THEME: BEETLEJUICE (29D: Ghoulish character who appears after someone follows the instructions at 17- and 59-Across) — a movie-promo puzzle (?). In the movie(s), if you say "Betelgeuse" (the character's actual name) three times, he appears (which may or may not be helpful, depending on the situation you're in); today's puzzle gives you instructions to make him appear, putting BEAT, ULGE, and OOSE in circled squares and then telling you: PUT THEM TOGETHER (17A: With 59-Across, instructions for the sets of circled letters) and SAY IT THREE TIMES (59A: See 17-Across)
Theme answers:
AFROBEAT (30A: Popular music genre from Nigeria)
INDULGENT (37A: Overly lenient)
GOOSE EGG (49A: Naught, nil, nada)
Word of the Day: Shirley MANSON (47D: Rock singer Shirley) —
Shirley Ann MansonFRSA (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, musician, and actress who is the lead singer of the Scottish-American rock band Garbage, who have toured worldwide and sold over 17 million records as of 2017. Known for her forthright style, rebellious attitude, and distinctive deep voice, her accolades include nominations for two Brit Awards and seven Grammy Awards.
Manson's musical career began in her teens, when she was approached to perform backing vocals and keyboards for the band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. She was later approached by the band's record label with the idea of launching her as a solo artist, and recorded an album with her band Angelfish. She joined Garbage in 1994, and they achieved critical and commercial success with their self-titled debut album (1995) and Version 2.0 (1998). They followed this by performing and co-producing the theme song to the 19th James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999) and releasing their acclaimed third album Beautiful Garbage (2001).
I can see how one might do something really good with this theme, but this ... isn't it. It has elements of "it," but in a couple of ways it simply goes off the rails. The first and most obvious problem is that the "character" is not actually named BEETLEJUICE. It's "Betelgeuse" (as in the star), which is pronounced (roughly) the same as "BEETLEJUICE." I realize that "BEETLEJUICE" is how people think of him, because that's the name of the movie. But the clue says "Ghoulish character" and the character's name is absolutely positively without a doubt named "Betelgeuse" (read the wikipedia entry for either the original or the sequel if you don't trust me here). "But most people won't know that!" Who cares? Get it right or go home.
The worse problem, though, for me, from a pure solving pleasure standpoint, was the phrasing on the instructions. In order to get the instructions to come out to a perfect, grid-spanning 15 + 15, the instructions become super awkward. Grammatically tortured, even. PUT THEM TOGETHER ... but SAY IT THREE TIMES? Just "Say them together three times" would've been perfect, but here ... "it" has no referent. Well, there's the imagined referent, the entity that comes from "putting THEM together" (in your mind, or mouth) but oof, the phrasing, you would never say this particular set of instructions. It's clunky at best. I could see that the final part of the instructions was going to be "THREE TIMES" and I had No Idea what could go in the five squares preceding it. "SAY THEM" wouldn't fit, so ... "UTTER THREE TIMES?" The "IT" in "SAY IT" just bugged the hell out of me. Lastly, ANTAGONISTS is a surprisingly weak "themer." It's too vague a word, not closely associated enough with the movie to be truly meaningful. Plus it's in the plural. Plus, since he's sometimes helpful, "antagonist" seems like a not quite on-the-nose description of what he is. I'm no BEETLEJUICE expert, I just happened to see both the original and its sequel very recently (BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE was one of the movies my "Moviegoing" class chose to see earlier this semester), so the "Betelgeuse" thing in particular was freshly on my mind.
Even if the theme had been perfect, the fill ... I don't know why the editors don't insist on more polish. This was one of those puzzles where I stop before I've even exited the NW to take a screenshot of the grid because the fill is already ominously off:
SARAN ABONE (?) ABU NEHI and I haven't even really started!!? And then IFI right after that. And CAS ... and ENOL ... SSN ETO MCATS HTML all in one corner ... ELSAS in the plural (!?!). Nice attempt to rescue that last one via Halloween costumes (timely!) (43A: Certain Disney princess-inspired Halloween costumes). But no, this one was rough. The theme is pretty dense, and I understand how fill can suffer under those conditions. But still. SEEM MAD??? I think OTOLOGY (weirdly) was the only longer non-theme answer in this puzzle I actually enjoyed seeing. I do, however, really like all the BEAT / ULGE / OOSE answers. That's a really solid set: AFROBEAT / INDULGENT / GOOSE EGG. Again, the core concept of the theme was really good. I mean, it seems like a paid promo (BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE is still in theaters where I live), and I don't like that so much, but as movie-specific themes go, this had promise. But the execution just missed, imho.
