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Early Christian meals of love and fellowship / SUN 9-22-24 / Annual May race, familiarly / Texter's alternative to an eye roll emoji / Yeti's commercial rival / Rudder found in nature / Houdini's signature feat
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Constructor: Jeremy Newton and Tracy Gray
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- 18D: Lead role in 3-Down/6-Down (ANDY DUFRESNE)
- 15D: Portrayer of 18-Down (TIM ROBBINS)
- 50A: Houdini's signature feat ... or a hit to the circled squares in this puzzle (ESCAPE ACT)
- 57A: "Bad luck, I guess ... it was my turn, that's all. I was in the path of the ___" (quote from 18-Down) ("TORNADO")
"A series of tubes...":
- 114A: Stage a jailbreak à la 18-Down (TUNNEL OUT)
- 87D: Main blvd. through N.Y.C.'s Chinatown (CANAL ST.)
- 91A: What a police escort may offer (SAFE PASSAGE)
- 44D: Fall accessory? (PARACHUTE)
- 82A: Certain online video snippet (YOUTUBE CLIP)
- 46D: 4x100 relay (TEAM EVENT)
- 95A: Classic cover-ups for spies (TRENCH COATS)
- 116A: Held together in a makeshift way (DUCT TAPED)
The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television networkthat operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' subsidiary, United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which produced most of UPN's series) turned it into a joint venture in 1996 after acquiring a 50% stake in UPN, and subsequently purchased Chris-Craft's remaining stake in 2000. On December 31, 2005, UPN was kept by CBS Corporation, which was the new name for Viacom when it split into two separate companies. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner jointly announced that the companies would shut down UPN and competitor The WB to launch a new joint venture network later that year. UPN ceased broadcasting on September 15, 2006, with The WB following two days later. Select programs from both networks moved to the new network, The CW, when it launched on September 18, 2006. [...] Most of UPN's programming through the years was produced by Paramount Television or a Viacom-owned sister company (Viacom Productions, Big Ticket Television, Spelling Television or CBS Productions). UPN's first official program was Star Trek: Voyager, with the first comedy shows to debut being two short-lived series: the Richard Jeni starring vehicle Platypus Man and Pig Sty. // Other notable UPN programs during the network's existence included The Sentinel, Moesha, Star Trek: Enterprise, WWE SmackDown, America's Next Top Model, Girlfriends, the Moesha spin-off The Parkers, Veronica Mars, Everybody Hates Chris, and the animated adaptation of Dilbert. In Summer 2005, UPN aired R U the Girl, in which R&B group TLC (not with Left Eye) searched for a woman to join them on a new song. The network also produced some special programs, including 2001's Iron Chef USA. Much of UPN's comedy programming between 1996 and 2006 (particularly those that aired as part of the network's Monday evening lineup) was largely aimed at African American audiences, with minor exceptions in shows such as Clueless, Realitycheck and Head Over Heels.
• • •
But let's leave movie quality aside. Just 'cause I don't like the movie doesn't mean the puzzle can't still be good. And, yeah, if you're a superfan of this movie, I can see liking this, I guess. There are some execution problems, some things I didn't get, or that seemed clunky. The use of circled squares to spell out ANDY DUFRESNE in the "tunnels" was odd. Why is his first name all contiguous circles but his last name stretched absurdly throughout the series of "tunnels"? And the "Y"—Why "Y"? Why is that the letter that (visually) represents the breakout. And why is it given to us? Mine came pre-filled in, did yours? It's not an unchecked letter, given that the "Y" is in both INDY (115A: Annual May race, familiarly) and ANDY DUFRESNE's name, so that was ... weird. Visually weird. Also weird to have ANDY DUFRESNE as a regular entry in the grid ... why in two places?? Seems redundant. I already had tunnel-ANDY before I ever got to regular-answer ANDY, so that was extremely anticlimactic. I assume that the "tunnel" words are not an accurate reflection of the actual path Andy takes in the movie. I don't think they need to be. Just being passages that one might take when escaping prison is enough. But I don't know. I wonder about how much I have to know (or remember) about the movie in order to fully "get" the puzzle. And I feel bad for those solvers who never saw it (or worse, never heard of it).
A couple smaller but still irksome problems: all the "tunnels" appear as standalone words (or word parts) in their respective answers, except VENT (which is buried in "EVENT"). Outliers like that always bug me. Make me tic / twitch / grimace a little. Also deeply ironic to clue make the PASSAGE answer SAFE PASSAGE and clue it in relation to help from the cops (91A: What a police escort may offer), considering what the puzzle is supposed to be representing. I think ESCAPE ACT is a decent revealer, or descriptor, but "TORNADO" is just arbitrary and awful (57A: "Bad luck, I guess ... it was my turn, that's all. I was in the path of the ___" (quote from 18-Down)). Has no place here. It's a part of a quotation that has nothing to do with prison escape. Bizarre choice of thematic material. But in the end, the puzzle is easy, and it's about a beloved movie, and it's at least trying to do something visually interesting, so I expect people will like it.
