.png)
Setting for "My Cousin Vinny" / MON 9-16-24 / One assigned female at birth and identifying as such / Letter-shaped plumbing piece / Fruit that's a citrus, not a hybrid of a pomegranate and melon
Monday, September 16, 2024
Constructor: Robert Corridan
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
- L.A. LAKERS (17A: N.B.A. team with LeBron and Bronny James, for short)
- RURAL ALABAMA (23A: Setting for "My Cousin Vinny")
- MALALA YOUSAFZAI (36A: Youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner)
- VANILLA LATTE (46A: Sweet Starbucks order)
The pomelo (/ˈpɒmɪloʊ, ˈpʌm-/ POM-il-oh, PUM-; Citrus maxima), also known as a shaddock and from the family Rutaceae, is the largest citrus fruit, and the principal ancestor of the grapefruit. It is a natural, non-hybrid, citrus fruit, native to Southeast Asia. Similar in taste to a sweet grapefruit, the pomelo is commonly consumed and used for festive occasions throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia. As with the grapefruit, phytochemicals in the pomelo have the potential for drug interactions. (wikipedia)
• • •
Solving this Downs-only was easy enough, except for one part that felt pretty harrowing, namely, the tail end of YOUSAFZAI. I threw those Downs down and got plausible crosses, but something about -ZAI felt wrong/off, so went to the end of this puzzle worried I was not going to get a "Congratulations!" message at the end. So I guess that part wasn't "hard" so much as dangerous-feeling. The harder part—the hardest part for me, by far—was figuring out 21D: Decided to skip. At first I assumed it ended -ED, but when that didn't work out I eventually got it down to -A- OUT ... but then nothing. For a while, the only thing I could think to make out of that first word was "RAN," but RAN OUT didn't feel like a good answer for [Decided to skip] (perhaps because it's not). Thankfully, NONY is not a word, or I might've written in RAN OUT and left it. But NONY looked like a definite no-no, so I waited a bit and ran some other scenarios and finally hit on SAT OUT. And yes, that looked much better. TONY > NONY, for sure.
Otherwise, the only other real hesitations I had today came right away, at 1D: Org. with the motto "Because Freedom Can't Protect Itself" (ACLU), and then "OK, BUT," which is a really odd standalone answer (odd enough that it's only ever appeared one other time, ten years ago). Oh, and BLABBY, which seems like a borderline nonsense word (10D: Loose-lipped). No hope there until I finally got inferred the "B" in GWBUSH (8A: POTUS #43). One thing I liked about BLABBY, though, was it helped me guess the "F" in FLAB (43A: What "muffin top" and "spare tire" are euphemisms for). See, since I was solving Downs-only (i.e. not looking at Across clues), I was staring at -LAB, which gave me multiple options for that first letter, but since I could eliminate BLAB (because BLABBY was already in the grid), I went ahead and tested FLAB ... and it worked. I realize now it could've been SLAB, not sure why that didn't occur to me, but once the "F" went in, FINEST immediately followed. I had MAMA before DADA (no surprise there) (53D: Baby's first word, perhaps). Forgot the first letter in P-TRAP (45D: Letter-shaped plumbing piece), but thankfully S-ELLS wasn't likely to be anything but SPELLS (or, rather, P-TRAP rang a bell, whereas M-TRAP and W-TRAP and H-TRAP seemed ... unlikely). I was surprised to see LILLE, which seems kind of a minor French city for a Monday, but I was able to get it off just the "L," so maybe it's more major than I thought. In crosswords, at any rate.
Save And Share :
66 comments:
Easy-medium for me. The only thing I didn’t know was MALALA’s last name and knowing un poco espanol was helpful with that knowledge gap.
Smooth grid, cute theme, fun Monday, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did. I disagree that LAND “better mean something”. The LALA letter sting is fine with me given the film won several Oscars. Nice debut.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #942 was pretty easy for a Croce. The bottom third was the toughest section for me. Good luck!
Also trying to solve down clues only, big hands up for RAN OUT at 21 down. I thought it actually made sense: ran out == skipped out, I guess. Then when I realized NONY wasn't plausible, there was just no way SAT OUT occurred to me. Had to give up and click Reveal Incorrect Letters.
