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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- HAVING A BLAST (3D: Woo-hoo! The engines are firing, all systems are go, and we are feeling good!)
- SEEING STARS (70D: Ouch! Drifted too far and bonked my head on that darned window ... but wow, would you look at the view!)
- GATHERING DUST (32D: Our lunar rover is collecting samples at long last. It's been sitting in storage for months!)
- LOST IN SPACE (18D: Oops, zoned out for a sec. Houston, can you retransmit our coordinates?)
- OVER THE MOON (20D: Thrilled to report that we've made it to lunar orbit!)
- FLOATING ON AIR (34D: Moving in zero-G is just blissful!)
- DOWN TO EARTH (74D: Re-entry time—let's make sure we do this simply and practically!)
- OUT OF THE BLUE (13D: And just like that, sky and clouds are behind us!)
- "ROCKET MAN" (77D: Who's on a mission in today's puzzle?)
- ELTON JOHN (78D: Musician who sang about a 77-Down)
- NIXON (?) (121A: He place a call to Armstrong and Aldrin minutes after their landing)
Sunisa "Suni" Lee (born Sunisa Phabsomphou; March 9, 2003) is an American artistic gymnast. Lee is the 2020 Olympic all-around champion and uneven bars bronze medalist, the 2019 world championship silver medalist on the floor and bronze medalist on uneven bars. She was a member of the teams that won gold at the 2019 World Championships and silver at the 2020 Summer Olympics.Lee is the first Hmong-American Olympian. She is also reported to be the first woman of Asian descent and first Asian Americanwoman to win the Olympic all-around title. She is a six-time member of the U.S. women's national gymnastics team, and with six world championship and Olympic medals, she is tied with Gabby Douglas, Kim Zmeskal, Kyla Ross, and Rebecca Bross as the tenth-most-decorated American female gymnast.
Lee has received numerous honors and awards. In 2021, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by Sports Illustrated, named Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation, and included in Time 100, Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. She also received an Asia Game Changer Award. (wikipedia)
• • •
It is not OK to have OKED in the same puzzle as OKAY, SURE. Lazy. Bad. Also bad: AGENT K? Like ... that role is not important enough to be in crosswords this many decades later (8D: Tommy Lee Jones's role in "Men in Black"). For most people, that's going to be AGENT [who the hell knows what letter?]. Luckily the "K" in "I TAKE IT" is ultimately gettable, but still, bah to that '90s-era answer for sure. "YES, BOSS" is some obsequious, bootlicking garbage. Pass. VIBRATOS is one letter away from being a great answer, but as is, it's just a weird plural (that is, a weird word to find in the plural). But overall, there wasn't much in the fill to get actively mad at. The puzzle was clean enough, just far, far too easy. The only thing in the whole grid I didn't know was HOT SWAP (123A: Replacement of a computer part without powering down), which was easy to infer. In a Sunday-sized grid, I'd expect a bit more challenge, a bit more ambition and breadth to the fill. Also, maybe a little more, let's say, currency. YOLO being clued as 79A: "Seize the day" of today made me laugh, first because carpe diem is still the "seize the day" of today, and because YOLO is from 2012 and no one has actually said it since 2014. It was popularized by the 2012 Drake song "The Motto." Fast forward a decade, and Drake is at the center of pop culture again ... but primarily for being the subject of this epic new Kendrick Lamar diss track.
The puzzle is so simple overall that there's not even any clues to explain or anything. Nothing odd or tricky or clever in the cluing. Just straightforward clues, everywhere you look. Even the handful of "?" clues are not hard to get your head around. [Olympic tracks?] = ANTHEMS because those are songs (or "tracks") you hear at Olympic medal ceremonies. [Bouncer in an alleyway?] = ECHO because sounds echo (or "bounce") in an alleyway. But you knew all this. Do people really (still? ever?) bang a GONG to signify that supper's ready? (95A: Crash before dinner?). Also, do you really pronounce "Lea" like "lay"??? Because that's the only way the pun in 59A: Lea low? makes any sense ("lea" = meadow, "low" = cow sound), but I always thought it was pronounced more like "lee." Merriam-webster.com helpfully/unhelpfully features both pronunciations at the top of its entry for the term.
[If you get one track stuck in your head today, let it be this dude saying AVONLEA at different speeds]
Notes:
- 1A: Language suffix (-ISH) — I had -ESE. First clue I saw was also my only mistake in the whole dang grid.
- 82D: Window, e.g. (PLANE SEAT) — this was good. This one got me. More of this tricksy energy, please.
- 37A: "Sounds to me like ..." ("I TAKE IT...") — parsing problems aplenty. Had "IT-" and assumed I was dealing with an "IT" phrase, most probably "IT SEEMS..." But no.
- 89A: Make malleable using heat (ANNEAL) — one of the few answers that isn't an ordinary word / term / name. Also what you say when you see an eel.
Time now for the ...
April 2024 Puzzles of the Month:
Themed:
- Hanh Huynh, "HOLY COW!" (Thursday, Apr. 25, 2024)
- David Kwong, A STAR IS "B" OR "N" (Thursday, Apr. 18, 2024)
Themeless:
- Jess Rucks (PADIDDLE, HAPPY NOW?, IS THAT A NO?) (Saturday, Apr. 13, 2024)
That's it. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Why would vibrator be a “great answer”?