[AFROBEATs, a derivative of AFROBEAT]
What else?:
21A: The "lava" in a lava lamp (WAX) — I haven't seen one of these in so long. I don't think I ever really thought about what the "lava" substance was. GOO ... I think GOO was my first guess.
25A: Calculator symbol on a MacBook, e.g. (ICON) — so ... [Symbol], then. This one confused me because of all the specificity ("calculator," "MacBook") that turned out to be meaningless.
1A: Wrap on a roll (SARAN) — wrote in SUSHI, "confirmed" it with SAP (1D: Sentimental sort) :(
66A: What lives in a hole in the wall? (NAIL) — I did appreciate how hard the puzzle is trying to make this puzzle spooky. [Spooky mo.] (OCT), [Lake with a spooky-sounding name] (ERIE). And while the ELSAS aren't spooky, they are Halloween-y. You could argue A BONE is spooky (if you ignore the clue). It kinda suggests "skeleton." And if you are inclined to have nightmares about bad crossword fill, then it's definitely frightening.
26D: Louisiana Acadian (CAJUN) — this one (briefly) stopped me cold because my brain just went "'Acadian' ... 'Acadian' ... hmm, let's see ... [shuffling boxes around] ... 'Academy' ... 'Academic' ... we got an 'Arcadian' ... nope, sorry, not sure where we put 'Acadian,' boss." Sigh. I got CAJUN easily enough, but had to go to the dictionary to refresh my memory on "Acadian": "relating to the former French colony of Acadia in eastern Canada."
Hoping that a flawed Halloween puzzle today means a real sizzler of a Halloween puzzle tomorrow (which is actual Halloween, after all). See you then.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. RIP to my favorite crosswordese—the only TERI I'm interested in, the only GARR there is, my beloved TERI GARR. Best comic actress of my lifetime. xoxo
C As in… 40(A) Bad and incorrect clue. When spelling in the NATO phonetic alphabet, you never say “as in.” So, the word “clue” when given in phonetics would be: Charlie Lima Uniform Echo. Not, C as in Charley, L as in Lima…
Never saw the movie, did not discern the theme. Played it as a themeless and it still wasn’t bad. Most of the crosses were fair, and I did sense the “Halloween” type vibe going on.
Nice of Rex to give a mention to the talented and lovely Ms. Teri Garr - who was always welcome here. RIP Teri.
Lovers of the movie might like this puzzle, but I didn't. The fill was almost totally without sparkle (one red plus sign in the margins) and there were 24 threes clogging the grid. The legal limit is 20.
Love Shirley MANSON, but just could not come up with the name while solving until crosses got me there. Admittedly, my 'Bassey' was a bad guess for the clue.
PUT "THEM" TOGETHER? SAY "IT" THREE TIMES? The horror, the horror.
Actually bothered me not at all, probably not as much as turning BEAT ULGE GOOSE into BEETLEJUICE, which is a pretty big stretch.
Met ERIC today, how do you do, and found out what's in a lava lamp, which was interesting. We still have a couple which are in working order and have now survived three moves. No wonder we have so much stuff.
Appreciate the nod to Halloween, JMK, but Jeeze, Maybe Keep so much crosswordese out of your next one. Thanks for some early AM fun.
One of the happy-button aspects of solving for me is when an answer is out of my wheelhouse, but I get it anyway. That answer becomes a TIL, and it’s sweet to learn new things. Also, making the unknowable gettable is evidence of artful construction and editing, and brushes with excellence always bring me joy.
Today, the entire theme was out of my wheelhouse, as I’ve never seen any production of the Beetlejuice franchise (though I’m familiar with the character through ads). Yet it easily filled in, and I learned a delightful aspect of the story. Thus, much happy-button-ness.
Figuring out the circled letter aspect, and appreciating the skill behind making that happen was icing on the cake.
I loved the middle-of-the-grid crossing of two lovely words, INDULGENT and OTOLOGY. I liked seeing ETO, which used to be a crossword staple, but hasn’t appeared in the Times puzzle in more than a year (is someone who studies this answer an etologist?). I also liked seeing jaunty words CHUM and JEST as neighbors.
Lots of pleasure in this one for me. Thank you for that Josh, and congratulations on your debut!
Saw the first movie back in the day, but can’t figure out what ANTAGONISTS has to do with the theme, beyond the obvious fact that, like most films, this one had some. Can anyone explain?