The themers are a bit off... aside from what Rex said, LA Lakers and LALA land both refer to the city.
I thought MALALA whatshername was a bit much for Monday. I also thought: we just saw her recently! But according to xwordinfo, for the NYTxword it was 8 years ago (Sept 24 2016) so I must be thinking of somewhere else.
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0; streak 15.]
best music in a review for a while - dang! the delfonics!! and al green!!
really dug this snappy fun puzzle with its lack of strained clues and lack of fill words that give me the ick. rural alabama is just so fun to say - has great mouth feel. anyway - lala
Found it easy not easy /moderate. But then I do crosswords as they are meant to be done.
Agree Malala's name difficult for a Monday - or any day. But the crosses filled it pretty easily ( despite thinking agua for a half second before azul)
Have to agree the theme would have been better if the "land" worked. Didn't think of that as a problem when I was doing the puzzle - just thought the whole thing lacked a spark.
Was La La Land really a 2016 film? Seems much more recent
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. It might cause some unsurprised looks (5)
2. Bit of foam, perhaps (6)
3. What's often made by doctors (3)(7)
4. Woman in dire need? (5)
5. Job that anyone could see themselves doing? (6)(6)
BOTOX
PEANUT
SIX FIGURES
RENEE
WINDOW WASHER
Easy Monday. I can't say I guessed the theme before I encountered the revealer, but I can say that I noticed the LALA is the theme answers. My only overwrite was at 45D, u-TRAP before P-TRAP. Only WOE was MALALA's last name.
The big guy nailed it today - flawed theme and awkward revealer. Loaded with names and trivia. Overall cluing was off - refer to the odd ST ELMO entry.
Not a great start to the week.
Chasing VAPOR Trails
The land better mean something *thematically*. Fame of movie not relevant.
Yeah, just felt off. Also agree with @okanaganer that LA Lakers too much of an overlap with the revealer.
Further just too many double word fill. I mean outside of the themers, just seemed like half the answers needed parsing - GWBUSH, CISWOMAN, YELLTO, OKBUT, SATOUT, GYMBAG, STELMO, PTRAP, LIMPEDIN, etc.
Anyway, it’s a Monday, and I didn’t necessarily hate it, but the theme is shaky theme, lots of PPP and little sparkly fill.
Enjoyed this one. Just right for a Monday. I can accept that the puzzle itself was La La Land and don’t feel like I needed each clue to have a land in it. Was it great? Probably not but it was pret-ty, pret-ty good.
Harder than most Monday puzzles, but I managed to finish it by running the alphabet to get AZUL. Caught on to the trick quickly, which helped with VANILLALATTE and then VAPOR. I assume everyone needed the crosses to get the Nobel Prize winner's name.
Toughest Monday that I can remember in quite a while. I didn’t know the Nobel prize winner and I don’t speak Spanish, so that whole section was a real struggle. It seemed like there was quite a bit of trivia for a Monday as well. I stuck with it, but this one didn’t go quietly.
@okanaganer - It's been eight years for the full name, but MALALA has been in the puzzle nine times in the last six years, several times clued with some variation on ___ Yousafzai.
VANILLA LATTE seemed a lot more contrived than RURAL ALABAMA to me, but of course I don't coffee.
I kind of like it that the revealer is also a themer.
Hi Bob: You assume incorrectly about "everyone." I agree that her name is challenging to spell for a Monday and that many people would understandably need the crosses, but she is incredibly famous, and there was a time when her full name was all over the news. I dropped it in without hesitation.
Croce’s Freestyle #942 was easy, although I made things a little tougher with a wrong consonant choice on the olive oil (34D) and wrong vowel choices on 29A (Yeah, that's so hot) and 21D (farm leader).
Sweet little play on words, referring to the group of four theme answers as LA LA LAND. And a sweet moment for me, who left that revealer blank, and tried to figure out what it was – something I’m weak at and working on – and got it!
Maybe it was obvious and easy to correctly guess the revealer today, but if you tell me that, I’m going to LALALALALALALA you.
I think Malala’s full name looks gorgeous across the middle. That answer, along with LA LAKERS, have been used only once before in the Times puzzle, while VANILLA LATTE and RURAL ALABAMA are answer debuts, giving the theme high spark.
