Shin armor / SUN 6-23-24 / Two farthings, colloquially / Too much, musically / Mechanical catch / Eyelike openings / Danced like Cardi B / Knowable without experience / Chargeable transport / Kvetchers' cries / Yarn label number / Cereal with a Mega Stuf variety
Constructor: Michael Schlossberg
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: "Picture Day" — Famous paintings are clued via literal descriptions that contain numbers; the whole thing is tied together by the final theme answer, PAINT BY NUMBERS (113A: Kind of craft store kit ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme):
Theme answers:
AMERICAN GOTHIC (23A: Two Iowans (1930))
[Grant Wood]
GUERNICA (37A: Six Basque villagers (1937))
[Pablo Picasso]
THE STARRY NIGHT (42A: 12 orbs (1889))
[Vincent Van Gogh]
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (68A: One gemstone (1685))
[Johannes Vermeer]
THE PERSISTENCE / OF MEMORY (86A: With 99-Across, four timepieces (1931))
[Salvador Dalí]
Word of the Day: Vikki CARR (28D: Vocalist Vikki) —
Florencia Vicenta de Casillas-Martínez Cardona (born July 19, 1940), known by her stage name Vikki Carr, is an American vocalist. She has a singing career that spans more than five decades.
Born in El Paso, Texas, to Mexican parents, she has performed in a variety of musical genres, including pop, jazz and country, while her greatest success has come from singing in Spanish. She established the Vikki Carr Scholarship Foundation in 1971. Vikki Carr has won three Grammys and was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 at the 9th Annual Latin Grammy Awards. [...]
Under the stage name "Vikki Carr" she signed with Liberty Records in 1962. Her first single to achieve success was "He's a Rebel", which in 1962 reached No. 3 in Australia and No. 115 in the United States. Producer Phil Spector heard Carr cutting the song in the studio and immediately produced his own cover version with the Blossoms(though it was presented as a recording by The Crystals) which reached No. 1 in the United States. In 1966, Carr toured South Vietnam with actor/comedian Danny Kaye to entertain American troops. The following year, her album It Must Be Him was nominated for three Grammy Awards. The title track reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in 1967, sold more than 1 million copies and received a gold disc. [...] Carr followed with two US Top 40 hits: 1968's "The Lesson" and 1969's "With Pen in Hand". Around this time, Dean Martin called her "the best girl singer in the business". In total, Carr had 10 singles and 13 albums that made the US pop charts. [...] Carr appeared to great acclaim in a 2002 Los Angeles production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Follies, which also featured Hal Linden, Patty Duke and Harry Groener. In 2006, Carr made a cameo appearance in a straight-to-video thriller called Puerto Vallarta Squeeze. (wikipedia)
• • •
I had a feeling this was going to be bad early on. By early on, I mean precisely here:
The single ALGA actually gave me a small "oof," and then that bloomed into a much bigger "Oof" before I even escaped the NW. The 1-2 of ALGA / A PRIORI would be a lot to take in such little space, but to have the laughable GREAVES running right through that same section, ye gods, wow. And I'm a former D&D enthusiast and sometime medievalist who actually knows a lot of terms for armor—but even I misspelled GREAVES at first pass (GRIEVES!). I haven't even hit the theme material yet, and already the vibe is bad. Then I hit the first themer and, having no idea what the gimmick is, with just AME- in place, throw down AMERICAN GOTHIC (23A: Two Iowans (1930)). Great painting, but the clue was so dumb and literal that I couldn't even fathom what the theme could be. And so, completely contrary to habit, I decided to jump to the bottom of the grid and work out the revealer before I went any farther. That led me into a bizarrely split solving pattern (just the NW and SE done, with acres of white space in between). It also led me to ...
Annnnd that's where the puzzle lost me. Completely. For good. That is ... not a word. Nope. Stop. Stop. If you told me you were an AMBIVERT I would congratulate you on leading your best life and encourage you not to let anyone kink-shame you. After you patiently and earnestly explained to me that it's not a sex thing, and then explained what you believed AMBIVERTS meant, I would then ... quietly ... exit the conversation.
The worst part is that this word is now gonna be in Everyone's database and I mean we haven't even seen the singular yet, we just jumped right to the plural? Of a non-thing stupid word? Do AMBIVERTS wear GREAVES? Do AMBIVERTS Dream of Electric GREAVES? I grieve the introduction of AMBIVERTS to my vocabulary, that I know for sure. And this is all before I realized what a dud the theme is. I worked the revealer, ended up getting PAINT BY NUMBERS (which, come on, should really be PAINTING BY NUMBERS), sighed, shrugged, and decided, "well, this solve is already a wreck, let's see if we can't get all these paintings from just their clues." Who doesn't love an art test!? I got THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY solely from having most of the "OF MEMORY" part filled in. The others, I needed a little push with, but not much of one. Shortly I was here:
[I forgot there was one more to hunt down: the symmetrical counterpart to "OF MEMORY," i.e. GUERNICA]
Don't think I knew there was a definite article in THE STARRY NIGHT. Also probably thought it was STARRY STARRY NIGHT. For reasons. You know the reasons.
I never look at social media until I'm done with the puzzle, but when I'm done, sometimes I check in to see what reactions are out there. This one really spoke to me:
I enjoyed 0 minutes of this puzzle. You know the paintings or you don’t. I don’t. The “revealer” is not a hint and does not reveal anything.
Naticks all over. 5A/8D was my final but far from only. 9A? 87D? 91A? 79A?!? No idea how I got through this but glad it’s over. #NYTXWpic.twitter.com/WdIE4hQUup
Unlike this solver, I knew every painting. Cold. And that didn't help with the enjoyment factor. At all. I mean, yes, I enjoyed thinking about the paintings, I love art, hurray for art, but as a puzzle, no this didn't work for me. As for the "Naticks," I didn't have any, but I can absolutely understand someone's wrecking on PIAF / FAGIN (5A: "La Vie en Rose" singer / 8D: "Oliver Twist" antagonist) (two proper nouns! crossing! at an uninferrable letter! PIAF is a legend, so you should probably know her, but still, I sympathize), and whether you wrecked or not, PAWL is bad (esp. crossing AAH WII LLC dear lord, what a grim little stretch) (9A: Mechanical catch), and HA'PENNY is not great either (my brain wants this piece of bygone coinage to be "HAyPENNY") (87D: Two farthings, colloquially), and TROPPO ... well that's not bad, actually (91A: Too much, musically), but it's definitely highly technical, and will be tough for many. I can't share the consternation with OGLALAS, though (79A: Crazy Horse and kin)—or, rather, I can, but only with the fact that it's got an "S" on the end. The plural of OGLALA is OGLALA. Crazy Horse is OGLALA. His kin are OGLALA. They are The OGLALA. We have seen OGLALA in the NYTXW many times this century, whereas we haven't seen OGLALAS since 1968.
The big, huge problem with the theme is that it has no boundaries, no limits. Any painting with any countable amount of anything in it qualifies! Here's [Three diners (1942)]
(or [Two coffee urns (1942)] or [Seven stools (1942)])
And here's [Three picnickers (and some other lady, is she with them or not, who knows?) (1863)]
It is true that not many paintings are famous by name, so finding ones that are sufficiently famous *and* contain different ... numbers ... of things? ... *and* making those fit symmetrically, I'm sure that took some work. But still, as a cluing conceit, the number thing does Nothing. It adds on dimension, no trickery. Nothing. All for a revealer that doesn't really stick the landing. In a grid that's full of ... not always top-tier fill. I think my disappointment is augmented by the fact that I really do love art and do love the idea of an art-based theme (Liz Gorski's Guggenheim-themed Sunday being the Ideal Sunday theme that I carry around in my head and heart). This one just doesn't seem to be giving enough puzzle bang for my puzzle buck
Bullets:
27A: Patton crossed it in 1944 (SEINE) — while the PIAF / FAGIN crossing didn't give me any trouble, the SEINE / FAGIN crossing sure did. So many five-letter European rivers ... and I spelled it FAGAN to start.
109A: Eyelike openings (OCULI) — crosswordese of the first order. Always feels like cheating when I just "know" this stuff (from decades of doing crosswords). It's an architectural term.
14D: Actress Graff of "Mr. Belvedere" (ILENE) — speaking of crosswordese, this actress's name would be largely lost to time if it weren't for her highly convenient first name (five letters, alternating vowel-consonant pattern, beginning and ending with vowels, all common letters ... if you want your kid to be a crossword answer some day, start by naming them ILENE) (or ARELA, that would kill)
34D: Sorry excuse for a pillowcase? (SHAM) — I got this because I know "pillowcase" = SHAM. I don't exactly see how "SHAM" = "sorry excuse." I would not use "SHAM" that way. SHAM implies fraud, "sorry" merely weakness. Oh well. Maybe there's some deeper connection to pillowness (or sorriness) that I'm just missing.
38D: QB stat: Abbr. (ATT) — short for "attempt" (as in attempted pass, in U.S. football: attempts / completions => completion percentage, an important stat)
55D: Fresh perspective (NEW TAKE) — this feels like "Green paint," i.e. something someone might say but not something that really has standalone power. HOT TAKE, yes, NEW TAKE, not really.
77D: Starts of some cheers (HIPS) — possibly the most unnecessarily painful clue I've ever seen, emphasis on "unnecessary." You've got a perfectly good word and ... and ... you decided to make it a bizarrely plural (?!) partial cheer (in case you somehow don't know it, the "cheer" in question is "Hip Hip Hooray!"). Unfathomable editorial choice. “Some cheers”?! Name one other. (“Hip-Hop Hooray” doesn’t count)
90D: Country that had a nonviolent "singing revolution" in the late 1980s (ESTONIA) — I learn so much about ESTONIA from the crossword. ESTONIAmust be the most common seven-letter country, or maybe it just seems that way because This Is Our Third ESTONIA Of The Week!!! When you're pushing ESTONIA that hard, you gotta keep coming up with new, non-boring clues. This week's clues
WEDNESDAY: [What's opposite Finland on the Gulf of Finland]
SATURDAY: [First country to hold elections using internet voting]
TODAY: [Country that had a nonviolent "singing revolution" in the late 1980s]
Impress your friends with ESTONIA lore! Unless you like having friends, in which case don't do that. See you next time.
Never, ever heard of a "PAWL," never heard of OREOOS, and cannot imagine anyone spelling a surname TARTT. I guess I don't get around much... Too much PPP in this one for my taste...
A fill in the famous painting theme - all easily inferable without the awkward revealer. I went to every themer first and scored a lot of real estate in this grid. The remaining fill was Wednesday level.
The NW was goofy. Did like OGLALAS and TROPPO. Those however are overshadowed by AMBIVERTS, LEAN TOS and REID. E BIKES are slowly ruining downtown Manhattan. Did learn TINSEL.
Tinders/Tarr vs. Cinders/Carr cost me a lot of time scouring the puzzle for typos. I gave up for a while and went down a Picasso Wikihole so the puzzle gave me that at least.
This is an instance where it made no difference if you solved the normal way or “Downs Only Lite” (not reading the themer clues), because the themer clues didn’t help. Two of this week’s three clues for ESTONIA (90D) - including today’s - amount to “Fill in the name of the country I’m thinking of.”
Conrad About Estonia Clues. Because my brain has a penchant to remember trivia about countries, I knew that Estonia has been very big on high tech, so I immediately tried that. So for me it wasn’t a none clue clue. Today was going even more obscure. Again some trivia in my brain helped but also it was in my mind because 3 times. So for most, it was probably a no clue clue.
