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Icelandic poet Sturluson / 9-25-24 / Senokot alternative / Dance counterpart of the Whip / County in northeastern Nevada / Pioneer in show recording / Word after double or day / AIDS researcher who was Time's 1996 Man of the Year / Tool with a bubble / Haitian unit of currency
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Constructor: Peter Gordon
Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging (names names names)
Theme answers:
- FULL SCALE (30A: Life-size ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)
- RINGTONES (36A: Phone numbers? ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)
- SIDE NOTES (45A: Marginalia ... or a hint to this puzzle's theme)
The wall (clockwise from the NW corner):
Rare that I wipe out right out of the box on a *Wednesday* puzzle, but that is what happened today, and though no other section gave me quite that much trouble, I did feel like I was working somewhat harder than usual to put the answers together today. Not hard hard. Just harder. There was at least some resistance all over, which I don't mind, but things have been so easy of late, across the board, that today's difficulty felt oddly elevated. Certainly, where the trivia / proper nouns were concerned, it felt more Thursday / Friday / Saturday than Wednesday. DAVID HO seems eminently worth knowing, but know him I did not, and encountering him first thing, in a section where I was already having some trouble (no idea what "show recording" meant, exactly in 16A: Pioneer in show recording—I wanted a person's name; hard (baseball) clue on RETIRE (1D: Strike out, perhaps), that slowed me down. I couldn't even get out of that section smoothly because the primary connecting word (that is, the word that was going to get me out of the NW and connect me to the rest of the grid) was *also* some trivia I didn't know or had forgotten (namely, GOURDE) (24D: Haitian unit of currency). Also didn't know GUTE (at least not the spelling ... GUTT?) and would not have remembered EDUARDO, probably, if I hadn't had a few of those last letters in place before I looked at the clue. I knew SNORRI, but then I'm a medievalist. I'm guessing most of you ... aren't? Twenty-six years since SNORRI's made an appearance in the NYTXW. He is a 12th/13th-century Icelandic poet and scholar who is believed to have written or compiled most of the Prose EDDA (or just EDDA), a very important source of Norse mythology (as well as a stock piece of crosswordese). "He was assassinated in 1241 by men claiming to be agents of the King of Norway." Fun fact!
- RE DO
- SO FA
- FA LA
- MI RE
- LA RE DO
- DO DO
- MI SO
- SO RE
- SO SO
- RE TI RE
David Da-i Ho (Chinese: 何大一; born November 3, 1952) is a Taiwanese American AIDS researcher, physician and virologist who has made a number of scientific contributions to the understanding and treatment of HIV infection. He championed for combination anti-retroviral therapy instead of single therapy, which turned HIV from an absolute terminal disease into a chronic disease.David Ho was born in Taiwan in 1952 and immigrated to the United States in 1965, where he was educated at California Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School (through the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology) before getting his clinical training at UCLA School of Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital.
He is the founding scientific director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, both housed at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. (wikipedia)
• • •
As for the theme, it's actually quite elegantly done. The words one can make out of the scale aren't exactly scintillating, but the visual created by the *arrangement* of those words is at least interesting, and the triple revealer (!) more than makes up for any dullness in the note-answers themselves. Also, no all-note answer in the grid anywhere *except* the outer edge ... it's a nice touch. Maybe that was intentional, or particularly hard to do, but I like when the constructor keeps the theme entirely inside the theme ... no stray or accidental themers roaming around. And the revalers are pretty good, with clever wordplay all around. There are "notes" on the "side" of the grid, there are "tones" forming a "ring" around the grid, there's a "scale" ... hmm ... that answer doesn't work quite as well; that is, "full" doesn't really express the structure formed by the notes, the way "ring" and "side" do. But you do (eventually) get a "full" scale, i.e. every note from "do" on up and back to "do" again. Side note: I've been so indoctrinated by crosswords to believe that the note is spelled "SOL" that "SO" now looks weird and wrong to me. The fact that the three revealers all fit symmetrically, and that two of them drill directly into the outer wall, makes this puzzle architecturally elegant. Architecturally complicated puzzles can often feel fussy, with theme and non-theme answers alike feeling forced and awkward. Not so today. There's maybe more crosswordese-leaning stuff than I'd like (an ICI, an ESSO, a NAENAE in the ORRIN ODEA, etc.), but on the whole the grid holds up well, with lots of varied and even colorful answers (ANY OLD AVOCADO! ONE-OFF BISTROS!)
