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Dwelling with a circular frame / SUN 9-8-24 / Janine's boss on "Abbott Elementary" / Political analyst Walker / Pertaining to the pursuit of pleasure / School with the mascot Big Al, for short / Flowing movement between yoga poses / Modern-day alternative to a cash till / Non-Egyptian people who used hieroglyphics / Prefix from the Latin for "needle"
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Constructor: Meghan Morris
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- AMATEUR STANDING (24A: Age 1) (because one-year-olds are new to standing (up))
- FIRST IN CLASS (37A: Age 5) (because five-year-olds go to school for the first time)
- DRIVING CRAZY (48A: Age 16) (because sixteen-year-olds are eager to drive)
- GIVE IT THE OL (!?!?!) COLLEGE TRY (66A: Age 18) (because eighteen-year-olds go to college (sometimes)) (I was 17, but whatever)
- BAR ADMISSION (63A: Age 21) (because twenty-one-year-olds can get into bars)
- FINISH THE JOB (98A: Age 65) (because sixty-five-year-olds retire (sometimes))
- CENTENNIAL STATE (110A: Age 100) (because one-hundred-year-olds are in a state of being one hundred years old)
Janelle Monáe Robinson (/dʒəˈnɛl moʊˈneɪ/ jə-NEL moh-NAY; born December 1, 1985) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper and actress. She has received ten Grammy Award nominations, and is the recipient of a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Children's and Family Emmy Award. Monáe has also been honored with the ASCAP Vanguard Award; as well as the Rising Star Award (2015) and the Trailblazer of the Year Award (2018) from Billboard Women in Music. [...] Monáe's third studio album, Dirty Computer (2018)—also a concept album—was released to widespread critical acclaim; it was chosen as the best album of the year by several publications. The album peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200, and was further promoted by Monae's Dirty Computer Tour. It was accompanied by the science fiction film of the same name. In 2022, she wrote the cyberpunk story collection, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, based on the album. Her fourth studio album, The Age of Pleasure (2023) was nominated for Album of the Year at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards, becoming her second nomination in the category as a lead artist. // Monáe has also ventured into acting, first gaining attention for starring in the 2016 films Moonlight and Hidden Figures. For portraying engineer Mary Jackson in the latter, she was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has since starred in the films Harriet (2019) and Glass Onion (2022), and the television series Homecoming (2020).
• • •
 |
| [the view from my mother's house in ... Colorado] |
OK, first of all—and I probably should've made this the "Word of the Day"—what in the hell is CENTENNIAL STATE???!?! (110A: Age 100). 55 years old come November and I have no idea on god's decreasingly green earth what this means. [Looks it up] OK, OK ... OK, I feel both more and less bad for not knowing this. More bad because it's the nickname of the state where my mom and sister live (Colorado), and less bad because Who The Hell Knows State Nicknames? I mean, this deep. Colorado? People know the nickname of bleeping Colorado??? Sigh. Just the weirdest thing to make it to theme answer status. Of all the "___ State" nicknames, The CENTENNIAL STATE has to be the least well known / most obscure. Looking up a lot of state nicknames right now and I've at least heard of many of these: First State (Delaware), Palmetto State (South Carolina). Turns out lots of states are named after their state university mascots (or, more likely, vice versa): Tarheel State, Cornhusker State, etc. But CENTENNIAL STATE? That's a state nickname only dogs and hardcore Coloradophiles can hear. This isn't the only forced themer, but it's certainly the most forced themer. I don't get leaving the "D" off of "OLD" in GIVE IT THE OLD COLLEGE TRY (this is the first thing my wife commented on when she solved the puzzle, god bless her). I threw that across and then came up one letter short ... only to have it be correct, just "D"-less. Something about BAR ADMISSION and DRIVING CRAZY feels clunky. I mean, those specific phrases feel clunky, like they don't quite want to stand alone (certainly the latter). And FIRST IN CLASS ... I guess I know that phrase from, what, car advertisements? I want it to be "BEST IN CLASS," but you get what you get, I guess. I think AMATEUR STANDING is the real winner of the group today. Extremely clever wordplay. Anyway, this is cute, conceptually, but in general, it plays out kind of awkward.
ADD-ON and "ADD ME"—the duping is getting really shameless under this newish administration. Looks like constructors are learning that it doesn't matter and not policing themselves. Ah well. One more thing to say "In my day...." about. ADD-ON was one of the very few missteps I made with this exceedingly easy puzzle (I had ADDED) (23A: Extra). I also had WAVY LINES for WAVY ARROW (52D: Symbol for a winding road), but nothing else in the whole big grid was genuinely tricky or misleading or challenging. I confidently and quickly wrote in AMA (!?!?) at 6D: Letters aptly found in "Obamacare" (ACA) (the "Affordable Care Act"—actually had to look up what the letters meant just now ... I thought for sure the first "A" would be "Americans," like with the "ADA"). I think my brain went "Ooh, Obamacare, that's the one about healthcare ... medicine ... doctors ... AMA! American ... Medical Act! Wow, I'm a real pro at legislative initialisms, ask me anything!").