ReplyDeleteWell, with two FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS, TEAT and BRA, it would kind of “fit right in”.
DeleteIt would join tampon and pad to form a mini-theme?
DeleteI realize that complaining about those clues makes me a bit of a Victorian pearl clutcher, but seriously. If nothing else, a total lack of imagination.
DeleteIt would also match the irises and the shape of the puzzle
Deleteyuck. loved the song. hated the puzzle. could there be more three and four letter words in one place? somehow thought one of the answers was going to me "Major Tom." I think we're in for a long stretch of big MINI puzzles. This one sure felt like it.
ReplyDeleteICYMI: Very nice obit for Nancy Schuster in the NYT. Loved the Nancy T-shirt.
Where's Loren?
Zippy
I did enjoy the long answers, and thought some were kinda fun.
ReplyDeleteLoved the cluing on FLUFFY and PLANKS. Had Mini instead of DISC for the longest time.
Enjoyed the Star Wars references because it was just May the Fourth…
My SKIBOOTS mostly snap, not click, but YOLO.
There was indeed short fill BLASTed all over the place. Somehow I thought there would be an animation at the end? The picture would light up in flames? (Perhaps this was the plan and it just didn’t come together.)
I gotta know, do PLANESEAT EGGS for breakfast?
ReplyDeleteI suppose NASA furnishes space murses to the Astro-fellas. They're called ROCKETMANBAGS.
Tommy Lee Jones' character in MIB had trouble making a smooth curve when writing. Yes indeed, AGENTK had a WEIRDO. And speaking of Tommy, should there really have been another LEE (Gymnast Suni) in the puzzle? You might even question IDS and IDTAGS. I personally adorn my VALISES with Ego Tags instead. It just seems more rational.
Our paleo ancestors always saved one stomach muscle of their prey for the end of the meal. They were really HAVINGABLAST.
I actually somewhat preferred the B-side of Sir Elton's big hit. Arugula Woman I believe it was called.
HOTSWAP sounds a lot more exciting than most computer repairs.
An overall easy Sunday puzzle, but much of the cluing was out of this world. I loved it. Thanks, Daniel Bodily.
P.S. We don't ever know which clues to attribute to the editor and which to the constructor. But I feel like the cluing lately is, on average, trickier and more aha!-inducing than it used to be. Perhaps some of this is Mr. Fagliano finding his voice. Combine this with his willingness to publish really oddball approaches and I, for one, am awarding him a two thumbs up for his editorship. Thank you, Joel.
I agree Joel. Maybe Rex didn't like the puzzle because he. Didn't use the clues. Loved the clues.
DeleteI agree about the theme clues being awfully long. For instance: HAVING A BLAST could be just "Woo-hoo! Engines firing", say. The answers themselves were fine and consistent. Sundays never seem too thrilling these days.
ReplyDeleteI do like how ROCKET MAN and ELTON JOHN are the twin thrusters of the grid art rocket!
Typeovers: CHOO before HISS for Steam engine sound, TITANIC before OCEANIC. For "Hot pot", I had TEAK----- and wondered how something made of teak could be hot? MA-ACHI crossing -EE seemed a bit unfair until I suddenly remembered MALACHI.
[Spelling Bee: Sat 0; no goofy or unknown words. Streak 3.]
Look, yes I solved this puzzle correctly, but I don't feel good about it. I want a clean finish, and this d#@ned natick, ROTI/ARISTA, meant that I could be right,could be wrong,but it doesn't matter... it's pure guesswork. What is wrong with Will Shortz that he cannot grasp this?
ReplyDelete@Ken Freeland - 2:05 AM - I feel your pain, but I also gotta laugh, because ROTI/ARISTA were total gimmes for me. Based on the clue for 110A (Indian flatbread), my first thought was naan, but I already had some of the crosses, so I quickly switched to ROTI. As for ARISTA—Don't know your age, and maybe it's a boomer thing (I'm 63), but generational wheelhouses aside, ARISTA Records is of major significance from a cultural history perspective. I had Clive Davis confused with George Avakian (he was Decca, Columbia, Warner Bros., and RCA), but Wikipedia tells me that, in addition to Whitney Houston, ARISTA was the label for David Cassidy, Tony Orlando, the 5th Dimension, Barry Manilow, the Bay City Rollers, Melissa Manchester, the Grateful Dead, Patti Smith, Eric Carmen, Air Supply, the Kinks, Lou Reed, Alan Parsons and Dionne Warwick, and Aretha Franklin, among others. Wow.
Delete@Ken Freeland Uh, Will Shortz had a stroke in February? And hasn’t edited a puzzle since then?
DeleteYeah, I started out with naan too, at least something I've heard of. Thanks for your report here about Will Shortz ..I'll keep him out of my future complaints till he recovers...
DeleteThis is the 7th time roti has been in the puzzle in the past 13 months. If you haven’t learned it by now, you’re not paying attention.
DeleteOf course, if you didn’t know Will has been out of commission for three months…
Why do you have a (?) in the NIXON bullet?
