TV drama about anarchist hackers / TUE 4-2-24 / "Dramatic" literary device / Goofy assent that precedes "artichokie" / French river where two W.W. I battles took place / Choices in a sleepover game

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Constructor: Billy Bratton

Relative difficulty: Easy (oversized at 16x, so solving times may not be faster than avg.)


THEME: "HOLD IT!" (39A: "Stop right there!" ... or a hint to the first words of 17-, 23-, 47- and 59-Across) — first words of theme answers are things you might "hold":

Theme answers:
  • DOORBUSTERS (17A: Black Friday offer, e.g.)
  • LINE OF CREDIT (23A: Something extended to a borrower)
  • FLOOR ROUTINE (47A: Gymnastics sequence involving tumbling)
  • MAYO CLINIC (59A: Expansive medical center headquartered in Rochester, Minn.)
Word of the Day: "Forget You" (34D: CeeLo Green's "Forget You," notably => RADIO EDIT) —
"
Fuck You" (stylized as "Fuck You!" or "F**k You!"), known as "Forget You" or "FU" for the clean versions, is a song by American recording artist CeeLo Green. It was written as a collaboration among Green, Bruno Mars, his production team the Smeezingtons, and Brody Brown. It was released on August 19, 2010, as the first single from Green's third solo studio album, The Lady Killer (2010). "Fuck You" received acclaim from music critics, and was an international commercial success, making the top-10 in thirteen countries, including topping charts in the United Kingdom, and number two on the Billboard Hot 100. // In an interview with NME, Green said that, in addition to being about a heartbreak, the song was also about the music industry itself. [...] Several versions of "Fuck You" have been released: the original recording, censored copies of it, and newer versions that include other performers or significant changes to the lyrics. // The original has twice been edited to remove swearing: the first of these, which is broadcast in the music video on UK television stations and played on US radio, is called "Forget You"; the second, for UK radio use, is entitled "FU". These two are essentially identical to the original except in their treatment of profanity; "Forget You" replaces the profanity with sound effects (other than "fuck you", which is changed to "forget you" per the title), and "FU" censors words by simply silencing them except replacing "fuck you" with "eff you" - also as its title suggests.
• • •

A puzzle that would've been right at home on Monday any other week, but the Wednesday-type puzzle took the Monday slot (April Fools!), so the Monday type gets bounced to Tuesday and lord knows what we're getting tomorrow. The theme type (the "first words do X" type) is very Monday/Tuesday, and while this played like a Monday for me, it was oversized, so my time was probably more like a Tuesday. The theme itself is completely ordinary—just fine, totally familiar and normal, not showing you anything new, not horrifying you with bizarre thematic overreach or tin-eared clunkery. As many ups and downs, and none of them taking you very far off the midline. The definition of a placeholder. I didn't really process the theme until I was done, and then ... well, there's not that much to process. You do indeed hold the door (for someone), hold the line (love isn't always on time!), hold the floor (when speaking at a meeting) and hold the mayo (why? Mayo rules. Maybe you have an egg allergy). All the themers are familiar. I thought DOOR BUSTER was a relatively recent coinage, but according to the OED... 1893!


I will confess to slight hesitation when trying to think of the second word in both FLOOR ROUTINE and MAYO CLINIC; "exercise" and "center," respectively, were lodged in my brain and needed a second or two, or a cross or two, to come loose, but otherwise, the theme part of this was a cinch, the answers themselves all perfectly appropriate to the theme and solid as a rock.