Don't see much in the puzzle that I wasn't familiar with. I knew all the names except AMY (72A: Political analyst Walker). Looks like she's been political analyst for the PBS NewsHour during the exact length of time that I have been deliberately disengaged from all TV coverage of politics (i.e. since 2015 ... I think I bowed out completely the day after the 2016 election). Now that I look at her picture, I've definitely seen her before, but her name didn't ring. But all the other names, from HENRI to CORFU to MONÁE to DANO to ELIA, I knew pretty much cold. Hey, did you know Paul DANO's partner is the (crossword-solving) grand-daughter of ELIA Kazan? It's true. ZOE Kazan. She's been a puzzle answer twice—three times if you count the time she was used in a clue for her grandfather ([Actress Zoe Kazan's grandfather], Sep. 16, 2022). Paul DANO, OTOH, has appeared nine times, first in 2011, before finally supplanting his Hawaii Five-0 ("Book 'em, DAN-O!") and soap opera (Linda DANO) predecessors once and for all in 2016. Weird ... the NYTXW appears to have accepted both DANNO and DANO as a "Hawaii Five-0 nickname"; I guess if you never see it written down on the show, you can spell it however you want. Anyway, just some light pop culture crossword trivia for you on this lazy late-summer Sunday. I know you like that sort of thing...
Additional material:
- 28A: Modern-day alternative to a cash till (IPAD) — this one baffled and is still baffling me. I've definitely seen IPADs used as cash registers, but the till itself? The place where cash is stored? To me, a till is a specific part of a register. The part that holds the cash. I don't see exactly how an IPAD does ... that. Maybe the new IPAD 74 Air does that—magically produces physical cash, or converts to a till, or something. They're probably running out of new stuff for IPADs to do.
- 74A: Award-winning Janelle (MONÁE) — man, that is a bad clue. A lazy, terrible clue. "Award-winning"!?!?! That could describe literally millions of people, and almost all famous people. Give us *some* sense of her career. Music, movies ... there's a lot to choose from! I just rewatched Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery on Wednesday (because Blink Twice (2024)—directed by another Zoe (Kravitz)—has sent me back to all earlier "evil rich guy / stuck-on-an-island / we're all in danger!"-type movies), and there was Janelle MONÁE playing two roles (twin sisters). I know her primarily as a musician, but she can act, for sure.
- 35D: Name rhymed with "says" in Taylor Swift's "Betty" (INEZ) — and the Swiftification of the NYTXW continued unabated ... (I actually like this clue, since you can suss out the answer even if you've never heard the song. Clever.).
- 91D: Flowing movement between yoga poses (VINYASA) — most of the yoga I've practiced over the years has been Iyengar or Iyengar-adjacent, and so VINYASA isn't a huge part of it (it's more of an Ashtanga, yoga-as-exercise thing), but that doesn't mean I didn't love seeing this answer today—as I suspected, a debut.
- 3D: Country that counts the French president as a co-prince (ANDORRA) — a country I learned about in 7th-grade geography and then never heard from again (but never forgot, either). It's in the Pyrenees, has a total population just north of 80,000, and, at ~181 sq. mi., is one of the smallest countries in Europe (though now that I think about it / look it up, Lichtenstein, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City are all even smaller)
- 106D: School with the mascot Big Al, for short ('BAMA) — he's an elephant. Because a "Crimson Tide" would be pretty hard to render in mascot form.
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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105 comments:
Easy for me too. My only hang-up was at @Rex 66A, where I had letters at the beginning and end and tried to shrink it to GIVE IT THE OLd coLEGE TRY. It took a few crosses to get the OL' conceit.
No notable overwrites, but a few WOEs, most of which have been captured by OFL. No clue on Paul DANO (42A), AMY (72A) Walker or VINYASA (91D), but was able to get all of them via crosses.
Oh wait, one overwrite: SUCKs before SUCKY at 30A, but corrected quickly when I realized that there is no such thing as LA TOsA (9D) Jackson.
I liked the MATHLETES clue and TITIAN is always interesting. The IPAD is the symbolic alternative to the cash register. The puns here are early week fare that get lost in the large grid.
Girl U Want
A chore no doubt. Headed into the city shortly to see my son run the 5th Ave Mile in the Park and will definitely take in the majestic ELMs.
The Feelies
Tough theme for a non-American. We drive at 17, can drink at 18, and go to university at 18, not college (which we got to at 16) so I was utterly baffled right until the end! Now I see it, it should have been obvious, but it just never clicked. I got them all from the downs, thankfully.
What I especially liked about this theme was that it had more depth than the usual (and wonderful) wordplay-only theme. This theme, involving the arc of our lives, elicited images, at least for me, from the movie reel of my own life, from my experiences and from observing others.
AMATEUR STANDING brought funny images of the little ones that have crossed my path. DRIVING CRAZY whooshed me right back to high school days. CENTENNIAL STATE got me to thinking about the few people I’ve known or seen who have made it to that age. And so on.
So, this was a solve that sandwiched in memories, crosswords as photo album; a rich experience.
