Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Ticketmaster alternative / WED 7-24-24 / Fashion designer Cohn with an eponymous rhinestone-encrusted suit / Small vessel in the deep ocean / Alfred for whom a coffee chain is named / Joystick-controlled contraption depicted in this puzzle

Constructor: Shaun Phillips

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium 


THEME: CLAW MACHINE GAME (35A: Joystick-controlled contraption depicted in this puzzle) — black squares in the upper middle are supposed to be the "claw" and I guess the "+"-shaped black square formation is supposed to be one of the prizes in the machines. Maybe the black square formations on the bottom are involved too, I don't know ... Also:

Theme answers:
  • "HOLD ON A MINUTE" (5D: "Wait!" ... or hopeful words while playing a 35-Across?)
  • CRANE OPERATOR (10D: Professional who might expect to do well with a 35-Across?)
  • AMUSEMENT ARCADE (54A: Setting for a 35-Across)
Word of the Day: NUDIE Cohn (49D: Fashion designer Cohn with an eponymous rhinestone-encrusted suit) —
Nuta Kotlyarenko (UkrainianНута Котляренко; December 15, 1902 – May 9, 1984), known professionally as Nudie Cohn, was a Ukrainian-American tailor who designed decorative rhinestone-covered suits, known popularly as "Nudie Suits", and other elaborate outfits for some of the most famous celebrities of his era. He also became famous for his outrageous customized automobiles. [...] Cohn's designs brought the already-flamboyant western style to a new level of ostentation with the liberal use of rhinestones and themed images in chain stitch embroidery. One of his early designs, in 1962, for singer Porter Wagoner, was a peach-colored suit featuring rhinestones, a covered wagon on the back, and wagon wheels on the legs. He offered the suit to Wagoner for free, confident that the popular performer would serve as a billboard for his clothing line. His confidence proved justified and the business grew rapidly. In 1963 the Cohns relocated their business to a larger facility on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood and renamed it "Nudie's Rodeo Tailors". //

Many of Cohn's designs became signature looks for their owners. Among his most famous creations was Elvis Presley's $10,000 gold lamé suit worn by the singer on the cover of his 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong album. Cohn created Hank Williams' white cowboy suit with musical notations on the sleeves, and Gram Parsons' infamous suit for the cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers' 1969 album The Gilded Palace of Sin, featuring pills, poppies, marijuana leaves, naked women, and a huge cross. He designed the iconic costume worn by Robert Redford in the 1979 film Electric Horseman, which was exhibited by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. // Many of the film costumes worn by Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were Nudie designs. John Lennon was a customer, as were John Wayne, Gene Autry, George Jones, Cher, Ronald Reagan, Elton John, Robert Mitchum, Pat Buttram, Tony Curtis, Michael Landon, Glen Campbell, Michael Nesmith, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson, and numerous musical groups, notably America and Chicago. ZZ Top band members Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill sported Nudie suits on the cover photo of their 1975 album Fandango!. (wikipedia)
• • •

There's not nearly enough pictorial oomph here to make this endeavor worthwhile. You've got a kind of claw at the top of the grid, but nothing else evokes "claw machine," and the claw just looks like an ordinary black-square formation anyway, so ... I dunno. Very little visual impact, and very slight resemblance to the "game" in question. And that's the next big problem. "Game." It's a "claw machine." That's what it's called. The wikipedia entry: "Claw machine." It appears to be "crane machine" in some contexts, but mostly, it's a "claw machine." It is decidedly not a "CLAW MACHINE GAME." Yes, you need "game" to get you to a grid-spanning 15 letters, but oof you gotta get the terminology just right or Don't Do The Puzzle. This problem—the "slightly off" / "extra word" problem—kept happening, over and over with the themers today. Every. Single. One of the themers has a word in it that doesn't quite work or relate or make sense. Actually, CRANE OPERATOR is OK. I had OPERATOR and no idea what the first word could be (SMOOTH?), but when I got CRANE, I thought "OK, yeah, I guess that works." But "HOLD ON A ___?" Why MINUTE? You definitely don't need to hold on that long. Arbitrary. And then there's AMUSEMENT. What in the world is an "AMUSEMENT ARCADE?" It's an ... arcade. Maybe it's a video arcade? A penny arcade? Looks like "AMUSEMENT ARCADE" is in fact the title of the wikipedia entry on the general category of arcades, but I've never heard that term used, so I had ARCADE and literally no idea what was supposed to come before it. Forever. I had -EMENT before AMUSEMENT occurred to me. I don't think. AMUSEMENT ARCADE is a foul, since it's a real term, but it's not being terribly in-the-language added to my overall feeling that the themers were slightly to very ... off. Everywhere. All the time. And worst of all in the revealer itself, with the addition of the extremely redundant "GAME."


Fill-wise ... well, a lotta names. Right out of the box, once again (as with yesterday), we're inundated with proper nouns. STUBHUB over PIER ONE crossing UEFA, followed quickly by JOANN over O'SHEA. That's five names before you ever get out of the NW (I'm not counting OSLO as a name since OSLO has pretty much achieved the status of background noise in crossword puzzles). I knew all the names, including STUBHUB (which I got immediately, with no crosses in place), so I flew through that part, but I could tell that it was gonna be thorny for some. The NE corner was less name-y but also less clean, with the crosswordesey EENIE and ESAU and the improbable MINISUB (20A: Small vessel in the deep ocean) and the apostrophe-S-less PEET (22A: Alfred for whom a coffee chain is named) and the awkward RERINSE. And why doesn't TECHIES have something in its clue implying slang (8A: Some experts on viruses)? You wanna abbreviate to TECHIES, the clue should indicate that you're going slangy, and it doesn't. Sigh. The rest of the puzzle was solid enough. Highlight for me was NUDIE, for sure. Great new (and non-porno) clue for that one. I learned about the NUDIE Suit by listening to "A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs," specifically the episodes about Gram Parsons. I went from "how the hell am I supposed to know designers!?" to "OMG the NUDIE Suit! Yes!" pretty quickly on that one. Those suits are flash. They scream Americana. All performers should wear them (contemporary artists like Lady Gaga, Kesha, Taylor Swift, and crossword favorite Lil Nas X all have). Love love love. The rest of the puzzle didn't do nearly so much for me.


