Europe's highest volcano / SUN 10-27-24 / Nearly succeeded ... but there's a catch! / Steak option in northern Canada / Do-to-do delivery? / Hair-lightening brand / Millimeter-wide photo used for conveying secret messages / Montreal hockey player, to fans / Horned antelope of southern Africa / Add milk to a customer's coffee, in diner lingo / What's mined in a stannary / Nintendo antagonist in purple overalls

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Constructor: Jeffrey Martinovic and Jeff Chen

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: "Working the Night Shift" — an elaborate moon phase puzzle, where circled squares (representing phases of THE MOON (84D: This puzzle's subject)) orbit THE EARTH (66A: Apt central entry for this puzzle). Phases are represented by waxing and waning spellings of "MOON"—from a blacked out circle representing a new moon, through "M" "MO" "MOO" "MOON" (for full moon) then "OON" "ON" "N" and back to the blacked out circle again. There are also a handful of punny moon-related themers:

Theme answers:
  • ROUND TRIP (19A: Complete journey ... or what 84-Down makes in this puzzle?)
  • GOING FULL CIRCLE (37A: Completing a cycle, like 84-Down in this puzzle?)
  • IT'S JUST A PHASE (111A: "They'll grow out of that" ... or a description of eight squares in this puzzle)
The "MOON" phases:
  • EMAILED / ARM (43A: Like many verification codes / 35D: Slot machine lever)
  • KEMO SABE / SMOOCHED (67A: The Lone Ranger, to Tonto / 63D: Gave a big kiss)
  • MOOSE MEAT / "MAKE IT MOO" (91A: Steak option in northern Canada / 55D: Add milk to a customer's coffee, in diner lingo)
  • HONEYMOON SUITE / THE MOON (97A: Newlyweds' booking / 84D: This puzzle's subject)
  • "I CAN'T GO ON" / HIRED GOON (88A: Weary cry / 53D: Mob enforcer)
  • LONDONER / SONORITY (64A: Sherlock Holmes, e.g. / 58D: Feature of James Earl Jones's voice)
  • WAR SONG / INN (40A: "Battle Hymn of the Republic," for one / 31D: Stopover)
Word of the Day: ELBRUS (39D: Europe's highest volcano) —

Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. It is a dormant volcano rising 5,642 m (18,510 ft) above sea level, and is the highest stratovolcano in the supercontinent of Eurasia, as well as the tenth-most prominent peak in the world. It is situated in the southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in the western extension of Ciscaucasia, and is the highest peak of the Caucasus Mountains.

Elbrus has two summits, both of which are dormant volcanic domes. The taller, western summit is 5,642 metres (18,510 ft); the eastern summit is 5,621 metres (18,442 ft). (wikipedia)

• • •

I should give this puzzle its due. I tend not to like puzzles with elaborate visual gimmicks, as they usually result in a solving experience that is slightly to very painful. Everything bends to the will of the gimmick, and the puzzle itself (the fill quality, the overall enjoyability) tends to suffer. The stunt is a monster and makes the actual solving experience bad—that is my general experience, more or less, to varying degrees. And today's puzzle isn't really an exception—I got the theme gimmick, all of it, early, so most of what I remember has nothing to do with the unfolding of the theme gimmick and everything to do with the weirdo answers that pepper the grid (more on those later). There is so much ink on my printed-out grid, and hardly any of it is directly related to the theme, which is, I have to say (finally, after all that) impressive. I mean, the moon does its waxing and waning thing in a very clever way, with "MOON" waxing from "M" to "MOON" and the waning from "MOON" to "N"; it wanes from the front, so every phase actually looks different (i.e. every square has different letters in it). The visual representation of the phases, with the EARTH at the center, that is all very nice. Not so huge a fan of the THE in THE [MOON]—I had "MOON" and thought "what could possibly go in front of it?" ... only to have the answer be a mere definite article. Total thud. But generally, everything inside and including the circled squares = good. 


The theme gets weaker as it tries to cram in theme answers. It probably should've stopped at "IT'S JUST A PHASE." That's the perfect revealer, and the only one the puzzle really needs. ROUND TRIP is OK but meh. And then there's ... man, I can barely look at it ... sigh ... and then there's GOING FULL CIRCLE. How do I say this? To put it bluntly: that is ... not the phrase. GOING FULL CIRCLE, not a thing. Or, rather, perhaps a thing, but a very off-brand, weak thing. Things do not go full circle. They come full circle. Google it. ["Come full circle"] = 4.53 million results. ["Go full circle"] = ... [drum roll] ... 151K. So ["Go full circle"] gets roughly 3% (!?) of the number of hits that ["Come full circle"] gets. COMES FULL CIRCLE would have fit! It would've been perfect here. The choice of GOING FULL CIRCLE is baffling. The most tin-eared thing I've seen in the puzzle in a while (and I saw ACNED just yesterday!). Jarring. Bizarre.


