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Outfit inspiration for a Swiftie / WED 8-21-24 / Workspaces with 3-D printers and laser cutters, informally / Biodiverse underwater ecosystem / Toy found in King Tut's tomb / The Floor Is ___ (kids' make-believe game) / Most common Czech surname / Guinness record holder for "Mammal with the most names"
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Constructor: Stacey Yaruss McCullough
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- RUB-A-DUB CLUB (17A: Gathering for lathering?)
- DING-A-LING BLING (26A: Jewels for fools?)
- CHOCK-A-BLOCK WOK (42A: Fryer piled higher?)
- CHUG-A-LUG MUG (56A: Cup to drink up?)
A fab lab (fabrication laboratory) is a small-scale workshop offering (personal) digital fabrication.
[Gabby, Baxter, ca. '09, RIP] A fab lab is typically equipped with an array of flexible computer-controlled tools that cover several different length scales and various materials, with the aim to make "almost anything". This includes technology-enabled products generally perceived as limited to mass production.
While fab labs have yet to compete with mass production and its associated economies of scale in fabricating widely distributed products, they have already shown the potential to empower individuals to create smart devices for themselves. These devices can be tailored to local or personal needs in ways that are not practical or economical using mass production.
The fab lab movement is closely aligned with the DIY movement, open-source hardware, maker culture, and the free and open-source movement, and shares philosophy as well as technology with them. (wikipedia)
• • •
The puzzle felt like it should've been on the easy side, but I got hung up enough on the fill that it ended up closer to Medium for me. The arbitrariness of those final theme words didn't help, though. Specifically, I had DING-A-LING RINGS as that second themer, at first. The plural in the clue ("jewels") had me thinking "plural" in the answer, and "RINGS" have jewels, and "RINGS" is plural, and "RINGS" rhymes with "DING" and "LING," so that's what I wrote in. And it was wrong. I have never heard of FAB LABS despite the fact that my brother-in-law talked my ear off (in a good way!) about 3D printing earlier this month when I was in Santa Barbara on the family vacay. He has a small-scale home workshop, though, I think—a personal fab lab. Anyway, he never used the term and I was left to discover it the hard way, today, mid-puzzle. The "FAB" here refers to "fabrication" and not, alas, "fabulous," which is what I (sincerely) assumed. "What wondrous technologies these are! Let's call the place where you use them ... the fabulous laboratory! No! Better yet, the fab lab!" That one answer kept me from turning the corner from the top into the top-right, which was a fairly significant stoppage. The only other thing I didn't really know in this puzzle was ICE BOX CAKE, but at least I've heard of it, vaguely. Can't quite conceive it, but I've heard of it.
The fill on this one felt a little clunky (RICAN, AGER) but I think it's mostly solid and overall just fine. Errors (besides the RINGS-for-BLING thing (!)) included "C'MON!" for "I'M IN!" (52D: "Let's do it!"), and "MMMM!" and "MORE!" for MOAN (36D: Reaction upon tasting a decadent dessert).
Notes:
- 55A: Outfit inspiration for a Swiftie (ERA) — is the "Eras Tour" not over yet? When are we gonna stop doing this tortured "Let's make the puzzle youthfulish by forcing clues to be about Swifties" thing? Never? OK. I'm pro-Taylor Swift and Swifties but ... pick your spots. This clue felt like a stretch. Do people really say to themselves "I'm going to dress like Taylor from [X] 'ERA'?" Yes? OK. Moving on.
- 34A: Toy found in King Tut's tomb (TOP) — really wanted PUG or POM. Wrong kind of "toy."
- 30D: Most common Czech surname (NOVAK) — I did not know that. The only NOVAKs I know* are B.J. NOVAK and then the cranky conservative NOVAK guy who used to be on PBS, who I feel like is actually related to B.J. NOVAK. Hang on ... ah, no, I screwed that up. Robert NOVAK was the conservative PBS commentator guy. No relation to B.J., I don't think. B.J.'s father is William NOVAK, who ghostwrote celebrity memoirs for Lee Iacocca, Nancy Reagan, and Magic Johnson. The most famous NOVAK is probably NOVAK Djokovic, but there, it's his first name, and also, he's Serbian, not Czech. Annnnnyway....
