Monday, June 24, 2024

Japanese art of flower arranging / MON 6-24-24 / Broody subculture / Lively get-togethers / Figurative setting for a shady deal / Take a leap of faith, quite literally / Eruption from a geyser / Computer replication of real-world events, for short / ___ pot, container for rinsing nasal passages

Constructor: Anthony V. Grubb

Relative difficulty: Medium (as a Downs-only solve)


THEME: BODYBUILDING (52A: Weightlifter's pursuit ... or a hint to both halves of the answers to the starred clues) — familiar compound words where first part of the word is a BODY part and the second part is a type of BUILDING (that one might live in ... or part of such a building ... (?)):

Theme answers:
  • HEAD/QUARTERS (20A: *Base of operations)
  • SHIN/DIGS (31A: *Lively get-togethers)
  • KNEE/PAD (38A: *One of a pair that a skater might wear)
  • BACK/ROOM (47A: *Figurative setting for a shady deal)
Word of the Day: "The Italian Job" (49D: The "jobs" in "The Italian Job," e.g.) —
The Italian Job
 is a 1969 British comedy caper film written by Troy Kennedy Martin, produced by Michael Deeley, directed by Peter Collinson, and starring Michael Caine. The film's plot centres on Cockney criminal Charlie Croker, recently released from prison, who forms a gang for the job of stealing a cache of gold bullion being transported through the city of TurinItaly, in an armoured security truck. [...] The popularity of The Italian Job led to several parodies and allusions in other films and productions, including the 2005 episode of The Simpsons titled "The Italian Bob", and a re-enactment of the Mini Cooper car-chase in the MacGyver episode "Thief of Budapest". The film itself was later given a video game adaptation in 2001, before receiving a remake in 2003. A charity event titled The Italian Job, founded in 1990 and held annually, was inspired by the film; as of 2020, it had raised nearly £3,000,000. Marking the 50th anniversary of the film in June 2019, stunt drivers in red, white and blue Coopers recreated parts of the film's car-chase around Turin at the grounds of Mini's Oxford factory. (wikipedia)

• • •

Real journey with this one. Went from not liking the theme, to liking it, to liking it somewhat less after I looked at all the themers more closely. See, at first I thought the themers were linked only by their *first* parts. I could see the body parts pretty early on, but was not at all aware that the back ends of the answers had anything in common. And since I don't read the Across clues on Mondays, I never figured that part out until after the puzzle was done. I finished up thinking that there was some kind of Frankenstein's monster thing going on. Like, the puzzle was "building" a "body" (or ... a good portion of one, anyway) with the front ends of the themers. The body parts alone seemed like a pretty weak unifying factor, so I wasn't that happy. Then I read the revealer clue and saw the way the back halves of the answers also formed a thematic unit, and that made things much better. "Oh, nice," I thought. But then I sat with those back halves for a bit and realized "Nah ... they're not really 'buildings' at all." They're words for places you might live, but QUARTERS or DIGS or PAD might just as well describe an apartment as well as a free-standing structure, and ROOM, yeesh, that's not a "building" at all. It's a building part. And (in most buildings) a small part at that. Familiar words reimagined as places that might house body parts—that's the best I can describe the theme (QUARTERS for your HEAD, a ROOM for your BACK, etc.). "BUILDING" still feels like a miss. It's close, but off. So the theme ends up being kind of a wash for me. There's good ambition here, and the second halves of the answers are definitely doing ... something ... but BUILDING doesn't quite get at it. My only other complaint, themewise, is a small one. I didn't like KNEEPAD because in all the other theme answers, the body part is masked. That is, HEADQUARTERS has nothing to do with an actual human head, SHINDIGS do not relate to your tibia, etc. HEAD, SHIN, BACK, all have different meanings in their respective answers. But the "knee" in KNEEPAD is just a knee. No new direction for KNEE, no repurposing, no metaphors. Just ... a KNEE. So it's a sad outlier, that answer. Far less elegant than its counterparts. 