The wordplay in the theme answers was lovely as well, each phrase suggesting the life stage, but normally used in a completely different context. I especially liked the play of AMATEUR STANDING, BAR ADMISSION, FINISH THE JOB, and CENTENNIAL STATE.
Two other reactions. One, my brain greatly enjoyed overcoming the barrier of not knowing seven proper names among the answers. And two, BOUCHE – oh, how beautiful French looks and sounds; this word, if it were American, would be spelled BOOSH.
Thank you, Meghan, for evoking smiles from the reminiscences and play – this was a splendid solve!
Colorado, the CENTENNIALSTATE, was hinted at in Meghan Morris' bio ("...an appellate public defender living in Denver [found in the 110-Across]"). YEESH! - I had some difficulty understanding many of the themers - agree many were, hmm, awkward. Still, we breezed through this puzzle in good time.
I managed to get the DANO-INEZ cross, but this easily could've been a Natick. (BTW, we were visiting our daughter in Boston last week, and passed the exit to Natick, MA!) I am not a Swiftie, and the only DANO I know is indeed the one on Hawaii Five-O.
I was a proud MATHLETE in high school. Glad to see its appearance! And my first car could've been a TITIAN red VW Golf, except that the salesperson wouldn't give us the price we wanted so we ended up with a blue one instead (at another dealership - this, before the days of Carvana, etc.).
Could they possible fit more obscure trivia and proper nouns into this slog? Crossing INEZ with DANO and BRER, and next to TORY. Sandwiching that Natick nightmare between highly questionable answers DRIVINGCRAZY and STONEPIT made for a major headache and is the reason I couldn't finish this one without help. I had to look up BRER and then do a bunch of guessing to fill in the rest. I count 18 names in this puzzle. Not fun at all.
The theme answers didn’t seem at all intuitive to me, so I really had to work the crosses to come up with something plausible. A bunch of the stuff that Rex easily recognized was foreign to me (VINYASA, CORFU, TITIAN x EID, BOUCHE, AMIR and the like), so the solve bordered on slog territory without familiar theme phrases to bail me out. So, I don’t see how this one lands in the “easy” category for me, and I envy those of you that were able to find some woosh-woosh opportunities today.
You abstention from TV coverage of politics is wise. There is much sanewashing of Trump's incoherent and utterly irrational gibberings. They are red hot to get him elected; they despised Biden because he is way too dull, too competent, and his admin to honest. They want chaos and ruin because it means ratings.
WHAPS is not a word. EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY PUZZLE features a "word" that is simply made up. Sickening, inexcusable, disgusting.
AMY Walter is a celebrity in our household. Rex, here’s a trick for getting just enough TV news in your life (i.e., not much): Mrs. Freude and I watch the PBS Newshour a day late, on Roku, fast-forwarding past about half of it each day. We skip everything that’s just too gloomy or orange. As for getting the news a day late, remember when we used to read Time, Newsweek, etc.? News that was a whole week old!
Today’s RexRant(R) about CENTENNIAL STATE was IMO his most churlish and juvenile ever. I am now a proud resident of Colorado, but knew its nickname along with those of most other states long before moving here. It’s not even a “wheelhouse” or generational thing—like state capitals, just something that most smart and curious kids pick up along the way. It’s OK that you didn’t, Rexy, but ya don’t have to belittle in a Trumpish way to save face!
FUN FACT: 2-semester US history course sequence taught at Colorado State is divided into “Before 1876” and “After 1876”, which turns out to be a perfectly natural demarcation point.
OTOH, OL was gettable but I too cry “foul”, especially given its prominent length and placement.
I know CO as the CENTENNIAL STATE, and I have never lived there. It's not nearly as obscure as Rex tries to make it seem. Certainly not as obscure as whatever his example is.... The Palmetto State?
The theme never really worked for me. There's no connection between any of them. I do think it's funny that the answer Rex thinks is the strongest (AMATEUR STANDING) made no sense to me. It's a phrase? Never heard of it.
Lots of other things/people I've never heard of, but I won't list them all. Even after filling in BOWL GAME I had to stare at it for a good thirty seconds before the clue made any sense. I still never remember NATTER is a word used to mean "Gab" (because it's not).
Last nit: you don't need to say "Uno" to win at UNO.
Easy puzzle, but it really fell flat.
Here's a song about Rodeo Drive.
(Careful, it has some naughty words)
Yeah, mostly easy, although any puzz that starts off with a HEDONIC and includes a PARASITIC has a least some crunch, which I applaud.
SW corner the thorniest here, as I did the WAVYLINES thing and it took forever to see BOWLGAMES and MATHLETE, both of which were obvious when sussed out. Duh.
No shock and horror at the IPOD PEAPOD cross?
Also no fun not to know Mr. DANO but I'll add him to the list I keep of famous Paul's, which is not long.
I bet a lot of folks are familiar with our nickname as "The Granite State", mostly because of the NH primaries. This is a much better nickname than The Nutmeg State", by the way.
Thought your Sunday was just fine MM. Made Me think more than the fill-in-the-blanks offerings we sometimes get, and thanks for all the fun.
