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Estefan with a Presidential Medal of Freedom / TUE 7-2-24 / Flurry of finger-pointing / Natural phenomenon first witnessed in 1968 / Unleashing emotion in a less-than-attractive way / One performing a barrel roll or tailslide / Rogers' partner in classic Hollywood
Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Constructor: Josh Goodman
Relative difficulty: Easy
The "signs" (clockwise from the top):
Lotta circles. It's actually pretty hard to build a clean grid when you've got fixed diagonals slicing through it every which way. You'd think with no real theme answers in the whole puzzle (besides the revealer) and a modest 37 squares total real estate given over to thematic material, the constructor might have some freedom, but the reverse is true. You've got a situation where most of the answers in the grid (Across and Down) have a circled letter in them somewhere. This makes maneuverability very very tight, everywhere you turn as a constructor. The grid has to be carefully built to contain and cleanly handle each answer that appears on a BIAS. Now that I look at it, that's really just four short "signs" in the corners, but that's still a tall order, construction-wise. The "signs" that appear in "normal" Across and Down positions, no big deal—they don't add any additional stress to the grid, obviously. There's just the challenge of finding two "signs" that also read backward (!) as actual words (RATS, POTS). There aren't any real theme answers today, in the sense that there's no real "sign" content, no longer (8+) clued answers with "sign" relevance, so the whole thing plays like a very easy themeless. I wanna say I miss the thematic content, but then I remember how often Tuesday themes go south, and I look at how clean this grid is overall, and I think "no, yeah, this is fine. I'll take this."
- PLUS
- DOLLAR
- STAR
- NEON
- STOP
- PEACE
- EXIT
- CALL
Cranachan (Scottish Gaelic: Crannachan pronounced [ˈkʰɾan̪ˠəxan]) is a traditional Scottish dessert. It was originally a celebration of harvest, made following the raspberry harvest in August. The dessert of cream and fresh seasonal raspberries is bolstered by Scottish oats and whisky. It has been called 'the uncontested king of Scottish desserts'. Cranachan owes its origins to crowdie, a popular breakfast in which crowdie cheese is combined with lightly toasted oatmeal, cream, and local honey. Raspberries, when in season, might be added to the dish.Cranachan is now served all year round, and typically on special occasions. A traditional way to serve cranachan is to bring dishes of each ingredient to the table so that each person can assemble their own dessert to taste. (wikipedia)
• • •
Conceptually, I like the puzzle as an evocation of the Magic 8 Ball toy we used to play (i.e. fake-prognosticate) with as kids, even though the actual message in the 8 Ball appears to have been just "Signs Point To YES" (no "All" up front). I guess "All Signs Point to YES" is a familiar phrase in general? I've never heard it from anyone but the Ball. I even thought the fact that there were *eight* types of "sign" in the puzzle was a nod to the "8" in "Magic *8*-Ball." Whatever the intent, the Ball is what I thought of, and that was a satisfactory referent. "Hey, I know that toy!" Childhood memory triggered, literal interpretation of the message executed, grid not falling apart under the weight of junk fill. . . mission accomplished. In a grid with no real themers, it's nice to have some longer answers that are colorful so that the whole solving experience isn't just a grim march to the finish. I felt like I was in good hands today as soon as I got UGLY CRYING (3D: Unleashing emotion in a less-than-attractive way). Some phrases you're just happy to write in, and that was one of them. I also liked SOCKHOP and "THAT'S AMORE" and STUNT PILOT and PROWESS. The latter two were among the only two answers to slow me down at all. I didn't really pick up the *kind* of stunt being referenced in 17A: One performing a barrel roll or tailslide so I tried STUNTWOMAN at first, and then, though I didn't write it in, actually considered STUNT CLOWN (I think I was thinking "rodeo clown"—I blame the "barrel"). As for PROWESS (45D: Exceptional ability), after POWERS didn't fit ... I dunno, I just ran out of ideas until crosses helped me out.
I was less happy to see the stupid term BLAMESTORM, which has now appeared *twice* in the grid since late last year, and which I have now, as a result, heard precisely twice in my life (29D: Flurry of finger-pointing). I'm told this term is sometimes used in corporate / business / tech contexts when there is some kind of major failure? Whatever, it's had its day now, let's retire it for a decade at least. Twice in one year for a long answer like this is *plenty*. Please remove it from your wordlists. Also, while you're in there, take out BLAMESTORMS and BLAMESTORMING (and don't go trying to sneak BLAMESTORMER or BLAMESTORMERS in there either! ... and no BLAMESTORMED! You thought I forgot that one, didn't you? No such luck).
Notes:
- 35A: Estefan with a Presidential Medal of Freedom (EMILIO) — in a puzzle that was otherwise exceedingly easy, this one was a real outlier. I forgot there even was an EMILIO Estefan, or any non-Gloria Estefan. The only Estefan I know is GLORIA, just like the only EMILIO I knew is Estevez. The only Amedeo I know is Modigliani. But that's beside the point.
