Monday, August 12, 2024

Discontinued competitor of Coke Zero / MON 8-12-24 / When repeated, sound effect for Cookie Monster / Cryptid in the Scottish Highlands / "Ho, ho, ho!" hollerer / Bluey or Snoopy / Indian yogurt drink / Arkham ___ institution for many Batman foes / "Billions" airer, for short

Constructor: Shaun Phillips

Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only), though I haven't solved a crossword in nine days, so maybe I'm just rusty 


THEME: "ARE YOU FOR REAL?" (32A: "Seriously ?!" ... or what one might ask of the answers to starred clues in this puzzle?) — beings that aren't real ... or are they? (49D: The answers to the starred clues in this puzzle ... or are they? = MYTHS)

Theme answers:
  • TOOTH FAIRY (17A: *One leaving money under a pillow)
  • IMAGINARY FRIEND (22A: *Hobbes, vis-ร -vis Calvin)
  • LOCH NESS MONSTER (46A: *Cryptid in the Scottish Highlands)
  • SANTA CLAUS (53A: *"Ho, ho, ho!" hollerer)
Word of the Day: PEPSI ONE (10D: Discontinued competitor of Coke Zero) —
Pepsi One
, corporately styled PEPSI ONE (so named because it contains one calorie per eight-fluid ounce [230 ml] serving), was a sugar-free cola, marketed by PepsiCo in the United States as an alternative to regular Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. // On June 30, 1998, the artificial sweetener acesulfame potassium (Ace-K) was approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration. PepsiCo responded within one hour, announcing the introduction of Pepsi One (which reached store shelves the following October). The original formulation was sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame potassium. This new variety was based upon an earlier product (sold in other countries) called Pepsi Max, but it featured a formula and flavor profile developed specifically for the U.S. market. // The launch of Pepsi One included an advertising campaign featuring the slogan "just one calorie." Subsequently, comedian Tom Green appeared as the spokesperson in a series of television advertisements that began airing in April 1999 [...] In January 2014, Consumer Reports magazine tested levels of the chemical 4-methylimidazole (4-MeI) – a potential carcinogen – in various beverages in the United States and found that Pepsi ONE was one of two drinks that contained the chemical in excess of 29 micrograms per can or bottle, with that being California Proposition 65's daily allowed amount for foods without a warning label. // In mid-2015, after its sister product Diet Pepsi had changed to using sucralose and Ace-K as sweeteners instead of aspartame, Pepsi One was discontinued. PepsiCo wrote on its website that "Pepsi ONE has been discontinued. We regularly evaluate our product portfolio to find efficiencies, and we have decided to remove Pepsi ONE from the marketplace. Pepsi ONE has very limited distribution and will be out of the marketplace by start of the year 2015, and in some markets product inventory has already been exhausted." (wikipedia)
• • •

[at Moby Dick restaurant on the pier (please note 
looming stranger / serial killer in background)]
Hello, solvers. We now return you to our regularly scheduled program, i.e. me writing this blog every damn day! I can't say I missed it ... no, that's not true. I did miss it. A lot. I didn't miss getting up every day at 3:30am to write, true, but I did miss writing. And solving. And complaining and what not. I'm at a bit of a loss without my daily ritual. But if you gotta be at a bit of a loss, I'll tell ya, Santa Barbara is the place to do it. Perfect weather Every Single Day. Some morning fog, sure, but that just gave the seaside some ambience, and made running / walking by the ocean (every morning!) very, very comfortable. It was nice to see my parents, and my sister, and nephews nieces etc. We've been doing these family summer trips for over twenty years, and everyone's Slowing Down now, which is Just Fine with me. I like my vacations to feature a few scheduled events and then a whole lot of nothing. I walked a ton (very very walkable city), ate a ton (very very eatable city), and read a ton (well, two books—that's pretty good!). Mainly I made friends with birds. Every day we'd go down to the beach and hang out with the birds. You've got your usual gulls, and crows (everywhere!), and shorebirds (like curlews), and then egrets and pelicans and kingfishers and swallows (under the pier), but my favorite of all were the very visible, very sullen, occasionally loud black-crowned night herons, who hung out in numbers right by the running path. I don't think I'd ever seen one before. The first one I saw, I thought it was hurt, because it seemed too close to people, but nope, there were a bunch of them hanging out right by the street, around an abandoned pool of some sort, I think. Anyway, they look like grumpy old men, which may be why I related to them. Adorable.