Pitchfork thought "Jesus, ETC." was the 64th best song of the '00s, if that helps? If you don't know what Pitchfork is, then you definitely aren't the right demographic for this clue. Wilco was a major band and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was a major album, but this clue still felt kind of self-indulgent to me. Not everybody knows every song in your favorite band's catalogue.  "Jesus ETC." is no "God Only Knows" or "Wouldn't It Be Nice," is what I'm saying (57A: "God Only Knows," vis-à-vis "Wouldn't It Be Nice" => SIDE B). Popular songs used to be in the air. You couldn't avoid hearing them. I was never a Beach Boys *fan* and I was born after their heyday, but I know so many of their songs just because I was breathing air in the '70s and '80s and every decade thereafter, when those songs were on the radio, in movies, ads, etc. Whereas I have never heard a Wilco song in the wild. Pop culture continues to get increasingly ensiloed, so that if you're not actively into something, you can't even see it. There's no real public square, no shared space in which to encounter it. Too many outlets, too many choices, too many places to hide from each other and nurse our identities and fandoms. Algorithms have funneled everyone into valleys, so things that are massively popular in one valley aren't even discernible in another. This is why pop culture answers of all times can feel (increasingly) exclusionary. Now, it's Tuesday, no one's going to dislocate their solving bone wrestling with "Jesus, ETC." But "MR. ROBOT," maybe. I watched the first two seasons of that show and still struggled with the answer at first. Totally forgot it existed / what it was about. I only remember Rami Malek was the star. Had the "-BOT" and thought "whot?" I had a way easier time, pop culture-wise, with RADIO EDIT ... but then "F**k You" ("Forget You") was a legitimate (#2 Billboard) hit. Anyway, this puzzle did nothing wrong in terms of how it handled the pop culture answers, but it reminded me that puzzlemakers have to be Careful with proper nouns, esp. those of a pop cultural variety, if they don't want to lock out solvers from the "wrong" demographics.


Loved the energy in the clue for OKIE DOKIE (11D: Goofy assent that precedes "artichokie") but that's giving away way too much "okie"—but the "artichokie" bit is probably the only way you can justify that alt-spelling of "OKEY DOKEY!" (the industry standard) (11 appearances in the NYTXW, vs. just two now for OKIE DOKIE, both in the last two years ... is this gonna be like "woah" where kids have no idea how to spell but it doesn't matter and eventually the wrong spelling becomes the norm? I want to say "I hope not," but I also don't really care—although "woah" definitely looks idiotic to me 100% of the time). There are no [Choices in a sleepover game]; or, rather, there are, but those choices are Truth or Dare. "Dare" is one choice. It's not Truths or Dares. Forced cluing like this jars my ears in unpleasant ways. 

[Warning: this is not the RADIO EDIT]

As for difficulty, there wasn't much, although the ORAL EXAM "?" clue held me up (as it was likely designed to) (55A: In which you might talk through your problems?), as did my lack of German—I can never remember the EINS/EINE distinction, so briefly entertained EINS / SEES before EINE / EYES (56D: A, in German / 66A: Checks out). Had SWEET before SWELL (43D: Peachy keen) and SEINE before MARNE (gotta read the whole clue!, he yelled to his earlier self) (10D: French river where two W.W. I battles took place). But otherwise this went down fast and left no real impression. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. UIES—still terrible (30A: Highway no-nos, for short)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

72 comments:

Conrad 6:18 AM  


Yes, UIES is terrible, as is its equally terrible cousin, UEYS.

No overwrites today, although I did consider @Rex SWEet before SWELL at 43D and ORAL test before ORAL EXAM at 55A.

I saw right away that this was going to be Monday-easy, so I skipped reading the clues for the long downs at 11 and 34D in addition to the themers. Even after reading the clue, RADIO EDIT was a WOE.

Anthony In TX 6:46 AM  

Oh "woah" is me, whenever I see that spelling of the word. It's another example of us seeing our language evolve in real time. Remember when you weren't allowed to end a sentence with a preposition? Where's that rule (at)? :)
Anyway, "Jesus, Etc." is not just one of my favorite Wilco songs, but one of my favorite songs overall. Rex is right, though: culture is tough to follow if you're not into this or that specific genre.
Decent Tuesday puzzle, I think.

SouthsideJohnny 6:51 AM  

Rex devoted a portion of his column to articulating what many of us here consider to be pretty much axiomatic (PPP IS EVIL!). It’s even worse with the NYT because they consider popular culture to include things that aren’t, well, popular.

Personally, I think it’s unfortunate that they also embraced a song called FUCK YOU and found a way to work its way into the grid - but that’s how I feel about most of rap culture, so probably a generational thing. Apparently people once believed that The Beatles and rock and roll in general were an omen that the end of the world was imminent as well, so as Dylan also articulated . . . “ the times, they are a changing’ ”.

