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Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of June! Hope everyone had a good month. I’ve been watching so much soccer with the Euros and Copa America, and then rooting on former teammates in the track events at the Olympic trials! My former teammates did very well but sadly didn’t qualify for the finals. (You did great, Dana!) Other events have been super impressive, like the women’s 5,000m race, and I’m so excited to watch the women’s 1,500m, too. As I’m writing this, I sadly had to watch Athing Mu get tripped and fall in the 800m run. But maybe she’ll be chosen for the 4X400m relay. She's incredible (and won gold in the last Olympics in both events at just 19 years old).
Anywho, on to the puzzle...
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: TWENTY ONE (33A: Card game whose winning hands can be found hidden in 17-, 27-, 42- and 54-Across) — Each answer includes cards involved in getting “twenty one,” or blackjack
Theme answers:
- SUCKING FACE (17A: Sloppily making out, in slang)
- TENNIS BRACELET (27A: Piece of jewelry consisting of a single line of diamonds)
- QUEEN ANNE’S LACE (42A: Wildflower with a royal name)
- RACER JACKET (54A: Sleek leather outerwear)
Word of the Day: ATTILA (13A: Invader of Gaul in 451) —
The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (or Fields), also called the Battle of the Campus Mauriacus, Battle of Châlons, Battle of Troyes or r the Battle of Maurica, took place on June 20, 451 AD, between a coalition, led by the Roman general Flavius Aetius and the Visigothic king Theodoric I, against the Huns and their vassals, commanded by their king, Attila. It proved one of the last major military operations of the Western Roman Empire, although Germanic foederati composed the majority of the coalition army. Whether the battle was of strategic significance is disputed; historians generally agree that the siege of Aurelianum was the decisive moment in the campaign and stopped the Huns' attempt to advance any further into Roman territory or establish vassals in Roman Gaul. However, the Huns successfully looted and pillaged much of Gaul and crippled the military capacity of the Romans and Visigoths. Attila died only two years later, in 453; after the Battle of Nedao in 454 AD, the coalition of the Huns and the incorporated Germanic vassals gradually disintegrated. (Wiki)
• • •
My first reaction was meh – but I also only saw one of the cards in each answer. I saw “king,” then “ace,” then “queen” and “jack.” Having the answers actually be “king-ace,” “ten-ace,” “queen-ace”, and "jack-ace is pretty impressive. And I liked the first three theme answers. SUCKING FACE is an odd but fun term. TENNIS BRACELET is legit. QUEEN ANNE’S LACE is lovely. RACER JACKET didn’t do a whole lot for me. Other aspects of the puzzle were still pretty meh, though. There was more misdirection than I’d expect from a Tuesday. Yes, ATILLA (13A) invaded Gaul, but his attack on Rome is a lot more famous – think Pope Leo the Great coming face to face with him on the outskirts of the city and getting Attila to turn back. ANDALE (44D) is a fine word, but I don’t think of saying that to Goya. Speedy Gonzalez, yes. Goya, no.
There was a decent amount of Spanish in the puzzle — HASTA, ESAS, ANDALE and OLES. I’m happy I know a lot of Spanish. But I imagine ANDALE, in particular, might have slowed some others.
The ZIKA virus (6D: Mosquito-borne virus in 2016 news) was unexpected for a Tuesday. I knew this one, but it did take me a while to place and get the spelling right. ENDUE (50A: Provide, as with an ability) is pretty fancy for a Tuesday. The Tuesday form is more “endow.”
I liked how DESSERT (41D: You might leave room for it) crossed SWIRLS (48A: Vanilla/chocolate ice cream combos, e.g.). I used to get a SWIRLS dessert from Foster's Freeze and loved how that tasted.
I liked some of the longer answers, too, such as QUEASY, ACL TEAR, GAME ON (though having RAT ON as another answer diminished this one a bit), NINJA, ANDALE, SIM CITY and GOUDA.) Answers like these and COLGATE and DESSERT were just more fun.
I’m not as sure about PROOFED, RETURNS, TUNA CAN, RARE GEM, WEARIER, and WEEDER. I’m sure WEEDER (34D: Gardener's device) is a category of sorts when you go into Home Depot. But nobody asks for a weeder. It seems more like you’d ask for a hoe or a trowel or a rake or a shovel or something specific.
