Large aquatic insect / THU 5-30-24 / Investment bank that folded in 2008 / Space on a CD track where a hidden song can be placed / Onetime head of the Chicago Outfit / California red, informally / Leaves with no moves, as a chess piece

Thursday, May 30, 2024

Constructor: Royce Ferguson

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: "THE WALLS HAVE EARS" (7D: "Shh! People may be listening" ... or a hint to eight squares in this puzzle) — a rebus puzzle where "EAR" can be found in four boxes along the left edge (or "wall") of the grid and four boxes along the right. 

Theme answers:
  • WEAR AND TEAR (1D: Routine damage)
  • HEART-TO-HEART (36D: Distinguished students)
  • "HEAR YE, HEAR YE" (13D: Cry from a town crier)
  • BEAR STEARNS (45D: Investment bank that folded in 2008)
Word of the Day: PREGAP (4D: Space on a CD track where a hidden song can be placed) —
The 
pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents (TOC). The pregap ("index 00") is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence. Popular uses for having the pregap contain audio are live CDs, track interludes, and hidden songs in the pregap of the first track (detailed below). // The track 01 pregap was used to hide computer data, allowing computers to detect a data track whereas conventional CD players would continue to see the CD as an audio CD. // This method was made obsolete in mid 1996 when an update to Windows 95 in driver SCSI1HLP.VXD made the pregap track inaccessible. It is unclear whether this change in Microsoft Windows' behavior was intentional: for instance, it may have been intended to steer developers away from the pregap method and encourage what became the Blue Book specification "CD Extra" format. // On certain CDs, such as Light Years by Kylie Minogue, HoboSapiens by John Cale, or Factory Showroom by They Might Be Giants, the pregap before track 1 contains a hidden track. The track is truly hidden in the sense that most conventional standalone players and software CD players will not see it. // Such hidden tracks can be played by playing the first song and "rewinding" (more accurately, seeking in reverse) until the actual start of the whole CD audio track. // Not all CD drives can properly extract such hidden tracks. Some drives will report errors when reading these tracks, and some will seem to extract them properly, but the extracted file will contain only silence. // Other CDs contain additional audio information in the pre-gap area of other tracks, resulting in the audio only being heard on a conventional CD player if the CD is allowed to "play through," but not if you jump to the next track. // Some CDs also contain phantom tracks consisting of only index 0 data, meaning the track can only be played on a conventional CD player by allowing the CD to play through a previous track to the next track. (wikipedia)
• • •


Rooms have four walls, not two, so unless we are supposed to be in some kind of hallway (or, since the puzzle seems so canal-obsessed, canal), then the theme is kind of wobbly at its foundations. I got the revealer first and expected to find "EAR"s on all of the walls. But no. Just the east and west walls. Not only did the puzzle neglect to EAR two walls, it also made the EARs ridiculously easy to find, arraying them very neatly, two in each of the four "wall" answers. It is very, very easy to get a longer answer when you know, before you even look at the clue, that it will contain not one but two "EAR"s. At about the halfway point, I decided to see if I could just fill in the remaining two "wall" answers with absolutely no assistance from crosses, and, sure enough:


That's a lot of real estate to just give away. In fact, the revealer itself gives most everything away, leaving us with nothing to do but find "EAR"s, like some kind of autumnal version of an EGG hunt (I'm imagining that the ears are ears of corn, but you could imagine that they are actual human ears if you wanted to go more of a Blue Velvet route). Hear an EAR, there an EAR. Shrug. The puzzle has a good concept, or at least a promising one, but (as happens so often) the execution doesn't really do the concept justice, failing to give us the proper four-walls experience, and failing to consider that once you get the revealer, it's just EAR EAR EAR etc. a barrage of EARs, all in predictable places. So, not nearly as much fun, nor as tough, as it should've been.


I took a weird route through this puzzle. When I couldn't get 1A: Chicken (WIMP) to work—I could think only of (COW)ARD but did not have enough (i.e. any) evidence to suggest there was a "COW" rebus afoot—I moved to the neighboring (due north) section and plunked down my first answer: EAU (6D: French homophone of "haut"). And then ... the revealer was just right there. I didn't have to go down to the bottom of the grid to retrieve it; it just leapt into my boat. I had a few crosses in place before I saw the clue, but I don't think I would even have needed them. After that, I went EAR-hunting, and, well, ducks in a barrel at that point (what good are metaphors if you can't mix them?)


