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Common ingredient in eye shadow / SUN 7-7-2024 / Italian for "tooth" / Display at a school show / Slowly wanes, as support / Popular brunch cocktail / Ice on one's head? / Robert who owns the New England Patriots
Sunday, July 7, 2024
Constructor: David Karp
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: Double Digits — Theme answers have the names for the fingers -- THUMB, INDEX, MIDDLE, RING, PINKY -- with their letters doubled, as hinted at by FAT FINGER SYNDROME
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: CLAMATO (119A: Ingredient in a Bloody Caesar cocktail) —
Hello yet again! It's Rafa here to close out the weekend! I'll be gone tomorrow, so if you've been waiting anxiously for me to go away, you are in luck. Again, I hope your last 24 hours were wonderful. I read an article in the New Yorker about glass eel fishing. Always fun to read about eels as a crossword person. Eels are actually really cool! Nobody knows how they reproduce (!) ... they only spawn in the Sargasso Sea ... they are very expensive and there's a whole clandestine eel industry. That article made me feel like EELER / EELED are maybe ok as crossword fill? (Don't cancel me!). Anyways, let's move on to this puzzle.
- EA(T HUMB)LE PIE (22A: Admit one was wrong)
- BL(IND EX)PERIMENTS (35A: Research trials using withheld information)
- KATE (MIDDLE)TON (48A: Royal whose wedding had a whopping 1,900 guests)
- SPAR(RING) PARTNER (76A: Friendly debate opponent)
- (PINKY) AND THE BRAIN (92A: Lab mice of 1990s cartoons)
- FAT FINGER SYNDROME (107A: Excuse for texting errors, jocularly ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)
Word of the Day: CLAMATO (119A: Ingredient in a Bloody Caesar cocktail) —
Clamato /kləˈmɑːtəʊ/, /kləˈmeɪtəʊ/, /kləˈmætoʊ/ is a commercial drink made of reconstituted tomato juice concentrate and sugar, which is flavored with spices, dried clam broth and MSG.[1] It is made by Mott's. The name is a portmanteau of clam and tomato. It is also referred to colloquially as "clamato juice". It is consumed in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, to a lesser extent. It is very often mixed with alcohol to make a Caesar, a drink similar to a Bloody Mary.
• • •
Hello yet again! It's Rafa here to close out the weekend! I'll be gone tomorrow, so if you've been waiting anxiously for me to go away, you are in luck. Again, I hope your last 24 hours were wonderful. I read an article in the New Yorker about glass eel fishing. Always fun to read about eels as a crossword person. Eels are actually really cool! Nobody knows how they reproduce (!) ... they only spawn in the Sargasso Sea ... they are very expensive and there's a whole clandestine eel industry. That article made me feel like EELER / EELED are maybe ok as crossword fill? (Don't cancel me!). Anyways, let's move on to this puzzle.
So, IMO there are a few issues here. Firstly, and most glaringly, FAT FINGER SYNDROME is simply Not A Thing. The puzzle is trying very hard to make it A Thing, but, alas, it is not. Googling "fat finger syndrome" with quotes returns a measly 15,000 results. Take a peep at this incriminating graph below.
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Having a revealer that misses the mark is always a real letdown for me because the whole puzzle is one building crescendo getting you ready for the revealer denouement. You worked so, so hard for that revealer! And when you get something that is Not A Thing you are sad!
Secondly, once I figured out the theme (early on), there were no additional aha moments, no side plots to my puzzle's drama, no wine pairings to my puzzle's tasting menu, no deliciously thick layer of cream cheese to my puzzle's toasted sesame bagel. Since there are just five fingers, and they were in order, I could just go through and pretty much immediately fill out the theme answers based on very few (if any) crossings.
Thirdly, the fingers aren't very well hidden in all the entries. We start out strong with THUMB and INDEX across word breaks. Then MIDDLE and RING are just half-heartedly "hiding" at the beginning / end of a word. And then PINKY ... is just there, in plain sight. Its own word. Not trying to hide at all.
Finally, Merriam-Webster lists "pinkie" is the primary spelling for the finger, and PINKY as a variant spelling. This didn't bother me too much (I don't think I have a preference for one vs. the other) but did any of you notice or care? Let me know!
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| This DJ is probably playing EDM. A better way to clue EDM, I think |
And then the fill felt mostly uninspiring to me. There are no non-theme entries with length >7, so there isn't much opportunity to include interesting bonus fill in the puzzle. Sometimes a Sunday theme is just so constrained that there's no way to fit in any other long slots, but this one felt like it could have supported some more zing. ZEPHYR is a fun word ... BELLINI is nice maybe? ... ECHIDNAs are funky creatures, SPARE ME is a good colloquial expression ... but there isn't much else here to remember.
The short stuff was on the gluey side too. LEDA / OBS / MAI (as clued) / OWS / SISI is a pretty rough row. The clue choice for MII [Early 11th-century year] boggles the mind. Funny that they had to clue EDM as Edmonton and not Electronic Dance Music, I assume for fear of the ECHIDNA crossing but then they couldn't clue ALB as another 3-letter Canada abbr. so they went with the religious garment.
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| This is a MII! A better way to clue MII, I think |
Overall, not my favorite Sunday, I'm afraid! It's a pity because the "fat finger" idea is really fun. If the revealer had been just FAT FINGERS, even if not in a symmetrical position with another theme entry, I think this would have been a stronger puzzle.
