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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
- STORE FRONTS (22A: APP, CONVENIENCE, GENERAL, THRIFT?)
- SEASON OPENERS (32A: HOLIDAY, MONSOON, TAX, TOURIST?)
- TEAM LEADERS (40A: A-, DREAM, SWAT, TAG?)
- MOVIE PREMIERES (61A: B-, DATE, LIFETIME, SILENT?)
- ROCKET LAUNCHES (70A: BOOSTER, BOTTLE, HOUSTON, MODEL?)
- FRESH STARTS (85A: CERTIFIED, FUNKY, MINTY, POPPIN'?)
- NEW BEGINNINGS (95A: BRAND, LIKE, NOTHING, WHAT'S?)
- SHOWER HEADS (109A: BRIDAL, COLD, GATORADE, METEOR?)
Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia (Chinese: 林青霞; pinyin: Lín Qīngxiá; born 3 November 1954) is a Taiwanese actress. She is regarded as an icon of Chinese language cinema for her extensive and varied roles in both Taiwanese and Hong Kong films. [...] She appeared in 55 films in the period between 1972 and 1979, and all her roles were romantic heroines in love stories. She then left for the U.S. in 1979 for a year and a half, to study and relax. // Known for being a "screen goddess" by Chinese film lovers, Lin's early collaborations with Hong Kong New Wave directors Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and Jackie Chan in Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), The Other Side of Gentleman (1984), Police Story (1985) and Peking Opera Blues (1986) brought her success. In 1990, she won the Best Actress trophy at the 27th Golden Horse Awards for her depiction of a Chinese female writer who fell in love with a Japanese collaborator in Red Dust (1990). [...] At the height of her popularity, Lin was one of the most sought-after actresses in the Chinese film industry. She starred in more than 100 movies. Lin was credited for boosting Taiwan's film production in the 1970s before earning even greater popularity in Hong Kong in the 1990s, becoming a trans-island legend of her time. // She retired from acting in 1994. Her last acting role was in Ashes of Time (1994).
[Chungking Express (1994)]
• • •
Once again, the NYTXW is acting as a kind of advertisement for its own properties. First (and very recently) it included "THE DAILY," and then "OP-DOCS," as crossword answers, and now they're just using the crossword to plug their other games. It's a little tiresome, tbh, this constant self-promotion, although Wyna (today's co-constructor) is in charge of "Connections," so she's entitled, I guess. But I'm gonna pretend that the puzzle doesn't have the boring title "Connections" and has nothing to do with that game, and just take it as a regular old puzzle-theme, and on those terms, it's fine. I enjoyed it just fine. Better than average for a Sunday, for sure. Sunday is (by far) my lowest-rated day of the week, so "Better than average" may not seem like high praise, but I think it's also better than average for any day of the week—any themed day, anyway, except maybe Thursday. This one doesn't have the pleasing trickiness of the average Thursday. But it's conceptually solid, and even if the theme answers themselves aren't particularly exciting, the non-theme fill is actually pretty good, with lots of sparkling longer non-theme fill (HARD PASS, "SERVES ME RIGHT," PANCAKE MAKEUP, SHACKS UP, "I FIGURED...") and a grid that's solidly built overall. As for the theme, it's basically an amped-up version of the "Words That Can Precede" theme variety. Like, each of these themers could be the revealer in its own puzzle, tying together a set of answers featuring all the words in the clue: say, for example, BRAND NAME, "LIKE I CARE," NOTHING SPECIAL, "WHAT'S UP DOC?" ... and then NEW BEGINNINGS as the revealer ([Fresh starts ... or the starts of today's longer answers?]), something like that. Not saying it would be good, just saying that that's a theme type we've seen. But today's puzzle gives us that "First words" thing eight times over. In the process, it occasionally strains the meaning of some of those "starter" words (LAUNCHES? I dunno, man. PREMIERES feels a little wobbly too). But overall, everything works pretty well, everything's symmetrical. People who like "Connections" can get a little thrill of recognition. As I say, it's fine.
While the puzzle overall was relatively easy, there were some patches that seemed at least slightly treacherous, all of them involving (surprise) names. The worst of these areas feels like the result of theme density; that is, theme answers are very close together in this puzzle, with lots of Downs running through two and even three themers, and because those themers are fixed (the first answers in the grid, the answers you build the rest of the puzzle around), they put a lot of pressure on the grid, narrowing (sometimes dramatically) the fill possibilities for the Down crosses. This can cause cascading problems in fill quality. Today, the main problem was in the connective tissue running from the middle of SEASON OPENER down to the back end of ROCKET LAUNCHES—let's call it the ORRIS-IOLANI Highway. I say this as someone who knew both ORRIS (34D: Root used in perfumery) and IOLANI (51D: Honolulu palace name), which will Not (I'm fairly certain) be the case for many solvers. Even knowing IOLANI, I botched the spelling initially. I don't think this patch would have seemed as potentially ruinous if it hadn't been for SISI and its (to me) remarkably obscure clue (50A: Nickname for Empress Elisabeth of Austria). There's an Empress of Austria? And she's famous enough to have a "nickname"? I really should've made her the Word of the Day, because this is all news to me. If you wanted to find the blindest of my blind spots, you'd definitely go to late 19th-century Bavarian history, because I'm reading her wikipedia page and absolutely nothing is ringing a bell. She was married to Emperor Franz Joseph until her assassination in 1898 (!): "While travelling in Geneva in 1898, Elisabeth was fatally stabbed in the heart by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Her tenure of 44 years was the longest of any Austrian empress." Anyway, her "nickname" was random letters to me, and I'm baffled by the choice to clue SISI this way, when it's the only thing connecting ORRIS to IOLANI. I once had an accomplished constructor/editor tell me that cluing "SI, SI" as an emphatic Spanish affirmative was problematic because it was kind of a caricature of how Spanish speakers speak. At least I think that was the reason. But I would've loved an easy [Emphatic Spanish affirmative] right there. Seems entirely plausible that solvers might wipe out on either one, if not both, of the "I"s in SISI (as clued).