The fill is pretty decent except man FISH FIN made me want to throw my computer out the window. LOL, it's a debut! Not a welcome debut, but a debut nonetheless. A [Rudder found in nature] is a fin. It's just a fin. FISH FIN is ridiculous. True, not a '50s Cadillac fin. '50s Cadillacs are not found in nature. I had FIN and thought "well I know it's not FISH FIN." And then it was. The only other things in the grid that made me really wince was AS A BONUS (not standalone worthy) and MENSANS (because I think Mensa is corny and MENSANS is a godawful plural ... and another debut, what is happening?). Speaking of godawful plurals, AGAPES (LOL, yet another debut! yeesh, they're really debuting some clunkers today) (97D: Early Christian meals of love and fellowship). I know agape as a higher, unconditional, divine kind of love, a counterpart to eros (sexual love) or philia (brotherly love). These Christian potluck dealies ... no idea. Otherwise, I think the grid is actually admirably clean, especially given the thematic density.
Bullets:
- 1A: One getting into some hot water? (BATHER) — my weird comment on this clue is that "some" should not be there. The idiom is "get into hot water." If you're going to play on the idiom (as the "?" indicates), then get the idiom just right. The "some" feels extraneous.
- 35A: Texter's alternative to an eye roll emoji (SMH) — every time SMH appears in a puzzle, commenters wonder what it means and say they've never seen it before. This is the fifth overall appearance of SMH in the NYTXW, but the fourth this year (it debuted in 2020). It stands for 'shaking my head' and indicates a kind of exasperated disbelief or disappointment at another's ignorance or stupidity. "Bemused incredulity" is a phrase that Merriam-Webster uses. I like that.
- 55D: Yeti's commercial rival (IGLOO) — they both make coolers.
- 7D: Instrument strummed in the Train song "Hey, Soul Sister" (UKULELE) — that second "U" gets me every time. Because of UKE (a crossword standard), I spell it UKELELE. Sigh. Anyway, I won't subject you to "Hey, Soul Sister." But I will subject you to "Drops of Jupiter" ...
["She checks out Mozart while she does TAE BO (5)!"]
See you next time.
P.S. Happy 24th birthday to my daughter Ella, who has given up crosswords ... for now ... she'll be back ...
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122 comments:
I agree with everything Rex said, except for the hate for the movie. Based on a short story by Stephen King (ditto for Stand by Me and some other movies), called "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption". As soon as I read the clue "prison drama... 1994" I knew it. The only challenging part was spelling DUFRESNE... I had DUFRAINE at first.
The theme was pretty weird. AND(Y) escaping that odd little box down there; okay, fine, escaping a "box" I get. But all the shaded squares, and the circled squares, yeesh. But at least there weren't a horrible amount of gratuitous names.
UNO again... according to xwordinfo.com this is only its 7th appearance this year; seems like more. Last year there were 13!
[Spelling Bee: Sat 0; QB "streak" 3.]
Agree that it's not the masterpiece it's made out to be but pegging it as a "touchstone for straight men" is bizarre. In what way is this movie specifically for "straight men" and in what way is your writeup not just an utterly inapt, embarrassing attempt by a straight white middle-aged man to narcissistically position himself "above" that for no reason?
Easy. I put in the movie with almost no crosses and my solve was very whooshy from there…except for maybe AGAPES. My only problems with this one were chasing down a typo, not remembering the name of TIM’s character and wondering where the circled squares were that the clue for 50 referred to.
It turns out that there were no circles in the NYT Games iPad app. I needed to go to the Games website to see that the circles spelled out ANDY’s name and to see why the May race answer was missing a Y. Seeing the circles moved this one from “not really sure about this theme” to “kinda liked it”.
I've never seen Shawshank, but I am aware of it ... but not to the level of familiarity in the puzzle. Nonetheless, this played Easy-Medium for me despite the fact that I was simultaneously watching an excellent football game involving Michigan and USC.
Wanted the 18D lead role to be ANDY DUquESNE, but the BONUS part of 47A and BEEF at 53A seemed set in stone, so I went with DUFRESNE, later confirmed by the circled squares.
No (other) overwrites, and the only WOEs were related to the movie but all of those were either fairly crossed or easily inferable.
This puzzle was made by two pros, Jeremy with 28 NYT puzzles and Tracy with 37. They put their skills on display in this grid, no?
That freedom route in the lower grid is masterful, remarkable grid building. Look, please LOOK at its elements:
It starts in a small rectangular cell which gets broken out of, then moves through a matrix of constricted spaces, and ends up right at the edge of the grid, ready to burst out into freedom. Not only did they find nine synonyms for narrow spaces, but they interlinked them, made every one of them a part of a word or phrase, AND found a way to have the letters of Andy’s full name appear IN ORDER through the escape. And with all this going on, they filled in the whole area cleanly!!!
Hello? Hello? Is this not a feat of feats?
Plus, it’s cool, giving the solving experience a visual layer.
Having the theme be one of my favorite movies ever, well, that’s piling on, piling on with goodness and having me leave the puzzle feeling warm all over, excited about what can be done in a box of squares, and, corny as this sounds, happy to be alive.
Thank you, Tracy and Jeremy, for a puzzle that’s going to stick with me for a long time. Brava and bravo!
A record Sunday, by a fat margin, but then, bam, DNF at GOP x AGAPES (103). Ackchooalee, more a DDF, as Dash did finish after spraying letters at the lone mystery square, so a fail. Even after the G landed, it took a min to reckon why.
Strong opposition to the absent trailing "?" in the clue: no one but no one sez the "Red side" re the Repubs. Properly marked.. em, yah, I believe I would've sussed it.