Bullets:
- I SEE [39D: Words from someone who's following you] — Loved this clue!
- ASEA [104D: Offshore] — I will be an ASEA hater for the rest of my living days. Abolish ASEA as crossword fill. May ASEA go ASEA and never return a-land
- TOASTY [31A: Like a room with a lit fireplace, often] — This, however, is a fantastic word. TOASTY! What a great word. More TOASTY in crosswords, less ASEA
- STREAK [85A: Run out of clothes?] — Another cute tricky clue that was easy to see through but still got a chuckle out of me
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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120 comments:
I had more appreciation forthe theme than Rex, but definitely not for the fill. Two serious naticks here, and shame on the editor for them:
1) MEDINA/LEDA/MLS. Who the heck is Lionell Messi and what the heck is MLS? This is beyond obscure.
2) BELLINI/BAT I guessed cELLINI. /cAT. Who the heck knows this stuff? I'man inveterate drinker, and I've never heard of a BELLINI in six decades of indulgence. WTF?
LOL At "... go asea and never return a-land" However, I quite like "area"
I disagree with your objection to fat finger syndrome. The clue says "excuse...jocularly" and I definitely have heard it said more than once. Hence, thought it a good revealer
Except I didn't really get it on my own. Until I read you r write up, I did not get that the multiple letters were spelling various fingers (and thumb). Jut thought it was randomly doubling letters as an exmple of "ffs.", which seemed kind of sloppy.
Now I like it more.
Agree 85A was clever, fun clue.
A tough one for me. It took quite a while to see what was going on and even then SYNDROME didn’t come easily (@hi Rafa thanks for explaining why), TASTE IT needed crosses, I did not know about the Bacardi BAT, spelling ECHIDNA was a challenge….tough puzzle that got only slightly easier after I caught on.
Clever and ambitious but a bit of a slog which was not remedied by the short fill, didn’t hate it but it was not one of my favorites either.
Lionel Messi is the most famous player in the most popular sport in the world. Step outside yourself, my man.
He's quite possibly one of the most well known living people? The most popular athlete in the most globally popular sport.
He's the other guy when they need a soccer player answer who isn't Pele
@Ken are you serious or joking? One need not follow soccer (I don’t) to hear Messi all over the news.
i liked the puzzle. i agree fat finger syndrome is not a thing. when i googled it, one of the top results was this article from 18 years ago,
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/dec/09/japan.internationalnews
lol
i thought the puzzle was well done. good job David Karp. l loved the bach Mass in B minor reference.
The review clearly says it is not by Rex, and Messi has been probably the world's most famous soccer player for a long time. His arrival in America to play for an MLS team got lots of high-profile coverage. I'm kind of hoping your comment is supposed to be a joke and I am falling for it by being the straight man.
I got stuck on LETSDIE for a while (had L instead of D). Also didn’t realize that the double letters spelled out different fingers till the reveal post-completion.
Rafa, I completely agree about the theme--I couldn't place SYNDROME for the longest time, even with a majority of the letters. Otherwise, I enjoyed it I think more than you did. While I agree that "Pinky" as its own word is a letdown thematically, I'm reflexively going to love anything that reminds me of PINKY AND THE BRAIN. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Great theme idea, mediocre theme execution, but a decent Sunday fun day.
Terrible idea for a theme. Turned the whole puzzle into one giant annoyance. PINKY AND THE BRAIN ? ? ? Seriously?
ANTOINE Lavoisier crossing DAMON Lindelof ? ? ? Cover your eyes folks, it’s not pretty. Definitely my least enjoyable solve of the year so far.
Perfect examples of how we each bring a unique knowledge base to a puzzle. I don’t follow any sports, but knew Lionel Messi was associated with soccer. I don’t drink but knew a Bellini was a cocktail. On the other hand, I had my own Naticks and near Naticks that were probably no challenge at all to many. That’s the nature of crosswords, and that’s why I never whine about not getting a clue.
I agree with pretty much everything Rafa said here. I suspect that Rex would have had a much harsher take...
Lionel Messi is one of the most well-known athletes in the world, and he plays in one of the most well-known sports (Major League Soccer). And Bellinis are (along with mimosas and bloody marys) probably the most common brunch cocktails.
There are frequently examples of obscure answers in NYT crosswords, but I don't think these really qualify.
Lacks integrity. When one finds cleverness elusive, gimmicks prevail.
The title was apt - got the first themer and it was all downhill after that. Not enough here to support a Sunday sized grid.
A big 48a for this one.
HUMBLE PIE
Yep - record Sunday due to the theme and lack of interesting fill. Ah well, try again next week
Not on my wavelength at all as far as the clues, missed the "digits" part of the theme (that was my whoosh for the day, and hi @Sharon AK), and was so relieved to finally get through this one that I didn't bother to go back and try to figure out what was going on. I thought something was up with the double letters in a double blind experiment, but that led nowhere. I knew I was in trouble right away when my ignorance of eye shadow had me thinking, soot? Too many similar first takes to make this one a nice Sunday stroll. More of a forced march.