- 48A: Natural phenomenon first witnessed in 1968 (EARTHRISE) — OK I'll be the dummy who asks "1968? I thought the moon landing was 1969! Who saw an EARTHRISE in 1968?" Looks like the famous photo was taken from lunar orbit (on the Apollo 8 mission), not the lunar surface. Apollo 8 was the "first crewed voyage to orbit the moon" (wikipedia).
- 28D: Actress Dianne of 1989's "Parenthood" (WIEST) — she won two Academy Awards (for Hannah and Her Sisters and Bullets Over Broadway). I thought Parenthood was kind of a random pull from her filmography, but no: she got her only other Academy Award nomination for that one. She apparently has a major role in The Mayor of Kingstown, a TV show I know about solely because I'm subjected to ads for it every time I watch another episode of Love Boat (on Amazon/Paramount+). The ads are terrible (like a parody of every cop show you've ever seen) but people seem to like the show? Question mark?
- 9D: Rogers' partner in classic Hollywood (ASTAIRE) — this wasn't tough (Ginger Rogers, Fred ASTAIRE), but it did remind me of how many Rogers (Rogerses?) famously had partners. OK, so those other "Rogers" were "Rodgers," but still—Ro(d)gers and Hammerstein. Ro(d)gers and Hart. And then Rogers and ASTAIRE (who were obviously known (much) better as "Fred & Ginger"). Ginger Rogers appeared on a Season 3 Love Boat episode as a show biz legend who makes an appearance as the chairperson of the ship's charity cruise (supporting a Mexican orphanage), and as part of the cruise festivities, just to show how hip and current and with-it she still is, she performs ... well, just brace yourselves, because I promise you you are not prepared for all ... this:
Thank you for allowing me to share my ongoing Love Boat journey with you. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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106 comments:
Finished it in 23 minutes, which is fast for me. I guessed correctly to get TSP/SETS cross, but otherwise had no trouble.
Didn't use the circled letter trick, and still don't get what YES has to do with "signs."
Had no clue on the theme - never heard of “All roads lead to yes” (Rome, yes, yes, no). BELA crossing LENAPE was a natick for me as well, and I never heard of the actress even though she won not one, but two academy awards - pretty much a typical solving experience for me.
??? It’s “All Signs Point to YES”
BELA, LENAPE, ESTA. Ridiculous. Triple natick.
Having trouble with people having trouble over the theme of this puzzles (see comments in NYT). All Signs Point To Yes is in the language. The "All" probably wasn't in the Eight Ball toy because it didn't fit. In each circle is a Sign (e.g. Stop Sign). Those circles slant toward and around the word Yes. Also don't understand what @Rex means by, "I miss the thematic content."
Great Tuesday. Just enough pushback to spark some joy. My helicopter pilot husband's Call Sign was Ruthless Rider 12. Fun to remember that.
All *signs* point to yes, not roads - like Rex said it was a phrase popularized by the Magic 8 Ball toy in the 80s; that was one of the “answers” you’d get when you’d shake it. I hadn’t thought of the phrase in ages but when I read “what all signs point to” some neuron in the back of my head fired and said “all signs point to YES!” So not a super popular phrase by any means, but iconic to some, I suppose.
LENAPE seems like a relatively unknown tribe for a Tuesday, especially crossed by the name of a banjoist and a Spanish word. Guessed right in BELA, but thought the latter was ESTe and LENePE … didn’t look right, exactly, but didn’t look wrong either.
Never heard of "All signs point to YES," didn't see the "sign" connection of the circled-letter words, so once I finished I said, "I see that those words 'point' to 'YES', but they could have put any three letters there and all the words would still point to it.
My one trouble spot was a typo, but it was a doozy: I had REVIEvERS at 26A, and no clue about the three-letter revealer, so vI_ST didn't inspire thoughts of any actress. I finally needed IMDB to list the Diannes who were in the 1989 version of "Parenthood," so a lot of folks would count that as a DNF. Fairly.
Actually, I never heard of “All Signs Point to YES” either, so you can tell how in touch with the theme I was. It’s only Tuesday and the theme is already too convoluted to make any sense to me.
Liked the theme and the construction. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who struggled with the BELA/LENAPE cross. That pesky L was the last letter to drop. Still just over 10 minutes on the solve, but that one was painful. I also did use the theme twice to help in the solve, filling in the CE of PEACE before I got those clues. All in all, a clean Tuesday.
And that Ginger Roger's video is hysterical!
This song could have been he revealer
1971. Signs.
https://youtu.be/c9lh7lqZojc?si=O08sbo-kCyHVShP4
Mostly Tuesday, but the NW corner was more like a Wednesday.