There was one bad sticking point today in my Downs-only adventure, as neither BETA nor SKYDIVE would go down easy. BETA I don't quite get. I mean, yes, second letter of Greek alphabet, cool, got it, but I didn't know I was looking at capital and lowercase Greek letters. I thought I was looking at English and Greek letters. Thus, hard for me. Worse, though, was SKYDIVE, since the clue is, frankly, terrible. Or, I should say, literally terrible, in that it misuses "literally" (4D: Take a leap of faith, quite literally). Sorry, now that I think about it, it's not "literally" that's bugging me so much as "faith" ... and then the fact that "literally" appears to be referring to the "faith" part. There's no "faith" involved in a SKYDIVE. There's physics. You jump, you fall, your parachute opens, ta da. I guess you have "faith" that your parachute will open (?) but that's not "faith" any more than it takes "faith" to step onto a balcony or drive your car. Sure, theoretically, the balcony might collapse or the brakes might not work, but ugh, "faith," no. When you put "faith" in the clue and then say "literally," I think "OK, cool, this is related to religion somehow ... like a conversion or something? Some kind of rite where you jump ... for Jesus?" So even when I got DIVE I was like "... GODDIVE?" Also did not like the "sedan" part of the UBER clue (7D: Sedan summoned with a smartphone, say). I know you really really wanted your alliteration. But "sedan" is so specific that I figured the answer had to be a kind of car, a make or type of "sedan." I think I had E-CAR in there at some point (a term I would never have considered if crosswords hadn't taught it to me (stunned to learn that it's been in the puzzle just once, over a decade ago (?!)). 


Oh, I forgot, there was one other Downs-only trouble spot. It's kinda gross so I think my brain suppressed it there for a moment. I did not know the answer for 31D: Eruption from a geyser. I was worried it was maybe SPUME (!?!?), a word I find kind of repellent. I knew that geysers "spew" ... water? ... into the air. So maybe that was causing some aural confusion. Anyway, I wrote in SPUME but then took out the "U" when KNEEPAD became obvious. But this gave me SPE- ... and once BACKROOM became undeniable, that "geyser" answer became SPE-M. And I ... uh ... well ... things got uncomfortable there for a bit (esp. since an "R" would've given me ERRS at 44A, which is about as over-the-plate as crossword answers come). So there was a lot of looking at clue, answer, clue, answer, wondering what was wrong. Then I realized that STEAM would take me from APOP (a valid answer; 96 NYTXW appearances in the Modern Era) to ATOP (another valid answer; 191 appearances in the Modern Era), and would make ER-S into ERAS; most importantly, STEAM had the advantage of making actual sense for the clue. So STEAM it was. Thanks for pulling me out of an unpleasantly sticky situation, STEAM. I appreciate it. Yay, Team STEAM.


Beyond that, I misspelled IKEBANA (as IKI-!) (43D: Japanese art of flower arranging) and didn't trust THUMBS since THUMBS are (absolutely) not [Rating units for Siskel and Ebert]. The thumb is up, or the thumb is down, but the thumb is not a unit. There are always two. His thumb. And the other guy's thumb. They are either up or they are down, but the THUMBS are not countable, and thus are not "units." Stars are ratings "units." THUMBS are not. That is all. Good day.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. LOL at CUTIE (51D: ___ patootie). It's like the puzzle is confessing. "Yeah, you all were right yesterday, CUTEY is an absolutely ridiculous spelling, sorry about that."

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

63 comments:

  1. Easy-medium. No erasures, UDO was it for WOEs, and hallelujah CUTIE is spelled right.

    Smooth grid, clever theme, liked it. A fine debut!


    Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #920 was pretty easy for a Croce or a tad less than 2X last Saturday’s NYT for me. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Rex apparently doesn't remember the distinction between thumbs up and two thumbs up on Siskel and Ebert. The clue is spot on.

    I always wear GREAVES to avoid painful SHINDIGS.

    No buildings, no bodies. No comment.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Also solving down clues only, hands up for SPERM being the eruption from a geyser. The crosses were all totally plausible! I started with SPURT then went even ickier. And it's a bit eerie that those 2 wrong squares are exACTly centered in the puzzle.

    Theme was fine for a Monday. Rex has a point that all the right parts of the themers seem to lean towards a residential suite but the revealer does not.

    Before reading the clue I expected EAT AT meant "Visit for food" and MEGA meant "x 1,000,000".