- 53D: Mysterious character (RUNE) — ah, "character" as in "letter or symbol," not "fictional and/or distinctive person."
- 40D: Sus (SKETCHY) — I like this, though since the clue is abbr. slang (for "suspicious"), the answer really should be SKETCH (an abbr. I have definitely used and heard used). Here's Ben Zimmer writing in the Times (2010) about related terms: "Creeper! Rando! Sketchball!"
- 50D: Guinness record holder for "Mammal with the most names" (PUMA) — Mountain lion, cougar, catamount ... I went through an "I Love Mountain Lions" phase around the turn of the century. It was a weird time. I blame Y2K.
See you next time.
*oh &^$% I forgot about Kim NOVAK, how!?!?
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71 comments:
Last week we get a tribute list theme - today a simple rhyming theme - and all I hear is how many submissions they get. There has to be some better concepts out there.
Agree with the big guy that the overall fill is fine - no real hiccups anywhere in the grid and it plays smooth.
CHUG A LUG
Liked the long downs - ICE BOX CAKE and GIVES IT A GO. LEERY, SASS, CRUX all good ones. Needed the crosses for FAB LAB and NOVAK.
Albert King
Pleasant enough Wednesday morning solve.
SARA
There’s a little more to the theme - the clues also rhyme
CHUG A LUG MUG reminded me of a huge drinking glass I had when I was a teen. It was emblazoned with “ha ha” and “hee hee” and laughing Peanuts characters and it was called a Chuckle-ugger and I loved it more than you would think possible.
Never a fan of WORKING cross after cross to stumble upon a plausible, but nonsensical word or phrase (and yes, it turns it from an enjoyable experience to WORK). Better to have no theme at all than something this contrived. Similar to last week, hopefully it won’t get any worse than this and Wednesday will be the clunker of the week (pretty sad when the NYT actually has multiple nominees in the clunker of the week category week-in and week-out).
“ There's this kind of desperate attempt to make the theme ... denser? ... by making the clues rhyme too, but that only highlights the thinness of the theme. The clue rhyme is different from the answer rhyme. I can't really call this a fault because I don't really know what the theme thinks it's doing. I don't get it. Sincerely.”—Rex Parker
I did not like this puzzle. But I did like Rex's use of "arbitrariness" - such an unheralded word.
Well, that was unpleasant.
Theme is just awful. In a month with some really bad themes, this has to be the worst.
My first thought for 36A was "please don't let it be MEETS; that would be a terrible clue for MEETS".
Not a fan of baby-talk puzzles, but Rex, your list of famous Novaks made it all worth it. William Novak must be the most famous ghostwriter ever, i.e., the only one whose name I’ve ever noticed. Does anyone ever plan to become a ghostwriter when they grow up?
Earlier this morning I was reading about Ernie’s, the SF restaurant in a replica of which Hitchcock shot that scene in Vertigo where Jimmy Stewart first sees Kim Novak. And a couple hours later, there she is!
Absolute trash
Seems a silly fun puzzle with rhyming answers that have a kind of poetic beat—a nice light Wednesday morning. I feel all puzzle themes are arbitrary choices of the author so that aspect not a problem for me. Got hung up in the southeast trying to interpret Sus as Suss, as in “Suss out an answer” so that took a while to sort out via guesses at the crosses. Took me about the usual time to complete, which is way too long to mention in the company of this blog.
Ring rhymes with DING and LING. Rings does not. Thanks for the Blossom Dearie!
I was totally charmed by this theme. Wordplay comes in different flavors. Sometimes it comes from playing with meanings. And sometimes, like today, it comes from the unalloyed joy of playing with sounds, specifically rhyming sounds.
To riff off an old lyric -- Rappers do it, kids do it, even people making grids do it.
My sister and I used to make up words that sounded silly, and give them wacky meanings. We did it all the time. It was fun. It cracked us up. We still do it. It knocks us out of our serious adulthood selves.
