Wednesday, June 12, 2024

Long Islander of literature / WED 6-12-24 / Minor bump against another car / Home planet of a classic TV alien / Divorcée in 1990s New York tabloids / Rule for a screen-free household / Nonfiction films with an editorial viewpoint, in a New York Times series / Elizabeth with millions of made-up customers / Island on which the Dutch introduced coffee in the 1600s

Constructor: Simeon Seigel

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: Hell's-a-pop-pun — an early Father's Day puzzle; familiar phrases with a word for "father" in them are clued via "Pop" puns:

Theme answers:
  • DAD JOKE (1A: Pop corn?)
  • PATERNITY TESTS (21A: Pop quizzes?)
  • "THIS OLD MAN" (39A: Pop song?)
  • FATHERLY ADVICE (60A: Pop wisdom?)
  • DADAISM (73A: Pop art?)
Word of the Day: "NOIRE et Blanche" (52A: "___ et Blanche" (Man Ray's study in contrast)) —

Noire et Blanche 
(French for Black and White) is a black and white photograph taken by American visual artist Man Ray in 1926. It is one of his most famous photographs at the time when he was an exponent of Surrealism. // The picture was first published in the Parisian Vogue magazine, on 1 May 1926, with the title Visage de Nacre et Masque d'Ébene. It would be published once again with the current title in the French magazines Variétés and Art et Décoration in 1928. // Man Ray had already published a similar photograph in the cover of the Dada magazine of Francis Picabia, with the title Black and White, in 1924, depicting two statuettes, one European and classical and the other African. // The title of the photograph refers both to the medium of black and white photography and the duality expressed in the dicotomy [sic!] between the caucasian female model and the African black mask. The photograph depicts the famous French model Kiki de Montparnasse, posing expressionless, with her eyes closed and her head lying on a table, holding with her left hand a black African mask vertically upon its surface. The picture juxtaposes the similarities between the soft oval white face of the model, as if she were a living mask, with the shiny black mask, also with eyes closed and a serene expression. It also expresses the artist's interest in African art, which had a huge influence in the artistic movements of the first decades of the 20th century. (wikipedia)
• • •

This was something of a groaner, but maybe that was the point? When the puzzle leads with DAD JOKE, (which is, itself, the answer to a DAD JOKE clue), well, you can't say the puzzle wasn't up front about its whole agenda. Holiday puzzles should be on (or at least immediately adjacent to) the holidays themselves, and this one feels a little too early, but that's not the problem. The problem is the corny concept and especially the dull-as-dishwater fill. The theme answers don't sing, and the fill is just workmanlike. I kinda like LOVE TAP, but not (at all) as a car collision clue (though that is a valid meaning) (42A: Minor bump against another car). I would've liked it to be more affectionate, taps people give to each other, smacks on the butt or boops on the nose or whatever. Or the thing that cats do when they want you to pet them, or when they "fight" with each other. No one wants to see more crashes if they don't have to. Choosing car collisions (even minor ones) over actual love—strong boo. So the best answer in the grid by far got a less-than-cute clue. Otherwise, what is there? NSA and CIA. SOU and ADE. "Words" you (I) only see in crosswords, like IDEAMAP and KIDVID (although usually that one comes as a partial clue for VID—this is the first time we're getting the full KIDVID since 1973 (!!?)). DADAISM is probably the most original, surprising, and boldest of the themers, but it's also one that rings just slightly out of tune for me, as clued. DADAISM is the movement, not the art itself. I was expecting an actual work of "art" (the way "THIS OLD MAN" was an actual "song"). I know I'm splitting hairs, there, but missing by an inch can sometimes feel worse than missing by a mile. That second "A" in DADAISM was my last square (because quote unquote supermodels, ugh, my Kryptonite (63D: Supermodel Delevingne)***—that clue is Irene CARA erasure! (RIP, crossword legend)). Also, is "Pop wisdom" a thing people say? "Pop psychology," I've heard. "Popular wisdom," I've heard—but not with the "popular" abbreviated. Actually, I think I've heard "conventional wisdom" way (way) more than "popular wisdom." Again, off by an inch, but off nonetheless. Anyway, if you love this kind of humor, this puzzle is for you, and if not, not. For me, not. 


Do people still know the song "THIS OLD MAN"? How the hell do I even know it? Where is it from? It's just ... there, in my head, murkily, from times of yore (for me, the '70s), but ... is it a nursery rhyme? I completely forget the context. It feels vaguely related to "This Little Piggie," which is not (as far as I know) a "song." According to wikipedia, it's a "children's song, counting exercise, folk song, and nursery rhyme" all rolled into one. But what is a "knick-knack paddywhack!?" Hang on ... Wow ... talk about things I semi-regret looking up:

In the meat industry, the nuchal ligament is referred to as paddywhack (also spelled pandywack; also called back strap or paxwax). ["The nuchal ligament is a ligament at the back of the neck that is continuous with the supraspinous ligament."]

The word is mentioned in a dictionary of South-west Lincolnshire dialect as a synonym of paxwax (originally faxwaxOld English compound of "hair" + "to grow"). Hence, paddywack has been in use with this meaning since at least 1886.

Dried paddywhack is commonly packaged and sold as a dog treat, hence the phrase, "Knick-knack, paddywhack, give the dog a bone" in the nursery rhyme, This Old Man [citation needed]. Paddywack is unpalatable as a human food because it cannot be softened or tenderised, but it makes a good natural dog chew. It is classed as offal by the meat industry. (wikipedia)

And here I thought a "paddywhack" was something more like ... well, a LOVE TAP, to be honest. You know, when someone whacks you on your ... paddy? A paddywhack. So much nicer that way. Nicer than offal, anyway. But now you know. You also now know the terms NUCHAL and PAXWAX, so now you'll be prepared when they show up in your crossword on the 5th of Never.