The grid holds no real interest outside of the theme. It's solid enough, but there are no surprises. No good ones, anyway. But hey, if, in addition to the economic disaster of 2008, you like thinking about the horrors of war (NAPALM) or the overturning of Roe v. Wade, then maybe this grid is your thing. The only interesting answers were more "interesting," quote unquote, in the sense that I'd never heard of them and I doubt the constructor had heard of them, since they seem like things that only an overstuffed Wordlist would know, or suggest. STONEFLY? (12D: Large aquatic insect)? PREGAP? (4D: Space on a CD track where a hidden song can be placed)? Leave it to the NYTXW to go all in on the technical minutiae of a music format only after it has become borderline obsolete. I've heard of hidden tracks, but PREGAP, yeeps, no. What an ugly word.  Me, I've lived my entire life in the POSTGAP era (The GAP, like me, having been established in 1969). 


As for STONEFLY, well, it got me to look up STONEFLY, and man are they ugly. I thought they were going to be cool-looking, like dragonflies—you know, maybe OPALESCE a little—but no. They look like sticks. Actually, there are apparently ~3,500 species of them (and counting), so they probably look all kinds of ways. Despite being "common," they haven't been seen in the NYTX for almost forty years (last appearance was in the pre-Shortz era, 1988). STONEFLIES has yet to appear, so some ambitious entomology-minded constructor has a real opportunity there...


Quick Notes:
  • 36A: California's ___ Mudd College (HARVEY) — The editor is winking at you here, since Joel, like me, went to Pomona College, one of the five Claremont Colleges. Those five colleges: Pomona, Pitzer (my sister went here), Claremont McKenna (aka CMC), Scripps (women's college) ... and HARVEY Mudd (Nerd City for math/science students ... actually more Nerd Village, since the total population is under 1,000 students) (also, I mean "Nerd" very affectionately here, so please, no indignant letters) (seriously, though, is there still a unicycle club there?) 

  • 27A: Leaves with no moves, as a chess piece (TRAPS) — ah, chess lingo. Where would the crossword be without you? I had MATES and when that didn't work, pffft. Just waited for crosses to do their magic.
  • 58D: California red, informally (ZIN) — short for "Zinfandel"
  • 8D: One way to prepare crèpes (SUZETTE) — good luck getting to SUZETTE any other way than through crèpes. All roads lead through Crèpetown. Just google [suzette] and find out. Whoever the crépes were named after (disputed!), they have faded into obscurity. Only the Crépes Survive!
  • 35A: Opera singer Norman with a National Medal of Arts (JESSYE) — literally have a collection of her arias sitting near my turntable right now and *still* couldn't spell her name.
  • 59A: Unpaid debt (ARREAR) — I am always going to complain about singular ARREAR. Its wikipedia entry, its dictionary entry—plural. Always plural. Only the crossword thinks a single ARREAR is a thing. It's enough to drive me to drink multiple ALCOHOLS
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. I did an interview with Edith Zimmerman for her "Drawing Media" column at kottke.org. As the title of the column suggests, the interview is *illustrated*! Lots of stuff about the media I consume (books music newsletters TV etc.). Also stuff about my cats. You might enjoy it.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

90 comments:

Conrad 6:10 AM  


Easy-Medium Thursday. I struggled in the NW until I got the rebus [EAR]TH at 30A. That led me to change usER to [EAR]NER at 14A, but 1D still resisted until I changed sIMP to WIMP at 1A. Next I attacked the North-Central, which led me to fill in enough of 7D to realize that each "wall" answer would have two [EAR] rebodes. The only issue after that was JESSiE before JESSYE at 35A.

Same WOEs as @Rex: PREGAP(4D) and STONEFLY(12D).

I wasn't bothered at all by the lack of [EAR]s in the top and bottom rows. I picture a side view where the top is the "ceiling," the bottom is the "floor" and the left and right are the "walls."

Anonymous 6:23 AM  

Top and bottom of grid could be viewed as ceiling/floor, leaving only two “walls”.

Anonymous 6:45 AM  

Wear and tear, on a tear, ACL tear…it’s enough to bring a tear to my eye

Anonymous 6:56 AM  

It kind of annoyed me that 3 of the EARs were in the exact same word: WEAR AND TEAR, ACL TEAR, and ON A TEAR (@Rex only noted the EARs in the down words).

Joe Dipinto 7:04 AM  

Wasn't there a SUZETTE Charles? Yes, there was: she became Miss America briefly after Vanessa Williams had to resign due to a Penthouse photo "scandal". Not sure why I remembered that bit of trivia.

Benbini 7:06 AM  

The easiest Thursday I’ve ever done, and a personal best time. While I certainly don’t yearn for the brutal difficulty of that one stretch a few months ago, a *bit* more resistance would have been nice in this puzzle.

Anonymous 7:08 AM  

Right, Rex. Very easy.
Thought at first the French homonym was AUX
Speaking of French, it's accent time! Not é or è, but ê in crêpes.

Andy Freude 7:13 AM  

I thought for a moment, “Isn’t there an actress named Suzette something?” But no. I was thinking of Suzanne Pleshette.
I knew a girl named Suzette once, but like most of us, she never did anything crossword-worthy.

