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Lead-in to coin, for a meme currency / SUN 10-6-24 / James Joyce short story set in a bazaar / John Singer Sargent portrait that scandalized Paris in 1884 / Thick plank of a ship / 2001 title role for Audrey Tautou / Fangorn Forest inhabitants, in fiction / Bandmate of Ginger, Scary, Posh and Baby / Longtime guitarist for the Eagles / The "O" in a H.O.R.S.E. poker tournament
Sunday, October 6, 2024
Constructor: John Kugelman
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- "DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS" (22A: Mrs. B you'll die when you hear what happened to "me" this summer.)
- "YOUR MONEY'S NO GOOD HERE" (37A: So we're at the convenience store and WOW I find a 5$ dollar bill on the floor)
- "HALT, WHO GOES THERE" (45A: Surprise surprise! Whom should walk in? Just my best friend ever!)
- "DON'T START WITH ME" (64A: Me and Jamie ask if we can get a couple of scratchers)
- "ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE" (83A: My mom buys them, and she knows how much I loooooooove lottery tickets)
- "PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER" (92A: "Scratch them your self girls," she says, so we do")
- "YOU CAN'T WIN THE MALL" (i.e. "THEM ALL") (111A: OMG can you believe it! We won the mall!!!)
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, is a fictional American comic book jungle girl heroine, originally published primarily by Fiction House during the Golden Age of Comic Books. She was the first female comic book character with her own title, with her 1941 premiere issue (cover-dated Spring 1942) preceding Wonder Woman #1 (cover-dated Summer 1942). Sheena inspired a wealth of similar comic book jungle queens. She was predated in literature by Rima, the Jungle Girl, introduced in the 1904 William Henry Hudson novel Green Mansions.An orphan who grew up in the jungle, learning how to survive and thrive there, she possesses the ability to communicate with wild animals and is proficient in fighting with knives, spears, bows, and makeshift weapons. Her adventures mostly involve encounters with slave traders, white hunters, native Africans, and wild animals. (wikipedia)
• • •
There were so many other things I wanted to correct about these stupid sentences. Where's the comma after "Mrs B" or "your self"? Why is WOW all-caps? Why no question mark at the end of "OMG can you believe it!"? Also, from a crossword editor perspective, why is there a full stop at the end of the first imagined sentence but no end-of-sentence punctuation on any of the others (except the exclamation points on that last one)? So many things about the puzzle feel unpolished an un-thought through. And the fill ... it's oof all around. So many bad short plurals. ORDS! OYS! OOHS! SYNS! An entirely unwelcome "meme currency" clue on the regular old Italian title DOGE. A (to me) obscure Joyce short story ("ARABY") (??) (44A: James Joyce short story set in a bazaar). ECOL when it should be EVOL (I mean, you invoked Darwin, for god's sake, come on!) (106D: Darwinian subj.). The nonsensical DEMONICAL (we dropped the "AL" a long time ago) (119A: Devilish). LIPASE? MEINE? MAZY!? It was hard to find a reason to smile today. I should be grateful that ... what, almost half of the themers kinda worked? MUSCLE CARS and JOE WALSH and ABLE SEAMAN add some manly musk, I suppose. SWEAR JARS, OK, good. But overall, this wasn't a ton of fun to solve. And then to "reward" my successful solve with that absurd Post-It, ugh. Fix!
Bullets:
- 8A: John Singer Sargent portrait that scandalized Paris in 1884 (MADAME X) — I have an idea which portrait this is, but let's see if I'm right ... [sound of search engine whirring] ... yep, that's it. You've seen it around, probably. Like a fine art version of a Gorey cartoon. So much lithe ennui.
,_John_Singer_Sargent,_1884_(unfree_frame_crop).jpg)
- 80A: They might be said to be dancing or raging (FLAMES) — I've said a fire is "raging," maybe. FLAMES, I dunno. This one was oddly hard for me (but then "word that can precede / follow X & Y" clues always are)
- 79A: "Licensed to ___" (Beastie Boys album) ("ILL") — I've known about this album forever—their debut album, a seminal album of my Gen X teendom—and it was only today that I learned it was "Licensed," not "License."