David Grenier 6:52 AM  

Fun nice Monday level solve. I had the same EINS/SEES error that Rex did. Technically I guess it was a DNF but if I fill out the grid and got something wrong, I just hit that “check puzzle” button. I find no joy in looking through a grid to discover where my gigantic thumb clumsily hit the wrong letter. But this time it showed me actual wrong ANSWERS, not typos. So I felt some shame.

Anonymous 7:03 AM  

An OKIE is someone who's proud to be from Muskogee. It's OKEY-DOKEY. Because of that one "mistake," I didn't find the puzzle easy. I did, however, find it as annoying as most of the recent Fagliano-edited grids.

Liked Rex's essay on the ensiloing of pop culture.

Anonymous 7:03 AM  

Interesting that others found it Monday easy. I got a pretty usual time for a Tuesday, but was thinking it felt Wednesday-ish to me. Has to go back over a couple of parts

Anonymous 7:05 AM  

Never quite sure how UIES is going to be spellled. And picking up on the “okie” in the clue would have saved me a minute or so.

Anonymous 7:14 AM  

I hear Wilco songs “in the wild” all the time… and “Jesus, etc” might be the one I hear the most often (well, maybe after “California Stars”).

Fun_CFO 7:28 AM  

A fine Monday puzzle. Even with larger grid, time was a little below avg, so definitely easy.

- as with the car maneuver and any river in France clues, always just skip and wait on crosses
- liked DOORBUSTERS, RADIOEDIT, also have a buddy whose last ame is Tarpley, we all call him TARP, so I always like seeing
- wanted exercise before ROUTINE, for sure


Anonymous 7:29 AM  

Indeed, I found yesterday's incredibly easy, possibly record time for me, but was stumbling all over this one until enough crossing clues helped me fill in what I thought were rather oblique or obscure references. To each his own!

JJK 7:31 AM  

@Anonymous 7:03, I agree, didn’t find this to be Monday easy. More like a Wednesday, as you say. My first pass through the Acrosses left me with a largely blank grid, but things came together when I went through the Downs.

I also liked Rex’s essay on popular culture. I was just thinking yesterday about how we all listened to AM radio because that’s all there was and everyone knew all the songs. A different world, for which I become more and more nostalgic as I age. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that there were lots of problems and upheaval at the time.

B. King 7:49 AM  

Hold the pickles. Hold the lettuce. Special orders don't upset us.

57A = A/B side combos don't get much better than this. Or at all, actually.

Lewis 8:00 AM  

Oh, I did like the cluing today, which kept my brain engaged rather than on autopilot. Just one example – ODE, which early in the week may be clued with [Poem of adoration], or [“___ to Billy Joe], or something similar, but today is clued [One might be Horatian]. I had to stop for an instant – but what a sweet instant – to connect that clue to my knowledge base.

This happened enough to elevate this puzzle for me from routine to sweet. I’ve loved Billy’s witty cluing in his themeless puzzles, and even though the clues are dialed down for this early-week puzzle, they were made with care and intelligence. Today's cluing wasn't a collection of retreads. Bravo, sir!

Some lovely serendipities today. The clue to the last answer being [Checks out]. The fam feel, with DAD, KIN, and NANA. A backward ETTAL to echo ET AL.

Another plus: Three of the four theme answers (all except MAYO CLINIC) are NYT answer debuts, giving the puzzle pop.

BB, thank you for such a high-quality and enjoyable session in the box today. I loved this!

Bob Mills 8:07 AM  

Had to cheat in the SW to finish this disagreeable puzzle. "vis-a-vis" means "in relation to" or "as compared to," so SIDEB is badly clued IMHO.

Reference to Jesus, and to a song that edits out F--K suggest that the constructor was aiming at a different audience than grownup puzzle solvers. The frequent references to popular culture confirm this. Let's hope for a mature effort on Wednesday.

Anonymous 8:18 AM  

Never heard of Ceelo Green, and given the title of his "hit," I am glad I never did. How far we've fallen.......

