Famed fireman Red / TUE 5-28-24 / Singer Sands of the '60s / Flying adversary of Godzilla / Shot at a doctor's office, slangily / Mythical river nymph / Neopagan religion / Slangy goodbye

Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Constructor: Chris Leatherberry

Relative difficulty: Medium (i.e. a normal Tues.)


THEME: WATER / SIGNS (38A: With 42-Across, zodiac trio that hints at the longest answers in this puzzle) — longest answers are literal signs (i.e. "postings") that relate to water in some way:

Theme answers:
  • WASH HANDS BEFORE / RETURNING TO WORK (17A: With 23-Across, restroom posting for employees)
  • WARNING: HIGH TIDE (53A: Beach posting)
  • CAUTION: WET FLOOR (63A: Posting after a spill)
Word of the Day: EVIE Sands (47A: Singer Sands of the '60s) —

Evie Sands (born July 18, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter and musician.

Sands' music career spans more than 50 years. In the mid-1960s, while still a teenager, she began her career and eventually found chart success in 1969. Sands retired from performing in 1979 to concentrate on writing and production. She experienced a surge in cult popularity in the 1990s and returned to live performance in mid-1998. Sands continues to write and perform. (wikipedia)

• • •

The wording of the "signs" is a *little* contrived, in order to get them all into 15-letter slots. The sign in restrooms about washing hands always has "EMPLOYEES MUST" in front of it, doesn't it? Dumping the "employees" part into the clue feels like a bit of a cheat. Tides go in and out every day, so I wasn't quite sure what the WARNING: HIGH TIDE sign was warning against, but it looks like on occasion there are specific times of day associated with such signs, letting you know when high tide is, so you don't get stuck on rocks or other places, cut off from the shore, or so you don't park your Jeep or other beach vehicle somewhere where the sea can take it. Most places I've been, the tide just kinda slowly comes in, then slowly goes out, no big deal. No signs. As for CAUTION: WET FLOOR, no problem there, that seems right on the money. Anyway, the "joke" here (take the zodiac term literally) works. I do not love the split revealer with a word in between—there's something aesthetically displeasing about a revealer (moreso than any other answer in the grid) being split in two. It wants to be one, or at least split in a way that keeps the parts adjacent. Actually. I think you either don't split the parts, split them but with nothing in between the parts, or you really really split them (opposite sides of the grid). Here, the single word in between WATER and SIGNS really calls attention to the split and makes the answer look weird: WATER LAD SIGNS! Who is WATER LAD?, the puzzle makes me wonder. Sounds like a character in the '60s superhero discard bin.


Today's fill was pretty rough. What are you doing with Red ADAIR? And BATE?? (19D: Hold, as one's breath). Come on. No one says BATE. People talk (clichély) about "BATEd breath," and that is the only way anyone uses "BATE" as a verb (except as a letter string in common verbs like ABATE, DEBATE, REBATE). It is possible to get high on the dictionary, letting it convince you to put some dumb *&$% in the puzzle that you *know* isn't really (in practice) a thing. If the answer makes you balk in the slightest, a good rule of thumb is: chuck it. Chuck BATE, for sure. The crosswordese comes a bit thick in this one generally, from ETNA NENA to that ugly ACH CHA pair to multiple prefixes (UNI, INDO) to stuff like EERIE and ORATE, which are obviously fine ordinary words, but which add to the overall crusty-crossword feel of a grid when so many other words are subpar or otherwise failing to be interesting. There are only two longer non-theme answers, and one of them is that horrible CANNIBAL joke, ugh (second one of those in recent months) (6D: Someone you might be reluctant to give a hand to?). The humor also misses bad at ETA Pi (which makes me think people are pronouncing the Greek letter "eat-a"?? though I guess the correct pronunciation does sound like "ate-a," which validates the corny fraternity joke) (46A: ___ Pi (fraternity for the sweet-toothed?)). There's just lots of crummy short stuff today. Lots. And food-based fraternity and cannibal puns somehow didn't aBATE the crumminess.