Other than black-crowned night herons, the most interesting thing I saw in Santa Barbara was seals (or maybe sea lions—a bunch of them, just hanging out in the water about 10 yards or so from shore ... lurking ... plotting). Oh, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was right in front of me in line for ice cream. Wild. Don't ask me what she ordered because I do not remember. I was too busy thinking, "Wait, is this real?" But it was. She was. More real than the TOOTH FAIRY, I assure you.  I ended up ordering Honey Almond Crunch and it was delicious. The ice cream place was called RORI'S, which is one of those names that gets crossword constructors thinking, "Be more famous! I could use you!" Neither RORI nor RORIS has ever appeared in the NYTXW. For good reason. Too regional. But if RORI'S ever went national, I guarantee you'd start seeing it in grids almost immediately. A name built for crosswords. Crossword Crunch would be a good ice cream flavor. What flavor would Crossword Crunch be? Suggestions welcome (though if your ingredient list doesn't include OREO, don't expect to be taken seriously).


Today's theme didn't feel like much of a theme. I mean, the core of it is just "imaginary creatures," which is too insubstantial to qualify as a theme, so I guess it's the revealer ("ARE YOU FOR REAL?") that is supposed to put this one over the top. I dunno. I guess. I can't say I disliked it, but it did seem pretty, uh, vanilla (ice cream callback!). I think the puzzle kind of lost me with the "bonus" themer (MYTHS). You can feel the puzzle really straining there to convince you that the theme is legit. Feels like an answer that was maybe incidental / accidental, that they then tried to conscript into thematic service. The revealer was OK, but that second "revealer" went too far. Felt forced. And the clue! "... or are they?" Yes, they are, they are MYTHS, what are you doing? 


As for difficulty ... well, technically I failed the Downs-only assignment today, as I had LADED at 46D: Filled with cargo (LADEN), which gave me DONE (at 60-Across) instead of NONE, and since DONE is a perfectly ordinary word, I didn't blink—until I didn't get the "You Completed the Puzzle!" message. Then I blinked. Had to hunt my mistake. Bah. But besides that one square, I got through it OK, with two significant sticking points. The first, lesser sticking point came around TSKS (ugh) SKIER KERRY, the last of which I wasn't sure how to spell (KERRI?), the second of which had a "?" clue (7D: Person who might need a lift?), and the first of which is just a horrid piece of (plural!) crosswordese (hence the "ugh") (6A: Reprimanding sounds). The bigger sticking point was NEW MOM / BUM / BUNION, with BUM being the real issue. Could not get a word meaning [Backside] from -U-. I think of BUM as primarily British, so ... yeah, a hint there ("to a Brit") would've been helpful. Also, working Downs-only, I though NEW-OM was NEWSOM (as in California governor Gavin), so NEW MOM (!) came, eventually, as a big surprise (38A: One on maternity leave). But I weathered that part and finished without further incident (except the LADED incident). Had ATAD before ABIT, but that's ordinary stuff (36D: Ever so slightly).

Notes:
  • 10D: Discontinued competitor of Coke Zero (PEPSI ONE) — very on-brand for the NYTXW, debuting an answer only after it is well and truly bygone. Mwah! Never stop being your beautiful belated self, puzzle!
  • 31D: When repeated, sound effect for Cookie Monster ("NOM!") — a fine answer, but oof, a truly horrible dupe of "Monster" (which features prominently in one of the theme answers: LOCH NESS MONSTER)
  • 55D: Summer Olympics powerhouse (USA) — a fitting clue for this day after the Summer 2024 Olympics closing ceremonies. The USA was indeed a powerhouse once again this year, finishing with more medals (by far) than any other country (126, including 40 gold, to 2nd place China's 91). I didn't catch much of it, though I did get to watch crossword favorite Simone BILES (5) dismantle the competition in the women's all-around. She seemed to be on a different plane. Unreal. Mythical, almost. (just trying to tie it in, here...)
  • 47D: Olympic snowboarder White (SHAUN) — it must be pretty hard to lay off signing your name to your grid. I mean, the grid comes together in a certain way, you get an opportunity, you gotta take it, right? Or no? Anyway, yes, I noticed, SHAUN Phillips. I noticed. My best friend's name is SHAUN, so in her honor, I'll let this bit of self-indulgence slide.
  • 43A: Frozen ocean water (SEA ICE) — when you solve Downs-only, you get to discover little flukes in words and phrases that you might not notice otherwise. For instance, the fact that SEA ICE is just one letter off from SEANCE, which is what I Really wanted this answer to be for a bit (before A BIT made it impossible).
Glad to be back. See you next time (which, if my math is right, is tomorrow).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. just a few more vacation highlights