So how could I not be charmed by RUBADUB, DINGALING and friends? And guessing the rhyming word that followed each of the phrases in the grid?
The kid inside me also loved learning about the game "The Floor Is Lava", which I had never heard of, but what fun!
It also loved the schwa A-train of AROMA / ALMA / LAVA / SAGA / SARA / URSA / UMA / PUMA / OTRA, plus RUBA, DINGA, CHOCKA, and CHUGA.
What a day brightener! Congratulations on your debut, Stacey. Thank you for a hoot of a solve, and please, play on!
I agree with Lewis - I thought it was cute and light! Can't a theme sometimes just be silly and fun?
I found it mostly easy because of the rhyming of the theme answers. But I was surprised to hear the music, because XMEN didn't look right (what are XMEN?). Nice puzzle with a pleasing theme and some devilish cluing.
I had “DINGALINGARING” and crossing that with “FABLABS” (is that a thing?) took a couple of minutes to sort out…
Bumpy start as I didn't know SARA and tried CORE for "heart" but that was easily fixed and the rest of the exercise was swiftly completed. The rhyming theme was obvious and it was kind of fun to uncover the other themers, but only kind of.
FABLABS? The stuff you learn in crosswords. Doubt if I can work it into a conversation though.
Side eye to SKISUIT. Kids have snow suits, for sure, but I don't think I've ever thought about putting on my SKISUIT.
I wonder how many of our younger solvers will know DINAH Shore, who is a gimme for the rest of us.
And I feel sorry for OFL if he has never had any ICEBOXCAKE. Easy but delicious.
OK Wednesday, SYMC. Should You Make Crosswords like this? I dunno. I did it , it's what I do, which makes it kind of a "just because puzz". Thanks for a medium amount of fun.
Hey All !
OK Theme. Good fitting in of the 14's. As a constructor can tell you, it's sometimes tough to get 14's smoothly in a grid, although it seems like it shouldn't be difficult. Weird.
In the spirit of @egs - I was standing too long, so I decided to GIVESITAGO.
What is an ICE BOX CAKE? Ice Cream Cake, sure. An ICE Cream CAKE in a BOX, maybe. Or is it a frozen CAKE in an old fashioned ICE BOX? A BOX CAKE encased in ICE? Har.
The Rhymers we're decent. Fill decent. I guess what I'm saying is puz was decent. If ratings were G's, I'd give it higher than ONE G.
Happy Wednesday.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Didn’t love this one, seemed a tad contrived and felt vaguely juvenile. While the phrases are all familiar, the themers struck me as something made up in a kids’ game. CHUGALUG reminded me of that goofy old song of the same name and I had two thoughts about it: (1) It’s gonna be stuck in my head all day, and (2) our old compadre Joe Dipinto would have posted a link to it. Then lo and behold, I must be prescient because there it is in the first post of the day! Thanks @SunVolt, for helping me out.
But my personal preferences aside, I’ve got to hand it to the constructor who decided to GIVE IT A GO and struck gold. So congratulations Stacey McCullough, on your NYT debut! No matter the critiques, that’s a noteworthy accomplishment and an elite CLUB to be in. I hope you’ll buy yourself a nice little bit of BLING to mark the occasion. You deserve it.
The theme was fine. It was cute and fun and it's a Wednesday. All y'all need to go back to bed or something, you demand FAR too much density from your daily puzzles. Not every day can be layer upon layer of meaning wrapped in subtle clues and smothered in secret sauce.
Rex grumbles and tries to invent extra meaning for the theme, and it gives the other commenters license to call the puzzle "trash."
This blog's getting a bit toxic lately.
Worst puzzle of the year@#$%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Novak
I was rushing to say “What about Kim NOVAK, esp. from an old movie buff?”, but Rex auto-corrected at the end:) Her, plus BJ and Mr Djokovic convinced me - plus I can’t think of any others off the top of my head.
I agree with the “good silly fun for a Wednesday” sentiment. Always good to have Lewis for balance here - no more vacations!