Bottom half of the grid felt much rougher / tougher than the top to me. I couldn't figure out what kind of "Citation" the clue meant at 52D: Citation abbr. (commendation? speeding ticket?), so ET AL was weirdly slow, and since it was adjacent to "I'M OUT" (hard to parse) and DIONE (unknown, then misspelled) (58D: Moon of Saturn), that whole SE section was messy. But not nearly as messy as everything around VIEIRA, which I spelled like "Sierra" (i.e. VIERRA). I'm just dead lucky that I knew who Meredith VIEIRA was at all, since that "V" cross was a doozy—I initially had 47A: Singer Sands of the '60s (really? just ... "of the '60s!?"), as EDIE. Seems like a bad cross, EVIE / VIEIRA. Maybe Meredith is famous enough to eliminate all troubles, but that "V" sure seems like a place someone might trip. To a lesser extent, I'd say the same thing about the "A" at NENA / WADI. Just don't confuse the "99 Luftballons" crosswordese with the Hawaiian goose crosswordese and you'll be fine. I know WADI, but largely from crosswords, I think. If that word is new to you, you aren't alone (whether people will admit it or not). The hardest answer in the puzzle for me was HEW TO (56D: Follow, as orders). You follow orders, you obey orders, you do not HEW TO orders, that is So Awkward. I had the answer as SEE TO for a bit, which isn't good, but it's at least as good as HEW TO (as clued). You HEW TO a norm or standard or set of specifications. It has to do with conforming, not obeying. Those are related, but they are not the same. It's already an ugly piece of fill—botching the clue just makes things worse. Overall, the theme concept was good, the execution so-so, and the fill (and its cluing) somewhat below average. Oh, and note to self (and others?): the sculptor is RODIN, the Japanese movie monster is RODAN (argh!) (7D: Flying adversary of Godzilla).

[this was literally my introduction to RODAN, circa 1982. God bless you, Michael Nesmith—"Elephant Parts" was everything to me as a kid]

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. about those side-by-side TOs (DECIDE TO & HEW TO) — nobody's gonna care about your "TO" dupe unless you make them walk hand in hand like that. There's another "TO" up there in RETURNING TO WORK, and I didn't notice or care ... until the TO-TO twins here decided to get cute.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

79 comments:

Eh Steve! 6:28 AM  

EVIE crossing VIEIRA on a Tuesday? Ooof.

Anonymous 6:41 AM  

I confidently wrote SLIPPERYWHENWET for the bottom theme answer before looking at any crossers. Interesting to see that it’s also exactly grid-spanning length.

Andy Freude 6:42 AM  

I’m with @Eh Steve! A textbook Natick.

SouthsideJohnny 6:44 AM  

ACCRA, NAIAD, LOEB, NENA, ASA, EVIE, WICCA, ADAIR, VIEIRA, DIONE, . . . enough said. I’m not a fan of this one. Too bad, the theme was promising, but loading it up with gunk ruined it for me.

Anonymous 6:50 AM  

HEW TO tripped me up, especially since the -IGHT- string I had at 53A didn't look like it would be split across two words. I knew VIEIRA but I see the Natickiness of 47A/48D. And I can see newer solvers struggling with ROD_N x N_IAD, too. It's already tricky enough to make a grid with 3 theme spanners and a 15-letter revealer, so when you've got 4 spanners and the revealer on top of that, the fill can get rough.

Anonymous 6:52 AM  

“WASH …” sure takes up a lot of real estate for something so underwhelming (while still managing to be incomplete).

I knew VIEIRA aurally, but couldn’t come close to the the correct spelling. My mnemonic for it going forward is “cheer, for a CPA” (VIE, IRA!)

I’m convinced that the mini crossword editor has a vendetta against the dupe convention. It’s practically a norm in puzzles lately.

Conrad 7:07 AM  


Fairly easy Tuesday for me. I had most of the same overwrites as OFL, namely EdIE before EVIE at 47A, corrected by VIErRA before VIEIRA at 48D. Also while working in the SE and before reading the 53A clue I wanted 58D to be mIONE crossing ...TImE.

Always happy to see WADI in a puzzle because a woman by that name (probably spelled WADDY) was my kindergarten teacher at PS 136 in Queens.

PH 7:07 AM  

Medium-Challenging. Tons of Crosswordese Names. Fill wasn't terribly exciting, but cromulent for a puzzle with 4 15s. SLIPPERYWHENWET (15)

Congrats on the debut, Chris Leatherberry!