Enough commenters here use the FATFINGE thing to explain typos, so I'm familiar with that expression. Don't know if it's widespread enough to qualify as a SYNDROME, but it seems like there were lots of things today that I don't know. So it goes.
Nice tricky feat of construction, DK. Not quite dense enough to be a stunt puzzle, and it would be nice if you Don't Keep making more like this. Thanks for some hard-earned fun.
MLS= Major League Soccer.
It took me way too long to get the theme, so my time was just average. I was sure that the “research trials using withheld information” was double-BLIND EXPERIMENTS, but that was one letter too long, so I figured there would be a one-square rebus in there. I didn’t notice the doubling letters until the KATE MIDDLETON line. I got the revealer before getting any themers, and PINKY AND THE BRAIN was the aha moment, even though I’ve never heard of it. Then I went back up the grid, getting the fingers in reverse order. I definitely noticed the inconsistency when I got to INDEX spanning two words when the bottom three did not.
Whether FAT FINGER SYNDROME is a real thing or not, I definitely have it. I solve on my phone and post to this blog on my phone, and I am always having to go back and correct TYPOS (that word was kind of an extra themer, no?). I am especially prone to mixing up I and O, and I often have to go back and change “if” to “of”. And apparently, I also fat-finger M and N because I just had to go back and change “amd” to “and.”
Agree with Rafa that the fill was pretty bad, but saved somewhat for me by some very clever cluing. In addition to the ones Rafa noted, I loved “second calling” for ALIAS, “root word” for OLE, “pot leaves” for TEA, and especially “rates of return” for RANSOMS. And the misdirection of clues like “head turner at the racetrack” (REIN), “F on a test” (FALSE) and “flight selections” (ALES) tricked me. I also kinda like trying to figure out the quotes from “The Glass Menagerie” and Cervantes before crosses make them clear.
In addition to ASEA, can we exile IRES as a verb?
Thanks for the writeups, Rafa! (And my fat fingers just had to change “fir” to “for.”)
Possibly my fastest Sunday ever, and I'm not complaining! I solved on my laptop so I actually saw the puzzles name, and figured out pretty quickly how it worked with the first themer. When I got to the revealer I had a few crosses and knew it would be FAT FINGER but I've never heard anyone say FAT FINGER SYNDROME. Just FAT FINGER(S) when talking about typos on phones.
My cracking this theme happened in a perfect storm.
The fill-in before that point had been halting and slow due to no-knows and lovely vague and oblique clues, and even when I had completed many squares, I hadn’t fully filled in any of the theme answers.
I had figured out parts of them, knew some of their complete answers, and even understood that some of the letters would be doubled (due to the title and too-many-squares-for-the-answer) but hadn’t figured out which ones.
Then, crosses gave me RRIINNGG and PPIINNKKYY, and I saw the meaning of “digital” in the title and FAT FINGER in the revealer (which I had uncovered), and with a "Wow!" understood the conceit, and began to tackle the other theme answers.
Then the moment came when I realized that the fingers in the theme answers were actually in order -- and my jaw dropped. It was explosive.
Not just a “how clever” or “very very good” reaction, but the same feeling I get at those rare moments at performances where I burst into a standing-O without even thinking, out of amazement and joy.
Doesn’t happen like that often for me in crosswords, so this was memorable.
Just a superlative outing for me today. Thank you so much, David, for putting this one together!
Superb puzzle!! Rafa channeling Rex perfectly. Ken and Southside with usual banter.
@anonymous--totally agree! I guess with a grid as big as a Sunday, we'll all have our own unique spots that challenge us. I had "LETSlIE" instead of "LETSDIE" cuz I couldn't figure out any Italian operas... finally going through the entire puzzle clue by clue figured out it was "MADAMA". The BAT for Bacardi was easy for me, cuz I just got back from a trip o Puerto Rico, surrounded by ads for Bacardi tours. I actually enjoyed this one, because Sunday's can be too long sometimes and having it be easy o fill in all those double letters once you grokked the theme felt like good momentum to me. Stumbled over MMIIDDDDLLEE--couldn't seem to get myself to type 4 D's in a row! Had to go for a walk before finishing, got back before I could see the NW corner right (TIE, TALC, MADAMA, BLIINNDD all took me a while). --Rick
It was all pretty straight forward until I got blank mind syndrome in the bottom right corner. Somehow I missed out on Pnky and the Brain because my brain was recalling a late 1950s British TV show called Pinky and Perky, two anthropomorphic puppet pigs. Now there's a proper Pinky rather than what should have been a pinkie. Slowish Sunday for me.
Late to the party today. I have nothing to add to the discussion except to thank Rafa for three days of entertaining fill-in.
Oh, and no preference on the PINKie/PINKY choice.
Medium. I liked the concept. I don't think there's a better entry for Pinky, and Animaniacs was an amazing show, so no problem there. Decent Sun overall, thanks David.
OLE, OLE, OLE: chant from fans who "root" on their teams.
From wiki: A beer flight or beer stick is a method of serving a variety of beers, in relatively small quantities, for tasting.
From merriam-webster: The 'ring finger' got its name from the ancient belief that a vein directly connected it to the human heart, and that wearing a ring on that finger might alleviate ailments. It was called the 'leech finger' for similar reasons.
I want to append my texts with the following:
Please excuse any typos. Isn't auto-correct the bratwurst?