Anonymous 8:29 AM  

Complaining about spelling in English is of little use. Our hodgepodge language encourages creative spelling. Until we agree on how to spell favor, traveling and a host of other words, just let things be.

As for "woah," my aunt, who was a terrible speller, always spelled it this way in her cards, letters and later, e-mails. She also confused "whoa" with "woe." We still understood what she meant.

Dr.A 8:33 AM  

I also watched that show and could not remember the name!! So funny. I knew the Wilco but not the Ceelo Greene song, however like you said,, not hard to get.

Anonymous 8:36 AM  

One quibble: “et al” is a non- specific reference. Has its use in footnotes been expanded to suggest a specific list? and only a list of “these authors”?

Liveprof 9:01 AM  

Speaking of DOORBUSTERS, the CEO of Boeing Corporation, Dave Calhoun, was trapped in his office for over an hour yesterday when the knob on his office door came off in his hand. Calhoun’s personal secretary Amanda and security personnel were unable to pry the door open. But a maintenance man was able to free Calhoun by sliding a credit card along the side of the door, releasing the latch.

egsforbreakfast 9:02 AM  

Well, as Biden and CeeLo Green both say about Trump, "He's a sick forget." OTOH, reversing the RADIOEDIT referenced in the puzzle gives you a whole new take on forget-me-nots.

Ominous words by Tommy after a flunked test: SEEME, FEELME, TOUCHME.....

Fish Monger: I recently sent some friends some Atlantic fish and some Pacific fish.
Customer: Didn't that cost you a lot?
Fish Monger: Nah, I sent them COD.

I liked the cluing. Gotta run now 'cause I can't HOLDIT.

RooMonster 9:03 AM  

Hey All !
HOLD IT. Har. Took me a minute to grasp what DOOR, LINE, FLOOR, MAYO had in common. Some uncommon things to have something in common.

Did notice grid was 16 wide. More puz for your money. Nit of the Day: Would really have liked not having the Cheater Squares before 21A, after 54A. As @Anoa Bob points out, an S could've been added after 54A to make EMOS/HOURS, but some revision would have been needed to get rid of the other Cheater.

Good puz, I think TuesPuz appropriate.

Happy Tuesday!

Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Liveprof 10:00 AM  

On other things you can hold, remember Santino on setting up the restaurant bathroom in the Godfather where Michael was to find the gun to kill the cop and Sollazo? James Caan says -- Put our best man on the job. I don't want my brother coming out of there with just his d*ck in his hand. (Something like that.)

Maybe DICK TRACY could have been a theme answer. (Or not.)

Anonymous 10:03 AM  

Dont give CeeLo Green any bandwidth. Despicable human being. Did you know Don't Worry Baby was also a B-side for The Beach Boys? (I Get Around). Brian Wilson was a musical genius.

Masked and Anonymous 10:03 AM  

First word does such-and-such theme has almost become the NYTPuz national anthem. This one was a well-done example, tho.
Especially liked the LINEOFCREDIT HOLDIT themer. U can not only hold the LINE at the front, U can also hold the IT at the back.

M&A used to walk by the MAYO CLINIC everyday, on his way to junior high school. Sooo … total gimme fill, at our house.

staff weeject pick: IDK. IDK why I picked that one, tho.

Thanx, Mr. Bratton dude. And thanx for the extra puzgrid acreage. More fun for yer moneybucks.

Masked & Anonymo4Us


**gruntz**

Whatsername 10:04 AM  

Pretty vanilla, not that there’s anything wrong with that early in the week. I kept thinking I’d see HOLD your horses or HOLD the phone. Never ever heard anyone say “artichokie,” much less connected to OKIE DOKIE. But I liked it a lot, would’ve loved it on a Monday.

Ed Rorie 10:05 AM  

"Et al" doesn’t mean “plus THESE other authors,” it means “plus other authors.” If you list all the authors, you don’t need “et al."

Ed Rorie 10:05 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
beverly c 10:16 AM  

Nice theme, but as Rex surmised, the SW was the problem. Sussed out MR ROBOT and RADIO EDIT without knowing anything about either one, but why?