Steve M 7:11 AM  

Yes - that got me actually. No idea who either was and the Edie and Dieira seemed as plausible as anything. 😔

Lewis 7:19 AM  

Four spanners on a Tuesday – that’s a treat! All of the spanners were NYT answer debuts as well, which brought spark to the answer set.

My brain loves trying to crack riddles, and that’s what I turned this theme into. The graphics let me know where the revealer was, so I filled in everything except that. I even figured the second word of the revealer was SIGNS. So, all I had to do was unravel the first.

But my brain was stuck in the wrong direction, convinced that the signs had to do with avoiding things. I was so stuck on that, so convinced I was right, that I never saw the water connection. ACH! Well, it was a good workout -- the grind was grand! -- and a good lesson about hubris.

Next time, crosswords! Wait and see!

Small steps.

Oh, I loved the cleverness of the theme. I loved the three-vowel-in-a-row answers (VIEIRA, NAIAD), the abutting anagrams ACH and CHA, and the abutting palindromes ASA and TNT.

Chris, even though you waited eight years to turn this theme into a puzzle, the fact that you dreamed it up at age 14 shows great potential, whets my appetite for more from you. Congratulations on your debut, and thank you for a terrific outing!

Anonymous 7:43 AM  

Me too!!

Peter P 7:43 AM  

EVIE/VIERA got me. I had to run a few letters of the alphabet before I got to V. "EdIE/dIEIRA?" "ElIE/lIEIRA?" Might have even tried "EpIE/pIEIRA" there, as well. I was not a fan of that cross.

Gary Jugert 7:52 AM  

Well, if you want me to start picking random letters hoping they'll work, ACCRA / RODAN / NAIAD / LOEB is a great start, and if you could pile them all around each other that'd be swell. Then add three theme entries (really four) you can write in off of just a few crosses, and a fill that's mighty underwhelming ending in EERIE, add 25 gunky answers including at least 10 proper nouns, and I guess I can say I'm looking forward to Wednesday.

Interesting 🦖 had more trouble on the lower half when I was almost wiped out on the top. I think he knows his NAES from his CHAS.

I said it last week and here we are again. Germans only have ONE crossword-worthy word. Maybe only one word in their whole language as far as I know. ACH! Maybe Cathy is German? AACK!

Ha: Cannibal jokes. Woot!

Ug: That clue for DATA ... gagapalooza. Using WADI like it's a real word. SHEDON? Is that when Quixote undergoes gender transformation?

Propers: 10
Places: 4
Products: 1
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 25 (32%)

Uniclues:

1 Adulted.
2 Gift from a cannon shot by a cheerleader.
3 Holiday pairing with roasted Steve.

1 HAD AT CHAOS ERA (~)
2 ARENA TEE GOODY (~)
3 CANNIBAL EGGNOG

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Clock setting for Cowboy Tiny Tim gathering. FALSETTO RODEO E.S.T.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Son Volt 7:58 AM  

I think the big guy went easy on his critique - this was brutal. Oddball theme - trivia laden and stale fill. Beaches post HIGH and low tide times - they typically WARN for riptides or storm tides etc. The CANNIBAL entry should be in the running for the top 5 worst of 2024.

EVIE’s Tears

Knew EVIE Sands but no clue on VIEIRA - questionable cross. We do get @Pablo’s beloved OTTER which is always nice and DIONE is wonderful to see. I knew most of the trivia so the puzzle was an easy solve - but an overall slog.

Flat Tuesday morning solve.

Little known tidbit - Jon Voight’s brother Chip Taylor wrote Angel of the Morning

Bob Mills 8:07 AM  

Very easy except for the NENA/WADI cross, which I got through trial-and-error. The theme was a bit awkward, because the first two lines were a continuum, but the second two were not. Otherwise I thought the puzzle was well constructed.

Dr.A 8:08 AM  

Didn’t know a lot of things, RODAN, EVIE, VIEIRA, DIONE and WADI but most I could parse, except as you said, the V in EVIE. Definitely had EDIE messing things up.
Anyhoo, agree a little hard and joyless.

Bob Mills 8:12 AM  

POSSIBLE DUPE

Very easy except for the NENA/WADI cross, which I got through trial-and-error. The theme was a bit awkward, because the first two lines were a continuum, but the second two were not.