Ted, you’ve been here long enough to know the procedure, right? As much as I admire the humor and turns of phrase Rex provides for a puzzle he pans, the chorus of anonymous “trash” comments doesn’t make for a fun blog.
Ice Box Cake is a delicious, no bake calorie-filled dessert made by layering (in the past) Nabisco Chocolate Wafers - since discontinued but Dewey's makes a reasonable substitute - and whipped cream (with added sugar and vanilla extract). Place the layers on their side to make a "log" and cover with more whipped cream. Chill in the "ice box" for at least 4 hours for the whipped cream to soften the wafers. Top with shaved chocolate and CUT ON THE BIAS. My mom made this for us and I've continued the tradition when my grandson helps me.
I think even SCRUB A DUB CLUB works somewhat bc scrub-a-dub is at least a real (if silly) expression that people use to refer to bathing. CHOCK A BLOCK WOK on the other hand is... not a thing. I'm guessing they were going for a play on "chock full" with the clue being "piled higher" but the block seems to be just completely random and made up so it rhymes. I think the theme actually could've been decent if they had stuck to real expressions and I think it would've been fine with just the 3 that are real (scrub-a-dub, ding-a-ling, chug-a-lug)
JonB3 - perfect description of an icebox cake! Haven’t had one in literally decades but this brought it all back. They are inexplicably delicious 😋
DNF - I was stuck with MOW for HOE because the M would also spell out MUG in the across and given that the phrase is nonsense …
So after more than 30,000 NYT x-word puzzles, you expect something better every day? Maybe just try to appreciate a bit of fun?
Or, maybe a puzzle about famine in Sudan? That would be fresh.
thinking about the wok one is pointless. it just doesn't make sense
I think this is the point in the movie where Eugene Maleska calls the office to inquire on the health and return date of WS.
I thought it was a lot of fun! Totally goofy. Loved GIVES IT A GO.
I also agree with Lewis, it was fun!
Good one Roo, you did @egs proud! 👏
I literally got an ICEBOX CAKE for my birthday every year until my teens, so no problem there. But then again, I’m old enough to have actually seen an icebox.
I was distracted while solving this by our pet making thumping noises. That darn ratatat cat was at it again.
If Wolverine and others are XMEN, does that mean that they have transitioned?
I'd never noticed before that a universal blood donors type, for short is the same as the force of gravity on earth, for short. ONEG.
I think that @Rex's critique of this theme is basically, "what's the point?" I feel like it was just a whimsical rhyme fest and the point is that it was fun. Sometimes it's fun to just have fun. Congrats on your fun debut, Stacey Yaruss McCullough.
Fun debut!
I liked it. Bouncy fun.
A PUMA has more names than a dog or a cat. I guess that they're not counting nicknames.
The theme was fun, but it made for a very easy solve -- the rhyming clues gave away the basic concept, and sometimes this was all that I needed; at other times, I needed the first letter or two. I did, for some reason, go with rING A dING before DINGALING, and I wasn't certain if it would be CHOCK A BLOCK with a flock of young chickens, but that wouldn't fit. WOK is an outlier in having a different spelling from the other rhymes, but that is such a minor fault that I didn't even notice it while solving.
RUNEs are no more mysterious than any other non-Roman characters. There was the famous Runestone in Minnesota, where the only mystery was whether it was a hoax (it was.)
I did have some fun imagining what you might enclose with a picket fence. A loaf? Some loam? A farm? LAVA was taken already.
Probably someone has posted this already, but here's a French kiss in Paris.
Great fun. Rex - get your broken funny bone healed. What a grump.
Count me in as someone who really enjoyed the puzzle, and I don’t care that CHOCKABLOCK isn’t technically a pile, unless the only thing that can fit in the space is said pile. Also, thanks @Son Volt for the link to the old song CHUGALUG. Also I liked learning about FABLABS. That seems pretty “fresh” if you ask me.