Not much difficulty today for me. Misread 7D: "Cool ___!" as merely ["Cool!"]—that is, somehow didn't see the blank space following "Cool"—and was So Mad that the answer was BEANS. "The expression is 'Cool BEANS!,' not just 'BEANS!' Who is saying just 'BEANS!'? Have we shortened it to just 'BEANS' now!? Damn slang changes, I can't keep up mutter mutter mutter." But no, my eye just missed the blank space. Not reading clues correctly has caused me more pain over the years than simple ignorance ever did. Had AJAR before A TAD, that was weird (42A: Ever so slightly). I guess my brain just supplied "open" at the end (or beginning) of that clue. Balked at spelling CAROTID, even though, looking at it now, I'm not sure how else I would've spelled it. I left the first two vowels blank because I didn't want to F' up and I figured the crosses would take care of things. And they did. Had "IS IT?" before "IT IS?," since "IS IT?" reads way more question-y on its surface than "IT IS?" does. "IS IT?" has question syntax, whereas you need to mentally supply the question mark to make "IT IS?" a question. Anyway, this created minor havoc around the awful (truly awful) Biz OPS (60A: Biz ___ (corporate team, informally)). Are "corporate" people never embarrassed by this jargon? BizOPS sounds like '90s hip-hop slang that got "bygone" real quick. Like a variation on "bops" that someone tried to make happen in late '95 and that maybe caught on at a handful of east coast radio stations for like three months. "We got some phat bizops comin' at ya in the next hour..." Or if Biz Markie had a spy movie-inspired alter ego: Biz OPS! That would've been cool. As "corporate" lingo, though, it's just sad.


Bullets:
  • 15A: Longtime home decor chain with a name that anagrams to PIONEER (PIER ONE) — always hate the "anagrams to" clues, but I guess PIER ONE is sufficiently bygone now that people need help. Not sure why, but I was leafing (digitally) through a list of "chains that no longer exist" just the other day and there was PIER ONE and I thought "wait, that's not still out on the Vestal Parkway?" Like, literally, we had one in town and I just assumed it was still there. If a PIER ONE disappears from the Parkway, does it make a sound? Apparently not. Circuit City, that disappearance registered. But PIER ONE ... poof, just gone. I bought some really ugly blue-tinted wine glasses there once. That is my PIER ONE memory. What's yours!? [side note: it's really "Pier 1," numeral "1" ... I was trying to figure out why PIER ONE looks so bad. And that's why. This spelling issue makes today's clue actually wrong. Flat-out wrong. You can represent a number as a word in the puzzle, but anagramming is a very specific thing involving the actual characters of the actual name, so ... [annoying buzzer sound!] this clue is DQd]
  • 3D: Soccer org. that runs the Champions League (UEFA) — knew this one but my first spelling of it came out UIFA. Like FIFA and UEFA had a baby: Baby UIFA. I think I was under the influence of other famous UI-starting words, like the UINTA Mountains of Utah, or ... uh ... (do not say "UIES" we all know that is not and has never been a thing no matter how many times the crossword tries to make it so)
  • 32D: "Your" of yore (THY) — I just like this clue. I like its lilting rhyminess. I also just like the phrase "of yore." As you're (!) probably aware of by now.
See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

98 comments:

  1. Bob Mills6:10 AM

    Once I gave up on SLOTMACHINGAME and settled on CLAWMACHINEGAME, it was fairly easy. The NW was the only sticky area for me. Interesting idea for a puzzle; I doubt if it's been used before.

    ReplyDelete
  2. David F6:34 AM

    I agree with pretty much everything Rex said. Nothing terribly painful, but nothing really interesting, either - and lots of slop. Neither CLAW MACHINE GAME nor AMUSEMENT ARCADE is a thing, in my book.

    I had no idea about UEFA, so that stopped me up a bit in the NW, but easy to get from crosses. Had ON A ROLL before ON A TEAR, and NATURAL didn't come naturally for "Like an Afro hairstyle" - aren't MANY hairstyles "natural"?

    And I admit that I had NO idea about the etymological origins of the "NUDIE suit."

    My biggest memory of Pier 1 is buying window coverings for my college apartment. That was back when they were cheap and cool, not expensive and hoity-toity. Now my go-to is Cost Plus World Market, which is what Pier 1 used to be (plus lots of good world foods).

    ReplyDelete

  3. Easy-Medium solving "downs-only lite."

    Overwrites:
    HOLD ON A second before MINUTE at 5D ("second" works better with the clue)
    INEz before INES at 12D

    WOEs:
    Since I don't follow soccer, UEFA was a WOE, but I was able to guess UsFA at 3D, which gave me three correct letters and the fourth was easily fixed by PIER ONE.
    NUDIE Cohn (49D) was a WOE

    Needed the cross from MINISUB at 20A to get 13D because a four-letter Genesis brother could be Abel, Cain or ESAU.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:07 AM

      Restoring an historic house with my whirling dervish wife, it's "hold on a DAMN minute!" Also had IneZ b4 Ines, my maternal grandmother's name & my sister's middle name.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous6:52 AM

    AMUSEMENTARCADE sounds fine to me (in Texas), probably a regional thing. Started to do CLAWMACHINE but took it out when I realized it was way too short, agree that the terminal GAME is a cheat. It’s not a game, it’s just a machine.

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  5. For once I enjoyed the theme (and the grid art!); agree that their was a lot of PPP, but there must be a solar eclipse or something weird going on because for once a fair amount of it was in my wheelhouse, which is exceedingly rare. Probably the hardest part for me was remembering how to spell CAROTID.

    Never heard of the NUDIE dude, and still don’t have any interest - but if I do get curious, I always have Rex’s Word of the Day to fall back on. Hopefully my good luck will have some spillover effect (affect?) when I’m staring face to face with tomorrow’s stunt grid.

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  6. I thought this was a fun puzzle with names I didn’t know that fell in place with the crosses. Think Rex has some ticky tacky nitpicks today - though he’s technically right on PIER 1 and maybe the extra GAME, seems close enough for crossword work. Didn’t notice the grid art till I came here, rudimentary though it was.