"Whooshy, oomphy" (or any of that fay, fey, mincing, overprecious language some of you dainty gamers wallow in), yes. But a "delish, gorgeous treat," a "yummy brocade of luscious sparkle," "a clever feast," "with a capital-ooshus pleasure for my brain": it weren't. Y'feel me?
So for that reason, plus the banality of the protagonist's name sprinkled through a shaded scheme, Riprock scores this game middling to thumbs down.
Separately, this relative neophyte, after the scores of Mondays plus Tuesdays, then temp. cock-blocked by a Wednesday, is now on a sev. month golden streak. All days of week, incl. the vet-professed ball-buster that was Thurs. last. By my tally, half the comments registered a fail, blue-ribboned old-timers among them. (This includes the, "easy.. buht I had to Google this.. or that." Pfft. That's not a solve. Riprock nevah loox up anything. Ever. 'Til it's over.)
Hence the takeaway, the puzzling is more practice and familiarity with the '-ese' than 'tis anything to do wit' smahts.
Retro-response:
Casey Callaghan 8:33 AM
The cutesy, clambering 1, 2, 3, 4 didn't resonate. Better, a relevant "ciento treinta y cinco," or best, in language, "centotrentacinque."
I finished the whole puzzle pretty easily without needing or even noticing the escape route element, which tells me it was done that just so the constructors could preen at their own cleverness. Meh.
I think the rectangle at the bottom of the grid that ANDY breaks out of, is the hole behind the picture of Rita Hayworth, that is Andy’s point of escape. Beautifully constructed, imho!
One of the easiest Sunday puzzles in a long time. First time I’ve even heard of someone who doesn’t like this movie.
Not due to the broey drivel Rex rants on - but I am with him on my dislike of the movie. It seems to be on rerun continuously on those mid cable channels. So - we get a tribute puzzle - a genre that never hit - with a film I don’t care for - hmm?
Sneaky PETE 1
The graphics and circles and all that stuff were lost on me. The fill was so ridiculously easy that the grid was complete in near record time. The two plurals Rex highlights were weird no doubt - I had to think twice before putting them in.
Sneaky PETE 2
What’s next - a tribute theme for Forest Gump or ET?
Sneaky PETE 3
Amen. Not liking the movie, I get. Really expected it. Rex gonna Rex. But man, that rationale…yowzers!
Every time I see SMH I just have to shake my head because I have no idea what it means. Can anyone help me?
I saw the movie when it came out and remember almost nothing about it, except a) Tim Robbins was in it, and b) the title was kinda cool. AcrossLite just gives you a zillion circles which doesn’t help very much.
THESHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is one of those movies I will watch over and over again. But I think making an entire puzzle out of this movie can be dicey... I predict my dad will not know anything about this movie and will therefore not enjoy this puzzle. I thought the TUNNEL(ing)OUT was clever and even missed the ANDYDUFRESNE in the circles! Yikes. Agree with Rex about FISHFIN, and what about UTTERFOOL? ENO and EMO(pop) in the same grid, yikes again.
I disagree with Rex that Red/Morgan Freeman should be somewhere in this puzzle. You wanna a relevant challenge, try to include RITA or RITAHAYWORTH right where ANDY busts through the wall!
Because I enjoy the movie, I enjoyed this puzzle. Now I'll think about this puzzle every time the movie comes on!
Funny thing about 'MENSA'. I live in Mexico and in this country, 'mensa' means stupid woman or stupid girl. No wonder MENSA Mexico has trouble recruiting members. The puzzle was very easy, and the escape route trick seems to be for the constructor's benefit, not the solvers. The best tricks are the ones that can help the solver out of a tough situation (ironically) but that wouldn't be the case here. No one's solve will be helped by figuring out the trick.
Last letter I entered was the P in GOP... that's a thorny little cross.
Not familiar with the movie, so was flying blind today. Totally scratching my head (and SMH) trying to figure out what INDY DUCT TAPED had to do with anything (my eyesight is not the greatest and I didn’t notice the separate clue for 116A in the middle of what I thought was going to be INDY CAR RACE or something similar).
Tough day when the tribute puzzle involves something you’re not at all familiar with, although it sounds like the flick is well enough known that there will be a sufficient constituency for it in terms of interest.
I’ll bet BMXERS crossing BANFF will give some peeps some trouble today. We haven’t heard from the lovely Ms. Teri Garr lately - maybe she will grace us with an appearance this week.
I’m tired of penciling in EEL day after day. Can we please toggle back to OREO for a short respite?
I agree that Red should have been in there. And Rita Hayworth. Like, the poster square at the bottom has 12 letters. I'm not gonna play scrabble with them now, but I imagine there might have been a way to fit Rita Hayworth there.
Don’t see the qualifier “straight” in Rex’s write-up. Just says “a touchstone for men everywhere”. Did Rex alter his write-up based on your comment?
Well, I've never seen THESHAWSHANKREDEMPTION either but being a sentient human in the USA I've heard of it, and I know TIMROBBINS the actor person, no idea about ANDYDUFRESNE, but after writing his name once and deciphering it once I now know him too. How do you do, Mr. DUFRESNE? How are you spending your free time?
