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Palindromic boy's name / MON / 7-15-24 / Question that anagrams to another question / Answer to the riddle "What cheese is made backward?"
Monday, July 15, 2024
Constructor: Tarun Krishnamurthy
Relative difficulty: Easy (2:52)
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| For some reason, the NYT app is highlighting 1-Across even though it's not part of the theme |
Hey folks, Malaika here! Rex was running into some issues with the Internet on his vacation, so you'll be treated to a series of subs the next couple days. I think this is better, tbh, because then he can properly enjoy his trip!
THEME: SEA ANEMONE — The revealer sounds like a series of letters, when you say it aloud (C N M N E) and these letters appear in the theme answers
THEME: SEA ANEMONE — The revealer sounds like a series of letters, when you say it aloud (C N M N E) and these letters appear in the theme answers
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: ANTOINETTE (Marie of Versailles) —
I liked how all of the theme answers were fun! As I've said previously, a theme answer gets a plus if it's something I'd consider an asset in a themeless puzzle. (The only "ding" ((remember when I tried to rate puzzles using "dings" and "zings".... should I bring that back...)) is CANDY MACHINE which is not a thing, in my opinion. I understand that not all "gumball machines" dispense gumballs, but I'd still call them that!!)
Bullets:
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- ["Don't you worry about me!"] for I CAN MANAGE
- [Fixture that may hold gumballs] for CANDY MACHINE
- [Supposed sighting in the Scottish Highlands] for LOCH NESS MONSTER
- [Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor with bananas and walnuts] for CHUNKY MONKEY
Word of the Day: ANTOINETTE (Marie of Versailles) —
As queen, Marie Antoinette became increasingly unpopular among the people; the French libelles accused her of being profligate, promiscuous, having illegitimate children, and harboring sympathies for France's perceived enemies, including her native Austria. She was falsely accused in the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, but the accusations damaged her reputation further. During the French Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country's financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to social and financial reforms proposed by Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Jacques Necker. [wiki]
• • •
I've seen this type of theme several times ("panda" being parsed as "P" and "A," for example) but never with this precise revealer. It's cool how long it is! This makes me wonder what other terms can be phonetically parsed as just letters. (As I wonder this, I am realizing there is probably a crossword that relies on this mechanism for all the theme answers... Maybe something like SEA ANEMONE would get the clue [CNMNE], for example.)
Anyway....
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| "amnemonemomne" (real "Finding Nemo" stans remember) |
I liked how all of the theme answers were fun! As I've said previously, a theme answer gets a plus if it's something I'd consider an asset in a themeless puzzle. (The only "ding" ((remember when I tried to rate puzzles using "dings" and "zings".... should I bring that back...)) is CANDY MACHINE which is not a thing, in my opinion. I understand that not all "gumball machines" dispense gumballs, but I'd still call them that!!)
We also got some nice non-theme longer answers-- BOBA TEA crossing BOCA BURGER made me think of my younger sister, who loves both of these things. She is currently residing in CANADA, enjoying their free health care. God I wish that were me.
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| This is a different sister from the one who is in Canada, but I still think it's a fun picture |
I like to look at Monday puzzles through eyes of someone who has never solved a puzzle before-- I think if I were a newbie, I'd get tripped up on RADII, SCION, ALGA, GSN, and STE. The first two are certainly words, though the vocabulary is a little difficult. I don't really know the grammar of ALGA; I always see "algae," so maybe it's a singular vs. plural situation. The last two are abbreviations I've only ever seen in puzzles. That's not to say any of these entries are "bad," they're just the ones I can imagine people getting stuck on. Sorry for ending a sentence with a preposition.
Bullets:
- [Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor with bananas and walnuts] for CHUNKY MONKEY — I am a huge connoisseur of B&J. My favorite flavors are probably Phish Food, Karamel Sutra, and Mint Chocolate Cookie. What about y'all?
- [Crossword diagram] for GRID — The word "diagram" feels a little off to me, but I don't know what else I'd put here!
- Looking over the clues, it seems there were zero Question Mark Clues today!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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83 comments:
I did this as my first “almost” successful Downs only. I did get tripped up on GSN! And since GATO is Spanish, it didn’t pop into my head. So I had to look at that clue.
And then I had INBORN instead of INNATE which is funny because I thought “INNATE wouldn’t be a Monday type word” LOL. Wrong. So that messed me up, had to look at the clue for HORN and then I figured that mess out.