I think I was the first person to use AMBIVERT in this space when I commented on being one some years ago in response to something in the column about introverts or extroverts. I can speak ON STAGE to an audience of thousands with no nerves, then work the crowd for hours. But then I will not want to speak to another person for three days. I am comfortable in very large groups but I get my energy from being alone. Sorry you hate the term Rex, but it is a real one and not even very new - first coined by a psychologist in 1927.
On to the puzzle. I am familiar with all of the paintings, and have seen all but “Pearl Earring” in their museum homes (two in MOMA, one at the Art Institute of Chicago, and one at the Prado, though it has since been moved to another museum in Madrid, the Reina Sofia). I agree the theme was a little broad. It kind of worked with the first two that were numbers of people, which I thought was going to be the theme. But then it moved into orbs, gemstones and timepieces. Not very tight.
I share Rex’s befuddlement at the awful cluing of HIPS when you could have done something less tortured and even clever such as “trendy joints?” I was set to be outraged at the last square I filled in, the P of PAWLS and PR TEAMS. I’ve never heard of the former, and I thought at first that the abbreviation P dupes the word “press” in the clue. But then I remembered that PR stands for public relations. Well, half a harrumph then, over the ridiculous PAWLS.
I went to Estonia some years ago and took a walking tour of Tallinn, the capital, which is actually one of the most charming cities in Europe. The tour guide, a young university student, told us that Estonia is the least-friendly country on Earth, by one metric. It’s not that they are mean, but they do not greet strangers or chat them up in bars, invite into their homes people they haven’t known for at least 20 years, etc. It seemed odd to hear this from a young woman who was perfectly friendly and delightful.
That brings us back to AMBIVERT. And a possible clue - least friendly country on Earth - for our next ESTONIA sighting.
Rex summed it up very nicely. It was even worse for me because I only knew the first two theme pictures, so most of the grid was dark matter. And of course, when the NYT gets into one of those moods where the answers don’t even need to be real words, well it’s going to be a long day for many of us.
Right out of the gate we have ALGA, PIAF, PAWL, GREAVES, GUERNICA (and you can add in CINCO). Go ahead and lawyer it all that you want, but those aren’t real words in any sense of ordinary usage. So, two minutes into the solve and it’s already obvious that the NYT coughed up an absolute stinker.
And of course, when they are on this much of a roll, you know they are not going to let up - so we get HAPENNY, AMBIVERTS, TROPPO, TARTT, . . . one can only wonder - how did this thing get published ?
Easy, due to crosswordese knowledge: PIAF, ELI ROTH, hairy ESAU, OCULI, LYRA. PIAF/FAGIN is a valid complaint, but I would hope most people would know at least most of the paintings. Solved the puzzle from top to bottom, so the revealer at the end is what made the puzzle for me (the rug that really tied the room together). Nice to learn OGLALAS.
In the Constructor Notes, Michael Schlossberg referenced Ecce Mono. I like this guy. :)
The puzzle was fine but not great, but Rex’s write-up is a gem. I actually liked AMBIVERTS. I’ve never heard the word before but getting it from crosses and inferences made me smile. I think we’re all kind of AMBIVERTS depending on mood and context but that’s another issue.
I know we all have our own wheelhouses, but it’s hard for me personally to think the PIAF/FAGIN crossing was a Natick for anyone. No offense to you if it was!
I quit the puzzle and came here as soon as i got to “herbal” 43D and realized they were dead-ass trying to get me to write “cutey” [sic] into a NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD. And “herbal” and “eye up” are such mid clues and answers, for it all. Astonishingly below the bar!
In my (hormonal) twenties, I created a lexicon of "prefix+vert" words and definitions. "Ambivert" was someone who did it with either hand. Don't ask me for more.
The term AMBIVERTS is very much a thing, so the diatribe is a bit tone-deaf. Just because it doesn’t come up in comic books or Greek mythology doesn’t mean people don’t use the word or that it shouldn’t be in crosswords. It’s way more in the language than lots of things in recent puzzles, so just relax and work on updating yourself with the trends.
No redeeming features for me at all. Very easy...I knew the paintings though I had to check whether Guernica really had 6 figures.. And because the clues for the theme were so literal, there was no payoff. It did make me want to see them all in person...
The excerpted tweet seems strange. Ostensibly from a crossword-oriented account and didn’t know any of these paintings? These are not exactly obscure works of art.
Agree with Rex about the awful fill. GREAVES? PAWL?!? I think he’s too hard on the theme, though. The revealer works for me - it’s a “hint” to the theme, not a description or equivalency, so I’m fine with “paint” even though, yes, each theme answer is a “painting.”
I actually didn’t mind the theme, even if it was extremely vague and really “All these paintings have a number of people in them!” rather than having a number in the title, which would possibly make a bit more sense. Helped that I knew most of the works immediately, but these kinds of knowledge-based clues (even though the works are all very famous) can be exclusive which I find not to be in the spirit of a crossword.
Aside from that, I was once again stumped by a few US-centric clues (what are OREOOS? Are they related to OREOS? And who is Joy REID? At least I knew Bill MAHER…). I did enjoy the UK clues, though, so HAPENNY and FAGIN were fine for me.
I also found some of the answers you mentioned to be, frankly, ridiculous. AMBIVERTS, ALGA, GREAVES… come on.
Thanks, I’ll have to lock that one away! I’ve heard of Joy Behar because of the crossword, so when a clue comes up asking for a TV presenter called Joy, I just assume it’s BEHAR… live and learn.
Certainly not easy for me. While familiar with the paintings by sight I only knew the names of American Gothic and Starry Night and the hint does nothing to help you solve the clues. Easily the most unpleasant and unsatisfying puzzle this year. Can't saying putting in PAWL, TROPPO, AMBIVERTS or SYFY was a source of any merriment.
Poor OFL. A couple of entries he didn't like and they ruined the whole puzzle. I thought this was the best Sunday in some time, although I admit to reading the clue for the first themer as "Two Indians" which made no sense until I totally filled in AMERICANGOTHIC and went back to reread the clue. Now there's an Aha! which was undeserved. After that I was waiting to see if I would recognize the other paintings, and did not skip to their clues, because I wanted to discover theme through crosses. Glad I did.
I did a unit on Spanish artists back in my teaching days, so fun to see a Picasso and a Dali in the grid. Had a chance to see Guernica in person and I wasn't expecting its size, which is massive and adds to its power.
Met ILENE and Mr. ROTH and Mr. TARTT and wanted CUTIE, which slowed things down. Unlike OFL, I enjoyed learning the word AMBIVORT, NOT THAT I'll ever use it again.
I liked your Sunday offering just fine, MS. It had a little more crunch than recent Sundays, and the answers Made Sense once I thought about them, which is the way it should be. Thanks for all the fun.
I know I've seen "algal bloom" in crosswords before, but crosswordese instinct got me ALOE off of AL-. I had CUTIE before CUTEY, then EE- looked very wrong.
I wonder why they didn't go with PAIL or PAWS at 9A. I didn't see any dupe-related problems with that.
I think my least favorite kind of puzzle is the easy easy easy easy IMPOSSIBLE easy easy easy type. This is a prime example. Four-way Natick for me at center-east: TARTT ALB OREOOS ADOBO. Didn't have any trouble with the other potential Naticks--some of 'em were gimmes. But this was just stupidly annoying. Especially ALB for Alberta when everyone knows the standard XWOrd-ese abbreviation is ALT isn't it? Anyway, made for a really irritating "meh" end to an otherwise okay if easy solving experience. Because I didn't learn anything I actually care about in that segment.
As a native Albertan, i can definitely say that Alberta is never abbreviated as ALT. That said, Alb is almost never used either. It's either Ab or Alta.
I guess I have a high tolerance for crosswordese. This was pretty fun. I don’t understand someone spending 42 minutes on something unenjoyable that they don’t have to do, just so they can complain about it on social media. That person needs a new hobby.
“Alga” is plant-like but not a true plant in its structure. Although I enjoyed the puzzle I am saddened by the reduction of Picasso’s tremendous anti-war painting showing the suffering of his people as “Six Basque Villagers”.
This puzzle was poor. But man, el oh el at whatever Rex decides is or is not fit for a puzzle. The formula, for newbies: 1) If Rex knows it, it is acceptable; 2) if Rex does not know it, it is not acceptable
A lot of PPP in this one and some really strange references. But it was fun to work out the paintings. Oddball stuff made it tough to get by without a Google or three. Learned some stuff I might never use again but every little bit helps…sun is trying to come out this morning the NE so off to the great outdoors…
My tastes in Sundays must be different from Rex's, because I loved this one. I really grinned when the theme clicked. I do agree there was some fill I didn't care for, including EYE UP, and also CUTEY (which tripped me up because I spell it CUTIE, and so I had some misleading but plausible letters there for a while).
Those are nits, though -- great puzzle, Michael!
I know the word GREAVES from a very specific source: it's used to describe the leg components for some of the armor sets in the recent Legend of Zelda games. (E.g., "Soldier's Greaves.")
A similar experience... You got the first themer, girl with the pearl earring, jump down to the revealer, got that, and then asked myself why? Kept hoping there'd be more to this than I was seeing, but alas there was not
Everything except “AMBIVERTS” was right in my wheelhouse. I’ve decided that an ambivert is a person who has mixed feelings about their sexual perversions, and now I like ambiverts, too.
As someone who taught art history, I enjoyed getting everything but The Starry Night without crosses. A tiny reward for the constellation of golfers whose names I refuse to commit to memory.
As to the silly tweet that “you know the painting or you don’t.” Well, yes. That’s how knowledge of most things works. You also know what key a classical composition is in or you don’t, or know the last name of a 70s college football coach or you don’t, or know the name of a character in a novel from the 30s or you don’t.
I am not a knowledgeable puzzler. I do crosswords regularly, but I know nothing about spreads, grids, themes, or naticks. Here’s what I do know: this crossword puzzle was an abomination. It was the proverbial old man shaking a fist, screaming at kids to get off his lawn. It was nearly hostile in its out-dated clues, and practically screamed that it was for the exclusive few who remembered Mr. Belvedere. I do! I got it! And I got the painting references that were basic enough to nap through if you knew a handful of paintings, and pretentious enough to make you feel like an idiot if you don’t. I barely “eked” out of my Sunday morning without setting my newspaper on fire, and I’d have more than a few “playground retorts” for the wizards who let this kind of impotent drivel drain the simple pleasures out of a peaceful Sunday morning.
I broke my streak because I disliked this puzzle so much I didn’t want to put in the extra effort to suss out the ones that needed some extra TLC. Double “ole” should be straight to crossword jail.
Hey All ! Look at me, standing in front of paintings looking like I know what I'm talking about. Picture this, I'm chewing on my glasses, nodding my head in a "I see what the artist did there" kind of way. It feels pretty neat being all haughty. 😁
Not knowing GUERNICA, had a heckuva time in that NW corner. With GREAVES and APRIORI also non-knows, flailed around up there, until I actually did get them correct, but wasn't getting the Happy Music. So I Googed them both, found out I was correct, didn't feel like poring over a SunSizePuz to try to find my wrongness, and hit Check Puzzle.
Well, shoot, I had a silly typo on the bottom. IBk for IBM. Dang, must've fat-fingered that K in there. It is right above the M on the keyboard, after all.
Had all the unknowns Rex mentioned, but was able to figure them out, so that gets a Yay Me. We have WII and WIIG in here. In NE corner, LETS EAT SOME PIG, ELI ROTH.
May have heard of the OGLALAS before, but even though a neat name, hasn't stuck in the ole brain.