- 67D: Thick plank of a ship (WALE) — I know this as a corduroy term. Also, a rapper. According to wikipedia, "A wale is one of the strakes of wooden planking that forms the outer skin of the hull of a ship, but substantially thicker than the other strakes." You're gonna have to look up "strakes" yourself. (note: STRAKE(S) has appeared in the NYTXW 13 times (!), but all of those times were 1986 or earlier)
- Lead-in to coin, for a meme currency (DOGE) — I don't want to dwell on this, but since a lot of you will be wondering wtf, here you go:
Dogecoin (/ˈdoʊ(d)ʒkɔɪn/ DOHJ-koyn or DOHZH-koyn, Abbreviation: DOGE; sign: Ð) is a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a joke, making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time. It is considered both the first "meme coin", and more specifically the first "dog coin". Despite its satirical nature, some consider it a legitimate investment prospect. Dogecoin features the face of Kabosu from the "doge" meme as its logo and namesake. It was introduced on December 6, 2013, and quickly developed its own online community, reaching a peak market capitalization of over US$85 billion on May 5, 2021. As of 2021, it is the sleeve sponsor of Watford Football Club. (wikipedia)
See you next time.
P.S. here's what the print version looked like. It's got red-pencil corrections right in the clues, and the "C+ / Fix!" Post-It comes pre-affixed:
Save And Share :
127 comments:
Easy for me too, although I liked it a lot more than @Rex did.
My major complaint was 23D: “Please don’t be MAZY, please don’t be MAZY, please don’t be … D’oh!”
Misremembered the 69A Audrey Tatou role as AMaLIE and the 87A “Aquarius” singer as Marilyn MCCOy.
35A LIPASE was a total WOE but the crosses were fair.
Surprised you didn’t link wale to gunwale.
Who knew that a digital post-it note could cause such trauma?
Agree with Rex. Did this puzzle predawn. The sun is not yet up and I’ve already had a bad day
I enjoyed this one a lot more than @Rex. My main complaint was MAZY--I mean, come on. But I thought it was a fun way to start the day.
Solved themeless. Post-it is baffling.
Really just came to see how Rex was going to obliterate UNPC. Sigh. But otherwise pretty much agree with his assessment.
Crazy, to me, that this constructor now has 6 published NYT puzzles, but this was his first one accepted - 18 months ago. 18 months! So why, exactly, isn’t the editing better.
As a dead-tree solver, the C+/Fix! "extra" was included in my version of the puzzle and I wasn't that offended by it. I also cringed at the number of weird short plurals and it seemed obvious that the theme forced a lot of fill that not only pushed the envelope but tore it.
On the other hand, until Rex's theme list, I didn't realize that the collective clues were part of a "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" assignment and one short essay filled with errors, some of which were red-penciled and some which Rex complained were ignored (which a teacher might do in order to cut back on the critique.) So that made it a bit more enjoyable, though not by much.
Teacher here. What a drag of a puzzle.
Saturday was “international teacher day” or some contrivance of the sort, and we are rewarded with a Sunday puzzle that shows little understanding of what teachers actually do. Lovely.
The idea of this puzzle was a good one but was really lacking for all of the reasons that @Rex said or is it says or is it sez. C+ my A%#! I did not looooooove it.
Down with the big guy this morning - this was brutal and I guess everyone received the C+ for completing the puzzle?
SHEENA
Theme is flawed at a base level - but further it just doesn’t have the balls or scope to work in the Sunday sized grid. Not once did I think about it during the solve - this ended up being a huge themeless loaded with dreck. For the nth time - not all Mustangs and Firebirds were MUSCLE CARS. H
Another Sunday morning failure.
JOE WALSH with Rusty Young on the STEEL guitar
A very good theme with some unfortunate fill (e.g. ONE NAME, ORDS, LIPASE, OLAS, ITO, NOHO, SYNS, MIENE, ANO, FILER, ENG, AMIL, ESE).
And then there’s MAZY, which is in a whole ‘nother category.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
Aww, c’mon guys, we need to lighten up a bit. This is a collection of semi-punny (in this context) answers that are common in the language and humorously connected to the clues. OK, so a bunch of groaners, still IMHO not worthy of a lot of angst, especially the in-the-cheek C+ at the end. Went well with an early cup of coffee.
Since Mike E. mentions it’s on the paper puzzle, I think the post-it was supposed to be there BEFORE the solve - a note from the teacher that there are errors that need to be fixed. So the note showing up AFTER the solve doesn’t make any sense. And yeah, a pretty clunky puzzle.
I think this was a constructor dealing with or passively aggressively confronting the atrocious writing skills in display all over the Internet. Some of the “mistakes” were familiar, and I remember my 12th grade writing teacher making a note on one of my submissions telling me to “fix” something. I think it was just like that: “Fix!” A little kitschy but all in all enjoyable.