SouthsideJohnny 7:17 AM  

I was all in on the sides being walls and the top and bottom being the ceiling and floor, so I didn’t have the same dissonance that Rex had. I suspect quite a few of us will have some difficulty with STONEFLY and PREGAP (add OPALESCE to the list for me as well).

Of course, the PPP crosses are always an issue for me - so JESSYE x JLO and HARVEY x IVEY were also trouble spots. But the theme was reasonable and the rest was pretty easy, so a pretty typical offering - it shines in spots and they drop in a PREGAP here and a STONEFLY over there lest anyone forget that it is an NYT offering.

Anonymous 7:20 AM  

As long as we're complaining about weird plurals I'm adding CINCHES to the list.

pwoodfin3 7:23 AM  

Rex, instead of looking down from the ceiling, consider that maybe one is looking into the room at eye level so the top and bottom of the grid are floor and ceiling. In that case, the walls are left and right with no ears in floor and ceiling.

Very easy puzzle once you get the gimmick. If not for the Thursday rebus this could easily have been a Tuesday.

Barry 7:25 AM  

As I am a regular chess player, I was wondering why I struggled with that clue. It’s because it should have read “doesn’t leave a player with any good moves.” You can move a trapped piece, but it will likely lead to a bad result.

JJK 7:29 AM  

Very easy but the NE and the top center were briefly a problem because I had “aux” before EAU (those French homophones!) I’ve also never heard of the PREGAP, never ever, and was briefly sure that NOOGIE (btw, these are always plural?) was NOOkIE. Got the rebus with HEARTTOHEART and the rest fell into place except for that PREGAP/NOOGIE cross, which had me flummoxed to the end.

Bob Mills 7:34 AM  

Thursday puzzles are often infuriating, and this one is no exception. I caught on to the trick, filled every square with a letter representing "ear,", and even though I had everything correct, the music didn't sound.

Why? Because my computer can only put one letter in each square (it's an Apple Mac). I tried "E" (first letter of "ear"). When that didn't work I tried "R" (last letter). That didn't work, either.

From now on I'm skipping Thursday puzzles, and that's a promise.

kitshef 7:37 AM  

I suspect I would not like Royce Ferguson if I met him in person, if he thinks a NOOGIE is 'playful'.

WEAR AND TEAR is OK; BEAR STEARNS is great. The other two are pretty week, as they both repeat the rebus word.

I probably use the word STONEFLY a half-dozen times a year, so it does not feel like a ‘wordlist’ entry to me.

Clue for TRAP really doesn't work. In chess, a trap is when you tempt your opponent into what looks like a good move for him, but you have a devastating response planned. It is specific to the move, not to the piece. Often the best move she can make will be to move the same piece as the trap is set for, but to a different square.

Mack 7:42 AM  

I'm willing to believe the constructor is familiar with STONEFLY and PREGAP without a wordlist. They're not overly obscure.
Stoneflies are common insects and anyone who has ever burned a CD has dealt with pregaps. I can understand younger solvers struggling with that one, but anyone over the age of ten during the 90s and 00s will probably have seen it. Whether they remember the word is a different matter...
FWIW, the first pregap hidden song I remember hearing was on Blind Melon's album, "Soup".

TKL 7:44 AM  

I liked this one: In this conceit the "ears" are on the walls (left and right edges) because the top and bottom edges are the "ceiling" and " floor."

TKL 7:44 AM  

I liked this one: In this conceit the "ears" are on the walls (left and right edges) because the top and bottom edges are the "ceiling" and " floor."

Anonymous 7:46 AM  

I thought immediately of the top and bottom as the ceiling and floor, so I had no expectation that there should be EARs on all four sides. This is a room you are actually sitting in, not a map of a room that you are looking into.
I thought the puzzle was great!

Lobster11 7:51 AM  

@Bob Mills: Do what I do -- print Thursday puzzles and solve on paper to avoid those kinds of problems.

Dr.A 7:54 AM  

Agree that the Xword was too easy. Got the revealer immediately and the EARS were so predictably placed. Could have been fun. Read your interview, very cool! Now I have to read The Long Goodbye. Can’t believe I never have, thanks for that rec. I have a theory about your cat not wanting you t change the sheets. When people want their babies to sleep better, they put a shirt that has their “scent” in the crib or whatever to snuggle with. Maybe he likes that the sheets have “people scent” or “cat scent” or whatever. In a good way of course!

Lewis 8:02 AM  

The two moments I remember most:
• Filling in THE WALLS HAVE EARS off of the first two and last three letters. Kazaam! And … OMG, what a lovely phrase!
• My brain shouting “IVEY!” upon seeing [Phil in the Poker Hall of Fame], and me bewildered and stunned that I knew this, not knowing from where. I see he’s shown up a few times over the years in NYT puzzle, but man, the things we have lying in wait in the nooks of our brains!