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1:54 AM

    THUMBS strikes me as a particularly un-Monday clue, That plus UDO (not to be confused with UBE which is also an East Asian vegetable!) might have made the western section tougher than a typical Monday for some solvers. I also had a wrong initial guess at 31D, mine was SPOUT.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The body words in the theme answers are parts of a body. The building words in the theme answers can all be parts (or at least elements) of a building. I don't think they're intended to be *types* of buildings.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:32 AM

      DIGS are not “elements” of a building except in an incredibly tenuous way

      Delete
    2. Anonymous4:37 PM

      Anonymous 7:32 am
      I don’t understand your comment about digs
      “His digs”is simply slang for “his place”, usually referring to an apartment of some type. Actually pad is very similar slang. Therefore digs are usually part of a building. Nothing tenuous about it. Even if it were tenuous, that’s what clues often are : a crossword is a puzzle, with clues, not definitions Close enough for crosswords.

      Delete
  6. Medium by time. Concept was quite clever. The list for possible theme answers must have been very limited, so BACKROOM gets a pass. Great debut, Anthony V. Grubb!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bob Mills6:13 AM

    Nice Monday puzzle with a likable theme. Not as easy as some Mondays.

    "AREN'T we all" is clued as if ispoken in a declarative manner only, but I believe it should still carry a question mark when in print.

    ReplyDelete
  8. John Face6:27 AM

    Solved downs today for the first time. It went pretty well with some challenges in the dwell/whet area. If I recall, correctly, there are only three words that start with dw in English? So, that crossed with Whets, did not spring to mind. Question? What are the rules on downs only for filling in pattern-guesses for crosses? Following Rex’s lead, I believe this is THUMBS up?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I tripped over NETI, UDO and IKEBANA - all of which look like uncomfortable guests on a Monday. I can never remember AGLETS when I need it - I pretty much only know it from crosswords - I think I’ve actually seen it once in the wild, and I remember that I discerned the meaning from context.

    I went with “parts of a body” and “parts of a building” as the theme description and called it close enough for CrossWorld.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:41 AM

      If you have kids of a certain age you might know the show Phineas and Ferb. There is an entire episode on Aglets. Worth watching at any age

      Delete
    2. Southside Johnny
      About the 2 Japanese and one Sanskrit origin words. Neti has been in the Times fairly often so I knew it. The other two I had to get from crosses. I probably have seen them here but forgot about them. Anyway, I was surprised by ikebana on a Monday. Wonder what others say.

      Delete
  10. Wanderlust6:37 AM

    Pretty similar downs-only experience as Rex, but HAS DIBS was an additional trouble spot for me. The wording of the clue doesn’t quite match the answer. Staking a claim on something is pretty active, but having dibs just seems to be a condition you’re in, not something you are actively doing. And there was some ambiguity with the crosses at the bottom. But I got it, and I always feel a sense of satisfaction solving downs-only with no peeks at acrosses.

    Like Rex, I thought the theme was meh until reading the revealer clue and seeing that both parts of the theme answers matched the revealer. And like Rex, I thought, “but a ROOM isn’t a building.” I didn’t see the KNEE problem until I read the blog.

    I expected a “I don’t want so see Trump suck-ups in my puzzle” rant from Rex, but RUBIO crosses FRAUDS, so it actually amused me. He certainly is one of the many FRAUDS who used to rail about the Trump threat but are now total brown-nosers to him. If he is Trump’s VP pick, we will rightly see a ton of Dem ads stringing together his anti-Trump rants from before he sold his soul.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6:56 AM

    Ebert and Siskel each had one thumb, and they rated the movies separately. If they both liked the movie, it was two THUMBS up. So they are absolutely countable units.

    ReplyDelete
  12. A bit of a challenge for a Monday, I thought. Put me a couple of minutes over my usual Monday time. I didn’t know the Japanese arrangement or vegetable, and a few other things needed crosses to see.

    I thought the theme was clever but agree that the BUILDING halves of the themers are a bit of a stretch. What if your DIGS are in a camper or a tent somewhere?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous7:24 AM

    A “Two thumbs up” rating seems countable to me

    ReplyDelete
  14. EasyEd7:31 AM

    I’m with @KD on this one—feel @Rex should have stayed with his first instinct that the building parts were fine. Love @egsfor’s look back at GREAVES. Read THUMBS as generic part of “Thumbs Up” saying not as a particular single or plural indicator.

    ReplyDelete
  15. DavidF7:32 AM

    DNF as a downs-only. The west took me down with IKEBANA, and I just couldn't get past it.