The fill is generally OK, but there are a number of answers that clanked for me, ranging from the ugly to the obscure. DOASET was the first thing that made me visibly wince (25A: Complete some reps). Big EAT A SANDWICH energy on that one, but less bold than EAT A SANDWICH, so ... worse, somehow. Both MOO answers are kind of contrived, but "MAKE IT MOO" is painfully so (55D: Add milk to a customer's coffee, in diner lingo) ("diner lingo" always feels largely fictional; I've spent a lot of time in diners and never heard any of it). Then we get into what, for me, was a fairly lengthy list of "what the hell?" answers today, starting with the ELLEN (who?) / STEENBOK (what?) crossing (109A: ___ Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first elected female head of state / 87D: Horned antelope of southern Africa). As my wife said while she was solving, "If the -bok is not a springbok, I have no idea." Then there's ELBRUS ... I ... I just ... yeah, absolutely no clue. If it's an important European mountain, especially in six letters or less, I figure the crossword would've told me about it by now. But do you know when the last time was that ELBRUS appeared in the NYTXW? Answer: not in my solving lifetime. In fact, not in my lifetime lifetime. It last appeared in one of Margaret Farrar's puzzles back in 1957. Needless to say, I needed every cross there. Next, we have MICRODOT, which is ... a "photo?" (73A: Millimeter-wide photo used for conveying secret messages). That one eluded me (though it's been in the NYTXW a few times before—roughly once a decade since the Shortz Era began). And then there's the "Bake Off" winner (93A: Celebrity chef Hussain who won "The Great British Bake Off"). Man, I watch that show and I still had absolutely no idea. There are too many seasons, too many winners, dear lord, my brain has no room for this stuff. [Note: while I was solving, I hated EYEBALL IT, but I have since (in the past half hour or so?) come to like it, maybe even more than like it (79D: Guesstimate). Sometimes stuff just grows on you. Quickly].


NADIYA was particularly rough for me, as I had -ADIYA and no idea what the cross was supposed to be. I thought I was staring down a Natick at LI-EDOUT / -ADIYA—my very last square. I ran the alphabet to make LI-EDOUT work (81D: Nearly succeeded ... but there's a catch!). LIVED OUT? No, it's LINED OUT, which I only accepted because NADIYA really felt right. See, the problem is that the clue for LINED OUT, in trying to be clever, ends up being wrong and bad (the eternal risk of attempted cleverness). There is nothing about a line-out (in baseball) that suggests "Nearly succeeded." Zero. Nothing. Yes, the implication is that you have hit the ball hard (or hardish), but people line-out into easy, uneventful outs all the time. Lots of liners are pretty soft, actually, or else are hit directly at a defender, in which case no, you did not "nearly succeed." You merely put the ball in play. And then quickly went back to the dugout. I get that the puzzlemakers really, Really wanted that "catch" pun in "... but there's a catch!" It's a good pun! But it falsifies the clue in order to make it "work." So it doesn't work. 


Bullets:
  • 40A: "Battle Hymn of the Republic," for one (WAR SONG) — such a weird answer. Weird because it never appeared in a puzzle until 2023, where it was clued via "Over There" (WWI). I guess those are songs associated with wars ("Battle Hymn" with the Civil War), but I did not know there was a category of song called WAR SONG. If it was a thing, you'd think it would've appeared in puzzles back ... well, closer to the wars those songs are associated with. The twentieth century, anyway. FIGHT SONG, yes. WAR SONG, I dunno.
  • 53A: Montreal hockey player, to fans (HAB) — I learned this from crosswords. And yet I apparently partially unlearned it, because I had -AB and wanted only TAB and FAB but didn't really want either, so had to run the alphabet. To my very small credit, when I hit "H," I knew I'd hit it. HAB is short for "Habitants," early French settlers in Québec.
  • 28A: Do-to-do delivery? (OCTAVE) — excellent clue ("do" is a musical note here, as in "do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do")
  • 63A: Hair-lightening brand (SUN-IN) — I haven't thought about this brand since the 80s—except when the puzzle has reminded me (three times now since I started blogging). If I hadn't known SUN-IN, I could easily have screwed up ELBRUS. If the pattern in S-NIN, then SUN-IN seems the obvious choice, but only if you are parsing it correctly (as two words). If not ... seems like any vowel could go there (assuming you didn't know ELBRUS, which I'm guessing you probably didn't) (not you, you're a genius, obviously—I'm talking to the other people).  I nominate this ad for "Worst Use of Rap in a TV Commercial, Ever":
  • 20D: Roman numeral that anagrams to part of the eye (DLI) — Random Roman numerals (RRNs) are terrible, obviously, but I guess this is slightly more fun than [551, in Old Rome] and much more gettable than [Year of Jordanes's Origin and History of the Goths], say.
  • 64A: Sherlock Holmes, e.g. (LONDONER) — That "ON" square was where I first realized what was going on with the theme. I was a little thrown, since I already had one circled square filled, and it held just one letter. But LONDONER would not be denied, and suddenly I realized "oh, the circled squares are parts of the word "MOON"! Again, a nice aha moment, though it came very early and made all the circled squares very easy to fill in:
  • 116A: "___ Affaire de Femmes" (1988 French classic) ("UNE") — easy enough to infer, but what the heck is this "classic"? Are there "classics" from 1988 now? Seems ... too recent. [looks it up] Oh, hey, it's a Claude Chabrol film (translated in its US release as Story of Women) starring Isabel Huppert—one of my favorite actresses and biggest movie crushes. It's the true story of a woman guillotined in 1943 for performing abortions. Wow, definitely one of those "glad to learn something from the puzzle" situations. Might watch this soon. I don't think I've ever seen a Chabrol picture (???!). I've probably seen a dozen or so Huppert movies. The Trout (1982), White Material (2009), Coup de Torchon (1981), Amour (2012), and Amateur (1995) are among my favorites. Amateur completely broke my brain in the mid-90s. I think it was the first VHS tape I ever bought.  I played the soundtrack nonstop. It's the movie that made me fall in love with Huppert, which is semi-hilarious, as she plays an ex-nun with a terrible haircut. Didn't matter. I was absolutely done for. God bless you, Hal Hartley.