Thrilling solve for me. As rarely happens on Thursday, it was as though I woke up in Royce’s head, just started filling in answers, waiting for stuckness, but no, rub be gone! Along the way, lovely perks, like the scintillating answer OPALESCE, and lovely clue [Odd, duck, maybe?] for DECOY.

Speaking of memorable things, take a look at the grid design of his Saturday, 7/25/20 puzzle – ( https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2020/07/25 ). Elegant, gorgeous, and wow!

Royce, you repeatedly hit my happy button today. Thank you so much for making this!

pabloinnh 8:03 AM  

Hey, did anyone else think the top was a ceiling and the bottom was a floor? Oh, lots of you? Never mind.

Got started with SMASH and MCED, ran into HEARYEHEARYE, which led to THEWALLSHAVEARS, and the rest fell into place in a hurry.

Hand up for the PREGAP STONEFLY introduction.

And now I'm off to help the guys install a washer/dryer unit.

Nice Thursday, RF. Really fun, for which thanks.

Anonymous 8:06 AM  

Any Thursday I solve on one pass is very easy. The theme emerged while I was fighting with the western wall and then the rest just fell in. A rare Thursday win for me.

Lewis 8:07 AM  

For those who don't have access to the Times puzzle archives, here's Royce's 7/25/20 puzzle on XwordInfo: https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/25/2020 .

jb129 8:07 AM  

I enjoyed reading your interview, Rex. You said the "f" word a lot :)
Back later.

andrew 8:09 AM  

I liked it! Fun Thursday! I even think STONEFLY is a cool looking insect, from a distance.

Wouldn’t have expected EARs on all four sides. I guess one man’s ceiling is another man’s wall.

One Man’s Ceiling - Paul Simon

Gary P 8:17 AM  

What a fun puzzle, very enjoyable!. It’s fun to wake up and see what talented constructors give me each day

I loved the feeling it gave me of walking down the “hallway” (between two canals) with those prying ears all along the way, like in the hallway of a gossipy office building. Love that it didn’t just use the same connected or repeated phrase construction (and, to) for all four “ear” canals)

Not a lot of crossword-ese, but wouldn’t care if there was. Liked learning about Harvey Mudd and remembering what a talent Jessye Norman was - could her the music in my hallway stroll

Noogie was fun… liked the way ACLTear looked…. Holly and Carol next to each other with Menorah nearby, everyone likes a holiday… Suez crossing with Suzette - so sue me…poor X and K, only letters left out (prob the subject of the office gossip)



Bob Mills 8:20 AM  

Thanks to Lobster 11 for the suggestion.

Son Volt 8:27 AM  

Not overly sophisticated but I had fun with it. Fill went right in - no pushback. I liked OPALESCE, NOOGIE and STONEFLY. Side eye to ARREAR - maybe I’ll hold off with my plural nits moving forward.

The JIVE Five

Learned JESSYE and HOGAN. The ROE - CROW stack is odd. ALCOHOLS is a follow up from yesterday.

Pleasant Thursday morning solve.

Skeeter and NRBQ

Jimbo 8:29 AM  

Where Cathy adores a minuet,
The Ballet Russe, and crepe suzette,
Our Patty loves to rock and roll,
A hot dog makes her lose control
What a wild duet!

Anonymous 8:37 AM  

Had fun with this, though I prefer easier Thursdays (the tricks are often impossible for me to parse). Only bummer was in the end I had to “check puzzle” to find I’d incorrectly written JANEdOE/AdREAR. Jane Doe felt like a perfectly acceptable answer and I’ve never heard the term arrear so adrear felt equally as plausible. Otherwise though, nice and breezy and made me feel smart, haha

Meredith 8:41 AM  

@Bob Mills @lobster11 At the top of the clues list is the word "rebus." Click on that when you're on the appropriate square, and you can fill in multiple letters :)

Max Zorin 8:47 AM  

Duran Duran's A View to Kill was the only Bond theme to top the Billboard Hot 100.

RooMonster 9:00 AM  

Hey All !
16 long puz. Full of EARs. I'm listening. 😁

Nice concept. Wondering if today is National Ear Day or something. The new EAR for me was BEARSTEARNS. Are they the Berenstain Bears cousins? (And yes, it's spelled with that A. Mandela effect there, everyone remembers it spelled with another E.)

Decent fill. Ran into what seemed like a lot of J's, turns out there are four. Maybe I got the answers one after the other. Couple of Z's thrown in the mix.

Unsure if constructor ever received a NOOGIE. Mostly they weren't administered as a "playful rub". They were more malicious. Just sayin'.

Pretty decent for a ThursRebus. Only 34 Blockers on an oversized grid. Leads to lots of white space. Big open corners. I say WELL DONE, Royce. Keep your EAR to the ground. 😁

Happy Thursday.