I have partaken of ICEBOXCAKE and it is the thing referred to above, but what is strange to me is that I THINK its “invention” came after a time when people like my parents called the refrigerator the “icebox.” I can hear my Dad saying “put it in the freezer in the icebox.” Um, sure.
Although the answer NOVAK was in my “wheelhouse” I was interested to learn that it translates to “newcomer.” It’s a popular name in many Slavic countries. However, the answer presumes that there are more men than women in the Czech Republic because females use the -ova designation in their surname thus daughters of a Novak father or a wife (who takes her husband’s surname) would be Novakova. Haha…I care not about that “glitch” with the answer.
X-MEN are a Marvel comics team of “mutant” superheroes. Wolverine was played by Hugh Jackman in X-MEN movies.
Commenters are divided on this one, I see, but I'm sticking with "fun." Just to point out what some seem to have missed, the first parts of the themers are all things people say, either by themselves or as parts of other phrases, like RUB-A-DUB dub, three men in a tub....
@Rex, I was thinking of it as a single WOK that was CHOCK-A-BLOCK with whatever you were frying. Since the word "fryers" made me think of chickens, mine was full of them.
I've never seen a Marvel movie, and I'm old as the hills, but even I knew that Wolverine was an X-MaN. But now I'm wondering how much Marvel fandom overlaps with the Swifties.
Ditto! Found this easy and breezy ... in a good way. Maybe that's what icebox cake is like! I should try it.
DINGALING will make me chuckle all day. Such a funny old-fashioned insult. Puzzle was good enough for me. So much better than a four-part quote or a word ladder. And a SKI SUIT is a real thing, although just not popular on the slopes these days unless worn ironically. They are just too warm to be practical.
Bet you thought I loved this, right? Not only rhymes -- but rhymes in both the clues and the answers! Playfulness in the wordplay! These are a few of my favorite things, right?
But I didn't like it all that much. I thought the rhymes in the answers were pretty silly and I thought the rhymes in the clues were awkward and forced. Then I was also less than thrilled with the children's game LAVA clue and the "Sus" cue for SKETCHY. "Sus"??? Who says that?
I'll give the constructor an A for effort, though. She put a lot of thought and effort into it and I'm sure there are people who had found it fun.
As the mother of a teenage girl, can confirm that “I want to dress like the Lover/Red/Speak Now/Folklore/etc. era” is, in fact, a thing.
This puzzle felt thin to me. No chew, and the theme was silly. OTOH, nothing actually made me mad in the “That’s not something people SAY” way, so that’s a plus.
@Rex - you began your write-up by saying "I don't know what to say about this." I have to agree. While I tend not to criticize & certainly not on a constructor's debut (btw, congrats, Stacey) I'm really surprised this was accepted. Not the constructor's fault! On a Wednesday? Maybe Monday or "silly day." It was cute but if I want cute I'll go to TV Guide (is that still around?)
I'm sorry :(
That's a good one - were it only so :(
I’m 25 and I think I have heard or seen the word “sus” or “cringe” basically every single day since 2021.
Gotta agree with you @Nancy
RAT-A-TAT SPLAT descibes it appropriately.
FAB LABs are all over the place, once you know they exist you will start to notice them, just like when you learn a new word. Here's a link to a news release about the one Binghamton U FAB LAB. @Rex, it has big windows so people can look in, you may (or may not) want to take a gander. There's actually another one that calls itself that, but I don't think they do 3D printing.
@Easy Ed - I made the same confusion of SUS with suss. But I think SUS is not an abbreviation but a slang term, just like our beloved "totes adorbs."
Not many commenters today. I posted over an hour ago, and came back to find only two posts between mine.
Sus?....damnation and all that. I know your cousin suss because he has an extra S and I figure him out. Not you....You belong over by the FAB LABS. Take a seat, SKETCHY....
RUB A DUB CLUB? Ok, this is going to be one of those days. And then you give me GAS. Something in the air is GAS? as in a windy oops? or what.....Do tell.
I guess if I had to choose a favorite it would be DING A LING BLING. Maybe @egs can come up with something better. And @Gary J? How about you.....