Bullet points:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
- 21A: Stock quote? (MOO) — that's what the cow says. The cow says MOO. If you quote a cow, that is likely the quote you're going to get. If you got a different quote, I'd be a little surprised. ("Stock" here means "livestock," of course)
- 48A: Tool with a bubble (LEVEL) — Gotta get the bubble in the little liquid tube to sit inside the little marked area. That's how you know you're level. I think most levels are electronic now, but since I don't use levels on a regular (or even irregular) basis, I'm not a reliable authority.
- 55A: :"Toy Story" dinosaur voiced by Wallace Shawn (REX) — I of course knew that REX was the dinosaur in Toy Story, but I'd completely forgotten he was voiced by the great Wallace Shawn. What a career. From Manhattan to My Dinner with Andre to The Princess Bride to Clueless, an absolute delight, that guy.
- 9D: Fan fare? (FRANKS) — fans (of baseball) might eat FRANKS (i.e. hot dogs), which are common ballpark fare.
- 39A: Word after double or day (BED) — Peter really will sneak baseball references in wherever he can.
- 54D: Bowl feature (TIER) — think "bowl" as in "arena." The Hollywood Bowl, that kind of bowl. There are different levels (or TIERs) of seating. This clue actually gave me slight trouble. I had the "R" and ... nope, no help.
- 38D: Senokot alternative (EX-LAX) — eight appearances now for EX-LAX. Still no ENEMA, though. "ENEMA ... talk about great letters!" RIP, Merl Reagle.
P.S. this blog is now legally an adult. As you know, it takes a village, so thank you, villagers.
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48 comments:
Happy birthday!
Nice shout-out to @Rex at 55A on the blog's anniversary. Congrats!!
I didn't have a lot of trouble with this despite not knowing a lot of the answers, particularly SNORRI (22A) and EDUARDO Saverin
(40D), but all were crossed fairly.
I didn't get the theme until I got here. Maybe someone with more knowledge of music than me can tell us if the notes play a recognizable song? That would be true elegance!
Dear ~RP, all this may be true, but when I have to read You to get the theme after I've finished a puzzle, I tend to give the said puzzle an F Maj. mark.
I enjoyed this and was particularly impressed by the theme, but boy did I have trouble with SNORRI and DAVID HO (although the crosses ultimately were fair) and GOURDE and a few others. But I finished in under my Wednesday average time and had one of those "aha!" moments when I got FULL SCALE and realized that all the answers around the grid were notes--which helped with RING TONES and SIDE NOTES. One of the best puzzles from the NYT in a long time!
And a huge thanks, Rex for your beautiful 18y old baby!
Never caught on to the theme, but finished the puzzle with some experimentation in the NE. The Icelandic poet was beyond my imagination. I'll be interested to see if anyone else knew him (her?).
Unfortunately, all of the arcane trivia just flat out ruined this one for me. No joy to be had parsing together stuff like FALA, SNORRI, DAVIDHO, GOURDE, ELKO, EDUARDO, NAENAE, yada yada yada. Absolutely no interest in fighting my way through that kind of nonsense to attempt to discern yet another cryptic theme.
Gimmick Thursdays are having a bad influence on its Wednesday neighbor lately. Not my cuppa, but I know there are many who relish this type of approach, so have at it and enjoy.
@Conrad, that would be awesome, but no. Still, whenever I see LAREDO, that little snippet of tune pops in my head (A, D, C). But then it quickly turns into “Streets of Laredo,” a much better tune.