Two F'sr
RooMonster
DarrinV

Anonymous 9:03 AM  

Surprised no one picked up on the ear canals down the center of the grid. Smiled a bit when I got to ERIE after SUEZ.

Melrose 9:05 AM  

Got the revealer very quickly, unusual for me, but the cross fill was so easy that I could see it right away. I, too, started looking for ears across the top and bottom, then realized “oh, I guess those were ceiling and floor,” and then I breezed through the rest, much faster than the usual Thursday.

Rex, when I read your review I was disappointed (for you) that got so focused on the four walls thing, clearly made it a less enjoyable experience for you, which is a shame: it was really a fun solve for me. And I learned about pregaps and stone flies to boot!

Benbini 9:12 AM  

@Bob Mills it's perfectly possible to fill in rebuses on Mac I did so last night, just click the "rebus" button and you'll be able to type in as many letters in a single square as you want (push return / enter to confirm the fill)

Jennielap 9:22 AM  

This was super easy for a Thursday. I got the reveal right away (unusual for me). On another note, can we please retire TCBY? Do these even exist anymore?

Gary Jugert 9:28 AM  

Easy breezy fast rebus fun. Caught the center reveal almost immediately and it helped me know how to proceed. Lots of fun.

I think of RIB CAGES as protectors of the stuff inside your chest, and your chest as the thing in front of the rib cage, but in consultation with my wife on this clue, she assures me I am wrong.

I sure wanted EARLIER to be NEVER and rode that pony way too far. OPALESCE as a verb?! New to me. ON TRIAL is the same length as IN COURT, alas. ARREAR as a singular always feels wrong.

Ug: PREGAP? Always thought that was an assistant principal with child.

Propers: 6
Places: 7
Products: 4
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 21 (27%)

Uniclues:

1 What I preferred to hand out rather than receive in high school. I think I was a bully.
2 Evil genius plan according to detractors.
3 Intimate conversation between landlord and tenant unlikely to go smoothly.

1 WELL DONE NOOGIE (~)
2 "I RULE EARTH" FOLLY (~)
3 WEAR AND TEAR HEART TO HEART

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Go to Roswell, New Mexico. ACHIEVE PROBING.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Nancy 9:41 AM  

Loved it! The perfect rebus puzzle: impossible before you figure out the trick and very smooth sailing thereafter. Because once you have the revealer, you know exactly where the rebus answers will go -- a huge help!

I had the advantage of having often heard the expression THE WALLS HAVE EARS -- which, if you haven't, will make the puzzle tougher. Because I had ACL??? and wanted ACL TEAR, as soon as WALL came in at 7D, I wrote in the expression and I wrote in the TEAR rebus.

I had wanted WEAR AND TEAR at 1D from the get-go, but couldn't make it work. And now I could. I decided to go the the other "walls" and try to get them all without crosses. And HEAR YE, HEAR YE, I did. All 3 of them. I was helped by the fact that BEAR STEARNS used to be my broker before it folded.

I live for double-rebus answers like these! Very well-chosen themers and a smoothly-made grid.

One small critique. To ARREAR: ALCOHOLS would like to gift you with its "S". It doesn't need it and you do. But a small price to pay for a really enjoyable puzzle.

SusanA 9:50 AM  

Had IridESCE before OPALESCE.
Struggled with the propers crossing each other, because I knew basically none of them.
But a fun puzzle.
(I feel like, ‘Hey, I’m really getting better at this’, then come here to find out it was dead easy. 🤪)

Unknown 10:05 AM  

@ Max Zorin I think Live and Let Die (Wings) may have hit the top of the charts as well.

I don't know, rex, I kinda liked today's puzzle. It was fresh.

Sam 10:09 AM  

Don’t agree with RP’s but about the walls. The sides of the puzzle are the walls. The top and bottom would be ceiling and floor. Enjoyed OPALESCE - what a pretty word. Cringed at plural ALCOHOLS though I get that it isn’t incorrect as clued. Overall pretty easy but the NW gave me more trouble than it should have.

Cliff 10:17 AM  

There is more than one way to draw a room. The "plan" view (or footprint) looks at the room from above, and in this case the four sides of the box are all walls, and Rex's complaint would be valid.

Another perfectly legit way to depict a room is the "elevation" view, in which you have two walls, the ceiling and the floor. Clearly this is an elevation view of a room, with four ears on each wall. This is not a problem at all.

Whatsername 10:39 AM  

I have no problem with there being only two WALLS. If they HAVE EARS, that doesn’t necessarily require four of them. This was a fun puzzle to solve, but I agree that the rebus placement made it extremely easy. Still, I was a little slow on the uptake and didn’t get the trick until 48A so my eraser got a workout up to that point.

RP didn’t mention it, but I kind of raised an eyebrow at the three T/EAR entries. A pretty glaring triplication.

mathgent 10:47 AM  

Great puzzle! Surprised that Nancy didn't put into her POY short list.

