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Relative difficulty: Easy (3:37)
THEME: DINER'S CLUB — Credit card industry pioneer (each theme answer is common term made up of a food followed by a name for a golf club)
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: DINERS CLUB —
Hi friends, it's Malaika here, subbing for what I hope is a Relaxed Rex! I thought this puzzle was very, very easy-- I did not have to stop and think for any entry. I solved exactly as fast as I was typing, and honestly my time was a little slow because I was distracted watching the Olympics. That's a sign that the grid was super "clean," aka contained lots of recognizable vocabulary, and very few obscure terms or abbreviations. (IGA and FAO were the toughest entries for me.)
- [Garnish for a glass of iced tea] for LEMON WEDGE
- [Appliance at a hotel breakfast bar] for WAFFLE IRON
- [Expensive cabinet material] for CHERRY WOOD
Word of the Day: DINERS CLUB —
The idea for Diners Club was conceived at the Majors Cabin Grill restaurant in New York City in 1949.[6] Diners Club cofounder Frank McNamara was dining with clients and realized he had left his wallet in another suit.[7] His wife paid the bill, and McNamara thought of a multipurpose charge card as a way to avoid similar embarrassments in the future.
• • •
This was a perfectly nice and cute theme. I don't particularly like or care about golf, but I have heard of all three of these types of clubs. The foods in question would pair together really well-- waffles with some sweet and tangy lemony ricotta and cherry compote?? Yes please! Or maybe topped with a lemon curd and a cherry French 75. Sorry for this food tangent, but I'm thriving right now in the lush embrace of late summer produce. I have a shirt with cherries and lemons (and tomatoes and oranges) that I call my Summer Bounty Shirt and I adore wearing it in the summertime.
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| Please enjoy this glamour shot of a tomato that I grew and ate |
When a puzzle has four theme answers of "easy" lengths, ("easy" meaning there are plenty of options to arrange them in a grid-- if you don't construct, ten-letter entries are significantly easier to build a puzzle around than fourteen-letter entries) I like for there to be a couple of "bonus" entries, aka long down answers with no relation to the theme that are still fun. Here we didn't get any of those, but that might be because the letters (Ws, Fs, C, H, Y) are deceptively tricky to integrate smoothly. And there was still fun mid-length stuff like MEDUSA and COBRAS and ROOMBAS and even JAPAN.
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| This is my life right now |
Random final thought which will give y'all a lot of opportunities to comment on my age-- I have never heard of DINERS CLUB. (Shouldn't it have an apostrophe, btw??) I have heard of a "supper club" and wondered if it was similar, but that's not the case. Anyway, I don't want to hear you comment on my age. I'd rather hear you comment on what your favorite Olympics event is! I love gymnastics' floor event (for men and women), and women's beach volleyball. Also it's always fun to see what the W/NBA players are up to.
Bullets:
- [Actor Driver] for ADAM — ADAM Driver is so funny to me because, through no fault of his own (except I guess being a hot actor), he has become the hero in a bunch of different contemporary romance novels. What happens is that women write fiction about him (well, usually his character Kylo Ren), it becomes popular, they change his name, and then publish the book. I've read a couple books where I'm two chapters in and realize "oh my God this is ADAM Driver, isn't it??" Here's a fun article about the phenomenon.
- [Number of U.S. states without any straight borders] for ONE — I immediately looked up which state it was, and then felt dumb for not figuring it out (Hawai'i)
- [Last-resort button in a cockpit] for EJECT — Maybe this is a silly question but.... do all cockpits have this?? Does like.... a random commercial Boeing plane have an EJECT button??
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
LOL Good question Malaika Do Airlines have ejected buttons in their planes? Unless we think there's some magic way the ceiling over the cockpit can peel back we can conclude not.
ReplyDeleteI thought 8D was a clever misdirect - tho it didn't misdirect for long, "how" wa not the first thing tht came to mind reading "Chatty catty"
Easy-medium. Amend before ADAPT was costly, I failed to take my own advice from yesterday and did not check the crosses.
ReplyDeleteDid not know WANNA and TREY.
A very smooth grid and a theme that describes my morning tomorrow. I’m having fruit for breakfast (no WAFFLES however) followed by nine holes of golf. Liked it.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #931 was a medium Croce for me or around 5 to 6X last Saturday’s NYT. The bottom half was a tad easier than the top except for 58a which is still a mystery to me. Good luck!