I haven't seen the movie, so I assumed that "PUT THEM TOGETHER", whatever THEM refers to, and "SAY IT THREE TIMES" were actual quotes from the movie. But apparently, summoning BEETLEJUICE/BETELGEUSE doesn't involve putting things together and 17A is a classic example of "instructions as theme".
On the other hand, if the thing you put together is a grid with 7 (!) interlocked themers that go both Across and Down, then OOXTEPLERNON inevitably appears.
Easy for a Wednesday with a slow-ish NW. I couldn't get SARAN or SAP right away and like Rex, I wanted the "wrap" to be edible.
I suppose I knew Shirley MANSON somewhere in the back of my mind, but it was peculiar getting there. I read the clue and thought “who’s that weird guy with a woman’s name?” and wrote in MANSON, but then realized I was thinking of Marilyn Manson so took it out and waited for crosses.
easy solve but I kept repeating “no, no, no” to myself as I filled the grid. No to the theme (see OFL); no to the fill (ugh); no to Joel F (enough already).
Hey All ! ANTAGONISTS felt like a let-down. I had a sneaky suspicion it was BEETLEJUICE, put decided not to write it in until I got some crossers. That was fine, even the Oddish instructions were OK, but was looking for an apt-er description of said BEETLEguy then ANTAGONIST. MOVIE MONSTER, TROUBLEMAKER, RAPSCALLION, something.
Another missed opportunity for a "Supernatural" clue, especially the day before Halloween - CAS could've been, "Angel that helps the Winchesters in "Supernatural ", familiarly", or some such.
IFI, would've went with, "___ only had a brain..." as the clue, especially relevant to me, as I feel that way a lot!
Neat try at a Halloween-Movie theme, but needed a better descriptor. WACKYGHOULS would've fit.
Anyway, from a wacky Roo, have a good Wednesday! Watch out tonight for early Trick-or-Treaters.
The "Beetlejuice" spelling didn't bother me at all because I had no idea his name was supposed to be spelled a different way. I didn't like "Afrobeat" in the singular, because I've only ever heard it said as "Afrobeats" plural. I figured it was Afrobeat, though, because what else could it be, so it didn't slow me down but it bothered me.
Question. If I were a wizard with a wand and if by waving it THREE TIMES I could ordain that for the rest of recorded history a puzzle of this ilk -- one with tiny little totally ignorable circles that are completely irrelevant to one's being able to solve the puzzle -- would never again appear in the NYTXW would you be...
A. Very peeved with me? B. Completely indifferent? C. Thrilled beyond all measure?
I'm rather curious, actually. Even though, alas, I do not have that superpower.
Nothing was said about NATO. I just thought about someone spelling out their last name (or first) for someone who might be looking their name up in a computer. Still. Kind of random to pick Charlie.
From a note on Wikipedia: "The title character is variously spelled "Betelgeuse", "Beetle Juice", and "Beetlejuice" in the film, script, and credits. The "Betelgeuse" spelling is used throughout this article for consistency."
"Betelgeuse" seem to be how the character himself spells it when he has the chance, but I think it's also arguable that what really matters is getting people to say the syllables (which he can't say himself) so any kind of spelling will do the trick.
Probably a lot of fun for BEETLEJUICE fans. This probably qualifies me as some sort of freak - but I’ve never seen it and don’t have the slightest idea what it’s about other than Michael Keaton wore a striped suit and had a scary face. So you could have circled IT or THEM or ROSY ICON MANTRA and told me to SAY IT THREE TIMES or 300 times. Wouldn’t have made any difference and I still would have felt like I had just been to sixth grade social hour.
And on a somber note, rest peacefully Teri Garr. Considering her presence in so many crosswords I’ve done and some of my favorite movies, I almost feel like I owe her a debt of gratitude. She brought a lot of laughter into the world.
If you’ve never seen the movie then go wstch it tonight…so good and so funny. I loved the mention of Shirley Manson, Garbage is a very underrated band. I’m surprised nobody mentioned NEHI, i moved here in the 80s but still had to cheat to make sure I had it correct. I hated that and ENOL.
Didn't Shohei Ohtani get hurt the other night trying to steal ABASE?
Quick greeting to Mr. Solo? LOHAN. And didn't he at one point visit the planet ROTHIRA?
I really wanted the ghoulish character to be BEETLE Bailey, but then I realized that no matter how many times Sarge yelled his name, he generally didn't appear.