[at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles]

[some off-the-menu mezcal deliciousness that my bartender called "Agua Bendita" ("Holy Water")]

[Santa Barbara has a Goodwill]


[with my sister, Amy]

[from my balcony]

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

59 comments:

  1. "TIARA...your BRO lost his CANINE TOOTH under the TABLE! LET'S catch the ARBOR FAIRY and GO SEE our FRIEND Dr. BUNYON!" "I might EGRET this" MOM TSKS..."But LOCK up our ABODE and LETS GO!"

    MOM was our REAL FRIEND. She also loved being ETHNIC when wearing her LACE PICO PONE TUTSI. She was A BIT IMAGINARY and very FOND of her dog, LASSI. Everyone called her NOM SANTA (IKEA you not) and EVEN TIARA had a SENSE of her EGO.

    Dr. BUNYON could SKIER her DAY if he ENACTS ASYLUM time in his SMEAR CLAUS. MOM was a bit of a SNORER and more of a YES/NO PEPSI SODA gal, so HEY, she didn't SENSE any REAL MONSTER....

    TIARA and her BRO VOTED to SHO MO the REAL MONSTER Dr. BUNYON was. They would BUM a BIT of ONES from the SEA ARBOR and with their CANINE, LASSI, take the FAIRY back to their ABODE. "Dr. BUNYON is a REAL MONSTER who ACTS ON his EGO and FOND of NONE other than to SMEAR your ETHNIC LACE PICO PONE!" They shouted. MOM was NEW at this and was LADEN with no AMOR. She was a BIT ON END and only ATE her FAIR share of NOM. It took common SENSE and a SANTA smile to bring MOM back to A BIT of the AMOR she'd ENSHRINE on this DAY....

    Dr. BUNYON was the EGO SNORER and it was he that went to the ASYLUM for ACTS of BUM MYTHS and inflicting OWIES on a TOOTH without applying ICE. A MONSTER for sure! It didn't matter because TIARA and her BRO were REAL happy now. MOM ATE it up. She's not a UFO and I VOTED her the BEST NEW MOM in the USA.

    And that's the truth!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love it…IKEA you not!

      Delete
    2. Oops. It's Dr. BUNION. He still was taken to the ASYLUM!

      I was Born in Santa Barbara but left for Caracas when I was two. We've gone back many times. Oh to be very rich and buy an ABODE there! They have the best ice cream ever! Welcome back @Rex.....

      As they say in my neck of my woods, @Roo.... APY VERDE TU JOO!

      Delete
  2. Easy-medium not including the time it took to track down a typo which @Rex was the N LADEN because I did not read the across clue during my solve.

    No erasures except for the typo.

    I did not know ASYLUM.

    Light on junk, delightful/amusing theme, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did.

    @Rex thanked for the pix. Both my daughter and granddaughter are UCSB grads, it’s a very special place.


    Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #933 was an easy-medium Croce for me. I found the top half a tad easier than the bottom. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kristin2:06 AM

    Rex, if you’ve just come back from vacation, and this easy breezy Monday still got stuck in your craw over the bonus MYTH, I think you need a second vacation! ๐Ÿ˜ Welcome back!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow welcome back Rex and how! Birds, ice cream, Julia Louis-Dreyfus; epic.

    I also solved down clues only, despite the difficult unknown names at 8 and 47 down. Plus the annoyingly unnecessary unknown name clues at 12 and 45 down; Joel do you really need to do that? Please don't.