ReplyDeleteWas hoping this puzzle would be OUTOFTHISWORLD.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it was very DOWNTOEARTH.
tc
NOT DREARY AT ALL. I enjoyed every one of the theme answers with the long double meaning sort of clues. And chuckled at at least one more: the empty nester, which had me well and truly misdirected until a few crosses straightened me out.
ReplyDeleteAgree it was quite easy, despite things I'd never heard of like domain/range, until I got to the southwest corner. Had trouble with GONG and several of the downs and could not think of OCEANIC (in fact, I think it is a doubtful answer for the clue" really, really, big".) and the other words I tried kept me from seeing answers to the downs until I finally just cheated on 114A. Then easy finish.
??Dreary?? How could you think that?
Easy. Gird art, cute theme, breezy solve, ROCKET MAN…fun Sunday…liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Rex would object to “maple tree” or “pine tree” ?
DeleteThose are both used as adjectives frequently, and so people say maple tree or pine tree. No one says aspen tree.
Delete
ReplyDeleteThanks to @Rex ese at 1A (and the fact that I was solving while watching the Kentucky Derby) plus AGENTx before K at 8D, I had difficulty getting a toehold in the NW. Ended up solving clockwise from the NE without any major issues. Like OFL, I didn't like having OKAY SURE (20A) and OKED (100A) in the same grid, but I hesitate to mention it lest it sound foolish and petulant, right @Greg Chavez from YD?
Liked a little more than @Rex, think I appreciate the long themers more, but I totally get all the 3, 4, 5s just sapping joy.
ReplyDeletefeminine products mini theme through the middle with BRA, PAD, TAMPON (with a double clue).
Plus another double clue. Fresh oregano is green. dried? (checks spice drawer). Ok, a little more brown but, whatever.
Liked the theme, the rest was straightforward small stuff that got old.
Oh, the emoji clue for MUTE, at least for me in the app, wasn’t the clearest. Could definitely make out a speaker, but the red line, or x or whatnot wasn’t. Not a fan of the emoji clues and seems like they’re on the rise.
Actually, Agent K is very relevant nowadays. What with finally having proof Aliens walk amongst us.
ReplyDeleteWith only a few exceptions - completed by filling all acrossss and then all downs in order. No pushback anywhere in the grid. I’ve come not to expect much on a Sunday and today followed suit. Did like the May the 4th combo at 4a/6d. Why add the redundant TREE to the great quaking ASPEN? Is the 25 relevant?
ReplyDeleteToo easy - too big.
Burning out his fuse up here alone
I also initially had ITSEEMS for 37A, which was very strange because I created a mini crossword with that phrase in it yesterday, and was told by crosserville.com that it has *never* been used in a NYT crossword before. So I'm a little disappointed my ESP isn't as strong as I was hoping it was.
ReplyDeleteESE for ISH and bAKE PAN before CAKE PAN, but bAB wasn't a word so that was easily fixed. Agree with @Rex--although I was hoping for David Bowie and either Major Tom or Spaceoddity, but got ELTON JOHN's ROCKETMAN instead. Still a great song.
ReplyDeleteEasy Sunday, but not enjoyable for me. So much space taken up by long but not funny theme clues.
ReplyDeleteSHARONA is always nice to see, and I liked being reminded of domain and RANGE but that is somewhat offset by NEWTS being relegated to cages and grid art that doesn't hit for me.
I’ve mentioned before that YOLO should be a reason to act safely and soberly, rather than rashly. If you had a thousand lives, sure you can waste a few on foolish stunts. But you only have one, so take good care of it.
I was told recently that the new YOLO is DIFTP. Good thing I have young people in my life to teach me these important things.
I like the backstory, that this is a passion puzzle, made by one who, according to his notes, has been excited about the space program for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteI like that the clues to the long theme answers embrace both elements of those answers – their everyday meaning, and the space-related pun.
I like that “T” inside the grid-art rocket, hanging there like a fig leaf.
I like that silly little [Call me!] for CAB, which elicited a spontaneous laugh plus the ego boost of an immediate answer slapdown.
I like the lovely words MILIEU and FLUFFY.
I like PLANE SEAT, which reminded me of air travel, which reminded me of luggage, which reminded me of that lovely Friday answer VALISES.
I like that I was in the mood for something light, and along came a puzzle through which I felt like I was blissfully tubing down a river.
Daniel, you hit my wavelength in big and little ways today, and I’m very grateful. Thank you so much for making this!
I thought this was a fun Sunday morning with a few very clever clues I haven’t seen. I loved the clues for NUN, ECHO, JAB. It must be challenging to come up with a new misdirection for common answers. Also, decent puns make me smile-thanks for brightening a rainy, dreary day here
ReplyDeleteI have an older iPhone SE, and the Times app now forces me to delete it and reload a legacy version every time I open it—remarkably poor design—so I’ve started printing old puzzles for my mornings. My first, this morning, was Monday, 11/22/93, and solving it with only down clues seemed notably harder than today’s Mondays. It’s a sample size of one, but have the NYT’s crosswords gotten easier over the years?