    I didn't have an issue with THUMB - I think of it as counting "thumbs-up", and it works. What I DID have issues with was HAS DIBS. "Stakes a claim" should be "calls DIBS." You only HAVE DIBS once you have staked your claim.

    Overall, I liked the theme. I get Rex's point about the buildings, but I wasn't as bothered by it as he was (as is usually the case...).

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  16. Yep - I think the big guy overthought this one. BODY parts and BUILDING parts. Not a rip roaring theme but fine for early week - thought the fill was good for the most part. Liked HAS DIBS, CRUSADE and FRAUDS. @egs clarifies the thumbs issue well. HOPS and IPA form a nice adjacency. Crossword royalty with AGLETS.

    Pleasant enough Monday morning solve.

    Sam Beam

    ReplyDelete
  17. Bob Mills7:49 AM

    Regarding Marco Rubio: I'm a Florida resident who remembers his first campaign. He went to the Cuban community in Miami with a story about his parents moving to Florida to escape Fidel Castro. It turned out they had emigrated several years before Castro came to power.

    Yes, he's a fraud.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous7:54 AM

    FH
    Of course the thumb is the UNIT. The number (2) is the measure.
    This piece of string is 2 inches long; 2 feet long; 2 yards long. inches/feet/yards are the UNITs.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Agree with OFL's take on the BUILDING part of the themers, but also concede that they may follow Joaquin's dictum, so a definite vote for both sides here. Anyone know where @Joaquin might be, BTW? I miss him.

    I would clue UDO as "part of a Japanese noodle", since I didn't know it as a vegetable. Nice to see AGLET, which is usually something you see on one of those lists of "what do you call that thing?". And a welcome back party for TSETSE, the only fly I've been happy to see this summer.

    A Very Good Monday, AVG, and thanks for all the fun.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Had HASDeed at first. So I was Mr. Deeds before They Call Me Mister Dibbs.

    Also…After WHETting his whistle with too many BOTS, didn’t IDOL Justin Timberlake find out one of those DWI words last week?

    “NET I!” he claimed. Cop retorted, “I’m neither a FAN nor a HATER - just get off your KNEEPADs and ADMIT FAULT! I BETA UDO time in CELS! In the future, call an UBER so your next ride isn’t a (patty) HEARSE!”

    ReplyDelete
  21. • You “have dibs” after you “call dibs.” Ergo, calling dibs is analogous to staking a claim. And you have a claim when you pitch a tent and start panning or digging
    • Many Uber cars are SUVs.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous8:35 AM

    Two THUMBS up on great Monday puzzle; one THUMB up and one down for slightly awkward theme. But overall it worked.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Nifty theme. It took a lot of cleverness to come up with it, but, alas, no special brilliance to solve it. Though I did think the puzzle played a bit harder than most Mondays, what with IKEBANA, which I didn't know and AGLETS, which I did.

    AGLETS -- a crossword puzzle word that probably no one has used in real life ever.

    When I see a theme this clever -- but one leaving me with nothing to do but fill it in -- I always wish that there were some way to force me to have to figure it out myself with no help. Maybe a vaguely clued and totally uncrossed BODY BUILDING isolated from the rest of the puzzle. The clue might read: "A goal of certain types of athletes that will explain both halves of the starred clues. Can you figure it out?"

    The only problem? I could stare at the theme answers until the cows came home and I wouldn't have the slightest idea. Cute idea and great execution, Anthony.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Nancy: I asked our local shoe repair person about the word AGLET. He didn't know the term and had no alternative word for the ends of shoe laces.

      Delete
  24. Anonymous8:41 AM

    I was really disappointed when I had to give up my beloved “SO SAY WE ALL” for AREN’T. One of my favorite TV quotes of all time (from the phenomenal 2000s Battlestar Galactica).

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hey All !
    Nice theme. Good puz. Monday appropriate.

    Anthony managed to squeeze in five Themers (well, 4 plus the Revealer), ending up with a center-of-grid section where it's almost all Theme! And the fill came out great! Props on that. But, a slight demerit at the closed off NE/SW corners. But hey, at least both corners have F's!

    Liked the literalization of BODY BUILDING. It's a BODY part, BUILDING part. Neat.

    Another Monday has crept up. What can you do. 😁

    Three F's
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  26. Trina9:05 AM

    Hello, cutie!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Completely forgot about Siskel and Ebert's THUMBS. Those were simpler times. Image searched IKEBANA and golly it sure is perty.