And I thought the double letters were randomly placed in the theme answers, and didn’t see the finger theme at all! I think I misread the title as “Double or Nothing” so I didn’t have “digits” in my head. So what I thought was a largely mediocre puzzle (with some cute answers, like STREAK) at least had a very clever theme, even if I missed it entirely. And the SYNDROME part of the revealer didn’t land for me at all, even though,I was just trying to figure out which letters of FAT FINGERS were doubled. None, it turns out.
I thought the theme was great. I have some sympathy for Rafa’s take on the revealer, but in this case even though the phrase isn’t exactly “in the language,” it works for me because a) it’s inferrable from crosses, b) it makes sense - if a person said it “jocularly” you’d know exactly what they meant.
I’m not as quick as some of you. I needed the revealer to solve the theme answers. I could see there was some kind of double letter thing going on, and the first couple of examples I found were M and L and I thought maybe the double digits referred to Roman numerals but that didn’t hold up. I figured out Pinky and the Brain but still didn’t make the finger connection until the revealer.
I did this on Saturday, the day a man from ERITREA won a stage of the Tour de France. His second stage win on this year's tour! Huzzah!
Mostly easyish, but I thought I was headed for a four-square DNF in the NE at the BELLINI (???) ALMA (??) ALIAS ALES crosses. What got me through it was the clue for 2D. Once AKA was filled in (from crosses), then I could get ALIAS and ALES, and 'L' was by far the most likely letter for the ALMA/BELLINI cross.
Having now looked at the works of ALMA Thomas, I quite like it and am glad to have been introduced to it. They remind me of Australian aboriginal paintings (see e.g. Eileen Bird Kngwarreye), which are probably my favorite abstracts.
I'd also just like to say I really loved LOST.
I guess I’m the only one who kinda liked it? I mean it was predictable but Sundays generally are these days and it was not too hard. MLS is Major League Soccer. It’s been a thing for years and Messi as others have said is a very famous and excellent player and I have never watched a game!
Pinky and the Brain was a fabulous creative animated show but I guess some people don’t know it so it automatically becomes a bad answer? I loved seeing it here. Very funny.
Nothing really threw me, except maybe MADAMA I had MADAME but figured it out pretty quick. A fun romp. Sorry not sorry!
I can't believe the NYT would engage in blatant fat shaming like this! Hrrrrumph! Is there no refuge left?
An inveterate drinker getting Naticked on two pretty easy alcohol-related clues? Put down the Budweiser, dude.
I don’t even want to comment on the claim that the most famous athlete in the world is obscure.
Bellini is also one of those cocktails on virtually every brunch menu, alongside the likes of Bloody Mary and Mimosa.
OMG!!! So THAT'S what the finished grid is supposed to look like!!!!!!!
My grid didn't look like that at all. My grid looked like this:
BLIINNDDEEXXPEERMIMENTS
And this:
KATEMMIIDDLLEETON.
And this:
SPARRRIINNGGPARTNER.
Need I go on?
Nor did I have the slightest idea why some letters in the answer were doubled and some letters weren't doubled. I took the DOUBLE of the title literally, while missing the DIGIT hint entirely. I hadn't gotten yet to the revealer, nor to EATTHHUUMMBBLEPIE nor to PPIINNKKEEYYANDTHEBRAIN, lab mice that, btw, are a great big "Huh?" to me.
I don't -- and won't -- text, so I've never heard of FAT FINGER SYNDROME. It makes sense, though: one of the reasons I refuse to text is that the keys are much too small. Meaning that EVERYONE's fingers are FAT!!!!
But now I see that the letters of the fingers in the themers are meant to be FAT rather than DOUBLE. As displayed in today's column, the finished grid is visually stunning -- memorable, even. And the revealer makes a lot more sense.
Alas -- the title now makes less sense.
I looked at the solution before I remembered that I hadn't finished the NW. I wanted something with HUMBLE PIE but couldn't quite make it work. Never saw THUMB. And will someone tell me, please, how on earth a TIE can serve as a "makeshift limbo bar"? I'm trying to picture all those people gyrating under a TIE...and I can't.
When you acted like you'd never heard of Lionel Messi, or at least that it was a gap in your own knowledge, I thought maybe you were trolling. But then when you added you've been drinking for 60 years and didn't know the Bacardi BAT, I *knew* this couldn't be a serious comment.
OH NO!
Picture two people holding each end of a TIE horizontally, then others limboing under the TIE. That's all it is.
Enjoyed the struggle of this most difficult Sunday for me in a long time. Gummed up by gunk at every turn, and so many things I've never heard about, but a sense of humor in the cluing helped.
Loved working with those double letters, and the OHO graphic at the end was a fun surprise. I did not see the fingers during my solve. Weird, because I teach stringed instruments and spend my days judging fingers. If fat finger syndrome isn't a thing, it definitely should be.
Propers: 14
Places: 4
Products: 10
Partials: 19
Foreignisms: 9
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 56 (40%) (Sunday eek)
Recipes: 2 (beta)
Funnyisms: 9 😄
Tee-Hee: OILED UP SPURT
Uniclues:
1 Where stuffed animal art originates.
2 Judgy bottle dweller.
3 "Looks like you got your crown at 7-11." {They have corn dogs there.}
1 PLUSH EASEL
2 YENTA GENIE
3 CAT TAIL TIARA DISS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Non-fiction tome subtitled: My Life in Your Backyard. TRASH PANDA OPUS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hey All!