 |
| [Your "S"-count may vary] |
And the ugliness spills into adjacent fill, from the awkwardly possessive PLATO'S in the middle of the grid to the HOO-boy dated-as-hell K-FED (79A: Onetime Britney Spears partner, in the tabloids). I don't think history has been kind to the memory of K-FED, aka Kevin ... someone? See, I can't even remember. Federline! Hey, he's from Fresno, just like me! He now seems to be in a long-term marriage, possibly living in Hawaii, and working primarily as a DJ since ~2010. Good for him. He has not appeared in a NYTXW ... wait, ever!? Never ever!? I'm laughing so hard right now. This is so pure—the NYTXW catching a pop culture phenomenon very (very very) (very) (extremely) late. Wow. Wow. OK. Britney and K-FED divorced in '07, so ... yeah, sure, now feels like the right time to drop him in a grid, why not? Wow. OK. Happy NYTXW debut to you, K-FED.
Still more names: MARTI! Totally blanked on it. That's my bad (73D: Leader in the Cuban War of Independence). I know Cuban history only slightly better than I know Austrian history. Thank god I knew RAMA, because otherwise I would've had no way of knowing how the fictional AVA of "Abbott Elementary" spells her name (EVA v. AVA). Then there's HSIA—no way, no hope. Doesn't help that she's known in the west primarily as "Brigitte Lin" (see Word of the Day, above). Turns out I have seen her before (in a couple of Jackie Chan films as well as Wong Kar-wai's Chungking Express); I wouldn't call her "obscure" by a long shot, but I would say that maybe that particular name part is? I have no problem learning about Lin Ching-HSIA, but as far as cinematic icons in crossword puzzles go: still no Agnès VARDA? Still no Yasujiro OZU? I am addicted to "Criterion Closet" videos, where actors and filmmakers go into the closet at the Criterion Collection and fill their tote bag with whatever Criterion DVDs and Blu-rays they want from the shelves; the videos are only a few minutes long, and they're remarkably entertaining, if what you're entertained by is people geeking out about great movies. Anyway, VARDA and OZU are two of the most name-checked names in Criterion Closet videos. Because they are icons. Also, they have short names with unusual letter combinations, so I Can Not believe that with all the minor names I've had to wrestle with over the years, I have never (in the NYTXW) come across OZU or VARDA. This is a crime against cinema.
[I've watched Kerry Condon talk about Dogfight more times than I can count]
[Ozu's Late Spring, first thing into his hands]
Lastly, name-wise, AMADOU (101A: ___ & Mariam (musical duo). I am going to look these two up now, because absolutely zero bells are being rung. The clue doesn't even tell you what *kind* of music, or give you a song or album or ... anything! OK, they are from Mali, and were nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album in 2008. I'll bet they're great. But maybe not what you'd call Crossword Famous, I don't think. Still, I don't mind meeting them, since AMADOU is crossed entirely fairly, unlike SISI, which ... yeah, still baffled by that one.
[They are a married couple who met very young at Mali's' Institute for the Young Blind. 40-year career! 8 albums! Sometimes I *do* like learning things]
Bullets:
- 27A: Snack sometimes served with birria (TACO) — I wrote in TAPA here at first. TACOs can be TAPAs, right?
- 12D: Ancient performance space (ODEON) — at first I thought maybe the AGORA, but no, it's that other five-letter ancient space of crossword fame.
- 103A: Lives as lovers (SHACKS UP) — I love how '70s this answer is. The euphemism, the implicit judgment! Even the word "lovers," LOL, so throwback. I will take this opportunity to point out that there are three "UP"s in this grid, all pretty close together (SHACKS UP, SENDS UP, PANCAKE MAKEUP). I will also admit that I don't really care. On a Sunday, three appearances of a two-letter word seems fine. As long as the "UP"s don't cross, I'm fine with it.
["Packing up, shacking up's all you wanna do"]
- 45D: Arab honorific (SHEIKH) — stared at SHEIK- and thought "... another H? Why ... why does that look wrong?" Looks like someone conflated SHEIK and SIKH. But SHEIKH is correct. I think it's just that American popular culture has tended to spell it without the final "H":
Hey, west coasters! The Westwords Crossword Tournament takes place next weekend (Sunday, Jun. 23), in Berkeley, CA. West coast tournaments are rare, so this is a great opportunity to mingle with your fellow nerds and meet some of the best constructors and editors working today. Importantly, you can also participate online, from anywhere in the world (that has an internet connection). Here's the blurb from tourney co-organizer John Lieb:
Registration is open for the Westwords Crossword Tournament, which will be held on Sunday, June 23. This event will be both In-Person (in Berkeley, CA) and Online. Online solvers can compete individually or in pairs. To register, to see the constructor roster, and for more details, go to www.westwordsbestwords.com.
They announced the constructor line-up *in crossword form*; I'll let you solve it and discover the names for yourself. Adorable! If I weren't already traveling so much this summer, I'd be going to this tournament. Maybe next year. But you should go. Or do the online version of the tournament. Support this wholesome social endeavor and these creative people!
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Rex is right that the theme is better than average, but wrong that the non-theme answers were "pretty good." This is a particularly surprising assessment given that he goes on to detail the "treacherous" naticks that precluded this puzzle from high rating: the SISI business was crap, particularly because this answer could have been more fairly clued as "current president of Egypt." SISI can more plausibly be answered SaSa given that the name in question is is EliSAbeth, so booo! Unless, of course , you happen to know the perfumery root or the Hawaiian palace name... What are the odds? Ditto the KFED/DES... Unless you are schooled in French, this could be anything. Screw naticks and the editors who allow them!
ReplyDeleteThe trend for easier Sundays continues. There were a couple of pockets of resistance but my solve was mostly whooshy.