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

106 comments:

Conrad 6:15 AM  


As @Rex predicted (postdicted?) 39Dx63A. I've never heard of either ELBRUS or SUNIN so the U was completely non-inferrable. I guessed U but didn't get the happy music, so I looked it up and the U was correct. I had a stupid typo in another place. D'oh!!

Anonymous 6:23 AM  

I had no problem with ELLEN knowing she's related to the brilliant comic actress Retta, whose surname is Sirleaf.

Aaaaaaanyway I particularly enjoyed this puzzle, even though it was harder for me than it should have been (well, looking at answers like NIENTE, maybe my extra time was warranted). I appreciate when a theme is clever but still of an appropriate difficulty to grasp. "Do-to-do delivery?" was an exceptional clue.

Rick 6:35 AM  

natick with NADIYA crossing INADITHER. INATITHER/NATIYA would work equally well.

Benbini 6:50 AM  

I had INALATHER as a hard lock in the SW since it fits perfectly both with the clue and with an alternate universe version of NADIYA as well as ERIN; had to check puzzle to figure out the mistake.

Anonymous 6:56 AM  

Stuart

Anonymous 7:04 AM  

I loved this, and was super-impressed with the difficult construction challenges it must have presented. (See the introductory paragraph, e.g.).

There’s nothing wrong with “lined out.” Nothing. I’ve heard “[Name] lined out to the shortstop” (or some other position) many times.

There’s also nothing wrong with “going full circle.” Nothing.

Congrats to Jeffrey and Jeff for a job well done!

Anonymous 7:11 AM  

Gah!

Lewis 7:16 AM  

Elegant circle-in-the-square execution for presenting the phases of the moon. These phases have names, such as waning crescent, waxing gibbous, third quarter – phases I’ve heard of but am fuzzy about what they describe. But here J&J removed all fuzziness by illustrating the phases using the letters of the word MOON, and by having the MOON circle the EARTH.

That’s art.

Translating the concept into a crossword grid – making it a puzzle, where the solver has to figure out what’s going on in the circles, figure out why some have rebuses and others don’t; using the entire grid so there aren’t large areas unrelated to the theme; filling the grid despite the restrictions caused by circles which have to contain certain letters, scrubbing junk out of the answer set.

That’s science.

This puzzle, to me, has the feel of an instant classic – how can the presentation of a timeless concept, the phases of the moon, be done any better than this?

And then the dedication of the constructors, 200 messages and 100 grid versions during the build. I’m filled with gratitude, Jeff and Jeffrey, for what you made, a fun-to-crack puzzle with the sheen of beauty and excellence. Thank you!

Son Volt 7:24 AM  

Neat idea and well built - the chops are evident but the overall experience is rough given the wonky fill. KEMOSABE and MOOSEMEAT got me the trick. Like the full phasing graphic.

WAR SONG

Had most of the same side eyes as the big guy to the odd trivia. NADIYA, ELLEN, MICRODOT? All backed into with fair crosses but totally out there. Loads of 3s and 4s don’t help - I’m assuming a result of the theme but is it worth it?

Perfect CIRCLE

I liked this one for the effort - but not a truly pleasant Sunday morning solve.

Victoria Williams

Colin 7:31 AM  

Medium solve... just random difficult spots all over the puzzle. I appreciated the theme, and had many of the same misgivings as Rex but overall appreciated this puzzle, including the (top-bottom) asymmetry. (I'm trying to look at this from a distance to see if I can see the "man on the moon"!) We've been to Montreal many times, so HAB was a gimme. Wrote in ELLE before EMME for the supermodel (108A). But even as a physician, DEFIB was not known to me as a short version of an AED; so I looked this up, and it seems DEFIB is a term used in the UK.

I heard only recently that Bruce Springsteen does not like his moniker, "The Boss." Funny it should show up here.

Some tricky fill in an unusual grid. Kudos to Jeffrey and Jeff!

Anonymous 7:39 AM  

Had no idea what “lined out” was referring to until I came here. And sonority?? Yuk.

Agree that “Sun In” was too dated of a reference. Can’t imagine that they still make the stuff that gave every girl in my high school orange hair.

SouthsideJohnny 8:10 AM  

The early going was a cakewalk - I was cruising along at a pretty good clip, discerned the phase theme gimmick and even dropped in the HONEYMOON SUITE. Then I hit all of the yuck stuff that Rex elaborated on with STEENBOK and ELBRUS as excellent examples. In addition, that whole intersection of SONORITY, NADIYA and GAH was particularly gruesome to suffer through. They don’t even look like real words.

I had mixed feelings about LINED OUT as well - I really wanted it to work, but in the end I think I agree with Rex that it was a valiant swing and a miss.

Alice Pollard 8:27 AM  

SONORITY? had INAtITHER and I had sAB instead of HAB (for Sabre?) so I never got HIREDGOON. LADIYA? ugh That whole area was a mess that resulted in a shameful DNF for me. LINEDOUT is fine, "nearly succeeded" in the sense that a pop-out is a much easier out. Haven't you been watching the playoffs and WS Rex?

Anonymous 8:29 AM  

Also got tripped up by ELBRUS/SUNIN. And SONORITY was not fun.