Probably the worst thing in the grid today is OP-DOCS, both because it's inherently ugly as a name (just say it over and over, you'll see) and (more so) because it's such grotesque NYT self-promotion (33A: Nonfiction films with an editorial viewpoint, in a New York Times series). Do puzzles get preferential treatment if they hawk NYT proprietary content, like "THE DAILY" (which appeared recently) or whatever these OP-DOCS are? I'd sooner watch a Doc Ock doc or a reality show called "Top Docs" than watch something called OP-DOCS. Actually, that's not true. I'm sure they're fine little documentaries—it's just that putting NYT-specific content in grids you submit to the NYT feels a little like kissing up. Luckily, the OP part was crossed fairly, though I struggled a bit in that area because I confidently wrote in FINNA at 27A: Planning to, informally (GONNA). I was like "ha, thought you were gonna get me with your slang, did you? thought I didn't know FINNA, eh? well guess what, I do know it, so joke's on you, puzzle!" But no. Joke's on me.


Additional notes:
  • 59A: There and back, perhaps (LAP) — my first thought was "that is not how LAPs work." Then I remembered swimming. Also, The Hobbit (which is officially titled The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again, though I don't remember any swimming) (here's a reddit post on Hobbits and swimming, knock yourself out).
  • 30A: The U.S. is its southernmost member (NATO) — read this as "southernmost neighbor" and was baffled. Had the "N" and was like "... NDAK?"
  • 45D: One of two in "business suits" (SILENT "I") — the puzzle doesn't usually telegraph its letteral clues like this. By putting quotation marks around "business suits," the clue pretty much tells you "we're talking about the words 'business' and 'suits,' not the suits themselves." Kinda takes the fun out of the misdirection. Which is to say, kinda takes the misdirection out entirely. For real misdirection, see 9D: Demos for democracy, e.g. (ROOT WORD), where the fact that "Demos" is a Greek word is not visually indicated (by quotation marks or italics or anything). This makes things awkward, since "Demos" is also an English word (although I don't know why you'd do demonstrations (or demolitions) for democracy).
  • 56D: Elizabeth with millions of made-up customers (ARDEN) — I saw right through the pun here, but still laughed harder at this than I did at any of the dad puns. Which is to say, I laughed. "Made-up" here refers to make-up, not the fact that her customers are imaginary.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

***CARA Delevingne, besides being a "supermodel," is apparently an accomplished actress and musician and is generally Enormously famous, a fact I've just somehow missed. Second season cast of The Only Murders in the Building? Sally Bowles in Cabaret in London? Backing vocals on St. Vincent and Fiona Apple tracks!? LGBTQ icon? Young adult novelist? Man, she works. I got tired just reading her bio. Anyway, she may be the biggest pop culture blindspot I've ever had. "Supermodel" doesn't begin to do her justice.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

104 comments:

  1. Hal90006:06 AM

    I guess it’s a wavelength thing but this old dad enjoyed the puzzle. Got a serious “whoosh” going and finished in record time. Chuckled at the dad jokes and weren’t any more put off by crosswordese fill than I normally am. Fun Wednesday for me but I can see how YMMV.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:13 AM

    I'm surprised to see this rated as medium when I found it easier than most recently. But to each their own! I thought the theme was cute and enjoyed realising how it worked (early on, which made the rest of the theme answers easy... relatively.)

    I also thought the three-letter fill was of a higher standard than I've come to expect. Only a couple of those answers were beyond me (SOU and OPI) - the rest were perfectly cromulent words, abbreviations, and initialisms. A friendly puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Is the i in 'business' silent? I don't think so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:41 AM

      I think so — that word is pronounced like "biz-ness", so the u has a short i sound, and the i is silent.

      Delete
  4. EasyEd6:38 AM

    I enjoyed this puzzle and its play on DADJOKEs. Of all things I got hung up on MOE, and initially dropped in PArental instead of PATERNITY to start that answer, so was slow to get going at the top. For the rest, a combination of intuition (such as GONNA) and crosses worked just fine.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I’m with Rex that the theme is a little light on both style and substance. As accomplished as the lady may be, unfortunately I’ve never heard of Ms. Cara and my brain refused to cooperate with DADAISM being “Pop art” - I know we all need a touch of the “willing suspension of disbelief” occasionally to allow the clues to work, but to my ear, if DADAISM were in fact pop art, it would be called “pop art”.

    I also agree with the big guy that there must be a hundred different ways to clue “LOVE TAP” without resorting to car crashes - I’ll count that one as a ding against the editors, who should have a better ear for that kind of thing. This grid was ok, but I felt like it was done in by a lackluster (at best) theme.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:30 PM

      Southside Johnny
      DADAISM
      I think this one works fine. The gimmick has nothing to do with with what Dadaism means. Or Pop Art for that matter. That fact is signaled by the? The gimmick is just using 2 of the many words that refer to the male parent The second word in the clue hints that the answer has something to do with art.
      Rex pointed out that Dadaism was also a movement, not just about art. But I thought close enough for crosswords.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous6:53 AM

    Oof, one of the hardest Wednesdays in a long time for me. Like Rex, confidently had fiNNA planted for a long time and refused to erase it; never caught on to the “business suits” gag and so had to use every cross to get what ended up being a meaningless answer to me until I got here (I hate those word clues, I never catch onto them); and for whatever reason contest winners being chosen AT RANDOM really bothered me. I get it, like a raffle or something, but to me the word “contest” connotes some kind of, well contest, like people vying for something and having to complete a task better than others. A pie eating contest, whoever eats the most wins. A staring contest, whoever blinks first loses. Just bugs me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:35 PM

      Anonymous 6:53AM
      At random. It is a little off. But this is a puzzle and clues are hints. So I thought it worked

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:44 PM

      Probably should have read “how contestants might be chosen”, not winners

      Delete
  7. Anonymous7:16 AM

    What’s op doc?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:32 PM

      Anonymous 7:16AM
      Rex explains it. A NY Times brand.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9:20 PM

      Nothing much what’s op with you?

      Delete
  8. DavidF7:18 AM

    As a dad who loves dad jokes (much to the chagrin of my family), I appreciated this puzzle, but I can definitely see where some might not. Even some of the non-theme clues were dad jokes of a sort (the "made-up customers" comes to mind).