ReplyDeleteI've been doing old puzzles and the ones from even 10 years ago seem notably more difficult, so, sample size of 2 now
DeleteI’m with Rex - please find a way to keep the clues to a reasonable length. It felt like I was back taking the SAT tests again.
ReplyDeleteI was actually kind of amused by some of the stuff that I learned today - I’m only guessing what a MURSE looks like - will do some internet exploration later. Do people really keep NEWTS as pets in a TERRARIUM? I only associate NEWTS with Monty Python. Leaves have pores called STOMA - it’s unfortunate, but we will not learn if STOMA would be recognized as valid by SB (due to the S). I also looked up ANNEAL which apparently is a verb with multiple meanings, one involving DNA, I believe. So it may have been easy for many, but it was no walk in the park for me.
I did enjoy the Bundt pan and the BOWTIE pasta up north, along with the (Basil, I presume) PESTO and the OREGANO in the center and the EGGS and OJ for breakfast. You could probably serve the farfalle with a nice CAB as well.
I didn’t take “lea low?” as a pun. I read it more literally, as in “what is a low in a lea called?” It’s called a moo.
ReplyDeleteThe “?” indicates a pun. Definitely a pun.
ReplyDeleteLea low is either a pun, or just vocalic word play - either are fun.
ReplyDelete@Ken (&Mike) - our friend ROTI shows up regularly, and I see Mike has already demonstrated the ubiquity of ARISTA. “Natick” is reserved for 2 obscure and uninferable proper nouns crossing.
Plus, you might have missed that Will Shortz has not been editing the puzzle for a while now, with Joel Fagliano stepping in. I noticed that Mr Shortz is back on NPR on Sunday mornings doing the radio puzzle bits, so maybe he’ll be back here soon - although he still sounds a bit weak.
I’m glad I didn’t read the info before solving, as it gave the whole thing away before even starting.
Obscurity is in the eye of the beholder....saying something is ubiquitous in crossword puzzles doesn't make it less obscure. A good crossword puzzle is a healthy workout of one's vocabulary and general knowledge, not a game of Trivial Pursuit.
DeleteKen Freeland
DeleteAbout obscurity is in the eye of the beholder. I would disagree. Rex when he created the term natick was trying to set an an objective standard. So he obviously disagrees with you also Nothing is completely objective, but I think it is possible to get a rough idea.
Using your standard would make the puzzle too easy, Monday or easier level. Making crosswords is very difficult, and trivia is at times unavoidable.
So I think it is unfair to criticize the editor when a significant number of people know one or both of the words.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteI imagine @Gary Jugerts Tee-Hees will be plentiful today.
Agree with easy. Did grok the double meaning of the answer vis-a-vis the clue, although a couple of the clues don't seem to quite get there. Wait, let me revisit the Themers...
OK, never mind. Just went back over the Themers, and I see all the double entendres now.
Blanked on the last open square left, MA_ACHI/_EE. Silly brain. After watching so much "Supernatural", you'd think MALACHI would be a gimme. But no, Googed Old Testament Books. *Sad horn sound*
36 Threes, a bunch, seemed like more. 😁 38 Fours. 92 Blockers. Yow. High Blocker count. Normal is 78-ISH. Hence, all those Threes and Fours.
But I did enjoy the puz. Space stuff the day after May The Fourth Be With You. Today is Cinco de Mayo, as I'm sure y'all are aware of. Party safely!
Three F's - Thank you FLUFFY!
RooMonster
DarrinV
I agree with Rex on this one. A lot of very dreary and quite easy short fill with themers that one didn't need to think much about because the answers largely revealed themselves without even having to read the clues. I sometimes wonder why I really bother to waste 20-25 minutes on Sunday mornings. The frog was not a princess.
ReplyDeleteA better way to spend a Sunday morning than filling in today’s easy puzzle.
ReplyDeleteread the Wiki list of ONEHIT wonders
Find the songs you haven’t thought of in ages. For THIS boomer, they included
the Human Beinz
Leapy Lee
and the Tee Set
Find your own on YouTube.
Then get outside and have some funin the warm wherever you live sun!
Andrew,
DeleteSadly for us in Southeast New England it has been a very cold, damp and dreary day! So the puzzle was unavoidable!
Being relatively easy so it doesn't last long is about the only thing this puzzle has going for it. Duping OKAY and OKED makes me wonder how much editing these things get. Why doesn't every test solver call this stuff out?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:40 AM
DeleteAbout the near dupe of okay and oked
They don’t correct it because they don’t think there’s anything wrong with it
For quite a while now I have been reading constant complaints about dupes but they continue to appear, A LOT so clearly there is no hard and fast rule against them.
Whatever people think about dupes, it isn’t sloppy editing, but intentional.
Pretty straightforward. Cute. Love anything to do with the space program, especially the heady times of the 1950's, 60's, and 70's.
ReplyDeleteWanted DOWNTHEHATCH to appear somewhere, as in: "Boy, it's great they provided for a raw bar on the ISS!"
ABORT ABORT
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteDidn’t like it because of all the short fill and VIBRATOS really irritated me. It’s not a thing that can be plural. You either have vibrato or you don’t. Very weird.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mind the short fill, but, I am steaming about the mistranslation of est modus in rebus.