But is that supposed to be a face in the middle of the puzzle, representing the Man in the Moon? If so, nice touch by the Jeff’s.

Rich Glauber 8:31 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous 8:35 AM  

Had to run the vowels at ELBRUS/SUNIN - still didn’t get the happy music, but the U had to be right so went searching for typos and found a couple. Well, one typo and another Natick - STEErBOK was defensible, and I guess I thought the African head of state might be named after Aunt Eller in “Oklahoma.”

Andy Freude 8:39 AM  

Exact same experience here, Conrad. Why do I feel like I have to finish these tiresome Sunday puzzles? Clever construction but not much fun to solve.

kitshef 8:43 AM  

Mount ELBRUS is the tallest mountain in Europe, which I think gives it some legitimacy. NADIYA/LINED OUT cross was my final square, but I felt good about it. ELBRUS is much more crossworthy than NADIYA or Une Affaire de Femmes, IMO.

Very much disagree about "do-to-do delivery", which I think is a terrible clue, trying to be clever but in the end making no sense. The problem, is 'do-to-do' does not exist in the wild, so the clue is playing off of nothingness.

Anonymous 8:49 AM  

My husband, who is a huge hockey fan, gave me the answer for HAB but then mumbled something about the answer being kind of a deep cut for a crossword.

RooMonster 8:51 AM  

Hey All !
I am certainly IN A DITHER here, as that caused my one-letter DNF. Argh! Had IN A tITHER, never asking twice about it. And who is this *British(!)* Chef Show Winner? Shoot, I don't even know US Bake Show Winners, you expect me to care about British Bake Shows? A step too far.

Thought the Circles after the MOON would be the same as the first set, ala MOO, MO, M. Quickly realized that wasn't the case after getting INN. Said, "Huh?", but in the next second, figured out it was the "other side of the Moon". 😁

GOING FULL CIRCLE sounds OK in my mind. Of course, you all know my mind! Har. Surprised there wasn't a rant on NRA, not even trying to hide its clue.

We get an ASS suffix today, BADASS. Actually spelled LUCY LIU correct the first time today! Mark that on the calendar. Wondering if 59A, INLAND SEA, could've been lawyered into having the clue be - Tranquillity? Technically THE MOON is a landmass, yes?

That's enough outta me, see ya later BRITCHES. 🤣

Happy Sunday!

Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Anonymous 8:51 AM  

Weak theme and ridiculous trivia in the fill. Gar!

Anonymous 8:52 AM  

Can someone please explain 20D: Roman numeral that anagrams to part of the eye (DLI) ?

Nancy 8:55 AM  

Gosh, I'm bored! Such flat, uninteresting clues. Such flat, uninteresting answers. No zip. No sparkle. No surprises. No chuckles.

I've done between a third and a half of this -- a little bit past the BADASS/PATTERN/SUBLET line and I'm stopping. ROUND TRIP and GOING FULL CIRCLE have come in on their own and of course there are those circled letters that I'm not paying any attention to. So, as is so frequent with Jeff Chen puzzles, once again there's some sort of grid design that I'm supposed to be intrigued by and supposed to want to put together myself -- only I'm not and I don't. I'll save myself the time and trouble by going and reading Rex right now.

Anonymous 9:30 AM  

The NADIYA season of GBBO (season 6 in UK numbering, collection 3 on US Netflix) is one of the best - highly recommended viewing.

I enjoyed today more than Rex, which is usually true. Clever theme. Thanks for the commentary and kvetching!

Craig O’Connor 9:32 AM  

I think ELLEN Sirlief Johnson was a great answer and highlights how far behind the USA is in never having had a women president. STEENBOK was fun, as it wasn’t Reebok or springbok, but a whole other freaking bok I never knew of. Same with Elbrus - I appreciate learning things when crossing words.

Carola 9:32 AM  

Mostly easy, with the challenge for me being overcoming resistance to a rebus on a Sunday: Was there an alternative spelling to KEMOSABE? I left that one square blank and went on. But then the across-the-way LONDONER shed the needed (MOON)light on the situation and I enjoyed completing the rest of the waxing and waning Admirable theme, super reveal!

Lots to like elsewhere, too. I thought INLAND SEA was lovely, liked the pair of BRIEFS and BRITCHES, and smiled at the corner turn of MAKE IT MOOSEMEAT (which is underscored by EDIBLE) as well as the now obsolete MICRODOT, familiar from spy novels. I thought this was one of the best Sunday puzzles in a long while.

Anonymous 9:33 AM  

100% at agree with Rex on Lineout. Terrible Clue/answer.

Fun_CFO 9:40 AM  

Of course nothing wrong with LINEDOUT. It’s the extremely strained clue.

Anonymous 9:41 AM  

If you want to insult her (and the “multitudes” 🙄) at least get her name right. It’s Weintraub, not Silver.

Anonymous 9:43 AM  

Great puzzle. I learned there was more to bok-dom than just ree- and -spring (and South Africa’s rugby team)! Also learned about Elbrus. I like learning when crossing words. Also, happy to see ELLEN Sorlien Johnson not only because of who she is, but as a reminder that the USA, despite claims of leadership and exceptionalism, still has yet to elect a female President (unlike about 90 other nations).

Anonymous 10:00 AM  

The LID is a part of the eye. DLI = 551 is a (in fact, the only valid) rearrangement of those letters to form a Roman numeral.