    Theme reminded me of the incomparable Arrested Developmemt and Buster almost saving his brother in a banana-peel (almost NUDIE) suit but unable to stick the landing…

    Buster Bluth and the CLAWMACHINEGAME

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  7. Yeah, names. Didn't know OSHEA or NUDIE as clued, so learned something there. Gracias to GILL I for mentioning PEET's so often, as there are none around here.

    Made a mess of the SW, first by misreading "shed" as "sled" which made ICEHUT hard to parse. Hard enough already as the preferred term among ice fishermen around here is "ice shanty". Of course having GOAPE for ERUPT didn't help things, nor did THEIR instead of WHOSE. Fortunately my #2 Ticonderoga has a good eraser.

    We do have a JOANN store close by but PIERONE has disappeared, not that I miss it.

    Mostly smooth sailing and agree with OFL that the CLAW is not very CLAW-like, but probably as close as you can get with grid art.

    OK Wednesday, SP. Some Pretty good long answers, and thanks for all the fun.


    .

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  8. Pier 1 still exists as an online store.

    I have no idea why I know OSHEA, but it went right in. PIER ONE did not, but I think I would have gotten it if not for the 'anagram' part of the hint. Normally, they only do that when it's something so obscure that you need the extra help. I therefore assumed it would be a store I had never heard of and moved on to wait for crosses. Now NUDIE, there I could have used some help.

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  9. Anonymous7:21 AM

    I always feel like I’m an alien when I read this blog and the comments, because seeing names are always my saving grace in these puzzles. I generally always know them and they give me a foothold from which I can be certain of an answer and build out from that. I guess I can see how if you don’t know them they would be trouble, but how has anyone (in the US at least) not heard of PIER ONE? Or hasn’t at least in passing come across UEFA considering the Champions League was just all over television? Or how have you never heard of STUBHUB? Just strange to me. Agree that it’s a CLAW MACHINE not a CLAW MACHINE GAME. That really made me mad. Also agree about AMUSEMENT ARCADE. It’s an ARCADE, or a VIDEO ARCADE. Oh well. I’m gonna go put on my NUDIE suit and go ON A TEAR in my pop culture ICE HUT.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:05 AM

      The thing is different people have different experiences, are different ages, live in different places, many not even be "in the US at least", and the NYT crossword has an international readership it makes basically no attempt to accommodate. Too much PPP is a risk. Perhaps you are exactly in the bin of what Shortz/Fagliano consider normal PPP but before you go feeling like an alien try to remember that there is more than enough diversity among us humans.

      Delete
  10. Anonymous7:29 AM

    Until I came here I thought PIER ONE was one word that I’d never heard of, and when I didn’t get the happy music I was sure that’s where my typo was. Agree with Rex on the anagram cluing problem there (and on the extra words in the theme answers).

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  11. Pie Rone had me scratching my head for 5 seconds before I was like duh. A good Wednesday puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:13 AM

      Ditto, but I didn’t get it until I read this column. I was thinking Pierone was some froufrou Italian brand I’d never heard of.

      Delete
    2. +1 Pee-air-oh-nee! The E in UEFA would be a pretty ridiculous natick without the anagram bit.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:50 AM

      It took me a minute as well.

      Delete
  12. Kind of an odd theme - never cared for the ARCADE GAME and didn’t know it was called a CLAW MACHINE. Lots of trivia and names but easy and clean enough to get through smoothly.

    BRAND NEW

    I know @Gill will be happy to see PEET - she turned me on to those wonderful BEANS a few years ago and it’s all I drink now. Love WNYC. ESAU is getting plenty of grid time lately.

    Oddly pleasant Wednesday morning solve.

    Gram was just a poser - no one rocked a NUDIE suit like Buck and Don

    ReplyDelete
  13. Andy Freude7:36 AM

    Any puzzle that inspires Rex to post Porter and Dolly is a good-enough puzzle for me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. We always referred to this game as "Dropclaw" because the one at the Perkins we hung out at in high school had a big green button that said "DROPCLAW" on it. I have always loved playing dropclaw. So this puzzle seemed to be made for me, but I agree with OFL that everything felt off. Didn't see PIER ONE as two words until I came here, makes more sense now, but I think I agree that if the store used the numeral it should have been clued differently. I thought this was the easiest Thursday in a while.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:57 AM

      it was also quite an easy wednesday puzzle. TGIF !

      Delete
  15. I like the stark simplicity of the grid art. I tried to guess what it was before entering the first word, and all I could see was an upside-down goalpost. Now, looking at it, I like imagining the claw closing in on itself to grab the doodad below.

    I think in my childhood I played the claw machine twice, each time starting out with great hope, and finishing with, “This is stupid!”. Twice was enough, and I still huff when I pass one by. At least this puzzle was fun to fill in!

    This grid design looks so basic, but that is deceiving. There are only 68 answers, the average for a Saturday puzzle, and the average word length of the answers is equivalent to a Friday puzzle.

    Furthermore, every theme answer is a NYT puzzle debut, including the two outstanding why-has-this-answer-never-appeared-in-the-Times-puzzle entries CRANE OPERATOR and HOLD ON A MINUTE.

    My favorite moment was filling in PIERONE and seeing it as a fancy Italian-named home décor chain that I never heard of, rather than the store I’ve been in many times. Also, several lovely answers sweetened the journey: STUB HUB, ALFALFA, IRON OUT, TROMP, and HIT IT BIG.

    Congratulations on your debut, Shaun. Thank you for this, which brightened my day!

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  16. Even knowing a lot of the names just an absolute unrewarding slog. Repeatedly the second term you would use in a situation, clued with no wit or joy. Not difficult just one of the least fun puzzles I’ve ever done.

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  17. I enjoyed it as a Wednesday Themeless, although I really balked at two of the themers for the same reason Rex did. I wanted to put in CLAW MACHINE but that clearly wasn't enough letters, and no one in the history of the world has ever called it a CLAW MACHINE GAME.