Otherwise, a well constructed grid.

mmorgan 8:14 AM  

I’ve been in places (e.g., Brittany in western France) where the tide comes in FAST. I mean you gotta really move your butt to get out of the way! In the US, not so much.

Judge Morgan 8:31 AM  

I was a teenager in the sixties, and knew all the pop singers and the words to all the songs, so it's weird that I never heard of EVIE Sands.

Mack 8:32 AM  

I'm in nearly complete agreement with Rex today; I won't echo all his points because they were almost exactly the same.

What I will say is that I am much more familiar with signs saying "WARNING HIGH surf". I don't doubt that the tide sign exists somewhere as written, but I only remember seeing more verbose versions that say something to the effect of "This point is cut off at high tide. Consult tide charts before proceeding."
So having "surf" in place of TIDE threw me for a few moments.

jcal 8:35 AM  

I admit to being one of those people who had the Evie/Vieira problem - I was going to complain about it before I saw that Rex beat me to it (unsurprisingly!). Some of the more recent, and accurate, Old Testament translations refer to ravines (especially those that only have water during the rainy season) as "wadi's" - that's how I learned the word. But so happy to see Rodan fying in.! Great memories from my childhood.

Anonymous 8:36 AM  

Meredith Vieira had been in the public eye for decades; I’m surprised she’s as unknown to this set as she seems to be.

Not knowing the three straight vowels in her surname, I understand. But she’s hosted/reported on 60 Minutes, The View, Dateline, The Today Show, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Even if you don’t watch those (and I don’t), she’s in the ether.

jcal 8:39 AM  

I admit to being one of those people stumped by Evie/Vieira. I was going to complain about it until I saw that - no surprise! - Rex had already beat me to it. Some contemporary Old Testament translations refer to a Wadi - a dry ravine, or one that only fills up with water in the rainy season. I had to look it up when I first saw it years ago. And speaking of years ago - so great to see Rodan flying back - such good memories of my childhood!

Diane Joan 8:45 AM  

I learned something from this puzzle. The only version of “wadi” I knew was “waddy”. It turns out although they have different meanings there are several versions of each word used to distinguish them from one another. Oof! Kudos to my former ESL students! How did they ever learn this language we call American English with so many different roots?!?

RooMonster 8:46 AM  

Hey All !
Decent enough puz. We have Segmented Center City today. 12 Threes in the Center alone. But, will give a pass, what with squeezing in 4 Fifteens, plus the Revealer. One grid option (which I'm sure Chris tried) is to have the Revealer in the center, with two Blockers to either side. But that would require your corners to be longer, as in, you'd have to get rid of the double -set of three Blockers on the sides, having only the two Blockers at the end of the center Revealer, thereby your Downs go from Fives to Sevens. If any of that made sense. 😁

Oh, shoot, forget all that, the Revealer is an even 10 letters, so that wouldn't work. Change Revealer to THREEWATERSIGNS maybe? Trying to back out of my gaffe. Har.

Anyway, good TuesPuz, that the timer says exactly 10:00. Couldn't have done that if I tried.

Surprised at the ASA/ETA cross that there isn't an S there. The Times never seems to miss an ASS opportunity. ASS/ETS. There is an ASSIGN, though.

Happy Tuesday!

Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Anonymous 8:55 AM  

Textbook. Almost a definition.

burtonkd 9:09 AM  

@anon 8:36, I stopped watching TV news decades ago in favor of print, where most TV producers turn to get their ideas, or podcasts. I do keep my ear on the ether, but Meredith Vieira hasn't crossed my path that I know of. Caveat: there was a Lara or Dara recently whose name I saw here, then IRL shortly thereafter in the ether.

Needless to say, my first guess was EdIE. RP nailed my experience with NENA also, which I thought was an alternative Hawaiian goose - the (non CHACHASLIDE) Wedding dance is the goose alt.

I enjoyed the weirdness of the fill, taking me places I wouldn't otherwise go today.

Love the Lard Lad Donut! - that was from an early Simpsons Halloween episode where all the advertising icons came to life and rampaged. "Just don't look" song used to defeat them, at which point they cut to commercial on a Homer smirk. Leave it to RP to remember the name on the donut! (Also super-surprised that ETAL as a citation would trip up a prof).