I just gave final approval of my book to start getting printed! Hooray! Coming soon to a bookstore near you! Or Amazon, if you're so inclined. I'd like to hear if people think it's good, or if they think it sucks. 😁
Sorry, AMBIVERTS of course. And I forgot to say that unlike many here, I love seeing obscure words that I actually know but need to be reminded of, like GREAVES and PAWL.
Clues for Hidden Diagonal Words (HDW) in today's grid (answers below):
1. Innertube? (5 letters)
2. Prognosticator (4 letters)
3. Squared up (5 letters)
4. Winning tic-tac-toe sequence (3 letters)
The big Sunday grids greatly expand the potential for HDWs and the possibility of long HDWs (5 or more letters), including the two 5 letter words clued above.
As for the puzzle, a slog and a half for moi--I either knew the painting visually and didn't know the exact title (Dali's THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY) or didn't connect with the clued description (GUERNICA) or wasn't familiar with the painting or its name (GIRL WITH ... EARRING). But I soldiered through, only do ultimately dnf on the NASA misdirection, 124A, having RUBEy and LYRe (need to work on my constellation knowledge).
Love all things E. B. White (SOME PIG)!
Answers for the HDW clues: 1. STENT (begins with the S in 84A, RINSE, moves to SE--I like this clue/answer combo) 2. SEER (start with the S in the horribly clued 77D, HIPS--Hi, Rex--and move to the NE. Hey, if the nyt can use ESTONIA 3 times in a week, I can use a Hidden Diagonal SEER on back to back days) 3. TRUED (the T in 47A, CUTEY, move to SE) 4. OOO (the O in 93D, OMNIBUS, moves to SE--I normally avoid mentioning 3 letter HDWs and would not usually go with such a crossword-y non-word, but this OOO is a "pure" HDW, in that is has blocker squares at either end)
Terrific puzzle. I would have been the perfect person to "test solve" it over at the NYT because even though what I don't know about Art History would fill every museum in the country, I nevertheless knew every single title of every single painting. Not only that -- I could envision all of the paintings in my mind's eye. Michael really chose paintings that were accessible to pretty much everyone, not just to avid museumgoers.
But I didn't know these paintings well enough to count the objects. Did Michael?
Okay, so I knew that there are two people in AMERICAN GOTHIC and that there is one earring in GIRL WITH A PEAR EARRING. But the number of orbs? The number of timepieces? And most seemingly un-countable of all -- the Basque villagers?
I Googled THE STARRY NIGHT (my first themer in) and tried to count the number of round things in the sky. But the photo was too small and I wasn't all that sure. Unless the orange thing in the foreground is also a clock (too blurry online to tell), I could only find three timepieces in THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY. I decided that trying to count the villagers in GUERNICA would probably be out of the question.
Was Michael able to tell by perusing the Internet? Is there a reference work that gives you this info? Or did he go in person to every museum and do his counting there?
Whatever he did, this is an interesting and unusual theme with dense fill. And it actually teaches you something, too.
One question for all you Art History majors out there: Why on earth is a painting of four melted clocks called THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY? I've never understood it.
Hi, art nerd here! I’ve always taken the title to be in reference to the person that appears to be sleeping in the background, with the melting clocks symbolizing the past (memories) slowly melting like cheese in the sun (what Dali said inspired him to paint the painting, seeing cheese melting in the sun). Like the clocks melting, our memories persist and don’t simply evaporate. They slowly ooze deeper and deeper into our subconscious mind.
I commented above that the theme would have been tighter if all the numbers referred to people. Even better - if they ascended in number. The last one could have been “110 sinners” for THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS. (Yeah, I looked up the number.)
PAINT BY NUMBERS kits seem to be more sophisticated these days. A friend gave me a kit to paint THE STARRY NIGHT. Much more interesting looking than the dog on black velvet I worked on as a kid but never finished. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to try it out.
I don't know how far we were into watching Ted Lasso before I realized the Jamie TARTT song was stolen from the Baby Shark song. I guess I should count my self lucky for never having that as an earworm. Annoying.
I liked this puzzle. It covered a lot of ground, from NEAR SPACE to LIMA, the INCA TRAIL and the SEINE. It had a TROPIC TOPIC and a TROPPO PLOP. The only wordplay entry I remember seeing was the 34D clue for SHAM, a clue I liked. I'm not fond of CUTEY - it's CUTEsY or CUTIE at least in my lexicon.
I liked your art-filled puzzle, thanks Michael Schlossberg!
Meh, I didn't mind it. I guess from a construction standpoint I get some of the gripes but overall it was a pleasant and pretty easy solve for me. PIAF/FAGIN is totally fair I think - if you don't know either name and haven't run into them in crosswords (especially PIAF) then that's kind of on you. Neither is that obscure. A few new ones for me - TROPPO, NEARSPACE, TARTT, GREAVES, Vicki CARR - but didn't have any trouble with crosses. 61D, why Papyrus-specific - aren't EDGES the frayed part of anything frayed? I was looking for something more arcane. HIPS, yeah that clue, oof - cringey as the kids say. Always love to read the writeup, even and sometimes especially when I don't agree...
@Rex mentions that ARELA would be a good thing to name your kid if you want her to appear in crosswords. ARESO would be another and it's in today's puzzle (102D).
No dupe police calling foul on EYEUP and"Eyelike openings"? Don't get me wrong, I like openings, but I can just hear you German speakers yelling "Ach, you lie!" And what about "Real Time with Bill" vs. "four timepieces"? Kind of a micro dupe. BTW, I heard that Bill gave his MAHER Christmas present early last year.
I can't believe that we didn't get "12 Jesus freaks" and THELASTSUPPER in today's puzz.
Liked it fine. Thanks for doing an arty number on us, Michael Schlossberg.
Lousy theme. It might have worked it the titles of the paintings actually had a number in them. Simply putting a number in the cluing allows the constructor to put any title in the grid and then just count something or anything that appears in the painting. I call B.S.
Another day, another instance of Rex flipping out over a perfectly normal (and almost century-old) word. And who’s going to be thrown off by FAGIN/PIAF? The only complaint from me was “CUTEY,” as the more common spelling (I’d go as far as to call it ubiquitous) is “cutie.”
I got THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY without even reading the clue. After getting AMERICAN GOTHIC, and realizing the themes were all going to be very famous paintings with recognizable titles (i.e., not A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte), I knew The Persistence of Memory would be in there somewhere.
So the thing about PAINT BY NUMBERS is that you replace numbers with colors.
Even after having the revealer and two of the theme answers, I was still sitting there going "Ok, so one = white since the pearl earring is white, so maybe two is black or red...Red Iowans? Black Iowans?"
Was very disappointed when it finally became clear is was so much more boring, and also nothing to do whatsoever with actual PAINT BY NUMBERS.
I'm surprised at so much griping about a perfectly fine puzzle. There were lots of tough fill words—alga, pawl, greaves, near space, cutey (which, I agree, is very odd)...but I got them all from the crosses, and that is what you hope will happen in a good puzzle. As for the names of the paintings, I think it's fair to say most puzzlers will figure them out and recognize them after doing some of the fill. Also...I've never heard the term ambiverts but don't feel the need to rant about it just because it's unfamiliar. Lots of grouches today, it seems, and many so EXTREME. Chill, folks! And if you find the puzzle so unpleasant, stop doing it before you've put in your 42 minutes or whatever! It's just not necessary to publish such stinging, and unwarranted, comments.
As a former psychology major, I can attest to the fact that ambivert has come into usage during the 21st century as a way of describing someone who can be both extroverted and introverted at different times. Pseudoextrovert is another term that was formerly used to describe the same personality type, but I believe ambivert has now displaced it.
A long time ago, when I was visiting Florence, I spent an entire day looking at artwork and wrote a postcard back to a friend that said: Spent the whole day looking at artwork and my Uffizies are killing me.
I knew all the paintings (not sophisticated, just old (87) - hang around long enough and things enter your brain.) That said, terrible puzzle. There must be a scarcity of Sunday puzzle makers out there. Maybe this one was the only entry for this week.
Easy, due to luck of the draw of being an art history hound and of knowing less familiar vocab like GREAVES and PAWL, with AMBIVERTS being the only new one for me (@Wanderlust, thank you for elaborating). Can't complain about a tribute puzzle to works of art (now in small print: even if I do wish it had offered more resistance).
Agree with JT 1225, this was fine puzzle. Haven't bothered to read any of the other comments because RPs reaction and most others (especially with Lewis away) were bound to be, shall we say, negative and I'm enjoying sunny Sunday
There were a number of head scratchers like GREA,VES, PAWL, HAPENNY, AMBIVERT, etc but mostly easy crosses. For a while, since the theme paintings were of older vintage ,I searched for connection between the archaic/arcane words with an Olde English subtheme, but couldn't make it work
Now putting those words in a smaller Saturday or Friday puz, that might make a real treat. If I ever get a hankering to construct one like that, I'll open the OED and go wild!
My first comment was 'BLOOPED' so at the risk of annoying everyone I'm going to post it again ... just in case it didn't show.
Sorry, Michael, but you should've stuck with DOGS PLAYING POKER. The only thing I liked about this puzzle was the reference to the Vicky Carr song "It Must Be Him" from my pre-teenage years :(
I liked the puzzle much more than Rex did But in reading his comment I had to agree with a lot of the complaints about individual words. I still have no idea what a cawl is. Need to google, Had never heard of ambiverts, and mentally rejected it at first but I'lm coming round to liking it. Had never heard of greaves. May nw have learned th emceeing of priori.
@Andy Freude (9:03) - agree completely, time for a new hobby, sheesh
@JT (12:25) - agree completely, thanks for spreading some chill
I didn't know 2 of the paintings, nor Piaf/Fagin. I learned TROPPO, and I'm sure I'll forget its meaning long before I run into it a second time in my life.
I agree with JT @12:25, particularly about Parker’s s—t storm over “ambiverts.” The venom at this site is getting worse, mirroring IMHO what’s going on outside Puzzleland. Sad. I liked this one Mr. Schlossberg, I found it easy, and ‘twas pretty darn clever.
i think lewis is on a VOC *vacation of convenience* because this puz. stunk ! and all of you insensitive commentors throwing your happiness and compliments around without the concern of others should just go smile somewhere and leave others alone.
the pillow case thing was a joke...notice the ? at the end. idk i kinda enjoyed this one. but was trying to come up with movies until i uncovered the revealer.
@Nancy, I'm all in with you today. I can't answer your question about the famous Dali painting, but I thought this was the most engaging Sunday puzzle in recent memory.
I'll admit that I winced at the spelling of CUTEY, and I'll acknowledge that there's room to debate whether an ALGA is a plant (it was a non-vascular plant when I first studied biology, I think, but it's currently classified as a protist). But those are nits in an otherwise exceptional puzzle. Loved the clues for NOSTRIL and POTTERY!
Agree a weak theme and disappointing revealer (I didn't jump ahead to see it). I knew all the painting names, but oddly I don't think I've seen any of them in person, and I've been to a lotta art galleries / museums all over Canada, US, Europe.
Finished with a clumsy error where I had FETA with my Souvlaki.
There were a lot of dreaded Unknown Names (ILENE ELI ROTH IKE REID TARTT). GREAVES was a WOE but I'll try to remember it. AMBIVERTS was nice to learn.
I'm surprised so many were appalled by PAWL. If you have ever seen the inner workings of a clock, you have seen a PAWL. It's a really clever yet simple device that allows a notched wheel called a ratchet to turn in one direction but prevents it from turning back in the reverse direction.