    @Rick, yes, the "i" in BUSINESS is silent. It's a two-syllable word: BIZ-ness.

    Unless, of course, you're talking about the state of being busy, in which case it is a three-syllable word: BIZ-ee-ness. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:21 AM

      If you had to pick a silent vowel in the first have of BUSINESS, surely you’d be closer to choosing a silent U?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous 10:12 AM
      But the syllable is not silent. Similar to women, which is not a one syllable word! They just have an irregular pronunciation.

      Delete
  9. Played like a Tuesday overall, with only OPDOCS giving any trouble.

    SW corner is pretty junky with SOU, ACTS BAD, IDYL, and OUT TRAY (it's "out box" in my world).

    Surprised both DAD and DADA were allowed as themers, given the NYTXW's inviolable policy against duplications in the grid.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:50 PM

      Kitshef
      About DAD and DADA
      Rex has been complaining for a while about dupes, as have many commentators, so the Times has trashed that “rule”.
      But a dupe in the theme is something new
      The editors would probably argue that DADA is a baby’s first word (often) and is different from DAD. Also DADAISM refers to meaningless sounds, not dads. Still by many here, it is still considered a dupe. I was surprised Rex didn’t mention it!
      Dupes don’t bother me though.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:58 PM

      Shouldnt it be ACTS BADly anyways? That one bugged me

      Delete
  10. Anonymous7:26 AM

    16A could have been clued simply “(A) Stooge”. Admitting to knowing every episode, I want a citation for the quote in the clue. Moe’s catchphrase, as my dad (relevant to today’s theme!) would often humorously quote, was (elongated for effect), “why, you”.

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  11. Could have gone wackier with the jokes - but overall a decent midweek offering. Compressed grid layout - like kicking things off with the revealer at 1a and follow up at 23a.

    Lake Marie

    IDEA MAP, WAYSIDE, INERTIA etc are all solid. Some oddball short glue that Rex highlights - but a smooth path for me at least. Misdirect with IRONING is cute.

    Enjoyable Wednesday morning solve.

    Linden ARDEN

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  12. I've seen it a thousand times in crosswords but somehow I always need all the crosses for OPI.

    Otherwise, pretty much what @Hal9000 said.

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  13. Well, this was sweet, cute, fun, and clever in how non-dad common phrases were given a dad spin. But it just didn’t feel Simeon-y to me. I love his puzzles for their how-did-he-think-of-that-and-pull-it-off themes. This seemed too conventional for him.

    So, when I saw in his notes that the concept he sent into the Times had a tricky gimmick, revealed in the last across answer, suddenly things felt right in the world. But now I want to know what that tricky gimmick was. Simeon! Simeon! Will you please chime in here???

    Oh, I adored the clue – [Demos for democracy, e.g.]. And this puzzle reminded me of my dad, who was not a dad joke teller per se; in fact, he didn’t abide dad jokes very well. But he continually came out with such funny non-dad-joke lines.

    One example. He was a nonapologetic carnivore; barbecued steaks were regularly on the dinner rotation. He loved his meat. He lived for it. So, when I told him that vegetarians live longer than meat eaters, his face screwed up in bewilderment, and then, after a beat, he said, “Maybe it just SEEMS longer.”

    Thank you, Simeon, for a lovely time in the box today!

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  14. Anonymous7:39 AM

    You're missing nothing with your Cara blindspot, trust me. Just because someone works, doesn't mean someone/it is good.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Bob Mills7:50 AM

    Finished it with one cheat. I had "ideamat" crossing "ethron" before I got EPHRON from the Internet. As a Dad, I appreciated the many paternal references.

    I thought the puzzle had a preponderance of misdirect clues, but they weren't unmanageable. Kudos to the constructor.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Casey KASEM: “this special Father’s Day request is coming from Wilmington, Delaware.”

    Send Lawyers Guns and Money, Dad get me out of this!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm with @Lewis in having had a Dad who told jokes but his were really Dad jokes before the term existed. He would always look at a Winding Road sign, for instance, and pronounce it as win-ding, which worked OK if you were a young enough kid. So Dad jokes don't bother me. Don't ask my boys if I'm ever guilty of overuse of this genre.

    I'm so clever that I saw the clue about a "crudite go-with an congratulated myself for instantly plopping in VIN, which at least gave me the I for IDEAMAP, but was otherwise useless.

    Didn't know OPDOCS or Ms. CARA but that was about it. Knew KYLO but wanted to spell it with an I, which made as much sense as anything for a lead-in to ENSIGN. Thought the DADAISM answer was going to be a dupe but I'll give it a pass as DAD and DADA both mean father.

    And SOU? Essential crosswordese. For newer solvers, its name is SOU. How do you do?

    Nice enough Wednesdecito, SS. Some Smiles along the way, which is good enough for me. Thanks for all the fun.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous8:28 AM

    "LOVE TAP" was often in the Midwest as a gentle nudge of the car in front of you to get them to move... back when bumpers were just that. Got it with a chuckle on the first go! 😂

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous8:28 AM

    Glad I wasn’t the only one to write FINNA and never look back. Has that been in a Times crossword yet?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous8:29 AM

    I immediately saw what was going on since I remembered the axact same clue-answer pair [Pop corn?] - DADJOKE from a Saturday puzzle.

    KIDVID appeared in a 1973 grid? I thought it was a super-modern term as well as a debut answer.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous8:43 AM

    Listen to the marvelous Michael Hordern as Marley's Ghost in the classic 1951 film Scrooge with Alastair Sim as he clearly says three syllables in "...mankind was my BUS-I-NESS...!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:01 PM

      Anonymous 8:43 AM
      Yes sometimes in the innumerable times it has been pronounced during its existence, business may be pronounced as 3 syllables. But at least 99.9% of the time it is a 2 syllable word! More than close enough for crosswords.