    Same with AMUSEMENT ARCADE. I had enough crosses I wanted AMUSEMENT PARK, as there are often little amusement parks in old beach towns that have an arcade. But I've never in my 50 years on this planet (including as a kid in the 80s which was the heyday of arcades) heard someone say "Do you wanna go to the AMUSEMENT ARCADE"?

    For some reason I really like CRANE OPERATOR as an answer. I used to have some longshoreman friends and that seemed like it was a really cool job. Plus it reminds me of those ridiculous "certified forklift operator" memes that go around - or maybe those only go around in a very niche community.

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  18. Anonymous8:04 AM

    I had FLIGHTSIMULATOR for 35A immediately, and because of how thrilled I was that it fit (and that the grid looked a little bit like a fighter jet's HUD, so it wasn't a pure failure on that count) was desperate to get it to work, but sadly no. I had to abandon it pretty quickly. Enjoyed it all the same. Need we really be so literal that we take issue with HANG ON A MINUTE because a minute would be too long? The clue had a question mark after all.

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  19. I knew FIFA but not EUFA, but got it from crosses, and now I know them both.

    @Jack Stefano parsed it as Pie Rone for five seconds. For my five seconds, it was one word, Pierone, pronounced peyer-oney. I figured it was a chain I never heard of.

    I miss pinball arcades, although of course we just called them arcades.

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  20. Anonymous8:36 AM

    Miserable. Beyond the redundant themers, this might be the whitest guy’s white guy fill I’ve ever seen in a puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Andy S8:42 AM

    I see these machines often at diners and restaurants on the east coast. I call them melt down machines as I’ve seen many a child melt down when a frustrated parent can’t claw the stuffed toy for their hangry child.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:49 AM

      I agree. It is game and obviously nobody here has witnessed a kid melting down at a diner, shopping mall or convenience store.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous8:43 AM

    Appreciated the long scanners, and only six three-letter words needed to complete the grid.

    Highlight today was Rex’s two-paragraph bio of Nudie, the person and the outfit.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Agree with everything OFL said.

    I work for a big BIZ and confidently wrote in DEV (business development, which I hear a lot). If you're referring to operations, it's just OPS, not BIZ OPS. Maybe you'd talk about tech OPS as a subset, but that's it. To be clear.

    A BIT before A TAD, and I didn't put in ESAU at first because I was concerned it could be Abel or Cain.

    Not too much trouble, but generally meh.

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  24. As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past seven years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle has an unusually low number of double letters, at three, where unusual is any number less than five. This is the third time this year that this has happened.

    I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.

    ReplyDelete
  25. KnittyContessa9:00 AM

    Does anyone else think that crossing ERIN Andrews with NUDIE was in extremely poor taste? Not nice.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Hey All !
    CLAWMACHINES are a scam, usually. The claw is designed not to clamp tightly, ergo unless one gets lucky with the prize hooked just right, you never win. And what do you get, anyway? Usually just some small stuffed animal you never wanted in the first place. Bitter? Not me. 😁

    I liked this puz. Pretty good pictorial of a CLAW. Grid design made for a nice meaty NW/NE. 7 x 4 corners, with Themers running through them, which is tough enough to get clean fill, but also the two Down 15 Themers run through the 15 Revealer!

    PIDAY, har. Good stuff. I remember raising a glass of beer (it was a Saturday) on Real PI DAY, 3/14/15 at 9:26 am. I even have TShirts about that day. And I'm not even a math guy.

    Anyway, had a good time with the puz, although you won't catch me wasting any money nowadays with a CLAW MACHINE GAME. Har.

    Happy Wednesday.

    Two F's
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous9:19 AM

    This puzzle made me sad, thinking about claw machines and all of the years and dollars my kid spent trying to win something from one of them, only to find out through a magazine article that they come with an internal adjustable difficulty setting which causes the claw to let go at some point.

    We finally found a restaurant/arcade for a birthday party where the difficulty setting was intentionally reasonably set and you could actually win now and then.

    Scam toys feeding off the disappointment of children. Boo.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Diane Joan9:24 AM

    This puzzle invoked a bit of nostalgia for me. Many rainy afternoons were spent at the arcades on the boardwalk down the shore in NJ. And then Pi Day and Mole Day were celebrated in the high school where I worked as a science teacher; that is until state regulations aimed to erase any possible fun from the curriculum!

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  29. Tom T9:28 AM

    CLAW MACHINE always takes me back to a Denny's in South Florida more than 20 years ago when my son, who was maybe 12 at the time was trying to snag a prize. His little brother turned into the cheerleader and, because the place was very busy, a sizable group of patrons got into it. He got a very tenuous hold on a small stuffed animal and when he was able to get it to drop into the winner's bin, that group burst into cheers and applause, joined by many of the diners in that section of the restaurant. It played like a movie scene.

    No great Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) revelations in today’s grid, although I was struck by how many familiar crossword standard acronyms showed up as I moved through the diagonal lines: WHO (World Health Org.), TIA (transient ischaemic attack), TSA (Transportation Security Admin.), URL (Uniform Resource Locator), SLR (Single Lens Reflex), CEO (Chief Exec …), SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving), CNN (Cable News Network).

    I suspect there are a lot of these in most grids, given the random placement of the letters in the diagonals and the brief three-letter nature of so many familiar acronyms. But they really jumped out at me today.

    Hilarious dnf for me today: I had no idea what the first letter in the first name of “fashion designer Cohn” might be; I had the UDIE from crosses. But I couldn’t figure out that missing letter! I had the following letters in the crossing answer U T _ R _ S. And I kept trying to figure out how to make UTERUS work out. With those letters it must be UTeRuS. Not once … not once (!) did I think of checking the clue for 47A: Complete reversals. Oops, UTURN! Can’t get more pitiful than that. I apparently need to get my mind off of UTERI. Of course, I might then just start thinking of NUDIEs. lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:01 PM

      I was happy to see UTURNS instead of UIES or UEYS

      Delete
  30. Fan 1: I've heard that Ice Cube has morning blindness. Is it true?
    Fan 2: There he is! Why not ask him?
    Fan 1: OSHEA can you see by the dawn's early light?

    To paraphrase the Orange felon's command to the Proud Boys, STANDIN and IRONOUT.