Liveprof 9:26 AM  

On Groucho's CIGAR (67A):

Groucho was chatting with a woman contestant on You Bet Your Life, and she mentioned that she had 17 children. Groucho asked: How did that happen? and the woman said "Well, Groucho, I really love my husband." And Groucho said: "I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth once in a while."

Paul & Kathy 9:28 AM  

I guessed wrong on both VIEIRA/EVIE and WADI/NENA. Not great.

Anonymous 9:49 AM  

The clue for 6D contains “hand”. The answer to 6D crosses “hand” in the answer to 17A. Surprised OFL didn’t mention that…or did he when he commented about the “TO” dupe stating “unless you make them walk hand in hand like that”?

pabloinnh 10:08 AM  

Pretty easy here but agree that a WARNINGHIGHTIDE sign seems unnecessary, as a high tide is usually no surprise. Didn't know EVIE but did know VIEIRA, as Meredith and also as David, who was a teammate of my son on his basketball team.

Thanks to @Son Volt for the OTTER shout out. The better puzzles always include OTTERS.

Never remember NENA. Ever.

If you're learning Spanish geography you'll find that WADI is Arabic for "river" and that is why some rivers have the Spanish version of this in their names, notably the GUADalquivir, the longest river is Spain.

And there's old friend NAIAD, a crossword and SB favorite. Nice to see you again.

Nice Tuesday, CL. Certainly Liked the spanners. Congrats on the debut, and thanks for all the fun.


Georgia 10:11 AM  

That was my downfall ....

Nancy 10:14 AM  

When you're guessing at a Natick letter, my feeling is that you might have made a different guess if you'd guessed at 9:21 instead of at 9:36. It's always so arbitrary.

My guess was WODI/NINO. But it might have been WADI/NINA too -- and I'm just going to tell myself that it was. I have no idea what a dry streambed is.

The crosses helped me finally figure out the odd way Meredith spells her last name. I had VIERRA at first, but CAUTION straightened me out.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln?

Actually, I loved this puzzle. Repurposing WATER SIGNS like that is a wonderful and imaginative play on words. And they're all signs we've seen many, many times. The puzzle was a lot of fun and a top-tier Tuesday.

Anonymous 10:15 AM  

BATE has another, bluer, definition, too but I’ll leave that to you to look up.

Carola 11:03 AM  

I guess I'm a more fragile flower than others here - being thrust first thing into a restroom put me right off my breakfast scone. I considered bailing for the Spelling Bee, but DECIDED TO press on. And then I encountered the CANNIBAL. Other than that - a clever theme, for sure, and I liked the addition of the WATER-y WADI, OTTER, and NAIAD - and pretend I don't see the SEWER. Maybe tomorrow will provide me with a fragrant meadow with only gentle creatures.

jae 11:04 AM  

Easy-medium. No serious problems with this one other trying to remember how to spell ACCRA and VIEIRA. Fortunately, I was familiar the boat load of PPP.

Whimsically clever, liked it.

@M&A - I may have slept through the lecture or skipped class altogether that day but I have no memory of what “jaws of themeless” means. Any help would be appreciated.

mathgent 11:10 AM  

Adobo is a staple of Filipino cooking. My Spanish family doesn't use it. The Spanish may have introduced it when they were in the Philippines.

Finally learned what bated breath means.

egsforbreakfast 11:14 AM  

I think that@Rex is saying that this constructor didn't master BATE.

The puzzle definitely needed a shout-out to Harry and Marv, aka The Wet Bandits.

The NE corner gives us a RARER STEAK than usual, but toss on the ADOBO and it's probably pretty good.

Remember, if you're flying in a Boeing plane, that your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device if the door falls off OVA WATER.

Giving a hand to a CANNIBAL might be better than to our possible future VP, hANNIBAL. Trump on Hannibal Lecter: You know why I like him? Because he said on television “I love Donald Trump” so I love him.

This solve went swimmingly, although the theme was a bit watered down. Thanks and congrats on the debut, Christian Leatherberry.

JonnyZ 11:16 AM  

NOT Medium.

Natick at EVIE Sands/Meredith VIEIRA (who on earth are they?) AND at Dry Streambed WADI/99 Luftballons NENA. On a Tuesday! SHEESH!!!!

GILL I. 11:19 AM  

Well I guess that one day I will remember how to spell ADAIR and that it isn't ABBA singing about those "Luftballons." I don't even know what that means.