      Delete
  22. Hey All !
    Constructor had a left over 10 after coming up with the Themers, so Simeon decided to plunk it in the center, requiring puz to go to 16 wide to get an even number answer in the middle. Bold move putting Themers as the First Across (and symmetrically) the last Across. And ended up with clean fill in both NE and SW corners, with most answers in those corners having to go through two Themers. So bravo on that.

    Another FunRex today, if you haven't read him today or YesterComments, highly recommend doing so

    I liked the POP of today's puz. Neat idea, handled well. Would've liked a clue with something about bees for KNEES. Very light on junk. I'm sure some will complain about not only having to do math, but having to do it Roman Numerally. Har

    THIS OLD MAN bids you a Happy Wednesday!

    One F
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh, two things. Got QB YesterBee! Apparently, it was an easy one! 😁
    And how about today's Connections? Holy moly, I crashed and burned on it.

    RooMonster Just When I Think The Ole Brain Is OK Guy

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wonderfully clever wordplay and an absolutely terrific puzzle idea extremely well executed. I also had to work my tail off to finish it, finding it much harder than most Wednesdays. Not knowing KASEM and KYLO didn't help. And please don't tell me they've appeared before. I'm sure they POP up regularly -- but that doesn't mean I'll ever remember them.

    My biggest stumbling block was writing in D?N? for the small scratch, which I "knew" was either DING or DENT. Not thinking of NICK meant that I had NSA instead of CIA for the Snoopy group. Don't ask.

    But I got DADAISM with no crosses and patted myself on both shoulders for picking up that great pun on my own. I haven't read the Constructor Notes yet, but I'll bet my bottom dollar that DADAISM was the original inspiration behind the puzzle. All the themers are really good, but that one's the funniest and the cleverest.

    Wonderful puzzle, Simeon! I imagine you dreaming up all the theme entries and tucking them into the IDEA MAP you keep under your pillow -- shouting a chorus of "Yessssses!" and "Eurekas!" when you saw that all the symmetry would actually work.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This was one of my favorite puzzles in recent memory. So many of the clues were super clever and where Rex groaned, I chuckled.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Other than briefly struggling for a 4 letter island ending in A that's not cubA (and wondering how the Dutch being there was unknown to me) this one fell in very nicely until "there and back, perhaps" being a LAP. Just couldn't see that 'P' (or "YEP", with YEs easily being informal agreement in my mind. DADJOKES are in abundance in this Dad's place and I enjoyed the Father's Day connection even if the timing's a little off. It should be Father's Week anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  27. ACTS BAD is an ugly answer

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  28. I mostly sailed through the NE, from KYLO to GATSBY and back. But with so very many DEMOS going on these days, I really thought, yeah, DEMOcracy could use some help too. For a longish time, I was sure it was some kind of political organizing I’d never heard of, like ROOTWORK or something. Great job on that misdirection, puzzle!

    MINDMAP was confidently put down early, and stalled me in the NW for a while, until I reluctantly accepted the obvious DIP had to be right.

    LOVETAP and NICK right beside each other kind of had me for a while. Why, oh, why did I read the PADDYWHACK part of the column?

    Fun puzzle, and just right for a Wednesday

    ReplyDelete
  29. Tom T9:31 AM

    Here’s a clue to my HDW (Hidden Diagonal Word) of the day: Four letter dirty word?
    (Answer below)
    Also, if you have a YEN for some YEN, the first N in 12D (YENSIGN) is the last letter in a Hidden Diagonal YEN.
    And there’s also a secret Hidden Diagonal CIA hovering above and to the left of the clued CIA (50D).


    Answer to today’s HDW clue, Four letter dirty word?

    LOAM (Begins with the L in 59A, LAP, and moves up toward the NW)

    ReplyDelete
  30. I forgot to mention the "millions of made-up customers" clue which was fabulous, I thought.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Perfect pop quiz after a few days off from puzzling. A little challenge and a lot of fun. As for the timeliness of a “holiday“ crossword, I think this is just fine. It’s Wednesday level and the occasion is close enough.

    Here’s wishing every DAD here a Father’s Day filled with all your favorite things. And of course, that includes the DOG dads which is the only kind of KID that I ever agree to SIT.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Good theme, well presented. Enough crunch and sparkle. But why did it require 24 grid-clogging threes? Someone said they were good. I just looked them over. III was the only fresh one.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Niallhost10:10 AM

    Am I the only one who continually spells KASEM and ORK as cASEM and ORc? I don't know my mental block there but the struggle is real. Also confidently wrote in reiner instead of EPHRON for the "Sleepless in Seattle" director. Seems like it should be him. But I knew her well so no biggie. Agree that the ACTS BAD answer is grammatically bad. See what I did there? Never heard of finna before so had no idea that was an option for the GONNA answer. Overall a pleasant Wednesday solve. 14:46

    ReplyDelete
  34. Best comments - Nancy and Lewis (I could be his dad!)

    ReplyDelete
  35. So I went and read the Constructor's Note. Not only wasn't it Simeon's initial inspiration behind the theme; it wasn't even Simeon's own theme answer -- it was the Times's.

    Not that I expect anyone to take up a collection for me, but I think I just lost my bottom dollar.

    ReplyDelete
  36. This puzzle is the baked Alaska of crosswords. It ran hot and cold, spicy and sweet, flamboyant and dull, terrific and terrible, hilarious and OMG. My kinda adventure. I give it an A+/See me.

    Every year in my guitar orchestra we don't meet for rehearsal on Mother's Day because it's a day when every one has plans. This year when I asked about Father's Day nobody has plans and most of the dads said guitar rehearsal was the plan. We probably should step it up for pops.

    We've had a long discussion here about the difference between a vegetable platter with ranch and blue cheese versus a crudité, and I maintain the only difference is people who listen to NPR will be at the party.

    Ug: OPDOCS 😕. LX÷XX 😫. OUT TRAY 😢. The clues for NSA and KNEES 🙄. IVANA (anywhere ever) 🤨.