I liked the unusual letter combination starts in GWBush and PTRap, as well as ISLE over IDLE. I enjoyed the lovely LILLE and fun-to-say BLABBY. I got a kick out of the STELMO dook, as well as the PuzzPair© of BRAD and NAIL. And I’m not sure why, but I loved having YOU staring at me from the dead center of the grid.
Congratulations on your debut, Robert, and thank you for starting my day with a deep-down smile!
Debate memory:
KAMALA LAUGHING
Absolutely standard coffee order. As opposed to RURAL [insert random state].
Problem with an easy puzzle is that I put in answers without thinking about them much and therefore miss obvious dupes like the LALA in this one and get to the revealer before I stop to look back. I think the theme is OK and finding all those LALAs was nicely done. And of course I put in MALALA's last name instantly. Not.
AZUL was a gimme and POMELO is what the Spaniards call a grapefruit. And I have installed more than one PTRAP so that was no problem. Fond memories of packing my GYMBAG to go play high school hoops--"sneakers socks, towel and jock". Hadn't thought about that for a while.
Perfectly fine Monday, RC. Righteous Choice of LALA's, congrats on the debut, and thanks for all the fun.
Hey All !
BLAH BLAH BLAH - Har.
Not a terrible MonPuz. Liked the ambitiousness of it. As soon as I got LALAKERS, I thought of the movie LALA LAND, and lo and behold, that's what the Revealer ended up being. I'm sure @Lewis figured this one out.
Pretty decent fill, seeing as how the Themers are in every section.
KIAS and HONDAs, @Nancy will love that!
@AnoaBob, quick look gets me seeing only 4 POCs, that's gotta be a record of some sort, no?
Another Monday, my weekend was longer than my previously stated 12 seconds. Felt more like 47 seconds. 😁
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I am seeing red from one of the answers in here and can't really think of anything else right now in what is actually a smooth and well-constructed puzzle. It's a term that always makes me see red. Can you guess what it is? I'll give you a hint. It's not GWBUSH, it's not IDIOTS, it's not LIMPED IN and it's not FLAB.
Okay, I'll give you another hint and here it is: You are not allowed to go mucking around with my identity -- an identity I've had for my entire life which, btw, adds up to a lotta, I mean a lotta years. You can have any identity you prefer for yourself and I will completely respect it, but you cannot go mucking around with mine. You may not re-define me, however "convenient" you may find your new definition. My identity does not exist for your convenience. Do we understand each other?
Rant over.
@Nancy (very respectfully) I think that the whole idea of this “designation” biz is that is YOU (and not others) that define you.
Blabby?
At first I didn’t see the connection between the clue "Benefit" and the answer "avail". So I checked Wictionary and it shows that the words were synonymous as far back as 1485, but that use is now obsolete. Wictionary also says the more current idiom "to no avail" means "to no use", which seems to me might also mean "to no benefit".
Thank you! I entirely agree. My comment to that effect on the NYT site was initially approved but has since been removed, as have others.
👍
LILLE is the tenth largest city in France, with its own population of nearly 250k (as well as being part of a wider urban area of over one million), not to mention a successful football club in France's first division (Ligue Un). I wouldn't exactly call it "minor."
RURALALABAMA reminded me of the Rural Juror episode on 30 Rock. The whole thing was hilarious, but you can get the source of a bunch of the humor by just saying "rural juror" three times.
How do you catch a Pterodactyl? With a PTRAP!
After breaking several toes tripping over a volume of his sonnets, Shakespeare reportedly said "IAMB suffering from a poetic foot."
Nice two-fer at 38D extending directly below to make ANAL OCD. We might see that again from our man in the Land of Enchantment (@Gary Jugert).
The themers work just fine with the revealer. They collectively comprise a land of LALAs. I thought it was an excellent puzzle. Thanks, Robert Corridan.
@mytimetotravel -- They never let me post my comment above on the NYT site in the first place. Which is why THIS site -- which treats us as grownups and which doesn't impose on us what some inspired phrase-coiner on Rex wonderfully described a few months ago as "toxic positivity" -- is the only puzzle site I truly care about.