    Okay, a theme answer is IMAGINARY FRIEND. And the revealer, I guess, is ARE YOU FOR REAL? Well, by the definition of "imaginary"... no.

    Still really hate this tiny comment box. Scroll, scroll...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That’s my complaint too! I never realized how much I need to SEE what I’m typing. I find I’m replying more, commenting less.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous4:21 AM

    The standard weather report for the Santa Barbara area in the summer is “Late night and early morning low clouds along the coast clearing by noon”

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bob Mills5:36 AM

    Good puzzle, average difficulty for Monday. I have one question for grammarians. Can FOND ever be clued as a noun, as it was here?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:22 PM

      A definition for FOND from Food Network:
      "caramelized bits left in the bottom of a pan after you've browned meat or vegetables"
      To which you add a splash of wine or another delicious beverage to begin a process called deglazing. Yum!

      Delete
  7. Anonymous6:24 AM

    Welcome back. Although your pinch hitters are awesome , there is only one king of crosswords. Query: do you realize that Eli could be your mini me?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fond is [awkwardly] clued as an adjective.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:05 AM

      I am FOND of this / I am a fan of this.

      Delete
  9. I had not heard of LASSI, the Batman place or Bluey - fortunately pretty much everyone has heard of Snoopy. I thought the theme and reveal were kind of neat - so an overall thumbs up from me.

    ReplyDelete

  10. Downs only. Normal Monday but KERRY could just as easily have been pERRY to me. Not completely convinced that's a Monday name.

    into before FOND, pet dog before CANINE, SHAwN before SHAUN

    Bad clue for UFO - if it is a ship, it's not really unidentified is it?

    Hey! I've been to Solvang. Weird place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:28 PM

      Yeah, I left my car to go for a bike ride. It was next to the ice cream shop by the windmill. Uh-oh.

      Delete
  11. Croce freestyle 933 was fairly easy. Never heard of 3D, but the crosses were fair.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wanderlust7:35 AM

    This was a fun downs-only for me because it was challenging, but being able to easily get the theme answers from a few crossings made it doable.

    My main trouble was in the NE, where I wasn’t sure who Bluey is, and I guessed ASToN instead of ASTIN. I had CA-ONE for Snoopy and Bluey, and PO-E could have been many things. POpE and CApONE was the only combo that made any sense, so I figured the gangster family included a Snoopy and a Bluey. Wah-wah, sad trombone, no happy music. Had to look at the across clues to fix it.

    Thought DEMOCD would also be wrong because I was seeing DEMOC D. A Democrat in favor of small-d democracy? Oooooh, DEMO CD!

    ReplyDelete
  13. My five favorite original clues from last week
    (in order of appearance):

    1. Verb that sounds like its opposite (4)
    2. The vowels not seen in "bad debt", ironically (3)
    3. Entry fee for some clubs? (4)
    4. She's so full of herself! (10)
    5. Contracts for shrinks, e.g. (7)


    RAZE
    IOU
    ANTE
    MATRYOSHKA
    SYNONYM

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous7:50 AM

    Any puzzle that works in Calvin and Hobbes also works for me :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a nice sounding vacation. If I did jealousy, I'd be really jealous.

    Nice breezy Monday with KERRY being the only who? Took a beat to remember EVAN and while I have seen LASSI I never remember that one at all.

    Slight side eye to SEA ICE , which sounds more like a convenient set of letters than a thing.

    I like the theme but am devastated to learn that Hobbes is really an IMAGINARYFRIEND. I've always thought he was a real as Calvin.

    I'd say a just-right Monday, SP. Sure Put a smile on my face, and thanks for all the fun.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Successful down only solve today. Rex, re: Santa Barbara eateries...were you able to get to "La Superica" - a legendary Mexican food "dive" on State Street (I think?) which always had a line of mostly hispanic workers.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous8:04 AM

    We say Bum in the Northeast US too.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Welcome back, Rex, and you make me really really want to go to Santa Barbara (I was there for like a weekend about 40:years ago). Perfect weather everyday sounds too good to be true to a New Englander. Anyway, I liked the puzzle much more than Rex did (not an unusual occurrence), just fine for a Monday, but I had a good bit of trouble Downs Only (too many ambiguous partial across answers) so I had to look at Across clues more than I’d have liked.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Hey All !
    Looks like you had a great vacay, Rex! Hope you are relaxed. Is it back to classes soon? Out here in Las Vegas, today is the first day of the new school year (Elementary, Middle and High.)