Misc.:
- PELE (15A: Athlete declared a national treasure by Brazil after the 1958 World Cup) reminds me of how much soccer I’ve been watching lately and how I’ve been rooting for Brazil! Sad that they tied Costa Rica. But maybe they can pull it all off.
- Does GOUDA (19A: Mild Dutch cheese) make anyone else think of “She’s the Man”? “My favorite’s GOUDA”? Probably not...
- SIM CITY (25A: Pioneering computer game originally called Micropolis) is so fun and interesting to me. The cities are so odd, and the characters do seemingly whatever they want, and it’s all so weird and strange.
- I remember watching my friend playing softball when I was in junior high, and all I knew how to say was “good EYE, good EYE” (56D)
- I’ve been on a reading kick lately. (I’m at 40 books so far this year!) “Little Women” from Louis May ALCOTT (10D: “Little Women" author) will always be superior.
Signed, Clare Carroll, I may not outpace you at solving crosswords… but try me at the 5,000 meters
Slightly easier than medium. ZIKA was a WOE (I must’ve missed that 2016 headline) as was RACER JACKET which sounds made up (hi @Clare).
ReplyDeletePretty smooth grid with a couple of fun theme answers, liked it.
Tight theme, I enjoyed it. At 17A, I knew that "make out" is used as misdirection in some late week-level clues ([Make out sloppily in the library?] for MISREAD, for instance) but it's Tuesday, so it had to be taken at face value. A bit surprising to see that in the NYT but there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.
ReplyDeleteI think QUEEN ANNE'S LACE was an answer in that poker-themed Sunday puzzle, where both QUEEN and ACE were rebus squares.
ENDUE is like ENDOW wanting to be IMBUE at the same time. I had ENDOW at first.
"Life of Riley" for EASE - am I reading too deep into this, or is that why the protagonist in Inside Out is called Riley? Before she moved to her new home and her life got turned upside down, we know that Joy was the dominant emotion in her mind and most of her memories are yellow (i. e. happy, connected to Joy out of the 5 emotions).
All the clue said to me was “William Bendix”
DeleteCool theme and execution. I recently moved to Portugal and the Euro Cup is huge here. Watched the Saturday match outside in a park with lots of fans. Força Portugal! 🇵🇹⚽🇵🇹
ReplyDeleteVery cool. I lived in Brasil during the 1990 Italy World Cup and it was some craziness when the matches were on.
Delete
ReplyDeleteA bit more challenging than Medium solving "Downs Only Lite," getting the theme answers from crosses only.
urge before ache before ITCH at 5D
At 13A, I thought Caesar might have invaded Gaul (he did; "Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est" and all that), but the year was wrong. Settled for ATTILA, which I can never spell correctly the first time.
Thought the Goya at 44D might be a soccer star or some such and had ole oLE before ANDALE (hadn't yet seen OLES at 36D)
Wanted all Ears instead of TUNED IN at 47A but never wrote it in because I had too many conflicting crosses.
aye before YEA at 49A
@Clare got it right with WEEDER (34D). It's not a tool, it's a category of tools.
Didn't know ELISSA Slotkin at 7D.
A pretty smooth Tuesday, and I liked the theme a lot. My only pause was ENDUE, which I agree is a bit highbrow for this day of the week.
ReplyDeletePretty easy for a Tuesday, but I liked the theme a lot. My only pause was ENDUE, which I agree is a little highbrow for this day of the week.
ReplyDeleteELISSA crossing SIMCITY was a huge Natick from where I’m sitting. And on a Tuesday?
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure that SIMCITY counts as obscure fill.
DeleteI feel like SIM CITY is inferable if you’re thinking of games about cities (which you have in the “opolis” part of the clue), and SIM is also a computer term
DeleteA Natick requires the letter where two obscure words meet to be uninferable. If you have _IMCITY and the clue is a computer game, S is really the only letter that fits.
DeleteELISSA crossing SIMCITY was a huge Natick from where I’m sitting. And on a Tuesday?