    I like that the thing that's immediately in the CLAW's grasp is an ATM. When I take my granddaughter to the AMUSEMENTARCADE I definitely need an ATM.

    Do obstetricians speak OBESE?

    @Rex was overly harsh on this cute little puzzle, IMHO.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Ah, yes, the ubiquitous, famous, and immensely popular CLAW MACHINE GAME -- guaranteed to produce a frisson of real excitement and irrepressible glee in the crossword puzzle world as it makes its way across the grid.

    Not.

    I suppose you can build a puzzle around this "contraption" (Shalin's word, not mine) just as you can build a puzzle around anything else, My only question is "Why?"

    One other question: There's a fashion designer with the first name of NUDIE?! There's anyone with the first name of NUDIE?!

    Nor did the non-theme clues and answers galvanize me either. I did think of @GILL when I wrote in PEET, a coffee I've heard of only because of her, but that was the only warm and fuzzy feeling I got today.



    ReplyDelete
  32. Wow, OFL must have MACHINECLAWed himself out on the grumpy side of the bed today. Have a NAP my friend, you’ll feel better.

    I thought there were a lot of propers too, but only one pair really annoyed me. The crossing of unknowns ERIN and NUDIE left me trying random vowels. However, I am happy to learn about this designer of amazing glitter suits.

    Initially I had AMUSEMENTparlor - is that even a thing?

    ReplyDelete
  33. John Face9:48 AM

    BEANS! I say cool beans way too much. I’m going to change it to beans. Thanks, Rex!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Being the type of person that pretty much enjoys ALL puzzles, I WILL say that as I went through the puzzle today I KNEW exactly what @Rex would bring up as the shortcomings…and I agree with them all. With that being said, yes, I STILL enjoyed the puzzle. Let me add the fact that, to me, “clean again, as hair” does NOT mean RERINSE. It COULD mean RElather but unless you consider getting every molecule of shampoo out of your hair as “cleaning” it ain’t that. Hah! I sound kind of nasty…I’ll go off and chant the mantra of Joaquin’s Dictum now.

    I did the same thing as @Jack Stefano and @mmorgan did with PIERONE. @mmorgan, your pronunciation is very close to a condition that some men have…

    @Roo…I agree with you…the CLAWMACHINE is a scam! It usually let’s go before you can say “one-one thousand” (a full second) so the HOLDONAMINUTE!? Impossible!

    @Andrew…I always love your embedded links!

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  35. Anonymous10:24 AM

    dumb crane game gimmick is completely forgiven solely for the inclusion of NUDIE suits. i would give anything to have a custom nudie suit, just the coolest piece of americana ever. too bad they cost beaucoup bucks.

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  36. I Dress Right10:27 AM

    @JacK S - It's spelled Peyronie, it's Peyronie's disease, and you can use it as the reason you're "scratching your head: all you want, but you can't fool me, you're just playing with yourself.

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  37. This was a delightful romp of a puzzle. I had such fun doing this. I was terrible at the claw game, but my dad loved it. He won a weirdly huge amount of little stuffed animals.🦖 is right the art doesn't quite do its job, but whatevs, the words make up for it.

    Propers: 7
    Places: 2
    Products: 5
    Partials: 6
    Foreignisms: 3
    --
    Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 (34%)
    Recipes: 2 (beta)

    Funnyisms: 2 😕

    Tee-Hee: You mean to tell me, ME, the guy with the Ukrainian National Anthem posted on the front page at the top of my website, ME, a guy with a jacket in his closet with a bunch of stupid patches on it, ME, a dude who only knows maybe three popular songs and one of them is Walking in Memphis by a guy named Cohn, ME, a person whose spent the last 30 years attempting to admire every scantily clad person on the internet ... you're telling me just today there is a Ukrainian designer of stupid jackets named NUDIE COHN? I should have been told about this a LOOONG time ago and to learn it just now at 49 down, well, shame on society, that's all I can say.

    Uniclues:

    1 Carl Switzer running fast.
    2 Bonk your head under water.
    3 Pëët.
    4 When you reach behind you to git 'nuther beer.
    5 Places of solace for former high school quarterbacks when nobody cares who they are anymore.

    1 ALFALFA ON A TEAR
    2 STAND IN MINI SUB
    3 DOTS PEET
    4 ICE HUT U-TURNS
    5 I CARE JOCK SPAS

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Subcommittee of the Rex Parker commentariat dedicated to not being amused. ANTI-LOL LADS.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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  38. My heart sank when I got to 10D and saw the clue for 35A, just knowing this was going to be a video game I never heard of. So I was thankful to see it was something fairly ordinary and easy. But as others have said - wow - so many names! Like Rex, I wondered where to find an AMUSEMENT ARCADE and also am also curious as to how one goes about putting dough into an ATM. I rarely use them, but was under the impression you have to put a card in before you can get any bread out.

    I recently read a story about a British Olympic athlete who was described as the “most winningEST.” I’m still trying to decide whether or not that’s redundant.

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  39. Although I know nothing about arcade games, this was fun :)
    Thanks, Shaun & congrats on your debut.
    (BTW - I didn't see Willy's comment about Kamala - or my response
    "Let's not political here ..." So I guess it was deleted - good thing!

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  40. @pabloinnh…some of the smaller “independent” grocery stores today sell Peet’s coffee in bags of beans and pre-ground. I think both @GILL I. and @mathgent have recommended it. It’s a little pricy (at least in the Midwest) but I sometimes catch it on sale. But, like you…our area doesn’t have the coffee shops.

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  41. Anonymous11:11 AM

    Please note that HOLDONAsecond (which works better) and ICARE makes A---D-... etc so I had ARCADE---etc. for quite awhile. Not to mention C---N-- for CORON-- (variant on CORONARY)??

    If I had remembered CAMIS earlier I would've been in much better shape in the SW.

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  42. Cool BEANS!....Now I know your first name, PEET....Alfred PEET sounds so delicious, just like my morning Joe....I'm sipping some French PEET's from my French press right now as we speak! Hi @pablito, @Sun Volt and @Nancy. You can get it at Costco on aisle three!

    Then PIER ONE! Or the correct Pier 1...I bought my first cast iron pan (which I still have today) from that store in San Francisco. I LOVED THAT STORE! I even bought some dishes there and they're all broken.