The DINERS at the WOOT HUT AGREES that the DAILY COD is AWFUL. Even with a WEDGE of LEMON!....BASED on the WEIGHT of more than ONE, it was an EPICS NO NO.
ReplyDeleteADMIN, the cook, would shout "I WILL KEEP IT in the IGLOO so LETS DOWN some IPA and do some ROOMBAS!" "I WILL KEEP IT cool" he'd BOAST... "and when we're ALL DONE with the IPA, we can eat my COD!"
Meanwhile, MEDUSA, the other cook, would add a LODE of DOE to an EGG and make a CHERRY WAFFLE the DINERS could GOB DOWN. She would EWES a LATTE PEEL and ADAPT the LEMON CUSPS so that ALL WOOD AGREES it was EPICS.... It was!
The COD came out of the IGLOO. It needed a LODE of LEMON and maybe some PALM ROE. It was still AWFUL. ADMIN needed to IRON out this DAILY CYCLE of ANTI DINERS. His ACNE outbreak will KEEP him SAD and his WILL to CLUB someone ain't WANNA be TAMED.....He felt ISOLATED until....MEDUSA!
MEDUSA BAWLED. She wanted FINER COD. Her CHERRY WAFFLE brought in the WOOT HUT DOE. She wasn't ANTI COD and ADMIN AGREES, but he needed to ADAPT an ADAGE!
MEDUSA looked at her ATLAS and sent ADMIN to JAPAN. He WOOD take his CANOE, LODE it with COD from his IGLOO and SAID "I WILL get DEE DINERS to BOAST of my COD!" "LETS KEEPT IT DOWN" SAID the HEARSE from JAPAN...."The LAW in JAPAN AGREES with an UNSAID ADAGE that says: "A NIT is a NO NO... DEE COD should be TAMED!....Grease your PALM with a GOB of LATTE PEEL and KEEP IT FINER!..." "WOOT WOOT" BAWLED ADMIN...."You are my IDOLS!"..."I shall ADAPT this menu....Yes, I WILL!"
ADMIN took his CANOE and his FINER COD back to DEE WOOT HUT. Everyone now AGREES it was a BOONE....Even NASA and the AOC AGREES it's the cat's MEOW. His ACNE cleared up and MEDUSA happily danced the ROOMBAS to all the DINERS at the CLUB. They all lived happily after and that's the truth!
@GILL I. 1:06 AM
DeleteSo crazy to learn the history. I ate at the WOOT HUT last night! The cod is tasty with the Japanese influence. Do you know its a James Beard finalist? I overheard some of the servers talking about Medusa dying after a beauty appointment at the hair salon. I hope I misunderstood because those cherry waffles are nom nom nom.
I agree this was cute and simple. I didn’t read all the clues. It just filled itself in.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the answer Hawai’i?
The clue is a number, i.e. how many states have no straight borders? How many? ONE (29 across). What state has no straight borders? Hawaii. BTW, what state has a border that is neither a straight line nor a natural feature e.g. a river or mountain? Again, there is but one!
DeleteNothing like celebrating a credit card. Maybe tomorrow we can cheer a cable TV provider, or an airline, or the local utility.
ReplyDeletePIANO TUNERS are getting a lotta run lately. Everyone buys digital pianos these days so tuners are like cobblers and blacksmiths. Soon you'll only see them in historical reenactment museums.
ADAM Driver is on my TV right at this moment. Star Wars #7. He's there because the Olympics are over for the night and the news is all about fires burning west of town and politics, so even George Lucas is better than that (shockingly). I'm ill equipped to judge Adam's hawtness, but I do wanna snuggle with BB-8.
To respond to the very very very young Malaika, my favorite sport at the Olympics is that 100 meter run. It's crazy how fast and competitive it is. It's also hilarious all the egos. Like dude, look at me, Imma run to the end of the block in ten seconds. Good for you youngster.
Propers: 11 (boo)
Places: 2
Products: 4
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 0
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 20 of 78 (26%)
Funnyisms: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: [Legendary stoner.]