So exciting. That was definitely an easy puzzle though, and the theme helped because I could put in all the circled letters. Thanks Malaika
Regarding ALGA, yeah, it's a plural thing. First-declension Latin words, which generally (entirely?) end in "-a" in the nominative singular, switch to "-ae" in the nominative plural. And for some reason that one inherited the irregular plural in English.
Downs only, I had a swell time… until the bottom right, where I had retype instead of DELETE, eventually forcing me to look at some across clues. Well, nobody forced me, but I was losing patience. Could not figure out why those letters were circled (and I usually hate circles in puzzles), but I think the revealer is terrific. Maybe someone has seen that C N M N E trick before but it was new to me and I loved it!
So here’s what I guess is a technical or technique question. I did this easy puzzle in 625 with virtually no hesitation at any point. I do it online. Malaika did a nice write up and put her time at 2:52. How is this physically possible?
Hmm. To me, the first syllable of anemone sounds like “an” rather than “en.” Therefore the theme is a dud. Is it because I am Scottish?
Good morning Malaika! Cherry Garcia!!
Randomly-placed circles in long answers are never a good thing. I'd consider this a pretty good execution of a bad idea. ANTOINETTE and BOCA BURGER are pretty strong for non-theme long answers.
Easy, but fun to solve. I didn't use the circled letters, but I give the constructor credit for a lively imagination and a skillful effort.
Back in my day [[puts on Pepperidge Farm voice]], in the early 1970s, a candy machine was very much a thing. The municipal swimming pool had one, with a selection of candy bars; you put your coins and pulled a knob to release the one you wanted. I usually chose a Payday.
Hi, Malaika. Always nice to see you here, and what a relief to know that Rex’s problems are Internet related and no worse.
Really fun puzzle by a promising young constructor. I’m reminded of William Steig’s wonderful children’s book C D B. (D B S A B Z B, of course.)
And favorite B&J? Definitely Cherry Garcia, the best high-sugar dessert named after a diabetic.
I’m 1st ! Spelled cat wrong 👿
Candy machines were a thing in 1960’s Cincinnati!
Malaika, the "alga > algae" thing is indeed a Latin plural -- like alumna > alumnae (feminine) vs. "alumnus > alumni" (masculine.) Liked your puzzle the other day! :)
Hey All !
Interesting. A debut, so congrats on that. All Themers are common things (first one a phrase, the others things.) Is the puz saying GRETA is a SEA ANEMONE? Har.
Under 7 minutes, fast here. I still like to read every clue. I have a weird thing where if I skip a clue, it seems I'm missing out on something. FOMO, apparently. Even if an answer auto-fills, I still look at the clue. Not a speed solver could be I.
Monday again. Oh well, I CAN MANAGE. 😁
No F'S (SADNESS EXISTs)
RooMonster
DarrinV
There’s a book of gramophones titled CDB! by William Steig. I loved it as a kid. And now I see he also wrote a second one called CDC!
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. How to become a whole new hue (3)
2. What memories are recounted in (4)(5)
3. *sheepishly raises hand* (2)(3)(2)
4. Notes you might take on a semester abroad? (5)
5. "Let me tell you ..." (4)
DYE
PAST TENSE
IT WAS ME
EUROS
GIRL
Wow, I may be first, especially if I keep this short. Our power is going to go off sometime soon as they make some repairs to the electric GRID on our end of the street, and I want to turn my computer off beforehand, so I came here early.
Same reaction as Malaika to CANDY MACHINE, but otherwise a fine theme. It does make the puzzle too easy, as soon as you notice that the circles are the same each time you can fill them all in.
I enjoyed seeing SCORN & SCION close together. SCION is well known to gardeners, but I guess not everyone gardens.
I do want to defend STE, it's the standard French spelling, found on street signs all over Quebec (and Paris).
OK, time to sign off!
If you write cnmne in cursive it looks a bit like the Loch Ness monster
Well, I’m often reporting my failed attempts at leaving the revealer blank, not reading its clue, and trying to guess what it is after filling in the theme answers. It is a skill that I’m weak at, ever trying to improve.
So, there I was today, looking at the circled letters, and… and… I saw it! That SEA ANEMONE hit me right in the face! I slapped in that revealer, sat tall, and mentally took a victory strut accompanied by “Pomp and Circumstance”. Okay, maybe lots of people got this. But I don’t care. This was a Moment for me, one small step.
