly doubt that the setter knew this, so I still think the clue is terrible.
Will Shortz is back on NPR!
Looks like I enjoyed the puzzle more than most today. I agree with @Rex that I did not think of ALANIS Morisette as “alternative” AND I also have a hard time with tutti/TUTTE AND I loved the CHINASHOP clue. I confess I paid no attention to the AFTERS while solving and didn’t figure out the significance until post-solve because I didn’t need to figure it out.
LOMALINDA…there is a documentary series(can’t remember name) that talks about “blue zones” in the world, which are areas where people tend to live to very ripe old ages (in a good way). Loma Linda is a blue zone and they postulate that the community was essentially “founded” by Seventh Day Adventists (with large SDA population) and that the diet and exercise lifestyle of SDAs contributes significantly to the longevity of the entire population. Anyway, interesting series…Sardinia is also a blue zone but for some other reasons.
Alfred Adler is not obscure. He is also NOT a psychoanalyst. He was a member of the Vienna Psychoanalyic Society and Freud anticipated he would take over the movement upon Freud's death. (Freud always was sure he was dying, but he outlived Adler.) He broke with Freud in 1911 on the centrality of sexuality in Freud's theories. His movement is called Individual Psychology and although Adlerians did indeed conduct psychotherapy, his movement has had more and lasting influence in education, in keeping with Adler's interest in social justice. He was a Socialist in contrast to Freud's more conservative Social Democratic leanings. His ideas were more hopeful and progressive than Freud's and Freud lifted some of his core ideas as he developed an ego psychological approach in the 20s on.
Fretsaw Betty is the perfect name for something. A bluegrass group? Sandwich? An ad agency?
I think that it was Philip Glass that wrote a symphony that built slowly to an ending where 6 speeding cars collided with each other. It was called a CRASHINTO.
I hope that ENDANGERED SPECIESACT on their status and realize that a SHAG is OVERDUE.
So I'm supposed to buy that ALANIS the first name in 1990's Alternative Rock? Are we talking Alan Price, the original keyboardist for the Animals? Thought so.
Officer: So what killed the MOLE. Was he playing that crazy dangerous game?
Detective: No, it was actually drugs.
Officer: ANOD?
Detective: WORD.
Agree with @Rex and others that it was easy. Bummed to have a college professor saying "I have tried very hard not to pay attention to national US politics since 2016,...". Yeah, there's probably not much going on in politics these days that's important to what can be taught in schools (including universities) or whether there is funding for schools or even the ability to talk about history in a meaningful way. Let's just pray, @Rex, that someone is working on a really great democracy tribute puzzle so we can think back and wonder if we all paid enough attention to "national US politics."
Also had KMART at first instead of KOHLS, even though KMART isn't much competition these days. I see where they're down to 2 stores now in the continental U.S.
KMART and Target seemed more alike than Target and KOHLS, so I don't think of KOHLS as a Target competitor. Wal-Mart definitely is, but KOHLS seems more like a JC Penney competitor, or like the long-gone Mervyn's chain.
KMart and its subsidiaries were ubiquitous at one point. Besides the discount stores, they owned, at one point or another, Waldenbooks, Borders Books, Builders Square, OfficeMax, Payless Drugs, The Sports Authority, and a host of smaller local or regional chain stores.
I found the puzzle quite easy though some of the cluing was very off-putting. I did not enjoy it at all; totally unimpressed. However, the photo of Oreo really brightened up my day-thanks, Rex.
Impressive construction feat. But only midly enjoyable. Points for making a statement about the sorry state of our world.
I don’t do Sunday puzzles and this one is a good example why I don’t: “Long Down answers (marked BEFORE) contain the names of animals (in largely non-consecutive circled letters), and then the Down answers directly beneath those answers (marked AFTER) are words made up of the letters that remain if you remove the animal names from the answers directly above them.” Seriously? Pretty sure I would have thrown this one against Nancy’s Wall.
Actually, I only posted so I could show a picture of my tuxedo kitty, Mademoiselle Sassy Pants, who of course is also perfect.