I join all y'all AMBIVERTS out there. I totally enjoy being around others but also cherish my time spent in solitude. I need both to be happy. The trend in personality testing and measurement is giving a person a fixed score on each of five basic personality traits summarized by the acronym OCEAN. The reality is that most people probably score higher or lower on each trait depending on circumstances.
OCULI is a less often seen plural of convenience that reduces rather than increase letter count. The singular OCULUS is Latin for "eye" and is a common architectural element such as a round window or a circular opening at the top of a dome.
I gauge Sunday puzzles by how far I get into the solve before I quit. I finished this one so ipso facto I liked it.
For me, AMBIVERT and PAWL(thanks to Anoa Bob) were worth the price of admission.
Didn’t we just have PIAF in a puzzle this week?
I agree that the blog and commentariat are a bit cranky today.
OCULI is inferrable. The Meta VR headset is name Oculus, as is the new train station at the World Trade Center subway stop, not to mention a movie, and plenty of other ways to know it. We all have our personal strengths and gaps, but it is not an editing fail to include this.
I’d like to thank Rex for the public service of reminding me why I still don’t need to read X formerly Twitter. If this person doesn’t know any of these paintings, maybe they should go to Wikipedia to read and look, rather than X to rant…
Sorry to spend my time ranting about ranting…
Have any other musicians here ever seen TROPPO without NON in front of it?
After reading the other comments, I am genuinely surprised by the all the complaints and confusion about HA'PENNY. Have you folks never heard the rhyme "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat"?
CDilly52 here with a huge AMEN for the Ha’penny and the song. We used to sing it as a round every Christmas with everyone present having their own part. 20 people, 20 times. Yikes!
CDilly 52 here still unable to (and very frustrated about) not being able to sign in. Oh well, I am going to quit complaining.
This was very “old school” to me and I imagine it might have been challenging for folks who have not been solving the NYTXW for a long time. For the same reasons @Rex said “oof” early on, I said “Oh, we’re going old school today.” Not necessarily a good thing, that, but it’s fine with me; I AM old school. For some it probably had too many arcane crosswordy things like GREAVES, AMBIVERTS lots of names and some squishy clues. All of that is absolutely ok for me in a big fat Sunday grid.
I also hope to see a clever theme on Sunday. Today we have a theme for sure but while I got it and didn’t dislike it, I think it is a good idea but not as tightly executed as it might be.
That said, I quickly got the NW including the downs GREAVES and APRIORI, the center North’s PIAF and INCA TRAIL and the downs IN A SEC ACNE and FAGIN. All of this gave me enough to confirm my original thought that AMERICAN had something to do with the first theme answer.
At that time, I had not read the clue, so I decided to go ahead and see if I could figure out a theme clue. For some reason, the clue “Two Iowans” with the date 1930 and having half the answer, AMERICAN, made adding GOTHIC simple. However, I thought the theme might actually possibly have something to do with a NEW TAKE on the concept of “GOTHIC” or components of GOTHIC dress, vibes etc, so I did not immediately jump to famous works of art leading to PAINT BY NUMBERS. So, that remained a mystery until GUERNICA.
The concept was easy for me but the puzzle as a whole had some bite. The SW pushed back hard. I did not connect “plugs” with WADS until I had all the other answers, am not familiar with Cardi B’s music or dance style and for quite a while, HA’PENNY sat there all alone. I put in I’M SET but also entered Am toO at 102 D. Those dang “playground retorts” clues allowing one’s brain to decide who said what to whom first seem always to be troublesome for me. I guess wrong probably 80% of the time.
When I got to PAINT BY NUMBERS, I actually chuckled because I was so focused on remembering works of art that the fact of each clue containing a number eluded me. As Homer Simpson would say, “Doh!!”
Overall, and as an old solver with more than 60 years of practice with the NYTXW, I enjoyed this old school Sunday. It had things I didn’t know and had to get from crosses, it had abundant “stuff one knows from crosswords” like GREAVES - and so many more, and it had a decent theme. It felt very comfortable, like my favorite slippers. I liked it.
The Italian movie Allegro non Troppo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_non_troppo) is really funny. Not sure how available it is nowadays - I saw it maybe 45 years ago in a small movie theater circa 1980 and the print was in bad shape.
Instead of complaining about Piaf try listening to her sing. Google her and track her down on u tube. Read about her and Marcel Sedan. Better than Rick and Ilsa. They will always have Paris.
No problem with the puzzle. I thought it was interesting, and fun. Nothing too arcane, nothing too esoteric, all sufficiently in my wheelhouse. No naticks for me either.
Thought the theme was ok; lots more room for elongated titles in a Sunday.
But lots of PPP and arcana; worst of all (loudest negative from Rex and surprisingly only one comment, although offering a great alternative clue) was HIPS. Had “HI” and groaned out loud as I realized the answer.
I enjoyed this puzzle, but acknowledge the theme was a little weak. Completed this 75% of the way while commuting home from work, and finished the rest within about 10 minutes thereafter. Easy-medium, yes. Some nasty PPP crosses, yes.
@Mack, 3:05 PM and Anonymous, 4:36 PM: Thought exactly like you! (Helps to do this in a Cockney accent...) "Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do. If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!"
Thank goodness this heat wave will be a-breaking here in NYC.
An absolutely delightful Sunday puzzle. Lots or surprises in there, and a word absolutely new to me: Ambivert, which I will probably never use. Read through the puzzle first (as always) and the only one I knew instinctively was "The Persistance of Memory" and then it was pretty easy from then on. And whether it's spelled "Half-Penny" or "Hapenny" it's usually always pronounced "HAY-Pney" The British children's rhyme "Oranges and Lemons" has the line "You owe me three Farthings." And ends with the best ending for a kids' rhyme which they should sing to their classmates in Kindergarten... and then get reported to their parents, the school psychologist and maybe the police as well:"Here comes a candle to light you to bed, and here comes a chopper to chop off your head." My own grandchildren tell me that when they did that with their friends, almost all of them could sing the last line also.
Oh... the best part of today's blog was the warning or advice from the EU concerning blogging.
Wow! People are not happy with this puzzle! I liked it. On the easy side, once I got the gimmick. I disagree with most of the criticism I thought the revealer was fine. Paint by numbers is the phrase in real life;’( painting etc would have been trashed as not a thing. The constructor couldn’t win. ). As someone said above, perfectly valid hint to the theme So the numbers should have referred only to people. Why? I thought the gimmick was funny. BTW Pabloinnh the reference was to 2 Iowans not Indians. (Autocorrect issue?) When I got the answer I laughed. Don’t think PIAF/FAGIN is a natick. They are much too well known for that. As against NATICK ( a small Massachusetts town) crossing NCWYETH. So what is the first initial of a famous painter’s father? I agree with Nancy’s reaction. W
Running late today because I am performing at a friend's funeral and spent most of last evening prepping and eating fancy food with everyone, and this morning it was the normal pre-game chaos, so I'm finally finishing the puzzle.
I knew all of these paintings, but my oh my if I hadn't, phew. Clunky weirdnesses everywhere. Looks like plenty of others faced the ALGA/GREAVES dilemma.
Favorite moment in puzzling history: [Frog-hopping-into-water sound.] PLOP! Love it ... and those hyphens!
If the bands you speak of are orchestras, HARPs are typical. I didn't think Down Under is capitalized like a real place. These Asian cooking ingredients in the puzzles seem to indicate I should care what I put into my mouth, but clearly (looking at self in OVAL mirror) I do not.
N-Ks: PAWL and GREAVES. Tough way to start and finish.
Ug: AMBIVERTS, AHA-AAH, ICIER-IDING.
For those thinking this was funky gunky, you are correct.
Let's go to the tape:
Propers: 14 Places: 6 Products: 14 Partials: 14 Foreignisms: 10 -- Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 58 (41%) Double GAH on a Sunday.
Sunday Funnyisms (gotta be twice as funny): 7 🙂
Tee-Hee: They sure missed an opportunity on cluing WADS as [Spitty projectiles.]
Uniclues:
1 Pitchfork license for two. 2 Fund Notre Dame rebuilding project. 3 Eisenhower's short shower. 4 The mess in the skull of the orange one. 5 Huge volleyball player got dressed. 6 "Come on" girl's booger zone.
1 AMERICAN GOTHIC PERMIT 2 AID SEINE CINDERS 3 IKE WEE RINSE 4 LIAR'S WADS OF MEMORY 5 EDIFICE BARED GREAVES 6 ILENE NOSTRIL REALM
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The armory of lotions my wife buys. UNCTUOUS RESINS.
I don’t know why this sticks in my craw but the most annoying clue for me was 11D (“console with a wireless controller”). The Wii came out 20 years ago and every console since has been wireless. I teach 18-year-olds. They have never played with wired controllers, unless they rummaged through their parents’ ancient junk. This clue may as well have distinguished “some tvs” as being “color.” I know it’s minor but it just irked me.
Thought the theme was ok; lots more room for elongated titles in a Sunday.
But lots of PPP and arcana; worst of all (loudest negative from Rex and surprisingly only one comment, although offering a great alternative clue) was HIPS. Had “HI” and groaned out loud as I realized the answer.
How about 18D... "mangia" as clue to "letseat" ... when it clearly should've been "mangiamo" (plural for 'let's' in Italian). If someone is playfully saying "mangia! mangia" they are basically just saying "eat, eat!" ... but if you're sitting at a table with 2 or more, hopefully 6+ for true family-style meatball sharing, the word is MANGIAMO! (Let's Eat!)
I solved just about the whole puzzle including the unfathomable pita/pint but am still looking for someone who can explain to me why a pint is 40% of a yard??? One is liquid the other is length. What is the deal here??
A yard of ale is a malt beverage served in a very tall glass that contains 2.4 pints of ale. It is an English or Scott sort of thing. You can get dizzy looking at the ale rushing towards you as you lift the narrow tube to your lips.
I'm in the camp of liking this one more than Rex and many of the posters.
While I'd never heard of AMBIVERT, on this blog there are many times I've seen Rex prove a word isn't 'real' via a Google search that shows the top X hits are all crossword clue sites. I Googled AMBIVERT, and went through the first three pages of results without seeing a single crossword clue site. The first page alone included articles from Forbes, Scientific American, and National Geographic!! So whether you personally like the word or not, using Rex's own methodology, it is, indeed, a 'real' word.
Maybe I'm lucky that I know what a PAWL is, I got PIAF right away, and had FAGIN click in my memory after I got 8D to FA... from the INCA part of 20A. I've never heard the HA'PENNY song that several had mentioned, but I knew that one too (have most people also never heard TUPPENCE?)! I had no idea about TROPPO, but got all its crossers without much trouble.
I agree there were some clunkers (e.g., CUTEY; I agree with the gripes on ALGA and the fact that wireless controllers are in no way unique to the WII,etc., etc.). However, overall enjoyable for me. This was my favorite type of solve in that I probably only had 10-12 answers in after my first pass through the Across clues, and had to work Downs/Acrosses/Downs/Acrosses to get to the end.
The bag was wide open; the cat leapt out in the first ten seconds. Title + first themer clue = OK, we got this.
Our constructor must've had a near coronary when he counted the letters in GIRLWITHAPEARLEARRING out to 21! Ah, but then THEPERSISTENCEOFMEMORY is a dag-nabbed 22. What to do? Overlap them, I guess. somehow, he made it work (or ITWERK?). Luckily, GUERNICA is there to balance out OFMEMORY.