ReplyDeleteDid not know HSIA, SHEIKH (as spelled), NORMIE, SISI (Hi @Rex), and AMADOU.
Spelling problem: PREMIERES.
Time eating erasures: riseS before WAKES and ampS before MHOS.
If breezy Sundays are the new norm this works just fine. Clever idea, liked it.
Solved the puzzle while traveling in Vienna, where there is a Sisi museum.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI had many of the same stumbles as @Rex. My biggest one wasn't SISI (50A) but its neighbor PLATO'S (55A). I had the perfectly correct ESaS for the Spanish Those at 43D and therefore had PLATaS Cave, which I figured was a cave where Spanish-speaking people mine silver(s).
I also got bogged down a bit by KFED/DES/EASE.
ReplyDeleteI remember being a bit disappointed when a crossword Wyna Liu recently constructed for the New Yorker proved be a disappointingly by-the-books affair, so I was happier than Rex to see this puzzle incorporate more of her imaginative flair regardless of whether it might be construed as advertising for another Times property.
Well that was fun, with each theme answer a two-part riddle. First – “What do these words have in common?” And then, when you figure that word out, “What synonym for ‘words that precede’ can follow it to make a common plural phrase?
ReplyDeleteTerrific concept, and one which gave me a lovely nut to crack. Also, a bit of bite as well outside the theme, the overcoming of which brought feel-good to the fill-in.
I also liked a couple of echoes to yesterday’s puzzle, MR BEAN evoking yesterday’s FAVA, and BASS adding to yesterday’s clue for SAXES that mentioned three other types (tenor, alto, and soprano).
Underlying it all was the skill of putting it together. Finding eight terms for “words that come before other words”, not to mention coming up with theme answers that fit the length requirements of symmetry, today two 13s, four 11s, and two 14s. A worthy build.
And two colloquial answers that I loved: HARD PASS and SERVES ME RIGHT. Plus, a lovely reminder of today, with DADS.
Chandi and Wyna, this was time wonderfully spent. Thank you so much!
With regards to Sisi / Sissi ... Well, the movies starring Romy Schneider in the 1960s (see picture posted by Rex) are extremely famous in Europe, so famous that they have spanned countless pastiche ads, among many other things, in different countries and different languages, still to this day. Despite starring in many serious dramas afterwards, arthouse and more massmarket (eg La Piscine with Alain Delon), Romy Schneider was forever associated with the role in the public mindset and understandly came to resent it.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, Sisi wasn't a problem for me, whereas Iolani, ouch !
I’m shocked you don’t play Connections and Spelling Bee! I’ve imagined you writing blogs on the arbitrary words accepted and rejected….come join the fun!
ReplyDeleteConnections is a really great concept. Love it every morning.
DeleteI agree, I think connections is the best of the recent NYT games. Wordle got incredibly old incredibly fast, and i’m not good at spelling bee for some reason. But connections is a consistent, quick source of fun each day
DeleteI'm just lucky I was on a Romy Schneider tear last year, which made SISI a gimme.
ReplyDeleteI play Connections and really didn't like the extra word in each of the answers. STORE or STOREs would have been the Connections answer for STORE FRONTS; having to figure out how they were describing the Connection was tedious for me. And the SISI/ORRIS/IOLANI crosses I just got by running the alphabet--I mean, wow, talk about poor construction and/or editing! That section and the theme kind of ruined it for me; I didn't really enjoy this one as much as @Rex did and have thought other Sundays did a better job. I'd rate this one below average.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a HARD PASS on this one. KFED - really?
ReplyDeleteHappy Father’s Day!
EELS
Ditto
Delete-KFCS (Chicken Joints?)
ReplyDelete-EASY
EMITS
There, fixed!
Ridiculous level of obscure trivia, paired with dumb, obvious long answers. So dissonant. Not unlike the game of Connections, which offers groupings anyone could spot, and also absurdly random nonsense based on homonyms or missing syllables or whatnot. Give me something I can figure out by using my brain, not by memorizing trivia or code-breaking.
ReplyDeleteSince when does ‘des’ mean some in French?
ReplyDeleteI eat some fruit. Je mange des fruits.
DeleteYeah was gonna mention that myself. DES is just the plural indefinite article you use for, well basically everything. I guess is *can* mean some, but that’s far from it’s specific definition.
DeleteTu veux des bonbons? You want some candies?
DeleteAnonymous 8:18 AM
DeleteWhether the clue for DES is too obscure is a valid criticism but as has been said many times here, crosswords involve clues or hints, so we can attempt to solve the puzzle. Only exact definitions would be boring or placemat level or both
DES can be translated as some in certain situations therefore the answer is valid. “Close enough for crosswords “
I was very surprised to see it though. I can read French reasonably well but I resisted the answer because I thought it would be way too hard for most people. I suppose they kept it because only 3 letters. Odd.
Lots of fun, the best Sunday we’ve seen in ages. In our household, I do the crossword and Mrs. Freude gets to play Connections, so I only get to help out when she’s stumped (ditto for Spelling Bee). So today I got to play the crossword AND Connections!
ReplyDeleteSISI is the title of a TV series on PBS that I haven’t seen but that constantly shows up on my ROKU. Hey, today I learned how to say “six” in Japanese.
Last letter in: the E in KFED.
You can do Connections, Crossword and Wordle together as long as you both go on at the same time and don't go out and go back in (or start charging your phone/laptop) as you will get your partners words.
DeleteFirst DNF in I don't know how long, courtesy of obscure names. IOLANI SISI ORRIS AMADOU KFED AVA - I didn't even know where to go to look for my errors.
ReplyDeleteSome decent long downs, and an OK theme, but that didn't make up for the frustration of all the Naticks. I don't mind a puzzle with clever, misleading clues, but I really can't stand one that requires knowledge of a bunch of trivia.
HARD PASS for me.
First erroneous finish in forever thanks to SISI, which I quickly corrected with dismay.