Another Halloween reference could have been "Fright ________" for WIIG.
I wonder if Spanish fairy tales start with ONCE.
Crossword clues are absolutely required to be literally and factually descriptive of their answer. Hence @Rex's rant about BEETLEJUICE vs. Betelgeuse should result in an apology from the Gray Lady
Fun warm up for tomorrow. Thanks and congrats, Josh M. Kaufmann.
Well alrighty then. I figured @Rex would have problems with the circles because THAT didn’t ring quite right for me, BUT…(and he somewhat minimized this as an issue)…the “character” is actually Betelgeuse? Yeah. I looked at Wikipedia. First, this was NOT a book and hmmmm…I don’t really look at credits before or after a movie. Second, did I know Michael Keaton’s character name was a play on words for the star? Yes. Conclusion: Pfft on the character *actually* being Betelgeuse. With that said, I do think the fill suffered because of the theme, but I really liked the theme since it’s the day before Halloween. So many great actors in a movie that is “scary,” silly, and funny at the same time. I’m the type that rarely looks at sequels…once and done is good for me because I’ve always been disappointed with sequels. Thanks for the Halloween fun Mr. Kaufman!
@Nancy, there's a lot of room outside those three options, so i need None of the Above. And what are we going to do about the rest of unrecorded history? Anyway, I kind of like those little circles.
Acadia is a subject worth being familiar with (and Acadia National Park a place worth visiting). The English deportation of Acadian settlers to the American colonies in the mid 1700s was particularly galling. And yes, many ended up in Louisiana. There's lots available on the topic, but here's a start: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/history-of-acadia
Wikipedia's History of the Acadians is also worth a read, tho there's some 'accuracy' debate at the moment.
Oops! BEETLEJUICE was all of those things (less a monster, he would make himself look like a monster), but his primary job was to antagonize…in the first movie he was first trying to get the new “living” owners out of the house (for the dead owners), then switched it up to try to get the dead owners out…he antagonized pretty much everyone eventually.
I've never seen either of the Beetlejuice movies, but I have seen the Progressive ads where they dart Jamie in the neck as he's on repeat number three, so yay for Flo and the gang making crosswording more appealing.
Engaging puzzle. I enjoyed it. Lots of gunk, a little humor, a dead princess, a Disney princess, a monkey prince, and a data analyst. What's not to love?
Propers: 10 (eek) Places: 4 Products: 5 Partials: 13 (wow) Foreignisms: 2 -- Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 34 of 78 (44%) {A new world record! (I think)}
Funnyisms: 4 🙂
Uniclues:
1 Smooth monkey man. 2 Repeat after me, playoff successes for the Denver Broncos over the last nine torturous years and now that carpet bagger quarterback is killin' in Pittsburgh. 3 Windows 11. 4 Former stretcher.
1 HAIR WAX APE 2 GOOSE EGG MANTRA (~) 3 ANTAGONIST'S IOS 4 YOGA ONE ONCE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What my Mercurochrome wielding mother rendered. IRATE FIRST AID.
I thought it was Marilyn MANSON. I dont think I ever heard of Shirley. We recently rewatched BEETLEJUICE In celebration of Halloween season. To tell you the truth, we all thought it was way overrated. OTOLOGY I messed up at first with ORAL_ _ _ _ .
Knowing only the title BEETLEJUICE from movie and show ads, I wasn't able to appreciate all that went into the theme - so more of an "okay, if you say so" solve for me. I do think, though, that the two grid-spanners work: PUT THEM TOGETHER: you combine BEAT ULGE OOSE into one word, and then you SAY IT (that word) THREE TIMES.
Talk about trivia! A theme based on a movie I've never seen, which requires me to know details of the plot--not only the "say my name three times" bit, but that the creature called up by that is an ANTAGONIST--which I had thought previously was some spirit one called upon for help. Fortunately I've seen just enough discussion of the movie to know the first, but not the second.
OTOH, TIL how a lava lamp works, so that was a plus.
There are a lot of debatable wordings here. HAIR would be a head liner if it were growing inside your skull--maybe it does, I can't really see in there, but I'm pretty sure it's covering my head, not lining it. Tarzan was king of the APES, but were they a tribe? As I recall he was also king of an African village, which was a tribe, so that was confusing (yes, I did read all the Tarzan books I could find, 20 or so, in my youth). NAILs are in holes in the wall, but they are not alive. And the DEA enforces the Controlled Substances Act, but that's not the same as carrying it out.