Anonymous 10:05 AM  

Enjoyed this one a lot. It was in my wheelhouse because I’m a huge fan of Bake off and so also a fan of Nadiya. I knew the Habs because of Inspector Gamache books, and I knew Sun-in because I’m old. Thought of that first, but I agree it’s such an old reference that I thought it couldn’t be right. But as others have noted, a very elegant use of a theme.

BobL 10:12 AM  

Put in HIRED GUN and could not go further.

egsforbreakfast 10:50 AM  

The HIREDGOON ate a MACAROON
Crying GAH! It's made of MOOSEMEAT.
But then LUCYLIU, wearing ETONBLUE
Took him to the HONEYMOON SUITE.

I didn't know that supermodeling proceed in an alphabetical manner. I too had EllE before EMME. Any of you old timers remember Effe, Egge, Ehhe or any of the other former supermodels?

I would argue that every time that a baseball player has LINEDOUT, they've "nearly succeeded." They determined very early that the pitch would arrive in a hittable area, then quickly shifted their weight to the front foot to initiate their swing motion at exactly the right time. Then, as the bat starts to come around they make nanosecond adjustments to account for the perceived spin and the likely effect of gravity, bringing the bat at high speed to make solid contact at, or near, the center of the barrel. This results in the ball rebounding at high velocity, which is exactly what is desired. The fact that it is caught means that they did not completely succeed, but they certainly nearly did.

I thought the theme and its execution were superb. This was a great puzzle. Thanks, Jeffrey Martinovic and Jeff Chen.

Joe from Lethbridge 10:54 AM  

I had an experience similar to most above-I swooshed through the top half and then ran into snags with Elbrus, Steenbok, Nadiya...however, as a life-long Habs fan that was a gimme. (I believe that the full name was "Les Habitants du Hockey Canadienne"-or Habs, for short.) I too thought that the theme was very well played out; kudos to the constructors.

Anonymous 10:56 AM  

HIRED GUN got me, too.

Anonymous 10:58 AM  

Eton College is not a "prep school".

Anonymous 11:03 AM  

EARTH being in the center of the grid is brilliant AF.

thefogman 11:15 AM  

Pretty good aside from the usual junk like TSR, TSK, TEY etc. Non-words should be no-nos. The theme was terrific.

Anonymous 11:25 AM  

I’M HIT and I’M IN in the same puzzle—and crossing each other?

Anonymous 11:34 AM  

Before I got the theme I was held up by having caribou as the meat eaten in Northern Canada. HABs was a gimme - I grew up in Montreal.

I disagree with Rex about come/go FULL CIRCLE. On BING there are as many hits for COME as for GO and to my ear are used differently. GO FULL CIRCLE usually describes an expected route- the moon goes full circle. Come FULL CIRCLE to me means it comes back again, not necessarily in a circle. Fashion Comes FULL CIRCLE when what is old is new again.

Sam 11:36 AM  

Impressive theme but a bunch of ugly answers in the SW ruined this one. TSR? TEY? GAH? SONORITY? Also, HAB??? Yucky stuff.

Tom T 11:52 AM  

Undone in the SW. "Nuff said.

Rug Crazy 12:10 PM  

Painful.

Anonymous 12:14 PM  

Rex, if you were truly in love with Huppert how could you not have seen The Lacemaker?

egsforbreakfast 12:22 PM  

From Wikipedia: Eton College (/ˈiːtən/ ⓘ EE-tən)[3] is a 13–18 public fee-charging and boarding secondary school for boys in Eton, Berkshire, England.

jae 12:45 PM  

Medium for me. The top half was easy but the bottom half was quite a bit tougher. In the SW I did not know NADIYA, SONORITY, and UNE and the clue for LINEDOUT was very tricky (hi @Rex et. al). In the SE ELLEN and STEENBOK were WOEs so the N was a guesstimate. Plus it took some staring to figure out the rebus squares.

Yes, an impressive feat of construction, liked it.

SharonAK 12:50 PM  

Like a commenter above I swoosh thru the top half then totally bogged down. Some of it completely my fault. Got hung up on the plural "Femmes" in 116A totally ignoring the singular affaire and COULD NOT think of "une". Which stopped me getting the downs or a long time. Similar problem with 94A.
Never heard of Sun-in. Must be too old for it.When I googled volcanoes in Europe did not find an Elbrus.
Surprised at the multiple commenters who did not know or like "sonority" for 58 D . I thought of it immediately. What else cold it be for the ice o James EarlJones?
"Going full circle " sounds perfect to me regardless of how many "hits" Rex fond versus "come full circle"
What are DTS in the football world. Have one heard of them in the boozehound world.

Anonymous 1:01 PM  

I had IN A LATHER — blech

Anonymous 1:01 PM  

Same

burtonkd 1:25 PM  

Think “door-to-door”

Paul 1:26 PM  

I had UN in that square for the longest time. Once it was clear that OON was needed to complete the theme, I changed it. Only then did I see HIREDGOON.

Paul 1:30 PM  

Lots of potential Naticks for one puzzle. Before the slog that was the SW, I got bogged down in the NE. Incredibly, I solved this in less than my Sunday average. Clever theme but ghastly fill.

burtonkd 1:33 PM  

I think the LINED OUT clue is just fine, and had a nice aha, when I ran the alphabet and got the “N”. It is so hard to just make solid contact as a batter, as opposed to popping up or grounding out or whiffing completely, so that is a success, except that it happened to go straight at a defender. You can’t hit a weak LINE drive; that would be a ground ball.