The Shiba Inu portrayed on the DogeCoin recently entered doggy heaven, where the only currencies are treats and walkies.
My worst solve time to date. By a LONG shot. The theme was the only delightful part of this puzzle because all the other parts sucked so hard.
MAZY added 13 minutes to my time. I had MAZE and it wasn't until checking every single answer for a typo lol hat I realized the part of speech of the clue.
So dumb.
Let me explain for the troubled Rex. You got a C+ because of all of the mistakes that were the *theme of the puzzle*. Could the teacher be more specific? - they were, in all the answers that were the *theme of the puzzle*. Relax. You did very very very well. You got them allllll right. Sheesh.
58 down clue is wrong. The band is “Eagles.” NOT “The Eagles.”
Bizarre - I’m usually the one complaining about the theme being forced and gimmicky, and I enjoyed this one - probably because the answers were on the easy side (and it was straightforward, not all convoluted). It will be interesting to see if the consensus remains that it was a dud as the day goes on.
I’ll join the chorus of complaints regarding WALE, DOGE (crossing a foreignism) and even ARABY.
I actually remember Marilyn MCCOO - I believe that song was a hit in 1967 or so. Hard to believe that was 50+ years ago. To me, that song epitomizes the spirit and optimism of the late 60’s - before the 70’s arrived and we all grew up and became cynical.
I solved on my iPad using the NYT app. No Post-it note.
Easy puzzle, solved in good time (for us), and I liked the theme a little more than Rex. I s'pose Rex and Mrs. B. agree on how this puzzle rates, though!
Have to agree, MAZY, ECOL (as Darwinian subj.), and even ("Thanks___")AMIL were suboptimal. I too thought Audrey Tautou was AMALIE at first. Thought an auditor would target (69D) FRAUD before FILER. Appreciated the interesting cluing for ETA this time (One of four rhyming letters).
Overall, I'm not quite as critical as some (as usual). Now, we've had a few months of Joel Fagliano's editing... Any verdicts? Any news about Will Shortz (I couldn't find any on a quick search just now)?
Hey All !
I have to agree about that crazy post solve post-it note that pops up when a successful complete of the puz. What or who in tarhooties thought that would be needed?
But, as for the puz, a clever idea that kinda sorta works. Phrases reimagined as corrections to a story? tale? It's never established if this was something written to said teacher, or verbally said. If you read the first Themer clue, it sounds like a student was verbally telling the story. With which the teacher kept interrupting with corrections? Did they stick that post-it note on the students forehead?
That might call for putting some money in the SWEAR JAR.
We get a Pangram today. Easier to get on a SunSize puz than a Weekday one. I did like the puz overall. Common enough phrases that work both as a regular saying, as as a correction to the tale via today's theme. So, AOK
Have a great Sunday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
As a teacher, this puzzle bothered me. A lot. Yecchh.
Well all the corrections are in the puzzle so they do give instructions on how to “fix” it, I thought it was cute. Not that bad.
If any of my friends ever feel like they’re miserable, I just tell them to read your blog to realize they’re actually downright cheerful.
I thought it was cute! The themes were silly enough that there was no need for them to make perfect sense, and the memo note implied that the teacher gave the theme answers as corrections on an essay, with an overall grade of C+, and the directive to fix the mistakes.
2nd time in 6 Sundays, during the solve I have asked myself why even open the Sunday NYT crossword. Tortured phrases are not equal to a play on words. This puzzle solver wants engagement that actually teases the brain, not regresses it.
Seems to me that the constructor was anticipating Rex’s review, and gave himself a C+. Grade inflation is real!
I think Rex is too hard on the theme, but that’s probably generally the case, and especially likely when the theme is related to the teaching of English. For myself, I’m just grateful when the phrases are actual in-the-language phrases and clearly related to the theme. The post-it note clearly related to the essay in the theme, not the puzzle solver, so I didn’t take offense, although it did annoy me that it partially obscures part of the puzzle.
There were some problems with the fill, for sure. In addition to the several mentioned by Rex and other commenters, I thought 80 D, FILER, as the “Auditor’s target” felt weirdly personal or even paranoid. My guess based on the F was Fraud, which feels like the more apt answer.
Gen X and I always thought it was “license” also.
I guess I got up on the wrong side of the blog, but I enjoyed the puzzle. I thought the theme was fun and the fill, with a couple exceptions, was much better than we often see on Sunday.
My main complaint is the correct answer should be “Scratch them yourSELVES, girls.” Right?