Uniclues:
1 Feature of one who crossed the mob.
2 The process of posting a derisive and haughty "well actually" on the Rex Blog.
3 Cadillac with a hero in the back seat.
4 Woeful wire winder.
1 WAFFLE IRON PALM
2 BOAST FINER NIT
3 IDOL'S HEARSE
4 SAD PIANO TUNER
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Dungeon and dragons aficionados who don't clean up after the dragon. SLOB ALPHA NERDS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gary Jugert
DeleteYour second uniclue answer was one of the best ever! (I do feel that urge to post nits. Sometimes I am able to avoid it!)
Not too difficult solving downs only; a couple of typeovers.. POUNDS then OUNCES before WEIGHT, eg. Just over 8 minutes total.
ReplyDeleteAs for the straight bordered states, in Canada it looks like there is also only one: Prince Edward Island. One would think Newfoundland as an island would qualify, but the province is actually Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Labrador part is on the mainland with several straight edges. And Nova Scotia comes close but in its narrow connection to the mainland, yes some straight edges. And then there's Saskatchewan, nothing but straight lines... they just gotta be different, those Saskatchewanians. (Note: elaborate but fun way to clue the rather boring ONE.)
Beautiful tomato, Malaika! Makes my mouth water.
ReplyDeleteThe DINERSCLUB credit card was (apparently) the first credit card, so back when no one had credit cards, some people had DINERSCLUB. I think my grandfather (a country club member and golfer) had one, and I thought of it as something only that type of person would have.
My favorite Olympic sport is gymnastics and I think Simone Biles is soooo awesome!
Good Grief. I thought I corrected typos before posting. Sometimes I'd swear it messes with what I've typed after I post.
ReplyDelete(Whatever "it " is: my computer, , the website, the Cloud)
Was supposed to say:
I thought 8D was a clever misdirect - tho it didn't misdirect for long, "meow" was not the first thing that came to mind reading "Chatty catty"
It's made up of 137 pieces and none of them has a straight border.
ReplyDeleteI guess that cool people have stopped saying "Wow!" and now say "Woot!" Or they might say "Cool!"
I’m in line with @Gary - the credit card theme doesn’t warm my soul - especially given the fragile state of the economy on this dark morning. The grid is fill in the blanks easy and things like the AWFUL x LETS DOWN cross and BAWLED are tough to deal with early week.
ReplyDeleteNice to see @Gill in fine form.
I’ll take a pass on this one.
I WANNA WANNA be a male model
lol yes all planes have eject buttons. On certain Boeing jets they are involuntary. Also, women’s beach volleyball is really fun to watch
ReplyDeleteOnly two minor speed bumps today - I remembered MEDUSA as the snake lady from mythology, but forgot about the stoner part, and of course I don’t know the name the guitarist, but both were easily discernible via the crosses.
ReplyDeleteMildly challenging downs-only for me, slowed by putting in sobbED for BAWLED (could’ve also been wailED) and canON for NIKON. Seeing that the acrosses had to be KEEP IT and LEMON WEDGE straightened that out. But I struggled at the end on the word paired with Double and Planet. MEDUSA gave me the A, and the last letter of ISOLATE- had to be S or D. But the other three could have been lots of things. ANTs? PEEr? TREe? That’s the fun challenge of downs-only. DAILY finally came to me somehow.
ReplyDeleteJealous of your tomato, Malaika. My garden has been great for everything else - cukes, zucchini, squash, eggplant, peppers, green beans - but the tomatoes are anemic this year. Luckily the Saturday farmers’ market is only three blocks away because homegrown tomatoes are one of the few joys of summer for heat-and-humidity-hating me.
Not watching the Olympics much this year. Doesn’t help that I don’t have a TV and Peacock is not one of the streamers I pay for. But if I were, I would say decathlon and heptathlon. (And tennis, but that’s not a specifically Olympic sport.)
Very easy. Didn't consider the theme until after I finished. Interesting that PIANOTUNER has appeared twice this week (with different clues).
ReplyDeleteIs Hawaii the only state without a horizontal or vertical border?
Forgive me if I find it hard to believe that anyone could complete the puzzle in 3 1/2 minutes, even if every single answer came immediately to mind. While being distracted by the Olympics. I once won a typing contest; I type very fast. Not that fast.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was easy and somewhat blah. Nothing exciting.