    Also today, an important event happened in 1969. Something that changed history forever (har, technically that's true.) Yours truly was welcomed into the world. (Didn't say it was a good history change ๐Ÿ˜†)

    Neat little puz. The IMAGINARY FRIEND is kind of general, as the others are specific things, but it was clued with Calvin and Hobbes, so it's forgiven. I liked the Bonus Revealer of MYTHS.

    @pablo
    I have to take credit for a MONSTER in the grid. Sorry. ๐Ÿ˜

    Unfortunately, just a regular Monday for me, still have to go to work. Maybe I can retire in 10 years.

    Have a great Monday!

    Three F's
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy birthday Roo!

      Delete
    2. Happy birthday! Do you get credit any time ROOM appears in the grid?

      Delete
    3. Hey Roo,

      HAPPY BIRTHDAY ๐ŸŽ๐ŸŽ‰๐ŸŽˆ๐ŸŽ‚๐ŸŽŠ ❤️

      Have a great day and an even better year.

      Delete
    4. Tom T4:15 PM

      It had to be your birthday today! Not only is there a MONSTER in an answer and a clue, but there is a Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) ROO beginning with the R in 25D, FAIR, moving to the NE. And that's not all! There are several "Boggle" ROOs, starting with the R's in 3D, 24D, 21D (the first R in ARBOR), 21D again, (the 2nd R in ARBOR!), and 25D again!!!

      Six Hidden ROO's and two MONSTERs! Happy birthday to you!!

      Delete
    5. @Roo Monster 8:54 AM
      Happy Birthday Mr. Monster.

      And great job @Tom T for finding the celebration in the grid.

      Delete
    6. Hey Roo,

      M & A's been gone for awhile. Is he OK?

      Delete
    7. @jc66 - M&A announced he would be gone for three weeks. I think he still has two of them left.

      Delete
  20. The Loch Ness and Cookie monsters got together and drank Pepsi One on end, paid for with the ones in their wallets.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Jeez, now a MONSTER too. The legend grows.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The theme concept was fine, the revealer was nice, and the UFO in the center of the puzzle was a bonus thmer, and should have been starred. I have to take issue with IMAGINARY FRIEND, though. In the real world, both Calvin and Hobbes are fictional characters, i.e. imaginary. In the comic strip, Hobbes is a real tiger who can disguise himself by turning into a stuffed animal. My son, when he was about 10, got into a heated argument with my sister because she insisted that Hobbes was meant to be imaginary, thereby missing the point of the strip. But hey, I got it. You could use Ernesto in Cul-de-sac, who is presented as imaginary. Not Harvey, though, he is a real pooka.

    If you're going to find words hidden in a phrase, the rule is that they should use all the words, so IKEA should be clued with "like a." Of course, that removes the aptness, but the clue is very clunky.

    And while I do like the placement of UFO, they're not sci-fi ships. The phrase is used (or used to be used) to characterize observations made in the real world. In science fiction, the ships are generally identifiable.

    43-A made me think of vending machines in Japan. Fortunately, "scotch" didn't fit, so I wasn't tempted.

    Now to find out what everyone else has to say.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Welcome back, @Rex, along with your night herons and Crossword Crunch! My husband and I have spent the last two Januarys in Santa Barbara....not perfect weather every day, but a heck of a lot better than what happens in Wisconsin. Such a beautiful city, with flowers everywhere, and farmers' markets in winter!

    I thought the theme was lighthearted and very cute, except for the sad absence of the Easter Bunny. At some point my daughter started getting suspicious, along the lines of "ARE YOU FOR REAL?" She left a note overnight asking, "Are you a man or a bunny?" A man, while MOM is busy hiding jelly beans in Easter grass.

    @Roo Monster - Happy Birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  24. I think the "Or are they?" in the clue for MYTHS was absolutely essential, in case any 8-year-olds were solving the puzzle. Otherwise it would have violated a strong taboo, sort of the original "No spoilers!" So I was glad to see it.