ReplyDeleteI also had ENDow before ENDUE, which I never heard of before but the crosses were fair. I enjoyed the puzzle and figuring out the theme, and like Clare I didn't see the second card in each row until after I finished solving--those ACEs were well hidden from me. I thought it was a pretty good Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteHand up for ENDow before ENDUE. C’mon, it’s only Tuesday. Fun puzzle, good write-up, Clare!
ReplyDeleteI experienced WEEDER as pretty fair: just the other day I thought about going to a local hardware store for a new one -- specifically the kind like a specialty two-prong fork, good for going after roots. I wouldn't even know what to call that other than a weeder; it's nothing like a trowel. But it's definitely a category of tools (not unlike "wrench" or "pliers," I suppose), and "device" did make me wonder if the answer should be more specific.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The use of the word "device" and not "tool" in the clue made this one fair in my eyes.
DeleteI heard "suck face" in On Golden Pond in 1981 and never again. Katherine Hepburn and Henry Fonda both won best-actor Oscars for that movie.
ReplyDeleteJeff Chen went over the legal limit of threes today. 22 -- two over. First time for him, I think.
When I was playing blackjack a lot, blackjacks paid two to one. Now casinos pay only six to five. One of the reasons I don't play any more.
I wish that Chen would use his time creating puzzles by himself. They are consistently smart and well constructed.
Very similar to yesterday in that my first reaction to the theme was “meh” but then “oh!” when I saw that both cards were in the answer, not just the one with a value of ten. (Yesterday, it was both a body part and a building part.) Also similar to yesterday, one of the themers didn’t work as well because the key word doesn’t change meaning as it does in all the other themers. KING, JACK, TEN and all four ACEs are really hidden in their answers (as the revealer says), but the QUEEN is not hidden at all, she’s standing regally in the wildflowers, demanding obeisance. (Yesterday, it was KNEE that didn’t change meaning as all the other body parts did.) But I get that hiding the QUEEN would have been incredibly difficult - maybe one word that ends in QUE and the next beginning in EN. But you still have to get ACE in there, so really impossible. “RISQUE ENLACEMENT” clued as “Limbs intertwined in a porno?” Uh, no.
ReplyDeleteClare, I had the same reaction to ANDALE being associated with Goya. I think it’s more used in Mexico than Spain. I told a non-Spanish-speaking friend about one of the ways it is used. If someone is on a roll when she is speaking - like really making a great point and eloquently too - you might say, “Andale!” - almost literally “You go, girl!” And now she says it all the time when someone is having a great oratorical run. It is a wonderful expression.
ELISSA Slotkin is running for an open Senate seat in Michigan, and her race is one of the ones that will decide control of the Senate. Andale, girl!
@Wanderlust 6:24 AM
DeleteWhat I'm hearing you say is, "... blah blah blah “RISQUE ENLACEMENT” clued as “Limbs intertwined in a porno ... blah blah blah." Right?
The wheelhouse effect got me today - I’m not familiar with the card game or any of the theme entries save SUCKING FACE (which is a bonafide prehistoric oldie at this point - I haven’t heard it in the wild for decades). So this was a bit of a slog. Jeff snuck in some stuff that would be welcome later on in the week as well, which, combined with the theme difficulties took most of the air out of this one for me.
ReplyDeleteA fine example of what a Tuesday puzzle is meant to be. A poser here and there among the whoosh. Well done, constructors.
ReplyDeleteNice write-up, Clare, as usual! My son-in-law is Italian so we’re all rooting for Italy in the Euro Cup.
ReplyDeleteI did like the puzzle, and threw in both TENNISBRACELET and QUEENANNESLACE with no crosses. I like both those things in real life (although I don’t have a TENNISBRACELET and never expect to.) I do have to complain about ENDUE though. I of course had ENDow first, and have not heard ENDUE before, and I read a lot of books. It strikes me as one of those words that comes from a word list because no one really uses it.
My kids used to play SIMCITY, so that was a gimme for me. Knew ANDALE because I speak Spanish, but that could be challenging for a Tuesday if one doesn’t.
I’ve gotten well-trained to automatically type in YALE for any four letter college that could be anything. Recovering from that made this a definite medium.
ReplyDeleteAlso had ENDOW first. Clare, thanks for expanding on the reveal. Like you, didn’t see it all (until coming here).