Masked and Anonymous 10:18 AM  

p.s.
Kinda relieved, that the rest of the week's puzs ain't gonna progressively build on the difficulty of that there MonPuz.
Shoot -- then, for the SatPuz solvequest, we'da been in the xword twilight zone. Like in a mammoth runtpuz on steroids, or somesuch.

Just sayin. Gotta count our blessins. Otherwise we mighta had to buy a Trump Bible, to deal with the evilness. har

M&Also

Ed Rorie 10:20 AM  

"vis-a-vis” works perfectly for the Beach Boys clue. Side B has a close relationship with Side A.

Anonymous 10:42 AM  

I'm so f-ing sick of Yale. Elihuh, Eli, Yalie, Bladderball. Get rid of all of them

Anonymous 11:00 AM  

As a lifelong Rochesterite, I'm curious what junior high had you walking by mayo? Was Lourdes a junior high at one point?

Nancy 11:01 AM  

Not my favorite theme type, though HOLD THE MAYO was cute. But you needn't pay any attention to the theme, and for a Tuesday, it was fine.

You won't find me anywhere near a store on Black Friday, so I really don't know what a DOOR BUSTER is. I imagine that I'd be more far likely to be busted than the door which is why I stay away.

Some puzzles give rise to interesting comments. This isn't one of them -- at least not for me. I have nothing else to say about it.

GILL I. 11:12 AM  

Well I didn't exactly whizz through this; more like poking a letter or two hither and yon. Maybe it was a wee sip of some Talisker last night that had me doing a few huh's....

Never heard that DOOR BUSTER thing being a Black Friday offer. I also didn't know ELLA wore a TIARA. Then I get to the clue for (35A) for grit....I just stared at the empty space for way too long for a Tuesday. Head for the south and see if I do better. MR ROBOT? CeeLo used the F word? OKIE DOKIE...Back to the middle section and try to figure out why METTLE is grit.

To make a very long story short....I finished this but it kinda made me mad that it took so long for a Tuesday. The short part is that I actually thought this was SWELL and that the clue for NAkED debriefed me.

Nancy 11:17 AM  

far more likely

jae 11:19 AM  

Easy. No real problems with this one. Reasonably smooth grid, solid early week theme, some fun long downs, liked it.

I agree with @Rex’s take on pop culture’s separate valleys. I knew the Beach Boys answer and vaguely remembered the Ceelo Green song but had no idea about Wilco. DARES also “jared my ears.”

Anonymous 11:31 AM  

My time was on the easy-medium Wednesday side - so since the grid is oversized, maybe just a tiny bit tougher than a typical Tuesday. I had BARED for NAKED - a puzzle I did recently had something like [De-brief?] for STRIP so I was thinking along the lines of getting - and not already being - NAKED. Also no idea that "Shirley Temple" is a DRINK. That one didn't feel like a Tuesday clue. And in the NE, I also misread the OKIEDOKIE clue as something-"artichoke". And even considered the possibility of Goofy being the character.

I rolled my eyes at 30A, I had the U but no way of immediately deciding whether it was going to be UEYS or UIES.

LINE OF CREDIT over ODE! If you know, you know.

johnk 11:47 AM  

Easy. Now hold these: THOUGHT PROCESS, PHONE NUMBER, FORT KNOX, GRUDGE MATCH, TONGUE TWISTER. BABY RUTH was in there, but didn't hold it.

Anonymous 11:50 AM  

That song is definitely not rap- it’s quite a catchy pop song, lol

Anonymous 11:53 AM  

Umm Fuck You isn't rap lol

Anon 12:10 PM  

A fill-in, Monday-style, until I got to the SW, which was for me a festival of Naticks, parsed it painfully, was pleasantly surprised to get the win song.

jb129 12:28 PM  

This puzzle was relatively easy - so why the **** did I have trouble with it????

Anonymous 12:31 PM  

SW corner was my undoing. Even the clue for get at is inaccurate. That is not a definition of allude to. Mr. Robot and Radio Edit were totally foreign to me even after I got the Mr and Radio. So, shamefully, I had to cheat to finish a Tuesday which I never before had to do.