So the puzzle...I got to WARNING HIGH TIDE and immediately thought about Great Britain and ebb and flow. The British coast has some of the awesomest tides I've ever had the not so pleasure of watching. Try looking at the Bristol Channel for fun. The low tide is great for finding dead things as well as boats sitting on sand looking like they should tip over. High tide is for swimming in the coldest water ever. So I'm guessing the warning is that you might die of frost bite.


Meredith VIEIRA is pretty well known. I was introduced to her watching "The View" which I watch every day because I love Whoopi and all the smart women on the panel. Meredith went on to do other great things.


An enjoyable enough Tuesday.

andrew 11:21 AM  

Even though I know the answer, I spell VIEIRA like I spell LIAISON - wrong every first few times…

Tom T 11:23 AM  

As Rex suggested, my unfamiliarity with the 60's singer and the morning television host, compounded by my confusion of the bird (NENe) with the band (NENA) undid me--on a Tuesday! Sheeeesh!

I should have known WADI--it's not uncommon in biblical translations.

Whatsername 11:25 AM  

Never heard of EVIE but from what I now know, seems a more appropriate clue would have been “Singer Sands of the Nineties.” But you know who was a singer named Sands of the Sixties? Tommy. Tommy Sands, no relation to EVIE as nearly as I can tell. But he was famously married to Frank Sinatra‘s daughter Nancy until they divorced in 1965, which turned out to be a blast of cold WATER ending what was left of his career.

This seemed overly heavy on trivia which resulted in a few unnecessarily wicked crosses but a decent Tuesday overall. Congratulations to the constructor on the debut.

johnk 11:26 AM  

Note to constructors and eds: If you really want me to fail, sprinkle your work with TV personalities, ET AL, crossed with pop singers known only to a miniscule fan base.

On the other hand, I learned WADI from years of solving crosswords. And anyone who was sentient and had a radio during the fall of the Berlin Wall heard NENA sing 99 Luftballons.

I'd loved to have seen today's shorter fill include PISCES, SCORPIO and CANCER.

I'M OUT.

old timerssssss 11:28 AM  

I have seen all of those signs. The WASH HANDS one mystified me, precisely because it so often did not specify it was addressed to employees of a food establishment, but when you think about it, who else could it be addressed to? That exact language was required by the Department of Health in California. The HIGH TIDE seen is one you see often in Northern California, where there are huge sandy beaches that can be entirely washed by waves during our winters.

DNF here as I know nothing of the V singer and put in a D instead of the V.

Jeff B. 11:30 AM  

More difficult than usual for a Tuesday.

Glad to see EVIE Sands clued. If it weren't for the fact that I heard her song "Take Me For A Little While" on the radio just yesterday, I probably would have been stuck. She's not well known but worth checking out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luSbwk33YOg&ab_channel=VenusClare

jb129 11:33 AM  

@LiveProf 9:26 Funny comment from Groucho - thanks for sharing.
And Rodan - wow! I remember that from my youth. Along with The Blob (Steve McQueen?)

Masked and Anonymous 11:35 AM  

Puztheme is nuthin too deep, yet hardly watered down. The split revealer issue seems like a non-issue … shoot, one of the themers was also split in two. Consistent.

That split 15+15 openin themer was very helpful to my solvequest nanoseconds. Got it all offa just a few letters.

staff weeject pick, of a mere 24 choices: VAX. Primo weeject stacks on the middle sides, too boot.

fave thing: CANNIBAL and its clue.
Also -- always good to see RODAN do a fly-by.

Thanx, Mr. Leatherberry. And congratz on yer nice debut.

Masked & Anonymo3Us

p.s. @jae: Sure thing, can do. A Jaw of Themelessness is a stack-up of black squares in this here pattern:
***
**
*
Kinda looks like a set of barred teeth, if U squint a little.

**gruntz**

Joe 11:38 AM  

Natick 47A 48D

Gary Jugert 11:40 AM  

@egsforbreakfast 11:14 AM
😯 OMG!

jb129 11:56 AM  

I got a BLOOP so I guess my first comment didn't show. Aside from WADI & NENA, this was very easy. Easier than Medium for a Tuesday, for me anyway.