WIEST and BELA both unknown to me. Following on from yesterday's THEO, the early-week names are getting tough. [post-Google, I do recognize Dianne WIEST thanks (primarily) to Edward Scissorhands.]
Slowed down by guessing ANKA instead of ELLA and misreading the clue as “Flurry of finger PAINTING”. Then BLAMEShame. Never heard of BLAMESTORM but it’s a valid sounding, highly descriptive term that is at least as worthy as UGLYCRYING so don’t know why Rex reacts so negatively.
Even after completing, missed that POTS and RATS were to be read upwards and backwards.
Thought this was a clever concept executed well with a higher Degree of Difficulty that I welcomed on a Tuesday!
(Ps. Does any other retiree use NYTXW to signify which day of the week it is? I’m aware of the days during NFL season - Sunday, of course, along with ESPN Monday and Amazon Thursday but outside of fall, the rest of the week runs together…)
Sweet never-done-before idea for a theme, to visually portray the common phrase, “All signs point to yes”. PLUS for that!
Did it help with my solve? Yes it did, and a PLUS for that as well. A couple of times I looked at the partially-filled-in-circled words, and filled in the blank circles to make a kind of sign.
It’s a testament to Josh’s puzzlemaking skill that this was cleanly filled, because having diagonal answers really restricts the words that can go into the grid (Hi, @Rex!). Once again, a PLUS.
Quick thoughts:
• When I looked at the empty grid, the circles reminded me of fireworks in the sky, and I thought it was a 4th theme. Nope!
• I tried to think of other kinds of signs, and four that strike my fancy are POUND, TAKE, VITAL, and AT.
• Lovely PuzzPair© of WAYLAY next to STALLED.
• Lovely answers WAYLAY and PROWESS.
A clever, skillfully-made, and pleasing puzzle – a most appealing solving experience. Thank you, Josh!
A puzzle that (like many) is a bit easier for people from the greater NYC area, who might be more likely to have come across Lenape and remember a stadium that closed 16 years ago.
Rogers’ partner? DALE EVANS wouldn’t fit.
BELA/LENAPE got me, too. I thought there was a Senape people? The letter was not inferable, and "Banjoist" is just hilarious as a Tuesday clue. Yes, let me dig into my rich inner knowledge of banjoists and plumb that list for the correct one!
I absolutely burned through this and remember being surprised by how easy it was. But I think I forgot it was Tuesday. In retrospect, it seems like it could put up a bit of a fight if it's outside your wheelhouse. While solving I noticed there's a lot of names (which mostly are known to me), but looking back I see a lot of PPP in general -- song titles, dances, SHEA stadium, etc.
Mostly things known to me, but I bet there will (rightfully) be some complaints in the comments.
The awful term BLAMESTORM should be Blame Game because it's better. And also because that's just what the phrase always has been. Lol. Blamestorm.
I remember when BELA was Lugosi and an ANI was a cuckoo, and OOP was a cartoon character. Are the good times really over for good?
OFL may appreciate UGLYCRYING and despise BLAMESTORM, but they were both new to me and certainly not obvious without a lot of crosses. And LENAPE? OK. No problem with ESTA noche though.
Kind of a lever construction with some pushback, which is good. Well done, JG, Just Good enough to be interesting, and thanks for a fair amount of fun.
I still don’t get it…
Well, the video was awful.
I found the puzzle itself to be unusually easy but I couldn’t figure out the theme. I mean, sure, all the circled answers kind of pointed to the center word YES, but the “signs” part totally escaped me. So, duh, and hah!
I’m sure Rex knows that those other two Ro(d)gers are the same person. But did Roy Rogers have two partners — Dale Evans, and Trigger?
i fully expected "magic 8 ball" to be some kind of revealer. disappointed.
the magic 8 ball has been around since the 1950s. it was re-popularized in the 1980s. my cousins had one in the 60s/70s.
I've been playing & coaching basketball for 60+ years. Never heard OOP, as short for alley-top
Yes, Mayor of Kingstown is superb. And dark? AF! That every other line has said F (bomb) suits its darkness. And not to spoil anything, but Wiest...had....
Wow, one of the most famous hoofers of all time barely moves her feet!! I am definitely cuing up The Love Boat.
Another caught by BELA/LENAPE.
But as someone who uses metric often (Canadian, eh) the clue for MILS 15D absolutely should have had an abbreviation indicator. When I got it from crosses, i was all WTH?? The word is millimetre (or millimeter). The verbal abbreviation is often ‘mils’ and in print it would be mm. Because ml is the abbreviation for millilitre, which is 1/1000 of a litre. 15 of these make a tsp. End of PSA.
Admirable construction effort, as noted by Rex.
Rodgers & Hart and Rodgers & Hammerstein are the same Rodgers.
@mmorgan, i did not know that!