    Propers: 9
    Places: 2
    Products: 2
    Partials: 8
    Foreignisms: 4
    --
    Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 25 (32%)
    Funnyisms: 7 😂

    Tee-Hee: My IDYL to a LOVE TAP would poetically describe my experiences in the DEEP END with an [unfastened] BRA.

    Uniclues:

    1 The Rex Parker blog.
    2 A Roman pole dancer's third job.
    3 How we found someplace to sleep on road trips in the 1970s.
    4 Community theaters around the globe.

    1 PEEVISH NONSENSE
    2 ACTS BAD LAP III
    3 AT RANDOM VACANCY
    4 EPHRON SANDLOTS

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Sticky situations. BUBBLEGUM SOFAS.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
  37. This went faster for me than yesterday.

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  38. Anonymous10:23 AM

    Great puzzle! Dad jokes, regardless of groaniness, deserve honor and respect this week.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Got a meeting in 3 minutes, so I'll be back later. But -- crudite in the singular? I don't think it's possible. Crudites are mixed raw vegetables; you extract one of them and it's no longer mixed, simply a piece of celery, carror, or a broccoli floret.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Anonymous10:33 AM

    Rex.....musing about 'This old man' from the 1970's. Were you a fan of Columbo? It is the tune that the lieutenant whistles at times throughout the series. Usually offered while walking away from a discussion with the culprit that ended after multiple "one more things".

    ReplyDelete
  41. Robert Nola10:35 AM

    What happened to the sailors when the boat carrying red paint collided with the boat carrying blue paint?

    They were marooned.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Good gravy, now I can't get Knick Knack Paddywack out of my head. My grandmother taught me all kinds of English songs and this was one of them. You start with thumb and I forget what you end up with.

    The puzzle....An adventure in trying to find some popisms. You start me off with a DAD JOKE Pop corn and you get my attention. I can't remember if my Dad did any of them but he did teach me how to drive when I was about 7 and he was bigger than life to me. I was the second oldest of five and a bit of a tomboy from hell. He liked that......Knick Knack.

    So I'm happy this is about dads but a frown around my brow with the names, names and names. At the start you have KASEM and EPHRON and KYLO and a little LOST DOG that needed his Paddywack. I was able to figure you out.... GATSBY! You'r a Long Islander? I was thinking of some sort of drink. I got you, though...all because of an OMG and a BRA. NOIRE et Blanche is pretty famous but ay CARA mia, who are you?

    THIS OLD man...he played a one and a thumb.....Two thumbs up for me.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Robert Nola10:41 AM

    What does the farmer use to count his chickens?


    A cackle-ater.

    Thanks Dad

    ReplyDelete
  44. I, too, Lewis (7:31) am curious to know what Simeon's original Thursday trick-theme version of this puzzle was. I loved this one a lot, but maybe I would have liked the original version even more? I guess constructors are never supposed to pull the curtain back to show how the sausage was made, but I am curious.

    If I had an email relationship with Simeon, I'd just ask him off-blog.

    ReplyDelete
  45. FWIW: I still teach This Old Man in Level 2 guitar because of the delightful three chords in three beats turnaround.

    This Old Man PDF

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:08 PM

      This Old Man is also the title of a memoir by the late masterful sportswriter Roger Angel. Also a Dad btw

      Delete
  46. Liked the theme, but chuckled more at ONE SET. I GOT the JOKE, NYT. Will it go on indefinitely?

    Liked that the LOST DOG was symmetrically LOCATED.

    I do not like SILENT I. Blech. Thought at first the “business suits” would involve a courtroom. And no, the I is not entirely silent in business. Not in Miss’ippi, anyway.

    I do like YAMs but I wanted an EAR (more corn) for the “Thanksgiving serving.” Thought “serving” indicated an amount.

    OFL’s paddywhack riff reminded me why I got hooked on this blog. Sure, he’s funny and has great insights into the puzzles, but I LOVE his WAYSIDE SAFARIs. “This Old Man” is such a classic and yet how many of us knew what a paddywhack was? Not I. Thanks, @Rex.

    @Tom T, are those abutting YENs conflicting desires?

    @Lewis, maybe a contest to figure out what the tricky gimmick was…

    ReplyDelete
  47. On the tough side of medium for me. PEckISH before PEEVISH required a bit of staring to fix. Also ding before NICK and skip (briefly) before OMIT.

    Add me to those who did not know OP DOCS, NOIRE, and CARA.

    Clever, amusing, and the theme was helpful with the solve, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did.

    ReplyDelete
  48. I made up a little song for those who don't like IDEAMAPS. I call it "My Back Pages" and it goes something like this:

    Crimson flames tied through my ears
    Rolling high and mighty traps
    Pounced with fire on flaming roads
    Using ideas as my maps
    "We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
    Proud 'neath heated brow

    But I doubt that anyone will like it. Come to think of it, you might do a crossword where the themers "meet on edges." Nah.

    Soda pop = DADSROOTBEER

    I feel that I can speak with some authority about Dad jokes, and this was eye-popper of a puzzle. Thanks, Simeon Seigel.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @egsforbreakfast 10:57 AM
      You do NOT "speak with some authority about Dad jokes" -- I believe you ARE the authority.

      Delete
  49. Anonymous10:57 AM

    I confidently filled in bADJOKE and mATERNITYTEST before I grasped the theme. After FATHERLYADVICE I thought “oh, the theme is family relationships.” Got there eventually.

    ReplyDelete
  50. I loved the introductory flourish of DAD JOKE being a regular answer as well as an announcement of the theme. After that, PATERNITY TESTS was easy, but a needed crosses for the rest...especially for the final DADAISM, which I thought was a stroke of DAD JOKE genius. Also liked NICK (Carraway) LOCATED by his Long Island neighbor Jay GATSBY, and enjoyed writing in ROOTWORD and SANDLOTS. Can DAD JOKES count as witty? I thought this puzzle was.

    ReplyDelete
  51. I’m still getting used to being a Doggie Daddy (TM Hanna-Barbera)

    Diva broke our unwritten covenant of not waking Ambien Daddy in the middle of the night.