I got the theme after RURAL ALABAMA, and guessed the revealer--which they should have clued as "2016 film that thought it was "best picture" for about 15 seconds." Remember that incident?
In an ideal puzzle, either all the LALAs would be in actual LANDs, e.g. the names of countries, or you would get a land after taking out the LALA. Dream on, right? I doubt it's possible.
I liked thinking of BLABBY FLAB, and I learned something interesting about the POMELO. And the puzzle world seems to having a run of ONE SEC, I'm seeing it everywhere. I also appreciated seeing the GW in 8-A, so that the LA in 17-A wouldn't feel out of place.
OK, I've got a Zoom meeting in 5 minutes, and I have to spend a little time learning more of the KIA and HONDA model names. Later!
Is it my imagination, or has "spa" been an answer in a lot of recent NYT crossword puzzles?
“Malala whatshername”? I can’t tell whether this is racist, sexist, or age-ist. Do better.
These are transphobic comments, which is probably why they were removed at NYT. Please talk to a younger person once in a while so you can see how off base you are here.
She’s incredibly famous. I’ve seen her speak. Still couldn’t get her last name. I don’t see this as a problem with the puzzle. More a quirk of her being known primarily by her first name.
@Nancy, sorry. First, I replied in a separate comment, then second, I had to run off to do some volunteer gardening work. To illustrate my non-grammatically correct post below, you do not HAVE to “identify” yourself if you don’t want. However, many people born “biologically” or initially “designated” as female, can choose to identify as transgender male (or male, maybe) and it is NOT up to others to question how they identify their gender. So no. You were NOT being transphobic, I think you had misread who is “identifying” who.
Well, I worked the puzzle early and just now had time to comment. Hand up for knowing MALALAYOUSAFZAI, but confessing I will never be able to remember how to spell her last name, which is sad. I thought the theme was just fine for a Monday, and although Rex’s premise that the themers should all contain a word that relates to “land,” I’ll leave that to others to determine whether it would have been possible because my brain is very lazy when it comes to contemplating those kind of possibilities. As such, I was happy with things the way they are in the puzzle.
Came here to say "meh." A breeze until YOUSAFZAI. And FLABBY was - a popular xword - 'inane.' I don't have much else to say except that I agree with the first sentence of Rex's write-up.
SPA has been in a lot of recent (and past, depending on how long ago the past is) NYT puzzles.
Está lloviendo esta mañana.
Based on the dirt and tumbleweeds, I'd guess the misty mornings are rare here. It also means we'll have a flash flood somewhere in about an hour.
Pleasant enough puzzle. Spelling Malala's last name is always an adventure. I bet even she has to concentrate when writing it out. Lots of names for a Monday, but I knew them all.
I adore living in a world where we now need to be thoughtful about gender assignment and use phrases like CIS WOMAN to identify what we used to call a woman. Seriously. It's adding so much depth to our understanding and highlighting our poor assumptions about "the way things are."
Administrative note on the gunk gauge (as if you care): An anonymous comment I missed a few days back said I "complain" about this stuff everyday. I grumble when the gunk exceeds 35% overall because that's a clear lack of editorial focus, especially on Sundays when the raw numbers are double a typical day. I also grumble if any single category hits double digits. I love to count this stuff because commenters, including OFL, sometime call a grid clean when it's not, or vice versa, and it's fun to me to have some facts. I now know a typical puzzle contains 25-35% gunk, and it's always the difference between a wheelhouse solve and a challenging puzzle. It's normal, fine, interesting, and occasionally you learn something ... like which star who spells their own name weirdly won seven Emmys on some show you'll never watch on a streaming service you've never heard of. Personally, I think most of the people in puzzles aren't worth knowing, the places are really fun to learn about, products are fine, but bands and song titles are a misery. Too many abbreviations are really the most aggravating for me, because we often blame the theme constraints, but we find them all over the weekends too, so it's usually a lack of constructing chops combined with the chronically questionable editing. There's way more gunk in the verticals than the horizontals. As for foreign words, they're barely worth counting as they're mostly words featured in Sesame Street multicultural skits ... until the obscure Latin legal phrases and non-Western languages show up. Then, we hope they've done the crosses right (probably didn't) and the whole solve hinges on one word from Pakistan or Ovid. That's when people go bananas around here. One word fails.