Easy Sunday. Many years ago the speaker at my high school graduation 's topic was :Let's Fall in Love" and proceeded to talk about eros, philos, and AGAPE. Obviously made a strong impression as I still remember it from sixty plus years ago. Also interesting to see TORNADO, which gives me another chance to mention the TORNADO that hit our little NH town last month. People are still buzzing about that one.
Impressive construction feat indeed, JN and TG. Probably Just Not as Truly Grateful for all your hard work as I should be, but thanks for a fair amount of Sunday fun.
My reaction exactly to: MENSANS, FISHFIN, along with UKeLELE. OTOH, you have to be some kind of crank not to appreciate the beautiful, mellifluous AGAPE and humans eating together in peace.
Also, not really necessary to flout progressive props right off the bat…
I thought the puzzle was almost Monday level easy, with a few answers that seemed like they might be tricky, but were right in my wheelhouse. Pleasant enough diversion.
Definitely circles on my iPad
Well, didn’t see the movie but knew of it, but really struggled with getting into this puzzle. Quite a feat of construction but not much fun for me personally. Circling the character’s name after it is a full answer above seems redundant. Hope that folks who saw the movie and liked it found this puzzle more fun.
As for SMH, I have had the experience here of not only remembering a new term from a puzzle, but remembering others here complaining about the same new term only a short while later in a subsequent puzzle. Explanations and memory aids are only one tab over in google. In the time it took to complain, you could have learned something new.
I too thought the omission of Red was odd, as was having ANDY DUFRESNE as an answer and as a bonus.
I can take or leave the film, but as “constant reader” of almost 40 years, as soon as I saw “Shawshank Redemption” I knew the other clues would come quickly, and finished in less than half of my usual Sunday time. Fun though
For anybody who wants to read the story (much better than the film), it was published in Stephen King’s novella anthology “Different Seasons”
Actually, the poster at the end of the movie was of Raquel "Fuzzy Britches" Welch, not Rita Hayworth.
Shaking my head…
All I can think of is when Will Forte chimes in on a movie he hasn’t seen to show how much he has in common with January Jones (on the sometimes funny sitcom, The Last Man on Earth).
When Shaw Met Shank - a Redemption!
Hand up for knowing this was all about THESHAWSHANKREDEMPTION right away, and hand up for knowing ANDY but needing crosses to make sure DUPHRESNE was right. I also got to the bottom of the puzzle and thought “wait, what…did I type that in accidentally?” and also didn’t see the notch at first between INDY and DUCTTAPED.
As for @Rex’s comments on the movie…yikes. I’m a woman and really enjoyed the movie. To me, the only thing wrong with the film is that it was too long, and it seems that since it was based on a short story, it could’ve been pared down a bit and still been meaningful. The other thing that struck me is that @Colin said that he predicts his Dad won’t know of the movie. I’m close to 70 and would’ve been 39 when the movie came out so I figure I had the target demographic for that movie wrong. Anyway, yes, it would’ve been great if Red could have figured into the puzzle. However, I didn’t think of Andy as a “white savior”, because Red was equally Andy’s “savior” during much of the movie.
Thanks for an enjoyable Sunday solve!
Hey All !
Interesting puz. Grid is 23x19, which nets four fewer squares in your puz than a 21x21. (437 vs 441, for those not counting at home 😁)
Odd that the shaded squares (nice light green for me - Green Paint!) have that extra letter sticking out, and not a continuous string, if you know what I'm trying to say. Did ANDY stop at various places? Never did see that movie.
Had another Argh! one-letter DNF today. That's three days in a row! Goodness. Today's was a sneaky one at ESCAPEArT/MArON. Isn't there a MARON, GA? Or am I thinking of Mark MARON (if that's even a person?)
Timer says one second less than 30 minutes, so fairly quick here for a SunPuz.
Did have trouble spelling ANDys last name (no nevermind that it was spelled out in the circles, which I completely overlooked), as I hear it pronounced as Dufrane. Where'd that S come from?
I had the Y already in myself. Does seem odd, but I think it was there to differentiate twixt the two words? Since no Blocker? Not sure.
Sunday, hope whatever football team you root for wins!
Eight F's - OK TO keep that up!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Rex’ disdain for a popular movie rivals Elaine’s…
Just die already! DIE!
Happy Birthday to your beautiful Ella; I turned 24 in Sept. 1970 and had more or less the same hairdo, glasses were smaller and were the hexagon tortoise-shell kind. I enjoyed feeling like a student in your class, Rex. I liked the movie ok, your comments help explain why it seems to run 24-hours a day somewhere on the cable guide.
I didn’t miss Red on the grid at all as it is impossible to think of that movie without hearing his voice and RED is one of the clues. He’s there like an ear-worm everywhere in the puzzle. Liked the puzzle and especially the grid, thought the Y got in there by typo, made no lookups, a pleasant Sunday. I wish the app would put the puzzle title where I might actually see it.
Zihuatanejo, what? Made me look it up.
Agree! I'm an old lady & it's one of my favorite movies.
I had the circles on my NYT iPad app.
TG the circles spelled out Andy’s last name as I was a bit stuck in that corner! Finished at near personal best time.
In the novella, the character of Red was not black. Morgan Freeman was cast not because he was black, but because of his greatness as an actor. I get that Stephen King has beaten the “magical negro” trope to death (The Stand, The Shining, The Green Mile, etc), but this was not one of those times.