    But she had had a late dinner and was clearly agitated so I got dressed and her leashed and lifted her off the bed and we schlepped down the endless corridor, then down the elevator yet another time and finally trekked to her Designated Defecation Destination at 1 am.

    Where she peed for maybe 3 seconds, then stood and stared at me for 5-10 minutes.

    I gave up and took her back upstairs, where she ran to the water bowl.

    Turns out she was thirsty. All that, and turns out she just wanted a drink of water.

    To paraphrase Joni Mitchell, I really don’t know dogs at all…

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @andrew 11:44 AM
      Love this. We have ended up with my mother-in-law's 14 year old dog, and we're up and down the elevator five times a day plus the occasional 2 am run for no apparent reason. Two weeks ago, we had a tummy ache that made death look imminent, and $2200 worth of x-rays and blood tests were inconclusive. She was fine one day later. No explanation. Sometimes I wish she was a LOST DOG, but then I look at her sleeping and I'm glad we have the honor of being her people.

      Delete
  52. Anonymous12:05 PM

    Fun puzzle! Nice write up Gary, Uniclue #1 ROTF LMAO! Signed, Dad

    ReplyDelete
  53. old timer12:12 PM

    Is there a kid, or a dad, anywhere who doesn't know "this old man"? You know, who played knick-knack on his thumb? It's a fun song to sing to a very small child. And potentially an "again, Daddy" song because: "This old man, he played ten, he played knick-knack once again!"

    ReplyDelete
  54. Kinda corny which, of course, that's what Dad Jokes are - but fun. I didn't know OP DOCS but had a good time figuring it out.

    Happy Father's Day in advance to all Dads out there.

    Very cute 1 am tale @Andrew. You'll get used to it. I do believe Miss Diva is mellowing you out - I hope you don't mind my observation not knowing you at all except for your comments here. These little ones really are a Godsend :). I miss mine :(

    ReplyDelete
  55. OK, that meeting was shorter than I'd expected. And we didn't do an IDEA MAP, but I have sort of an idea what they are--after all the brainstorming you draw circles and arrows on your flipchart tablet, or the whiteboard, until the whole thing is a nearly-illegible hash of marks, which some people interpret somehow to mean something. It's got some vague relationship to a word cloud.

    Anyway, I enjoyed this one. Still groggy from our drive home from Evanston, arriving about midnight. The trip was great, but we drove the last 5 hours barely stopping, and we were so tired we had to sit down and share a bottle of wine instead of going to bed immediately.

    My wife and I discussed the silent I question. I claim that the I triggers a very short but detectible break between the Z sound and the N sound; she denies it. It's not as clearcut as the H in what or the g in length, but it's there. But I guess the silent label is defensible, as well.

    @Southside, DADAISM is not pop art, but it is art with a syllable for dad (in this case DADA) in it; that's how the theme works.

    And DADA as a form of art is not a duplicate of DAD at all; not even pronounced similarly, with different vowel sounds.

    @Gary, I hear you. My ex-wife used to organize our kids for father's day; since our divorce, nothing happens.

    ReplyDelete
  56. Anonymous12:25 PM

    I've never liked the term "DAD JOKE". My dad was a punster who infected both me and my sister with the disease. Now, she's more of a punster than I, and her daughter has a trace of the trait. My sister is not a dad, and my niece's dad was not a punster. [I had to correct Autocorrect's correction of each "punster" except this one. Some punters are dads, of course. Perhaps Autocorrect's dad was a kicker?]

    Nice to see Man Ray and DADAISM here (although Man Ray wasn't a dad).

    ReplyDelete
  57. {Pop star?} = GRANDPA … Fun & funny puztheme.

    staff weeject pick: ATE - Its dad joke clue raises it to the top of the 26-deep heap.

    {Pop duo?} = MAANDPA.
    {Pop tunes?} = DADAMUSIC.
    {Pop fly catcher?} = DADDYLONGLEGS.
    {Pop gun?} = ZAPPA.
    {Pop medium?} = DADO.
    OK, yeah … things are startin to get kinda des-pa-rate. Sure do wish @Muse darlin was here, to dream some more of these pops up.

    M&A no-know list: OPDOCS. CARA.
    some fave stuff: IDEAMAP. EPHRON. ROOTWORD and its clue. LOVETAP. ATRANDOM. INERTIA.
    Also, ONESET [see runtpuz for more]

    Thanx for the fun, Mr. Seigel dude. Nice job.

    Masked & Anonymo1U(s)


    as promised …
    **gruntz**

    ReplyDelete
  58. To DIP into some trivia: Of the 6 men in the fill -- Mork (by reference), KYLO, MOE, GATSBY, BEN Bradlee and Casey KASEM -- only KYLO and GATSBY weren't dads.

    BTW, I looked for some bread in the fill, but found NAAN. Now I YAM full.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Anonymous1:01 PM

    it was not that long ago i finally got interested enough to read a bunch of articles, and then watch the documentary and the movie about elizabeth holmes of theranos fame [infamy?] so...i really wanted HOLMES where ARDEN went. given the crosses, and moreover the fact that it's too many letters, i had to let go of that idea quickly. but i still didn't know what the clue was referring to, as even though elizabeth arden has apparently stuck in my brain somewhere along the way, i thought it was some kind of women's clothing store or perfume or something. grateful the writeup today let me in on the joke that went over my head :)

    -stephanie.

    ReplyDelete
  60. I often have POPCORN for a nighttime snack and did so last night before solving this puzzle. So I got off to a good start with the POP CORN misdirection. This pattern continued, to a lesser degree I think, with PATERNITY TESTS for "Pop quizzes". (It's also the only theme entry that needed help from a plural of convenience (POC) to fill its slot.)

    The misdirection twist seemed to end there. The next three, THIS OLD MAN, FATHERLY ADVICE and DADAISM, were just straight up "song", "wisdom" and "art". Fell flat for me those three.