PH 12:33 PM  

Solid theme/themers. HOLDIT was the rug that really tied the room together.

Didn't remember the Wilco song, despite listening to the album several times. Didn't know about Forget You, but I thought it was amusing. (Reminds me of "Yippee Ki Yay, Mr. Falcon!") I'm sure most people have heard of "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley (CeeLo Green & Danger Mouse duo). No, it's not a Patsy Cline cover. Speaking of covers... Beyoncé. She did a great cover of "Blackbird", maybe my favorite Beatles song.

I personally like to see diversity in a single puzzle, a little something for everyone. Currently backlogged to 2015 in the archives, but I've been "solving" the early '90s for "fun." My favorite so far is from 09/06/94: Turkish city ADANA, 1982 Indy winner Tom SNEVA, and Time co-founder LUCE, all crossing DANCERSALLY (clued as RAND) -- and this was on a Tuesday. Crosswords have come a long way since, thank God, Allah, Buddha, I love you all.

Nice puzzle and great writeup today, but... yeah, well you know, that's like uh, my opinion, man.

Anonymous 12:39 PM  

Good lord everyone needs to chill out about a song being called Fuck You. Several comments are saying “grow up” or “be more mature” - maybe you can take a piece of your own advice and suck it up and [gasp!] endure a curse word for once.

Anonymous 12:52 PM  

When I see woah I always hear it in a Keanu Reeves character’s voice and that airheaded wonderment makes the idiocy of the spelling sort of cromulent. Yeah, it’s dumb, but that dumbness is part of the expression. For me anyway

Gary Jugert 1:00 PM  

Meh. Fine. GO TAT!

Tee-Hee: Here's where I'm thankful for our slush pile editor. Xi's helping us with the correct procedure for living life. DRINK NAKED with a TIARA before your ORAL EXAM. You might not get a good grade in MR. ROBOT's class, but in life you'll have a great FLOOR ROUTINE.

Uniclues:

1 My wife tells me the Connections people were in a dither on April Fools Day over an all-mini-picture puzzle and complained so vociferously the editor had to issue a "lighten up" memo.
2 Power shake for a Taekwondo expert.
3 Number of humorless people reading this blog (but evidence suggests I am way off).
4 Source of the most expensive car loan in the world when it's emotional toll is included.
5 Egotistical fish on TikTok.
6 "Who the hell dragged this in after I just mopped."
7 "Tell me please, who do you suppose cares about how you feel?"
8 Ophthalmologist removed woman's cataracts.
9 Flopped in the La-Z-Boy in the afternoon again.
10 The deluge of soccer-mom approved songs.
11 Installs a firewall.
12 That moment when you want to dress up like a Viking on his day off.
13 Back a bloke.
14 NOPE.

1 EMOJI RAFT BLAB (~)
2 DOOR BUSTER DRINK
3 I HOPE NOT ONE
4 DAD LINE OF CREDIT
5 SEE ME COD MOTION (~)
6 ICY FLOOR ROUTINE (~)
7 EMO ORAL EXAM
8 GOT AT LADY EYES
9 REDID DECAF SAG
10 RADIO EDIT FLOOD
11 BELTS MR. ROBOT
12 TUNIC HOUR
13 ENDORSE SWELL
14 OKIE DOKIE IXNAY

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: A ripsnorter way to begin (or end) a beautiful evening. THE STARRY NIGHT TRIPLE.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sharon 1:05 PM  

@Anthony in Texas. That rule was never true of English. It was foisted on us by, well I forget what his actual field of knowledge was., but someone not a an English linguist. The same is true of the "rule" about not pitting infinitives.
ON the other hand. The pattern (don't know if it was ever called rule) That we should say " If I had done... I would have..." Is a true and logical pattern which seems have shifted to "If I would have,, I would have... which really really grates on me -and is totally illogical and careless and overly wordy. So why has it become so standard I even see it in printed material?