Willa 1:37 PM  

I was under the impression that this puzzle was going to be about the solar system, or orbiting, or something in the night sky; so I was dutifully filling in what I could on the grid. Then the penny dropped and I got the whole "phases" thing. I have never seen this type of theme in many years of crossword solving and thought it was original, fun and very, very clever. Some minor complaints about the fill but this gave me a happy solve and a nice surprise. Thanks Mr. Martinovic and Mr. Chen!

okanaganer 1:40 PM  

Elaborate theme... kinda liked it but not over THE MOON about it. But Rex, speaking of the THE at square 84, I argue it needs to be there because our moon has no name. It is a moon; lots of planets have them; so we say "THE moon" when we mean our moon.

Hands up for hating ELBRUS crossing SUNIN. I too had to run all the vowels, then find my other mistake and run them again. And annoying typeover with AHA then OHO before OOH.

I'm surprised no one commented on I'M HIT crossing I'M IN. Now if they had crossed IN A DITHER that would have actually been fun.

Here in Canada, people definitely say "the HABs" to refer to the Canadiens. Although it's pretty rare to see the singular.

M and A 1:40 PM  

Mooned by a SunPuz! Like.
E-W puzgrid symmetry. Also like.
39 weejects to choose from. SW stack of OOH+UNE+TSR was quite nice and desperate. But the central stack of AAH+NRA+DTS is certainly also a contender.

Thanx for gangin up on us, Mr. Martinovic & Chen dudes. Your puzs are goin thru a neat phase, here.

Masked & Anonymo12Us


**gruntz**

Emily Ransom 1:44 PM  

Really enjoyed the theme, though some of Rex’s very just gripes kept it from being the first Sunday puzzle I’ve solved without looking anything up, a year into my life as a solver. I missed the coming-of-age milestone because of NADIYA and LANAI and LINEDOUT (I figured it had to do with baseball; I just don’t know my baseball terms). Plenty of other trouble spots had educated guesses or needed every cross (I made up MICRODOT and had no clue about TEY in its crossing), but I almost made it. So I’m fond of this puzzle for the milestone it almost was for me, and feel vindicated to read Rex’s complaints about the problems in the very corner that was the death of me.

Sailor 2:08 PM  

It is true that in English usage the term "prep school" refers to school years 3-8, where students prepare for admission to a secondary school (such as Eton).

In the USA, where "prep school" means a secondary or "college-preperatory" school (such as Eton), I suspect most Americans think of an English boarding school like Eton as a "prep school" in our sense of the term. I know that I do, and my thought process (having BLUE already in place) was '4-letter "famed prep school" = Eton.'

Anonymous 2:09 PM  

I will add that I really wanted the sun to be centered on top of the puzzle to complete the elaborate construction with the EARTH in the center, but that would have required a different grid.

jazzmanchgo 2:19 PM  

I'd have preferred LINE OUT to refer to the "line out" in audio -- a port that sends a signal from an amp or some other device to an external source such as a mixer, speaker[s], a recording device of some kind, or something else that will receive the signal.

jb129 2:19 PM  

I haven't read the comments yet so I don't know what the commentariat have said. I got a late start today, but that's no excuse. Spent most of my late morning & a good -part of the early afternoon trying to tackle this - being a construction from Jeff & Jeffrey
(thank you, guys :).
For me this was an absolute horror - not being a fan of rebuses (no excuse) but just couldn't get into it. Congrats & admiration to those who did.
Gonna go to Wordle now before lose my streak there too.
Thanks again, Jeff & Jeffrey :)

Anonymous 2:22 PM  

Elbrus is one of the famed seven summits. Definitely crossword worthy.

Andy 2:23 PM  

Just wanted to shout out BRITCHES, which I cannot recall ever having seen in a puzzle.

Anonymous 2:24 PM  

EARTH being an "apt central entry", how apt is NRA in the other direction?
TSK, IMO!

Anonymous 2:52 PM  

Too many Naticks for me. Plus, can we stop already with cluing NRA with guns? Really bad look. The National Recovery Act from FDR's time is a better clue. Wasn't a fan of this one at all.

Eniale 2:52 PM  

I did get the gimmick but had to cheat several times for the pop culture stuff - drawback for me is watch no sports or television....

Please do yourselves a favor, fiction readers, and read a couple of Josephine TEY's books; all well worth it especially "The Daughter of Time" about researching Richard III and the murder of the little princes.

And I've been lucky enough to see STEENBOKs in the Kruger Park; they're delightful but tiny and timid and keep darting behind a rock or a bush.

Ben 3:02 PM  

You actually go counterclockwise for the phasing to work correctly, not clockwise -- black circle to N, to ON, to OON, to MOON, to MOO to MO to M to black circle. The front (light or dark) always advances from right to left.

Anonymous 3:37 PM  

Rich
Tither instead of dither
Maybe wires crossed and you mixed dither and t Izzy, to get tither. . Tither means one who pays a tithe. BTW.
If tither ( short i) exists, it is vastly more obscure than dither.
Don’t think the cross was a natick.

dgd 3:47 PM  

Son volt
I see there is a lot of criticism of microdot already
It didn’t bother me, but I am a WW Ii history nerd. Microdots were miniaturized photos of a message that were put on typed letters to hide secret messages. Apparently invented by the Germans. Used by a double agent who turned over a letter with them on it to British and American intelligence.