To balance out the uber-gimmeness of the theme, we have OGLALAS. I have never seen that name before today. I totally guessed at the G. AMBIVERT is also new to me, but inferable via its two parts AMBI meaning both and VERT as in extro- or intro-.
One sloppy writeover at CUTie, which I see in print often, as opposed to CUTEY, which I have NEVER seen outside of crossword walls. Noticed: TROPIC/TROPPO. A 2/3 dupe.
I knew all the paintings with the exception of Guernica. I'm sure it's a very famous Picasso, but even after seeing Rex's picture it rings no bells for me.
It crossing A Priori, another term I've never heard, was my one Natick of the the solve.
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I loved this puzzle. Great art references and odd words combined for a swift solution.
ReplyDeleteNever, ever heard of a "PAWL," never heard of OREOOS, and cannot imagine anyone spelling a surname TARTT. I guess I don't get around much... Too much PPP in this one for my taste...
ReplyDeleteDonna Tartt, American novelist, on Time magazine 2014 hundred most influential people list
DeleteI just finished her first novel: The Secret History- it was excellent! I liked it better than The Goldfinch.
DeleteA fill in the famous painting theme - all easily inferable without the awkward revealer. I went to every themer first and scored a lot of real estate in this grid. The remaining fill was Wednesday level.
ReplyDeleteI’m gonna find myself a girl who can show me what laughter means
The NW was goofy. Did like OGLALAS and TROPPO. Those however are overshadowed by AMBIVERTS, LEAN TOS and REID. E BIKES are slowly ruining downtown Manhattan. Did learn TINSEL.
Not for me.
Someday everything is gonna sound like a rhapsody
Tinders/Tarr vs. Cinders/Carr cost me a lot of time scouring the puzzle for typos. I gave up for a while and went down a Picasso Wikihole so the puzzle gave me that at least.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThis is an instance where it made no difference if you solved the normal way or “Downs Only Lite” (not reading the themer clues), because the themer clues didn’t help. Two of this week’s three clues for ESTONIA (90D) - including today’s - amount to “Fill in the name of the country I’m thinking of.”
Conrad
DeleteAbout Estonia Clues.
Because my brain has a penchant to remember trivia about countries, I knew that Estonia has been very big on high tech, so I immediately tried that. So for me it wasn’t a none clue clue. Today was going even more obscure. Again some trivia in my brain helped but also it was in my mind because 3 times. So for most, it was probably a no clue clue.
I think I was the first person to use AMBIVERT in this space when I commented on being one some years ago in response to something in the column about introverts or extroverts. I can speak ON STAGE to an audience of thousands with no nerves, then work the crowd for hours. But then I will not want to speak to another person for three days. I am comfortable in very large groups but I get my energy from being alone. Sorry you hate the term Rex, but it is a real one and not even very new - first coined by a psychologist in 1927.
ReplyDeleteOn to the puzzle. I am familiar with all of the paintings, and have seen all but “Pearl Earring” in their museum homes (two in MOMA, one at the Art Institute of Chicago, and one at the Prado, though it has since been moved to another museum in Madrid, the Reina Sofia). I agree the theme was a little broad. It kind of worked with the first two that were numbers of people, which I thought was going to be the theme. But then it moved into orbs, gemstones and timepieces. Not very tight.
I share Rex’s befuddlement at the awful cluing of HIPS when you could have done something less tortured and even clever such as “trendy joints?” I was set to be outraged at the last square I filled in, the P of PAWLS and PR TEAMS. I’ve never heard of the former, and I thought at first that the abbreviation P dupes the word “press” in the clue. But then I remembered that PR stands for public relations. Well, half a harrumph then, over the ridiculous PAWLS.
I went to Estonia some years ago and took a walking tour of Tallinn, the capital, which is actually one of the most charming cities in Europe. The tour guide, a young university student, told us that Estonia is the least-friendly country on Earth, by one metric. It’s not that they are mean, but they do not greet strangers or chat them up in bars, invite into their homes people they haven’t known for at least 20 years, etc. It seemed odd to hear this from a young woman who was perfectly friendly and delightful.
That brings us back to AMBIVERT. And a possible clue - least friendly country on Earth - for our next ESTONIA sighting.
Rex summed it up very nicely. It was even worse for me because I only knew the first two theme pictures, so most of the grid was dark matter. And of course, when the NYT gets into one of those moods where the answers don’t even need to be real words, well it’s going to be a long day for many of us.
ReplyDeleteRight out of the gate we have ALGA, PIAF, PAWL, GREAVES, GUERNICA (and you can add in CINCO). Go ahead and lawyer it all that you want, but those aren’t real words in any sense of ordinary usage. So, two minutes into the solve and it’s already obvious that the NYT coughed up an absolute stinker.
And of course, when they are on this much of a roll, you know they are not going to let up - so we get HAPENNY, AMBIVERTS, TROPPO, TARTT, . . . one can only wonder - how did this thing get published ?
The fill in here is atrocious. Could someone explain the theme like I’m 5?
ReplyDeleteThe clues are describing famous paintings by telling you the quantity of a particular object in the painting.
DeleteEasy, due to crosswordese knowledge: PIAF, ELI ROTH, hairy ESAU, OCULI, LYRA. PIAF/FAGIN is a valid complaint, but I would hope most people would know at least most of the paintings. Solved the puzzle from top to bottom, so the revealer at the end is what made the puzzle for me (the rug that really tied the room together). Nice to learn OGLALAS.
ReplyDeleteIn the Constructor Notes, Michael Schlossberg referenced Ecce Mono. I like this guy. :)
A good Sunday puzzle. Big and easy with a slight bit of pushback here and there. Greaves and Pawl were amazing.
ReplyDeleteI’ve always liked the moment Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Princess Ida” where Arac can’t remember what shin armor is called:
ReplyDeleteThese things I treat the same
I quite forget their name
They turn one's legs
To cribbage pegs
Their aid I thus disclaim
…apparently because Gilbert couldn’t think of a good rhyme for “greaves.”
It leaves one with peeves / so many one seethes / yet one firmly believes / one can someday rhyme “greaves.”
DeleteThe puzzle was fine but not great, but Rex’s write-up is a gem. I actually liked AMBIVERTS. I’ve never heard the word before but getting it from crosses and inferences made me smile. I think we’re all kind of AMBIVERTS depending on mood and context but that’s another issue.
ReplyDeleteI know we all have our own wheelhouses, but it’s hard for me personally to think the PIAF/FAGIN crossing was a Natick for anyone. No offense to you if it was!
So much unnecessary complaining yet no mention of CUTEY?
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't the best puzzle in the world, but it's not that bad. FAGIN could be a Natick? Give me a break.
No problem with GREAVES -- nice addition that one. I'm curious why LIMA is clued differently than INCA TRAIL and PERU.
AMBIVERTS is awful.
I quit the puzzle and came here as soon as i got to “herbal” 43D and realized they were dead-ass trying to get me to write “cutey” [sic] into a NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD. And “herbal” and “eye up” are such mid clues and answers, for it all. Astonishingly below the bar!
DeleteIn my (hormonal) twenties, I created a lexicon of "prefix+vert" words and definitions. "Ambivert" was someone who did it with either hand. Don't ask me for more.
ReplyDeleteThe term AMBIVERTS is very much a thing, so the diatribe is a bit tone-deaf. Just because it doesn’t come up in comic books or Greek mythology doesn’t mean people don’t use the word or that it shouldn’t be in crosswords. It’s way more in the language than lots of things in recent puzzles, so just relax and work on updating yourself with the trends.
ReplyDeleteNo redeeming features for me at all. Very easy...I knew the paintings though I had to check whether Guernica really had 6 figures.. And because the clues for the theme were so literal, there was no payoff. It did make me want to see them all in person...
ReplyDeleteThe excerpted tweet seems strange. Ostensibly from a crossword-oriented account and didn’t know any of these paintings? These are not exactly obscure works of art.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Rex about the awful fill. GREAVES? PAWL?!? I think he’s too hard on the theme, though. The revealer works for me - it’s a “hint” to the theme, not a description or equivalency, so I’m fine with “paint” even though, yes, each theme answer is a “painting.”
ReplyDeleteI actually didn’t mind the theme, even if it was extremely vague and really “All these paintings have a number of people in them!” rather than having a number in the title, which would possibly make a bit more sense. Helped that I knew most of the works immediately, but these kinds of knowledge-based clues (even though the works are all very famous) can be exclusive which I find not to be in the spirit of a crossword.
ReplyDeleteAside from that, I was once again stumped by a few US-centric clues (what are OREOOS? Are they related to OREOS? And who is Joy REID? At least I knew Bill MAHER…). I did enjoy the UK clues, though, so HAPENNY and FAGIN were fine for me.
I also found some of the answers you mentioned to be, frankly, ridiculous. AMBIVERTS, ALGA, GREAVES… come on.
Joy Reid = MSNBC host
DeleteThanks, I’ll have to lock that one away! I’ve heard of Joy Behar because of the crossword, so when a clue comes up asking for a TV presenter called Joy, I just assume it’s BEHAR… live and learn.
DeleteCertainly not easy for me. While familiar with the paintings by sight I only knew the names of American Gothic and Starry Night and the hint does nothing to help you solve the clues. Easily the most unpleasant and unsatisfying puzzle this year. Can't saying putting in PAWL, TROPPO, AMBIVERTS or SYFY was a source of any merriment.
ReplyDeletePoor OFL. A couple of entries he didn't like and they ruined the whole puzzle. I thought this was the best Sunday in some time, although I admit to reading the clue for the first themer as "Two Indians" which made no sense until I totally filled in AMERICANGOTHIC and went back to reread the clue. Now there's an Aha! which was undeserved. After that I was waiting to see if I would recognize the other paintings, and did not skip to their clues, because I wanted to discover theme through crosses. Glad I did.
ReplyDeleteI did a unit on Spanish artists back in my teaching days, so fun to see a Picasso and a Dali in the grid. Had a chance to see Guernica in person and I wasn't expecting its size, which is massive and adds to its power.
Met ILENE and Mr. ROTH and Mr. TARTT and wanted CUTIE, which slowed things down. Unlike OFL, I enjoyed learning the word AMBIVORT, NOT THAT I'll ever use it again.
I liked your Sunday offering just fine, MS. It had a little more crunch than recent Sundays, and the answers Made Sense once I thought about them, which is the way it should be. Thanks for all the fun.
I know I've seen "algal bloom" in crosswords before, but crosswordese instinct got me ALOE off of AL-. I had CUTIE before CUTEY, then EE- looked very wrong.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why they didn't go with PAIL or PAWS at 9A. I didn't see any dupe-related problems with that.
I think my least favorite kind of puzzle is the easy easy easy easy IMPOSSIBLE easy easy easy type. This is a prime example. Four-way Natick for me at center-east: TARTT ALB OREOOS ADOBO. Didn't have any trouble with the other potential Naticks--some of 'em were gimmes. But this was just stupidly annoying. Especially ALB for Alberta when everyone knows the standard XWOrd-ese abbreviation is ALT isn't it? Anyway, made for a really irritating "meh" end to an otherwise okay if easy solving experience. Because I didn't learn anything I actually care about in that segment.
ReplyDeleteAs a native Albertan, i can definitely say that Alberta is never abbreviated as ALT. That said, Alb is almost never used either. It's either Ab or Alta.
DeleteI guess I have a high tolerance for crosswordese. This was pretty fun. I don’t understand someone spending 42 minutes on something unenjoyable that they don’t have to do, just so they can complain about it on social media. That person needs a new hobby.