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if anyone else has this experience but this puzzle felt like a lot. I am not sure of a lot of what, just that it felt like a lot. I solved slowly and methodically which is odd for a Tuesday since it usually is a whoosh whoosh experience. When I looked back at the puzzle and the comments , I have no idea why I struggled with so many clues. I just was not on the same wavelengths as the editor(s).
ReplyDeleteGreat write-up, Clare. I admit that I mostly came here today to read Rex's rant about the crossing of the year (THE crossing THEE), so i was pleasantly surprised to have my expectations subverted.
ReplyDeleteThe fill was fine, but please, please, please stop trying to make me play casino games with your themes. At least blackjack is slightly less soul-suckingly dire than poker, but not by much.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what everyone is on about with WEEDER. It's a device. It's used by gardeners. Sure it's a "type" of tool in the same way a shovels or hammers are "types" of tools. But it's a specific thing. If the clue said "Device for lumberjacks" and the answer was axe, would you say, "But axe is more of a category than a specific tool"?
ReplyDeleteIs Clare thinking of The Sims? I don't recall SimCity having people doing anything but walk on the sidewalk. But maybe there's a new version with more activity.
I was meh about this puzzle, mostly because of the tortured clueing. There's better ways to clue THE and THEE. Fill in the blanks are always terrible and I'm not interested in memorizing every musician that can't properly spell their own cringey made-up name.
"The Life of Riley" was a radio series in the 40's and a TV series in the 50's.
ReplyDeleteEasy except for ANDALE and SIMCITY. Never heard of the ZIKA virus. I had "Elyssa" for the Congresswoman, but only ELISSA worked with the crosses.
ReplyDeleteNice theme idea. A naughty clue might have been "Emptying a loo in Windsor Castle" for ROYALFLUSH(ING). Sorry for that.
Easy medium, very good Tuesday with many fresh answers and clues, impressive themer. ENDOW stood out as small hurdle - wonder if that was an editing decision?
ReplyDelete"With every grace ENDUED". Kinda Sunday level (!).
ReplyDeleteI’ve never been a very good TWENTY-ONE player but solving this made me want to go to the casino and try my hand at it again. Not very good at poker either but I love to play it so the puzzle with its straight ACE, KING, QUEEN, and JACK - in that order by the way - really made me smile. Thanks, Seth and Jeff, this was a fun one.
ReplyDeleteClare, great job today as always. I agree QUEEN ANNES LACE (wild carrot) is lovely, both the answer and the flower. I can walk out my back door and pick an armload of it but never do because the delicate blooms shed quickly and often hide miniscule little crawly creatures in their midst. It can also cause painful skin blisters if you’re sensitive to it.
Definitely had fun googling Goya today (Saturn Devouring his Son has haunted my dreams but I never knew the artist)
ReplyDeletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Goya
And I think weeders are specific tools so you don’t have to get on your hands and knees to pull them (great for garden grandpas) https://grampasweeder.com/collections/grampas-gardenware/products/grampas-weeder
SW corner was sticky for me, but great themers, overall a fun Tuesday
A “tyre” is not a wheel. If you are live the UK, you probably have one on each wheel of your vehicle.
ReplyDeleteHarder than a normal Tuesday for me. Never heard the word ENDUE before and I’ve never heard of an AFRAME house? How do you even pronounce that? Like “a frappe”? Weird word.
ReplyDeleteThe word is actually written A-FRAME, which might be why it looks odd to you in the puzzle. So named because the building resembles the letter A.
DeleteYou've probably seen one before: triangular buildings with no walls -- just a steep roof. A common design for cabins.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteGot the Theme pretty easily. I think the puz clues were ramped up a touch to get from a MonPuz to a TuesPuz. My opinion, and you know what they say about opinions.
With the cheater squares and the Jaws, we get 42 Blockers. High. Just an observation.
Speaking of QUEEN , got QB YesterBee! However, when I went to check this morning, the Results only show Genius! It was missing the last four words I had gotten. 🙁 The Bee has done something similar before, not showing words I had gotten, but never denied my Queen. Needed to rant about that. I'm not going to contact the Times, however. It just SUCKs.