Tried downs only and failed pretty miserably. At least I got all but one circled themer with only down clues, but obviously didn’t know how the revealer would connect them. Fairly easy once I used the across clues.
Same here, without the good guess on the banjo player - and trying to run down two letters gets old, especially on a Tuesday.
There is no earthrise from the lunar surface. Because the moon is tidally-locked with the earth, the Earth is always stationary from the lunar surface.
@JD (6:51 am)
What this team needs is someone who can hit 60 home runs a season, said Tom ruthlessly.
Hey All !
I agree with the clean fill. Amazingly tough to get with locked in letters in a diagonal. And a lot of the answers go through two diagonal circles! If I was making this puz, it'd more likely be All Signs Pointing to No, as the fill would be gibberish.
Eight Signs, pretty good. And only 40 Blockers, with 6 of them "cheater" squares, with no blame from me about them, as without them, it would be nigh impossible to get the grid this clean.
Neat theme, nice execution. Probably the best TuesPuz of the year.
Have a great day!
No F's (I CANT BE in a RAGE, though, puz good enough sans F's)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Rarely does a Tuesday reach the level of “wow” but for me, this one did. Unusually clever theme and lovely artistry in the grid design. Also a hint of challenge which is always a PLUS in early week puzzles. Thank you Josh! This one was a joy.
My BAE, a PILOT who live and breathed AERO planes, had a dog named Lindbergh and a cat named Amelia EARHART.
Diane WIEST nearly always shines in her supporting roles as she did amidst a very talented cast in Parenthood. Then a few years later, she was brilliantly funny playing the uptight republican Senator’s wife in The Birdcage alongside the likes of Robin Williams and Gene Hackman.
The “L” natick.
I like to think I’m pretty diverse in music knowledge and interests, but my known “banjoists” list is pretty short. That is Earl Scruggs and Roy Clark and that Steve Martin plays, but will always be actor/comedian Steve to me. After googling famous banjoists, got a pretty good list and turns out I know (recognize) quite a few more. And ironically have heard of BELA’s touring band The Flecktones, but never made the connection. Think brain was just too put out by LENAPE cross, which was an absolute WOE.
Rest of it very easy and quick.
Nice inclusion of Amelia Earhart who went missing on this date in ’37.
LENAPE is pretty well known in the east (and NYT, so…), covering a large region from upstate NY, Long Island, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. And ESTA is such a common crosswordese Spanish word.
I agree that the Bela/Lenape/Esta crosses should be avoided on any day, let alone a Tuesday. It's not even that hard to fix:
TOYS
EXIT
MENAGE
PSG
(PEEKS obviously turns to GEEKS) I may be biased as a soccer fan towards PSG (Paris San Germain - the leading French club) being OK for a Tuesday, but it also works with PNG/OXEN with PNG clued as the file type.
Or while "Kemo" is not the best partial this feels much better too:
KEYS
EXIT
MANAGE
OMG
This one might be the neatest of all. switching ESTA to ESTE.
TOYS
EXIT
RENEGE
MSG
This one also works with BOYS/BERM.
If I could work out those options in 10 minutes as an amateur, never-published, occasional constructor it beggars belief that the NYT couldn't have done better.
So, so, SO many annoying tiny little circles -- and they annoyed me even more than usual today. "What on earth do they have to do with me or my solving experience?" I thought, as I squooshed my letters into squares made even tinier than usual. Didn't know why they were there. And I hate having to squoosh my letters even in a good cause. This does not seem to be that.
The theme as explained doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. But if it did, I still wouldn't care.
Memo to SCOTUS. You've done some really hideous things this week. You've set us on the road to almost inevitable and malignant presidential tyranny -- perhaps even a 21st-century monarchy of sorts. You've doomed us to poisoned water, air, food, medicine. Why don't you so something useful and benevolent for a change? Why don't you outlaw this kind of puzzle theme -- the kind with the tiny little circles that add nothing to the solving experience and just get in the way.
To add to this, here in the States "mil" is waaaay more commonly used to mean milliliter. I'm sure it's probably also sometimes used to mean millimeter, so I don't want to say it's wrong... But... it's wrong.
Rex Parket pointed out that "Rogers" combines with ASTAIRE and "Rodgers" combines with "Hart" and "Hammerstein." But he didn't mention Roy Rogers and Dale Evans for some reason.
Too many intersecting proper nouns for a Tuesday IMO. That, combined with the restrictions imposed by the theme made this a below average puzzle for me on the enjoyment side. All signs pointed to blah.
I’ve heard it no fewer than 25 times
Ya'll need to listen to more bluegrass
As Obi-Wan said, this is not the theme you are looking for. All those diagonals provide the perfect opportunity to fire up the gunk-o-gun and blast the grid with an epic level of slime. And not a single moment of levity as the green ooze drips down our skulls.
❤️ BLAMESTORM.
😫 OOP lost its ALLEY.