Let me count the ways. A rebus, and a rebus with a terrific revealer, 15 red plus signs in the margins, single-digit threes.

I'm not sophisticated enough to be bothered by dupes.

Happy to see the classic line spoken by one of my favorite actors, Robert Duvall.

jae 10:58 AM  

Tougher for me because I didn’t hit the revealer until well into my solve, then it got quite a bit more whooshy. I initially want WEAR AND TEAR for 1d but couldn’t make it work. Wuss before Wimp, tar before EARTH, and useR before EARNER didn’t help. nevER before EARLIER presented a similar problem in the SW.

Yep, STONE FLY and PREGAP were WOEs.

Walls and ceiling/floor work for me, liked it.

GILL I. 11:01 AM  

Well I think I might've smiled from EAR to EAR and maybe even did a little JIVE dance when, at the git go, I plunked in WIMP/W[EAR] AND T[EAR]. I had Wuss at first. Que easy as I went EAR hunting. Will they be placed in a weird order? Will I have to sniff out a trap? No. Just find your ears on the left and right corners and do the et voila dance. I did.

For me to immediately plunk in THE WALLS HAVE EARS on a Thursday without my usual agita, angst, dyspepsia agony is a little triumph. A pat on the back...a silent cheer to me....another sip of my favorite Lodi ZIN.

I only had two head scratchers. AL CAPONE and BEARSTERNS. I have no idea what the Chicago Outfit is nor did I ever have an investment with anything starting with the word BEAR. Thanks to my incredible smarts, I was able to fit you in without a cheat. Thank you.

Now to read @Rex's interview!

egsforbreakfast 11:02 AM  

I know a guy named Craig Walls. I checked with him and he assures me that throughout his family, THEWALLSHAVEEARS.

It's interesting that if you put EAR at the start of a word, the sound is "urr" (like the words on the west wall). If it comes at the end of a word,it sounds like EAR or "air" (words on the east wall). Unless you're George W. Bush saying "nuculer".

I hope that sports teams at HARVEY Mudd are called the Muddhens.

Mini theme of Christmas with HOLLY atop CAROL right in the center. Or maybe it's holiday season when you toss in the MENORAH.

Very nice theme concept. Thanks, Royce (no relation to Sarah) Ferguson.

JC66 11:07 AM  

@Bob Mills

As a few commenters noted above, The NY Times app has a "Rebus" button, but if you solve in AcossLite, just hit the "esc" key to enter the whole rebus.

jberg 11:09 AM  

Me too for starting with aux, crossing the only-seen-in-crosswords verb lamS. But that gave me SUZETTE, and I just couldn't think of a canal region spelled _X_Z, so that had to be SUEZ, and there was the revealer.

MATEY or MATie, JESSYE or JESSie? Fortunately the crosses were clear.

At one point in my life I spent summers in Montana and did a lot of fly fishing. The STONEFLY nymph is a pretty common fly. I never used one, but certainly heard of them, which helped a lot.

Weighing in on the chess thing--there are two ways to use the word 'trap.' One is setting a trap for your opponent; but the clue is the other kind, where one of your opponents pieces can't move without being taken. That's what @Barry was referring to.

Georgia 11:11 AM  

Agree.

Fun_CFO 11:11 AM  

I definitely with went with there are 4 walls, each witha pair of EARS and a ceiling and floor without EARS. Bang! a room. About the best you can do with a 2D grid.

Hate ARREAR. Just should not be allowed.

Overall an easy-breezy Thursday.

@Jennielap Yes, TCBY’s still exist, though don’t mind your suggestion. However, like Edys, they are handy/convenient letter combos, so doubtful.

Bob Mills 11:13 AM  

Thanks to Meredith and Benbini.

Kate Esq 11:21 AM  

I have a soft spot for rebuses and therefore enjoyed this one, though, as RP said, the revealer gave it all away. I would quibble with the four vs two walls though. Four walls if you’re looking at the puzzle as a room from above, ie, the puzzle is written on the floor. Two walls if you’re lookin at it from one side , ie, the puzzle is written on the back wall(I guess technically that back wall is also a wall) - the top and bottom would be the ceiling and the floor.

Nancy from Chicago 11:39 AM  

@Rex, thanks for linking to the Drawing Media article. I love the part about greeting favorite sentences in often-reread novels as old friends. And of course your stories about your cats' silly habits. My Cleo is very annoyed by sneezing. Even if she's in another room, if you sneeze, you'll hear a distant annoyed meow.