DeleteFelt this was a light and good-humored Sunday outing. Can’t call it easy for me because of the absolute length of time it took me to finish, but it was one of my quicker Sundays. I guess I identify more with snails than NEWTs. The grid design and long downers resulted in a lot of threes, clearly not to everyone’s taste. Thought YODA was a far out addition to the space theme.
ReplyDeleteOnly five Emmys were handed out at the First Annual Emmy Awards, held at the Hollywood Athletic Club in 1949. Twenty-year-old Shirley Dinsdale of KTLA and her puppet sidekick Judy Splinters received the first Emmy ever — for Most Outstanding Television Personality. The ceremony was telecast in the Los Angeles area on KTSL, a Don Lee station.
ReplyDeleteI love crosswords for the trivia/history I learn
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Dinsdale
On VALISES from Friday, my old friend Neal, may he rest in peace, had an uncle who owned a luggage store in Manhattan. Neal worked there from time to time.
ReplyDeleteA woman came in one morning and found a valise she liked but realized she had left her wallet at home across town. A bit frazzled, she asked Neal's uncle if he'd still be there if she came back at 2 o'clock, and he said, "Lady, I've been here for 34 years."
I like corn. I like puns. I liked this one quite a bit. Grid was nicely engineered, and the clues were great all-around. Easiest string of NYT puzzles this past week?
ReplyDeleteMy 5th grade teacher had a golden retriever named MALACHI, but pronounced it ma-lotchy instead of ma-luh-kai. Random story, but I was happy to see it in the puz.
I love the story of the NYT issuing a newspaper correction in 1969, 49 years after ridiculing Robert Goddard for his ideas that rockets could launch ships into space. "He seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." Ouch.
The correction: "Further investigation and experimentation have confirmed the findings of Isaac Newton in the 17th century, and it is now definitely established that a rocket can function in a vacuum as well as in an atmosphere. The Times regrets the error."
Goddard: 1, NYT: 0
My best mistake today... seeing "LOVE ME D-" and thinking "LOVE ME (TEN)DER" which is not a Beatles song (but my music knowledge is pretty terrible). I figured some COUNTDOWN shenanigans would happen with the missing TEN (not even enough squares to fit -ER in but my brain works in weird ways at times). The puzzle got much easier when I saw what the actual theme was.
ReplyDeleteI had a double write-over at 114A, starting with IMMENSE off of just the N, then TITANIC from the C, then finally OCEANIC once I got PLANE SEAT.
Like Rex I also saw IT as the first word in 37A, that was the final answer I put in.
Cool how the log entries are chronological.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 12:09. Rex meant vibrato without an S at the end which is the only way I’ve ever seen it. BTW, I intensively dislike a vibrato in an aria.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was cute. I'm embarrassed that I didn't immediately think of ELTON JOHN for 78D. Instead, I had Major Tom and David Bowie in mind. Luckily that didn't fit so the rocket central area sat mostly blank (a vacuum, you might say) until the end.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I'm embarrassed about is having no idea what the book of Malachi is about. In the religious tradition I was brought up in, the scripture readings always began with a reading from the Old Testament but I don't ever remember MALACHI being quoted.
I'm impressed that the theme clues all have two components - the wacky and the actual meanings of the common phrases. Nice! SEEING STARS gets my "best wackiness" vote.
Thanks, Daniel Bodily!
Lots of short stuff, but the theme answers were fun to dig out. Some day I will remember LEN Deighton. Grid art probably made this extra choppy, but it looks cool.
ReplyDeleteI added the word FLUFFY to my favorite word list under QUIXOTIC but above BLOOP.
Propers: 15
Places: 2
Products: 5
Partials: 11
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 36 (25%)
Tee-Hee: Things to put in your MAN BAG: BRA, TAMPON, and a PAD. Maybe two VIBRATOS.
Uniclues:
1 Francs buried in the forest.
2 Fierce and fabulous fuzzbox for fellahs.
3 The one next to that door that blew off mid flight.
4 Report from astronomer to supervisor.
5 High jumping cow's milker.
6 Steaming projectile hoisted by the steamed.
1 AMI'S ASPEN TREE LOOT
2 TOP TIER FLUFFY MAN BAG (~)
3 HAVING A BLAST PLANE SEAT
4 "YES BOSS. SEEING STARS."
5 OVER THE MOON TEAT
6 OUT OF THE BLUE TEA KETTLE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: #None-aya-bizness. WOMB HASHTAG.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gary Jugert
DeleteAbout your uniclues
Perhaps I have an overly sick sense of humor but No. 3 answer had me ROFL as I learned from crosswords.
Such an amusing and playful theme. But all the clues -- even the non-theme ones -- seem to be lovingly and imaginatively wrought. Daniel would appear to have a lot of fun creating this and his enjoyment is infectious. I had a great deal of fun solving it.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the note, Daniel is a "self-described left-brained person." Of course he is! Cluing is what we left-brained people love to do. Grid "art" -- not so much. But Daniel has made a good stab at it. If I squint really hard, I can almost see a ROCKETMAN. Or is it the ROCKET itself I'm seeing?