Propers: 10 (ack)
Places: 4
Products: 3
Partials: 17 (holy schmoley)
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 37 (47%) (WHA?!)
Recipes (beta): 1
Funnyisms: 0 😫
Tee-Hee: Well CHUMS, you might think this rapacious little section is tasteless, but maybe you like it even less knowing nothing whatsoever could be twisted in our fun house mirror?
Uniclues:
1 Didn't punch you ... yet. (But seriously, it would be best for everyone if you'd shut up.)
2 Breakfast cereal for the newly single.
3 Result of wilderness leerer ogling.
4 Raw material used in today's gunkometer.
1 WAYLAY STALLED
2 UGLY CRYING OATS
3 ATV PEEKS
4 PLASMIPA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Here's your share of the loot, matey. Y'EARNED PIRATES' BOOTY.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Big, big day for DWs (Diagonal Words), but all those circles around the letters disqualify them as HDW (HIDDEN Diagonal Words). Cracks me up that less than two weeks after I resume my HDW blog entries, we get a puzzle built around a diagonal word gimmick!
There are plenty of HDWs to be found in the grid. AERO, 51A, intersects with a diagonal AERO (and that R in AERO is also the start of a Hidden Diagonal ROO, @Roo Monster).
There's an HDW that might be Tuesday clued as "Not giving away my ____" (SHOT, begins with the S in 42D, PEEKS, and moves to the NE).
For any Italophiles out there, we have PISA (not pizza), which begins a the top of 7D and is leaning to the left.
One more: if you follow a diagonal line that begins with the S in 40A, RATS, and moves to the SW, ending with the S in 58D, POTS, you'll find the HDW SEE at both ends of that diagonal. That diagonal is SEEing double.
OOPs, there's my EXIT sign!
PEACE
i’m always happy to see book of love references. tons of distracting circles are less interesting. how long before we have a puzzle with “touring habitual finger pointer” BLAMESTORMINGBARNSTORMER
I thought this was a very enjoyable Tuesday offering. @Nancy, I think circles aren’t as annoying when one solves on the app (on an iPad/tablet or or ‘puter because the puzzle presents larger than in the paper and the type fits nicely within the circle, but I get why circles can be irritating.
I guess I’m lucky (for puzzle purposes) to have been young enough to want/have a Magic 8 Ball…that was a gimme for me, but (I think like @Rex) I initially tried to associate the circled words with the 8 Ball and not “types of signs”. I do think there were a lot of good answers. While I don’t necessarily advocate words like BLAMESTORM, I do think of it as a group of people all randomly pointing the finger at OTHER people, while BLAMEGAME I think of as more individual. And I could be wrong.
Being too busy being young and in my early 20s in 1979 I did not watch Loveboat and I frankly found @Rex’s snippet of Ginger Rogers a little depressing. Then I did some Ginger Googling and here is an interesting snippet which might dispel the “greatest hoofer” thing:
Rogers never sold herself as a dancer. And for someone who was not primarily a dancer, she did damned well at keeping up with the uniquely gifted Fred Astaire. Rogers was a Broadway musical star who could do it all and do it with star quality. Of course Cyd Charisse, a former dancer with the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, was the better dancer, but unless she was dancing, she was leaden, a problem Ginger Rogers NEVER had.
@Lewis: Welcome back!
@Andy F (7:32) That was my first reaction too. The first “Rogers in Hollywood” I thought of was Roy. And even though Dale Evans wouldn’t fit, TRIGGER would.
The complaints about a Lenape “natick” in such an easy puzzle are bewildering to me. Exactly how easy does a puzzle need to be to make people happy? If LENAPE is clued as “41A. Lenape (Hint: the answer is LENAPE)” would that make the puzzle sufficiently close enough to being a word search so as to please this contingent?
That puzzle was so exciting, I had to check my vital signs! I guess @Tom will have some help on the diagonals today.
My prediction: ASSYRIA goes, so goes the Middle East.
What sailors do on shore leave: CREWS screw.
For our collective trip down memory lane, here are the 20 possible Magic 8 Ball answers. I'm sure AI is now used.
● It is certain
● It is decidedly so
● Without a doubt
● Yes definitely
● You may rely on it
● As I see it, yes
● Most likely
● Outlook good
● Yes
● Signs point to yes
● Reply hazy, try again
● Ask again later
● Better not tell you now
● Cannot predict now
● Concentrate and ask again
● Don't count on it
● My reply is no
● My sources say no
● Outlook not so good
● Very doubtful
I liked this puzzle. Nice theme idea, very well executed. Is this the last puzzle we'll see from Josh Goodman? My sources say no!
I initially had ANkAN/CORk for some dumb reason. took me a minute to find this error, done in 8 minutes. I did not really pay attention to the theme
Diane WIEST won the supporting actress Oscar for Bullets Over Broadway by Woody Allen. I still remember her saying "Don't speak" to John Cusak. She said it several times, always with great comic effect.