Agreed. This worked much better in the paper version with all the redlines on the themers and the grade shown before you start.
Not great, but not as bad as Rex makes it seem. Imagine being so obtuse you don't understand the Post-It note. "Fix" is fine because the puzzle contains the teacher's comments about what to fix. Yes, the intrusion of the Post-It is annoying and unnecessary, but drop the gatekeeping "no real teacher would do this" nonsense just to keep up some curmudgeonly charade. The theme gimmick works fine.
On a separate note, I was pretty sure the most recycled material in the world was asphalt (or maybe it was concrete... I can't remember), but I can't be bothered to look it up.
I think the post-it was the editor’s note to the constructor. Somehow, it fell off and the puzzle was published as-is.
The paper version - that is, the primary rendition of the puzzle - also has the errors in the clues circled in red, which gives the Post-It context and is cute enough. The app limitations precluded that, so they shouldn’t have thrown in the Post-It. Without that context it’s lame. They need to look at each rendition on its own to see if their clever graphics actually work but they often seem too in love with their idea to care about solvers. It’s sloppy.
I'm on the "enjoyed it" team. The themers were all in the language phrases, (took me a while to see ALLYOUNEEDISLOVE with the letters I had in place), and related to the mistakes enough to pass Joaquin's dictum, a very useful criterion. FWIW, I very much miss Joaquin's commentary.
Mostly easy, had a little trouble imagining CALIPERS as having "jaws" and learned something when WALE went in.
Agree with @Southside on the optimism evidenced by "Aquarius". My partner and I end our nursing home gigs with the Youngblood's "Get Together"--"Come on people, smile on your brother, everybody get together try to love one another right now". Idealistic sure, but still worth trying.
@Nancy from yesterday--I was delighted to see that you too wanted HOWARD before BAYARD, as did I. Not a name you hear much any more, but he was my Dad's favorite brother which is why it's my middle name.
I liked your Sunday offering just fine, JK, and I'm a former teacher too. Jaded Know-it-alls can nit pick all they want, but I say thanks for all the fun.
Count me in as among the people who are more cheerful than Rex today. Reading the bio/intro at the outset had me prepared for "2nd grade" and this did not disappoint. Rex, nobody is grading your effort as a C+ I have been sending a friend's 9th grader PDF's of the Monday NYT puzzle, and I sent her today's as well, letting her know she has a full week to solve with friends on the bus. Spreading the joy.
Yes! I’m surprised Rex didn’t catch that, English teacher that he is.
The bad grammar supposedly passed by a teacher made me weep for her students. This puzzle was a cringe from start to finish.
Well, I thought the theme was original and I enjoyed the answers - a fun "aha!" jolt with each one. However I could not get past the Me/I error that Rex talks about. It prickled throughout solving this puzzle that a theme based on correcting errors of grammar and punctuation should have one, decidedly not intentionally, in the clueing. B+ for puzzle, C- for grammar!
Thanks for pointing that out! Didn't realize it til you mentioned it!
Another for "enjoyed it"-- novel (at least to me) way to use and link themers.
Retired teacher here, and unlike @Rex and some of the commenters above, I graded the puzzle with an LOL. It was fun to guess the phrases from as few crosses as possible, and I thought the answers were witty....yes, even - or especially - the last one. During my teaching years, at about this time on a Sunday morning, I'd be thinking, "I've got to grade," as a stack of essays loomed. This "grading" was a whole lot more enjoyable.
Bonuses: ABLE SEAMAN, MUSCLE CARS, CALIPERS, SWEAR JARS.
@Andy Freude, thank you for the Coleridge!
This puzzle left me smiling. @Rex's write-up left me shaking my head. How someone who is as immersed in the genre as he is can miss so much of the fun is mystifying. I think the structure of this puzzle has been explained in snippets throughout the comments. But to gather it in one place:
1. Student turns in a grammatically shoddy essay on "What I did this summer."
2. Teacher makes corrections, not in the way that a teacher would in real life but by using using well-known expressions or phrases.
3. Although the phrases normally are used for other purposes , in this context they quite humorously turn out to be descriptive of the student's error. Now it's true that the teacher comments are not perfectly indicative of what the criticism of each student sentence is, but it would be a far less enjoyable puzzle if the first theme answer, for instance, had been "Delete the quote marks from me".
4. When finished, the teacher puts a sticky note saying essentially, "this is a mediocre essay. Please note my corrections and resubmit it."