Rex, it’s not just crosswords that insist that the correct term for the fifth note of the scale is SOL, not SO. The word is SOL, and it has been since SNORRI was alive. I think we have Oscar Hammerstein II to blame for the misspelling, with his damn needle pulling thread.
Googled David Ho and the Haitian currency, Hard for a Wednesday . PS These notes do NOT comprise any song, they are random.
FRANKS was my last answer in the grid. I thought that might be the answer but as I had not a clue about either FALA or SNORRI, both of which could have been any number of things, I stared blankly for a while. Eventually I figured out the theme and decided it had to start with an F. Happy music from there.
FRANKS required some crosses and inference; "fan fare?" seemed pretty tortured as far as clueing goes. In the same corner, AUTO seems to be a rather thud-dy answer for "Lambo, e.g.": glad to know Lambos are in the same class as my oh-so-sick Nissan Rogue.
I had RENO for 1-Across (since that's the much-more-common phrase for any RENOvations one has done in one's home), which left 3-Down as a mystery until the very end. The answer for 5-Down (Yokozuna's sport) is incorrect, as the word is Sumou (相撲), not Sumo, but I figured the puzzle was using the Americanized version. Never did figure out the theme until I came here and read today's write-up. There were more than a few esoteric names I'd never heard of (Ho, Snorri), but the crosses helped. Pretty good puzzle!
This one was tough both because of the proper names and the choppiness of the grid. And I didn't catch the theme until I came here.
That said, I quite enjoyed the solve, although I DID have to guess on SNORRI. FRANKS felt a little off, but I could see it, so that was my guess. And the fact that there were THREE revealers was pretty impressive. And of course, now I have Sound of Music tunes in my head...
If I had gotten the theme maybe would not have finished the NE with pRANKS, pApA, and pEERSAT…otherwise finished this one in record time for me. Thank goodness Rex has stuck around for 18 years to bail me out on this one…and congratulations to him not just for the longevity but for the energy he continues to bring to the table.
The Wall of Sound was the signature of Phil Spector who incorporated full orchestral backing to music by the Crystal and Ronettes among others. Spector died in prison in disgrace after murdering a woman in his Hollywood home know as the Castle.
Same! I had no idea what was going on even after the whole thing was finished! And congrats on turning 18.
Peter Gordon churns them out, with 129 NYT puzzles, plus many elsewhere – that's more than impressive to begin with. But then you see that 123 of his Times puzzles are themed. I talk with constructors, and so often hear how many months it’s been since they came up with even one fresh and worthy theme.
But Peter dashes them out and they sparkle! Furthermore, his puzzles abound with fresh clues and answers. That is, his remarkable output is matched by top-tier quality. To me, he is one of the glowing treasures of Crosslandia. What a talent!
Look at what he did today. He came up with the unusual idea of combining two theme stalwarts – having theme answers fill the grid’s perimeter, and having the theme involve the do-re-mi’s. On top of that, he came up with three – three! – revealers, all scintillating. Is that not sparkling?
Also, I don’t know about you, but when I finally saw what was going on, it brought a ringing “Aha!”. It delivered. Oh, and wordnerd I loved seeing the rare-in-crosswords five-letter palindrome LEVEL.
I shake my head in wonder at what you do, Peter, wonder and respect. Thank you for a sterling outing today!
Congratulations!
I’ve been to the Rose Bowl, the Yale Bowl and the Big House. No tiers.
Ditto on the obscure names.
Rex Parker, happy birthday to you, and thank you for 18 years of wit, humor, honesty and insight. You are can’t-miss. Please, sir, play on for many more!
Happy birthday! Hope you get a chance to vote!
I did the puzzle last night and it wasn’t until I looked at it again this morning that I realized the border answers were all notes of the scale. Last night, I had no clue what the theme was. Duh!