Fine enough fill and cluing, but across the board the worst themers I can recall. By the time I hit DRIVINGCRAZY, I realized that this puzzle was going to require a depth of charity that I don’t have early on a Sunday morning. CENTENNIALSTATE was just the cherry on the top of the poop sundae.
I’m not even quite sure how you end up with these themers as a constructor. I suppose you start with the grid spanner (that does not fit!) and then all bets are off when it comes to filling themers around it. These are all so forced that I can’t believe any prior thought went into them.
FH
Incredible number of 3 or 4-letter words. I counted over 70, I think. Is that unusual for a Sunday? Felt like it.
Celebrated the Bicentennial in the Centennial State ... so this was a gimme
Now can someone PLEASE define WOE?
Colorado was admitted to the Union in 1876, ergo Centennial. It is familiar now that I see it, but would be unlikely to produce it unprompted.
Thank you puzzle, I was just trying to remember the name of the actor who had an unfortunate bowling incident in There Will Be Blood.
Janelle MONAE is so talented, she refuses to be put in one category in life or the crossword, hah!
Toddlers and CENTENNIALS both have tools (push walkers, canes) that “reinforce their amateur standing”…I’ll see myself out now. Hi, egs!
Living in Nebraska most of my life and having read the book Centennial by James Michener, I knew that Colorado's nickname was the Centennial State.
Theme and theme answers were fine. But if the theme answers are gonna be just fine then the fill should go beyond Monday/Tuesday literal first thought, plug it in rote clueing. The NYT puzzle continues to dip further into competent tedium.
Many years ago, I was visiting my dear friends Robert and Susan in Vermont. When I arrived, they offered me a drink and asked if I was hungry. Then they offered me a Colorado orange and we all laughed. Except for me, because I had no idea what they were taking about. So they told me this story.
Several days earlier Susan was heading out to shop for groceries and she asked Robert if there was anything he wanted her to pick up. Yes, he said, get some more oranges. And make sure you get the Colorado oranges: I had one earlier and it was delicious. Susan said Okay and walked out towards the car but came back in and said: I thought oranges only come from Florida and California.
Robert said, So did I, but I checked to make sure, and it said Colorado on it.
Susan said, Let's check again. So they rooted through the garbage and found the discarded orange peel. On it, clearly stamped in red lettering, it said COLOR ADDED.
Ever since then (and it's been decades), whenever I offer my wife an orange I offer her a Colorado orange. It never gets old.
In the South, kindergarten starts at age 6, not 5.
Hey All !
Liked it! But then, I do like most puzzles.
I did have a bonehead one-letter DNF, however. Aargh! (As it's spelt in SB). Had STAgE/gAM for STATE/TAM. Dang. If I get the Almost There! on a SunPuz, I tend not to try to find my mistake. Too big a puz to try to find one thing. I did suspect gAM was incorrect, but hey, these things happen.
Seemed a lot of threes. Too lazy to count, I'll let either @mathgent or @M&A let me know how many.
Can I FINISH THE JOB right now, and not wait 10 more years? I'd appreciate it. 😁
Happy Sunday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Agreed that a lot of the theme answers were “clunky” and not really something that anyone would actually say. But I liked the puzzle anyway? Seemed like cute clueing in some cases and fun trivia in others. Also a yogi and love Vinyasa classes!
Horrible puzzle and wrong, wrong, wrong. You cannot get admitted to the bar at 21 unless you were a child genius. Most of us are at least 24 or thereabouts. Why would I finish my job at 65? I loved my job and did not retire until I was 69 -- and probably should have stayed on a few more years. This was a piece of c***.
Giggling at Rex spending a paragraph ranting about Centennial State. It was an absolute gimme for me, but I live in Colorado. I know my perspective is skewed because of that, but I feel like it’s a pretty well-known state nickname? I know Missouri is the show me state, and then I know Colorado, and that’s it. I could be wrong.
Anyways, average Sunday, which means i didn’t love it but didn’t hate it. I spent about as much time hunting for my one mistake (Masa instead of Maya) as I did solving the puzzle. It was fine. Onto Monday.
Easy Sunday, but man that little BAR ADMISSION/BOWL GAME/AUTO/WAVY ARROW section gave me fits. With MISSION in place I was trying for something like bread mission or broad mission. Knowing neither AMY nor AMIR certainly didn't help (although I read and loved The Kite Runner, it was a long time ago and I could not recall the name). Nor did BalL GAME before BOWL GAME.
I know relatively few state nicknames, but THE CENTENNIAL STATE is one of them.
It occurs to me that so far, only one of those ages may apply to me.
- Don’t know when I started walking, but one is reasonable.
- Went to school at 4
- Started driving at 15
- Went to college at 17
- Could go to bars at 18
- Retired at 60
- Currently less than 100
If you have an iPad, you don’t need a till. Therefore it is an alternative.
had me at WHATIF - made me think of all the worry “warts” (what a reference!) who try to SUCKY the life out of all things fun.