Well, enjoy your Tuesday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Ha, I’ve developed the same Yale reaction as another above. Did slow me down for sure.
ReplyDeleteHadn’t thought about Zika in a while. It was huge news in the summer of 2016 during the Olympics in Brazil, just FYI. But if you don’t follow sports, pretty easy to miss. I recall some of the pro athletes, NBA players, golfers, tennis, not wanting to go for fear of the disease.
Zika was also on the radar of anyone who was pregnant or planning to travel to the tropics.
DeleteEasy Tuesday except for the bizarre ENDUR
ReplyDeleteOK Tuesday but the revealer was in the middle where it does not belong. When I start making NYT puzzles all the revealers will be at the end. No puzzles for me yet, as I'm still working on the Great American Novel and bringing peace to the Middle East.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of a RACERJACKET and wouldn't know one if I ate it in my soup, as an old friend used to say. Nor have I ever looked for TUNACANs to feed my cat with, and I doubt if anyone else has.
I have known one person named ELISSA who told me her name when I was signing her up for soccer. She said ELISSA and I said Melissa? and she corrected me rather emphatically. Only other ELISSA I have ever come across.
Good EYE has been replaced by "good take", just as "high" has been replaced by "up" and "low" has been replaced by "down". And I still can't get used to "sweeper".
Nice writeup by Clare and a decent Tuesday except for rrevealer placement. Nice work finding those combinations, SBH and JC. Some Blackjack Hands Just Come naturally, it seems, and thanks for all the fun.
I thought and thought and thought about what SUCKING FACE and TENNIS BRACELET* might possibly have in common and couldn't figure it out. But by putting TWENTY-ONE fairly high up in the grid, the constructors didn't keep me in suspense for long.
ReplyDeleteTo provide with an ability is to either ENDOW or IMBUE. But what do you do if you have EN?UE and you don't know much if any Spanish? I put in a B for ENbUE/ANbALE and called it a day. How ignominious to have a DNF on a Tuesday.
Well, not really.
*This lifelong tennis player has never worn a TENNIS BRACELET. I can't imagine anything more annoying or distracting than to have some sweaty metallic thing that's either digging uncomfortably into your flesh or flopping around where your wristband should be. I feel the same way about earrings and necklaces. Jewelry has no place on a tennis court -- save it for the press conference after the match.
I’m also conditioned to write in Yale for a 4 letter university- and to leave it in place far too long when the third letter is demonstrated to be an “l” …
ReplyDeleteAnd Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.
ReplyDeleteENDUED was a new word for me.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t see the aces until I read the column - very cool.
Fun puzzle with fun words, and I only wish it had lasted longer!
Delightfully amusing comment from top to bottom, @pabloinnh. And I spent some time trying to scrub the green paint out of the RACING JACKET too.
ReplyDeleteWrote this on crossword fiend:
ReplyDeleteNYT: I take issue with 44D. That is a pure Mexican expression, probably used in parts of Central America (maybe, I’m not even sure), but definitely NOT used by Spaniards, as hinted by the GOYA clue.
Spanish is spoken in 20 countries and its usage, particularly when it comes to colloquialisms, varies greatly from one to another.
This clue could’ve been better if used in reference to Speedy Gonzalez (not loving the stereotype here, but still, apter).
@Nancy-Gee thanks. I was wondering what you'd have to say about the TENNISBRACELET, and you did not disappoint. How did they dome to be called that anyway?
ReplyDeleteBased on Chris Everett wearing one: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/fashion/a35016837/what-is-tennis-bracelet-history/
DeleteI initially thought that TUNA CAN was kind of green paint-ish but then I remembered a minor character in some crime novel I read long ago was called TUNA CAN Tommy. I’ll leave it to you to figure out from where the name arose.
ReplyDeleteWhat Goya probably wouldn't say to Mickey: ANDALE RATON. (RATON being Spanish for mouse).
ReplyDeleteIf you wrote EYE a trillion times and then stepped back to admire your work, it would be ALLEYS.
Mrs. Egs definitely has a WEEDER. Me!
If you want to be a gigolo, you should be a well-ENDUEd dude.