ReplyDeleteI groked the theme gimmick and had a bit of fun trying to figure them out without a lot of crosses in place. Unfortunately, as the grid started to come together I felt like I landed in the wrong country - omg, this grid contains so many answers that look like absolute nonsense - AMADOU, MARTI, RAMA, HSIA, MHOS, ESOS x SISI x IOLANI, KFED, MRBEAN x NESS, and so it goes.
ReplyDeleteRex lamented the “dumbing down” of the weekends to appeal to a wider audience - I think today is an example of the opposite. Sorry, but I’m too much of a NORMIE to get excited at the prospect of parsing together every single cross to get to something like HSIA and then just hope that it means something to somebody, somewhere.
Easy theme, tough fill pretty much says it all for me today. I thought the theme was at least clever (and enjoyed all the ways you can 'start' something) but the fill was brutal. Had dEliver before GESTATE, tRunk before BRACE, and dances before TOASTS just to start the hassles. With S_S_ and no idea how to try to wrap up the perfume root or hotel I just cheated, but at least the Wikipedia write up was educating. With KF_D I just sat there thinking of vowels that might make sense of _ST as a delivery abbrev, so no fun but not a deal breaker. What really irked me was my own error - a golf TEe being in the golf bag worked fine, and sure I can SEeR a steak. So painful and stupid. On the bright side, AMADOU & Mariam - so glad being introduced to them, and good old MRBEAN.
ReplyDeleteALT instead of ART, was tricky for me for a bit, resulting in the dreaded "Almost There". SISI was tough, but IOLANI was a gimme after 5 years in Hawaii. Overall, I enjoyed this puzzle, and Connections is great, especially for our kiddos. They can be maddening clever some days.
ReplyDeleteYeah ORRIS crossing SISI crossing IOLANI got me. Had to run through the alphabet to get that. Doesn’t help that Disney’s big Hawaiian resort is auLANI which made me think maybe it was named after said palace, so had aOLANI for a long time. Anyway, rough patch there. All the other trivia was fairly crossed I thought. Fun puzzle!
ReplyDeleteI’m Cuban and a big fan of Amadou and Mariam, so that corner came together for me. But even as I was solving I said to myself, “This is going to be obscure for lots of people.” Then I got Naticked on the ORRIS/IOLANI/SISI highway.
ReplyDeleteAnd that’s the thing with name-based puzzles; they’re either in your wheelhouse or they’re not.
I enjoy Connections so Wyna gets a pass, but this puzzle was a bit too name-heavy for my taste.
Horrible set of proper names … if it wasn’t for my protecting streak I wouldn’t have plodded through it all … not fun
ReplyDeleteStart my day off with this xword, Wordle, Jeff Chen’s I’m Squeezy, Phrazle (2x a day - thanks Nancy for the tip) and my favorite, Connections.
ReplyDeleteOn the latter, Wyna Liu does a phenomenal job of editing. I’ve looked at other versions of the same game and they are Highlights for Children level easy. Wyna’s 16 words have clear misdirects - choosing the obvious doesn’t pay off (there are never 4 of a kind in the misdirects - it would be a legit group if there were). It’s a fun mental challenge, one gets to make a few errors before the “Next Time” (“you lose!”) message. Even when I win, I’m often at a loss for what the final quartet has in common.
Seeing Connections feature in NYTXW is like the Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode - wouldn’t want to see it all the time, but still it’s an interesting concept.
Congrats and a hearty SISI to Wyna and Chandi for their successful collaboration!
Easy mostly because of the theme, I could fill in most of ghe theme answers with few or no crosses. I liked FAILSAFE, SERVES ME RIGHT, I FIGURED, PANCAKE MAKEUP. PANCAKE MAKEUP is new to me, after PANCAKE I could only think of BATTER but I didn’t see how that could possibly fit the clue.
ReplyDeleteKFED is a debut because no constructor in their right mind sees KF - - and just rolls with it instead of reworking that section of the grid.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteYep, crashed and burned in the SISI area. Never sure if "Those, in Spanish" is ESOS or ESAS, guess which one I had in, and not thinking of a vowel start to IOLANI. Had pOLANI in, thinking SISp was a possible nickname for someone. Then tried a K. SISk, sure. Ah, me.
Pretty neat to find/use so many "first" synonyms. Fill surprisingly good, as Rex mentioned, a lot of Downs go through two and three Themers. I'm willing to let a lot of the wonky go by, knowing how tough it is to get any semblance of clean fill having to maneuver through the Themers.
A nice SunPuz, with a normal amount of Blockers to pull it off. 8 Themers, not needing a Revealer. Noticed the three UPs in SE, also one more in a clue (119A). Surprised Rex let that slide.
Time to MOSEY on out of here, I FIGURE.
Have a Happy Sunday All !
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Once I figured out the trick, things fell quickly, but I figured it out WAY too late and already decided I was mad at the whole affair. I saw the first theme clue with all those capitalized words and I thought, "Nope. Gonna deal with those later." Oh well. They were straightforward. The proper nouns and three unfortunate crosses didn't help my estimation, but PANCAKE MAKEUP made up for the flaws. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteUg: LIRR and CRUDES
Propers: 16
Places: 6
Products: 6
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 6
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 42 (30%)
Funnyisms: 9 🙂
Tee-Hee: BRAs are garments, maybe?! Of course they're garments, unless things are going well, in which case they're chandelier decoration and in those cases you might get a SUNTAN.
Uniclues:
1 In addition to its duty as the go to tribe in Canada for crossword construction, they are also in charge of which alien ships can land on Earth.
2 River City resident gets out of bed and goes toward House of Trouble.
3 How the real housewives of Borneo get so pretty.
1 CREE EVEN UMPIRE UFOS
2 WAKES. VISITS POOL HALL. (~)
3 BRUNEI PANCAKE MAKEUP
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: there once was a man from Nantucket / whose raven was prone to cluck it / it chattered each day / 'til 'twas shot and sautéed / then he devoured the bird from a bucket (Fried spicy raven coming to a KFC near you soon). CAW LIMERICK.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and sometimes CAPITAL LETTERS are just CAPITAL LETTERS. I'm really not at all sure why they're FRONTS or BEGINNINGS or LAUNCHES or LEADERS or anything else.