I'll read the comments later and see who comes up with the best explanation of this theme. I'm flummoxed.
So pleased to see the cat themes continue; puma today and just a few days ago (what lions do that pumas can't (roar))
Easy-medium. I’m with @Lewis on this one, it was just delightful. Made me laugh. The point of the puzzle was “goofy” and it worked for me. Liked it a bunch!
Did not know NOVAK and FABLABS.
Erasures: omen before SIGN, Core before CRUX, and date before YEAR.
. . . Let’s do it. Let’s bust a rhyme.
I agreed with Rex that the puzzle /theme seemed a bit meh.
But then he made me like it more. IMO the rhyming clues made it better. And it would have been wrong of them to rhyme with the answers. In fact I can imagine him criticizing it if they had matched the rhymes.
Had never hard of fab labs so I learned something of interest reading the word of the day.
There's a whole lot of bathing going on in the NW. Splish-splash!
Utterly daft.
Beth, I have never heard anyone say SCRUBADUB but I say CHOCKABLOCK often. Regional? Generational?
This old timer agrees
We old timers remember Bobby Darin’s Spllsh Splash. How was he to know there was a party going on?
Ditto.
Just too silly for my taste. Some dumb cluing, too. GAS (10A) is something in the air? DOTS (33A) are houses seen from an airplane? Possible but kinda wafer THIN. MEETS?
Lewis I loved your riff.
Les S. More
I think it is a variation of rubadubdub (3 men in a tub) which I assume you have heard of.
I looked scrubadub up online and the first ad was a local car wash
Nursery rhymes develop all sorts of variations as they are passed down over the centuries.
SUS
Origin
1930’s British police slang either from suspect (noun) or suspicion arresting someone on suspicion that they committed a crime. It migrated to British street slang- my friend was arrested on sus (the latter origin is the one I first heard about).
Eventually arrived in the US but with expanded meaning.
So not really an abbreviation. It has been a freestanding word in the English language for maybe 90 years and so it entered American English.
Silly bit of fun. Stayed engaged the whole time ... probably because I gave my TV away yesterday. The only sound in my head was me trying to rhyme WOK with something to do with chicken. BOCK BOCK BOCK.
I was maybe halfway through and the theme answers were refusing to reveal themselves and I thought, "Oh dear, I'm not going to be able to finish this one." As always a little bit of patience and it finally collapsed under its own rhyme scheme.
@GILL I. 12:39 PM
My odiferous paunch slathered in Marionberry.
SMELLY AJELLY BELLY
❤️ FAB LABS
This is a delightful puzzle.
Propers: 5
Places: 1
Products: 2
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 6
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 78 (28%)
Funnyisms: 7 😂
Tee-Hee: Synonym for dressing to look like Gary: SEXY Halloween costume. Why NOT? MOAN.
Uniclues:
1 Forget the loofah.
2 "Seriously, how could you not know that?" spoken in a monotone female voice.
3 Result of driving your SST into Etna.
4 Write epic guitar songs about eating Japanese style.
5 Set out super hero D-Con.
6 The college years.
7 Amazing parka for a dog.
1 VEX RUB-A-DUB CLUB
2 SIRI SASS
3 ONE-G MEETS LAVA
4 TAB SOBA SAGAS
5 THIN X-MEN
6 CHUG-A-LUG MUG ERA
7 FAB LAB'S SKI SUIT
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Ready to drop the kids off at the fire station. OVER URCHINS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This one definitely made me smile.
I’ll raise my hand - had to use the check feature on this puzzle because I had RINGALINGBLING and couldn’t find my mistake, though I guess Rinah is not a name I’ve ever heard… did manage to get ERA right off the bat though.
Had to check this puzzle to ruin a 9 day streak due to DINAH. I had RINGALINGBLING and couldn’t find my error, should’ve realized Rinah is not a name I’ve ever heard. Got ERA without any crosses but that wouldn’t have been a puzzle stopper for most like that #26 corner was for me.
Agree. Sus is definitely a word that is said often. To be fair their are alot of sus people out there.
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