Meanwhile, talk about a Moment! Here is a NYT puzzle by a high school student who has been making puzzles for but a year – wow! Not only that, three of the four theme answers – I CAN MANAGE, CANDY MACHINE (@Malaika, I've heard of this), and CHUNKY MONKEY – are NYT debut answers, and so lovely at that – wow!
I liked how the puzzle echoes yesterday’s palindromanza with two four-letter ‘dromes (MAAM and OTTO). I enjoyed seeing HOLI and HOLEY in the same GRID. And I smiled at the trio of answers that aren’t in this puzzle: ATOP isn’t atop, LAST isn’t last, and WEST isn’t west.
This was an upbeat joy, Tarun. Thank you, and congratulations on your promising debut!
This is a question concerning technique. Malalka finished this puzzle in 2:52. It took me 6:25 with almost no hesitation at any point. I do the puzzle online using the iPad app. My question is how is it even possible to do this under three minutes?
Hey,, Malaika —
Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I cannot put!
;-)
I got a chuckle out of BOCA BURGER - for the simple reason that I had never heard of it and it sounds funny (obviously, it doesn’t take much to amuse a shallow mind). Apparently it’s a brand name, which I am already weak on, but I usually have at least heard of the Monday proper names - not so in this case.
I needed Malaika‘s explanation to grasp the theme, which is also a bit unusual for a Monday. Nice to have a little change of pace now and then, so I thought this was a good Monday.
Nice Monday debut by a teenager.
Normally, don’t care too much for circles, but didn’t mind this one. Tight phonetic representation of the letters in the revealer.
GRID overall was pretty lively for a Monday, maybe with a little of bit of crunch if a new solver.
Opened the puzzle and started solving normally before remembering its Monday. So no downs only. Curious to see what the DO solvers think.
Nice up Malaika.
@Nausee,, I totally agree. But I’ll bet we’re of a certain age that hiunts and pecks with one finger. I once tried to fill in a weekday puzzle that I had already solved. It took me over three minutes.
If a candy machine isn’t a thing, what is it? A mirage?
This was very easy solving downs-only, except for one square. I had no idea about the first letter of the cable channel that airs “Family Feud” reruns. And -ATO seemed like it could only be CATO or NATO. I tried both of those, no happy music. So I had to look at the across clue. I had forgotten the Spanish cat as an option. In retrospect, GSN is obviously Game Show Network.
Speaking of Spanish, congrats to my beloved España for a big day yesterday, not only beating England for the Euro Cup, but also Carlos Alcaraz winning Wimbledon for the second year, once again beating my second least favorite player.
The other sometimes fun thing about solving downs-only is being able to figure out the theme without having read any of the across clues. CNMNE is just a touch off pronunciation-wise for SEA ANEMONE. But it works.
Practice - and fast reading. I’m no expert (about 3 years of doing it every day) but was about 3:15 on my phone plus 10 seconds of scanning to find and fix ALGe.
I liked Malaika’s write up and she expresses many things I thought such as CANDYMACHINE. (To be distinguished from a big vending machine for candy bars) Overall I enjoyed the solve and paid no attention to the circles until I got the revealer and…it slapped me in the face!
Haha…for those who commented on Malaika’s time…my app timer indicated I was a little over 6 minutes and THAT time is close to my fastest. For me to have anything around, let’s say 5 minutes, I’d have to do a “focus mantra” and hold my breath before solving. Even then, my typing skills are such that I’d likely have to correct typos. Honestly, I don’t think I could do it if someone whispered the answers in my ears and I didn’t have to read the clue! But then again, I hold no Olympic records either.
Seems like I MUST have run across BOCABURGERs in my grocery trips but I decided to Google it and here is a blurb I found which MIGHT give vegetarians pause:
The black-bean burger could be healthy, but maybe it won't be if it's made with coconut oil and cheese and a lot of sodium.” Nutritionally, “it may come to be similar to a regular burger,” she says. Boca Burgers are “made of highly processed ingredients, not whole plants.
Nice one, but this was a Tuesday puzzle, not a Monday. And I'd bet most people's times reflected that.
@Malaika. I also wish we had free health care in the CaNadianMaNnEr. But ameriCaNMoNEy is always going to rule. I say "Free healthcare and a buck a burger for BOCABURGERs. And a car in every garage." There's an attractive platform. My personal fave from Ben & Jerry is Cherry García.