    Then you give me a CLAW MACHINE GAME. I wasn't into any ARCADE places but my son was. I kinda have a similar story (but not as good as @Tom T 9:28) except I was probably 26 or so and Jordan wanted a little Teddy Bear. He was too little to use the CLAW so I bought about 450 quarters and went for it. IT'S RIGGED I screamed....A small group of young teens gathered around and yes, they cheered me on. After spending about $653 dollars, I managed to snag his little brown bear. I wanted to drink a beer after my success but I don't drink beer.

    The rest of the puzzle. Aye dios mio...Names, names and more names. And what's with that UEFA? Where did FIFA go? I knew NUDIE because,, well, NUDIE is a cool BEANS name....Didn't know any of the others. Soured my fun. I suppose my first big HUH was the 1 down clue: "Purveyors of wellness packages." What kind of clue is that for SPAS? That deserves a TILT. The rest was easy.

    I guess when I can recount some fun memories of my past after doing a puzzle, I am fairly happy. So I rate this one as fairly happy.....

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  43. On the tough side of medium for me. ON A roll before TEAR, misspelled OSHEA on the first try, briefly blanked on STUB HUB, me too for is it before IT IS, took a while to parse PIER ONE, did not know NUDIE and UEFA…A TAD tough.

    Cute idea but @Rex is right about the awkward theme answers, liked it more than he did.

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  44. Just another complaint about Rex apparently thinking his genre is the only genre. For those of us who worked for a large corporation (there are lots of us, BTW), Biz OPS is a *very* common shortening.

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  45. This was mediocre from top to bottom. For all the reasons Rex outlines.

    I never did get past thinking PIERONE was some kind of Italian chain, maybe related to PERONI beer? But now that it’s been “outed” as Pier 1, I recall a really cheap, unsittable rattan peacock chair I bought there as a young person who could not afford real furniture. So I had a good laugh over Rex’s ugly blue wine glasses. I can visualize those suckers. No regrets over the demise of that particular chain.

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  46. I enjoyed it. Enough crunch, enough sparkle, and only eight threes.

    Cute post by Gary Jugert at 10:31.

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  47. Anonymous11:34 AM

    As a Berkeley California resident, I was delighted to see Alfred Peet in the puzzle

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  48. I just became a nonagenarian today. How many of us here?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Late, but...
      Happy Birthday @mathgent!
      Holy Moly, 90. Good on ya!
      Many more to come.

      RooMonster West Coast Lateness Birthday Wisher Guy

      Delete
  49. Anonymous11:53 AM

    Everyone is up in arms about it an amusement arcade (which it is…has nobody heard of a shopping arcade, video arcade etc) but apparently i’m the only one going “Tromp..when was the last time anyone tromped heavily”?

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  50. Anonymous11:55 AM

    I actually thought it was an okay puzzle. Got it done in a reasonbly short time and knew most of the answers just by clue which never ever happens for me. I mean I've never heard of an amusement arcade but how do I know what people in other states call them? I've actually heard people say claw machine game, albeit not too many, but I've heard the term. It was an easyish puzzle but fun and I just think this was a really harsh critique.

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  51. Well, I liked it. Got the grid art right away and even though CLAW MACHINE GAME isn't really a thing, just had to look at a couple crosses to see which order the last two words should go in.

    CRANE OPERATOR is terrific. Found the whole thing very, very easy, but plenty of fun - a quick burst of sugar like a handful of pop rocks.

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  52. Minoridreams12:05 PM

    I had tilt and Pier One in the NW before I had anything else. It took a trip around the grid before I got back to Cool ____Beans, from which my brain reopened and Stubhub came rolling in as dud the rest of that corner. I have never said cool beans, and my bean of choice is Illy, not Peets.

    As a former Masshole, I must say that we "banged uies" with more frequency than is reasonable. Might have something to do with directions such as" turn at that corner where the old Dunkin' Donuts was...." Still don't like seeing it in a crossword.

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  53. Minoridreams12:07 PM

    @mathgent - Happy Birthday!!!

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  54. Minoridreams12:08 PM

    @mathagent HAPPY BIRTHDAY! AURGURISSIMO!!

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  55. My wife says when she was a young girl she would get dropped off for hours in the Harrah's casino ARCADE (South Lake Tahoe) while her mom played the slots and snuck cigarettes. She says she found immense success with the CLAW MACHINE GAME and won so much loot that the management (biz OPS?) made her stop playing. She smiled when I showed her the grid and central theme spanner. So at least one person has good childhood memories of that thing!

    @whatshername from yesterday, thanks for noticing Furgus (profile pic). He's the best looking cat I've ever seen in person, and a loveable goofball as well!

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  56. 68-worder, with 4 long, criss-crossed themers, all 4 of which are debut entries. And CLAW Art. Different. Like.

    Not too hard a solvequest, considerin M&A's limited knowledge of arcade games with claws. Those 7-stacks in the NW & NE did slow up progress by a few nanoseconds, at first, tho.
    Do CLAW Machines grab onto toy INDYCARs, as prizes? Just askin'.

    staff weeject picks: THY & NAP. Thanx to the E/W symmetric(al) CLAW Art, the CLAW appears to want to grab "THY + NAP". Sleepy CLAW.

    best SUSword: UEFA. [debut entry … what a surprise] Total no-know, at our house.

    some fave stuff: BRANDNEW & HITITBIG [apt entries, for a debut NYT crossword constructioneer]. The one (non-themer) ?-marker clue, for ATM. Also admired the vowels of STUBHUB a lot. And the E/W puzgrid symmetry, of course.

    Thanx for the Claws of Themedness puz, Mr. Phillips dude. Nice debut -- congratz! It kinda grabbed m&e.

    Masked & Anonymo8Us


    **gruntz**

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  57. @mathgent 11:36 AM
    Happy birthday and happy virtual Manhattan to you. 90!

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  58. Why CLAWMACHINEGAMEs are a scam and the best strategy for defeating them:

    https://youtu.be/Rsxao9ptdmI?t=937

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  59. Happy 90th birthday MATHGENT!!