ReplyDeleteBut, hey, I did have fun trying to figure out the first words in all the themers. STORE, SHOWER and SEASON were really easy. FRESH and ROCKET were really hard. There's such a thing as a BOTTLE ROCKET? There's such a thing as FUNKY FRESH?
OHMS instead of MHOS really threw me off for the conductance units. What are MHOS? And I also had wEIGhED before REIGNED for "held sway".
Wonderful and baffling clue for DEUCES (29A). It's the clue that provoked the most curiosity in me of them all. But GESTATE (10D) was good too.
But don't get me started on the teensy tiny bits of absolutely unimportant and forgettable trivia that I needed to know to finish this. I actually solved* without cheating, but I was compelled to suffer in so doing -- and definitely not in a good way.
*But did I solve??? I forgot to check. I solved if EST(?) for the delivery abbreviation is right; if DES (not LES) for French "some" is right; and if KFED (who he?) for the boyfriend is right. If even one of them isn't right, then I didn't solve.
@Nancy
DeleteI truly feel for you growing up never shooting off bottle rockets. You may be up on opera, the arts, etc, but I wish your life had been filled with fun stuff.
Methinks a fun childhood might be had sans bottle rockets!!
DeleteYup, natick at ORRIS / SISI / IOLANI. Grrr. Pretty frustrating way to end an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
ReplyDelete53A Knock on = RAPAT? Hope we never see that one again, RAPAT wood.
ReplyDeleteI can't make 103A (Lives as lovers) work for SHACKSUP. IF "they" shack up, they live as lovers. If "he" shacks up, he lives as a lover. Let me know if there is a person + verb combo that make this clue and answer work together.
My sister-in-law is Hawaiian and is named Lani. Which reminds me that IOLANI a call.
I barely EEKed out my response to a squeak in 30D.
Happy PAHs day to all!
Came here to say exactly this for SHACKSUP - the only possible singular subject for the verb would be a couple, but nobody would ever say "the couple shacks up", so this is out of bounds IMO.
DeleteThis one took me back to the days when the Sunday puzzle was the only one I did each week, because it was included in the colorful comic pages section of my local paper. In those days before computers and blogs and "check word." Most weeks I would get through the puzzle in good fashion, except for a couple (or more, occasionally) of places where some obscure (to me) answers would force guesses which--when I turned to the page with the solution--would almost always be wrong! "Gotcha," the nyt would chuckle, "You dope." I didn't know back then that I was dealing with Naticks!
ReplyDeleteToday I guessed all those weird spots (Rex pointed them all out) except for the KFED/DES/EASE combo.
At least, with the Sunday sized grid, we got some nice HDWs (Hidden Diagonal Words. Hear are some clues to a few of them:
1. It's his day (3 letters)
2. Attack with snowballs, say (4 letters)
3. Tesla or Mercedes, perhaps? (4 letters)
4. What today's puzzle made me feel like (3 letters)
Answers:
1.DAD (Begins with the D in 20A, IDEA)--pluralized in 117A
2. PELT (Begins with P in 55A, PLATO'S)
3. SCAR, or S-CAR (Begins with first S in 73A, MOSEYS, could also be clued on a Monday as "Evidence of an old wound"
4. OAF (Begins with the O in 70D, ROME) KFED, Bah, humbug!
@Nancy, 9:42 AM: MHOS is spelled exactly backward from OHMS, since OHMS is resistance and therefore, MHOS is conductance.
ReplyDeleteORRIS/SISI/IOLANI tripped me up as well. Lots of PPP but some fresh clues, so I enjoyed this puzzle overall. Not sure one of the NYT staff (Wyna Liu) should ever be able to publish a puzzle in the NYT... seems like nepotism. (I suppose if the quality of submissions is such -- as alluded to by many when it comes to the Sunday puzzle -- that they need to take this to elevate things, well OK.)
You're welcome, @Andrew. Phrazle's my favorite, but I adore Connections too. I usually do them in this order: the Crossword, then Connections, and then Phrazle. Why? Because Connections uses a different part of the brain than the other two, so that when I started to do Connections, I plunked it down in the middle to give my brain a refreshing change.
ReplyDeleteMy track record is quite good in Connections now -- but only after a couple of disastrous ventures at the outset. I've learned to avoid the traps that Wyna sets and I agree with you that she's very, very clever at creating these.
But I'm really, really proud of my track record in Phrazle. The site keeps track and so I always know how I'm doing. Here's how I'm doing. (I almost never try to get it on the first guess; I'm not at all good at that, but Joe DiPinto is quite remarkable.) I'm always trying to get it in two guesses -- which for me represents "victory". I make my first guess in a way that I hope will get it for me in two. Usually it's a nonsense phrase -- but with a (hopefully) helpful assortment of letters. Here's my record to date:
In one guess: 3
In two guesses: 701
In three guesses: 642
In four guesses: 77
In five guesses: 6
Gary, don’t you think the maybe in the clue for bra refers to size? A garment, maybe? B garment, maybe? And so on. Not questioning whether a bra is a garment, but whether it is an A garment?
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 10:36 AM
DeleteOHO! You are absolutely right. That's even tee-hee-ier. I thought they might be distinguishing it from a car bra. I would never have seen that capital A. Seems there's a lot more to bras in this universe than my dad was prepared to teach. I think his main advice was, "Stay away from girls, they're all crazy." Thanks.
Has anyone ever actually been consoled by hearing the words. "there, there?"
ReplyDeleteAsking for a despairing friend.
On one hand the puzzle itself was fine, on the other hand I personally hate how NYT handles Connections and thus this puzzle was annoying as heck.