Apparently, the letters were doubled two at a time in each Themer, but for some reason, the ole brain wasn't letting me in on that aspect. I had triples in a couple of spots, leading to my DNF. Ended up with iAMOi for DAMON. And that was after having PPIINNKKYY in. Silly brain.
Interesting puz, but like Rafa, haven't heard it called a SYNDROME. It would've been better as either FATFINGERED or FATFINGERTYPING. FATFINGERTROUBLES would fit the spot, but doesn't sound much better.
A bit in the tough side today. Some Naticks, ala ANTOINE/DAMON cross. I do like the fingers in order. Of the left hand, if you're starting with the THUMB.
Side note: I got my book yesterday. I always envisioned the thick books you see from authors in bookstores. Mine is thin! It's 125 pages, apparently should've been a longer story, but it'll be a quick read, with hopefully a good story! Title is Changing Times. Keep a lookout for it on Amazon in the near future. Wile away 2 hours of your day! Har.
Happy Sunday.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Nancy 8:56 AM
It helps to grow up going to a lotta church basement receptions in the country. Dancing is frowned upon by some, but if you tie a tie between two chairs you can limbo -- and that's not covered in either the old or new testaments thank God.
Stop trying to make fetch happen
Another lead contender for WOAT.
Just here to say I always enjoy the Rafa write-ups! Well done as always!
I guess if Google doesn’t think it’s a thing, then that settles it despite the fact that I hear someone say “fat finger syndrome” at work at least once a day. It’s the universal excuse for all email/texting typos. Not to mention trading errors.
Hi Rafa.
I live in an area where eeling was big, mostly due to a friend, Ray Turner, who was famous for smoking several kinds of fish (his business was Delaware Delicacies) and building an eel weir every year to trap eels, not far from where Rex Parker lives.
https://www.anglersjournal.com/freshwater/end-of-an-era
He doesn't do it anymore, but in his heyday he was featured in many magazines and TV shows.
Best,
Monicat
First time commenter here.
Seriously slowed by revealer, stuck on TWOFINGERSYNDROME- which I had heard of and seemed to make sense.
Tremendous attempt at trolling. A little too good, but tremendous attempt.
For those who never figured out the theme, perhaps someone should have given you the FINGER. It's mildly interesting that FATFINGERSYNDROME is, if we grant that it exists, pretty much synonymous with "all thumbs". But then, if you watch anyone under 40 texting at blinding speed,they do it with only the thumbs. Go figure.
I loved watching Pinky and The Brain with my impressionable kids. Predictably, they're both incarcerated sociopaths at this point.
I thought this was a really fun puzzle in much the same way that@Lewis describes. When the light went on, it was dazzling. Thanks, David Karp. And thanks, Rafa for the nice 3 day sub.
At first, I liked this puzzle. But then, it seemed the doubled letters were all random, and I liked it less. Only when Rafa revealed the theme did it become apparent. This took me a while - not so easy!
(Thank you for the write-up, Rafa!)
ALES for "Flight selections, say" elicited a "Wha...???" response. Heck, one can choose, hmm, which toilet to use, or magazine to read. I don't understand TAB for "Guitar sheet music, for short" but then, I don't play the guitar (although I play piano and flute).
And, I'm of an age that big names in vaccines would be Salk and Sabin!
In the end, I do think this was a clever theme. A lot of PPP diminished my enthusiasm for this puzzle, though.
I, too, am a first time commenter. Just wanted answer the question about pinky/pinkie—I tried to fill in with ie, but it didn’t fit, and then I remembered that the cartoon spelled/spells (for all I know) it with the y.
Gee, I loved this puzzle and thank you Mr. Karp :) I thought it was harder than I'd seen in awhile and the double letters threw me, especially on "Middleton" which has a double letter to begin with. The doubled letters looked random to me at first and even though the theme is by far my favorite part of the puzzle, this one was weirdly elusive. I didn't get the revealer until very late in the game. Everything I want in a puzzle, really enjoyed it!
There is at least one context where Fat Finger Syndrome is used fairly regularly - advertising. It is used to describe accidental clicks on mobile ads when the user was trying to hit the small ‘x’ to close the ad, but missed (or more likely had more of their finger off the ‘x’ than on) … so instead of registering as a ‘close’ request, it registers as a ‘click’ request
Natick? Madama vs. Malama
@Dr A, you weren’t the only commenter that liked the puzzle. I basically didn’t get the fact that the double digits were types of fingers until the end after I completed and the app showed the fat THUMB, etc, though. I guess I don’t drink enough AND I’m apparently unobservant because I only know mimosas as a brunch drink AND had never noticed the BAT on Bacardi bottles.
Yes, PINKY v. pinkie gets a bye from me due to Pinky and The Brain. I am lucky enough to be the age when my children watched it and I LOVED it!
Pinky: “Gee Brain, what are we gonna do tonight?”
Brain: “The same thing we do every night, try to take over the world!”
Enjoyable enough. Even a fat finger syndrome isn't the thing, it felt okay. So. Many. Naticks.