Congrats on your debut, Chris :)

Tom P 12:19 PM  

I agree with everything in Rex's review, including the relative difficulty, since my time was just 28 seconds slower than my Tuesday average. Never heard of WADI, but knew NENA. Didn't know EVIE, but knew Meredith VIEIRA, so I had no real trouble with those potential Naticks. Still, because of all the awkwardness, it was a less than satisfying solve.

Anonymous 12:45 PM  

DNF on ACCRA/RODAN, EVIE/VIEIRA, WADI/NENA.

Anonymous 12:53 PM  

The Nez Elephant Parts video made my day. Thanks!

mathgent 1:03 PM  

I watched an old Rick Steves segment on the Alps last night. He spoke of the Swiss cantons. Wait a minute! I know one. URI! It used to be in the puzzle all the time. Clued as "Swiss canton." Now in the dustbin with Uta and Orr.

Anonymous 1:11 PM  

Eh Steve! Should I get my keyboard out and play the demo?

okanaganer 1:33 PM  

Once again so many Unknown Names: RODAN EVIE VIERA etc. Luckily ADAIR and NENA were gimmes because I'm that age. But DIONE instead of TITAN was tough for a moon of Saturn on a Tuesday.

CANNIBAL makes me think of Stephen King's book "Holly". Anyone else read it?

[Spelling Bee: Mon 0 and also got Sun 0 in overtime yd. "Streak" = 2.]

Sam 1:42 PM  

Ugly natick

Anonymous 1:50 PM  

Had WAsh for the dry stream bed at first (as in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arroyo_(watercourse))…hopefully WADI sticks in my crossword brain for next time.

Les S. More 2:27 PM  

I've been reading this blog and its commenters for quite a few years and one thing is a constant: I will almost always find something to disagree with in the comments of @SouthsideJohnny. Today (6:44 am) he cites 10 answers that he finds objectionable in a Tuesday puzzle. I had a couple more but all of his were on my own list. What's happening here? Is he taking over my mind?

Agree with @Rex on HEWTO but disagree about 6D. It's just a bad, old joke and I got to like it after wrestling with it for far too long. The wrestling match was self-inflicted because I do Tuesdays downs-only so I had little support in that great blank area and was thinking "a hand of cards". When I finally worked it out I let out a little "aha".

Loved the theme. Only wish I'd loved the whole thing.

ACCRA, NAIAD, LOEB, NENA, ASA, EVIE, WICCA, ADAIR, VIEIRA, DIONE. Good calls @Southside, but you missed RODAN, ADOBO, and the aforementioned HEWTO

Anonymous 2:28 PM  

Not having any clue answer with ‘HOO’ was a BIG miss. (H2O)

jberg 3:22 PM  

Yeah, the EVIE/VIERA cross was tough, as I've never heard of either one. But I do live in Boston, where there are a lot of Portuguese-speaking people, and VIEIRA is a fairly common name; so once I had a few crosses I went with it.

As @Pablo points out, WADI is Arabic, which probably should have been clued somehow, e.g. "Saharan dry streambed." I learned the word decades ago when I was studying African politics, but remember it because there is a local Arabic restaurant named "Al-WADI," where I've eaten a few times. Good food, but very noisy.

At first I thought that all the long answers should relate to water, but now I think it's OK, as clued, to treat the first two as one. As for HIGH TIDE, I think it's generally a temporary sign when the tide is going to be high enough to cause problems, either on its own or in conjunction with a storm surge. There's a heavily used road in my neighborhood that floods at very high tides, and they put up those signs then -- but in the traffic island, not at the beach. So I went with HIGH surf, like @Mack.

For those too young to have heard of him, Red ADAIR was not just a firefighter, but the guy you called in when an oil well fire was out of control. His technique was to put high explosives right next to, or on top of the well, then set them off. If all went well, the explosion would both put out the fire and cut off the supply of oil. The hard part was placing the explosives.

Ghana, of course, was the first Sub-Saharan nation to throw off the colonial yoke, very exciting at the time. After fighting for equality for 70 or 80 years DuBois finally gave up in frustration, renounced his US citizenship, and moved to ACCRA, where then President Kwame Nkrumah received him with honor. Now we have memorials to him here, as well.

Well, IM Off, which is the slangy goodbye I've always used. Each to each's own, I guess.

jae 4:05 PM  

@M&A - Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out for the pattern.