Is this how things go in academia? Not exactly. Instead it's making an academic experience into a very fun solve. Kudos to John Kugelman for a really fun solve.
I enjoyed the theme and LOVED the Post-It Note. The "THEM ALL" answer was incredibly forced, but the rest of the theme was fun.
Rex - If you would do this puzzle in the original format - as printed in the newspaper, you would 1) Get the joke, and 2) See how inane your comments are!
I'm with You(se)
Oh what fun this must have been to clue! Playful -- with so much opportunity for creativity and imagination. In some puzzles, the constructor's enjoyment shines through and in some puzzles, there doesn't seem to have been that much enjoyment at all. Here it shines through.
It was fun for this solver too -- albeit without nearly as much opportunity for creativity and imagination. The heavy lifting had already been done and my job was to pull the pieces together. Some theme answers came through with only a few crosses at the outset: DON'T QUOTE ME ON THIS; DON'T START WITH ME; ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE; PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER (fabulous!).
My biggest stumbling block? I had the D (from KEDS) at the end of the 3-letter word for one of the 2 or 3 most important things Steve Jobs had ever done. I confidently wrote in WED. LSD??? Well, to each his own, I guess.
I also resisted writing in OPEC. Vienna seems like such a strange base location for all those mid-eastern countries.
An entertaining, good-natured puzzle that played on the easier side.
In the NYT Mag, the note is in the lower right corner (below the last down clue) and the "errors" are marked in "red-pen marks".
Mostly easy except for a couple of rough spots. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE took some effort. I got fooled by the SYNS clue, did not know DOGE and WALE, and I tried Fraud before FILER…and I too was not fond of MAZY.
Cute and amusing , liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did.
Silly fun. So lighten up, Rex!
Then, light ‘em up, Vikes! Up early to see if my undefeated upstarts can stop Aa-Rod in London (not crazy about these early international games - mess with my routine. Here in the Midwest, NFL Sundays should always kickoff with NOONERs!)
As the Kinks krooned in Autumn Almanac, routine is good - “I like my football on a Saturday. Roast beef on Sunday - all right.” SKOL!
I thought the theme was fine, even kinda cute, but too early partials — I TO and AN O — left a bad taste in my mouth that never really went away.
I liked it a lot. My only beef is the bland title “Teacher’s Marks”. Without a revealer, a snappier title would have enhanced the solve experience.
PS - Rex would probably have a better solve experience if he did the print edition. It is almost always better especially when it comes to gimmicks like the red correction marks and the “C+ Fix” note.
I subscribe to the NY Times so get to see the comment board - always makes me shake my head at how rarely NY Times comments are anything but glowing.. even the article that goes with each puzzle is pretty saccharine like a cheerleader pre game.. Rex commenters are certainly more realistic glad we have an alternative to the Times
The post-it is intended to be the teacher's grade of the grammatical errors in the puzzle theme answers,, not the solver.
Amen. I can't imagine this puzzle without the red pencil corrections. You mean to say they WEREN'T in the online version?
The don't start with me clue is fine. It's not saying put the me somewhere else, it's saying don't start with ME, instead start with I
I don’t solve on the app or the NYT Games site, so I thought REX decided to photoshop the post-it note onto the grid as a thematic way to “grade” it (C+ is about right, IMO). I liked DON’T START WITH ME and PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER the most because the mistakes in the clues seem actually plausible (i. e. I can see people making them). DON’T QUOTE ME ON THIS doesn’t work too well, as Rex noted, but at least it’s a nifty entry to include. I didn’t understand YOUR MONEY’S NO GOOD HERE because my brain glossed over the mistake, I just saw a spot where MONEY could go and got the answer from there.
And then there’s 111A… the only theme clue that basically spells out the whole answer. And I only just saw what the clue even means. You see, I tend to skim long clues very quickly unless I’m *really* stuck, and I didn’t notice while solving that the clues tell a story. So I got to “we won the mall” and I couldn’t understand what on earth WINNING THE MALL could possibly mean. Now I see that the theme clues are actually connected. Doesn’t make 111A any less awkward.
It felt like there were sooooo many instances of me eye-rolling at INSANE bits of fill. The start was promising (SLEPT IN over UP AND AT ‘EM, and LAND HO! And I didn’t even notice ORDS) and then… MAZY? MEINE? SYNS *crossing* the dreaded UNPC? Partial A MIL?! ORDS x ENTS and ALIA x AMIL should’ve been black squares, with YELL or BELL or TELL or SELL at 103D.