Easy, and worthy. As I solved, I wondered why the creatures were dropping down the grid and what BEFORE and AFTER might mean. There's no way I'd have guessed the reveal, and I liked the way it tied everything together. Like @kitshef, I was a little taked aback by the stray GATOR, but I smiled at the inclusion of the ROC, which averted extinction by being mythological.
@Barbara N. and @Rex, thank you for the photo of Oreo, which introduced me to a tuxedo cat. Spiffy guy!
Had to jump in about Loma Linda. Every past or present member of the Seventh-day Adventist church knows Loma Linda University. It's the church's medical school. My dad graduated from there in 1944. It may have been obscure in the first half of the 20th century, but has become quite well-known throughout time.
LOMA LINDA is where they transplanted the baboon heart.
Just wondering…is the grid supposed to look like something?
"back in a way" = REP? i don't get it
Oh, look at Oreo 🥰
Not sure how I feel about this puzzle - Animals going extinct? Not for me.
I had a rented tuxedo cat for a while. Not as cute as that one.
The Fallen Astronaut memorial honors more than just the Apollo 1 crew. It honors all 14 astronauts AND cosmonauts who had perished in the advancement of space flight up to the point of the sculpture’s placement. Also, the Apollo missions used Arabic numerals, not Roman. Just an awful clue/answer.
For a book title that is so famous, I couldn't believe I had no idea who the author was, and see that I'm not alone. I will say the BETeY doesn't look plausible. There was a run on FRETSAWS in the puzzle sometime last year, so that filled right in.
Kind of funny what the puzzle seems to be saying: If we didn't have LIONS and TIGERS, we'd be stuck with MITES and GENA Rowlands - the horror!
We had Biden's IRA fairly recently, so had worked through Rex's thought process on that and put it right in. I always chuckle about Rex's Sold Right Out for SRO.
I had aflush instead of ablush in the NE (this software says both of those are spelling mistakes) so that was my fill I had to look up to find the answer.
I also don't understand the answer for conked out. Yes, conked out and slept are both in the sleep family, but shouldn't the answer be sleeping? "Where's Timmy, oh he's conked out" "Where's Timmy, oh he's slept" - makes no sense.
Too much theme for me. Also the animals are very inconsistent, which I thought Rex might take issue with. (Some are shortened, like RHINO and MANTA, which I've also never heard used alone -- "RAY" could work I guess.)
But also just a lot of painful fill. Also also, since when are USA and TBS "basic" cable? I had CBS for the longest time and then took forever to track down the single letter I had wrong in this puzzle.
Apparently “g-man” stands for government man and “T-MAN” stands for treasury man. I’ve seen those so many times in crosswords but never really paid attention to what they meant, so it felt like the sort of gibberish where any letter followed by MAN was valid for clues about federal agents. Thus I ended up with my only mistake pMAN crossing pBS.
Also had to try every letter for ROC/ASEC as the bird was a WOE and I could not parse ASE_
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. A little challenging for me and the perfect way to enjoy a Sunday morning next to the fire. I had no idea a seal was an endangered species. We have no shortage of them on the west coast.
I did not know WHAC-A-MOLE had no K, and that was just the first of my many challenges.
After confidently putting in a few of the longer answers, I had so many Naticks in the short stuff that after an hour I started using “reveal square” to get some traction.
Even the golden apples … I was looking for the Trojan wars story, not whatever this relates to.
Clearly a masterpiece of puzzle construction.
I kept trying to link the AFTER words to the before words in the sense of meaning, without any success. “What am i missing”, I kept thinking??
Oh well. Thanks for the cat pic!
Once I solved a couple of BEFOREs, they got pretty easy, since I knew to put critters in the circles. All the AFTERs were darn-near gimmes.
And for a dude that enjoys funny SunPuzs, my watchin critters go extinct -- a la @RP's take -- just weren't quite the ticket.
Exception on M&A's extinction dislike:
{BEFORE: Hunt and peck, say} = ?*
{AFTER: It gets inflated in England} = ?*
And, and … Puztheme woulda been a bit more historically complete, if they'd had this pair:
{BEFORE: Way off the beaten path?} = ?**
{AFTER: Nail the test} = ?**
staff weeject pick: ACE. Mysterious clue, and also see **.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Rippe & Chen dudes. And congratz to Mr. Rippe on his half debut.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
p.s.