And this WAS a fun Sunday. CENTENNIALSTATE came to me immediately (don’t know why - maybe from watching state roll call votes at conventions?), OL vs. OLD was OK by me and the PPPs (now including yoga Poses) I didn’t know fell together…
As a serious geography nerd, centennial state and Andorra were easy gimmes. The centennial state because it was admitted to the union in 1876, a hundred years after the Declaration of Independence.
Otherwise a light, enjoyable Sunday solve.
Apropos of nothing (except that it popped up on my YT suggestions), this is Weird Al’s parody of Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues video featuring some 50 palindromes. Figured some of you word aficionados would appreciate it like I did!
from BOB to LISABONETATENOBASIL
FIRST IN CLASS is a real thing. Best in class is BS ad copy. If you have a race with multiple classes, there are different awards for first (and 2nd,etc) in class and first overall
Normally once I figure out the gimmick it makes it easy to parse out what the other theme answers are, because in most puzzles the “punny answer” thing is at least a common phrase used in a silly way. The only phrase from this for me that was in any way familiar was GIVE IT THE OL COLLEGE TRY (didn’t find the lack of a d weird cause my dad used to say this phrase all the time, but I can see why it wouldn’t be familiar to people). AMATEUR STANDING? I’m assuming that’s in relation to sports somehow? Never heard it before. FIRST IN CLASS? I don’t even know what that means. Like you got the top grade in your math class? DRIVING CRAZY I guess is a phrase but I wouldn’t call it a common one. Besides, isn’t it “driving me crazy” or “driving you crazy”? WTH is FINISH THE JOB? I understand the phrase obviously but is that a common colloquial phrase? And finally BAR ADMISSION?? “Passed the bar” maybe is ok, but this?? And CENTENNIAL STATE? Like Rex never heard this before. Nowhere near theme worthy.
This played so slow and agonizing to me. I like punny phrase puzzles but if they’re not super common or recognizable what’s the point? Very frustrating.
Just a slog, that found me muttering “really” a lot.
It’s a joke. Admitted to a TAVERN, not practice of the law.
Maybe that explains it.
I think this refers to a bar that serves alcohol since the legal drinking age is 21.
Other than the adorable AMATEUR STANDING, nothing here especially wowed me, but I nonetheless found it a very pleasant puzzle to solve -- quick and easy and, well, relaxing. One clue I did find peculiar: I have no idea why an IPAD is anything at all like a cash till. Can you put money in an IPAD? But other than that, no problems anywhere. The puzzle went down quickly -- like a scoop of ice cream on a hot day.
Don’t know what state you might be referring to, but here in Georgia it’s age 4 for pre-K (voluntary but state-funded and widely enrolled in) and 5 for kindergarten.
So for us, that question is if anything off by a year at the other enc.
(P.S. @Liveprof: Really?)
AMATEURSTANDING is a term or phrase that used to be used quite often, especially when you had to retain that “standing” to be in the Olympics. Now the term has kind of lost its meaning since athletes have many ways they can make money and not be considered a “pro.”
What On Earth
In many states age 21 is when drinking alcohol is first allowed - ie. Admitted to the bar = tavern
1A being a variant spelling, not clued as such, was a bad start. Ol for old was odd but not a solving problem. Wordplay was reasonably fun.
To be fair, if the original commenter is at least 69, then they only had to be 18 to be admitted to a tavern/bar.
Colorado literally has a city called Centennial that has a population over 100k. Centennial State (and most state nicknames like “Show-me State,” “Hoosier State,” “Golden State,” “Aloha State,” etc.) is more than crossworthy.
Nosotros vamos al mercado de agricultores hoy. We've never been to the Albuquerque Railyards, so I am hoping they actually have vegetables, and not just hippy things in jars.
YEESH, this puzzle beat me to death. You'd think an outing built on jokes and filled with tee-hees would be right in my happy zone, but I was locked out over and over. So many people I didn't know. And 40% gunk on a Sunday is just way too much.
Being from Colorado, CENTENNIAL STATE was a slam dunk. Sorry if it flummoxed y'all Lexington Avenue and Schenectady types.
Propers: 19
Places: 5
Products: 4
Partials: 19
Foreignisms: 9
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 56 of 140 (40%) (gawd)
Funnyisms: 9 😄
Tee-Hee: WHAPS TOOTS SUCKY BOOTY PADDED BRA.
Uniclues:
1 Apt description of my recent U-Haul rental experience.
2 Where to meet a ghost in Colorado.
3 Still sporting those mud flaps with mirrored ladies.
4 One registering an opinion that 1 may not equal 1 when approaching or exceeding the speed of light.
5 Well, duh, that's exactly why they make them.
1 VAN DRIVING CRAZY
2 CENTENNIAL STATE ATTIC
3 HEDONIC AUTO TRIM ERR (~)
4 MATHLETE'S PROTEST VOTE
5 PADDED BRA EXASPERATED
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Those fancy little plastic stabber swords on the charcuterie board. WEE MAD EPEES.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Very easy. I put in HENRI, TOOTS, and ADDON and just kept going with no serious pauses. Cute theme, liked it.
I’m with @Rex on CENTENNIAL STATE.