Anonymous 3:50 PM  

Anonymous 7:39
About sonority. I wouldn’t say yuk but agree it is Avery awkward word. Themes do create oddities like this!

Greater Fall River Committee for Peace & Justice 3:54 PM  

Hmmm, I thought it was Hudson'S Bay, but I suppose the 'S isn't always used. But I don't think it's an inland sea, is it? Hudson Strait connecting it to the North Atlantic is way wider than a river. There are pretty substantial connections to Baffin Bay too.

Anonymous 4:00 PM  

Brilliant masterpiece of a puzzle! Yes, instant classic. Arguing against this puzzle because of some compromised fill necessitated by the severe restrictions imposed by the impeccably delivered theme, and some clue choices that go against the grain for some solvers, strikes me like arguing against Kamala because she isn't a perfect candidate.

Anonymous 4:26 PM  

Anonymous 8:35’
ELLEr instead of ELLEN
I aways thought Eller was Roger’s & Hammerstein’s weak attempt at a dialect version of Ella. Never seen it anywhere else. Don’t know if Sirleaf’s parents would have been fans of the musical.

jazzmanchgo 4:26 PM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
MetroGnome 4:33 PM  

Eh -- when NRA is clued as the Roosevelt-era program, the moralists still get their undies in knot about it. Apparently the initials themselves are verboten, regardless of meaning or context.

A 4:34 PM  

A few weeks ago I asked if anyone knew where to find good Sunday puzzles, and lo and behold, here is a very fine one! Neat MOONlightling theme with a non-repeating rebus. EARTH at the center of the grid. And lots of tougher clues/answers - including things about which I knew nothing, but were fairly crossed or, as in the case of SUN IN, helped by the clue.

No idea the CIA only uses LABs in their CANINE unit.

Loved seeing LONDONER Holmes sharing the puzzle with Watson portrayer LUCY LIU.

Nice clue for OCTAVE.

Liked the placement of MOOSE MEAT over EDIBLE.

What will our uniclue experts do with SNL BRIEFS BINARY TED? Will it involve BRITCHES?

Hope to see more by Team Martinovic and Chen!

bertoray 4:57 PM  

That TV commercial too funny.

dgd 5:04 PM  

I usually do the puzzle in the dead tree edition. But I am traveling and was forced to use the app, which I hate. I forgot that in the app, the next day’s puzzle appears around 10:00 pm.
So I opened the first puzzle and wondered why it looked so small and why it had a theme! I didn’t even notice it was much bigger
Anyway I completed the puzzle and liked it. But the app reminded me why I hate it so much.
I agree with egsforbreakfast. Line drives
He described my reaction. The batter did almost everything right except the precise route the ball took was in a space the fielder could catch.
Depends on how you look at it!
Also the full circle tirade seems over the top.
I will admit Elbrus was totally unknown to me. And had no memory of Sirleaf’s first name.
I can see why Nancy was bored by it, but overall it kept
Now I am going to do Saturday’s puzzle.

Anonymous 5:19 PM  

Ah yes, the homophobic president of Liberia. Nice.

EasyEd 5:26 PM  

Vive les Habs, and MAKEIT(EDIBLE)MOOSEMEAT! Had to look up some tortuous PPP and realize that LANAI was better fit than pAtio to survive the SE and SW, but otherwise was happy with this puzzle and see it as highly complicated construction that could have been a lot tougher on the solver than it was. Don’t know why GOINGFULLCIRCLE should be controversial as it’s one of various patterns I’ve heard frequently since childhood.

EasyEd 5:30 PM  

Oh yes, and as a relatively recent heart surgery patient, DEFIB was a no-brainer. For those who did not know this one, probably good news!

Anonymous 6:08 PM  

Long time solver and Rex fan
First time commenter…this puzzle contained 3 elements I love:
The MOON!!!
Twilight reference!!!
Bruce Springstein!!!!
Big grin at the end

Ken Freeland 6:11 PM  

Well said, Paul. I habe nothing to add to your accurate assessment. A slogfest.

Ken Freeland 6:12 PM  

👍

Anonymous 6:26 PM  

Defensive Tackles

LewS 7:03 PM  

Chabrol rules

jae 7:15 PM  

I’ll second the recommendation for TEY’s “The Daughter of Time”. It’s a great read!

dash riprock 9:10 PM  

Pshaw. Fail again, this time at the WARIO x WAR SONG cross (40d x 40a). Not truly ELHIed, as WAR SONG is inferable, but when Rip was blasting through there, the partial mARS (god of war), 40a, seemed reasonable, and mARIO, 40d, agreed, so.. (Note - Rip's 'blasting,' think potato sack race.) Took a full 14 min post the gong to suss the error as I was sure it lay somewhere around the Friday-esque SW corner and ELHI-pit at 93a, NADIYA. Turned out I conjectured the space correctly.

Any gamers confused by 81d, LINED OUT, or 118a, TAT, must know by now the first to be a baseball term, the second, half of of tit for TAT.

Theme 'n' scheme was.. kinda cute. The game felt a grid entirely of Sunday-level quality fill, no showpieces, and slightly diminished by the SW (TSR, 121a, OOH, 110a, GAH, 89d, the stateside unknown NADIYA, 93a) and by... what the hell is WARIO, 40?! "Wario is the final boss, dude. Don't you know 'warui'? D00d, just because you don't know Wario doesn't mean other people don't know Wario. The universe doesn't revolve around you. You are not the master of all information, bruh! Get your head around that." Yada.