IMHO, Leonard Bernstein exhibited the best CODA conduct.
Even a Monster can experience SADNESS on LOCHNESS, or so I'm told.
Nice concept today. Unfortunately I guessed the theme correctly on the first themer (even though I arrived there by downs only solving) and that resulted in a lot of free square filling. But I enjoyed it, so thanks, Tarun Krishnamurthy.
Solved this downs only and BOCA BURGER killed me, I'd never heard of it. Figured out the theme before getting to the revealer though, which was pleasing.
I CAN MANAGE to solve this puzzle without any ADOS --without once looking at the *annoying tiny little circles* [TM]. So that is what I shall do. And now, with the rest of the time allotted to me, what shall I do to amuse myself and hopefully you too?
Well, when I saw the clue "Marie of Versailles," it reminded me of "Marie of Romania" -- another glamorous royal perhaps better known as "Marie of Romania" than Marie ANTOINETTE was known as "Marie of Versailles". Are you familiar with Dorothy Parker's famous poem?
“Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
a medley of extemporanea,
And love is a thing that can never go wrong,
and I am Marie of Romania.”
― Dorothy Parker
You're welcome.
Haha! I was just about to write the same thing! I only looked at TWO across clues! Got everything else from downs and pattern recognition (I guess). Fun way to challenge yourself on a Monday.
Had an @Lewis moment in deciphering the circles, as the letters made no sense until I said them out loud, and then tada! As my friend says, there's nothing so annoying as an obvious truth.
My granddaughter is a strict vegetarian so I suppose she eats BOCABURGERS. If you know any Spanish you may wonder what a "mouthburger" might be. Nice to see a GATO today, and when will I remember HOLI? Not today.
Nice different kind of a Mondecito, TK. The Kind I'd like to see more of, and thanks for all the fun.
My favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor is Chubby Hubby, the more obscure cousin of Chunky Monkey.
@Malaika: CNMNE has actually been used as a theme answer in a gramogram-based crossword: https://crosswordfiend.com/2022/02/15/wednesday-february-16-2022/#un
Easy downs-only solve, with the SW being the only problematic spot since I didn't know BOCABURGER. And with the N in place at 44D given the theme, I had ONESIE (!) instead of INNATE, reading "present" as a noun. -OOME looked odd, but it could've been a last name for all I knew.
I remembered CHUNKY MONKEY from a crossword theme with rhyming animal phrases (LEGAL EAGLE! DRAMA LLAMA!)
@Malaika: "This makes me wonder what other terms can be phonetically parsed as just letters"
OGURAQT INVU
This was one of my fastest Mondays.
My favorite Ben & Jerry's flavors are Phish Food and Everything But The!
@Wanderlust 9:06 I'll bite - who is your least favorite player? I have a couple of guesses.
I'm realizing that a big part of my joy in my Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) search lies in coming up with fun clues for the HDWs I find. I don't think I have the chops to construct a crossword, but I love writing clues. I'm particularly fond of clue #1 here--what do you think?
1. Loll and reclines, homophonically
2. Word used 4 times in the closing line of "All the World's a Stage" speech
3. Catch, as a line drive
Thanks, Malaika, for explaining the CNMNE connection; I finished the puzzle so quickly (for me on a Monday) that I never bothered to look back at the circled letters. I agree with the Easy rating; in fact, it felt like too many of the clues were perhaps too easy, too on the nose, even for a Monday.
I suppose that's an editorial issue, not a constructor one.
Answers to HDW clues:
1. LASE (begins with the L in 29A, ALIEN, moves to SW--LAZE/LAYS/LASE)
2. SANS (S in 22A, STORE, moves to NE)
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
3. SNAG (S in SCAR, 21A)
Time for me to EXIsT--ADiOS!
I crushed my personal best by 3 minutes
The Boca's a very odd bird
To try to emburger it: absurd
It's too hard to cook
It says in this book
And it tastes a bit rubbery, I've heard.
As a former "speed solver" who gunned for the fastest time and PRs, I can tell you there are lots of tricks to lower your time - if you're really interested ,tips online and at tournaments really help. As a start , try to get the longer answers first, as that will lower the number of answers you actually have to enter (many of the short answers will fill themselves in via crosses)
I cruised through this puzzle in relaxed mind, but not dallying, in 4:03.