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  60. Happy Birthday Math Gent. Six years to get there here. I finished the puzzle but then spent a while this morning wondering why I’d never heard of the furniture store called Pie Rone.

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  61. I feel an idiot because back in the 70s when I was doing my fellowship in the States (that's what we call you over here - remember the WW2 GIs in the UK - "overpaid, oversexed and over here" - although I'm not in the UK but in Israel) my wife and I bought Pier One's classic huge rattan chair among many other things(where did all those things go along the way?). We loved the store because in those days it was so atypical for suburbia. Yet today all I got out of my old grey (that's how we spell it over here) cells, was PIE RONE. Oy.

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  62. I refuse to be defined by my age. Does that make me a non-agenarian? Happy birthday, @mathgent

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  63. Shocking discovery how 17 years can change a human being:

    From @RexParker July 24, 2007:
    I'm off to make a further dent in the damned Potter book. Sahra finished The Prisoner of Azkaban today. By herself. She's in Indiana visiting relatives, and she called me, and after she described the pony ride on Seeker or Changer or Chaser or whatever her horse's name was, the only thing she wanted to talk about was Potter. She's 6. Say what you will about the HP books - they have single-handedly made my daughter leap from good to great reader in about two months. Rowling has created a powerful (and, I'll go out on a limb and say, enduring) mythology - marketing alone can't get books in a kid's head the way good writing can.

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  64. @mathgent

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! 🎁🎉🎈🎂🎊

    Have a great day and an even better year.

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  65. Pretty much what Rex said - plus ICE HUT???I grew up in the northern part of Wisconsin, where ice fishing was almost a national sport (along with duck hunting and deer hunting), and I never heard that term. They're shanties. Some of the big retailers are now advertising 'ice shelters,' but they're still shanties, either ice shanties or fish shanties. I did a search for "ice hut" and the first hit was "ice shanties."(Well, there was a Temu add reading "Yes, we have ICE HUT!' but that was obviously just using the words I'd posted.

    But NUDIE Cohn makes up for any flaws. First I had the fun of imagining what a NUDIE suit would look like. Well, it doesn't look like that, but the actual suits are pretty cool in their own right, so that was the second part of the fun.

    @whatsername, some ATMs let you make cash deposits by sticking a handful of bills into a slot, whereupon it sorts them out, counts them, adds up the total and asks you if that is correct; if you say no it pushes the bills back out. I had to work my way up slowly to the point I trusted it, but they work. Of course you wouldn't put in dough and take out bread at the same time, so maybe it should read OR rather than AND, but close enough.

    @mathgent, Happy Birthday! Got a little over 9 years to go, myself.

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  66. sharonAK1:34 PM

    Altho I agree that "i played the cow machine" sounds right while "claw machine game" does not, it did not bother me at the time.
    What did bother me was ice hut. I hesitated until the end to put it in. I've heard ice fishing shanty, hut, shelter, etc. but never "ice hut". Sounds like it's built of ice.

    The names were BAD for a Wednesday. "Nudie" really? I've certainly seen the suits on TV, in movies, maybe even a version unreal life. But I had never heard the name. And it's not enough that I'm asked to know names of random athletes now I have to know the names of game announcers?
    How would I know Jokic is a Serb?
    (No idea who he is or what NBA standsfor -all those game and league initials are a big ugly blur)
    I've certainly heard of Ice Cube but why would I know his given name was Oshea?

    Lewis , got a smile out of your take on Pierone as an italian store.

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  67. Important p.s.

    Happy Xth B-Day to @mathgent:

    X - (20x4) + (20/2) = 20.
    And 20 ain't so old. (Do the math.) Sooo … just keep on truckin, dude! Congratz & enjoy yer special day.

    M&Also

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  68. When I printed out the puzzle, I looked at the grid "art" and saw a hood vent. That's all that came to mind. I decided the black squared must not have any significance for today's solve because who would have a hood vent as part of their theme? Maybe a "Forged in Fire" tie-in?

    NUDIE crossing ERIN gave me pause but it had to be ERIN, right?

    They are ICE shacks around here. Even if it's a decked out 20 X 8 trailer with TVs, bunk beds and a mini kitchen, it's a shack. Though if you believe these people, they're Art Shanties.

    I have a few stuffed animals from CLAW MACHINE GAMEs because I had a friend who was really good at operating them and his wife already had enough stuffed toys.

    Thanks, Shaun Phillips.

    For anyone who wasn't up on MAD SKILLS the other day, I saw "madtruths" in the NYTimes today, referring to someone texting falsehoods "like mad".

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  69. Happy 90th birthday, @mathgent!!

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  70. Happy birthday to @mathgent! Hope all of us can keep doing crosswords when we're your age. In fact, I hope we all get to be your age. Have a great day!

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  71. Happy Birthday, @mathgent, and congratulations on your BRAND NEW decade! What’s your secret?

    I wanted the answer to “Never-before-seen” to be premiere. By comparison, BRAND NEW seemed downright spunky and gave me a laugh. It also got me humming the Simon & Garfunkel tune
    “Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine.” Does your group have more cavities than theirs?

    The other thing that made me laugh was the clue “Does it look like___?” My brain went off on ATAD of romp with that one. Does it look like I need a haircut? Or a bath? Another cat? More tea? I give a rat’s a***? No, we are not there yet - does it look like we’re there?

    OFL was right to have side-EYED GAME and ARCADE, though they didn’t bother me much. INDY CAR raised a brow, but maybe people really say that. 2nd brow raised at RERINSE. (Hi, @Beezer)

    I used to love PIER 1 when it was young and fresh and so was I. They sold clothes back then, and offered interesting alternatives to the boring crap in department stores. I still have a blouse from there - it must be 35 years old. I also still have some of the rattan furniture, not including the papasan chair that was fun to sit in with Mr. A when we were smaller.

    Back in the 70’s, my enterprising cousin opened her own “world goods” store called Curious Cargo, in Albany, GA. I was so impressed that she got to travel to exotic places to get merchandise. I just did a quick Google and saw there’s now a coastal decor store by the same name. They have some cute Christmas ornaments, and, circling back to I CARE, they also sell a wall hanging with words “I DON’T GIVE A” with an image of a rat holding a donkey’s lead.