At least they didn’t cross-reference MEINE with MIA… they mean the same thing in two different languages. That would’ve been ridiculous.
Yeah, yeah, okay, sure, Rex, you’re right… but I really enjoyed this and the themers all made me smile! For some reason, they were tough for me to get (maybe because I had to do this on the NYT app, which I really don’t like and almost never use), but when I did get them, I liked how obvious they were and how they fit the grammatical error just closely enough while not being phrases normally used to correct grammar. And that was fun!
I wish I’d gotten the post-it, I feel deprived.
Count me with those who found it delightful - even MAZY. I enjoyed how the theme answers were so familiar and apt. Barely noticed the sticky note after finishing. It was on the easy side, but on Sundays I don’t expect a struggle.
And thanks to Andy Freude for the poetry!
Clue didn’t capitalize The.
“Araby” was the first short story I read in my first English class in college. I would venture to say that it is one of the most well-known and most anthologized stories in “Dubliners.”
I agree with you! Puzzle construction is not that easy. I’d like one of the complainers get one published!
YES! Cost me time, cos I thought that was the “ mistake” we were meant to address
Maybe it’s just me and the puzzle creator, but I’ve had “Fix!” on english papers several times in my life. Then again, my writing skills are pretty poor for a regular crossword solver, I’d imagine.
Demonical did upset me though. That was unforgivable. I liked Mazy though.
Hey! The post-it note is a reaction to the typos in the clues, like the teacher is grading their paper - not your accomplishments on the crossword itself! It's funny if you reach a little to understand a broader concept, Rex ;)
The Post-it should appear at the beginning. The teacher gives a C+ with the direction to fix what the teacher has underlined without explaining why. The student has to figure out why, fix the error and return the paper for an improved grade (usually a letter higher). I had an English teacher in 8th grade who did this. The Post-it at the end should have been a higher grade.
Django Reinhardt - Sheik of Araby
https://youtu.be/o6jwvS0mHwo?si=9muDpInLIUduhr4V
No fun, not easy, a struggle through & through :(
Very different puztheme. And funny. Primo SunPuz fare, IM&AO.
Sure, there was some kinda desperate fillins, here and there, to offset the lengthy theme answers [yo, @MAZY]. But, definitely worth the occasional ow.
staff weeject picks [of a mere 37 choices]: MAE & MOE. Luved their wonky clues.
yep, this puz was great, as long as U were solvin the original paper version, as the newspapers god intended it. And I was. And the red pen clue corrections were authentically provided by a 2nd grade teacher, too boot. Great stuff. [note to @grumpy RP pants: See m&e.]
A+. Don't fix a thing.
Thanx, Mr. Kugelman dude. sUperb Sunday job. [sUperb encircled in red.]
Masked & Anonymo12Us
**gruntz**
@Easyed I agree. I found the use of familiar phrases repurposed to be amusing and quite fun. Until 11A . I just don't think that works with the error.
As I read Rex's comments I felt he had misunderstood the puzzle. Why would he think the answers were comments from a teacher? The red correction marks were from the teacher.
(And my"C+ fix it" note appeared at the start with the other red marks)
I thought the familiar phrases repurposed to fit the errors were fun and amusing. Until I got to 111A. I just don't think that one fits the error.
Mr Kugelman—although I didn’t quite (don’t quote me on this) looooove your puzzle, I enjoyed solving it. You can’t win them all I guess. Thank you for your efforts.
I mostly love using Across Lite, but today it really dropped the ball. No red marks, no post-it note, plus the clues feature a bunch of messy html code inside quotes! For once the best way to do this would be the old fashioned way. The theme itself was a good idea and I don't share Rex's objections.
For the "Feature of Japan's flag" I had SUN SET so RED SUN was kind of unexpected.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, streak 14 not counting 3 days missed last weekend.]
This actually made me laugh.
Thank you. It was a fun puzzle. Are there nits? Yes, a labyrinth is not a maze, etc. but I'm happy to give the constructors some literary license. I would give it a B+, maybe even an A-.
Aboslutely hated this puzzle. Oof.
The most egregious error is using “yourself” for two people. It should have been corrected to “yourselves”!
I had fun with this one, as a former English teacher!
The "corrections" are only visible in the print versions, apparently. They did not appear in the puzzle I did online, at any rate.
Cuter in the paper.
Some horrid fill (I’m still not 100% certain I understand what they were trying with SYNS), and with some unfair-feeling crosses too. Rough stuff.