@Gary Jugert: Diners Club was the first credit card, back when a credit card was a status symbol. So it's something of an icon. Agree with you, though, about the supposedly iconic status of the winner of the 100-yard dash. Hilarious! WaPo chimed in with a headline declaring the winner (What was his name again?) "an Olympic legend." I mean, Good for you, dude, but c'mon now.
Three minutes is slow for top solvers. You can find it hard to believe, I guess, but like evolution and gravity, three-minute times are real. And ordinary.
Delete7 minute times for Sunday puzzles are getting more common
DeleteQuite tough for a Monday. TREY in particular seems completely out of place.
ReplyDeleteIt feels like I never know the answer when the clue involves the direction from once city to another; I always have to wait on the crosses.
I appreciate it when both parts of the themers contribute to the theme.
Track and field #1, gymnastics #2. Of the recently added sports, sport climbing and rugby sevens are both fun to watch.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I didn't think that the theme fit the revealer. They are foods for sure, but they're not diners in either the sense of a place where people dine or in people who dine. Plus the inconsistency of having two natural foods/fruits and one man-made concoction didn't sit well. Although I do agree that a waffle with some lemon cherry topping would be quite tasty
ReplyDeleteMalaika, to answer your "EJECT" question: No, almost NO planes have ejection systems at all (really only a few military ones), and it's NEVER a "button." It's generally a large pull handle (usually between the pilot's legs). The reason for this should be obvious - can you imagine ACCIDENTALLY pushing the "eject button"?
ReplyDeleteAerobatics pilots wear parachutes, but if they need to bail, they just climb out of the cockpit - no eject button needed. And there are a few small planes (notably the Cirrus) that have whole-plane parachutes. Pull a lever on the ceiling, and the plane fires out a parachute that slowly (well, relatively slowly) lowers the whole plane to the ground.
Probably more than you wanted to know... :)
My five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Use non-lead pipes? (4)(6)
2. Testament to human nature? (2)(3)(1)(5)
3. Take off, as a cap (7)
4. Professional pitcher? (5)(5)
5. One who manages to get by? (4)
SING BACKUP
I'M NOT A ROBOT
UNSCREW
PIANO TUNER
BOSS
Thank you for doing this each week. I appreciate it.
DeleteAn Adam Driver reference was a weekly staple on John Oliver’s (outstanding) show a few seasons ago. Hilarious.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete@David F 7:31 got it right. Except for fighter jets, ejection seats are basically unknown. Although I've been a passenger on a few flights where I would have used one if it were available.
My favorite Olympic event is the 400m hurdles, because the current world record holder, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, is the daughter of a friend.
Easy puzzle. No overwrites, no WOEs. I knew 67A because my son and his wife are champion Phish fans.
I tried to do Downs only and found it hard in that way. Any puzzle with Trey Anastasio is a good puzzle for me! Love Phish!
ReplyDeleteDiners was my first card ever. I used its concierge service to buy tickets for La Boheme at Coventry Garden for a date.
ReplyDeleteThey cost a month salary.
I no longer have the card but 60 years later I still have the girl.
Congrats, but don't you mean Covent Garden?
DeleteCroce freestyle 931 was easy, except for the center-east, which was insanely hard (taking overall time to medium) and where I finished with an error at 29d/42a.
ReplyDelete@jae - for 58A, put an apostrophe between the first and second letters, and a space between the second and third letters
CalTech manages JPL, not NASA.
ReplyDeleteOnce again TAMED and domesticated are two very different, though often confused, things. Taming is the behavior modification of a single animal through training for specific behaviors. Domestication is an evolutionary process involving genetic modification of a species. There are millions of animal who are domesticated, but not tamed (i.e., dogs are a domesticated species, but not all dogs are tamed). Why the NYTimes keeps mucking this up is beyond me.
TFR
DeleteAbout
Tame & Domesticated
The Times is not mucking this up
You are confusing a puzzle which has clues which are hints, with a dictionary which has definitions And also confusing technical terms with common language.
Clearly a perfectly acceptable answer
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteNice puz. Light junk. NNE about the worst. As others have said before, this would be a great puz for a beginner. Lets them see how a Revealer works with Themers.
The choice to only have three Themers plus a Revealer also smooths out the full. It gives the constructor room to get real entries in, not a bunch of Abbrs and initials. We get NNE and AOC. Just reviewing further, I see IGA, IPA. Oh, NASA. Well, I'll still call the fill clean!