As for anyone who doesn’t like this movie, it’s ultimately about hope. And if a movie about keeping hope alive in an utterly hopeless situation doesn’t make you feel better about the human condition, I don’t know what to tell you. Stick to your Marvel nonsense.
Freeman's been scarce ever since the Vice article detailing some "creepy uncle" behavior.
While King is guily of employing the 'magical negro' trope in some of his works, I don't think it applies to Shawshank. Sure, Red helps Andy with his prison journey, but Andy gives Red the one thing he was sure he'd lost forever: Hope. It's an escape flick, it's a prison film, it's a revenge tale, and above all else, it's a buddy movie.
In other news, please make Sundays challenging again.
Did you know that "THE SeArCH for RED october" fits exactly into the space where THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION goes? Those were the exact letters I already had and I almost wrote it in, except I couldn't think of a 3-letter reef lurker beginning with an O.
So eventually I got the right movie and eventually I got ANDY DUFRESNE (think I remember him? You've got to be kidding!) even though I saw the movie.
I don't remember the ESCAPE either, but I'm sure there must have been a TUNNEL, PASSAGE, TRENCH, DUCT, SHAFT, whatever. They were easy to spot here, being in gray and all, but as for the tiny little circles and what I did/thought about them -- well YOU know!!!!
Maybe they spell out the guy's name or something? But then why is the "Y" all by its lonesome in the middle of what looks like the escapee's leg? Beats me. This is the sort of thing that I usually go to Rex to find out, but Rex has written the equivalent of "War and Peace" today and it will take me the whole morning to track it down that "Y" and it's another gorgeous day.
A really, really complicated grid that is doing something unusual -- of that I'm quite sure. Exactly WHAT it is doing is a mystery. Or at least some of it is.
So maybe someone else will tell me?
Agree. I'm a liberal, open-minded guy, but a write up like Rex provides here almost justifies use of the "W" word.
Can't imagine that many solvers will be familiar with the nickname for MACON, Ga; but nice to see my hometown in the puzzle.
I agree. I loved it
Happy 77th birthday to "Shawshank" author Stephen King! (Actually yesterday, Sept 21).
I live along an historic canal, abandoned long ago, it is NOT a TUBE! It is, in fact, a long TRENCH, which is also not a tube! Just sayin'.
Oops! Someone over on Wordplay just let me know that the title of that other book/movie is THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. Oh well. No harm done since I didn't write in THE SEARCH FOR RED OCTOBER.
What is slewed? 25A. Made up definition. Skewed.
I made the same ESCAPEArT/MArON mistake…maybe I could have avoided it if I’d been more careful initially, but it was incredibly difficult one to spot once it was in. 🤦♀️
Rex has it exactly backwards. It’s Andy who imparted wisdom to Red.. He provided a reason for RED to resume his love of the harmonica, gives him insight into,the power of imagination ( via the Mozart Aria duet) and of course most important, it’s Andy’s gentle fraternal correction about the worth of hope that ultimately frees Red.
In the short story, the character Red is Irish, hence the nickname
Funny that Rex doesn't like "The Shawshank Redemption" because whenever it shows up on our TV, we end up watching it. I saw a hotel room of folks do the same thing when we were supposed to be getting ready for a wedding. Like "My Cousin Vinny", I was convinced that Shawshank was a favorite of everyone. Now I know better.
I didn't use the NYTimes platform to solve and thus received a warning that the solve would be missing vital features, which turned out to be the missing Y in INDY. I can live with that.
I misread the year of the prison drama as 1984, not 1994, and thought the answer was going to be "Kiss of the Spider Woman" with 3D looking so promising with "THE S___) but it was soon clear that I was a decade off (KOTSW came out in 1985 so I was AROUND the correct time frame for that movie.)
Thanks, Jeremy and Tracy, I liked this.
My digital printout version had no shading at all, so that aspect of this puzzle ESCAPEd me. So this puzzle was chock-full of PPP, including the themers, of course, but I concur with Rex, at least about the rest of the fill, that it was fair and therefore made the thing workable.... for a change, I didn't even have any minor errors.
When you make your puzzle all about some movie you have watched, you put wind under the wings of those who've also
seen it, but a series of major obstacles for those who haven't. It's therefore incumbent on the constructors to make the crossings pretty straightforward in order to compensate, and I think these two did a decent job of that. Jad they not included the ANDY DUFRESNE spelling in the theme, I might still be trying to work it out...
I think his follow ups of “dudes” and “classic guy” implied straight but yeah unless original Rex post was edited after the above comment, it shouldn’t be in quotes. But i agree with the commenter’s sentiment. I am also an older lady who loves this movie. And didn’t have to look up Zihuatanejo.
Kind of funny because I think living on a submarine would have a few similarities to being in prison. Well…spatial similarities…
Since when does anyone “hit a rut”? You can fall into or be in one, but you don’t hit one— or if you do, you’re driving over unpaved ground and worried about your axels. I’m not interested in this film, but saw it once long ago. I solved it without having to know it, except for Andy’s full name. Overall it was fine. “Hit a rut” just didn’t land right for me.
Yes! Thank you for expressing my thoughts.
Seems like the oft-stated desire for a nod to "Red" could have been satisfied by circles in REDEMPTION.
Trump has a notion of a plan for something better than Obama Care. I think it's called ASIFICARE.