    Decent enough Wednesday and prompted some great comments from @Rex and the gang. Thanks, Shaun Phillips.

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  72. HOLD ON A MINUTE here. I am probably missing something since no one else has mentioned it but I was flummoxed by "Where you might put in dough and take out bread?" as the clue for 31A ATM. Since "dough" and "bread" are slang for "money", the clue is equivalent to "Where you might put in money and take out money?", right? I see how the clue is trying to do a punny riff on bread being baked dough but the result seems nonsensical to me.

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  73. Anonymous2:36 PM

    Today was one of those days where the puzzle didn’t land at all and I came here to enjoy Rex and fellow commenters tear into it. Nothing to add beyond what’s already been said here.

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  74. BlueStater2:54 PM

    *Gruesomely* difficult, both the mini and the puzzle itself. Saturday-level stuff at best. Something crazy is happening to the NYTXW, I think....

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  75. @Jberg (1:34) Thank you for clarifying my ATM confusion. I had no idea.

    @mathgent: Mazel tov!

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  76. @Mathgent: Happy Birthday! I got there two years ago!

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  77. Happy Birthday, @mathgent, and congratulations on your BRAND NEW decade! What’s your secret?

    I wanted the answer to “Never-before-seen” to be premiere. By comparison, BRAND NEW seemed downright spunky and gave me a laugh. It also got me humming the Simon & Garfunkel tune
    “Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine.” Does your group have more cavities than theirs?

    The other thing that tickled my funny bone was the clue “Does it look like___?” My brain went off on ATAD of romp with that one. Does it look like I need a haircut? Or a bath? Another cat? More tea? No, we are not there yet - does it look like we’re there?

    OFL was right to have side-EYED GAME and ARCADE, though they didn’t bother me much. INDY CAR raised a brow, but maybe people really say that. 2nd brow raised at RERINSE. (Hi, @Beezer)

    I used to love PIER 1 when it was young and fresh and so was I. They sold clothes back then, and offered interesting alternatives to the boring crap in department stores. I still have a blouse from there - it must be 35 years old. I also still have some of the rattan furniture, not including the papasan chair that was fun to sit in with Mr. A when we were smaller.

    Back in the 70’s, my enterprising cousin opened her own “world goods” store called Curious Cargo, in Albany, Georgia, of all places. I was so impressed that she got to travel the world to find merchandise. She was quite the character. RIP, Sonya. I just did a quick Google and saw there’s now a coastal decor store called Curious Cargo. They have some cute Christmas ornaments. Circling back to I CARE, they also sell a wall hanging with words “I DON’T GIVE A” with an image of a rat holding a donkey’s lead.

    Decent enough Wednesday and prompted some great comments from @Rex and the gang. Thanks, Shaun Phillips.

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  78. @Mathgent.......As they say in my neck of the woods: APY VERDE TO JOO!!!!!! Enjoy your much deserved day!

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  79. I just sent you something, @Mathgent, and hope it wasn't via a fly-by-night company. Never heard of them, so I hope you get it by the end of today. In the meantime, wishing you a very happy 90th birthday!!!

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  80. The names made it harder than usual for me. I was huffy about it but then figured them out JOANN I did need every cross.
    I ended up liking the puzzle
    PIERONE knew where it was in my area NEVER went in. The anagram helped a lot.
    TECHIE is more or less an independent word these days. Disagree with Rex about the need to signal shortness.
    Interesting that some didn’t know you can deposit cash in most bank ATM’s.
    The clue was an attempt at something new for a crosswordese answer. Using different slang words for cash. I liked it. Anoa Bob did not. Maybe he only gets cash from them?
    Tom T made a reference to TI A in the diagonal. Occurred to me that a frequent location for them is the CAROTID arteries.
    Always enjoy mathgent’s comments
    Happy Birthday

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  81. @jberg, your comment had not posted when I was making mine about the money-in-money-out ATM clue. A single activity, baking bread or visiting an ATM, is needed for the "put in dough and take out bread" pun to work. Using "Where you might put in dough or take out bread" ruins the baking part of the pun.

    I'm not in the close-enough-for-crosswords camp. I think that is a SLIPPERY SLOPE best avoided.

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  82. I thought the black squares depicted a joystick on a gaming control pad, not a claw. So maybe the grid art was lacking but overall the puzzle was very good.

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  83. Burma Shave12:31 PM

    GAME DAY OPS

    ERIN said, “HOLDONAMINUTE,
    IT IS NATURAL to talk,
    ANYTIME U STAND OUT IN IT
    I’ll take ONA BRANDNEW JOCK.”

    --- JOANN O’SHEA

    ReplyDelete
  84. Anonymous12:49 PM

    While CRANEOPERATOR is fine as an answer, I don't like the clue! Claw machines are so notoriously set up to not work well (i.e., make it very difficult to win a prize), that if anything, a crane operator used to precision controls doing exactly what is input to them would do WORSE at a claw machine than a novice.

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  85. Anonymous4:03 PM

    FYI: When Starbucks started out, they used to get their coffee beans from Peet's.

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  86. Anonymous4:42 PM

    I loved Pier 1!!! They just had things that you didn't usually find in other stores. In fact, I still have a bamboo and rattan cabinet in my bathroom that I bought 30 years ago. The closest store to them I can find today is World Market.

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  87. Agree that GAME seems superfluous after CLAWMACHINE, but the fingernails-on-blackboard thing for me was AMUSEMENT before ARCADE. Cmon, man, what else is an arcade for? That bird just doesn't fly.

    I had a silly DOOK moment in the NW when I tried to figure out what store PIE RONE was.

    The art sorta half-works. It asks the constructor to fill two very big corners, a la Fri/Sat, which he managed with a few uglies like RERINSE. And yeah, I'm not HOLDing ON for more than A second. My grip's not that great at 84. Bogey.

    Wordle eagle!

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  88. Re: “Does it look like___?”, just today I typed "Does it look like a duck" as a comment on a forum, about a difficult to identify plant that looked very much like something we knew, so I was delighted to see "duck" as a puzzle answer, but then it turned out not to be.

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