ReplyDeleteOh my on ALGA. No. Just no. Crossing with GREAVES? Hard pass. Had to look that one up. Easy peasy, but I knew Rex was not gonna like it!
ReplyDelete“Alga” is plant-like but not a true plant in its structure. Although I enjoyed the puzzle I am saddened by the reduction of Picasso’s tremendous anti-war painting showing the suffering of his people as “Six Basque Villagers”.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle was poor. But man, el oh el at whatever Rex decides is or is not fit for a puzzle. The formula, for newbies: 1) If Rex knows it, it is acceptable; 2) if Rex does not know it, it is not acceptable
ReplyDeleteA lot of PPP in this one and some really strange references. But it was fun to work out the paintings. Oddball stuff made it tough to get by without a Google or three. Learned some stuff I might never use again but every little bit helps…sun is trying to come out this morning the NE so off to the great outdoors…
ReplyDeleteMy tastes in Sundays must be different from Rex's, because I loved this one. I really grinned when the theme clicked. I do agree there was some fill I didn't care for, including EYE UP, and also CUTEY (which tripped me up because I spell it CUTIE, and so I had some misleading but plausible letters there for a while).
ReplyDeleteThose are nits, though -- great puzzle, Michael!
I know the word GREAVES from a very specific source: it's used to describe the leg components for some of the armor sets in the recent Legend of Zelda games. (E.g., "Soldier's Greaves.")
I have no idea how I finished this wreck of a puzzle without cheating. Lucky guesswork, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteA similar experience... You got the first themer, girl with the pearl earring, jump down to the revealer, got that, and then asked myself why? Kept hoping there'd be more to this than I was seeing, but alas there was not
ReplyDeleteEverything except “AMBIVERTS” was right in my wheelhouse. I’ve decided that an ambivert is a person who has mixed feelings about their sexual perversions, and now I like ambiverts, too.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who taught art history, I enjoyed getting everything but The Starry Night without crosses. A tiny reward for the constellation of golfers whose names I refuse to commit to memory.
As to the silly tweet that “you know the painting or you don’t.” Well, yes. That’s how knowledge of most things works. You also know what key a classical composition is in or you don’t, or know the last name of a 70s college football coach or you don’t, or know the name of a character in a novel from the 30s or you don’t.
Most hated: WIIG. WTH?!?!
ReplyDeleteKristen Wiig, long time and excellent Saturday Night live performer.
DeleteWiig is as appropriate a clue as many of the names of random sports figures.
Not to mention the many movies she’s starred in.
DeleteI am not a knowledgeable puzzler. I do crosswords regularly, but I know nothing about spreads, grids, themes, or naticks. Here’s what I do know: this crossword puzzle was an abomination. It was the proverbial old man shaking a fist, screaming at kids to get off his lawn. It was nearly hostile in its out-dated clues, and practically screamed that it was for the exclusive few who remembered Mr. Belvedere. I do! I got it! And I got the painting references that were basic enough to nap through if you knew a handful of paintings, and pretentious enough to make you feel like an idiot if you don’t. I barely “eked” out of my Sunday morning without setting my newspaper on fire, and I’d have more than a few “playground retorts” for the wizards who let this kind of impotent drivel drain the simple pleasures out of a peaceful Sunday morning.
ReplyDeleteI broke my streak because I disliked this puzzle so much I didn’t want to put in the extra effort to suss out the ones that needed some extra TLC. Double “ole” should be straight to crossword jail.
ReplyDeleteCutey??? Even my phone is trying to autocorrect to curry! It’s cutie!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteLook at me, standing in front of paintings looking like I know what I'm talking about. Picture this, I'm chewing on my glasses, nodding my head in a "I see what the artist did there" kind of way. It feels pretty neat being all haughty. 😁
Not knowing GUERNICA, had a heckuva time in that NW corner. With GREAVES and APRIORI also non-knows, flailed around up there, until I actually did get them correct, but wasn't getting the Happy Music. So I Googed them both, found out I was correct, didn't feel like poring over a SunSizePuz to try to find my wrongness, and hit Check Puzzle.
Well, shoot, I had a silly typo on the bottom. IBk for IBM. Dang, must've fat-fingered that K in there. It is right above the M on the keyboard, after all.
Had all the unknowns Rex mentioned, but was able to figure them out, so that gets a Yay Me. We have WII and WIIG in here. In NE corner, LETS EAT SOME PIG, ELI ROTH.
May have heard of the OGLALAS before, but even though a neat name, hasn't stuck in the ole brain.
I just gave final approval of my book to start getting printed! Hooray! Coming soon to a bookstore near you! Or Amazon, if you're so inclined. I'd like to hear if people think it's good, or if they think it sucks. 😁
Anyway, Happy Sunday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Sorry, AMBIVERTS of course. And I forgot to say that unlike many here, I love seeing obscure words that I actually know but need to be reminded of, like GREAVES and PAWL.
ReplyDeleteAlso @Roo--not counting PAWL, but would like to.
Once I figured out the theme, the names of the paintings were easy for me. But the fill? Good Goddess, it was like a puzzle from 1987.
ReplyDeleteClues for Hidden Diagonal Words (HDW) in today's grid (answers below):
ReplyDelete1. Innertube? (5 letters)
2. Prognosticator (4 letters)
3. Squared up (5 letters)
4. Winning tic-tac-toe sequence (3 letters)
The big Sunday grids greatly expand the potential for HDWs and the possibility of long HDWs (5 or more letters), including the two 5 letter words clued above.
As for the puzzle, a slog and a half for moi--I either knew the painting visually and didn't know the exact title (Dali's THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY) or didn't connect with the clued description (GUERNICA) or wasn't familiar with the painting or its name (GIRL WITH ... EARRING). But I soldiered through, only do ultimately dnf on the NASA misdirection, 124A, having RUBEy and LYRe (need to work on my constellation knowledge).
Love all things E. B. White (SOME PIG)!
Answers for the HDW clues:
1. STENT (begins with the S in 84A, RINSE, moves to SE--I like this clue/answer combo)
2. SEER (start with the S in the horribly clued 77D, HIPS--Hi, Rex--and move to the NE. Hey, if the nyt can use ESTONIA 3 times in a week, I can use a Hidden Diagonal SEER on back to back days)
3. TRUED (the T in 47A, CUTEY, move to SE)
4. OOO (the O in 93D, OMNIBUS, moves to SE--I normally avoid mentioning 3 letter HDWs and would not usually go with such a crossword-y non-word, but this OOO is a "pure" HDW, in that is has blocker squares at either end)
Ok, I'M SET. GONNA go now.
What if I want to have Estonian friends?
ReplyDeleteTerrific puzzle. I would have been the perfect person to "test solve" it over at the NYT because even though what I don't know about Art History would fill every museum in the country, I nevertheless knew every single title of every single painting. Not only that -- I could envision all of the paintings in my mind's eye. Michael really chose paintings that were accessible to pretty much everyone, not just to avid museumgoers.
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't know these paintings well enough to count the objects. Did Michael?
Okay, so I knew that there are two people in AMERICAN GOTHIC and that there is one earring in GIRL WITH A PEAR EARRING. But the number of orbs? The number of timepieces? And most seemingly un-countable of all -- the Basque villagers?
I Googled THE STARRY NIGHT (my first themer in) and tried to count the number of round things in the sky. But the photo was too small and I wasn't all that sure. Unless the orange thing in the foreground is also a clock (too blurry online to tell), I could only find three timepieces in THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY. I decided that trying to count the villagers in GUERNICA would probably be out of the question.
Was Michael able to tell by perusing the Internet? Is there a reference work that gives you this info? Or did he go in person to every museum and do his counting there?
Whatever he did, this is an interesting and unusual theme with dense fill. And it actually teaches you something, too.
One question for all you Art History majors out there: Why on earth is a painting of four melted clocks called THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY? I've never understood it.
Hi, art nerd here! I’ve always taken the title to be in reference to the person that appears to be sleeping in the background, with the melting clocks symbolizing the past (memories) slowly melting like cheese in the sun (what Dali said inspired him to paint the painting, seeing cheese melting in the sun). Like the clocks melting, our memories persist and don’t simply evaporate. They slowly ooze deeper and deeper into our subconscious mind.
DeleteI commented above that the theme would have been tighter if all the numbers referred to people. Even better - if they ascended in number. The last one could have been “110 sinners” for THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS. (Yeah, I looked up the number.)
ReplyDelete@Rex, go back.
ReplyDeleteYou accidentally wrote EASY at the top of the blog.
This was medium-challenging to Challenging just by all the proper nouns and crusty old timey terms and non-English words.
FAGIN crossing PIAF bumps you to Medium right away.
IGA through GUERNICA, crossed by GREAVES and APRIORI and CINCO? ???? OGLALAS? TROPPO? OCULI through RUBEN??? AMBIVERTS!!!
PAINT BY NUMBERS kits seem to be more sophisticated these days. A friend gave me a kit to paint THE STARRY NIGHT. Much more interesting looking than the dog on black velvet I worked on as a kid but never finished. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to try it out.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how far we were into watching Ted Lasso before I realized the Jamie TARTT song was stolen from the Baby Shark song. I guess I should count my self lucky for never having that as an earworm. Annoying.
I liked this puzzle. It covered a lot of ground, from NEAR SPACE to LIMA, the INCA TRAIL and the SEINE. It had a TROPIC TOPIC and a TROPPO PLOP. The only wordplay entry I remember seeing was the 34D clue for SHAM, a clue I liked. I'm not fond of CUTEY - it's CUTEsY or CUTIE at least in my lexicon.
I liked your art-filled puzzle, thanks Michael Schlossberg!
Yuck
ReplyDeleteMeh, I didn't mind it. I guess from a construction standpoint I get some of the gripes but overall it was a pleasant and pretty easy solve for me. PIAF/FAGIN is totally fair I think - if you don't know either name and haven't run into them in crosswords (especially PIAF) then that's kind of on you. Neither is that obscure. A few new ones for me - TROPPO, NEARSPACE, TARTT, GREAVES, Vicki CARR - but didn't have any trouble with crosses. 61D, why Papyrus-specific - aren't EDGES the frayed part of anything frayed? I was looking for something more arcane. HIPS, yeah that clue, oof - cringey as the kids say. Always love to read the writeup, even and sometimes especially when I don't agree...
ReplyDelete@Rex mentions that ARELA would be a good thing to name your kid if you want her to appear in crosswords. ARESO would be another and it's in today's puzzle (102D).
ReplyDeleteNo dupe police calling foul on EYEUP and"Eyelike openings"? Don't get me wrong, I like openings, but I can just hear you German speakers yelling "Ach, you lie!" And what about "Real Time with Bill" vs. "four timepieces"? Kind of a micro dupe. BTW, I heard that Bill gave his MAHER Christmas present early last year.
I can't believe that we didn't get "12 Jesus freaks" and THELASTSUPPER in today's puzz.
Liked it fine. Thanks for doing an arty number on us, Michael Schlossberg.
Lousy theme. It might have worked it the titles of the paintings actually had a number in them. Simply putting a number in the cluing allows the constructor to put any title in the grid and then just count something or anything that appears in the painting. I call B.S.
ReplyDeleteAMBIVERT, Ed Psyc ‘67….the majority of us; not extrovert or introvert….sometimes used in team building
ReplyDeleteSlightly easier than medium for me. I got the theme about half way through at GIRL WITH…which let me go back and finish the top third.
ReplyDeleteIt took a couple of tries (CUTie>CUTEe) to get CUTEY to work.
Did not know TROPPO, AMBIVERTS, GREAVES, and OGLALAS.