Anyway, nice theme, simple, effective.
Happy Monday, especially if you're retired.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Saw the golf thing coming but ignored the food part so the DINERS part was a nice surprise. The whole DINERSCLUB revealer made me think, wasn't there a movie called "The Man from the Diners Club", and didn't it star Danny Kaye? So I looked it up and there was and it did, 1963. As the old Mainer said, I can't understand all the things that I know.
ReplyDeleteVery easy here, didn't know IGA or TREY and I still don't know any ADELE songs but for any five-letter singer starting with A, ADELE is always my first choice.
I'm starting to think my favorite Olympic sport is whatever I am watching, as all these athletes are doing things that are clearly impossible, especially the gymnasts, and especially Simone Biles. Wow and whew.
Congrats on the debut, AW. A Well-constructed Monday that knows how to Monday, and thanks for all the fun.
Now on to the Croce, which sounds like a bear.
Simple, elegant, worthy, never-done-before theme. Bravo on that, Andy!
ReplyDeleteI tried guessing the revealer, as I like to do to add bite to the Monday solve. I fill in the theme answers, leave the revealer blank, don’t read its clue, and see if I can figure it out. It’s a skill I’m weak at, so I plug away at it.
Oh, I came so close! I saw the golf connection, and actually figured out that the end of the revealer was CLUB. But what kind of club had to do with food? At one point I actually wondered if it was “EATERS CLUB”. How close was that? But, sigh, I gave up, revealed the first letter and immediately realized the right answer. Oh well. I feel progress. Small steps.
Right in the middle of the Olympics, I did like seeing USA at the end of MEDUSA. I also liked seeing WOOT which sorta echoed yesterday’s YEET.
And to honor your love of puns (as you described on your notes in WordPlay), Andy, I was happy to see that your puzzle has a PEEL. At least for me. Congratulations on your debut, and your theme is so lovely, I’m eager to see what you come up with next. Thank you so much for making this!
Clever theme! The double meanings of the wordplay are wonderfully unexpected and I couldn't guess the revealer ahead of time. I was sure the word GOLF would be in it somehow, but I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteSo now I get to the revealer and I see "credit card" and I think of MASTERCARD and I think of the MASTER'S GOLF tournament. Nope, wrong. This is much, much better!
Even though it's a Monday-level puzzle, I can imagine the constructor leaping out of the bathtub shouting "Eureka!" as he realized he had three perfect theme answers and one perfect revealer -- and that they all had the necessary symmetry!
Very nice puzzle, Andy.
PIANO TUNERs do not bring a piano “in key” but “in tune”. In key = correct key signature (i.e., performing in B-flat major as opposed to, say, B major). In tune = correct pitch (i.e., A4 = 440 hz).
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 9:20AM
DeleteMost people are not experts in music science.
This is a puzzle using common not technical language and the clue and answer are perfectly acceptable.
Sometimes nits need to be split and hairs need to be picked!
DeleteVery nice Monday puzzle and debut by Andy Walker! I just looked at Gary’s Gunk Gauge a that says 11 propers. Maybe my counting is off but I could only find eight and I hesitate to add a well-known historical figure like Daniel BOONE into a “gunk” designation. (No reflection on you @Gary, J, you gots your rules!)
ReplyDeleteAnd Malaika…I’m not gonna comment on YOUR age, I’m gonna comment on MY age (69) and the fact that by the time I was old enough to know about DINERSCLUB, it was on its way out. In my part of this big country people didn’t “dine out” that much, and when they did, the restaurant likely didn’t take DINERSCLUB. That was for big city fancy pants establishments that a couple might go to for a special celebration and you made damned well sure you had your wallet! (Hypothesizing) Yeah, yeah ad execs (like Don Draper and, more notably, Darrin from Bewitched) took clients out to lunch and dinner. Yada yada. I guess I’m NOW wondering how DINERSCLUB even came to mind for Andy Walker!
@Beezer 9:58 AM
DeleteHmm. Did I miscount?
Names
ABBA, ADAM, IGA, AOC, MEDUSA, NASA, TREY, BOONE, DOE, ADELE, ESTEE.
I think it's 11.