* = TYPEWRITE & TYRE. [PEWIT goes extinct]
** = TRACEEXIT & ACEIT. [T-REX goes extinct]
p.p.s.s.
The Shortzmeister returned to his NPR puzzle broadcast today! Yay!
**gruntz**
I’m always curious how non-Americans do American crosswords. Probably because I curl up into the fetal position and weep when I attempt a British cryptic.
Hands up for KMart before KOHLS for "Target competitor". Ironically we used to have both KMart and Target here in Canada; though not at the same time... KMart died decades ago, and Target arrived about 10 years ago but only lasted a couple of years. I remember playing Pong on a machine in the KMart vestibule in about 1975.
Another typeover was for "Solar phenomenon", with only the P in place from SPECIES ACT I immediately typed ECLIPSE which was timely and perfect, so I had a hard time getting rid of it. Also hands up for TUTTI. Darned Latin / Italian again.
Not easy for me. Was glad to have it over with.
yd -1 QB0. done in by a compound word
@Whatsername, your Mademoiselle Sassy Pants is indeed perfect! My stepdaughter's tuxedo cat is named Lark, but I call her Princess Puffypants. I don't know how to post a picture so you'll have to take my word for it that she is also perfect.
I think it means to represent.
What the hell is INOT??!!
A dear cousin, Nathaniel P. Reed, Under Secretary of the Interior under Nixon, was the co-author of the ESA and is largely credited with bringing it across the finish line. RIP, Nat.
R Duke (10:43) -- What wonderful news!! Thanks so much for letting us all know.
It's the first news -- and I've been continually checking for updates online -- that I've heard or read about Will Shortz since March 4. When I read your post, I went online once again and this is what I found. I'm posting the link because I'm sure that everyone else here has also been wondering how he's doing.
I hope it won't be TOO much longer until he's back at the NYT.
No, IGOR was not Dr. Frankenstein's assistant in the "classic" movie; the assistant's name was Fritz. There was an Ygor [sic], played by Bela Lugosi, in the 1939 sequel "Son of Frankenstein," but he was not an assistant to the good doctor. It wasn't until the 1974 Mel Brooks parody "Young Frankenstein" (a fine comedy, but not the "classic" film indicated by this clue) that an actual "Igor" showed up in Doc F.'s lab.
Answer is inor - are you IN OR out? Mythical bird is a ROC.
@Rex
A) You're right, , carpenters do not use FRETSAWs, unless they to fine woodworking or are luthiers in their spare time. They may use coping saws which are akin to FRETSAWS to trim work, but not FRETSAWS.
2) You're wrong, not all cats are perfect. We took in my BIL's cats for a while while he was out of the country, and these two were demonically possessed. Evil incarnate. Even my BIL only took one of them back.
@POC - You're mistaken, not all Lords are members of the House of Lords, they have every right to run to be a MP.
@egs 11:12 I think it was John Cage who composed CRASHINTO. He used a prepared piano, one with bolts, nuts, screws, cutlery and other objects placed on and between the piano strings to achieve the chaotic indeterminacy music simulating the collision sound. The music of Philip Glass is more like that of a J.S. Bach on LSD.
Enjoyable puzzle. However a fret saw is NOT for cutting curves. It is a type of backsaw that has a singular purpose…cutting the thin notches on a fret board of a stringed instrument into which a luthier inserts the metal wire that is a fret.
Hilarious! 😂
@anon 12:54pm "i conked out on the couch last night"; "i slept on the couch last night." :)
-stephanie.
@MetroGnome "in OT" aka "in overtime." [however soccer fans have taken issue with this clue/answer in previous comments. i don't follow soccer so i can't weigh in on that part.]
-stephanie.
In OT - in overtime!
So I knew ATALANTA from a childhood STEEPED in Greek mythology, and NACL, so I confidently put in ILLicit and proceeded to think it was an astonishingly difficult puzzle. Also I think Troy was beSIEGED, so that was another hold up up top.
But with @Lewis always in mind I proceeded south and things opened way up, whooshing all over the place. Of COARSE, once you get ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT and GO EXTINCT it's, um, just about done. I did not see the results of extinction, though, and happy I didn't.