DNF. Done in by 53D, 54D and 53A. I had bATH, aGH and baRE instead of PATH, UGH and PURE. I found the theme to be half-baked and the grid had too much ITTY bitty junk. Bad. Bad. Not good!
Loved the first phrase reimagined as a life stage. AMATEUR STANDING perfectly describes the happy wobbliness of a temporarily upright baby learning to walk. Plops right down but climbs back up. Made me smile every time I looked back at it.
When I got GIVE from the first four crosses for 66A I confidently began entering the rest: IT THE OLD COLLEGE TR...oops!, not enough squares. But more crosses said it had to be and the only way was for OLd to lose its “d” and gain an invisible apostrophe. I googled “give it the ol” and mostly the results completed my ask with “old,” but I discovered a Calvin and Hobbes strip where in the first panel Calvin asks his dad what that phrase means and Bill Watterson spells it ol’. If Bill says it’s ol', that’s fine with me. Still miss that wonderful comic strip.
But isn’t laughing gas missing its nitrous?
"Nattering Nabobs of Negativity" -- Spiro Agnew
The crossing is PEAPOD/IPAD, not IPoD.
You pretty much do have to say UNO to win at that game. If you're sitting with a group where nobody notices you got down to one card then the group's just goofing around, not actually playing UNO.
I really enjoyed this - No matter that it was easy - best Sunday in a long time.
(Thank goodness the constructor was a female otherwise they'd be lots of comments about PADDED BRA which I loved. And enjoyed seeing my name, spelled as I do, although I've never watched "Abbott Elementary."
Thank you, Meghan, for a fun Sunday (for a change) :)
Some people know pop singers and cocktails, and others know state nicknames. I got CENTENNIAL from CEN and put in CENTENNIAL STATE from knowledge about Colorado and MIchener novels ("$1.99/lb."--Simpsons), as others did.
I do not know Janelle MONAE and had MONAf from a clumsy typo in CLEF. So I got the dreaded "So close" message on a 21x21 and spent a while tracking down that error.
The hardest themer for me was FINISH THE JOB. I had VcrTAPES and pATTER for a while and struggled with yoga and cable channels.
Unless you're thinking of peeing in the tub, I don't get how bATH works for "Way to go"
nope, laughing gas isn't missing its nitrous any more than quicklime is missing its calcium - they're both OXIDEs (or did I miss your joke there somewhere?)
Shoulda been centennial stage as in all the worlds a...
(& badly cast per Oscar Wilde)
Infact all the theme answers
At first the babe mewling & puking in it's mother's arms
That kinda thing
Pretty easy puzzle; my timer says "10:22" but there must be a mistake because I'm never that fast on Sunday. Hands up for driving into the ditch with GIVE IT THE OLD...
Unfortunately, but not unusually, the ugly sticky clumps of names really spoiled it for me. There aren't actually a lot of them but they shouldn't be jammed together like that. (Seems to me Joel is particularly tone deaf to this.) DANO BRER INEZ TORY is bad, as is BAMA OLIN OSLO but thank gof for OSLO my old crossword friend.
I, too, was a MATHLETE in grade 9. Team picture in the daily paper and everything.
Rex, you have no excuse for not knowing CENTENNIAL STATE unless you've never visited your mother and/or sister in Colorado -- it's on the Colorado license plates. I've never been to Colorado, but have seen the plates from time to time here in California.
I put bare instead of pure for unvarnished first pass. And, like most, I got mad at "ol college try" because never seen it written that way that I can remember.
Exact same problem as Rex re; Obamacare -
Love the idea of being able to MOP A PLEA.. (look up the photo of the great Robert Mitchum opting to do his 30 days for possession, much to the Studio’s chagrin)
I know it it to late for anyone to read this, but...
Ngrams not found: "give it the ol college try"
Ngrams not found: "the ol college try"
Ngrams not found: "ol college try"
The theme answers weren't as wacky as most Sunday's but they were interesting and once I got the theme, not that hard to figure out based on the ages given. It was good that the ages progressed in numerical order. My two favorites were AMATEUR STANDING and CENTENNIAL STATE. (I didn't know which state we were talking about but I did assume we were looking at a state nickname. Good to know it's Colorado. But why CENTENNIAL?) Minnesota is the Gopher state or the Northstar state (from our state motto, "L'etoile du nord", the only French state motto.)
I made a few silly mistakes - acIDs for 75A (I thought, "Really?" When I get that reaction to answer, why doesn't it occur to me that it's probably wrong?) And that gave me Dis for 65D. It's "throwing shade", not "Give some shade". Great clue for DYE though.
I did not know that the Mayans used hieroglyphics and didn't know about VINYASA. I was expecting some sort of gym exercise for 16D so PADDED BRA gave me a chuckle. I'm not thrilled about WAVY ARROW as a symbol for a winding road as I think of them as ess curves. Wavy, hmm.
Seeing ANDORRA always makes me cringe. I was talking with someone about skiing and they said they had skied in Andorra and then seemed appalled that I didn't know where that was. I know now, looked it up immediately, but, argh.
Meghan Morris, thanks for the Sunday puzzle!
As SunPuzs go, I kinda liked it. The themers were weirdly enough clued to promote some extra solvequest interest.