No matter. I never care about grid art anyway. This is such an enjoyable puzzle with or without it. Even the most mundane words were clued in an interesting way. One example. I pondered: Is "fourscore" one word or two? If it's one, then the answer to 19A is AGO. If it's two, then the answer is OUR. I decided it was one.
In such ways does a good left-brained constructor come up with clues that are little puzzles in themselves. A terrific Sunday.
A very easy Sunday. I did it on my phone last night and this morning all I could recall was "Murse" as a clue for MANBAG and MOO crossed with MALACHI.
ReplyDeleteI didn't interpret the grid art as a rocket. To me it resembles a Lego spaceman.
I think PAD and TAMPON have had a simultaneous appearance in a previous puzzle. Nice to know the NYT doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to feminine hygiene.
yd -0. QB21
Anonymous at 2:08 asked:
ReplyDeleteWhy do you have a (?) in the NIXON bullet?
To show his utter disdain for any puzzle to dare ruin his day by mentioning anything as nightmare-inducing as a republican, a conservative, or anything non-woke.
Yeah well I hated Nixon with the best of them but usually that Rex complaint doesn’t get a (?) but more of a verbal assault.
DeleteOK Sunday if you're not feeling great, which today I am not. I have become a temporary second bass instead of a first tenor and am sick of coughing. Also had two grandkids here for an overnight and kids are not great at providing downtime. Good thing that complaining fixes everything.
ReplyDeleteAnyway the long answers were fun enough but the rest of the grid felt pretty choppy. Agree with OFL on ASPENTREE. The hardest themer for me was trying to think of a phrase that began with GAT, had to get most of GATHER to see that one.
Anyone with a strong VIBRATO can pretty much wreck a choral group. Don't ask me how I know.
OK Sunday, DB. Did Break up the morning somewhat, which I appreciated. Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
PS-The Bruins won in OT, so finally some good news on that front too.
IN WHAT ALTERNATE UNIVERSE OF LATIN does "est modus in rebus" = "moderation in all things"???
ReplyDeleteMy memory of HS classics might be shaky, but, I'd have been expecting "modem in omnibus".
I did not love this and found the MULTIPLE feminine hygiene clues annoying not crass not rude just ugh why???
ReplyDeleteThe one annoying part of this puzzle for me was the cutesy "MUTE" icon. Why not just a verbal clue for those of us who had trouble focusing our allergy-ridden eyes well enough to determine what that graphic was?
ReplyDeleteRight. Why?
DeleteYou should do the Sunday Washington Post puzzle.
ReplyDelete@OlympiasEpiriot, 11:32 AM:
ReplyDeleteI too am a fellow Latin learner (in middle and high school). I believe this is an interpretation of the literal translation, "There is a limit in (measure to) things" or a middle ground in things -- that is, everything in proportion... Hence, moderation in all things. From what the internet tells me, this is from Horace's Satires. The full quote is "Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines; quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum." ("There is a middle ground in things; there are, finally, definite boundaries, on either side of which Right is unable to take a stand," Sat. 1.1.106-107) [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/horace]
(Glosbe.com also translates this to "moderation in all things" [https://glosbe.com/la/en/est%20modo%20in%20rebus].)
HOWEVER, a further search revealed that "Moderation in all things" was directly derived from "Modus omnibus in rebus" by the Roman playwright Plautus (https://romangeek.com/wiki/modus-omnibus-in-rebus/). I think you have a case!
Yes, Elena at 12:34. I almost took a screen shot of the mute icon to enlarge it to get a better. But later got it from crosses.
ReplyDeleteThere are different aspects to creating the vibrato effect:
ReplyDeleteHow wide the vibrato is, i.e. how far up/down the pitch go; also whether the vibrato only goes up from the pitch, or stays below, or envelops the pitch.
How rapid the vibrato is, i.e. how quickly the pitch differences oscillate
Thus, there can be many different vibratos, hopefully not in a classical choir. Highly desirable in opera choruses or gospel, and especially in ARIAS, sorry Cuppa. Another popular effect is to use straight tone on a long held note and add a vibrato at the end.
Got a late start today - so maybe I didn't want to struggle.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the comments yet - but I'm sure there will be those who complain that it was too easy. And blame JF, Editor. But I really enjoyed it. Almost a whoosh. It was a pleasant change from some other Sundays - (which, I know, are preferred to be harder) but I enjoyed it.
Thanks, Daniel for a fun Sunday (for a change) :)
Now back to finding my typo which is really a pain in the ASS.
On the Diary of a Crossword Fiend site, 42 raters give this puzzle an average score of 3.44, with 12 raters giving it 5 stars and 9 giving it 4 or 4.5 stars. Maybe not everyone found as boring as Rex (and I) did.
ReplyDeleteLike @Olympia 11:32, I was also surprised to see "___ modus in rebus" for 101A EST, not because it's incorrect (mirriam-webster.com defines the phrase as [my emphasis] "there is a limit in things : everything in proportion") but because it highlights how the NYTXW uses "rebus" in a much different way---having multiple letters in a single grid square---than its standard Latin definition, "with or by way of things".