Anonymous 11:40 AM  

I'm a CMC grad

Tom T 11:44 AM  

A testimony to the genius of OFL--if you told me to think of a 12-letter phrase and an 11-letter phrase that each contained two "EARS," I might get to HEAR YE HEAR YE on the 81st guess, but by guess #1,000, I still would not have come up with BEAR/STEARNS! They were both easy after a couple of crosses, but to nail them with no crosses ... wow.

jb129 12:15 PM  

A REBUS I LIKED!
I came hesitantly to Rex's blog to see his rating (only the rating!) since it's Thursday & figured it would be a rebus.
But - It was fun!
May be too easy for some, but not for me since I'm not a fan of rebus puzzles. And I enjoyed it!
Thanks for the fun solve, Royce :)

andrew 12:21 PM  

@Jimbo 8:29

You can learn the craziest thins on this blog.

From what a STONEFLY looks like to the actual lyrics of the Patty Duke Show theme song. I understood minuet and crepes SUZETTE but not what came between it - the filler words to my 9 year old ears were Valet Rouge (Red Valet) or some such…

Patty Duke theme

Bob Mills 12:42 PM  

Thank you to JC66.

Anonymous 12:56 PM  

I thought this was a fun puzzle. Not the hardest ever, but a good time. I’m sure glad I don’t have a job, or a hobby, where I have to find ways to rip enjoyable puzzles like this every…single…day.

jae 1:04 PM  

The waitress he was handsome
He wore a powder blue cape
I ordered some suzette, I said
“Could you please make that crepe”

Bob Dylan

Anonymous 1:16 PM  

Bear sterns didn’t fold it got acquired. Lehman folded.

okanaganer 1:40 PM  

I agree with all the commenters that the grid has 2 walls, a floor, and a ceiling. Sorry Rex.

@Cliff 10:17 am adds the architectural take. It also occurs to me that maybe this is because I solve on a computer with monitors standing vertically! Maybe if I solved on paper or on a tablet lying on a table I might think differently.

Hands up for AUX before EAU for the french homophone. And IRIDESCE before OPALESCE which does not sound familiar (oddly, Firefox's spell check rejects both words).

[Spelling Bee: Wed 0 and got Tues in overtime, so streak 4.]

Anonymous 1:53 PM  

2019 HMC grad here - pre covid, unicycle club was definitely still a thing, but smaller than it was in the past. idk if it made it through the pandemic though :(

Masked and Anonymous 2:13 PM  

15x16 puzgrid, with an earie puztheme. Liked.

Nice revealer which, after I nailed W[ear]ANDT[ear], was splatzed in after just a THEW+ was in place. Helped out the nanoseconds, overall. So, kinda see where @RP's "easy" ratin is comin from.

staff weeject pick: [ear]TH. Weebus theme entry.

A few no-knows peppered the earea: PREGAP. STONEFLY. JESSYE. HARVEY.

some faves: OPALESCE. SUZETTE. ATECROW. FOLLY & HOLLY. NOOGIE [the very first entry I got]. ERIE [themer sound-alike].

A little lite on ?-marker clues, for a ThursPuz. ACNE had the best one, IM&AO.

Thanx for the fun, Mr. Ferguson dude.

Masked & Anonymo5Us


**gruntz**

DigitalDan 2:18 PM  

In fact, I was so sure of ARREARS that I ignorantly entered EARS instead of EAR in that square. Mr. Happy Pencil was delayed for some time. Sigh.

Anonymous 2:19 PM  

Unicycles are not as prevalent as they were 20+ years ago, but recently I saw someone riding a motorized unicycle in Claremont!

ChrisS 2:42 PM  

Yeah, the clue describes a stalemate not a "trap"

Les S. More 2:46 PM  

Finally, a rebus puzzle I could just blow through, aided by the fact that STONEFLY was a gimme. I've been an addicted fly fisherman for over 50 years and I've fished some great hatches on rivers like the Madison in Montana, the Bow and Crowsnest in Alberta, the Elk in southwestern BC, and others. They are, as the clue says, big and, as they migrate from the bottom of the river to the top in order to moult and become winged adults, they are clumsy and vulnerable. Trout love 'em. Toss in a reasonable imitation and you're likely to hook a good fish. I've landed some that were so gorged on these big bugs that, as I was removing the hook to release them, nymphs were just spilling out of their mouths. A good STONEFLY hatch is a fly fishing spectacle.

@jberg mentions that he was a western fly fisherman. @kitchef were you also an angler?

Got the revealer off the first 2 letters and flew through the puzzle after that. Loved the clue for DECOY and agree that OPALESCE is a lovely word.

ac 3:07 PM  

seemed to me like the constructor considered the top of puzzle the ceiling and the bottom the floor..

MAD goofy for sure!

kitshef 3:10 PM  

@Les S. More - not an angler here, just a fan of insect nymphs.