Tough for me, because I misremembered ANI DiFranco as ANa, really messing up the center of the puzzle, and the revealer in particular. Otherwise not too tough--BELA Fleck is one of those names I remember as having heard, but with no idea who that person was. A banjo act, you say? OK. I did know LENAPE though -- I think the latest National Geographic has an article by a Lenape woman.
The second hardest part was to parse "point to" as meaning some words had to be read backwards so that they would point to yes. I mean RATS is in the Chinese zodiac, so maybe it's a sign; but I couldn't do anything with POTS.
A nice challenge. @Nancy, I just use a black roller-ball pen and write over the circles, rather than inside them. It makes it hard to read the numbers, though.
WAYLAY doesn't mean "Hold up," it means to take by surprise. I guess that might cause a waylay delay, but the clue doesn't quite work.
Medium. No erasures and BLAME STORM (I must have repressed the previous appearances) and the Scottish dish were new to me.
Me too for thinking Magic 8 Ball.
Interesting Tuesday, liked it.
Just wanna say, what an epic clip from The Love Boat you put in here, Ginger Rogers was about 70 in that performance. Remarkable. Thanks.
Wow, the Bus Boys were a great early 1980s band who have not crossed my mind in at least 30 years ... great song drop-in!
Came to complain about the BÉLA / LENAPE Natick but I see others have beat me to it. Definitely not Tuesday fare, though now that I'm looking at it I can't easily see anything they could have done with the clueing.
"Esta noche" he is an extraordinarily basic Spanish term.
In the mechanical world "mil" is very much so used as an abbreviation for millimeter. The clue is off however because it's not equivalent to one thousand of an inch.One "mil" is forty "thou", give or take
Not fond of circles in puzzles - I solved this as a themeless. Came here to see the theme. Just okay in my book.
Welcome back, Lewis :)
@SusanA / @anonymous 9:20
From GlobalPlasticSheeting website:
Plastic sheeting is measured in mils. A mil is a measurement that equals one-thousandth of an inch, or 0.001 inch. One mil also equals 0.0254 mm (millimeter). Thus a mil is not the same thickness as a millimeter. The term "mil" is not an abbreviation but a unit of measure.
Sign m&e up, for magic 8-ball puzthemes.
fave themer: RATS sign. har. Actually, cute how some signs were reversible, as needed.
staff weeject pick: YES. About the shortest puztheme revealer ever, here. History has been made. Cool history; not that SCOTUS-type history.
some fave stuff: STUNTPILOT. SOCKHOP. PROWESS. EARTHRISE. CANTBE. PLASM [M&A had PLAST, for way to long -- which tended to WAYLAY the nanoseconds]. TSP's ?-marker clue. The Circles.
Mighty smoooth fillins, considerin the puztheme requirements. A few x-tra crossin names, but knew most of em, except for the BELA of non-Lugosi semi-fame.
Thanx for the positive good fortune, Mr. Goodman dude. Cool idea and execution.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
As per yesterday's Downs-only discussion, here is M&A's attempt to "somewhat purify" the Downs-Only solvequest experience. [No refunds]:
**gruntz**
while the pass for a dunk play is an "ALLEY OOP", the actual pass is never just called an "OOP". more likely a "LOB".
but i've only been watching basketball avidly for fifty years, so what do i know?
True dat!
As Obi-Wan said, this is not the theme you are looking for. All those diagonals provide the perfect opportunity to fire up the gunk-o-gun and blast the grid with an epic level of slime. And not a single moment of levity as the green ooze drips down our skulls.
❤️ BLAMESTORM.
😫 OOP lost its ALLEY.
🦖 calls this a clean grid???
Propers: 10 (ack)
Places: 4
Products: 3
Partials: 17 (holy schmoley)
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 37 (47%) (WHA?!)
Recipes (beta): 1
Funnyisms: 0 😫
Tee-Hee: Well CHUMS, nothing whatsoever to twist in our fun house mirror.
Uniclues:
1 Didn't punch you ... yet. (But seriously, it would be best for everyone if you'd shut up.)
2 Breakfast cereal for the newly single.
3 Result of wilderness leerer ogling.
4 Raw material used in today's gunkometer.
1 WAYLAY STALLED
2 UGLY CRYING OATS
3 ATV PEEKS
4 PLASMIPA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Here's your share of the loot, matey. Y'EARNED PIRATES' BOOTY.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Jberg
re: WAYLAY, see def. # 2.
Fell in love with Bela Fleck years ago when I heard Sinister Minister on local NPR radio station, so enjoyed seeing him in the puzzle.
@Whatsername and @jb 129 -- Thank you! It's fun to be on vacation, but it also feels real good to get back home.