Guys who join groups to publicly claim their own genius are MENSANS modesty.
I'm usually more in the @Lewis camp than the @Rex camp. But this seemed contrived and gimmicky. And having Andy Dufresne appear twice left me SMH.
Lots of folks unfamiliar with MACON GA . I'm sure they have never heard of one of my favorite professional sports teams either, viz. The MACON Whoopees, alas now defunct.
I think it was Fussy Britches but that’s a quibble. The point is I’m a 57 year old woman and Shawshank is definitely in my Top 10 movies list. Moreover, my 19 year old daughter, (who isn’t really a movie lover) watched it recently and she liked it too. Puzzle was super easy
A delightful Sunday solve, to me, once I got past plopping down "tea bag" at 1A. (Eye roll.)
Tired of STP as an oil company answer this question what oil additive company entered a turbine powered four wheel drive car in INDY 500 of 1967 and led the race but broke down with 8 laps to go due to a transmission problem?
I did not fully appreciate the construction until coming here. I ignored all the circles. I got that all the shaded areas were escape routes which I thought was clever enough. So hats off to the constructors, really well done. Big deal Morgan Freeman is not in it... geez. buzzkill, Rex. Everyone I know loves this movie, as do I . Only real problem for me was spelling Andy's last name . An easy puzzle, took me less than a cup of coffee (my barometer when doing hard copy). FISHFIN - I agree with you there Rex! I hesitated putting that in as "it could not be that dumb..." . I have a problem also with the second U in UKULELE and had a writeover there. 37D I had RElax before RESTS. And DuH before DOH was another writeover, reP before GOP too. GREAT puzzle, thanks Jeremy and Tracy.
I have never seen the movie, so that made my solve a somewhat less enjoyable ESCAPE than if I had seen it. Seems odd Morgan Freeman was left out. Especially since his last name could have been the perfect answer to what ANDYDUFRESNE becomes after he exits the TUNNEL.
Happy Birthday Ella!
The Y in INDY is slightly larger than every other letter … why???
Ditto for me
+1 really enjoyed it
One reason many composers love the movie is because of Thomas Newman’s score — one of the greatest ever, and widely studied. It is inspired.
Mine was ESCAPEisT/MAsON (incorrectly thinking the Mason-Dixon line might somehow be involved), and figured somewhere fruity drinks could be considered iDES? Hah!
With no TV at home, my spouse, when on our travels, lunges for the hotel room remote to surf surf surf...and somehow always ends up with THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. I have never watched, but over the decades the title + Morgan Freeman + Tim Robbins have seeped into my consciousness. Which helped me solved this puzzle. I liked the quasi-subterranean escape route and was happy that ANDY in the TUNNEL system could bail me out of the NE corner.
Rex is a male hating milk toast pussy
If my recollection of the movie (which I confess to loving) serves, the shaded squares show *how* Andy escapes, not just random escape words. For that feat of construction, I was in awe, but also knew instantly that it would be polarizing. The fill didn’t bug me, but then again I’ve been playing the archive from the 2000s and, well, we’ve come a long way!
Just to be clear when I accessed the puzzle by going to the Games website the circles and the Y were there. They were not there on the NYT Games app I downloaded from the Apple Store.
Not being familiar with SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (may have seen it but certainly heard of it), it was tough for me - although the fill was fast & easy for the most part, until I got to the Shawshank clues. The only thing I will say is
28D WATCH IT for 'I'm walking here' - it should have been a puzzle for "Midnight Cowboy" where Ratso bangs on the taxi's hood "We're walking here." That movie reference might have worked for me - oh well, wrong movie.
Ella is lovely, Rex, then & now :)
OK - just to be even more clear, I just went to the Apple Store and saw that I needed to update the NYT Games app. When I did the circles were there.
I taught a Intro to Music class at a college for a couple of decades and the scene from Shawshank where Tim R plays the recording of the duet aria from The Marriage of Figaro over the pa system was an effective way to get students to listen to Mozart.
Andy found missing from cell Monday morning. ANDY DUFRESNE anagrams to FREED SUNDAY
RED-demotion was the only Red I saw. Red was the narrator!
Congrats to your daughter! (She’ll be back.) 🦋
I don't know if I've ever watched the theme movie from beginning to end but I'm so familiar with it from TV I may as well have. As @ AnonymousSteve 9:01 points out it was actually a poster of Raquel Welch that the warden throws something through to discover the escape tunnel. I love the sound it makes.
Whether Rita or Raquel there seems to be no explanation for the uncredited Y. Xwordinfo lists the 115A answer as simply IND. From reading the comments apparently some on line versions had the Y in place. I did this in the actual magazine today and it was just a blank space. Is this a why ask Y meta?
Did anyone else notice the parallels with the last two puzzles. Saturday's HAMITUP appears as today's misfortune HAMUP at 58D. Friday's PEPPA then shows up in today's clue for TOTS at 60D. This really popped out at me since they're in such close proximity.
I usually don't bother to time my Sunday solves but today's 36 minutes has to be a PR and I'm pretty slow. Not a puzzle built for resistance.
"The Shawshank Redemption " triggers our host's tedious virtue signalling? As always SMH.
yd -0. QB3 @Okanaganer, we're neck and neck!
FWIW- FREED SUNDAY anagram of ANDY DUFRESNE - per book missing from cell Monday morning.