    Less politicians please.

    Three HEARSE related items: Don't know if this made the national news, but until a month ago, Colorado's funeral industry was was completely unregulated and one place had 200 dead people rotting inside a house. Another guy left a dead woman in a hearse behind his rental house for two years. So now the state has decided we oughta have some rules, duh. And finally, to this day, I still wish my car was an old hearse (not a cool Harold and Maude hearse, but a plain ole regular one), but my wife does not have the same sense of humor as I do. She also said I couldn't ask for a gold tooth when I got my front implant. Boring.

    Propers: 5
    Places: 1
    Products: 6
    Partials: 5
    Foreignisms: 4
    --
    Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 21 (27%)

    Funnyisms: 1 🤨

    Tee-Hee: HATER ATOP ELLE. What?!

    Uniclues:

    1 Good place for a long nap.
    2 Plan to ride shotgun all the time.
    3 Lugs lifted lager.
    4 Behead John Deere.

    1 HEARSE BACKROOM (~)
    2 HAS DIBS CRUSADE (~)
    3 TOTE IPA HEISTS
    4 LOP TILLER IDOL

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: "Once upon a time there was a sweaty blonde..." and all that follows. YOGA PANTS LORE.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous10:19 AM

    Travis/Radial/Udo/Ikebana slowed me up in the west center section, and didn’t feel very Monday-ish.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous10:26 AM

    I came here specifically because I had to share the blinding rage I felt at "cutie" after I spent so long yesterday working around "cutey" because NOBODY SPELLS IT LIKE THAT.

    ReplyDelete
  30. ChrisR10:35 AM

    I became aware of the word GREAVES while solving yesterday's puzzle, and I went to church and heard the story of David and Goliath, in which "on his legs [Goliath] wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back." (I Samuel 17:6)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Leap of Faith doesn’t require all that overthinking. You take a leap of faith when you call someone up to ask for a first date, sign up for karate lessons, etc. Has nothing to do with actual jumping or religion. In this case, the leap of faith is an actual leap, and faith is just trust that the chute will open.

    There are 2 reviewers, ergo 2 thumbs, leaving 3 possibilities on the rating scale (or 4 if you care who chose what). 2 up, 2 down, 1 of each.

    AGLETS is the best known obscure technical word for an everyday object. “Wenis” is less well-known for a flap of skin under the elbow. “Hey, I can see your wenis” is a great teehee prank guaranteed to make everyone uncomfortable.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Neat theme. And yet yep, ROOM is kinda hard to visualize, as a BUILDING.

    fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Letter after alpha} = BETA.
    staff weeject pick: UDO. As a matter o fact, this puz did indeed have a nice U do to it.

    other fave stuff: THUMBS. IKEBANA. QUIRK. DWELL [themer potential]. SKYDIVE & its clue.

    As mentioned above, BOTTOMDWELLING coulda been a cool x-tra themer.
    And no sweat, fittin an x-tra 14-long themer into yer puzgrid, right?

    Thanx for the fun, Mr. Grubb dude. Congratz on a debut with lotsa body to it.

    Masked & Anonymo8Us


    **gruntz**

    ReplyDelete
  33. Clues for Hidden Diagonal Words (HDW) in today's grid:

    1. What one hits when leaving (5 letters)

    2. Bill and ____ (3 letters)

    3. Cross-world's favorite cookie (4 letters)

    4. U. S. Capitol feature (4 letters)

    Normal sort of Monday solve, with a decent theme and above average fill.

    Answers to HDW clues:
    1. TRAIL (begins with T in 18A, AREN'T, moves to SE)
    2. COO (a "pure" HDW, with "blockers" at each end--begins at 10A)
    3. OREO (somebody had to clue it that way eventually--begins with the O in 39D, NEO, and includes the HDW "ORE," duplicating the answer to 60D)
    4. DOME (begins with the D in 53D, DRAT, and when reversed includes the HDW "EMO," duplicating the answer to 12D

    I'm hitting the TRAIL

    ReplyDelete
  34. I found this very easy - almost a whoosh except for IKEBANA & NETI. Yesterday's CUTEY annoyed me so I was glad to see the right CUTIE appear.
    Congrats on your debut, Anthony :)

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous11:57 AM

    Competed for years (still competing in late 60s) and never thought of myself as bodybuilding. Weights for me were strength related. Have I been wrong all of these years?