Echoing others, the Bela/Lenape cross seemed out of place (too obscure) for a Tuesday. I was just missing the L and ended up tossing several guesses in before hearing the "complete" jingle. Otherwise, I didn't pay any attention to the "theme" until I was done.
When I filled in BELA (with ANG in place), I briefly wondered if I knew BELA from anywhere other than crosswords because it went in without hesitation, but I've decided that it's definitely from puzzles.
I loved the clue for TSP with the shortening misdirection!
Thanks, Josh Goodman! Nice Tuesday.
The earthrise photo was to me, one of my most memorable photos. I'll always remember Christmas Eve in 1968 because Apollo 8 circled the moon and sent back the image of earth as the spaceship emerged from the backside of the moon. It showed how fragile and small life is on earth. In fact, as seen from Apollo 8, the lunar surface was vertical and earth was to the left of the horizon.
1968 was at times such a crummy year and Apollo 8 gave a hint of optimism for 1969.
Btw, the astronaut who took the photo, Bill Anders, died in a small plane crash in early June of this year.
I’ve also not heard it referred to just the passing part of the play. It’s the combination of the pass and the dunk that makes an alley-oop.
Yes! Since we retired, my husband has taken to saying "every day is Saturday." I'm very grateful to have NYTXW to remind me that it sure isn't!
Answer: Fred Astaire
I parsed "Estefan" as "Estevez" and had enough crosses already in place that I briefly thought, "EMILIO Estevez has a Presidential Medal of Freedom? I wonder what for.", and then quickly moved on with my solve. It wasn't until reading your review that I realized what had happened.
Thank God @CT2Napa finally spoke up about MILS being completely different units than millimetres. A mm is about 1/25 of an inch, not 1/1000. However a mm is 1/1000 of a metre which makes it pretty close to 1/1000 of a yard, for whatever that's worth.
Well I did this down clues only again, and it was tough but I finished clean... or so I thought. I finished wrong, because I have never heard of Dianne WIEST so I had WYATT which is actually a much better answer and I don't know why Josh didn't use that instead (oh yeah, he needed the E for YES). Anyway, the crosses of WYATT were ANY, YAS, and TOP which are clearly better if you're not reading the across clues.
Decent theme but wayyyyy too many names and of course several Unknown Names like EMILIO and LANAPE which are a drag on a Tuesday. A noteable typeover was BABYLON before ASSYRIA which even had the Y in the correct place.
Having watched the Love Boat as a kid growing up (and if we were good, Fantasy Island afterwards), watching Ginger absolutely butcher Toni Tennille's song (yes, I know, the Captain was involved but she was the front woman) is something I will not be able to unsee.
Nice concept. All the signs made sense to me and they all pointed to … wait, YES? Why YES? Oh, Rex mentions Magic Eight Ball. Haven’t seen one of those in years.
Good longs: UGLYCRYING, BLAMESTORM. EARTHRISE AND STUNTPILOT were decent.
LENAPE seems a bit esoteric for a Tuesday. PROWESS is a fine word. Just like the sound of it.
@Okanaganer
I, too, chose to torture myself by working downs only. Fortunately I knew Diane WIEST, BELA fleck, and dragged LENAPE out of the deepest depths of my memory. Still, working out UGLYCRYING and BLAMESTORM and the actual point of the theme was painful. I need some Advil.
@Les, I don't know if you were with us when @bocamp was around, but he eventually started doing ALL the days of the week down clues only. Ay caramba! But he said he loved it, and he sometimes managed to finish Fridays and Saturdays -- which is kind of inconceivable to me -- though it took him several days.
No one uses the term alley-oop now. It’s a lob and a dunk
SusanA
15 d has nothing to do with millimeters. The clue ask about units of One thousandth of an INCH.
In the US this is referred to as a mil. It is not considered an abbreviation So the clue is correct. A millimeter is of course about 39 times longer than a mil
(To be fair It is not a common word even in the US. I think it is -or was?-used by engineers. It was once fairly common in crosswords but not so much now)
Over 200 years
Perhaps in November there will be more RAGE and UGLYCRYING, followed by shouts of BLAMESTORMY!
Just to clarify: the Rodgers in R & Hammerstein and the Rodgers in R & Hart are the same guy: Richard whose melodies filled a whole lot of classic Broadway shows.
@Okanaganer, Ay caramba, indeed! I remember @bocamp. I've been a reader of the blog for many years but only started posting a month or so ago. I have a theory about bocamp's absence: he drove himself crazy doing those Friday and Saturday D/Os and has checked into a crossword trauma therapy retreat. Would be nice to see him back.
Diane Wiest was also the Avon lady in Edward scissorhands. My favorite role of hers. Rex I am stunned by Gingers performance. Thanks!!!!
I still don't get the Magic 8-Ball connection. I vaguely remember seeing one but it was so long ago, I don't know when. All I remember is it looked like a tiny bowling ball. Does this device contain all the circled signs in the grid? Does the black square arrangement simulate one of these gizmos?