ReplyDeleteThe mythos that surrounds Connections -- that it was created during one of their Puzzle summits or whatever the heck their get togethers are called -- is the biggest steaming pile of bull dung. It is a 15-seconds-of-effort rip off of the Connecting Wall from Only Connect, one of the most fun game shows ever. And no matter how many times it gets pointed out they keep insisting it was this organic and creative idea.
That alone, MAYBE, I could let pass, except that each and every one of the NYT Connections puzzles is constructed with such a lack of creativity and joy and excitement when compared to Only Connect (or the thousands of user created ones at Puzzgrid) that it's actually staggering in nature. It's a brilliant and stolen idea done comically bad.
And thus I had to roll my eyes at each and every theme answer in today's puzzle.
I'll get off my soapbox/kids get off my lawn. :)
And, in regards to the theme/title, just a friendly reminder that Connections was blatantly stolen from the British show Only Connect, yet introduced as something wholly original to the NYT.
ReplyDeleteTootled right along in this puzzle until the cranny with KFED, EST, DES. Then it was just a matter of popping in random letters until the happy music.
ReplyDeleteQuelque means some in French.
ReplyDeleteBeth64
DeleteTranslation can be a very tricky thing and there are very few if any exact parallels in meaning for words in different languages. Quelque and DES can both be translated as some depending on the circumstances. The answer is valid.
The Sunday slide continues. Sad.
ReplyDeleteSince I am a diplomat specializing in the Arab world I would have preferred Sisi as Egyptian president and yes, kh is the only option spelling for the Arabic letter pronounced at the back of the throat which ends sheikh. شيخ
ReplyDeleteCan see how it could be easy for some, largely easy, and theme was a fun/different diversion. But cmon, the middle of the puzzle was just a theme-forced mess of PPP, only made worse with bad/obscure cluing. It was just so concentrated, really put a damper on what otherwise would have been one of the better Sundays. Finished fine and didn’t smear my PANCAKEMAKEUP, just a little disappointed in what could have been.
ReplyDeletePerfect theme for Father's Day, isn't it? DADS peeks at us down at the bottom. Better to play little games, like a NORMIE.
ReplyDeleteSISI was easy, as I watched the series on the PBS app -- on my ROKU. Never knew about the Romy Schneider film. At least I now know that ROKU means 6.
KFED DOTH have a bad ODOR. Reading the comments above, I see that no one knows who that person or thing is. I'm just guessing it's Kentucky Fried ECARD DISCORD.
@andrew (9:09) Just had to say I love love love your new profile picture today … and agree with you about Connections.
ReplyDelete@Nancy (10:34) It’s uncanny how often your response to a crossword is right on point with mine. Now I learn that we also practice the same sequence in our daily gaming for the same reasons, and share the same approach to Phrazle based on the same logic. It has to be said: “great minds.” ;-) I recommend Jeff Chen’s Lemon Squeezy too if you haven’t tried it. Fun and like Connections, a little different twist in the thought process.
A couple of minor gripes on the preponderance of obscure names and the fact that PANCAKE is effectively the MAKEUP and so no one ever says PANCAKE MAEKUP. It’s just PANCAKE which is what I wish I was having for my Father’s Day breakfast but alas am traveling for work. A little delayed gratification never hurt any one. Happy Father’s Day to the dads out there.
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely treat of a Sunday puzzle for DADS (117A. Some PTA members). Thank you, Wyna and Chandi!
ReplyDeleteOf course there was the SISI/ORRIS/IOLANI natick sitting right in the middle of this otherwise breezy grid just waiting to suck. I’m curious if the crappy clueing was the constructors’ original submission or more editorial incompetence?
Happy Fathers Day to all you extraordinary men shepherding the souls left in your care.
Patches of easy alternating with patches of impossible. Oof!!!
ReplyDeleteSisi is a pretty big deal, culturally! Sort of the Princess Diana of Austria. Tragic and fascinating.
ReplyDeleteI dnfed on the KFED/DES cross. It was a toss up between LES and DES and I picked the wrong one.
ReplyDeleteORRIS and IOLANI are familiar enough to me that I was able handle that debut clue for SISI.
We've had both HARDPASS and MARTI very recently.
GEOTAG and TAG prove once again that there is no dupe rule. Maybe trips are next.
yd -0. QB63 That second pangram was a doozie they really like those food words.
> I can't make 103A (Lives as lovers) work for SHACKSUP. IF "they" shack up, they live as lovers. If "he" shacks up, he lives as a lover. Let me know if there is a person + verb combo that make this clue and answer work together.
ReplyDeleteMy mind also struggled with this; surprised it did not attract more comment. I finally concluded it might be grammatical to say a singular he lives as lovers [do], with elided 'do', though seems unlikely that was the intent.
Natticked even though I knew Iolani (solely from crosswords). SISI and ORRIS cross could have been any vowel, and having already run the alphabet with the RAMA/AVA cross I refused to do it again.
ReplyDeleteLoved the puzzle but a shame those two were allowed to stand.
WYNA: Love connections and fun to spot it in the puzz - I didn’t however make the “connection” that you were the author till I came here. Pleading for an “archive” feature!
Love the Criterion Closet but have no need to go there, as I have a complete CC collection (not an easy feat) … great to see VARDA and OZU get a mention — 2 of the greatest ever!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this puzzle (and I really enjoy playing Connections) and it was pretty easy for me. I caught into the theme pretty quickly, but even knowing how the theme works, it still took a little bit of effort to figure out the answers. And most of those Naticks that RP describes just all happened to be things I know. Empress Sisi, K-Fed, Orris, Iolani. I had to get Hsia entirely from the crosses, and most of Marti (remembering at the last minute the name of the Havana airport). Felt pretty easy, but still get that dopamine hit.