    If you haven't had one, order a mango LASSI the next time you see one on the menu (which will probably be an Indian restaurant). You won't be sorry.

    Rex, welcome back! And congratulations on adding the black-crowned night heron to your life list.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Sweet little puzzle. I think the TIARA is apt here.

    I've never had a bunion, but I did have a planters wart that felt like a golf ball had grown inside my foot and the treatment involves months of this medicine and, get this, duct tape. Eventually the duct tape pulls out parts of the wart as the medicine kills it. I wish more medical procedures involved common household items.

    Thanks for the vacation wrap-up ๐Ÿฆ–. Sounds like a great trip. Glad you're back.

    Propers: 6
    Places: 3
    Products: 3
    Partials: 6
    Foreignisms: 3
    --
    Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 21 of 72 (29%)

    Funnyisms: 1 ๐Ÿคจ

    Tee-Hee: BUM. I live in an urban area and the word BUM still rolls around in the back of my head numerous times a week. I don't say it, but I have become less tolerant, and the more genteel phrasing encouraged by modern times eludes my patience. We need fewer billionaires and more affordable housing and government officials who aren't afraid to tax developers for the privilege of putting up these Soviet-style monstrosities and then labeling it as "luxury living."

    Uniclues:

    1 The dumpster.
    2 The Jetsons years.
    3 How anti-colonialism begins.
    4 Where Coke-or-nothing people go when society won't play along with their nits.

    1 DEMOCD ABODE
    2 ASTRO HEYDAY
    3 TUTSI HUSH ETON (~)
    4 PEPSI ONE ASYLUM

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: China's resignation. TAIWAN, I'M SO DONE.

    ¯\_(ใƒ„)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
  26. Missed you Rex, welcome back!! Agree that the theme's thin, but still enjoyed it for reasons of whimsy. I was originally gonna make some joke about how Santa isn't a myth etc., but thinking more seriously, is it risky business suggesting that Santa and the Tooth Fairy are myths....? Dunno how many younger kids do the crossy, but imagine the horror of doing a puzzle and finding out that the NYT considers such enigmatic and mysterious and benevolent creatures to be figments of the imagination. I don't remember when exactly I stopped believing in Santa, but I must've been around 8 or 9 -- certainly able to have done a Monday puzzle with the help of a parent.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous10:56 AM

    We haven't driven down the coast to Santa Barbara in decades. No Marriott properties in town. Any hotel recommendations?

    ReplyDelete
  28. Easy Acrosses-only.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous11:10 AM

    Great to have you back! Love your write up and vacation stories. Only complaint is EGRETs should've been caps!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Former cat lady, to JD Vance = NEWMOM. The way that guy sticks to his convictions! His word is good ASTIN.

    Thanks for an unreal Monday, Shaun Phillips.

    ReplyDelete
  31. One of the dangers of including a cult classic like Calvin and Hobbes is that, if your framing is off, people will complain. “Vis-a-vis Calvin,” Hobbes is very much a pet tiger, not an imaginary friend. Watterson himself was famously ambivalent about whether Hobbes was a figment of Calvin’s imagination or a magic tiger that came to life. His explanation in the introduction to The Complete Calvin and Hobbes is oft quoted by aficionados, and I can’t restrain myself from putting it in here, just to nerd-complain about the clueing of “imaginary friend.”

    “The so-called "gimmick" of my strip -- the two versions of Hobbes -- is sometimes misunderstood. I don't think of Hobbes as a doll that miraculously comes to life when Calvin's around. Neither do I think of Hobbes as the product of Calvin's imagination. Calvin sees Hobbes one way, and everyone else sees Hobbes another way. I show two versions of reality, and each makes complete sense to the participant who sees it. I think that's how life works. None of us sees the world exactly the same way, and I just draw that literally in the strip. Hobbes is more about the subjective nature of reality than about dolls coming to life.“

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:29 PM

      Exactly.

      Delete
    2. Thanks Emily! Great post.

      Delete
    3. Thank you - I've never read Calvin and Hobbes but I'll have to reconsider. A comic strip about the subjective nature of reality sounds too good to pass up.