    The SILENT letter schtick seems to come up every other puzzle. Often, as with today, I'm not 100% convinced the alleged SILENT letter is really SILENT. If it is truly SILENT, it could just be removed from a word and that word would still sound the same, right? So if you came across "busness" or "suts" in a word list, how would you pronounce them? I would say that the "i" changes "bus" to "biz" and "suts" to "soots". Just because the individual letter is not sounded doesn't mean it is SILENT; it can still affect how a word is pronounced. Kind of a diphthong like effect I would say. (Although I think the first "h" in "diphthong" is truly SILENT.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anoa Bob
      I do have to disagree with your diphthong comment. Business is actually an English word without a diphthong. As in “is”.
      I don’t know the origin of the irregular spelling of busy and also busyness and business. But English spelling is a complicated thing. As made clear by the other 2 words, the i in business has nothing to do with the pronunciation of the first letter. And for most English speakers most of the time it is clearly a 2 syllable word. Sometimes for emphasis business may be strung out. While accents do vary as A said above, we are talking most English speakers here. Also in English spelling and diphthongs are not the same thing. The way we pronounce the vowels when we recite the alphabet: diphthongs all.
      BTW you mentioned something similar (last week? ) about fruit. The vowel sound in fruit and boot is not a diphthong Fruit is spelled ui only because we imported the word as is from the French. It actually has little to do with English spelling conventions.

      Delete
  61. Anonymous1:22 PM

    This is old man was used to add even more quirk to the Lt. Colombo character. He hummed or mutters it in many, many episodes.
    And before I get flamed, the average age of posters here makes it well within their purview. Besides, it’s in syndication on a couple of channels.

    ReplyDelete
  62. As soon as I figured out the answer was OP DOCS, I thought: gee, that sounds the same as a POV Doc. So basically the NYT created a brand name for it. I remember the PBS series "POV"; here is their commentary about OP DOCS from 2015.

    Only a few typeovers: SHALLOW before DEEP END, DING before DINT before NICK, and NSA before CIA but then it appeared for real a few squares away.

    [Spelling Bee: Mon and Tue 0; Sun -1, missing this 6er which I don't think I've ever seen in print. I have definitely seen this word which is evidently a variant, and had it rejected several times. Streak ended at 13.]

    ReplyDelete
  63. Appropriately enough, the song This Old Man is the subject of a particularly long and involved dad joke. Thanks to the Math Department of Texas Tech University(!) for posting a version online so I didn't need to type out the whole thing.


    "A frog goes into a bank and approaches the teller. He can see from her nameplate that the teller's name is Patricia Whack. So he says, "Ms. Whack, I'd like to get a loan to buy a boat and go on a long vacation."

    Patti looks at the frog in disbelief and asks how much he wants to borrow.

    The frog says $30,000.

    The teller asks his name and the frog says that his name is Kermit Jagger and that it's OK, he knows the bank manager.

    Patti explains that $30,000 is a substantial amount of money and that he will need to secure some collateral against the loan. She asks if he has anything he can use as collateral.

    The frog says, "Sure. I have this," and produces a tiny pink porcelain elephant, about half an inch tall and bright pink.

    Very confused, Patti explains that she'll have to consult with the manager and disappears into a back office.

    She finds the manager and says "There's a frog called Kermit Jagger out there who claims to know you and wants to borrow $30,000. He wants to use this as collateral." She holds up the tiny pink elephant. "I mean, what the heck is this?"

    The bank manager looks back at her and says: "It's a knick knack, Patti Whack. Give the frog a loan. His old man's a Rolling Stone"

    ReplyDelete
  64. @Adam S 1:27. You made my day! I'm still laughing......

    ReplyDelete
  65. Hah, Rex, Nuchal and Paxwax, the tuckets of the meat-packing industry.

    My Dad tended to tell dirty jokes so Dad Joke for me is not usually punnish.

    A hold-up in the SE due to not knowing CARA; the SILENT I created a dam and I couldn't get past KID lIt. I even tried to put in lACuNAE in the "opening" spot even though the clue didn't want a plural. I cleaned it all up but it was touch and go for a moment.

    Thanks, Simeon Seigel, I like the tribute to Dad, even if early.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Anonymous2:11 PM

    Clue: Pop rocks
    Answer: TESTICLES

    ReplyDelete
  67. Didn't like "TV" in clue (51D) and answers (28D)

    ReplyDelete
  68. Breakfast Tester2:56 PM



    Kealoa at 29D: Back issue

    I quickly wrote in ACnE and it slowed me down figuring out 39A for a little too long.

    🙃

    ReplyDelete
  69. Saw Pop corn at 1A and said "oh no". IDEAMAP at 15A made me think about all those interminable meetings with ambitious editors at the newspaper with their power ties and faux leather-clad note pads. Wish I'd retired earlier. Big fan of Man Ray (52A) and DADAISM (73A) so those two made me smile.

    Toughest, and best, clue had to be "Demos for democracy, e.g." for ROOTWORD (9D). Second fave was 56D, the made up customers of Elizabeth ARDEN.

    Where does the term SANDLOT come from? When we improvised a ball game as kids, it was usually on a large patch of grass.

    And when I say I mean business, I use 3 syllables. No silent I.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:36 PM

      Les S. More
      Sandlot apparently comes from cities back in the late 19th and early 20th century when there wasn’t much public recreation areas in crowded cities. I looked it up and the term was in widespread use for amateur teams of usually working class men who developed an informal adult equivalent of little leagues with much popularity within cities.

      Delete
  70. @Teedmn

    I,too, tried lacunae before noticing it was not a plural. Just like that word.

    ReplyDelete
  71. @jb129 12:24

    I’ve definitely become - not kinder, gentler (GHWBush used the term cynically, based on his subsequent policies) but softer and more emotional.

    When Diva came here 5 weeks ago, the one time she snapped at me was when I accidentally touched the most severe of her many puncture wounds. When I was brushing her today, saw that not only had all her wounds healed, the scars were no longer visible. Incredible.