Oh yeah the puzzle. Liked it a lot. Nice Tuesday puzzle. Didn't seem to have much of the sort of short fill answers that get complaints here and the last theme "Hold the mayo" got a chuckle out of me due to its contrast with the previous three.

Anonymous 1:06 PM  

Its a great song! Check it out before passing judgement.

Beezer 1:31 PM  

Well, I had the first time I submitted as blue and my comment didn’t show. I don’t THINK I said anything bad. Liked the puzzle and said I don’t think Wilco skews young because IMO it’s familiar to the very youngest Boomers and GenX.
Oh. I also think @Rex might have been a bit tongue-in-cheek with his comment on the spelling of OKIEDOKIE.

jberg 1:57 PM  

MAYO transforms its meaning completely, which is nice, and LINE sort of does -- but DOOR and FLOOR stay the same, a minor weakness in the theme. But it was OK.

I don't mind figuring out artists and songs (and novels and paintings) I've never heard of. But I'm starting to wonder how long SIDE B will last. I guess it's more recent than dial phones, and there's still a niche market for vinyl. But as far as I know, there's no SIDE B on Spotify or Youtube.

Here's a little poem about Rochester Minnesota. Maybe he wrote it while on the way to the MAYO CLINIC.

curmudgeon David 2:02 PM  

As usual clues leave me sad.

Since being a child, I've said, "Okie doke, artichoke." I must be weird.

The bar on your handheld computer which you can sometimes make a successful phone call on depending on where you are is a unit of connectivity. Unit of service might be bits or minutes or something.

And, as always in the NYTimes puzzles, the reference to a classic children's story is actually a reference to a Walt Disney movie. These are hard for me as I was read these stories (and read them myself) as a child, and my mother did not allow anything Disney into our house, let alone let us go to his movies. The dwarves did not have names and Peter Pan did not have a dog and on and on and on.

burtonkd 2:27 PM  

Every Black Friday, some stores offer a small number of items, usually appliances for a preposterously low price to attract large crowds who are primed and ready to bust the door down to get to those precious few items. Sadly, this now happens on "Black Thursday", formerly known as Thanksgiving.

ghostoflectricity 2:53 PM  

Not a compelling solve for me. More than a little evidence of laziness in the construction: ETC/ETAL; EMO/EMOJI.

Smith 3:22 PM  

@Southside this am

I'm with you on rap in general, but that song is way more pop, it's very catchy, musical, fun (I think the Muppets did a version?)

Anonymous 3:38 PM  

Just went to a Beach Boys Concert. Not sure how much more "grownup/mature" an audience could get. At 64, I think I was one of the youngsters. LOL.

Anonymous 5:46 PM  

It’s easily one of the best songs of the 21st century. I even play the uncensored version for my under-10 year old kids. I’m not even joking. It is a wonderful song. And the censored version sucks the whole fun out of it.

B$ 5:51 PM  

There are only so many themes in the universe, so I'm not sure why the OB [original blogger] is so unhappy that today's theme has been done before. Not every themer is going to be original. And Hold the MAYO made me laugh out loud, so yeah, this theme totally worked for me. And even though the OB has seen it 100 times, we need to remember that a LOT of folks have only gotten into puzzles in the last few years, so they might find a bit of novelty in today's offering.

If I had one nit, I very confidently wrote down BSIDE since that's what it is called. I can see how that corner forced the constructor to go with SIDEB and I'm always willing to cut the constructor a bit of slack since it's not easy to create a puzzle, but . . . . SIDEB did sit in my craw just a little bit. That said, today was lovely.

And we'll see if this gets approved by the mods.

pabloinnh 6:02 PM  

Just got back online this PM and finally got to today's offering after missing Sat, Sun, and Mon. Talk about withdrawal.

Anyway, moving is proving to be as stressful as most people think it is (hi @Gary J). We finally got a microwave and I am about to have some dinner if I can find a fork.

So today's puzz-no printer, and the online version is slomo for me, but I thought it was OK. Some major problems in the SW caused by "the song" and the tv show, but eventually happy music after some logical guesses.

Not fond of the f-word in general. It's appearance in a popular song title is just further proof that the dirty word is dying of popcorn.