Saw bits of the movie but not enough to know there was an escape and I didn’t know who starred in it. Twasnt easy but I was able to complete it and thought it quite brilliant and fun. Every time I said “Dufresne” to myself and pronounced it “Dufrain” I thought of the late great comic Mitch Hedberg who did a great bit that involved the “Dufrain family” or something close to it. Anyone else go there?
That is genius!
As a help for Rex and anyone else who also struggles to remember how to spell ukulele, personally I always think of the Hawaiian pronunciation (OO-koo-leh-leh) when I see it in the grid and that helps make the spelling more intuitive because the vowel sounds are internally consistent (u sounds like oo, e sounds like eh), whereas in English we usually say some variant of YOO-kuh-LAY-lee and it's all over the place haha
The true pronunciation of UKULELE is oo-koo-leh-leh, not you'-ka-layly.
This puzzle SUCKs. I'd rather drive an EDSEL.
My only REDEMPTION was that I was able to solve it while ignoring those dumbass little circles and shaded squares.
Today's the Autumnal Equinox. Apparently, the editor didn't think to solicit an appropriate theme.
PSST! Look at the bottom row. What's that KID doing among all those abbreviations?
Can anyone explain what MANDMS is at 22D?
Managed to finish it on paper without using the circles or even understanding them. At the very end I realized that the highlighted squares were about passageways, but the grid construction was lost on me. The letter "Y" at the end of INDY was blocked, which is supposed to be a no-no. A strange puzzle.
M & M’s
I don't know if this has been answered but what's with that Y? It seems like it was just an excuse to not need a black square after the Y.
The Y is a reference to the pose Andy makes when he finally escapes prison and stands in the rain with his arms stretched toward the sky.
It is a mess of a visual reference to try and represent in a crossword puzzle, especially with a single letter.
For everyone wondering about the mystery Y:
It's supposed to represent Andy after he escapes from Shawshank. There is a famous scene in the film where he stands in the rain with his arms raised to the sky, relishing his freedom. If you've only ever seen one image from the movie, it's probably that one. The Y is Andy, arms raised.
And now you can be even MORE mad at the puzzle, because trying to represent that scene with a single letter is just a visual mess and confusing as all get out.
Marvel movies are also about hope, teamwork, good guys, etc. Don't bash what you don't watch
There’s a moment at the end of the movie “In the Line of Fire” that always helps me remember how to spell ukulele…
Had seen the movie & got Shawshank redemption right away. However, couldn't remember a damn thing except Morgan Freedman & he wasn't even in it. Other bugaboo didn't notice 115 & 116a were separate. Tried & tried indy five hundred, indy classic indy car race Indy duct taped! Need new glasses
Hoy fuimos al mercado de agricultores de Corrales.
I wanted my own TUNNEL - CANAL - PASSAGE - CHUTE - TUBE - VENT - TRENCH - SHAFT - DUCT to escape from the "Grower's Market" in the north valley. I don't have any excuses for wriggling out of these things right now, so I rubbed elbows with the hippies and NPR listeners. Is that redundant? The tomatoes and carrots are always better, and we get fresh green chile straight out of the roasters.
Happy birthday @Ella.
This was a super fast puzzle for me even though I've never seen the movie. It's smaller than usual and I think they made the non-theme stuff Monday easy for me. Enjoyed working on it throughout.
I had to buy new SPEX last week because the lens coating on my only pair failed and life right now feels like everything is in soft focus.
APLOMB is my 13th favorite word between APOPLEXY and HAVOC.
❤️ BAD APPLE. DUCT TAPED. SNEAKY PETES. PARACHUTE.
😫 SLEWED. Cluing UKULELE (yay!) off a pain-inducing song played and tuned by a guitarist.
Propers: 4
Places: 4
Products: 16
Partials: 18
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 47 of 141 (33%)
Funnyisms: 8 🙂
Tee-Hee: [Be bad, like really bad] = [Indecency]?
Uniclues:
1 When Trump says Musk is joining him.
2 Shark Week on the Weather Channel fails to inspire.
3 Arrests seven unhappy wives.
4 Asian Rom-Com set amid knockoff handbags, watches and electronics.
5 Children raced disgraced Fords.
1 BAD APPLE PUT AS A BONUS
2 FISH FIN TORNADO HIT A RUT
3 BUSTS FUSS SEPTET
4 CANAL ST. REDEMPTION
5 EDSEL TOTS SPED UP
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Transgender havens according to the suddenly Molson crowd. BUD ICE DENS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Happy B-Day to the lovely Ella.
Sorta unhappy SunPuz, to the semi-luvly M&A ... mainly cuz of sparse puztheme humor. Quite an impressive construction of puztheme stuff, tho. And with a primo U-count and cool E/W puzgrid symmetry, too boot.
staff weeject pick: Kinda hard to pick just one, when there's 43 of the little darlins. Will go with GOP. Seems topical, somehow.
Very interestin use of the unchecked Y in INDYDUCTTAPE, btw.
But needed, to allow ANDY to escape to the FOOTSPA.
some other faves: UTTERFOOL and its [rare for this puz] ?-marker clue. BADAPPLE. POORTASTE. ASIFICARE. Pretty cool themer foursome, for a weeject pick mini-theme?
Thanx, Ms. Gray darlin and Mr. Newton dude. Nice Sunday escapism.