ReplyDeleteAgain, mirriam-webster.com on "rebus": "A representation of words or syllables by pictures of objects or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound...A rebus communicates its message by means of pictures or symbols whose names sound like various parts of a word, phrase, or sentence."
More on this and especially how language scholars use rebus to show how abstract alphabets evolved at The Rebus Principle.
Just because something is out of your wheelhouse doesn’t make it a bad entry. I knew AGENT K with zeros crosses. We all encounter unfamiliar trivia in the crossword puzzle. It happens.
ReplyDeleteI thought YOLO was a county in California.
ReplyDeleteI've always pronounced "lea" as "lee," I think because I first encountered it in freshman English in high school when I memorized Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us," which the final lines:
ReplyDeleteIt moves us not. Great gods, I'd rather be
a pagan, suckled in a creed outworn,
so might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
have glimpses that would make me less forlorn --
have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn
So clearly Wordsworth at least thought it rhymed with "be" and "sea."
Otherwise, I agree with Rex on the puzzle being a real clunker, a perfect example of why I generally find the Sundays tedious. I sighed as I entered each of the punny themers, and also balked at the OKAY/OK dupe. Not OK(AY) indeed.
@anonymous 11:54
ReplyDeleteCould have changed it to UNa/TAMPaN (“Floridian neighbor of a St. Petersburger?”) and turned BRA into the overused BRo (“Frank Costanza’s MANSIERE”) for those of us with late-life MANBAGs.
Meet the BRO!
Sooo … the puzgrid art is a rocket? Thought it was an astronaut [with pigeon toes]. Did have a ROCKETMAN bumper sticker on it, after all.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick, of a mere 36 choices: OJS -- plural abbreve meat with a dash of scrabble-twerkin.
Puztheme was A-OK. Maybe just slightly humorous, if kinda forced. But sorta fave thing was ABASH right above NIXON, tho.
Thanx, Mr. Bodily dude. Way out there.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
Thought MURSE was a male nurse ... silly me!
ReplyDeleteI thought there was an easy charm to the puzzle today. Fun clueing 🙂. Yes the sections make for a choppy grid, I prefer better flow. I liked the astronaut theme. Easy but really cute. A nice Sunday stroll. Thanks Daniel.
ReplyDelete@Teedmn: You are quite correct in your recollection that readings from Malachi are rather sparse in Christian liturgy. But the prophet looms large, theologically speaking, because he had a lot to say in his rather short book about the Day of Judgement. In Jewish tradition, he's the source of the belief that Elijah will return before Messiah comes. In Christian tradition, he is quoted, paraphrased, or alluded to often by New Testament writers, shaping their understanding of the end times. He is the source of the line "for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings."
ReplyDeleteLike RP, I thought this puzzle was easy. Like @Nancy, I found it delightful! Although I did say to myself, as I entered ASPEN TREE, "green paint!"
ReplyDeleteEven so, I was amused by watching the themers appear as I filled in the crosses, which didn't take long. So, just about the perfect Sunday puzzle: entertaining, and finished rather quickly.
Compare with Pine Tree or Maple Tree or Elm Tree etc
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle was out of this world.
ReplyDeleteDid Daniel Bodily go where no man has gone before?
I liked the puzzle more than Rex ( as I do more than 99% of the time. )
ReplyDeleteThis time I know a lot of people wouldn’t like it because it is so choppy. Doesn’t bother me as long as not every puzzle is like this. I would have been easy for me if I again wasn’t sloppy doing my dead tree edition puzzle- left a squiggle at Cake pan cab cross , that really was a b. Forgot to go back to check. DNF
(Found it amusing that last week 2 commenters used me as proof that dead tree EDITION is a thing seeing I used it on the blog the day before).
Like to thank Kitshef for mentioning that the author, Paul Auster was a commentator on this blog on 8-2-21.Went back to read his back and forth with Z. Surprised how many people that day who commented are no longer here- Z of course. Was reminded Z would take on anybody , including an author who specialized in “meta” stories. Paul Auster died last week He was a very interesting man
I know I make these nominations frequently, but this one is a prime candidate for WOAT. Weird gimmicks, mistakes, stretchers galore. Gack.
ReplyDeleteA lovely day for a light, space themed Sunday puzzle. As a space exploration dreamer from the night in 1960 I stood out in the alley with my Gran waiting to identify Echo I, my interest in space exploration grew with each new launch, and every article about the first animals and finally people in space. From Shepard’s first flight, so groundbreaking and exciting were the manned launches and recoveries that we eagerly watched in school, on tiny televisions on rolling stands. School was dismissed the day the three Apollo I crew died in the training mission. And in 1986 when my daughter eagerly watched Challenger leave the ground with the First Teacher in Space who died before their very eyes, I was there to celebrate with her teachers and peers only to mourn with them at another brave American lost her life in the pursuit of knowledge and opportunity. This was a puzzle I just could never dislike.
ReplyDeleteThe theme answers were easy and fun. Most of the remaining fill followed suit. The “not most” part (for me the SW and a few in the “nose” of the rocket and a sprinkling of clues that slowed me down) while smallISH, had me scratching my head.