      Delete
  32. Welcome back, Rex & thanks for sharing the pics.
    A bit harder than the usual Monday but by no means hard. I had LADED & couldn't figure out why I was wrong until I finally saw it - LADEN. Spent too much time looking for the typo but that was on me - a fun Monday.
    Thanks, Shaun :)

    ReplyDelete
  33. Not much of a theme, but clean enough. ENSHRINE is my favorite entry.

    Santa Barbara is indeed the best, and it brings to mind an exchange I had with a friend at a party a while back. We were both in our late 40s, tiring of the NYC commuter grind and with kids starting to head to college. We were also well-lubricated.
    -- ME: I tell you, I've about had it with work and life in the suburbs. I'm thinking of retiring soon.
    -- HIM: Same. Time to downsize. Smaller place, more economical.
    -- ME: Totally. Where are you thinking?
    -- HIM: Jackson Hole. You?
    -- ME: Santa Barbara.
    I'm not sure there's ever been a conversation anywhere more based on delusion (well, maybe the Biden-Trump golf handicap discussion). Needless to say, we are both still working and living in the same homes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hey @Roo-forgot to include birthday wishes--have a happy!
    It also occurs to me that you are so much younger than I that there have been many pablos in crosswords that you missed, so I'm probably way ahead.

    Yeah, that's the ticket.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Now I feel really good that I had LADEN, along with the rest of my Downs Only solve! ๐Ÿ˜

    ReplyDelete
  36. Fairly easy downs only here. I'd get just enough letters from the downs to say, Oh yeah, that must be TOOTHFAIRY, or that must be IMAGINARYFRIEND, etc. Just how downs only should work.

    Biggest hangups were at 41A where I had _ASSI and could not see LOSETO for 41D. I'm pretty sure I've seen LASSI before, but it sure looked weird without its clue. And in the central south area I had SHAwN White which screwed things up for a long time.

    Really liked the puzzle. Thought it was breezy and fun. Especially the revealer.

    Welcome back Rex. Your subs were great but you were missed.

    And Happy Birthday to @Roo.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Anonymous2:43 PM

    https://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/35115061/5035559643633810443

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous3:23 PM

    I loved this Monday puzzle YETI understand the objections.

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  39. On the same day Roo is celebrating his 55th, I get notified that my deferred Social Security “entitlement” has been approved (I turn 70 tomorrow and held out to maximize payments - need to live to 84 to break even on that strategy, assuming SSA is still around).

    So happy birthday to Roo (and one for me too!)

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  40. Welcome back, Rex! Love the pics, and nice to know Santa Barbara has a Goodwill - that would be interesting to check out.

    Happy Birthday @Roo MONSTER!

    Can I call a puzzle very easy if I had a mistake? It was the d rather than N in LADEN. Oops. I got dONE too fast and forgot to go back to decipher how dONE is 0%.

    Cool UFO/UFO infection in the center.

    I like the name Crossword Crunch. I’m sure it would involve CAP’N Crunch, but I’d like to suggest a “Crossword Crunch Limited Distribution Nehi Anniversary* Edition” with crosswordy ingredients:
    ICE
    OATY milk
    SUCRE
    SEL (ONE TSP)
    NEHI
    (top with NUTS and OREOS)

    *Nehi was invented 100 years ago in Columbus, Georgia.

    Okay, now I want ice cream - I’ll have to “settle” for a mint chocolate YASSo bar.

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  41. There goes that guy Otto Korrekt again! That should be a UFO/UFO intersection in the center. I don't even want to think about a UFO/UFO infection.

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  42. @kitshef

    Thanks. My memory isn't great.

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  43. Horrors! You mean SANTACLAUS isn't real??!! So, "Miracle on 34th Street" was just pulling my leg. Yeesh.

    OK, I'll stop. Nice smooth Monday puzzle with a conversational revealer. I agree that the secondary one was ABIT much, and could have been clued as, for example, Bulfinch's subject matter. Well, maybe not so early in the week. And that the SHAUN entry bespeaks an EGO problem. But those are minor.

    Only a couple words I didn't know (LASSI, TUTSI), but otherwise really easy. TSKS aside, the fill was fine. Birdie.

    Wordle par.

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