Well known art, interesting idea, like it more than @Rex did.
tinders/CINDERS was particularly evil, for those of us who have never heard of Vicki CARR
ReplyDeleteIt GREAVES me not to be able to consult Gary's Gunk Gauge for today's natick special..
ReplyDeleteThe kits ARE called Paint By Numbers. Had many as a child.
ReplyDeleteAnother day, another instance of Rex flipping out over a perfectly normal (and almost century-old) word. And who’s going to be thrown off by FAGIN/PIAF? The only complaint from me was “CUTEY,” as the more common spelling (I’d go as far as to call it ubiquitous) is “cutie.”
ReplyDeleteOh, come on. Anyone who doesn’t know Edith Piaf or Fagin is an ignoramus.
ReplyDeleteOuch. My bro-in-law once said not knowing what a logarithm is is like never having heard of Shakespeare. Me: What the hell is a logarithm?
DeleteI got THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY without even reading the clue. After getting AMERICAN GOTHIC, and realizing the themes were all going to be very famous paintings with recognizable titles (i.e., not A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte), I knew The Persistence of Memory would be in there somewhere.
ReplyDeleteCUTEY/EYEUP is enough to make me THROWUP.
I've always hated the saccharine, kitschy Don McLean song, especially the presumption of the callow singer: "I could have told you, VIncent."
ReplyDeleteSo the thing about PAINT BY NUMBERS is that you replace numbers with colors.
ReplyDeleteEven after having the revealer and two of the theme answers, I was still sitting there going "Ok, so one = white since the pearl earring is white, so maybe two is black or red...Red Iowans? Black Iowans?"
Was very disappointed when it finally became clear is was so much more boring, and also nothing to do whatsoever with actual PAINT BY NUMBERS.
I'm surprised at so much griping about a perfectly fine puzzle. There were lots of tough fill words—alga, pawl, greaves, near space, cutey (which, I agree, is very odd)...but I got them all from the crosses, and that is what you hope will happen in a good puzzle. As for the names of the paintings, I think it's fair to say most puzzlers will figure them out and recognize them after doing some of the fill. Also...I've never heard the term ambiverts but don't feel the need to rant about it just because it's unfamiliar. Lots of grouches today, it seems, and many so EXTREME. Chill, folks! And if you find the puzzle so unpleasant, stop doing it before you've put in your 42 minutes or whatever! It's just not necessary to publish such stinging, and unwarranted, comments.
ReplyDeleteLong-time reader, first time-commenter:
ReplyDeleteAs a former psychology major, I can attest to the fact that ambivert has come into usage during the 21st century as a way of describing someone who can be both extroverted and introverted at different times. Pseudoextrovert is another term that was formerly used to describe the same personality type, but I believe ambivert has now displaced it.
A long time ago, when I was visiting Florence, I spent an entire day looking at artwork and wrote a postcard back to a friend that said: Spent the whole day looking at artwork and my Uffizies are killing me.
ReplyDeleteAll of these paintings (and many more) MUST be sprayed orange to end Big Oil and save us from Climate Change!
ReplyDelete(Side effects of such random acts of courage may include returning Orange Man to power but hey, these activists are SMART!)
Not easy. C'mon.
ReplyDeleteI knew all the paintings (not sophisticated, just old (87) - hang around long enough and things enter your brain.)
ReplyDeleteThat said, terrible puzzle. There must be a scarcity of Sunday puzzle makers out there. Maybe this one was the only entry for this week.
Easy, due to luck of the draw of being an art history hound and of knowing less familiar vocab like GREAVES and PAWL, with AMBIVERTS being the only new one for me (@Wanderlust, thank you for elaborating). Can't complain about a tribute puzzle to works of art (now in small print: even if I do wish it had offered more resistance).
ReplyDeleteAgree with JT 1225, this was fine puzzle. Haven't bothered to read any of the other comments because RPs reaction and most others (especially with Lewis away) were bound to be, shall we say, negative and I'm enjoying sunny Sunday
ReplyDeleteThere were a number of head scratchers like GREA,VES, PAWL, HAPENNY, AMBIVERT, etc but mostly easy crosses. For a while, since the theme paintings were of older vintage ,I searched for connection between the archaic/arcane words with an Olde English subtheme, but couldn't make it work
Now putting those words in a smaller Saturday or Friday puz, that might make a real treat. If I ever get a hankering to construct one like that, I'll open the OED and go wild!
Don’t really want to comment, just wanted to update my profile pic…
ReplyDeleteAndrew 1:03 PM
DeleteUpdated profile photo
Hysterical!
My first comment was 'BLOOPED' so at the risk of annoying everyone I'm going to post it again ... just in case it didn't show.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Michael, but you should've stuck with DOGS PLAYING POKER. The only thing I liked about this puzzle was the reference to the Vicky Carr song "It Must Be Him" from my pre-teenage years :(
I liked the puzzle much more than Rex did But in reading his comment I had to agree with a lot of the complaints about individual words.
ReplyDeleteI still have no idea what a cawl is. Need to google,
Had never heard of ambiverts, and mentally rejected it at first but I'lm coming round to liking it.
Had never heard of greaves.
May nw have learned th emceeing of priori.
@Andy Freude (9:03) - agree completely, time for a new hobby, sheesh
ReplyDelete@JT (12:25) - agree completely, thanks for spreading some chill
I didn't know 2 of the paintings, nor Piaf/Fagin. I learned TROPPO, and I'm sure I'll forget its meaning long before I run into it a second time in my life.
I agree with JT @12:25, particularly about Parker’s s—t storm over “ambiverts.”
ReplyDeleteThe venom at this site is getting worse, mirroring IMHO what’s going on outside Puzzleland. Sad.
I liked this one Mr. Schlossberg, I found it easy, and ‘twas pretty darn clever.
i think lewis is on a VOC *vacation of convenience* because this puz. stunk !
ReplyDeleteand all of you insensitive commentors throwing your happiness and compliments around without the concern of others should just go smile somewhere and leave others alone.
the pillow case thing was a joke...notice the ? at the end.
ReplyDeleteidk i kinda enjoyed this one. but was trying to come up with movies until i uncovered the revealer.
@Nancy, I'm all in with you today. I can't answer your question about the famous Dali painting, but I thought this was the most engaging Sunday puzzle in recent memory.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit that I winced at the spelling of CUTEY, and I'll acknowledge that there's room to debate whether an ALGA is a plant (it was a non-vascular plant when I first studied biology, I think, but it's currently classified as a protist). But those are nits in an otherwise exceptional puzzle. Loved the clues for NOSTRIL and POTTERY!
Agree a weak theme and disappointing revealer (I didn't jump ahead to see it). I knew all the painting names, but oddly I don't think I've seen any of them in person, and I've been to a lotta art galleries / museums all over Canada, US, Europe.
ReplyDeleteFinished with a clumsy error where I had FETA with my Souvlaki.
There were a lot of dreaded Unknown Names (ILENE ELI ROTH IKE REID TARTT). GREAVES was a WOE but I'll try to remember it. AMBIVERTS was nice to learn.
I'm surprised so many were appalled by PAWL. If you have ever seen the inner workings of a clock, you have seen a PAWL. It's a really clever yet simple device that allows a notched wheel called a ratchet to turn in one direction but prevents it from turning back in the reverse direction.
ReplyDeleteI join all y'all AMBIVERTS out there. I totally enjoy being around others but also cherish my time spent in solitude. I need both to be happy. The trend in personality testing and measurement is giving a person a fixed score on each of five basic personality traits summarized by the acronym OCEAN. The reality is that most people probably score higher or lower on each trait depending on circumstances.
OCULI is a less often seen plural of convenience that reduces rather than increase letter count. The singular OCULUS is Latin for "eye" and is a common architectural element such as a round window or a circular opening at the top of a dome.
I gauge Sunday puzzles by how far I get into the solve before I quit. I finished this one so ipso facto I liked it.
Other people seem to have pointed out that ALGAe are not plants. Bot I didn't see anybody else wondering how Wacky can mean INANE?
ReplyDeleteFor me, AMBIVERT and PAWL(thanks to Anoa Bob) were worth the price of admission.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t we just have PIAF in a puzzle this week?
I agree that the blog and commentariat are a bit cranky today.
OCULI is inferrable. The Meta VR headset is name Oculus, as is the new train station at the World Trade Center subway stop, not to mention a movie, and plenty of other ways to know it. We all have our personal strengths and gaps, but it is not an editing fail to include this.
I’d like to thank Rex for the public service of reminding me why I still don’t need to read X formerly Twitter. If this person doesn’t know any of these paintings, maybe they should go to Wikipedia to read and look, rather than X to rant…
Sorry to spend my time ranting about ranting…
Have any other musicians here ever seen TROPPO without NON in front of it?
Many thanks to you, Rex, for introducing me to James Blake ... an absolutely wonderful singer!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the other comments, I am genuinely surprised by the all the complaints and confusion about HA'PENNY. Have you folks never heard the rhyme "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat"?
ReplyDeleteCDilly52 here with a huge AMEN for the Ha’penny and the song. We used to sing it as a round every Christmas with everyone present having their own part. 20 people, 20 times. Yikes!
DeleteCDilly 52 here still unable to (and very frustrated about) not being able to sign in. Oh well, I am going to quit complaining.
DeleteThis was very “old school” to me and I imagine it might have been challenging for folks who have not been solving the NYTXW for a long time. For the same reasons @Rex said “oof” early on, I said “Oh, we’re going old school today.” Not necessarily a good thing, that, but it’s fine with me; I AM old school. For some it probably had too many arcane crosswordy things like GREAVES, AMBIVERTS lots of names and some squishy clues. All of that is absolutely ok for me in a big fat Sunday grid.
I also hope to see a clever theme on Sunday. Today we have a theme for sure but while I got it and didn’t dislike it, I think it is a good idea but not as tightly executed as it might be.
That said, I quickly got the NW including the downs GREAVES and APRIORI, the center North’s PIAF and INCA TRAIL and the downs IN A SEC ACNE and FAGIN. All of this gave me enough to confirm my original thought that AMERICAN had something to do with the first theme answer.
At that time, I had not read the clue, so I decided to go ahead and see if I could figure out a theme clue. For some reason, the clue “Two Iowans” with the date 1930 and having half the answer, AMERICAN, made adding GOTHIC simple. However, I thought the theme might actually possibly have something to do with a NEW TAKE on the concept of “GOTHIC” or components of GOTHIC dress, vibes etc, so I did not immediately jump to famous works of art leading to PAINT BY NUMBERS. So, that remained a mystery until GUERNICA.
The concept was easy for me but the puzzle as a whole had some bite. The SW pushed back hard. I did not connect “plugs” with WADS until I had all the other answers, am not familiar with Cardi B’s music or dance style and for quite a while, HA’PENNY sat there all alone. I put in I’M SET but also entered Am toO at 102 D. Those dang “playground retorts” clues allowing one’s brain to decide who said what to whom first seem always to be troublesome for me. I guess wrong probably 80% of the time.
When I got to PAINT BY NUMBERS, I actually chuckled because I was so focused on remembering works of art that the fact of each clue containing a number eluded me. As Homer Simpson would say, “Doh!!”
Overall, and as an old solver with more than 60 years of practice with the NYTXW, I enjoyed this old school Sunday. It had things I didn’t know and had to get from crosses, it had abundant “stuff one knows from crosswords” like GREAVES - and so many more, and it had a decent theme. It felt very comfortable, like my favorite slippers. I liked it.