DOGE, however, was instant for me personally—I’m seriously surprised it seemed so obscure to Rex and others—and definitely brought me a smile. (Rest in very much peace, Kabosu.)
Did the same thing but got the post it note?
I absolutely loved this puzzle. It reminded me of Sunday puzzles of old, where the concept arose relatively slowly and each answer was a surprise correction, not merely a correction, by both (sort of) correcting the original phrase while introducing something out of left field in the answer. I don't require the rigor that Rex has come to need, I'm just a boy who wants to have fun, and I did. The final answer made me chuckle for quite a while. We won the mall! You can't win the mall. At least double meaning, possibly triple. Greatness. You're sorry, Rex, I'm right.
My first pass on 'devilish' was 'DEMONotic'. No idea where that came from. But it sounds evil.
Rex was incorrect concerning the “me/I”problem. The teacher was saying, in effect, “Don’t start with “me”; start with “I”.
Agree 100%! Really enjoyed this one.
Shouldn't the other persons name be put first? Jamie and I ask etc.
Former teacher here as well, including ESL back in the day. Loved today's puzzle, thanks John!
That’s how I got it too.
“I and Jamie ask…”? Are you actually serious?
Shocked Rex hated the theme so much, I thought it was cute and clever. It's a teacher leaving comments on a poorly written assignment (hence the bad grammar). At first, it seemed like Rex understood that, but his complaints about the post-it and the lack of polish in the theme clues makes me think that maybe he didn't.
In the paper version (which I can now download on Saturday evening...from California!...like the old days in NYC), the main clues were all atrociously written, with SOME corrected in red, and all via the puzzle answers. C+ was being kind IMO (longtime college professor)
Ditto
I would have been fine with the post-it note if it had said something like “B+, good improvement”
Referencing the fact that in you were improving or fixing the mistakes in the theme answers.
Mostly easy, but the SE was impossible.
Count me with the LMTR majority. The theme was original and cleanly executed, AFAIAC, and did I mention fun? The PPP count today was very high, though... still awaiting Gary's Gunk Gauge for confirmation. And the SE corner was, how shall I put it, dowright DEMONIACAL, but I did manage to finally fight my way through it. Theme A+. Fill C-.
The merchant rank is Able Bodied seaman not just Able. It outranks Ordinary Seaman
What happened to the rule that answers should not be contained in the clue? “Me” am going insane!
Natick at LAHR/ARABY. Are either of these common knowledge?
The only answer I could make was A BABY crossing LAHB would seemed plausible.
All I have to say today is that my English teacher mother, and my “let me check your essay Gran” would have corrected all of the errors in the supposedly funny theme answers espousing to “correct” mistakes. I think there’s an excellent Sunday theme idea in here somewhere - maybe.
Friendly greetings from CDilly52.
Son Volt
About muscle cars
Close enough for crosswords. As the years went by more and more of the models’ sold were muscle cars in the 60’s & ‘70’s at least.
Anyway if some are, that’s enough.
Sooo, had to leave for an early birthday celebration before posting (since we have rehearsal tomorrow which would have ruined the fun on my actual birthday). But I had already started my comments so here they are.
I didn’t LOVE it but there was some fun to be had. Such as, both Jon Stewart and Trevor Noah have two first names. Coincidence?
Is MADAM X ONE NAME?
I liked the side-by-side placement of ABLE SEAMAN and OYSTER BAR. And AMO crossing LOVE.
FLAW, ERR AND POOR provided extra criticism.
My neighbors are ART CURATORs and they have an adorable rescue DOGgiE. Her ONE NAME is NINA, but her nickname is Swiffer, because she is short and has long black fur which sweeps the floor.
If you place the O of MAHALO at the START, and drop the L, you get OMAHA.
I learned from eytmonline.com that CALIPER is related to Libra.
OK, I’m trying to stay positive, in honor of my fellow Libran, @Lewis. I am curious, however - does anyone know of a place to find GOOD Sunday puzzles? TIA.
One more unrelated observation: AURORAE WINs the extraneous vowel contest.
Kitshef
Not a fan of real estate agents creating new names for marketing purposes. , but NOHO has stuck.
I think it’s fair for the NY Times to have names of Manhattan neighborhoods as answers.FWIW
it is north of Houston Street as opposed to the more well known SOHO, which is South.
Anonymous 6:27
About the answer ABLESEAMAN
Puzzles are for the general public not specialists. I am one of the former. I have much more frequently seen the answer than any formal version. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if many or most of those in the field in conversation drop the bodied part. It is after all awkward to say.