Propers: 11 (ehem)
Places: 3
Products: 6
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 27 of 76 (36%)
Funnyisms: 1 🤨
Tee-Hee: ANAL (Seriously people, delete this from your word lists. Your software will still make grids without it.)
Uniclues:
1 "Thanks for making babies and not owning a cat!" from lifelong Republican.
2 Broadway dumbbells.
3 Every night at dinner when I order everything.
4 Stepped on a pop top in flip-flops.
5 Lesbos lists the lazy.
6 After workout wear for a Svalbardian.
1 YELL TO CIS WOMAN (~)
2 TONY IDIOTS (~)
3 FLAB SPELLS
4 LIMPED IN ONE SEC (~)
5 ISLE NAMES IDLE (~)
6 GYM BAG PARKA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Alternative to the American medical complex. CABANA CT SCAN.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
What you said about LALALAND is how I feel all the time anymore. Time flies!
LALAs. Yep, Monday puztheme level, at most. Thought the fill was more Tues/Wed-like, tho.
staff weeject pick: LEE. Since, at least for @RP, LALA led to YAYA, which led to that neat LEE Dorsey 45rpm label pic. Landed in LEELEE Land, if U will.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {___ v. Wade} = ROE.
Thanx, Mr. Corridan dude. Nice debut.
Masked & Anonym007Us
p.s. Wasn't it "Lala Land" that got announced by mistake as Best Picture, a few years back? Did Will Smith hit anybody, as a result?
**gruntz**
My first sub ten minute NYT puzzle. I was expecting everyone to say how easy it was.
@Egs, Loved your pterodactyl trap.
Good one, @Liveprof
I think I must be an oddball Lol. Every time I think a puzzle is super easy, I'll come here and it's rated Easy-medium. Same when I think a puzzle is incredibly hard, the general consensus here is that it's too easy for whatever day it's released on.
Me too! It was one of my best times.
Well, I liked the theme more than Rex did; and at the time of my earlier comment, the interpretation that the other theme answers were the land of lala hadn't occurred to me; that kind of works, I guess.
I knew MALALA right off, not embarrassed about not remembering her surname. In any case, it's a transcription into our alphabet, so it's hard to say what the correct spelling is.
@kitshef 7:17 am... good catch; it's gotta be those I remember.
He did!
Amusing post, as usual :)
Land of LALAs was also how I interpreted it. OneLook didn't offer any good alternatives (balalaika, dihydroxyphenylalanine,) so kudos to the constructor for writing a computer program to find a set of symmetrical themers. Nice puz and congrats on the debut, Robert!
Hey Roo, I count eight, KIAS, BAKES, SMEARS, IDIOTS, LOWS, ADDS, SPELLS and NAMES. Still a relatively modest number and only one two for one POC at SMEAR/IDIOT.
I don't remotely care how a trans person wants to identify themselves -- as a "trans woman" or as simply just " a woman" or any other way they want to describe themselves. That's totally their prerogative and privilege. But I'm damned if I will permit them or journalists or anyone else to describe me as a CIS WOMAN. I'm a woman, period.. Make up as many new terms for the trans community as you wish, but not for me. That is not your right. And, no, you cannot call me transphobic because I insist on defining MY OWN bleeping identity. I am perfectly willing to respect your chosen terms of reference, so please afford me the same courtesy. Thanks so much.
I may be dating myself but, didn’t Johnny Carson do a character known as Aunt Blabby ?
Also solved downs only so my solve roughly paralleled @Rex's. Never heard the term ciswoman before but because I am often required to describe myself as a cisgendered male I can't really object. Reminds me of he days when I still worked downtown and took the train home and when I transferred from train to bus there was a person who was quite obviously in the process of gender transformation. There was always an empty seat beside her and she looked so sad. People would stand rather than sit by her. They were uncomfortable in her presence. I'd take the empty seat. We would chat about trivial stuff; the weather, that sort of lightweight stuff. Not her gender, not her decision to change (she probably got enough of that shit), not the fact that people were standing and holding onto straps, afraid to get near her, shunning her. She was very brave. I can't forget her.