When counting, I don't judge whether they're well known or not since GEORGE CLOONEY is super easy for the elderly and would be virtually impossible for the kids (he's not famous any more). When I scroll down the Billboard Hot 100, I realize a whole lotta allegedly well-known peeps are complete mysteries to me.
I've been counting NASA as a proper noun. It's a collective of people like a band. I debate whether it's more appropriately placed as a partial, but nobody ever says the full name and I would have to look it up to see what it even is. USA, DNA and LSD are also partials, but I don't count them as such. They're complete on their own.
Gary Jugert
DeleteSpeaking of nits
There are people named Doe but that Doe in the puzzle is use to indicate that the person’s name is being hidden. So I would count ten.
No complaints.
ReplyDelete@Malaika: DINERS CLUB has never had an apostrophe. It is, or was, a "club" for DINERS. So the genetive form is not appropriate.
My favorite Olympic sports are the original ones, basically Track and Field. I ran high and low hurdles, so that's still it for me. I prefer events that do not require judges. Whoever crosses the finish line wins, just as whoever throws the javelin farthest, whoever jumps the highest or farthest, etc.
Only state without any straight borders: Hawaii
ReplyDeleteIGA Świątek (Polish) "is currently ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association". Okay, good to know! (Much more interesting than the grocery chain.)
I liked the theme. Do you dine on lemons? Or are these things found in a diner? Food + Club (which can also be dined on in a diner), revealer is close enough! Also forgot about WOOT (or w00t, in 1337 sp33k). Not sure how common it is now, but looks like woot was added to the OED in 2011. Nice debut, Mr. Walker - I'm assuming that's what your HS students call you. :)
Also jealous of Malaika's tomatoes. I learned that other gardeners in my area (NC) have also had curling leaves and a low harvest this year. Only slightly glad to know it's not something I'm doing wrong, but still pretty disappointing. Grew a couple of mutant ones so far, with some more on the way, so gotta keep going....
HDW* Clues:
ReplyDelete1. Things often placed at the downs
2. Crucial farm feature at the end of "Witness"
3. It's "oost" in Amsterdam
I'm on team Malaika with this one: a very easy Monday that was a pleasant solve.
LET'S DOWN ONE IPA ! WANNA?
I think it's time (past time) for the editors to give ESTEE a rest.
Answers to HDW* Clues
1. BETS (Begins with the B in 39A, moves to SW)
2. SILO (4D, ATLAS)
3. EAST (appears in the SW, beginning with the E in DINERS CLUB. Unlike Malaika, I'm plenty old enough to know DINERS CLUB.
*Hidden Diagonal Word
Existential musing from an indigenous Alaskan: IGLOO, therefore I am.
ReplyDeleteTypical reaction to meeting Melania and Donald: She nice, HEARSE.
I say WOOT to this puzzle. Thanks, Andy Walker.
I don't know a thing about golf, but this was the easiest Monday ever!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on your debut, Andy :)
@kitshef - re: 58a - Of course! Thanks. re: center east - Yes, there were a couple of very odd looking answers in that section.
ReplyDeleteFairly smooth for a downs only Monday (a quiet holiday morning here in BC). Unlike some previous commenters, I only got the food part of the themers. Thought it was kind of weak. Post solve I saw the golf references and it rose a few notches.
ReplyDeleteOne nit - I think there's a difference between dining and just eating and if you served me cherry, a lemon, and a hotel buffet waffle I would not consider that "dining". Still, a pretty good Monday.
We seem to be having a run on ESTEE. 6 times this year, including twice in August and once in July.
ReplyDeleteNot complaining, it’s an answer I actually know 😆
Fun and fast for me.
Egs, 10:42 you had me LOLing again with your first two comments.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the word "woot". Sorry to see in comments that it was added to OED
@ David 7:31 Not more than I want to know, Interesting.
Solved entirely downs-only. Phew. I try every Monday but I fail more often than I succeed.
ReplyDelete@kitshef, pabloinnh, Gary J, Wanderlust, et al -- My favorite Olympic sports are the skill sports as opposed to the speed sports: Gymnastics; Diving (and especially synchronized diving); Table Tennis. And in the winter, Figure Skating, especially pair skating; Ice Dancing; Ski Jumping; and Snowboarding. I never watch races other than the hurdles, which does at least give you something interesting to watch: Unless a family member or a lover is running or swimming or speed skating, those events bore me to tears.