Until I read Rex, I don’t think I saw either the clue or the answer for DAVID HO — thank you, crosses! Snorri was a new one for me, coulda been a new dwarf to join Sleepy, Sneezy, etc.
Happy Birthday Blog!! I’ve been here for quite a bit of it, for what that’s worth.
Can't agree more
Only by figuring out the theme was I able to complete the puzzle. No clue on FALA or SNORRI. Happy 18th, Rex! Old enough to vote
Saw what was going on early after getting FULLSCALE and the topmost acrosses (agree that it should be SOL though). That was helpful in getting some of the border answers and certainly in ingenious feat of construction.
That said, any puzzle that needs DAVIDHO, EDUARDO someone, an Icelandic poet, a clue referencing Senokol, both TEVO and UNIX answers, and the oddly spelled ORRIN to work seems to me to be more than a little tortured. And then you have GOURDE, which was at least a nod to crosswords past with a foreign currency clue.
In short, not my favorite ever. If you like stunt puzzles, this is your cuppa.
Nice trick PG, but for me somewhere between Pretty Good and Perfectly Ghastly. Thanks for a little fun.
Happy Birthday/Anniversary to OFL. Keep 'em coming.
Fun solve! But a cherry on top would have been to have the solfage spell out a famous tune named in the puzzle.
I have only ever seen the fifth note in solfege written as SOL, not SO. Upon Googling it seems either could be correct, but for a musician that was a little irksome to me.
I enjoyed this one. Normally I struggle past Tuesday and angrily resist attempts to google. But somehow the puzzle was synced to my meager storehouse of knowledge. I did not understand the theme after completion. But music is not my thing. Now that I know: clever!
To 120, RP! Wonderful!
Hey All !
Dang, REX, 18 years of blogging! Time flies... Amazing Blogger survives in the digital age of newer stuff always coming out.
Before figuring out the SCALE, I did notice the Edge Themers I had in already all ended in vowels, so was leaning towards that for a second. Then I got the Revealers and saw the light (or heard the music, which would be apropos in this sense).
Agree NW was a "Holy Moly, look at all these crossing names that I don't know!" section. Finished up there, primarily by chipping away, and pattern recognition.
Neat puz idea. Extra layer of no other SCALE word elsewhere in the puz, that REX mentioned. Personally, I wouldn't have looked for that, seems tedious! So thanks REX, for that info. Adds a layer of toughness-to-fill.
Hump Day already. Time flies when you're ... alive. Har.
Happy Wednesday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
¡ ʎ ɐ p ɥ ʇ ɹ ı q ʎ d d ɐ ɥ 🎈
I thought for sure one of the revealers was going to be "LINER NOTES."
Happy 18th!
The revealers did their job for me (MI?), thank you. When I got to FULL SCALE I had REDO, SOFA, _ALA, M_RE so knew it was SNORRI, who seems vaguely familiar. At 33D wanted ANYone, thinking no fair dupe with ONEOFF, but quickly became ALERT to the error, which was mine.
FALA news to me but with _RANKS going down it clearly wasn't lALA (isn't she a Teletubby?).
Definitely humming Wheels of Laredo rest of the day ("On the north bank of the mighty Rio Grande").
Definitely Medium-Challenging, bordering on Challenging for a Wednesday.
Sure, yeah, I finished it... but SNORRI? OMG. All the names and trivia highlighted by Rex is right: this was a tough solve for midweek. Some of it was Friday/Saturday hard.
Doing this daily (almost) for 18 years! Congrats! Quality of your efforts is amazing!
I can't let the Wallace Shawn shout-out stand without including his regular appearances as Zek, Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance, on Deep Space 9, the best of all the ST spinoffs by far, not least for his contributions.
"The life of an actor can be very enviable, if the phone rings and somebody says, 'I see you as the leader of a group of aliens with enormous heads', I think that's fantastic."
Happy birthday blog. My favorite early morning read by a factor. I have been reading it and commenting on rare occasion for more years than I can remember. Thanks to Rex and all of the regular contributors. Life is good.