The only cross that had me worried was LEDA and MLS. Even the more traditional big sports bore me to distraction so when I come across a clue that references soccer my eyes glaze over. I actually thought the initialism referred to a specific team this person signed with. The Spartan queen was ringing no bells either until I recalled the swan angle. That made the L a forgone conclusion and the MLS fog cleared too.
I so favor the "pinkie" spelling that I actually typed in PPIINNKKIEand then wondered why it wasn't working. As always it was the crosses to the rescue.
yd -0. QB79
Medium for me. My way into the grid was in the Near NE, where ZAP crossed ZEPHER, the P of which got me PIE and my first clue to the theme. I figured the answer had to be "Eat humble pie" - but what to do with all those extra squares? Never mind, soldier on. When I got to the next theme clue, I assumed the answer had to begin with "Double-blind" (hi, @wanderlust 7:39), so to make my entry fit the puzzle's title (sort of), I wrote in "blind blind" - which turned out not to work. Hmmm. Fortunately, the crossing Downs of CATTAIL, HYMN, and TEHRAN led to the double Aha of seeing both THUMB and INDEX pop into mental view. After that, I knew we'd be looking for MIDDLE, RING, and PINKie. Only that last one was hard, as I hadn't heard of the cartoon. I needed plenty of crosses for the reveal, too. I enjoyed it - nifty construction and some nicely misleading clues.
I took a weird path through the grid after getting barely anything done in the NW. At some point I had -DLLEE- at 48A which looked like a nightmare to parse. I even filled in EAT(blank)HUMBLEPIE at 22A, but that gave me a Mass in M minor, clearly wrong. After I saw that 35A included a double X, it didn't take long to figure out what "double digits" was referring to. KATE MIDDLETON became apparent, and when I got down to PINKY AND THE BRAIN it was an absolute gimme. A much smoother second half of the solve after a very perplexing start, and that added up to an average time overall.
I think I messed up leaving my comment so I'm trying again. Sorry if this is a repeat.
I loved this puzzle! The fill was harder for me than for others, it seems; and I didn't get the revealer until late enough in the game that the double letters just looked random. Especially in a word like "Middleton", which already has a double letter. Took awhile to sort everything out, and that's unusual - the theme is my favorite part of the puzzle and typically something I see early on. I thought the theme was fresh and although I have not heard of fat finger "syndrome", once everything was in the reference was very clear. An old-fashioned chew of a puzzle for me; thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you Mr. Karp! More please!
@Colin 10:58 AM
TAB is short for "tablature." It's an alternative (and much faster) way to read music on fretted instruments. The first book of instrumental music published (in 1507) was written in tablature, or as the kids say these days tabs. Most of the 250 year repertoire for lute is written in tabs. These days most guitarists using paper (instead of copying YouTube videos) use tabs -- except classical guitarists who are dying on the hill of standard notation.
This one took me 65% longer than my average time for Sunday, and it was the fifth longest out of 225 I've recorded, including those done on paper. Much of my time came from sniffing out my error at the BAT/BELLINI crossing. I rarely drink, so a crossing of two alcohol-related answers is tough for me. In hindsight, I should have left that square blank and tried B, C, and R at the end. (Even if I did drink, I'm not sure I'd drink from a bottle with a rat on it.) I would have appreciated BAT clued in terms of baseball, cricket, vampires, eyelashes, or anything else.
During the solve, the theme annoyed me, and I kept telling myself that I was missing something. Which was correct: I did not see the "double digits", possibly because of the "DDDD" string. I like the theme much better now.
"Anonymous 6:58 AM
Perfect examples of how we each bring a unique knowledge base to a puzzle. I don’t follow any sports, but knew Lionel Messi was associated with soccer. I don’t drink but knew a Bellini was a cocktail. On the other hand, I had my own Naticks and near Naticks that were probably no challenge at all to many. That’s the nature of crosswords, and that’s why I never whine about not getting a clue."
Exactly! It's a puzzle. I work it for fun and to tickle my brain. I choose to enjoy my time spent solving them. Otherwise I'd find a different activity to partake of.
The EDMonton Oilers just nearly came back from a 3-0 deficit in the Stanley Cup Finals two weeks ago. Alas, they lost in game 7 but it was a pretty big sports story and a perfectly fresh and relevant clue.
Ok, ok, I will write MESSI on the blackboard over and over again until I remember it as well as PELE. G O A L ! But I will still skip the first few minutes of “Morning Joe” where they go on and on about what their favorite teams did last night.
@ Ken 2:43 am I agree with your What is MLS?
I googled Messi (whom I had often heard of) and was not sure I found what MLS was.
I see that my midnight post had me liking "area". Meant to say "asea"
Hated this. Never associated “digits” with fingers, FAT FINGER SYNDROME is definitely not a thing (I’m a millennial, been texting since the very beginning and do it all the time, and have never heard of this), so the whole time I was going “I know we’re doubling some letters and some not” but didn’t care enough really give it a ton of thought. I respect anyone that makes a crossword puzzle, cause I know how hard it is, but oof, this one was rough for me. My brain just never made the leap to fingers.
You would think fat finger syndrome would be hitting adjacent keys together rather than the same key twice.
Must speak up in defense of "syndrome" Fat Fingers as the revealer wouldn't have nearly the much or character of fat finger syndrome. So even if it had not rung a bell I would have liked it.