ReplyDelete@GILL -- You were even more hilarious than usual today. I believe that your uniquely @GILLish method of mangling homonyms and inventing peculiar almost-homonyms should be patented.
I have to start coming here earlier, or else emulate @Nancy and post before reading the comments. Here I had a nice snarky comment about Boeing planes not needing EJECT buttons, and @Jack Stefano preempted me.
ReplyDeleteThe three clubs are all clued as something else, but only one of the food items is, and even there it's the tree the fruit grows on. I don't think it could be helped, though, with this theme--there are other meanings of WAFFLE, but not that you could combine with a golf club.
I got a DINERS CLUB card when my university gave me one to charge work-related travel. I wasn't supposed to use that for personal expenses, so I got a personal one, too. Then the university stopped using one, and it reached the point where businesses didn't want to take diners anymore, because it cost them more than Visa or Mastercard. So finally Diners made a deal where their cards could be processed as MCs (the card has both logos). You have to pay the whole balance every month, which helps me with financial discipline; and its one attractive feature is that it can get you into airport lounges virtually everywhere (at least, if it's an airport). That really makes a difference when you have a long layover.
NASA now owns and funds JPL, but delegates its management to CalTech--close enough for a clue, I'd say.
Agree heartily that this puzzle was especially breezy -- personal best, I think, even though my stats got messed up and somehow the NYT thinks that my best is 3:00 flat (as of today it's closer to the truth but still a bit off). Fill is good, didn't encounter any troubles and liked some fun crosses (GOB and ROE crossing in the center made me laugh out loud).
ReplyDeleteBut the theme? I dunno. It just doesn't seem very tight -- the golf clubs are good, but the foodstuffs seem kind of random. Also, they're supposed to be parallel with DINERS, not just DINE- I guess the unifying idea is that you dine on those things, but when was the last time anyone dined on a lemon? And for that matter, do you really "dine" on a waffle or a bowl of cherries? You eat those things, sure, but in my mind dining makes me think of cloth napkins and candles and high prices -- not so much waffles and fruit.
I wonder if there are any DINERS that have a WEDGE WOOD WAFFLE on their menu.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the relatively high Scrabble Score of the theme entries made getting interesting fill more challenging. There were more uninteresting random conversational snippets than I like to see. Stuff like I WILL, ALL DONE, LETS DOWN and KEEP IT will never get a WOOT from me.
I owned a CANOE (40A) for many years and it was definitely not a "Watercraft prone to tipping", as clued. A typical CANOE will have a relatively broad, flat bottom designed to carry heavy loads while remaining very stable, at least in calm waters.
My first NIKON camera was made in JAPAN. That was the innovative NIKON F film camera with a built-in light meter. I still have it but these days I use a digital NIKON D3000 that was made in Thailand.
@Nancy - I was going summer-only. Winter it's figure skating, snowboard half-pipe, and freestyle skiing slopestyle. I cannot for the life of me understand the popularity of curling or moguls skiing.
ReplyDeleteThere are no silly questions! Let's take seriously for a second the idea that a 747 might have an eject button that shoots the pilot out of the airplane.
ReplyDeleteFine, maybe there are some silly questions.
Liked the puzzle today :)
@Gary - George Clooney is still famous.
ReplyDeleteIs recipes retired? I love your gunk gauge but I'm happy to see that metric go.
Often amused by the number of clues on "easy" Mondays about which I am completely clueless! I never heard of the ABBA song "Gimme Gimme." My Dad used to sing "Gimme, gimme gimme gimme gimme, everything you get you complain. Gimme gimme, gimme gimme gimme, Oh honey, you gimme a pain." I assume that was some other song, so the clue was NOT a "gimme." Never heard of "Woot." but I am sure that when Satan uses it, it is the woot of all evil. I don't know any "Adele" songs other than the "Laughing Song" from Fledermaus...Never heard of "Rolling in the Deep..." I know of "Phish" from crosswords, but certainly didn't know the name of their guitarist. But, this being Monday, got them all from the crosses. WOOT! WOOT!
ReplyDeleteIsn’t the inside of a banana slipperier than the PEEL?
ReplyDeleteFound this extremely easy, plus I finally got the bonus question - I guessed the revealer from analyzing the clues. It was my second guess - I wanted ‘breakfast CLUB’ first. Saw it was too long and remembered DINERS CLUB from somewhere. What a history - dude was so embarrassed for his wife to have to pay the check that he invented the multipurpose charge card.