Experience matters.
Also some people are just FAST, with quick minds that can jump easily from one word to the next. These people do well at tournaments and are often constructors themselves
Good luck!
Huge error - a diameter doesn’t equal two radii. It equals the number pi multiplied by the radius squared.
Never mind my comment, it was wrong
@Wanderlust -- I'll bite right along with @kitshef. Who IS your least favorite male tennis player?
A word about your "second least favorite player" Djokovic:
Yes, I was rooting very hard against him yesterday, but that's only because I find Alcaraz the most thrilling and electrifying tennis player of my lifetime -- and that's saying an awful lot. I can't take my eyes off him: he makes shots that seem to defy the existence of any human physical limitations at all. I doubt I will ever be able to root against him in any match he will ever play. And he also seems to be an exceptionally nice young man with an engaging smile.
But that doesn't mean I want to have lunch with him. No, it's Djokovic that I want to have lunch with. So smart, so witty (and I do love his impressions), so articulate in all his different languages, so painfully honest, and so gracious in both winning and losing. He'd be such an amusing and entertaining lunch partner, I think, if not especially a romantic partner. Not that he's at all unattractive, but for a romantic partner tennis player, I have a different candidate in mind...
Berrettini!!!! Ladies -- just take a look at that dazzling smile and those dark bedroom eyes staring out from that improbably handsome face. And now he's finally AVAILABLE!!! See below:
"As of 2024, Matteo Berrettini is not dating anyone, having recently split from Melissa Satta. As confirmed by the New York Post, Berrettini revealed that he and Satta, an Italian model and television personality, ended their relationship.Jul 4, 2024."
I call dibs.
I wonder if we could get Malaika's MDad to guest blog and talk about how many daughters is too many daughters. Cute photo, M.
And, by the way, you're allowed to end on a preposition these days after the history of the rule has been outted to be the work of one malcontented grammarian and a judgy poet teaming up to Latinize English.
You'd think for a MONSTERophile I could spell MONSTER, but I spent less time on the entire puzzle than it took to discover my error through the cross with the highly obscure NONY PlayStation.
I worry for others these days when a puzzle has circles in it. These are a harmless homophonic bit of post solve amusement. I like those anemone dudes, but I think we're cooking them in the oceans with our carbon.
Speaking of Boca Burgers, there's a sub-Reddit called r/StupidFood. Probably delves into the history of how I've ended up eating quinoa regularly in this decade. What ever happened to mashed potatoes and gravy?
Propers: 3
Places: 1
Products: 6
Partials: 2
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 15 (20%) (right on!)
Recipes: 1 (beta)
Funnyisms: 0 😫
Tee-Hee: With the departure of our fifth-grader in charge of the slush pile (which seems to have happened exactly the same time Joel was tapped on the shoulder with the sword) the tee-hee-ery has dwindled, and with our moderators here, the sensitive flower shameplants that they are, (rightly) deciding the tens and tens of blog comment readers don't need me twisting the righteous NYTXW into something mock-worthy, I've needed to sly-ize my wry-ness by saying things like, "You know kids, that area where NOOKS crosses HORNS at the S? In the olden arse-era (*asterisk) times, our lonely editors would have changed the S to a Y and we'd have had a much funnier day on the blog."
Uniclues:
1 Assurance by one preparing to take control of a romantic situation.
2 Places where one might purchase a photograph of the orange one's ear.
3 Undocumented Taiwanese drinker.
4 Theme of most of GRETA'S work.
5 Crossword constructor passionate about the word HAY.
6 How Van Gogh begins his most famous self-administered surgical procedure.
7 Hates the sounds from a Walkman delivered by a would-be woo-er in cassette form.
8 Comanche boys living together in Colorado.
1 I CAN MANAGE ATOP
2 DEM SCAR STORE
3 BOBA TEA ALIEN
4 BIOME SADNESS
5 GRID BALE CHAMP
6 AIMS AT NOOKS
7 LOATHES SONY MIX
8 TEPEE BROS WEST
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Harrison on the outside, and... HAN ON THE INSIDE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Easy. No WOEs and no erasures. Solved this as a themeless and given the theme, which was not that obvious, that was the way to go. Smooth grid, some fine long acrosses and downs, fun Monday themeless.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #925 was one of the easiest Croce’s I’ve encountered. There was one sticky spot in the middle east but the rest didn’t offer much resistance. Good luck!