So bosun etc shouldn’t be allowed either?
Nothing wrong with the answer. That’s how language works
About the paper version. Dead tree edition in my case means the actual real paper printed in a factory. The extra gimmick was NOT in my New York Times Magazine I assume people are talking about when they print it out at home?
@Anonymous 6:27PM Yes and no. It used to be shortened to AS (for able seaman), but if it was scribbled too quickly then it was easy to mistake it for OS (one rank lower, ordinary seaman). So the actual rank is able seaman, and it's abbreviated as AB (which was chosen for the first two letters of able). That is the correct usage. Sometime later, the mistaken idea that AB stood for 'able-bodied' got picked up by enough people that it sort of became 'in the language'.
Happy Birthday A!
RooMonster Wisher Guy
I'm late. I don't care. I loved this puzzle. @Lewis...so glad you're OK. My baby sister lives in Charleston and they had some fierce winds but nothing like North Carolina. Be well! And @CDilly. Glad you're feeling better and still posting.
Those commenting that the fix for starting with "me" is starting with "I" - look at the red correction that was given in the print version. It clearly switches "me" and "Jamie", indicating that this was the supposed correction. Which was a pretty poor mistake, given that the "fix" is still incorrect grammar. Unfortunate for this themed puzzle. I liked it otherwise.
The Beatles used to play that song in their early live shows.
Tantos globos aerostáticos en el cielo.
They've been launching several hundred hot air balloons here the last two days and it's messing up my morning crossword time.
I laughed at the sticky note after a hunt and peck-a-palooza. Probably should've read "See Me" as there's more to discuss than a C+ repair job.
I am more amused by the unhappy comments over the cute post-solve graphic. Here's how to properly handle a dire smite such as this: With an open right palm, grab your left elbow. With an open left palm, grab your right elbow. Press downward into your chest. Exclaim with a glowering guttural growl, "Harrumph."
I like the theme and thought the fill was engaging.
❤️ SWEAR JARS.
@Ken Freeland 6:13 PM
Sorry so late with the gunk report.
Propers: 14
Places: 2
Products: 11
Partials: 17
Foreignisms: 9
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 43 of 136 (32%)
Funnyisms: 14 😂
Tee-Hee: SINGLET. Weirdest name for an article of clothing ever. SNOT.
Uniclues:
1 Dinner attire for well educated drooler, or a nickname for baby's onesie.
2 Excited revelation the woman in acquisitions likes blurry basketball.
1 DR. SPILLAGE SINGLET
2 AHA SPORTY ART CURATOR (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Pharmaceutical industry opinion of humanity. MERE GUINEA PIGS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"Scratch them yourSELVES, girls." Teach didn't notice the comma was missing. (I was out of ink, so got to this late)
Seriously
The fact that “me” should have been “I” made me crazy too. In fact, it threw me off in identifying the mistake in the sentence that the constructor had in mind. I’m always correcting my grandchildren’s “me and her are …”. Terrible! (I also am aghast at how “whom” has practically disappeared from the English language. Even distinguished journalists in respected newspapers have stopped using it.
I enjoyed this quite a bit, except I was stuck on ECOL (which, as Rex says, would be EVOL if it’s Darwin-related). However, I think Rex’s curmudgeonly outlook has rubbed off on too many of his readers.
I enjoyed this puzzle quite a bit, although I stubbornly kept EVOL (not ECOL) since the clue is Darwinian. I didn’t get the southeastern corner and DNFed. I do think Rex’s curmudgeonly outlook has rubbed of on too many of his readers.
Same!
WHOGOES WITH A HO?
MADAME, if YOUNEED LOVE,
DON'TSTARTWITH A DEMON,
HON, THERE's CRUDENESS enough
WITH MUSCLE men's SEAMAN.
--- MOE JOE MCCOO
JOEWALSH is clued as though he was a seminal member of the group; he was of course a later addition. Not that I mind: Hey, "life's been good!" Nice to see the shout-out.
The rest? What OFNP said. Me and him are in agreement on that. Bogey.
Wordle par.
Me and you are in agreement too. Har. But good one.
wordle par
No redline corrections in this part of syndiland …
Well, I liked it. I thought the themers were fun and got a legit laugh at the thought of an exasperated teacher finally saying "You can't win the mall!"
It probably helped that they syndicated version doesn't have the Post-It nor the red marks on the answers.
Yes! I kept laughing at "You can't win the mall!" every time I saw it. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot.
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