    Was listening to Elvis Costello’s Battered Old Bird, which made me think of her homeless plight 3 months ago - “(s)he’s a battered old bird, and (s)he’s living out there alone”.

    Made me cry. Sudden emotion caught me by surprise. As Seinfeld said, “what is this salty discharge? This is horrible - I CARE!”

    Never really understood the specialness of a rescue pet before. I think I do now.

    Reminded me of Anne Lamont’s line in Traveling Mercies - “I’m a sucker for a resurrection story.”

    And Diva’s SO sweet and now so healthy - she really qualifies as one!

    ReplyDelete
  72. @GaryJugert 12:42

    Good on you for adopting the 14 year old. The very good son-in-law.

    They’re inconvenient (our record - so far - is 10 walks (20 elevator rides!) in a day. I used to walk the 5 stories down but when I experimented with Diva, she sat down after descending 2 floors.). They’re expensive (as you know).

    They can be inscrutable (though when I recall my 1 am story, she DID just look at the bowls before I took her out. I just thought she wanted more food. Never thought about water. D’OH!)

    But damn they add life!

    Most mornings, I still wake up thinking “why did I get a dog?” Then when she slithers over (she has a great army crawl!), I remember why…

    ReplyDelete
  73. Re regional pronunciation of "business"... it just struck me that for some people the first S is also silent: "bin-ess". Is it Texans?

    ReplyDelete
  74. @ Andrew - I'm glad you responded to my post about Miss Diva. My 2 babies, Chloe & Cinnamon changed my life when they entered it. Not to be maudlin, but they changed my life when they left it.
    The very best friends we'll ever have :)

    ReplyDelete
  75. KennyMitts6:08 PM

    No one should be disparaging OpDocs, as they produced the single greatest movie of all time: Ten Meter Tower. It’s only 17 minutes long and incredible, so I encourage everyone to check it out. If aliens landed on Earth and asked me to explain the human race, I’d show them Ten Meter Tower.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @KennyMitts 6:08 PM
      I don't know if I have ever clicked on a recommended link from this blog, but I did decide to go watch this on YouTube at your recommendation, and I believe you are right. It is 17 minutes of can't look away cinema capturing humanity at its finest. Thanks for the recommendation.

      Ten Meter Tower

      Delete
  76. Mickey Featherstone,6:16 PM

    Good book:

    Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster

    T.J. English

    ReplyDelete
  77. @dgf (5:03), I know that the "i" in "business" isn't a diphthong. I said it had a "Kind of a diphthong like effect". Maybe I should have said "diphthongesque effect". My point is that even though the individual sound of, here, "i" is lost if "business" is said with only two syllables, it still influences how the word is spoken/sounded. And as some others have commented, "business" can also sound perfectly in the language when said with three syllables. Either way, I think the alleged SILENT I is not completely SILENT.

    This SILENT letter of convenience appears so regularly that I think it needs its own acronym. I nominate SLOC. So we got another one of those infernal SLOCs in our puzzle today.

    ReplyDelete
  78. @jb129 6:05

    I was so devastated when my chihuahua Nacho was killed - a punctured lung by the rambunctious dog next door (whose owner refused to rein him in even after many previous scares) - that I didn’t think I could withstand another loss like that again. That was in 2012 and I still would lose sleep whenever I remembered that pained, piercing squeal as I took him to the animal hospital. Always felt guilty about putting him down but the cost was $6000 just to see if they could repair the lung and no guarantee he would survive.

    It wouldn't be the same for him or me so I opted to let him die peacefully after a great life that was brutally interrupted.

    In the short time I’ve had Diva, the pain of Nacho’s demise has been lifted. I have a new focus of attention in the here and now and dwelling on the then and there makes no sense.

    Don’t know your situation, but if you can, get a new fur-buddy, in Chloe and Cinnamon’s honor. Took me 12 years to do it, but it was what I needed to overcome the sorrow of such a profound loss.

    ReplyDelete
  79. "Holiday puzzles should be on (or at least immediately adjacent to) the holidays themselves, and this one feels a little too early, but that's not the problem."

    Well, Father's Day falls on a Sunday. And this felt like perfect Wednesday-level difficulty. So if it ran on Saturaday, rex would carp that's too easy. If it were on Monday, the complaint would be that it's too hard. I think the problem is that rex is rarely satisfied. Which is a shame, because today's puzzle was fresh and clever.

    ReplyDelete
  80. My fav dad joke (albeit very old): When does a joke become a dad joke? Answer: When it becomes apparent.
    My fav follow-up: I love telling dad jokes. Sometimes he laughs.
    Joke of the Day goes to @Adam S (1:26 PM).

    Fun puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  81. Anonymous8:53 PM

    Speaking of splitting hairs, I'd argue planning to isn't "gonna" but "wanna"

    ReplyDelete
  82. Purplepam11:34 PM

    This Old Man is from the Ingrid Bergman movie The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958).

    ReplyDelete
  83. Anonymous6:15 PM

    I know I’m late to the conversation and can’t read all the comments but did no one realize that LX is 60, and XX is 20 and 60 divided by 20/is 30! Not III or 3.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Burma Shave1:16 PM

    TAP OUT

    THISOLDMAN has ADVICE,
    REAL and NO NONSENSE –
    You LOST AT LOVE? NO dice.
    BAD PATERNITYTEST.

    --- NICK GATSBY III

    ReplyDelete
  85. 60/2 = 30. 60/20 = 3, or III. None of those I's are silent (grrr!)!

    Cute. A bit off the DEEPEND (DADJOKE: "Boxers or briefs?" DEPENDS.), but cute.

    Anything that links to my man Columbo is a plus for me. And right in the middle! Some fill is a little daffy (YENSIGN? A young officer in the Japanese navy?); not out box but OUTTRAY? How outre.

    Fun overall; stroke off for SILENTI. Par.

    Wordle par.

    ReplyDelete
  86. Anonymous3:57 PM

    Clever, enjoyable puzzle ruined by the atrocious SE mire.

    ReplyDelete