Nice enough Tuesdecito, BB. Barely Brought a smile to my face, but I think I'm just tired. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.

Jeff B. 6:27 PM  

Fun puzzle, though not especially easy. Loved the music references, especially about a week after playing Ceelo's unedited version of the hit song for the first time in a while. Did not know Bruno Mars helped write it.

Also appreciated seeing a Wilco song appear in the puzzle (Jesus ETC). I imagine most people got that from the crosses.

Anonymous 6:51 PM  

Bob Mills
Vis-a-vis is borrowed from the French originally meaning face-to-face. I looked it up. Like with many expressions, there were many meanings listed. Not just in relation to. In comparison with is one. I see absolutely nothing wrong with the clue/ answer.
Even the meaning you mentioned makes sense. They do have a physical relationship to each other.
What I do find annoying is the choice between Side B or B Side.

dgd 6:54 PM  

Completely agree with Anonymous 8:29 AM
It is useless to get too excited about spelling in English. Check out how the Founding Fathers spelled!

Anonymous 7:09 PM  

Anonymous 11:31 AM
Shirley Temple.
The term has been around for a long time. It’s a sweet nonalcoholic mixed drink. It would be given to a child at a wedding reception say. Still hear the term used. Not obscure at all it would fit fine on a Monday.
It often happens even early in the week I find an answer I am clueless about. That doesn’t mean the answer was inappropriate. We can’t know everything!

Anonymous 8:24 PM  

Hate UIEs and hate it even more with this "highway nonos" clue -- erased most of the downs in that section because I was certain I had to get to "DUIs" somehow. Spent way too long googling what "UIEs" even meant before I realized it was U-ies. Technically a highway nono to bust a "uie," but not something I'd ever think of in that context. Like "jujh/zuzsh/zjuzjsh" this is also a word that really only works orally.

Anonymous 12:49 AM  

“Fuck You” is classic retro Motown soul, lmao. It’s catchy Marvin Gaye-crooning charmingly juxtaposed with the one fuck you lyric. It’s delightful

ericacbarnett 6:26 PM  

I was SO thrilled by the Wilco reference—finally, something in my lane (i.e. not golf, French, or first and last name of author I've never heard of)! For younger solvers, "side B" might in itself be a reach? I'm old enough to remember records but my brain initially went to qualitative stuff about the songs, not which side of the single they were on.

Anonymous 9:41 PM  

If the "theme" is "things you hold," and if "floor" is something you hold, then "floor routine" is absolutely BOGUS as an answer.

If you "hold the floor" then you're far more likely to be speaking in Congress, or Parliament, or similar.

Gymnastics has NOTHING to do with this so-called "theme" answer; this clue ought to have been edited, or preferably, left out entirely.

kitshef 4:33 PM  

Felt like a normal Tuesday to me. Hate every version of UEYS/UIES in a puzzle. Never heard of Wilco, Jesus, Etc. or Pitchfork, so yes, wrong demographic for me.

Anonymous 10:46 AM  

The gimmick is boring as hell. Too much junk fill including: UIES, IDK, ETAL, IMO, EMO, AVA, IMO etc. Nobody says SIDEB. *insert disgusted EMOJI here*

spacecraft 10:48 AM  

No "tin-eared clunkery?" What would you call OKIEDOKIE--and UIES next DOOR? Oh, and the dreaded SIDEB? MRROBOT (or Fagliano) should've said IXNAY to this.

Theme and execution are OK but certainly not scintillating. Different senses of "HOLD" are represented, which helps, but careless fill spoils it.

Noted: REDID/OUTDO, RIGS in the corners. Bogey.

Wordle bogey.

Burma Shave 2:05 PM  

IHOPE EWE DARE

ELLA REDID her FLOORROUTINE
from ONE she’d NOT ENDORSE nor take IT,
IT’s now the EVENT to BEE seen,
the EYES have IT, “Come SEEME NAKED!”

--- LADY RUTH CAINE

rondo 8:51 PM  

Hah! LINEOFCREDIT was also the answer of today's Jumble.
Lipped the wordle birdie putt, too dusty, so par.

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