Nice puzzle overall, but don't think I'd bet on RACERJACKET as a winner. Thanks, Seth Bisen-Hersh and Jeff Chen.
Hey Clare! Stop watching sports, or you'll eventually be able to justify wearing ballcaps inside.
ReplyDeleteFun theme. Okay fill. Too many names. I do not think one should call it a RACER JACKET if the fellow competitors are motorcycle racers as they might tend to look askance at such a phrase.
Hm: Finished on ENDUE as I don't think I've seen that word before.
Ug: THE. OUR. Brutal.
Propers: 10 (boo)
Places: 1
Products: 1
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 (32%)
Funnyisms: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: SUCKING FACE
Uniclues:
1 Pointy pixelated palace-ish.
2 Minty fresh British rubbers.
3 Drank even more despite the nauseated feelings of regret, sadness, and disappointment.
4 Recycled.
5 You smoke dope? Me too!
6 How visits to my dominatrix begin.
7 Louisa May's volleyball injury.
8 Piece of cake that's not a corner piece.
1 SIM CITY A-FRAME
2 COLGATE TYRES
3 PROOFED QUEASY
4 RETURNED TUNA CAN
5 WEEDER? AS AM I! (~)
6 GAME ON SWATS
7 ALCOTT ACL TEAR
8 NEEDY DESSERT
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: "The dude throwing the party answered the door in his swimsuit, no lie." SPEEDO HOST FOR REAL.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@pabloinnh -- Actually, I had NO idea where the concept of a tennis bracelet came from until I looked it up earlier today. This info came as a complete surprise to me. I wonder how many, if any, of my tennis friends know this?
ReplyDelete"The term “tennis bracelet” dates back to the 1987 U.S. Open when player Chris Everts diamond bracelet fell off her wrist onto the court. The match paused while she searched for and retrieved the bracelet."
Lots of 3 letter Hidden Diagonal Words (HDW) today, including a mini-theme to be identified in these three clues:
ReplyDelete1. Play the part, so to speak (3 letters)
2. Get the part
3. Entertainment with a variety of parts
Answers
1. ACT (begins with the A in 6D, ZIKA, moves to NW)
2. LAND (L in 51D, UCLA, also moves to NW)
3. OLIO (O in 32A, OUR, moves to NE)
And viewing OLIO in reverse yields the HDW "OIL," echoing the OIL in 38A--pretty slick! See what I did there? lol
Not too long ago, I lived in Boca RAT ON
Ok, "MR T" is outta here--HASTA la vista, baby!
for me the entertainment reference to a mild dutch cheese is How I m”Met Your Mother’s “don’t sleep on the GOUDA” (S5E4)
ReplyDelete“Good eye” is not something one would say to a “hitter”, as it necessarily implies one has wisely taken a ball and not hit anything. More appropriate would be “compliment to a batter.” One stepping up to the plate is always a batter, but only a hitter after putting the ball in play and reaching base.
ReplyDeleteAgree. I only played organized baseball through Little League, but my understanding of "good eye" is the ability to recognize, and thereby NOT hit, a ball that's outside the strike zone. See: Kevin Youkilis, once the Boston Red Sox "Greek God of Walks"" - he had a good eye.
DeleteI think that’s a bit of a stretch, Rick. You’d certainly say something like, “Bob’s our best hitter” synonymously with “Bob’s our best batter.” I believe all baseball fans would take that to describe a player’s all-around performance at the plate.
DeleteHi Clare!
ReplyDeleteI also thought this was slightly easier than Medium although I solved as a themeless & came here to see what was going on.
Nice puzzle Jeff & Seth - thank you :)
Cool hidden Blackjack puztheme. Google research confirms that RACERJACKET is a thing, so go ahead and bet on it.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: Twenty-One plus one choices, aptly. Let's ignore em all, and go with: ACE.
some faves: SUCKINGFACE themer. QUEASY. GAMEON. ZIKA [debut word]. RETURNS's token ?-marker clue. Gettin to meet ELISSA.
Had no inklin of the puztheme mcguffin, until reachin the revealer, which was humanely placed in the middle of the puzgrid [ok, for a TuesPuz level solvequest, I reckon]. Knowin the theme sure helped out some with the new-to-M&A RACERJACKET.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Bisen-Hersh and Chenmeister dudes. A great deal of fun.