Anoa Bob 5:49 PM  

Must brush up on all things zodiac. I think I've heard of WATER SIGNS before, not sure, maybe a Handel composition?

I was a little surprised to see an old puzzle friend at 54D Red ADAIR. As @jberg notes, he gained fame by blowing up oil well fires. (That was my second choice for a career.) He was well known in his day. Worth a look at wiki I'd say. He died in 2004 at the age of 89.

My surprise was that 20 years later he is still NYTXW grid worthy. He first appeared in a NYT crossword puzzle in 1981. ADAIR has appeared 36 times in the "Modern Era" (per xwordinfo.com), almost always clued as a famous firefighter. I wonder when editors will DECIDE TO end his crossword tenure.

Until recently xwordinfo.com has used "Shortz Era". Now that Will has stepped aside and Joel has taken the reins, xwordinfo uses "Modern Era", not "Fagliano Era", for puzzles these days. Curious, no?

Anonymous 6:26 PM  

Thanks for that Nez clip. I either never saw it, or completely forgot it.

dgd 7:15 PM  

Son Volt
Thanks
Learn something new every day department. Didn’t know about the John Voight Chip Taylor Angel of the Morning connection.
I knew the Merrilee Rush version from top 40 radio when I was in high school. Didn’t pay much attention to the words so didn’t know what it was about till much later.

Anonymous 8:01 PM  

Nancy
For what it’s worth
Vieira spells her name that way because it’s a Portuguese name
It’s not a strange spelling, just not the Spanish people now are used to.

dgd 8:07 PM  

Andrew
Likewise I knew the answer Vieira yet I started spelling it Vier-
I can see why the name is tricky!

Anonymous 8:17 PM  

Anoa Bob
About Modern Era
Maybe because the plan is for Shortz to return as editor, so no era?

Anonymous 9:06 PM  

Naticked on a freaking Tuesday.

Anonymous 10:40 PM  

Can't believe we had BATE and EDGED with nooooooo innuendo zzzzzzzzz

Taylor 11:50 PM  

I guess medium for a Tuesday sounds about right. Of course I knew the answer for Meredith vieira but that spelling tripped me up. Didn’t really know Wicca or Adair either but got it through crosses.

Joan Mc 12:17 PM  

Re the "High Tides" warning sign: There definitely are times when these are used and are appropriate. Tides are extra-high (or low) twice a year, and also during/after storms. When tides are extra-high, then the accompanying waves also can be surprisingly high. People not used to this can be in danger. In Monterey & Pacific Grove, we had high tides that took out large pathways -- some are still not repaired.

kitshef 9:15 PM  

Really clever idea, and I enjoyed it despite one of the worst Naticks I can recall. I've never heard of EVIE or VIEIRA, so that cross was a guess. I know a Joe Vieira, so at least I knew that was a real name, unlike the other options (dieira, lieira, nieira, etc.).

Aviatrix 11:27 PM  

I learned WADI in elementary school geography class. I still remember the picture in the textbook. I like the extra water/river-related words: OTTER, NAIAD, WADI, CAPE, and even SEWER.

I had to run the alphabet for the V in VIEIRA/EVIE.

Brianlas 10:50 AM  

Ba dum tss!

thefogman 10:52 AM  

Pretty damn good in spite of what Rex said about it. Corners spell SEAS which fits in nicely with the theme.

spacecraft 11:37 AM  

I got the top two gridspanners from NO letters, my first ever 30-space gimme, even if not visually thrilling. Nor was the bad joke at 6-down. The whole thing struggles to pass the breakfast test.

The fill doesn't do much to settle the stomach either. In particular, HEWTO is Desperation City. The puzzle looks like a first draft. After finishing, I felt compelled to get out the mop: CAUTIONWETFLOOR. Double bogey.

Wordle bogey.

Anonymous 6:52 PM  

I was surprised by the number of regular bloggites on here, who were tripped up by wadi, since I consider that word crosswordese. I've actually seen the word on a sign in either New Mexico, Arizona, or California while on a cross country trip many moons ago. Besides the 5 shows already mentioned, Meredith Vieira currently hosts the game show 25 Words or Less. She's the reason I changed EdIE to EVIE, because, for the life of me I couldn't remember Miss Sands.

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