    ReplyDelete
  36. I only knew TRAVIS because of all the attention to him and Taylor Swift last fall; are they still an item? If so, it was nice to see him together with the ERAS tour. I really haven't heard anything for a few months, so I don't know.

    Less than perfect theme, but still pretty good; and I agree about HAS DIBS.

    I've probably gone to Japan 10 times, but the only IKEBANA I've encountered were here in Boston, either at the Flower Show or the Museum of Fine Arts. But that was enough to make it a gimme. My main problem was TILLER. When plow wouldn't fit, I wanted harrow, but the crosses finally got me there.

    What I learned today--the word Arianator.

    @Gary J., you missed a good one: How Nixon got in trouble.

    Answer:

    MEGA TAPES SLIP

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @jberg 11:58 AM
      Nice!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:36 PM

      Are they still an item?! They went “Instagram Official” this weekend in a photo with the future King of England and two of his children!

      Delete
  37. My follow-up comment didn't get posted, but I like the parse from @KD (2:48 AM): body parts + parts of a building. So, BACKROOM is a fine entry. The other themers are good or good enough. Since Siskel and Ebert have a trademark on the thumb-rating system, I give the puzzle two halluces up, in a good way (hallux: big toe). Per Jerry Seinfeld, showing a toe should be considered more offensive than the arbitrary pick-a-finger-and-show-it-to-somebody-to-make-them-feel-bad middle finger.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Hello AGLETS, my old friend, you've come to help my solve again. And look! Right next door is more olde timey croswordese, TSE TSE. Quite the QUIRK, those two together, no?

    With QUARTERS, DIGS, PAD and ROOM as parts of the theme, I was surprised to see 40D DWELL just hanging out there on its own, with no connection shown.

    Speaking of HOPS (32D "What gives beer its bitterness"), I just saw that the country with the highest alcohol consumption per capita is Romania. ESTONIA came in at 17th.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I am never in the pop culture camp but today, of all days, Swifties are swooning. As am I.
    And then came this puzzle:

    TRAVIS
    ERAS
    FAN
    IDOL

    ReplyDelete
  40. Tom F1:22 PM

    Have to disagree with OFL on the themes symmetry. Read as parts of a body and parts of a building…seemed fine to me. (Yes, agreed, PAD is still weak even with this generous reading.) But wanting buildings while accepting that the other half are not per se “bodies” seems like poor logic.

    ReplyDelete
  41. @John Face 6:27 am, we pretty much make our own rules. Mine are simple:

    - No looking at across CLUES (which is why I always say "down clues only").
    - Perfectly okay to guess across answers, especially the themers... that's most of the fun!
    - If I complete the grid but do not immediately get the congratulations, I still count it as a win if I can eventually get there. This because there is often no way to know you have a wrong square... you can't check the across clue for it!

    ReplyDelete
  42. I liked this one. Then I read @Rex and didn't like it. Then I read a bunch of commenters who pointed out the body parts/building parts thing and I liked it again.

    I also solve DO so I also had problems at 31D, but not the same problems as most of you. I dropped in water for my geyser eruption but the other downs (AERO, HOPS, and IPA were all solid) in the area saved me. Never once considered Spume or, even worse, SpErM.

    IKEBANA at 43D was almost a gimme but I couldn't dredge up the spelling. But enough to work with. Didn't even have to guess at UDO because it just magically filled itself in.

    Nice Monday, Mr. Grubb.

    ReplyDelete
  43. @John Face 6:27 am

    My DO rules are approximately the same a @Okanaganer's. Inference and/or guesswork are part of the game.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Anonymous2:53 PM

    CDilly52 here. This provided much more dun than many Mondays for me. Every time I see AGLET, I remember my 12 year old self learning the word as I solved with Gran. Memory fascinates me, and solving triggers so many wonderful ones.

    On that day, we had quite a big chunk done but, as so often happens, there was that one place with too much white showing. All of a sudden, she said something like, “Oh, there’s a clue I missed,” and said the number and handed me the paper. I read “tips of your shoe laces,” and just shook my head as Gran just smiled. After running everything I could think of and finding no likely word with 5 letters, I offered up that all I could think of was “frayed,” the state of 100% of my shoe laces after a very short time. Remember how hard it was to get the laces back through the eyelets once the AGLETS were gone? Sure you do.