Had trouble getting OUT OF THE BLUE, and struggling with trusting my gut to OPT in at 13A made me move around to get my whoosh going elsewhere. Elsewhere included everywhere other than a bit of the grid-rocket’s nose cone and a lot of the SW.
The tricky clues delighted me. I much prefer getting slowed or even stumped by a clue than not knowing an answer and not having some crosses to help me figure it out or, perish the thought just getting stumped period.
In the nose cone, MOO took a while. I finally “heard” (or more aptly “herd?”) the “low” of the cattle, remembered that RANGE goes with domain, and ROCKET MAN gave me the K for SKI BOOT, the clue that was super difficult given the fact that I neither skies nor have I ever really looked at a SKI BOOT up close. Lacking any reference just made what would have been a gimme for many a tough one.
In the SW, it took ages for me to get PLANE SEAT from the clue. OCEANIC certainly is a descriptive word, just not one I use often. Never heard of a HOT SWAP, and the clever GONG clue helped keep the white space winning for too long. Good job Me. Bodily! And to the extent that our new editor’s efforts resulted some of the cleverness, congrats. Seems like Joel F is finding his comfort zone in the editorial MILIEU.
This was a fun Sunday for me.
@dgg 4:20
ReplyDeleteThere’s a ONEHIT wonder for every occasion…
Rhythm of the Rain going out to SE NE
OKIE OKED OKAYSURE plus two! feminine hygiene products plus TEAT and BRA and obvious clues and scads of 3-4-5s equals blah.
ReplyDeleteExpect more from Sunday.
Forgot to float, I got QB YesterBee! WooHoo! Today .. not so much. 😁 (Did get PG)
ReplyDelete@M&A
A mere 36 - LOL!
@thefogman
Awesome!
PAD could've been clued differently. That was just a "going for a double clue" thing. Shoot, clue it as "Apple's i?"
RooMonster Clean Up Guy
awful
ReplyDeleteI came here expecting to see comments about the 3 intimate feminine products. I see that I needn't comment further, except to say that a few of them were a bit, um, appropriately put anonymously.
ReplyDeletePuzzle was mostly LOST IN SPACE.
I had CAKE PAN at 7D, so when I saw BAB, I figured this is another of the modern texting babel farts that we're supposed to learn.
Hey @Roo
ReplyDeleteFood gor you.
@JC66
DeleteHar. Took the slow brain a minute to figure it out!
Float my gloat.
Roo
i also thought Murse was a male nurse. agree that vibratos is an awkward plural. i liked the puzzle though.
ReplyDeleteIt's okay (sorry, given the overuse of that in the party) to refer to "ASPENTREE" since it gets name-checked in one of the most beautiful songs of the late '60s, It's A Beautiful Day's breakthrough 1969 song "White Bird": "White bird/dreams of the aspen tree/with its dying leaves/turning gold/but the white bird/just sits in her cage/growing old."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc5sbbAphoU
I hate when you have to read a clue and try to come up with an answer. I hate tricks, sports, music, themes, rivers, people.
ReplyDeleteI hate when people complain. I don’t like Thursdays and I will type this EVERY single week.
I am great, everything I do everyone else should do too
Never even got a crack at yesterday's; paper reprinted last week's. The whole page, three comic strips and all, all repeats. Oh well, on to today.
ReplyDeleteRight up my astronaut* alley. A few fun puns, but no ROFLs. A gadget puzzle, with that UFO in the middle. But that created a TON of threes, never much fun. Made the grid super-choppy, with areas hard to get into/out of. Par.
Wordle bogey.
*Fits where ROCKETMAN goes; lucky I didn't jump the gun there.
I have known the books of the Bible, in order, since I was 4 years old. Four. It was a song my mom taught me. So why oh why did I get stuck trying to fit Zechariah in MALACHI's space. Too early, maybe.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, the usual not hard but not too easy Sunday for me.
Diana, LIW
FLOATING DOWN
ReplyDeleteLSD? ITAKEIT,
just ONEHIT or TWO,
LOSTINSPACE TO make IT
IN or OUTOFTHEBLUE.
--- SHARONA LOTT
OKAYSURE an unremarkable yet quite tolerable Sun-puz. Shout out to Suni LEE from St. Paul, MN. The corner letters can spell out THIS SHIT.
ReplyDeleteWordle DNF. 4 shots at BGGGG no good. Shoulda known the starting B wouldn't work.
I found this puzzle playfully fun. But it seems the nattering nabobs of negativism are increasing daily on this blog.
ReplyDelete@CuppaJoe 11:02 AM, who said
ReplyDelete"Anonymous at 12:09. Rex meant vibrato without an S at the end which is the only way I’ve ever seen it. BTW, I intensively dislike a vibrato in an aria."
I think only @Gary Jugert 11:10 AM understood what Rex meant: "Tee-Hee: Things to put in your MAN BAG: BRA, TAMPON, and a PAD. Maybe two VIBRATOS." Rex said "VIBRATOS is one letter away from being a great answer" - he did not specifically say it was one too many letters away.
Surprised nobody mention the hints in the answers for an alternate interpretation of the puzzle shape, it’s definitely got a Georgie O’Keefe vibe to it, clued in IRISES and not one but two feminine hygiene products. Am I crazy?
ReplyDelete