It would be interesting to see a live stream of that
I thought the same and am from the USA
Malaika, it took way too long for me to kick a '"Steven Colbert's An Americone Dream" habit so i'd say that one is my favorite.
Only things that I disliked about this puzzle were 28D BOCABURGER ??? And that theme thing: CNMNE. Really?!? That’s not quite how I pronounce it (see @JackyMack at 8:22 am).
Solved as a downs only this was truly uneventful.
As a fan of GSN (the Game Show Network for those not in the know) I can assure you it’s a very real abbreviation! Though I think the branding is more Game Show Network than GSN these days.
Hi Malaika, Good to see you especially at short notice!
Agree with @Andy Freude 8:30 about Malaika stepping in although Internet disruption can be a pain even for Rex :(
Pretty easy even for a Monday. Solved as a themeless.
I'm also in the almost-solved-Downs-only club. Everything was going fine until I couldn't remember HOLI. I knew it was _O_I but could only think of Diwali... and there were too many combinations of the possible crosses for _OW and TI_ES for me to go through. Fun, overall, though.
Free health care is great - until you are told a six month wait for whatever procedure. Then you drive to the United States and pay out of pocket …
Enjoyed the puzz! Amazing debut.
It’s Zverev - serial abuser of women.
Primo CHUNKYMONKEY MonPuz. And CNMNE is sooo close to CNMNA [seein' M 'n' A].
staff weeject pick: GSN. Not sure I get that there channel.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Diameter halves} = RADII. Mathematically clear.
best SUSword: HOLI. Is this where HOLI DAY originated from?
other faves included: BOCABURGER. SNEAKY. EDAM & ALIEN clues. The Circles.
Thanx for spellin things out for us, Mr. Krishnamurthy dude. And congratz on yer real smooothly-filled debut xword.
Masked & Anonymo1U [s]
**gruntz**
non-American here, most of the crossword was a breeze but I got stuck at "Boca burger" and had to Google that :(
Re: BOCABURGER. In my previous comment I spelled this with 3 question marks because it was totally unknown to me. Maybe I’d never seen nor heard of one because they don’t market them where I live (western CANADA). But, like @Beezer at 9:18, I decided to do a post-solve lookup. Yes Canadian grocery stores sell them but I’ve just been wilfully ignorant of that fact because I don’t shop for a lot of heavily processed foods. If you truly object to meat, why do you invest so much laboratory time and effort trying to replicate it?
And before you start yelling at me … I love fruits and vegetables. I’m fond of getting some of my protein from lentils and beans, but I present them as lentils and beans, not faux hamburger. Yes, I’m an omnivore but I understand that others might choose not to be. But why fake it?
My solve went from a quick peek at the filled in circles, thinking, "What is this gibberish?" to a genuine, out-loud chuckle at the cleverness when I read the revealer answer.
Sea anemones always remind me of my favorite Pearls Before Swine comic.
Thanks for the laugh, Tarun Krishnamurthy!
Very close to solving downs-only but stumped at the A in BOCA BURGER. Just no clue about the A until I looked at 40A. Weird answer.
I don't care how long it took me. Never do.
I completely ignored the annoying little bubbles. Tried downs-only and mostly succeeded. The exception was GSN. Cable TV does not enter my home ... so CSN, GSN or NSN? All make perfect nonsense to me.
In American English, if you took care to pronounce every syllable it would be something like AN-EM-OH-NEE. In practice the first vowel is unstressed so it comes out like uh-NEM-uh-nee. Likewise the letter N would be pronounced EN if stressed. But when unstressed it also sounds more like a schwa, such as when quickly reciting the LMNOP section of the alphabet.
So the stressed versions of the syllables are different, but the unstressed syllables are close enough that my brain has no problem interchanging NMNE and anemone.
Solved down clues only, but finished with an embarrassing error. For the veggie barbecue option, looking at B-C-BUR-ER I put in BACK BURNER figuring: cook the veggies at the back, separately! Makes sense. Never heard of BOCA BURGER.
I've never heard of CHUNKY MONKEY but I do know CHEEKY MONKEY.
As for the theme, my favorite example is XPDNC for EXPEDIENCY but it woulda been hard to make all those Xs work.
@Wanderlust - I had forgotten about Zverev. Ugh. My guesses were Krygios (for on-court behavior) or Rios (for off-court behavior).