ReplyDeleteLast night I really disliked solving this puzzle, but that may be because it was the end of a long unpleasant day. Plus there were soooooo many names, which I hate. And then there was ORRIS / SISI/ IOLANI.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough AMADOU and Mariam was a gimme; I encountered and enjoyed their music about 10 years ago. I probably found them via Manu Chao who appeared on Senegal Fast Food. "Quelle heure est-il, au paradis?" (Apologies if Rex already posted one of their songs; one of his videos is labelled "Video unavailable" for me.)
[No SB last 3 days; at the cabin]
ORRIS/RAKE as clued/SISI/ESOS/IOLANI/PLATOS cave. woof. But other than that leaky patch, the precious nanoseconds remained mostly intact, for this solvequest. KFED/EST/DES did get a might tense, tho.
ReplyDeleteM&A has played the Connections puz a coupla times, in the past. This SunPuz added the bonus puztheme feature of U havin to figure out all the synonyms for beginners. An enjoyable theme mcguffin, overall.
staff weeject pick: BRA = {A garment, maybe?}. Not quite grokkin the garment indecision, there. Are they maybe doin an A-cup play on words or somesuch? Sneaky to the max.
Thanx for the fun, and for gangin up on us, Ms. Deitmer & Liu darlins. Neat, that U could connect up for this constructioneerin feat.
Masked & Anonymo10Us
**gruntz**
Yes, they’re doing “the A-cup play on words”
DeleteLike Rex, I thoroughly enjoyed the retro satisfaction of SHACKSUP, even wondering if it might be a NYT Xword first? But I agree with Andrew, and did not notice it before, that the clue is grammatically inexact: a person "shacks" up, a pair of lovers shack up
ReplyDeleteI was able to guess the Cuba clue by vaguely remembering something called Radio Marti. Too bad there was no such thing as Radio Free Sisi.
ReplyDeleteMore challenging than the usual Sunday. Pretty good theme. I finished in that tricky section that had ELOS-LISA-ORRIS crossing.
ReplyDeleteHaHa I knew "Sisi" only because I just got back from Vienna and went to the palace that was mainly about her. She wasn't even a nice person (hated her kids) and pretty inconsequential
ReplyDeleteso SISI is fine. there was a recent series on Netflix called the Empress that was about her. https://youtu.be/KfySe96FPr8 worth a watch. originally in german.
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend Amadou and Mariam, especially the early music. I randomly bought a tape around 1990 in the Ivory Coast and discovered an amazing duo.
ReplyDeleteESaS / ESOS, PLATan / PLATOn / PLATaS / PLATOS and ORRIn / ORRIS. Double Naticked. Brutal. Took a guess at SISI or it could have been a triple Natick.
ReplyDeleteConnections fan here, liked the puzzle, same problems with weird names as many have mentioned, but overall a good theme with some nice in-the-language phrases.
ReplyDeleteMy SISI clue would have been
Please, say SISI, say you and your Spanish eyes will wait for me...
Where's @GILL I with a defense of Cuban national hero Jose Marti? Famous in the struggle for Cuba's independence, and possibly more famous as the poet who wrote the lyrics for what was to become lyrics for "Guantanamera".
Yo soy un hombre sincero, de donde crece la palma..
Great tune. I think I'll play at tomorrow night's hootenanny.
Hey @Roo- you SHOULD be confused about ESAS or ESOS, as it can be either. Gotta wait for crosses.
Nice Sunday, CD and WL. Connections Done With Loving care, and thanks for all the fun. Also thanks for the DADS shout our from me and me two (DAD) sons.
I did know Sisi, I needed no crosses at all. Only thing I remember about her is that her hair was about 4 or 5 feet long and she spent several hours a day every day grooming it.
ReplyDeleteAs a Fall River native, I feel compelled to say howdy!
DeleteSisi was easy for me because in the past couple of years there have been a few movies and a Netflix series about her. It was really weird all these productions happened around the same time.
ReplyDeleteI think Connections is fun and wasn’t bothered by the cross promotion.
So was RAMA a real historical person, as you pointed out Ava from Abbott Elementary is fictional…?
just a random idea but any chance Sunday reviews could be of another syndicate puzzle? I have the black ink app I know this is a stretch but its never truly fun to do Sundays anymore where you use your brain not
ReplyDeleteall this unbearable fill.. themes are nothing without the clues being fun and I mean most if not all... Salut!
SISI was NOt one of themes that contribute to making this puzzle difficult for me.
ReplyDeleteHaving Siri Jeune Fille and Sisi IMperatrice still on my shelf as fu ways to ry to keep up my French, and having red about the empress fairly recently (cat remember who or where) that one's easy.
But KFED, (looks more like a radio station than a person)Reku, Hsia and others combine with clues tht could have several answers made this very difficult for me. I did enjoy uncovering the theme answers.
Hi everyone. This is Cdilly52 but I haven’t been able to sign in through Blogger for days! Sometimes yes but lately absolutely not. Can some of you tech geniuses help me? There must be a way! Fee free to email: cdillingham52@gmail. Thanks!
ReplyDeletejust read the rest of the comment
ReplyDeleteAdam@6:40 was totally confusing to me.
I play connections and I can't believe he does given his comment.
Whatsername 12:18
ReplyDeleteThanks for noticing. And lest anyone think I pulled a Michael Scott buying a “World’s Best Boss” mug for himself at Spencer’s Gifta, this was part of the adoption package of goodies.
In less than 6 weeks, this small ghost of a dog - all skin and bones (to quote Alun Davies, Cat Stevens’ guitarist, in his brilliant Daydo album) is now healthy, puncture-free and no longer a trembling mess. All you DO need is love! And the angels who save bloody and beaten waifs off the street.
Alun Davies - Old Bourbon
I'm stuck on 109A (bridal, cold, gatorade, meteor): what the heck is a Gatorade SHOWER?
ReplyDeleteWhen a football team wins a big game, it’s customary for the players to dump the cooler full of Gatorade on the coach.
DeleteWhen a bucket of gatorade is poured over the winning coach.