Um kay.

Mate came from upstate NY for the MC Marathon today, what a sublime day. Hope y'all likewise had a good one.

Anonymous 10:27 PM  

Three elements of this puzzle are my absolute favorite things…
THE MOON!!!
Twilight (New Moon) reference and
THE BOSS
Finished with a grin on my face!

Anonymous 10:59 PM  

Those of us from the 100 acre wood had INAboTHER

Anonymous 11:01 PM  

They still make sun in! You have to have very specific undertones for it to work ok and not turn you orange. If they ever stop making it I’m toast bc it’s saved me thousands of dollars on getting it dyed at a salon. I was obviously delighted to see it show up.

Anonymous 11:41 PM  

i honestly don't know how i felt/feel about this puzzle - one of those weird ones where there was a lot i didn't know but somehow it all filled in quickly and it was over before i had a chance to think one way or the other.

but i'm glad i read the blog today because of nadiya's picture. i don't watch GBBO [i don't know why, but, i can watch cooking shows all day long but the baking ones just don't interest me, even though i both bake and enjoy baked goods] so i just sounded out the name to guess at the letters [i honestly thought the LINED OUT thing was a reference to fishing! baseball ain't my thing...hockey however...HAB was a gimme]. i didn't even bother googling her because who cares. but then when i saw her picture on the blog i realized i both know her and love her! she has a cooking show that is just wonderful, and has appeared on a couple other cooking/eating shows i've seen. i'll watch the episodes over and over if they're on because it just lightens my mood. [i'm bad at names - i could describe the set to you in great detail, as well as some of the recipes, and entire episode plots, but a name? forget it. it's why i don't organize my books by author. i'd never be able to find anything.]

-stephanie.

Anonymous 12:39 AM  

No. Do-to-do references notes of the scale (do re mi), where do-to-do is an octave.

Anonymous 5:33 AM  

The *pun* is in fact on “door to door”

Anonymous 10:35 AM  

I know a lot of South African bokke, and not just the rugby players. Tried springbok, rooibok, gemsbok, blesbok, bontebok, and of course reebok and even rheebok as an alternate spelling. Never heard of a steenbok but at least I know steenbok makes sense as a word.

Nonetheless, what I thought would be a gimme was most definitely not.

Made in Japan 1:41 PM  

It's surprising that Rex's complaint about Elbrus is that it's never appeared in the NYTXW before. It's one of the Seven Summits, and clearly a mountain whose importance exceeds it's familiarity. We should be glad that it finally made the puzzle. Likewise for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. As the first elected female head of state in Africa, we should celebrate her inclusion in today's NYTXW.

Anonymous 4:33 PM  

Macaroons are not made with almond flour. That’s macarons! (one o)

Anonymous 5:27 PM  

Had hired GUN for a while

Anonymous 10:31 PM  

I was amazed by this. Hudson's Bay is definitely not an inland sea.

Anonymous 5:15 PM  

Since when is britches an informal word for pants? No one in the USA refers to their pants as britches or breeches. Also never fails to amaze how little Americans know about European geography. Like why they don’t know My.Elbrus.

Anonymous 8:44 PM  

I have also had the pleasure of seeing STEENBOKs on safari in South Africa. Lots of different BOKs over there.

Gary Jugert 12:42 PM  

Es sólo una fase.

Who on EARTH doesn't like THE MOON? Who won't SMOOCH the moon? It puts me in a DITHER.

[Do-to-do delivery] is cute.

Propers: 19
Places: 5
Products: 7
Partials: 15
Foreignisms: 6
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 52 of 141 (37%)

Funnyisms: 6 😐

Tee-Hee: BAD ASS EDIBLE.

Uniclues:

1 Open up money to make more Deloreans.
2 Pants with tiny secrets.
3 Canadian clodhopper carnivore caves.
4 Dog ripped your smart alec face off.
5 How to enjoy a highland adventure, uh huh.

1 UNBOX IRISH AUTO LOANS (~)
2 MICRODOT BRITCHES
3 MOOSEMEAT YAHOO: "I CAN'T GO ON" (~)
4 CANINE GRADED SASS (~)
5 SAY YES TO SNOWSUIT! AAH! (~)

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: My mental world when a pretty girl walks in the room. "OH BEHAVE" SPATES.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

spacecraft 12:40 PM  

Rebus haters will reject this one. I don't mind them, but it's a bit of a surprise to find one on a Sunday. No matter; it all worked out.

A most elaborate theme, and boy, does the fill suffer for it! Too many examples to list; let's just say that the question of whether it was worth it is a reasonable one to ask. Brilliant + uh-oh! = par.

Wordle birdie.

Anonymous 2:49 PM  

Rex, schools have fight songs, soldiers have war songs. It is a category.

Burma Shave 7:53 PM  

WANT TO, IN BRIEFS

OOH, SAYYESTO me TED,
don't PUT me ON THE HOTSEAT,
EDIBLE BRITCHES IN bed
TO MAKE our HONEYMOONSUITE.

--- LUCY LOU HAYES

From yesterday:

STUNTS CREW

The SAMEOLDSTORY for YOU -
YOU TOUCH and USER sooner
while her LAST NAME is NEW -
YOUr DREAMDATE is A NOONER.

--- EDWINA RUSTIN

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