Since the theme was lost on me, I solved this more as a themeless. I always like some PLASM in my puzz and enjoyed seeing PROWESS, EARTHRISE, SOCK HOP and EARHART. Never heard of UGLY CRYING. Is there such a thing as PRETTY CRYING? Tried BLAME GAME at first. When it was one letter short of that slot, briefly thought it might be a plural of convenience BLAME GAMES. Wrong buffalo breath.
Just went to the kitchen and looked at a box of large trash bags. They are listed as being 2 FT 6 IN x 2 FT 9 IN x 0.8 MIL (76.2 cm x 83.8 cm x 20.3µm). I see MILS used fairly often as measures of thickness.
Blame storm? Really? Idiocy’s child.
The Magic 8 Ball made me think of the Ouija board and its planchette pointer.
Which I realized, on our 6th or 7th walk of the day, was my little Chi Diva’s way of communicating. She doesn’t whine EVER, she rarely barks, but that planchette shaped head points to tell me she wants water, better food - she stares at the refrigerator, knowing I have STEAK waiting within (huge mistake to upgrade her food choices but she was a street waif and I wanted her to live the good life).
Her other go-to move is abruptly sitting down - when she turns her body onto a Magic 8 pound anchor. Usually it’s when she doesn’t want to go in a particular direction. Yesterday it stopped me from walking in front of an electric car that - even with my hearing aids in - I didn’t hear coming before it roared past us.
So in the “save a life” score sheet, I guess we’re even at one apiece…
If you ever do any house painting and use plastic drop cloths, they are prominently labeled in mils of thickness.
Other than that, I guess it's not a commonly used term for lay people.
Villager
The earthrise was noticed by astronaut Bill Anders (recently deceased) as they were orbiting around the moon. In a 60 minutes interview he said he was kind of taken by surprise when he noticed the phenomena.
@68Charger (1:17) Gorgeous car by the way. Thank you for the information on the earth rise photo and especially the link. If I ever saw it before I couldn’t remember what it looked like and was planning to try to find it, so you saved me the trouble.
@andrew (6:09) I had a Yorkie who used to do that. If she didn’t want to do something, she just planted herself right where she was. Since she was a rescue from a puppy mill, she was extremely timid and sensitive to any kind of discipline, so I just did the best I could with love and praise. And OMG! That’s frightening about the electric car. I’ve never given a thought to the fact that you might not hear one coming, but I guess we all should think about it if we go out walking or biking. Yikes!
Though the 8 ball was a great gimmick in the 50's ( I recall the adults having great fun with it at parties), I lack that neuron to make the connection and had to go to this site to have the revealer revealed to me. Nice!
@dgd
Smacks head.
Didnkt think anyone ever noticed my comments, so I feel seen (as an idiot)
Total 100% Natick on 5A/7D/9D -- A Japanese soup crossed with two pop-culture celebrity names (one of which, it turns out, isn't even a human being!). I call "Foul" on that one.
Bit of a frustrating three clues locked together tho
Not bad. I had to look up what a CALL sign is. It’s the name of the TV or radio station they repeat over the air, like WKRP in Cincinati.
Easy?? Not here. If "UGLYCRYING" and "BLAMESTORM" are supposed to be familiar sayings, they weren't to me. Inferable enough via clues, but still two strange entries that made me hesitate. PLUS, that western enclave. I did a lot of outright guessing there. I dimly recall a road SIGN somewhere in the Poconos with the name LENAPE, which at least gave BE_A its L, so I went with it.
But if this is the level of difficulty to expect the rest of the week, I cringe in fear of the weekend!
I appreciate the construction challenge, having to line up those corner diagonals. That he did so with so little dreck is a huge PLUS. Just...man, for a Tuesday, you could've gone with Lugosi. Birdie.
Wordle birdie.
ACT RITE
ELLA PEEKS IN the BOYS ROOM,
THAT CAN’TBE a STUNT!?
A BLAMESTORM of RAGE-doom,
IN no WAYLAY THAT HIREE.
--- EMILIO EARHART, PHD, RET.
At least for me, Bela was a gimme, and I'm not exactly a banjo music aficionado. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is not a name easily forgotten. My problem was in the ESTa, LENaPE cross. I knew the last letter in the Spanish word was either e, o, or a. A was the only one that made sense to me, especially with the tribal people cross, since I thought to myself, I've seen this before. I was right!
Instead of tiny circles, I like to think of them as Tiny Bubbles, and hear Don Ho singing in my head. Makes for a much more pleasant solve.
You're welcome! 😁
After Apollo 8 returned from their orbiting of the moon, Art Buchwald wrote a great column about how he didn't believe these 3 guys' story of missing Christmas with their families BECAUSE THEY HAD TO ORBIT THE MOON!
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