Masked & Anonymo17Us
ridic-hard runtpuz:
**gruntz**
I’ve always found it interesting that the two best and most beloved of movies based on King works, Stand By Me and Shawshank, were not of the horror genre.
Of the dozens made from his works of that genre, only The Shining (which King hated) and Carrie have those honors.
😊thanks.
I read everything from Henry MIller to Garth Greenwell but I'm not ready for a fellatio themed puzzle or crudity with tea on Sunday morning ... between 123 across (this really blows!) and 112 down (ans. sucks) - both expressions same etemology. 'Shafted' (90 down) not a great vibe either. Then with the tunnels ....
The clue for 32 Across is just wrong. Factually inaccurate. The H in HMS stands for “His”. “Her” has not been a part of HMS since the day QEII died.
By the way, the Mini xword today began with a clue “opposite of acidic” — answer BASIC. Can someone ease my ignorance, please — in what context is basic the opposite of acidic?
“Slew” as a verb, appearing in some arcane microverse, some time in the past hundred years? Evidently.
Well, "admirably clean" with the exception of "Are you ____ drive?" (OKTO). No doubt entire grid would fall without it, but still. Guess Rex too busy ranting about exclusion of Red to focus on this. What's next, "Are you gonna ____ there?" (GOIN), "Son ____ gun" (OFA), "Let's ____ sandwich!" (EATA)?
kudos rex. haven't seen many people brave enough to voice a negative opinion on shawshank. i've always hated it too.
51D calling the Copa America a "quadrennial soccer tournament" seems iffy at best, seeing as it's been held 5 times since 2015. (It is scheduled to be quadrennial going forward, unless some sportocrat decides they can make more money with yet another "special edition" of the tournament.) It was clear what they were going for, but it would be nice if the clues were factually accurate.
Anonymous 12:30 PM
Whatever the validity of the criticism of Rex’s comments about the movie, I usually expect that some anonymous would post something much much worse. Thanks for meeting my expectations.
Dash rip rock
I disagree with your comment that red side needed a?
The fact that “nobody” calls the GOP that is irrelevant. We are talking about a clue for a puzzle, not a definition in a dictionary. The lack of a ? may make it harder, but they did that deliberately, as it was a relatively easy puzzle overall.
Anyway, ? are usually reserved for trick clues. Nothing tricky about this. If you look at a schematic after a Congressional election the GOP seats will be red on one side, and the Democrats blue on the other side.
Anonymous 10:50 am
Look before you criticize
First definition of SLEW
turn on an axis.
Skew is a different word entirely
Anonymous 3:24 pm
About HMS
I put in His first for that reason.
Wonder if the puzzle was submitted before she died, and sat around for a while. Then the error was overlooked.
Unless someone from England says otherwise, the change is automatic to my knowledge.
A rare real error.
Can’t avoid talking about the movie
Definitely liked it when I saw it as it came out. It’s manipulative and very hard to resist. But most movies are manipulative.
My understanding of the magical Negro trope is that the Black character is a secondary character who is of great help to the white lead. This was considered especially irritating over the years because there were so few leading black characters in movies. There has for a while been a distinct uptick but it may a fad. So the issue has not gone away
On the other hand that point doesn’t mean the movie is bad. I haven’t seen it since it first came out but I am sure it’s worth watching. Rex doing is over reaction routine.
I immediately guessed this movie as the theme. Had no clue as to the character’s name, and vaguely remembered the lead actor. But the crosses weren’t hard. And DUFRESNE is a common enough French Canadian name in New England (a lot of Mainers have that background). Roo the s isn’t pronounced.
I ignored the circles did this easy puzzle and then read the shaded words. Happy I didn’t read the name spelled out again. I agree with Rex about that!
The point of the Y completely escaped me. But put in INDY and got duct tape later.
Have seen SMH appear lately but keep on forgetting the letters!
And it is *great* that someone crass spelled “milquetoast” incorrectly. 🙄
@Anonymous 3:24 PM
Acidic/basic refers to the pH of a solution. A ph of 7 is neutral. Above 7 is basic and below 7 is acidic.
I do love milk & toast though, got me there ~RP
I absolutely love the movie and the puzzle!!
But why is the hole represented by the letter “Y”?
I picture the “Y” as Andy standing with his arms raised after escaping. Love Shawshank & loved this puzzle.
I think slue means pivot or turn on an axis and slew means many or a lot.
i always thought it was "fuzzy" since she's wearing some sort of a bear skin bikini. what would "fussy" mean in context?
Acids and bases are the opposite ends of the pH scale. If a substance isn't acidic, it's basic.
And for what it’s WORTH, the correct title of King’s novel is “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.” No “the.” Think about that - better, right? There shouldn’t be a “the” in the movie title, either, but it’s a movie, so…
Hah. Me too.
Huh.
The trick was the only reason I was able to solve this puzzle. I’m not the best at crosswords and this puzzle took me over 90 min to solve. I didn’t remember Andy’s last name and figured it out only once I had filled in all the circled letters lol. I ended up filling in everything correctly except I had to spam the letters (smh the clue wasn’t that hard in retrospect) to get mensans (I didn’t know simian or Macon).
Why was the revealer clue randomly about Houdini instead of sticking with the Shawshank theme?? That really threw me off for some reason.
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