* fave themer: AMATEURSTANDING. Funny.
* weirdest themer: DRIVINGCRAZY. Gave off a vibe that the puz considers 16-year-olds to be crazy drivers?
* most desperate themer: See weeject discussion, below.
staff weeject pick [of 41 choices, @Roo]: OL [the obvi honorary choice] + UGH [crossin go-wither reaction to OL unexpectedly splatzed into GIVEITTHEOLCOLLEGETRY].
fave fillin: EXASPERATED. Almost coulda qualified as a puzthemer:
{Age 200} = EX-ASPIRATED.
Also liked: PROTESTVOTE. SPARKLY. CATEGORY. PARASITIC. MATHLETES. PADDEDBRA clue.
Just a Q short of a pangrammer. COQ instead of COD? A few other fill-ins would haveta adapt to that, tho. Probably not worth it. SunPuz constructioneers probably only earn about 2 bucks an hour, as is [if U count the many rejected other attempts].
Thanx, Ms. Morris darlin. A BOUCHE on the ATTIC, for U.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
**gruntz**
@Andy Freude 8:11 – I do that too. Before it repeats that day, PBS NewsHour's new daily segment airs here at 4 pm and that's DVR'd to watch a few hours later. Fast-forwarding to get to Amy Walter and Tamara Keith on Mondays and to David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart on Fridays, and similarly later in the program every day, is an awesome tool.
Your question about magazines made me think even farther back to the 18th and 19th centuries, trying to imagine what it was like to not get any news for months, maybe years. People in those times had plenty to worry about but did they worry less or more about national news because a lack of it was the norm? Is that where we get "no news is good news"? I worry somewhat less when I purposely limit news accessibility. When I want to know national news right away, I check the Washington Post and New York Times online and am grateful they’re there.
@Liveprof 9:10 – Thanks for the laugh about the rare (I hope) Colorado orange!
@anonymous 12:39 – Didn’t know quicklime and had googled to find out it’s calcium oxide, but hadn’t heard laughing gas referred to only as oxide, just its full name. No joke :)
When Brad was with Angelina, the celebrity press dubbed them Brangelina. Does STONEPIT mean he's now with Emma?
Hand up for knowing the CENTENNIALSTATE, even though I grew up in the Beaver State (tee-hee).
I thought the MEH clue was only MID.
Being told to stay in his chair and look pleasant, the Prince of ANDORRA obeyed and just SMILESAT.
Ar least no one can say this puzzle skews young or old, having covered years 1-100. Liked it fine. Thanks, Meghan Morris.☺️
It has been 0 days since our last rap-themed clue! Pop the DOM and activate your BOOTY.
However, today's puzzle had 4(!) missed opportunities for fill-in-the-blanks rap names:
DAS
RAE
TORY
AMIR
Do better nyt. Till tomorrow.
To anonymous 12:35 (above)…I’m sure, like me, @thefogman didn’t notice until toward end because AGH seems as likely as UGH (in some ways). I actually DNF’d on this because when I finished and didn’t get my app kudos, I hit “check puzzle” to see the nasty intersection error. It’s easy to not dub check every single thing if you aren’t going for “streaks” and such.
Turns out I am either a dog or a hardcore Coloradophile! (Actually, just live in Colorado, and for whatever reason the Centennial State comes up fairly often.) For me there were Too Many Proper Names!
I slogged away because I don't know the band or tv references. Got it finished eventually through the crosses, but somehow not fun. Main writeover (and I was so proud of self for knowing about "shade" ) DiS; never thought of colors till TRY couldn't possibly be TRi.
That’s because you left off the apostrophe.
Yes, the Crimson Tide have an elephant for a mascot…and if anything their cross-state archrivals are even more confused. The Auburn Tigers have also been known as the Plainsmen…so naturally the most common cheer/yell tends to be “War Eagle”, and a big pre-game tradition involving a live eagle.
Every year, then, the state basically comes to a standstill to watch Tidephants contend with Plainsteaglemen in the Iron Bowl. Many fine things one can say about the state of Alabama, but it can be a curious place, and I’m not convinced the folks there quite understand how mascots work.
But, we were able to afford to live
Curiously, only the phrase without "give it" is found:
Google Ngram
But, to be fair, there really is no “to be fair” grace thinking that clue referenced passing the bar exam.
Thanks, Andrew!!! I love palindromes. Used them when I was a substitute teacher to entertain the kids.
Yeah, I read that book before I went off to do an Earthwatch botany project on the recovery of the bluegrass prairie after being plowed, before the dust storms of the 30's. Spoiler alert, it turned it it had not recovered, you could still see all the plow lines 60 years later. The buffalo carcasses were gone, though, from 120 years earlier.
Snort.
@Anon 1:47p - you left out the elephant in the room DOM. Refer to Melle Mel and Little Shawn/Biggie etc for more.
I’ve been reading this blog for years, and it’s a bit annoying that almost every Sunday puzzle is “deemed” Easy. If so, you should maybe move on.