Actually easy-medium once you realize that it's ILLEGAL. Illegal smile...😊
I agree this puzzle was easy to solve - but - I had one
"natick" with the clue for 21 across: Results of an iron deficiency. Having a background in hematology, I immediately inserted: anemias! - and was perplexed to discover 'creases' as the correct answer, even though I knew it had to be 'artery' in 12 down. Proving again, that you need to have flexibility and mental agility in solving puzzles, especially when you believe you have the only right answer!
Thank you for this one - a delight to solve!
Clever! A group of Rhinos is actually called a crash
I agree, that was a poorly worded clue. Here's a picture of the plaque left on the moon by the Apollo 15 astronauts, showing the Fallen Astronaut Memorial . In the foreground, there's also a small little statue of an astronaut.
Biden named it Build Back Better. Manchin renamed it the IRA and because they needed his vote, they let him.
Wow! So this was an easy pule? I found it the hardest kind I've done in years. Eventually just gave up and cheated for at lesast a third of the answers. There were some very obscure names MIRA . Who knew there was an app for fertility? Atalanta.. Lomalinda ( a name iv'e definitely heard but not inrelation to whatever that county was) Sen. Joni??? never heard of him or her. Others I cant remember.
Didn't help that I hadNO IDEA what the BEFOREs and AFTERs were about, and they kept distracting me.
A least-fun puzzle for me.
I guess you can find death and misery anywhere, if that’s what you want.
I could see this puzzle animated in my mind, with the theme animals fading in and out of the grid. The point is that the animals are still here. And the ESA helps protect them.
What a lovely tribute.
Impressive construction for sure. Not quite sure SEAWORLD should be in this theme…I guess, captivity for entertainment aside, they have also protected marine animals.
I had both FREESAW and AFLUSH, resulting in FETEY. I might have been able to unwind one or the other, but with both I was kind of sunk from the get-go.
I did not care for the fact that SEAWORLD, the place that holds all sorts of majestic creatures captive in way too small enclosures, was featured in a puzzle about the Endangered Species Act.
I think you’re right about members of congress, but while a Lord may be a member of Parliament in a loose sense, he is not a Member of Parliament, i.e. not an MP, which term refers strictly to members of the House of Commons.
https://members.parliament.uk/
I think Young Frankenstein might count as the classic here
I would post my tux but can’t post pics. He’s mister tux. A rescue who doesn’t realize he’s been rescued. He just wants his old life back.
I went on and solved it without paying any attention to the befores & afters. These didn't immediately affect the process. Then when done, I tried to make sense of them--and after about ASEC, I did. There were the leftovers, right underneath. Clever, the Chenmeister at work again.
Had a deal of trouble trying to get the spelling of WHACAMOLE that would fit. There are as many WAYs to spell that as there are for Shakespeare. Anyway, that area looks like a whole bottle of INK spilled there. Writing Kmart instead of KOHLS didn't help matters.
Easy as Sunday morning...wait, that's a SONG. Some inevitable fill clunkers: WANLY (?), YORKER sans NEW?? APOLLOI (cousin to HOI??)? etc. Par.
Wordle birdie.
PORE MIRA TESTS (ALL FORA SHAG)
GENA and BETTY were WAY OVERDUE,
each SLEPT with ALEX and IGOR, TOO,
IT'SNOT ILLEGAL, IN fact,
how human SPECIESACT
to GO and GET them INTO deep DOO DOO.
--- REP. ALANIS ADLER
It's not just 'save the WHALEs', I deal with the ENDANGERED SPECIESACT on a daily basis. The Northern Long-Eared Bat population is down over 90%. In danger are eagles, wolves, migratory birds, Monarch butterflies, even bumblebees. These things are serious.
Not so serious is a wordle birdie.
Thank you and yes, was hoping it was not only I that thought this.
The Soft Boys! I take back everything bad I ever said about you, Rex.
Hi from Canada - golden goals are a hockey thing in OT
Great puzzle! All I want in a Thursday, where I hope to be surprised and impressed by the theme. Enjoyable and meaningful! Glad the rest was easy but clever as the right background.
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