    Anyway, Gran had “that look” and I knew she knew. “Ready,” she asked? “You will love this word and said “AGLETS.” I said “You just made that up because it sounds related to ‘eyelets’”. She just told me to try it. Of course it worked. And for a couple days I overused my new word and have never heard anyone use it in conversation. Never. Ever.

    We added it to our “crosswordy words” list that lived on the side table next to her chair. 26 pages, one for each letter. She didn’t need it but started it for me. Turns out, I took to crosswords and rarely had to look, but we kept adding to it. In fact I still do. That old tablet has its own slot in my magazine table next to “my chair.” I’ll add a word here and there but now-days it has to be a word I have never encountered and one that gets reused at least three times within six months to qualify a “crosswordy word.” There’s a page at the very back of the tablet that I headed Additions?*.

    In junior high, I fell in love with asterisks and footnotes (to the extreme displeasure of each of my three English teachers) and this asterisk had a purpose. At the bottom of the page in my small printing (my handwriting has always been dreadful) appears the following explanation: *a word being included on this list is not a good thing. The puzzle maker could have done better. Everybody’s a critic.

    What a fine Monday, AGLETS included.

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  45. Anonymous3:43 PM

    I’m surprised that Rex didn’t mention that both Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are in the puzzle. I loved it but expected Rex to hate it.

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  46. I liked the puzzle.
    Easy enough Thought the gimmick was fine.
    For someone who solves crosswords at a high (speed) level (vastly faster than I). Rex to my mind can be overly literal and rigid in his reading of puzzles. I saw body parts and building parts. Close enough for crosswords. And fine with me
    Getting technical like Rex, Shindig in origins has nothing to do with shin. It probably comes Irish or Scottish. So we have 2 metaphorical uses of body parts as adjectives, one literal and one word that has nothing to do with body parts at all except coincidental first 4 letters.
    So I don’t think Rex’s criticism is valid. Ditto his criticism of skydive. Faith doesn’t just have a religious meaning. Leap of faith is now a set expression that in usage has gone beyond its religious origins
    So by common usage a skydive is literally a leap having faith in the parachute etc. Nothing whatsoever wrong with that answer.



    Some other people have been overly technical
    The answer in a crossword doesn’t have to include all possible options raised by the answer. Even if an SUV might pull up after you call Uber, you MIGHT get a sedan so the answer is totally valid.

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  47. incredibly tenuous6:10 PM

    digs:
    in American English
    informal
    living quarters; lodgings

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  48. Justice for CUTIE. Liked this one a lot.

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  49. Excellent theme and themers.

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  50. Rex doesn’t get that two THUMBS up make thumbs a countable unit? Often it’s just one THUMB up, so what’s the problem? I give it a THUMBS up for being a good solid beginner-friendly puzzle with a well-executed theme.

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  51. Got the *body parts* portion of the theme while solving, but the revealer clue made me look BACK over. Well, sure, buildings. Even ROOM, as in taproom, a term for a bar. The whole building. A double whammy. Cool.

    THUMBS is a body part appearing outside of the theme; this detracts from the elegance of it all. A shame. (I suppose you could argue that TRAVIS Kelce resembles a building...no? Okay.)

    NETI was a complete no-know for me. Definitely not a Monday word. 8 U's for @M&A. Like IKEBANA. Birdie.

    Wordle eagle!

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  52. Anonymous6:19 PM

    Neti pot was a gimme, because of TBBT, and I see those words with a picture of the pot on a box when I go to my local drugstore. Ikebana required a little more dredging up, but I've gone to a lot of arts and crafts shows, and have seen several different Japanese art forms at them.

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  53. Diana, LIW7:22 PM

    Kept thinking it was Tuesday - then it would get kinda easy...

    I have a NETI pot so knew that one. IKEBANA had to be filled in with crosses.

    But all was well, and I finished in a decent amount of time and effort. (I DO NOT time my solves - how to ruin something that's fun!)

    Diana, LIW

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  54. Burma Shave10:23 PM

    BUILDING STEAM

    A MEGA-CUTIE was ELLE,
    in A BACKROOM UBER naughty,
    she HAS SHINDIGS where she DWELLs
    for HEADQUARTERS ORE her BODY.

    --- TRAVIS RUBIO

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  55. Carpaltunnel? Maybe not.
    Wordle birdie.

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