I liked the puzzle and thought the theme was clever and cute: FAT FINGER SYNDROME makes perfect sense, and if it isn't a "thing," it should be! Some of the fill was challenging and unknown to me, but I was able to work it out, and I appreciate Sunday puzzles that make me work a little. I got to think about Bellinis (delicious) and I learned what a Bloody Caesar is, and I loved the Glass Menagerie quote ("The longest distancebetween two places...time"). All and all, a very nice puzzle in my book!
Fat finger syndrome is only a problem for doctors.
the problem is that fat finger doesnt even make sense here. when you fat finger then you hit multiple keys at once. you dont hit the same key over and over. this makes me irrationally angry.
that was brutal
Not tteerriibbllee, but certainly terrible for me. Why? Because I never learned to type and I do have FATFINGERSYNDROME due to arthritis so typing those weird theme answers was painful. But it’s a lovely Sunday morning and I was able to sit outside and listen to the birds. Merlin tells me I was serenaded by Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Western Tanagers, Spotted Towhees, Western Wood Pewees (not Pewits, M&A), the ever-present American Robin, and a bunch more.
Rafa’s right. Once you got the first themer the rest were easy. A slog, but an easy one. A few tough crossings especially, as noted by @SouthsideJohnny, ANTOINE Lavoisier and DAMON Lindelof. Yikes!
Agree with @Wanderlust about the handful of clever clues, especially ALIAS for second calling and RANSOM for rate of return. Also agree that IRES as a verb has to go. Just irks me.
Loved it!!
It think it's time to transition this discussion from the great Lionel Messi to the great "Messe in H-Moll" (Bach's amazing Mass in B-minor).
I challenge anyone to find a quiet place this afternoon, preferably with headphones, and listen to 13 minutes of the opening kyrie and not be blown away by some of the most magnificent music ever written. I prefer the Klemperer or the von Karajan versions. No need to be religious to enjoy it, I certainly am not.
The very Lutheran JS Bach wrote this Kyrie for an interview as music director for Augustus III, the new catholic Elector of Saxony in Dresden in 1733. Yes, he did get the job! duh!!
If you've ever prepared anything comparable for an interview you had, feel free to include it in the comments.
I loved it. One of the best Sunday themers in a long time.
Cute puztheme idea, but …
Lotsa double letters as a theme don't hold up as cute for a whole SunPuz-sized solvequest. Did make the themers a whole lot easier to fingernail down, when the only real ahar moment was for the EATHUMBLEPIE themer. PINKYANDTHEBRAIN was still kinda mysterious and ergo a challenge to decode, tho.
staff weeject pick [of a mere 39 choices]: MII. Note with an I-digit.
Nothin in the whole rest of the puzfillins longer than seven. Unusual, for a SunPuz. faves did include: ZEPHYR. CATTAIL. CAROUSE. STYRENE. PFIZER.
Thanx for givin us all them double fingers -- in a friendly way, Mr. Karp dude.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
This millennium was very excited to see Pinky and the Brain as a clue since I grew up watching this as part of Saturday morning cartoons! I can also verify that Fat Finger Syndrome is not a thing. Fat fingers, sure. All thumbs, sure. Syndrome doesn’t exist.
Last year, after MESSI announced he was coming to MLS, I thought 'why not check it out', and looked at tickets for the next time Inter Miami came to DC. Cheapest tickets, which normally go for $25, give or take, were priced at $125. Two weeks later, they were $225 on the resale markets. MESSI moves the needle.
Ales?
Last time Miami came to Vancouver, Messi bowed out leaving a lot of disgruntled soccer fans here who had paid those premium prices you mention, @kitshef. Don't think he's a fan fave here anymore.
Four “D’s” in Middleton conform to the theme but am I missing something with the three “Rs” in sparring?
Can anyone explain the three “Rs” in sparring?
Really liked it, found the fill pretty difficult even once I got the trick. Happy to see text-speak—it’s how many people on the actual planet we live in actually talk to each other.
Isn’t the point of crossword puzzles that you can kind of suss out answers from crossed letters? No, FAT FINGER SYNDROME is not really a “thing,” yes, of course it makes sense once you’ve got a few letters.
What are ales in flight selections? Hmm
Is Ken an AI creation?
Don’t “fat fingers” result in typos hitting more than one key?? Maybe the dreaded “sleepy finger disease” results in repeating the same key:)
I find the puzzles with these tricks - multiple letters, awkward spellings - rather tiresome. Just too cute, literally, for words. I love clever, hard clues, but adding letters that offer no value are a waste of my time.
I am glad I waited til now to comment, as I never figured the thing out, and it was so gratifying to see that @Nancy was in the same boat. I was very tired of the puzzle after putting in the doubled letters for no apparent reason, and had a DNF -- which I was able to correct and complete after seeing Rafa's explanation.
ASEA has its place, but only when referring to the status of a ship, wending its way from hither to yon across the broad oceans. I tend to think of the crew and passengers as being at SEA but the vessel ASEA.
Had no idea Kate's wedding was so huge.