Got to do a lot of diving while living in the Philippines in the 80s and seeing a SEA ANEMONE with its tentacles swaying hypnotically back and forth in the current and the outrageously colored clownfish swimming around and through them was always one of the highlights of a dive. Its tentacles have poisonous stingers but the clownfish are immune to them so they use the ANENOME as a safe haven from predators.
The theme did bring back some pleasant memories but it didn't quite work for me because we pronounced it see uh nim oh nee, not see en em en ee.
After Saturday I decided a revolutionary soldier - one of the Jersey Blues - was not a good look for an avatar, so I've subbed in different Jersey blues.
Did the puzzle downs only, no idea about the circles. Muttering them to myself... had most of the revealer in from easy downs, of course not knowing it's the revealer because downs only, and I said, huh, SEA ANEMONE, and it clicked. Yes, I'd say it slightly differently but close enough.
Did not finish downs only tho because of _ATO crossing _SN. No idea about GSN, so had to check the across for GATO.
Made by a teen! Wow, congrats!
i pronounce the "oh" [or "uh"] toward the end in "anemone" and while i easily understood what the revealer was trying to do, it was still really confusing trying to overcome that and make it actually work. esp as the last two themers do have M-O-N strings. so it kind of flopped for me too because NMNE en-em-en-ee doesn't = uh-nen-uh-me...for me. also i'm realizing i have a dyslexic issue with this word in general and find myself saying "uh nen uh me" instead of "uh neM uh Nee" but either way it falls short over here. i kept trying to find ways to "see" (C) an N M "on" E or something. just a mess in my brain, as this comment proves lol.
-stephanie.
Hahaha!
Fun, cute. Never heard of a candy machine.
Tonight Dough
Remember nmne doesn’t have to work for everyone.
Just a lot of people. So if it doesn’t work for you it’s not necessarily a bad puzzle theme
Worked for me
Hi Malaika, Merriam-Webster officially announced that it's okay to end sentences with prepositions! As of earlier this year
that is Circumference
Solved downs only, with most resistance in the SE (originally wanted RE____ for DELETE, but got it straightened out fairly easily (with the R in place, 45A would have to be HARNESS, but I already had CHUNKY MONKEY, so I know 45D had N as the second letter and HN... wouldn't work, so took out RE and got to DELETE).
Yes, CNMNE does read more like 'sea enemeny' than 'sea anemone' but I still sussed out that it was saying 'sea anemone' after I got the third themer, so I was able to fill in the revealer at 57A after only a couple letters were in there from downs.
I'm not a vegetarian, but for a decade or two, but I am/have been friends with some, and as I recall, for a decade or two, the Boca burger was the only commonly available veggie burger in the USA, so it was often used as shorthand for veggie burger (like saying 'Kleenex' instead of 'facial tissue'). People now say 'veggie burger' but you used to hear 'Boca burger' all the time.
Nova/supernova is another one (two) that pluralizes with 'e' (one supernova, two supernovae).
A clever and well-executed theme. A really good beginner-friendly puzzle. Congratulations on you NYT debut Tarun!
HOLEY HOLI! Circles are bad enough, but when they're randomly placed it's really an ugly GRID. The reason, however, becomes clear with the homophonic revealer. Extremely clever.
Beginner-easy; only that west where BOBA and BOCA- intersect might cause a problem. Nice pair of down tens in the fill. Par.
Wordle par.
I see GSN on my TV, and have seen a candy machine on The Big Bang Theory, and in real life. The real life ones have almost disappeared. They used to be ubiquitous in cafeterias and break rooms, but I have seen them on occasions. Back to GSN, my favorite shows are the word ones.
Whether it's a Boca Burger, Impossible Burger, or some other frozen veggie burger that you buy at your local store, that doesn't make them a healthy substitute for meat. Many of them are still very processed food items. If you have a local deli, or deli counter at your neighborhood supermarket that has freshly made veggie burgers, than you are much better off.
HOW ALIEN
ICANMANAGE a CANDY STORE,
SEEMs the profits I CAN’t EAT.
I’m AVID for a BURGER more;
ONE MONSTER who EATs MEET.
--- OTTO GATO
@D, LIW - F U N E M? F U N E X?
Got it when the second one showed up. Filled in the rest of the theme B4 proceeding with the rest of the GRID.
Wordle par.
@rondo, continuing: FUNET? S,VFT. OK, MNXNT.
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