And thanx for yer excellent coverage, Ms. Clare darlin. U may outpace M&A at 5,000 meters [maybe not, tho -- if I had the right racerpants], but try m&e on that there runtpuz below.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
Andale and Endue were a bit challenging for a Tuesday, but mostly it was a fun puzzle, I, too, have never heard of a Racer Jacket, though.
ReplyDeleteSolved down clues only, successfully for the second Tues in a row! Quite a workout, and even though I had all the themers correct including the revealer, I didn't have a clue(!) what the theme was until I read the revealer's clue, which I'm allowed to do once the puzzle is complete.
ReplyDeleteRACER JACKET... just no. Google Ngram has zero hits for this term. Zero!! Racing Jacket, now that's a thing.
[Spelling Bee: streak 2; missed these words on two days last week. Congrats RooMonster!]
@Anonymous (8:34) AFRAME would be hyphenated and pronounced as two words: A. Frame. An A-frame house typically has a steeply angled roof in the shape of a triangle - ergo in the shape of an A.
ReplyDelete@Nancy (11:01) Fascinating bit of trivia about the TENNIS BRACELET. If I had to guess, I never would’ve come up with anything like that. I’m not that much of a tennis fan but always thought Chris Evert could do no wrong.
@anonymous 8:34 - It's A-Frame - the structure (frame) of the house looks like an A. You've probably seen them before. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-frame_building
ReplyDeleteHand up for never seeing endue before. And since it was crossing a Spanish word, it seems unfair for a Tuesday. I have pride, hubris even, over my vocabulary but had never encountered endue.
50A ENDUE. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this word. Because I was solving downs only it caused problems crossing ANDALE (44D), which I had filled correctly. But that was just a wild guess. So I stared at 50A EN_UE and thought it must be ENsUE. And a DNF ensued.
ReplyDelete54A RACERJACKET?? Really. May actually be a thing but it sure sounds both made up and awkward. The other three themers were really good.
56D EYE. I’ve played a fair bit of baseball in my life, so I should have known this one.
It’s a beautiful sunny morning and I did this one while sitting in my favourite crosswording place, on a bench under a group of spruce trees. The birds were crazy active and noisy and that reminded me that I’ve always wanted to download the Merlin app and identify who’s who in this wonderfully unscripted songfest. So I did. It’s mostly sparrows, robins, chickadees with the occasional towhee. Just as I got the app up and running it picked up a fairly loud croaking from the sky above me and identified it as a Great Blue Heron which soon materialized in the blue sky to the north. What a fantastic sight! What a great way to start the day.
Hey Rex,
ReplyDeleteIf you read this - I just saw this on X - what does THAT mean?
"Starting 7/1/24, we are pausing new New York Times Crossword submissions in an effort to give our editors a small break and get ahead on editing. Editors will still be answering your submissions from before the break. We will reopen them on 7/19/24."
Anyone know?
THE crossing THEE? Gimee a break…
ReplyDeleteRe: Racer jacket: absolutely, positively a thing. It's a sleek style that is the antithesis of the zippers, snaps, flaps and buckles of the Marlon Brando bad-boy style ala "The Wild One," a jacket worn by serious riders rather than trouble-makers. I wore one for years until I got married and stopped riding. And I find lots of search hits referring to it as the "iconic racer style" jacket. Still made by many leatherwear companies. https://www.nycleatherjackets.com/collections/mens-leather-racer-jackets (for example).
ReplyDeleteLike several others, I spotted the face cards and the ace in TENNIS BRACELET, but noticed neither the other aces nor the ten, until I came here and read Clare. I did notice that the queen was not hidden. I don't think you can hide it in a word, you'd need something like "burlesque ensemble;" that's too long, I'm just using it to illustrate the concept.
ReplyDeleteA WEEDER is definitely a thing, and I need to get one! RACER JACKET is apparently real, as well--not knowing something doesn't mean it doesn't exist, unless you're God.
The radio/TV show was named for the expression, rather than the other way around. "Living the life of Riley."
It's always fun to outsmart myself. I tend to think that ATTILA came along later than he did, so I put in Alaric, who sacked Rome earlier in the fifth century. Our old friend STU fixed that up quickly.