Agreed. There's no theme here at all. When I saw AMATEUR STANDING and then FIRST IN CLASS, I thought the theme would be about athletic and/or academic rankings, but then hit DRIVING CRAZY and the rest, and realized the "themers" are just disconnected phrases. What's the point?
Sanewashing!! Excellent.
Ouch! that "Trumpish" will hurt our Rex, I daresay
Yeah I’m sure he’s devastated
It’s a forgettable slogan of a mid state, relax
Connecticut is also known as the Constitution State. Nutmeg came from New Haven being the port where most of the spice trade shipping happened.
Emma
I learned that the English never refer to university level education as college when I went to Europe during my “ college “ years. the US college is the default term. You go to college after high school. A university in the US is simply a larger college with graduate programs. Another difference I learned is that colleges and universities are schools. Here you can be in school or back at school attending Yale. We specify by saying when I was in high school ….
Things like that led to the comment the English and Americans are divided by the same language.
...and the point goes to Fun_CFO, for the win!
That's fair, Beezer. Different solve style/processes are great. I was curious if I'd missed a funny. When I complete a word I check crosses to make sure they make sense. Takes a bit longer to finish, but I enjoy it. :)
Right, and quicklime is known (as you looked it up) as calcium oxide. But you didn't mention it's never called simply 'OXIDE.' Neither is called simply OXIDE. But each is an OXIDE; thus, the answer to the clue is OXIDE. No need for calcium nor nitrous in the answer.
You shoulda turned off at the Natick exit. It’s a beautiful city. Nice mall
Agree. No fun.
Anonymous 7:34 AM
FWIW BRER went in immediately. I am sure for most longtime solvers It used to used a lot.
Also most older people have heard of it in school. The Br’er Rabbit stories were once widely known. (A white writer taking stories from Black Americans in the post Civil War era is not a good look). But I think a majority of the Times solvers would recognize this one so this isn’t obscure or naticky. It will show up again.
A quarry. A stone pit. Second definition in most dictionaries. Not obscure at all and anything but questionable. Check before you criticize a constructor like that.
Tory is a common nickname for the members of the Conservative Party in England. Churchill would be the most famous Tory in America The term is fairly well known here. The two names are a recent Prime Minister and a Prime Minister from the ‘90’s. A trick question they were trying to toughen a relatively easy puzzle with.
Sigh another party line MAGA Anonymous 1:11
I really liked CENTENnIALSTATE but thought it was referring to a 100 year old person having reached a centennial state of age.
Jammon Entitled to your opinion but a bit over the top.
The word is in almost all dictionaries and has been used orally and in writing by English speaking people for ages. That would certainly meet the definition. Saying a word is not a word doesn’t prove anything. (You might not like it but the Times has been using words like that for a long time. Thought you would be used to it by now)
Anonymous 9:49
Bar as in liquor. I think you missed the joke.
Amateur standing very much was needed to complete in the Olympics
First in class. It is used for a subsection of a competition. I have seen it used
Finish the job is very much an expression.
Some of your reaction may be an age thing. Things like state nicknames used to be more widely known Didn’t know which state but knew it was a thing.
Perhaps you wouldn’t have been so critical if the theme was more in your wheelhouse?
Seemed fine to me
Thought it was easy
Someone said Palmetto State is more obscure than Centennial. That would depend on where you live or used to live, no?
Palmettto State I knew With my interest in American history I know the Palmetto State started the Civil War.
But Centennial State I knew was some state out west. Not any where near as obscure as Rex claims it is.
Thought all the themes answers were fine. Most of the complaints were from people not knowing the reference, including Rex. They ALL are things Driving crazy. Well the insurance company stats do show teens are the most dangerous drivers.
It was a gimme for me, too, although I don’t live in Coronado. But Michener’s book by that title is one of my favorites.
Read through all the posts here and I still don't understand IPAD as a cash till alternative. Anyone?
Brother it is literally in the dictionary. Sorry you were sickened, get well soon.
Instead of a register, stores are using IPADs (for credit card purchases)
It's Amy WalTer, not WalKer
So many facts/phrases/terms I just didn't know in this... Such a struggle for me. Bleh!
Just what we need: Rex's Trump-like self-ego-stroking ("I went to college at 17"). My dad graduated college at 18 1/2 and was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army infantry at the time, awaiting orders to lead a platoon for a potential land invasion of Japan (it was summer 1945). The orders were preëmpted by Truman's decision to drop two atom bombs on Japan, bringing about an abrupt end to the war. Four years later, with a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard under his belt, my dad began his research and teaching career at an age most grad students were just starting their studies. If Rex can brag about himself, I can brag about my dad of blessed memory. Oh, and BTW, my dad had a Phi Beta Kappa key. His undergrad was Yale. He was one of only two Jews from south of the Mason-Dixon line to matriculate at Yale (at age 16 1/2) in the fall of 1943. That's right: in the midst of war and officer training, my dad completed his undergraduate work, PBK-level, in two years. Top that, 17-year-old college freshman Rex.
Lots and lots of students start college at 17. It wasn’t a brag, it was a literal description of how the clue was off, or not universally true. But feel your feelings, I guess.
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