I'm not sure I understand at all the consistency of Thumb, Index, and Pinky all having double letter whilst, and most perplexingly peculiar, the Middle finger suddenly pops up with 4 d's, and the Ring has 3 r's!? I just don't get it, Mr. Karp. If this is only to do with the simple visual length of fingers, why not choose longer answers rather than breaking with the double letter pattern? I was really Grrring on 3 r's, truthfully, and quite annoyed at not knowing why I should have had to enter the third. I wonder if you or some kind reader could shoot me a line explaining these apparent anomalies to me before I blow my Bellinis in bewilderment. Enjoyed it otherwise, thank you.
Thank you so much, RYB57, for reminding me there is more to Sunday afternoons than football. Years ago, I escaped to the opera on Sundays and I LOVE Bach. I’m putting my headphone on as we speak.
Flight of beer
Hey Scrumpy, the letters in the words THUMB INDEX MIDDLE RING AND PINKY all get doubled when you fill in the answers, and the other letters don’t. Thats the whole trick :)
I agree that Fat Finger Syndrome is not a thing. I originally had FAT FINGERS IGNORE ME, which I think would have been better.
"I'm not sure I understand at all the consistency of Thumb, Index, and Pinky all having double letter whilst, and most perplexingly peculiar, the Middle finger suddenly pops up with 4 d's, and the Ring has 3 r's!?"
Because the letters that are doubled are the ones in the name of each finger. You have a M-I-D-D-L-E finger, so each of those letters gets doubled. "Middle" already has a double D, so now there are four of them! Meanwhile, you also have a R-I-N-G finger, and those letters double. There's a third R there because the outside-layer answer, SPARRING PARTNER, already had a double R. So you double one of the Rs (as part of RING) but not the other R. It isn't a RRING finger, after all.
That would be a KEALOA, not a Natick.
A flight is a selection of several ales or glasses of wine.
***Exactly. This times a million. If fat finger syndrome is a thing, it certainly isn't about double typing letters. It is about pressing two different letters at once and getting typos.***
I didn't understand this either... What is the connection between ALES and flight?
Uh, no. AI would not have missed the fact that Rex didn't pen this review and, with its unlimited knowledge base, would it be troubled by naticks....
Yes, please someone explain it. It's it a beverage choice on an airplane? Because that would be lamer than any of the other clues Rafa complains about.
Thank you. Had not heard of Kelli’s and like the concept b
Are ales really flight selections? I don’t fly first class.
This took me double my normal solve time. When I finally got what was going on I was able to tediously correct all my un witting mistakes. For me my problem was fathead syndrome. My fingers don't enter in since I use a stylus :--)
as in a "flight" of ales, scotches, etc served at a bar or restaurant.
So "flight selection" is ALES because you choose what kind of drink? That is just about the worst clue I've ever seen. Grotesque. What ails that person?
how has no one complained yet that Bush #2 was NOT a junior? i have a complaint about just plain wrong clues a few times a week (not to wade into the arguments about lame, obscure, outdated or overused clues). this joel guy standing in for shortz is just not good enough
Until coming to the blog I did not completely grok the finger is digit equivalency. I just saw the doubling of letters and gave it no more thought. Now that the light bulb in my head has been sufficiently tightened, and I can see clearly now, I like the puzzle a whole lot more. However, I do think the cluing overall was harder than your typical SunPuz. Not a complaint or a nit in a snit, but merely an observation.
Fat finger syndrome is a thing. I read the article in the Guardian from 18 years ago, that was linked to on this blog.
If you've ever gone to a craft beer bar, they offer sample mini-flutes of various beers so you can TRYONE. These are often set in racks, and the whole shebang is called a "flight." Presumably it came about because of comparison to the small drink containers on airplanes.
As to this puzzle...what a harebrained idea for a theme! How do people think of these things--and then actually decide to DO them? See how confused a lot of us got, with doubling, quadrupling, and even tripling letters. SPAR is the verb, now we add the participle -RRIINNGG, and that makes three R's. I got it, but not without numerous ink-overs. It IRES me. Yeah, the fill suffers too.
So guess which finger I give today. Some poor soul got an 8 on a 100-yard par 3 hole at Troon (congrats to Champion Xander Schauffle!); that's a quintuple-bogey. Sounds about right.
Wordle par.
One last thing, fat fingering is sometimes the doubling or tripling of letters, and I know this for a fact, because I do it all the time, especially when logging in with my password on sites.
What a horrible, horrible puzzle. Maybe the worst idea ever.
I came here to look up an unknown name, saw the big letters (I knew there were double letters already) and decided not to finish. Never did that before.
Over 100 degrees and now this piece of doo doo.
D, LIW
PLUSH PINKY PARTNER
TRYONE BL(INDEX)PERIMENT, please,
LETS give KATE(MIDDLE)TON A tease
AND KEEP her OILEDUP some
with A FATFINGER AND (THUMB).
--- SIR DAMON TYSON
Also disappointed. Lotsa threes and abbr.s in the mix due to the double up stuff for long themers.
Wordle birdie.
As per my usual, stumped and frustrated on the so called “easy” rated puzzle. Well, it had a nice martini and pizza instead. 😊
Feels like so many people trolling (deliberately trying to avoid ‘getting it’) just because something they have missed hearing about (fat finger syndrome) must then ‘not exist’ …
A lot about this puzzle annoyed me, bust most especially IRES as a verb for of IRE. Excuuuuse me? MW only lists a noun form of the word, and according to other sources I looked up, it was only used as a verb in Middle English. Not a fan.
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