On a lighter note: POMELOs. On a trip to China in 2002, one of our travelling companions got a tip on how to access the old, unreconstructed part of the Great Wall and after a harrowing crossing of a high weir-like structure approximately 2 feet wide and 25 to 30 feet above a small river (my wife and I are both very nervous about being in high places but, at least, should we fall, she, unlike me is a swimmer) we found ourselves hiking along this fantastic structure. We had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and some bread and cheese and the six of us stopped for lunch at a suitably scenic point where we were approached by a young woman (Kiwi or Aussie, I can't remember and I'm shit with accents) with what looked like a bunch of grapefruits in a backpack. She peeled a few, distributed them, and when I said they didn't really taste like grapefruit, she said they were, in fact, POMELOs, grapefruit ancestors. Perfect picnic.
Loved the puzzle. While you Americans refer to California as LaLaLand, we Canadians use the same term for coastal British Columbia, my home.
And get off my lawn!
@Nancy. Don't be such a sissy. 😂. Just kidding. To be serious, you know who you are. Anyone reading this blob for a while knows who you are: a smart person, a tennis player, someone who was in the publishing business, a tech luddite. If someone wants to refer to you as CIS, just correct them is they're wrong or let it pass if they're correct.
Nancy, I don't usually agree with you, but I'm 100% behind you on this one.
Cis is merely a Latin prefix with the opposite meaning of trans- . Applying the prefix cis- isn't an act of redefining you against your will. It's just a clarification that may seem unnecessary in your life (which is a privilege).
I recently learned that people in the autistic community refer to non-autistic people as allistic. It makes a lot of sense to me that terms need to evolve so that language can identify members of particular groups (when necessary, in context) without resorting to hierarchical distinctions like "normal".
At any rate, since the crossword wasn't asking for the gender of Nancy, and since many people "assigned female at birth and identifying as such" do choose to identify as cis, the clue fits the answer without needing to be seen as an attack on you as an individual.
Anonymous 11:40 AM
You can point out that the comment Malala whatshername sounded off to you without using a contemporary cliché which is a bit condescending., to use another cliché a bit holier than thou.
Most Americans are not familiar with either Urdu or Arabic ( the Yousaf part of her name is of Arabic origin , influenced by Urdu and zai I assume is Urdu). The transliteration has a letter pattern quite different from English and is therefore hard for most Americans to remember. This is not bigotry, just the way the human mind works. Clearly, Okananaganer is trying to say hard name to remember how to spell
I have to remember that Rex is critiquing the puzzle. He has standards and he wants to point out when a puzzle doesn’t reach them. Oddly, I noticed that “problem” about land. I expected Rex to complain. But I also thought: it is fine by me.
I do have a rant
I think it is destructive and self defeating to assume someone is transphobic just because certain terminology bothers them. Language can be a very personal thing. I am gay. I fully understand why people in the community use queer but it is not something at 72 I can say easily.
The problem is when progressives become dogmatic and sad to say a bit like their enemies. Taking control of what people call you is a good thing. Imposing new words describing other people not so much. And you are imposing the term ciswoman if you call Nancy transphobic simply because she doesn’t like it.
And look progressives seem to me to spend too much energy on terminology. Changing terminology can be very important ( Black, Latino/a, First Nations, gay - now queer- trans) but an ever expanding list of subcategories that the mass out of people find confusing and on this occasion insulting is counterproductive. We should be expanding our psychic energy on defeating Trump and gaining allies, not insulting people.
YOUSEFZAI? POMELO?
YOUSEFZAI? POMELO? On a *Monday*??? Huh??
The puzzle itself is the “land.” And it is a land where there is lots of “lala.” Hence, this puzzle is LALALAND.
Kind of obvious, I thought.
Obvious and weak
It would be one thing if someone had said it was transphobic for Nancy to define herself as something other than cisgendered. Nancy can call herself whatever she wants. But the crossword had nothing to do with her, and what appears transphobic is her strong objection to CISWOMAN as an answer in the crossword at all (or perhaps, an answer as clued).
Cis is part of the language that has developed and become normalized in order to allow trans people to self actualize and have language that describes their experience of the world, at times in contrast to non-trans (ie, cis) people. No part of that is an insult to Nancy.
Post a Comment