DeleteOMG of course! Thank you for that. Funniest moment I've seen in CFL football: two players stop mid-GATORADE SHOWER to grab their helmets and run onto the field because the game wasn't over yet!
DeleteI thought it was a very good puzzle but that it could have been better by using fewer theme entries. This happens a lot in these times of themer bloat where editors and constructors seem to emphasize themer quantity over fill quality. Today we get eight themers but at the cost of a lot of suboptimal fill that results when themer bloat puts too many constraints on the grid.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think that six themers would have been better, putting the kibosh on PREMIERES and LAUNCHES. This would have opened the grid up and avoided having to use sooo many names.
About the only name that was in my wheelhouse was PLATO'S, whose cave is a staple in many Intro to Philosophy courses. He said we are like people sitting in a dark cave and not being able to see directly what is going on outside the cave. All we can see are shadows cast by the outside world on the cave's walls. He used that as an analogy to argue that our perception of the world around us is imperfect and incomplete.
Gotta run. I hear the ice cream truck coming. Not too sure about its theme song though. It's "La Cucaracha". Um, bye.
Clever, fun puzzle, and challenging enough that I got totally stuck after completing about 80%, had a good night’s sleep, and then polished it off pretty quickly in the morning. I never understand how that works, how the brain that was entirely stymied can see things entirely differently the next day, but it always delights me and certainly lends support to the advice to “sleep on it” when faced with a difficult decision.
ReplyDeleteFor me the puzzle wasn’t that hard.
ReplyDeleteSISI was a series on Netflix. Others mentioned PBS also. So there’s been an uptick of mentions of her. I knew of her because I read the review in the Times Art section. My theory is the puzzle editors think a subject of series from a major streamer reviewed in the Times 2 years ago makes the answer crossword worthy.
Clearly a lot of people don’t agree!
On the other hand, Sisi is not as obscure as NC Wyeth crossing the original NATICK.
I liked the puzzle. The gimmick was a lot of help in solving I thought.
Perhaps Anoa Bob should note the 3 rd person singular of convenience with SHACKS UP. I enjoyed finding that old expression which I would bet first arose way before the seventies.
Liked the puzzle, maybe because of the wheelhouse effect.
Agree with Rex about a lot of the proper nouns in this one, but I was very happy to see AMADOU. Was lucky to catch Amadou & Mariam at Bonnaroo in 2006(?), where it was clear only half the people in the tent had any idea who they were. They won that crowd over so quickly. Just a truly delightful show, and I cannot recommend them enough.
ReplyDeleteWonderful theme. Terrible fill - far too many marginal names.
ReplyDeleteORRIS/SISI was a Natick for me. As was BRA/BRACE, sort of. Clue for BRACE is pretty weak, and I don't get the clue for BRA at all.
"A garment, maybe?" - A as in A-cup.
Delete@rex Tacos are Mexican, taps are Spanish…
ReplyDelete@Burma Shave has been busy of late
ReplyDeleteSHACKSUP FRONT
She's no TEAMLEADER AT the START,
AND in te SHOWERHEADS a fight,
but ROCKETLAUNCHES SOLVE ONE part,
AS long AS HELEN SERVESMERIGHT.
---MR. NORMIE NESS
for Sat 05/25 puzzle:
TRACT HACK
ALL SUNDAE we TAPED BEA and PATSY,
and MASTERMINDS REROLL the clip,
IT was SECRET and GAUCHE and nasty
to PULLSTRINGS for a SUNSETSTRIP.
--- ROD "ROMEO" MARTI
for Fri 05/24 puzzle:
FARES FARE
ATMYAGE to GETTHESCOOP comes quick,
her TACTICS ARE right from A FLICK ,
"PLEASEDO me TWICE,
THREE would be NICE",
ain't IT THE SAME with any CHICK?
--- ANITA SWIFT
for Thu 05/23
SAFE RISK?
ASFOR BOXBRAIDS, I AGREE,
it's FORGONE to some DEGREE,
I'd LET it GO,
I've seen THE SHOW,
THEN you TRY them ON MR.T!
--- ANNIE TAFT
for Wed 05/22:
BAD DEMEANOR
Does it COSTLESS to have BADONES?
ASYET DOWNERS are THE cause,
YET IAM ONE who wants NONE -
TOPLINE INGRATES for INLAWS.
--- MR. ERNO ENO
Very nice theme construction, using all different words for [BEGINNINGS] and having them all combine with their clue words to make in-the-language familiar phrases. Slight wobble with wanting LAUNCHE[R]S for those ROCKETs.
ReplyDeleteThe central east was very tough. NORMIES, really? But that little box from 79-94 was a sonofabitch. After PANCAKEMAKEUP and FAILSAFE became unshakably evident, I'm staring at KF__. No way...yet somehow, way. At this juncture I must say that I do not now, nor have I ever, followed Britney Spears' love life. I'll further ATTEST that I am proud of that ignorance. But since something had to go in there, I tried guessing at the crosses--no picnic for sure. 90 across was a real groaner: EASE (not two distinct letters, but just E's: blargh!). So I wound up with a KFED. Who knew: that was it!?! Man, if you're gonna throw a KFED at me, you'd better make sure the crosses are gimmes!
The rest of it went pretty smoothly. Mostly well done. Birdie.
Wordle par.
@spacey - keep those birthdays coming. Lost Tracfone service in Canada or I would have texted.
ReplyDeleteWordle birdie. 255 @ 4; 255 @ 4 or less, 672 played.
It's amazing what can pop into your head instantly. Iolani Palace was a gimme, only had to think about the spelling for a second. 43 down was either esAs or esOs, so I looked at 55 across and finally Plato's cave rang a very very faint bell from a philosophy class in college, over 50 years ago. Orris root was also a gimme, since it's the only root I can think of when it comes to scented products. Plus, I love irises, which is where orris root comes from. Kevin who, Kevin who, Kevin who??? I got stymied! At least I knew it was Kevin Somebody.
ReplyDelete