What a terrific bit of puzzle construction! Making words out of all those notes and fitting them around the perimeter of the puzzle -- and then working all those other words to fit in the grid! It can't have been easy.
And, to my (devious) way of thinking: what a waste of a fabulous idea -- an idea that I might have been tempted to pay you cash money for. Because what I would have wanted to do with it would have been absolutely delicious, if perhaps a bit nasty...
You see, Peter, the brilliance of your construction left me, the solver, with nothing to do but fill in the puzzle. No muss, no fuss, no bother. Nothing to "puzzle out". But what if all those RINGTONES had gone, unclued, in black squares ringing the puzzle? Or, alternatively, if they were to be written outside the perimeter of the puzzle? Plenty for the solver to have to figure out!
And instead of an easy Wednesday, you'd have a really, really hard Thursday. Or even a worthy-of-the-day Saturday.
Thus does my mind work, Peter. OTOH, you may be a kinder, gentler soul. But I'm always thinking of ways to bring solvers into the thinking process and make them "suffer", if not too much.
Kudos on the great construction, though.
I guess that technically every row of seating is a TIER in a “bowl shape” arena. But, I know what you mean.
I know it is sophomoric, but I feel I need to note even if not published that Rex crossed with exlax, stress and Esso, a type of gas. Coincidence ? I think not.
Be nice if the solfège sequence actually worked as a recognizable tune, though that's a pretty steep ask. I couldn't make it out as anything recognizable, but here it is translated to scale degrees if anyone else wants to have a go (starting at top left):
2 1 5 4 4 6 3 2 6 2 1 1 1 3 5 5 2 5 5 2 7 3
RE DO SO FA FA LA MI RE LA RE DO DO DO MI SO SO RE SO SO RE TI RE
So the pharmacist said to his assistant: "I'm going out for lunch -- if anyone comes in for advice, be conservative."
"OK, boss!"
He gets back and asks how it went. The assistant says, "Fine. There was just one woman who came in. She was complaining of a cough. I suggested she take five doses of EX-LAX"
The pharmacist says -- "You gave her EX-LAX for a cough?? Are you nuts??
And the assistant said: "No. Look. There she is now, holding on to that post. --- She's not going to cough."
Actually I did know SNORRI. The 'history' textbook I used in Catholic Grammar School in I think 3rd grade taught me the 'important' fact that someone named 'SNORRI' was the first Catholic baby born in the new world. No, her (?) last name was not given as Sturleson but when I did once see that name it stuck with me from resonance with the unwanted fact I was stuck with. You remember everything you learn when you are eight. They should teach you important things then,
TIL I share my birthday with the blog! Also, if you're interested, both members of celebrity couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, who turn 80 and 55 respectively today.
SO...HBD to RPDTNYTXW, CZ-D, MD and ME.
This puzzle was unsolvable (insoluble?) by me. Fala, franks, Snorri trifecta killed me. I had *TRACKS* like a fan of music might have. That gave me Tala and Scorri, which seemed perfectly possible. There shouldn't have been two obscure names crossing a pun clue on a *Wednesday.* Bad editing for difficulty.
Thank you RP for this blog! Otherwise it’d be another great puzzle solved but I would’ve missed the theme! I went to see the magnificent Tedeschi Trucks band last night at the Beacon so music was on my mind but I still didn’t get the theme until I came here. The band did not disappoint and neither did this puzzle nor this blog. Happy times!
Nicely done! It took both SCALE and TONES to open my eyes to the DO RE MIs around me; after that the theme was a help - e.g., in getting SOSO and in seeing that I needed to change El Paso to LAREDO. And in understanding why FDR's dog made it into to puzzle - serendipity there.
Do-over: El Paso before LAREDO. Help from previous crosswords: NAE NAE. Help from being a medievalist way back when: SNORRI. No idea: DAVID HO, GOURDE, EDUARDO.
Hear, hear! Thank you, Rex.
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