As for Yale, I did think of it, but it seemed unlikely to have drawn that many applications; it had to be a big public school. Ohio came to mind, but nobody calls it that--so I gave up on ENDow and put in that U.
OTOH, I started with COrnell for the dental hygiene brand. Doh!
Actually Clare there is a tool called a wings weeder which might be referred as just a weeder. And there may be others I"m not thinking of. Right now my back is aching from two hours of weeding (which had to be done bending and kneeling, not with a winged weeder ), and deadheading.
ReplyDeleteThe garden is looking beautiful, but which my back could last longer.
I would have liked the theme more if I knew the game twenty one. Didn't see the two cars in each answer until I came here.
@ Les More. I agree that racer jacket sounds made up
Trolled by UCLA (and not YALE), especially crossing ENDUE, which I've never seen before. Liked SUCKINGFACE. Fun!
ReplyDeleteI've heard of CAFÉ RACER JACKET, so named for a relatively light weight, low wind resistance leather JACKET favored by riders of motorcycles called Café racers. Here's a wiki blurb: "Café racers were standard production bikes that were modified by their owners and optimized for speed and handling for quick rides over short distances." Lots of pictures on the wiki Café Racer page.
ReplyDelete@jb129 (3:13) after I saw your comment I went over to The New York Times Puzzle Submission Guidelines page and saw this: "Submissions will temporarily close starting July 1, 2024 at 5 P.M. and will reopen July 19, 2024. We will review already submitted puzzles during that period, so you may still hear from us while submissions are closed."
Re RACER JACKET... I'm kinda confused because my first search yielded zero hits on Google Ngram, and most of the hits on Google search seemed to actually use the term Racing Jacket. Yet many people say it is definitely a thing. Is it just too recent to show up on Ngram? (The latest Ngram results are from 2019.)
ReplyDeleteNobody mentioned "the"(37 A).TERRIBLE Could have been "___ Weeknd" Now I know where 33 D got the extra "e'. OR could have been clued as french tea
ReplyDeleteVery hard for a Tuesday ... would have been unusually hard for a Wednesday. But curiously, all the difficulty was in the down clues. I imagine someone solving across only would have had a good day.
ReplyDeleteMonday-level easy. All of the ACE cards appear after the face or TEN cards except for the last one (ACE-JACK). Not very elegant.
ReplyDelete@ Ed Rorie 8:16 AM
ReplyDeleteYes, I had the same thought--wheels on a lorry are called 'wheels' not tyres! The correct clue for tyres in this format would be "Tires on a lorry."
Virtually everyone in the USA makes a similar type of mistake when they talk about a car's 'spare tire.' Getting a tire on or off a car wheel is virtually impossible without a tire machine, so if you got a flat and all you had was a spare tire that was not already mounted on a wheel, you'd be screwed. As a result, what we call the 'spare tire' in a car is really a 'spare wheel and tire set' but nobody ever mentions the wheel, just the tire!
Was this puzzle PROOFED?? Seeing a stand-alone THE--let alone crossing THEE--made me QUEASY. As things went along, I got WEARIER at RACERJACKET and ENDUE, only to find EKES for DESSERT!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy playing TWENTYONE, and the appearance of "bricks" (TEN-count cards) plus ACE in each themer is clever, but yikes, where is the editing? JC is getting SLOPPY (cl. 17) in his old age. Par.
Wordle par.
TUNEDIN, GAMEON
ReplyDeleteELISSA just turned TWENTYONE,
A RAREGEM all dressed IN LACE,
IN THE ALLEY, QUEASY fun,
AS if DESSERT, she’s SUCKINGFACE.
--- ANNE ALCOTT
Racer jackets are real, when I type in the 2 words, and just those 2 words, I get hit after hit after hit. I also wrote in endow, but also thought that it could be endue. Why? I've done tons of xwords and it popped into my head. Sometimes too much of something is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the editor's name is not Phil, nor Themers for that matter. For TWENTYONE? What'll we get for BLACKJACK?
ReplyDeleteWordle par.
Good one Rondo - Phil - you get an eagle.
ReplyDeleteLady Di