Gene 3:21 PM  

Seems strange for Rex to want the top and bottom of the puzzle to be WALLS, since they are obviously ceiling and floor.

johnk 3:24 PM  

It's Thursday again. Always something to dislike. This week, pour moi, it's SUZETTE and ALCOHOLS. EARs my complaints, Royce and Joel:

SUZETTE is not a "way". It's a sauce. Last I knew, sauces are not ways. Clue it "Sauce for crepes" and avoid complaints.

ALCOHOL is ALCOHOL, as NAPALM is NAPALM. While there are multiple forms of ALCOHOL, e.g. isopropyl, methanol, ethanol, "spirits" used alone refers to ethanol. We don't say "ethanols". OK, spirits also refers to volatile substances like mineral spirits and gum spirits -- neither of which is an ALCOHOL. So, were the clue "Some spirits", I wouldn't complain.

Breakfast Tester 4:14 PM  


Here an ear, there an ear ... though the idea of hearing an ear is pleasantly poetical

👂

Anonymous 4:19 PM  

Yeah Rex are you okay? You didn’t rail against any of the sins in this puzzle. Three or more TEARs to accomplish the gimmick, ALCOHOLS is not a thing, NOFEAR is clued wrong (with “have” it’s correct but without it’s either nothing or a defiant cry before bungee-jumping, maybe.

Anoa Bob 8:03 PM  

If the top of the grid is the ceiling, the bottom the floor and the sides are WALLS, as several commenters have suggested, where are the front and back WALLS? Where are their EARS? Or should the reveal have been TWO WALLS HAVE EARS?

Anonymous 11:24 PM  

"Distinguished students" are not "HEART-TO-HEART" nor a clue for 36D.

Joe K 12:31 AM  

I'm HARVEY Mudd class of 2014! Unicycle club and culture were going strong (or at least they were 10 years ago)!

Anonymous 2:25 AM  

That's one sense of trap, but there's another sense (almost exclusively applied to the queen) where you leave a piece with no moves which will let it avoid capture next turn. The clue is still a little questionable because you are not actually leaving the piece with no moves whatsoever.

EasyEd 7:15 AM  

My fastest Thursday puzzle ever.I’m not complaining—never look gift horse in the mouth. I agree with floor-ceiling-walls perspective, although initially I checked to make sure it was not four walls. Seems to me the concept is imaginative and the revealer is spot-on—down the middle and in the language. Probably could not have solved the SE without the theme/revealer. Never saw PREGAP, just appeared from the crosses.

Anonymous 9:38 AM  

Medium-challenging for me. All in all, I thought it was WELLDONE.

spacecraft 10:59 AM  

I always thought ZIN was a pink, not a red.

Right out of the gate, "Routine damage" said WEARANDTEAR to me so clearly that I tried to make it fit. A glance at the across clues soon uncovered the mcguffin. Shortly arriving at 7d, the whole line became an instant gimme. So yeah, despite the rebusiness, this one was easy-peasy.

Theme wobbliness: I wasn't bothered by the four-wall concept; we are dealing in a two-dimensional universe. But two of the earful entries were just repetitive: HEARYEHEARYE and HEARTTOHEART. Further, the former doesn't even stray from audiology: you HEAR with the EARS. The first and LAST downs were the best ones.

Had a bit of trouble in the NE when DEweY might have been the odd duck, and in the SW when not now or later looked like nevER. Also, how many ALCOHOLS can there be? For most of us, one is more than we can safely handle. Please give your S to poor ARREAR, who needs one.

In some ways WELLDONE, but just par for a Thursday.

A rather surprising Wordle birdie: BBBYB BBBYY GGGGG.

thefogman 2:06 PM  

A better way to clue ALCOHOLS is thusly - Ethanol and methanol

Anonymous 3:11 PM  

@Jennielap 9:22 AM :
I can walk to my local TCBY, but then again, I live in Illinois which has 26 of them, which I believe has the most of any state. But yes, there are not nearly as many as there once were. They still do exist, though.

Diana, LIW 8:07 PM  

I was happily solving along when stuff just would not fit. I, too, wanted WEARANDTEAR but didn't bite.

Then, I remembered it is Thursday and a rebus might be afoot. Hate the rebi - where are they, are they the same, etc etc.

So a dnf as I looked up the "ears" and then of course 'twas easy peasy.


Diana, LIW

Uncle Bob 8:35 PM  

Did the puzzle long after it appeared, so probably no one but the moderator will see this, but I just had to protest about the clue for 61A, "Locale for a noted canal." The ERIE Canal is not in Erie, PA, and does not even pass close to it. True, its western end is in Erie County, NY (Buffalo's county), but "Erie" means the city. If you mean the county, you have to say "Erie County."

wcutler 7:35 PM  

I just want to tell @Uncle Bob 8:35 PM that I just read his comment on July 21; I can't tell when he posted it. Being in syndiland is only part of my excuse. I was not finding this easy (!), didn't get the rebus until last night when I picked up my printout again, having forgotten to print out the newest Sunday puzzle.

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