The Italian movie Allegro non Troppo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_non_troppo) is really funny. Not sure how available it is nowadays - I saw it maybe 45 years ago in a small movie theater circa 1980 and the print was in bad shape.
ReplyDeleteVillager
Instead of complaining about Piaf try listening to her sing. Google
ReplyDeleteher and track her down on u tube. Read about her and Marcel Sedan.
Better than Rick and Ilsa. They will always have Paris.
No problem with the puzzle. I thought it was interesting, and fun. Nothing too arcane, nothing too esoteric, all sufficiently in my wheelhouse. No naticks for me either.
ReplyDeleteESTONIA when you try to be so good
ReplyDeleteESTONIA just like they said they would
Thought the theme was ok; lots more room for elongated titles in a Sunday.
ReplyDeleteBut lots of PPP and arcana; worst of all (loudest negative from Rex and surprisingly only one comment, although offering a great alternative clue) was HIPS. Had “HI” and groaned out loud as I realized the answer.
Man, I miss Lewis!
ReplyDeleteOh, LMS, too.
I enjoyed this puzzle, but acknowledge the theme was a little weak. Completed this 75% of the way while commuting home from work, and finished the rest within about 10 minutes thereafter. Easy-medium, yes. Some nasty PPP crosses, yes.
ReplyDelete@Mack, 3:05 PM and Anonymous, 4:36 PM: Thought exactly like you!
(Helps to do this in a Cockney accent...)
"Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat.
Please put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do.
If you haven't got a ha'penny, then God bless you!"
Thank goodness this heat wave will be a-breaking here in NYC.
An absolutely delightful Sunday puzzle. Lots or surprises in there, and a word absolutely new to me: Ambivert, which I will probably never use. Read through the puzzle first (as always) and the only one I knew instinctively was "The Persistance of Memory" and then it was pretty easy from then on. And whether it's spelled "Half-Penny" or "Hapenny" it's usually always pronounced "HAY-Pney" The British children's rhyme "Oranges and Lemons" has the line "You owe me three Farthings." And ends with the best ending for a kids' rhyme which they should sing to their classmates in Kindergarten... and then get reported to their parents, the school psychologist and maybe the police as well:"Here comes a candle to light you to bed, and here comes a chopper to chop off your head." My own grandchildren tell me that when they did that with their friends, almost all of them could sing the last line also.
ReplyDeleteOh... the best part of today's blog was the warning or advice from the EU concerning blogging.
Wow!
ReplyDeletePeople are not happy with this puzzle!
I liked it. On the easy side, once I got the gimmick.
I disagree with most of the criticism
I thought the revealer was fine. Paint by numbers is the phrase in real life;’( painting etc would have been trashed as not a thing. The constructor couldn’t win. ). As someone said above, perfectly valid hint to the theme
So the numbers should have referred only to people. Why?
I thought the gimmick was funny.
BTW Pabloinnh the reference was to 2 Iowans not Indians. (Autocorrect issue?)
When I got the answer I laughed.
Don’t think PIAF/FAGIN is a natick. They are much too well known for that. As against NATICK ( a small Massachusetts town) crossing NCWYETH. So what is the first initial of a famous painter’s father?
I agree with Nancy’s reaction. W
Running late today because I am performing at a friend's funeral and spent most of last evening prepping and eating fancy food with everyone, and this morning it was the normal pre-game chaos, so I'm finally finishing the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI knew all of these paintings, but my oh my if I hadn't, phew. Clunky weirdnesses everywhere. Looks like plenty of others faced the ALGA/GREAVES dilemma.
Favorite moment in puzzling history: [Frog-hopping-into-water sound.] PLOP! Love it ... and those hyphens!
If the bands you speak of are orchestras, HARPs are typical. I didn't think Down Under is capitalized like a real place. These Asian cooking ingredients in the puzzles seem to indicate I should care what I put into my mouth, but clearly (looking at self in OVAL mirror) I do not.
N-Ks: PAWL and GREAVES. Tough way to start and finish.
Ug: AMBIVERTS, AHA-AAH, ICIER-IDING.
For those thinking this was funky gunky, you are correct.
Let's go to the tape:
Propers: 14
Places: 6
Products: 14
Partials: 14
Foreignisms: 10
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 58 (41%) Double GAH on a Sunday.
Sunday Funnyisms (gotta be twice as funny): 7 🙂
Tee-Hee: They sure missed an opportunity on cluing WADS as [Spitty projectiles.]
Uniclues:
1 Pitchfork license for two.
2 Fund Notre Dame rebuilding project.
3 Eisenhower's short shower.
4 The mess in the skull of the orange one.
5 Huge volleyball player got dressed.
6 "Come on" girl's booger zone.
1 AMERICAN GOTHIC PERMIT
2 AID SEINE CINDERS
3 IKE WEE RINSE
4 LIAR'S WADS OF MEMORY
5 EDIFICE BARED GREAVES
6 ILENE NOSTRIL REALM
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The armory of lotions my wife buys. UNCTUOUS RESINS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Combination careless typo and didn’t know on PAW. I had INC instead of LLC. Never heard of PAWL.
ReplyDeleteAnd EYEUP? Nope, just nope.
I’m concerned by the number of people who didn’t know “Cinco.” Wonder what they think “Cinco de Mayo” means…
ReplyDeleteNothing fun about this solve
ReplyDeleteand the theme is merely meh. No epiphany no aha, no lightbulb. A slog.
I don’t know why this sticks in my craw but the most annoying clue for me was 11D (“console with a wireless controller”). The Wii came out 20 years ago and every console since has been wireless. I teach 18-year-olds. They have never played with wired controllers, unless they rummaged through their parents’ ancient junk. This clue may as well have distinguished “some tvs” as being “color.” I know it’s minor but it just irked me.
ReplyDeleteToo many made up words. Paintings were easy. Annoying
ReplyDeleteThought the theme was ok; lots more room for elongated titles in a Sunday.
ReplyDeleteBut lots of PPP and arcana; worst of all (loudest negative from Rex and surprisingly only one comment, although offering a great alternative clue) was HIPS. Had “HI” and groaned out loud as I realized the answer.
How about 18D... "mangia" as clue to "letseat" ... when it clearly should've been "mangiamo" (plural for 'let's' in Italian). If someone is playfully saying "mangia! mangia" they are basically just saying "eat, eat!" ... but if you're sitting at a table with 2 or more, hopefully 6+ for true family-style meatball sharing, the word is MANGIAMO! (Let's Eat!)
ReplyDeleteI liked this one so much more than most Sundays -- fun and breezy (just under 15 min), and loved getting the paintings from the clues!
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you don't know either PIAF or FAGIN, I dunno that I'd broadcast that shortcoming to the world.
i liked the puzzle. i had PAWP instead of PAWL becauseni thought 12D was PLC.
ReplyDeleteI solved just about the whole puzzle including the unfathomable pita/pint but am still looking for someone who can explain to me why a pint is 40% of a yard??? One is liquid the other is length. What is the deal here??
ReplyDeleteA yard of ale is a malt beverage served in a very tall glass that contains 2.4 pints of ale. It is an English or Scott sort of thing. You can get dizzy looking at the ale rushing towards you as you lift the narrow tube to your lips.
DeleteThank you so much for explaining that. Who knew??! Will always be happy to learn arcane British drinking lore.
DeleteAnother really nice theme with a terrible revealer. These seem to be quite common now.
ReplyDeleteJeepers. I did all the themers first, no crosses. That solved any Naticks, sooo, I enjoyed an easy peasy Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the camp of liking this one more than Rex and many of the posters.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'd never heard of AMBIVERT, on this blog there are many times I've seen Rex prove a word isn't 'real' via a Google search that shows the top X hits are all crossword clue sites. I Googled AMBIVERT, and went through the first three pages of results without seeing a single crossword clue site. The first page alone included articles from Forbes, Scientific American, and National Geographic!! So whether you personally like the word or not, using Rex's own methodology, it is, indeed, a 'real' word.
Maybe I'm lucky that I know what a PAWL is, I got PIAF right away, and had FAGIN click in my memory after I got 8D to FA... from the INCA part of 20A. I've never heard the HA'PENNY song that several had mentioned, but I knew that one too (have most people also never heard TUPPENCE?)! I had no idea about TROPPO, but got all its crossers without much trouble.
I agree there were some clunkers (e.g., CUTEY; I agree with the gripes on ALGA and the fact that wireless controllers are in no way unique to the WII,etc., etc.). However, overall enjoyable for me. This was my favorite type of solve in that I probably only had 10-12 answers in after my first pass through the Across clues, and had to work Downs/Acrosses/Downs/Acrosses to get to the end.
The bag was wide open; the cat leapt out in the first ten seconds. Title + first themer clue = OK, we got this.
ReplyDeleteOur constructor must've had a near coronary when he counted the letters in GIRLWITHAPEARLEARRING out to 21! Ah, but then THEPERSISTENCEOFMEMORY is a dag-nabbed 22. What to do? Overlap them, I guess. somehow, he made it work (or ITWERK?). Luckily, GUERNICA is there to balance out OFMEMORY.
To balance out the uber-gimmeness of the theme, we have OGLALAS. I have never seen that name before today. I totally guessed at the G. AMBIVERT is also new to me, but inferable via its two parts AMBI meaning both and VERT as in extro- or intro-.
One sloppy writeover at CUTie, which I see in print often, as opposed to CUTEY, which I have NEVER seen outside of crossword walls. Noticed: TROPIC/TROPPO. A 2/3 dupe.
A non-slog Sunday: I'll take it. Birdie.
Wordle bogey.
Loved the puzzle, but was not on the easy level for me. Might have been Rex's most negative review ever, so of course the Rexites had to pile on.
ReplyDeleteA week’s worth starting with today:
ReplyDeletePRO EYE
A NEW MEMORY has PERSISTENCE,
or PAINTBYNUMBERS, GET it right,
A PEARLEARRING WITH existence
ON A STARRY STARRYNIGHT.
--- RUBEN ROTH
Saturday:
DONOT PILEON
ELENORE was THE POSHEST,
and YES, she hit THE HAY
on THE SERTA while TOPLESS
ONE may BANGER for BACKPAY.
--- ERNIE HUME
Friday:
AMEN TO IT
Be A TROOPER in the NUNHOOD,
and NO,IT’SNOT so ODD
TO PRETEND to DEW what one could
TO go STEADY with GOD.
--- DR. ABRAHAM ALONSO ABBOTT
Thursday:
INSIDER IDOL
Colonel HOGAN knew the FOLLY
of TRAPS, ORE had NOFEAR,
be it JANE, SUZETTE, ORE HOLLY,
in THE stalag WALLSHAVEEARS.
--- CAROL HARVEY
Wednesday:
DAM INANE
“AULAIT me”, sad THE DESPOT, (DISASTER was A cinch),
his CHARMS APPALL her A LOT, INALL A MEASLY INCH.
--- MARYANN DUHAMEL
Tuesday:
GOODY GOODY
NENA was A CANNIBAL,
the WARNING SIGNS were great,
she HAD A STEAK, RETURNING full,
HAD A CIGAR, ORATE.
--- AMIE ADAIR
Monday:
CAMEO SHOW
For OPEN INVITES to that MAID,
I’ll GIVEPROPS to all the BROS,
A PHOTO DOES not get ONE laid,
ASARULE, it’s just A POSE.
--- ISAAC DRAPER
I knew all the paintings with the exception of Guernica. I'm sure it's a very famous Picasso, but even after seeing Rex's picture it rings no bells for me.
ReplyDeleteIt crossing A Priori, another term I've never heard, was my one Natick of the the solve.