Searched for info on banana PEELs and it’s amazing the uses - food for animals, skin care, water purification, syrup for cocktails, and they’re even experimenting with making biodegradable “plastic” bags out of them.
Horse lover here, so my favorites are of course the equestrian events. The horses are incredibly gorgeous creatures and superb athletes, and the communication between horse and rider is fascinating to watch. And, per Britannica, the equestrian events are “the only Olympic sports where men and women compete head-to-head.” That goes for both the humans and the horses. Thanks for asking, Malaika!
@Anoa Bob 3:54, I still have a canoe, purchased from a local manufacture at least 20 years ago and designed for lake travel. Pretty well matches your description and I've never seen anyone fall out of it. The "tippy" thing is a myth.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a starving art student in the early 70s I dreamt of owning a Nikon F but couldn't come up with the cash. Couldn't even afford my second choice, a Pentax Spotmatic so I eventually purchased a Russian Zenit B (relatively cheap, bulky and heavy) and a light meter (selenium, if memory serves) and learned a lot about photography using this antiquated system. Today I use a Nikon D90 that I purchased about 10 or 12 years ago and I still don't think I use it to its full potential. Cannot shoot a decent picture with a phone!
Some people get annoyed that a lemon, cherry and waffle are not appropriate words to associate with diners.
ReplyDeleteWell I say diners are eating and these are foods Close enough for me and close enough for crosswords!
When I was young I heard of Diners Club but my parents never used it. Actually into the early’70’s, when I was in college, they still had no credit card. They were always careful about money and averse to credit ( when they bought a house, they put 80% down and borrowed 20% paid the latter off in 4 years .)
We went on a trip to Europe unfortunately without a credit card. So when my father was hit by a car as a pedestrian on a street in Rome, and hospitalized, they learned credit cards have their uses.
I agree with Nancy, liked the puzzle.
@Gary J 9:23....I think James Beard would like you to be a food critic. Or, for that matter, a write-up of anything. You make everyone who reads you, jolly. I'm sorry to hear about MEDUSA...She was a fine CHERRY WAFFLE LATTE LEMON CUSPS cook. I'll miss her.
ReplyDelete@Nancy 1:54. I guess it helps that I'm a lousy speller?
I watch everything I can during the Olympics. I suppose anything equestrian is my favorite. I was practically born on a horse and remember my German trainer showing me dressage. The horse was a Lipizzaner (sp?) and he was also used for Spanish riding.....Just ask Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg about me.
Hi Maliaka -
ReplyDeletei always like it when you are on - fun times.
The real giveaway on your age was not Diner's Club but FAO - because any kid born in the 80's was obsessed with FAO Schwartz . . . .
I thought the theme was weak until I came here because I only saw the food part of the gimmick and did not notice the CLUB part. Now I think the theme is pretty, pretty good. Bravo on your debut AW!
ReplyDeleteHere’s one:
ReplyDeleteThree golf clubs walk into a bar. The putter asked for a rum and coke .The 7-iron ordered a beer. The last one said, “Nothing for me. I’m the driver.
Curious that ADAM is clued via Driver. Was that on purpose? Should that be counted as a plus or a minus? Guess it's your POV. IM personal O, the puzzle would be cleaner without it.
ReplyDeleteThe golf motif, though, is right down my fairway. And, as the first parts of the themers are all edible, they fit with DINERS. Birdie.
Wordle bogey.
First, to nitpick a bit with several comments, the original Diners Club card was a charge card, not a credit card (simliar to how Amex used to operate—balance had to paid off entirely every month, as opposed to a credit card that allows you to carry a balance).
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous 7:18 AM, I'm not sure what typing contest you won, but for typing tests, since words come in all different lengths, a "word" is typically defined as five letters. I counted 185 total squares (letters) in this puzzle's grid, meaning if you type 37 wpm (not a speed that should be winning a typing contest), you can theoretically complete the grid in one minute. I'm typically a pen-and-paper solver, but when I'm out of town, I usually use a computer, and I've solved the daily NYT in less than four minutes, and hit 3.5 minutes for one of the monthly 'bonus' puzzles that are typically easier than daily NYT.