More defensible: MCAT works if the clue means it's a hurdle to use a bio major in one particular way; I first read it as a hurdle to completing a bio major, which is not the case. And a MANTRA is an aid to meditation, but often used colloquially in the sense clued.
TIL also what the platform for early super Mario games was, and got my memory refreshed on the difference between ABU (father of) and IBN (son of).
I did like the way that the circled letters were homophones of BEETLEJUICE, and that two of the three syllables were spread across the lines of circled letters, "TLE" and "ULJ.' Too bad about the BEAT.
Now I have to go look up the difference between AFROBEAT and Afropop. Back in a bit.
Never saw BEETLEJUICE - nor am I sorry I didn't. Not a fan of rebuses. So aside from Rex's RIP to TERI Garr (who I loved in "Tootsie") - should I bother?
BE ATUL GEOOSE! Just the way M&A would say it ... after maybe 3 tequila shots. Mighta then actually finished it with a GEOOSH, tho. We have seen the original flick, but not the new one. Nice schlocky one to bring up, on Halloween Eve.
Took m&e a lil extra time, to come up with OTOLOGY. MANSON & ERIC were about the only out-and-out no-knows. sooo ... pretty smoooth solvequest, here.
fave stuff: ERIE & OCT clues [nice dash of spookiness]. RENT clue [used extra nanoseconds, tryin to come up with poker bet answers, like CALL]. IREPEAT [3 times]. MANTRA.
staff weeject pick: CAS. har. Clear evidence that almost any desperado weeject is clue-worthy.
Thanx, Mr. Kaufmann dude. Congratz on yer juicy debut.
I love pedantry, so i came here for this. ‘Beetlejuice’ is the name of the animated character, who is summoned using the threepeat of his name, so there is officially no foul on the clue.
I humbly apologize - first for posting your name wrong, JOSH. Second for judging the puzzle by the review before even doing it - which I will never do again (BEETLEJUICE intimidated me, I guess) & third for my trashy review. Fun puzzle, Josh & holiday-appropriate. Gonna blame it on pre-election anxiety since I read the news before coming here). All's good :)
Yes, the first time I saw the Jaime-takes-a-dart-to-the-neck ad was the TIL that you summoned old what's his name by repeating it three times. TV ads! What a font of useful information!
I solved the puzzle last evening, watched the baseball game (ugh), went to sleep. Woke up this morning and one of my first thoughts was: hey, I forgot to check what was in those circles! Checked; oh, uh okay.
What actually would have been more fun was a Schroedinger puzzle where you could spell the name either way -- JUICE or GEUSE -- and the acrosses would work. They could even have run it on Thursday.
32 across had me baffled at first... "Symbols of electrical resistance" == OHMS!... doesn't fit? Wait for it... oh yeah, it's asking for symbols, not units.
Personally really liked this puzzle.Thought it was fun and sort of easy. Sometimes a lot of people on here really rip the puzzles apart looking for flaws and tbh it seems like quite a few people are overly critical. Aren't these puzzles supposed to be fun?
I don't get the whole issue Rex has with the Beetlejuice/Betelgeuse thing. One is the name of the movie and what others seem to call the character, the other is how the character actually writes his name.
Rex needs just chill out sometimes. It never fails, everytime I think the puzzle is easy or entertaining, he hates it and says it's medium or hard.
lol, this exchange helped me understand the one clue i didn't get at all. i thought "Cas in Charlie" was some old tv show i'd never heard of or something XD
nobody mentioned NEHI because it is crosswordese and appears A LOT. and after doing the crossword for...idk, maybe five years now? where i'm actually solving every day? today was the very first day i *finally* remembered the whole dang name without any crosses. and if it wasn't for google/the internet, i wouldn't even be sure it exists outside of crosswords. a lot of rough fill today. and i love BEETLEJUICE! but the fill to make those parts of the puzzle happen i sadly don't think was worth it. [love garbage tho!]
5:36, solved essentially as a themeless. Wednesday should be harder, but proximity to Halloween wins out, I guess. A lot of moving parts; I would argue too many; most of questionable construction and utility.
Anonymous 9:48 Beetlejuice vs Beatulgeoose Well the vowels are long e then a schwa for both. The consonant sounds are all the same, leaving the vowel sounds in the last syllable. Depending on how you say it. Clearly the intent was for the e to signal the soft g. If you don’t sound that e the 2 ARE pronounced the same. Close enough for crosswords. But I would agree that it was bit awkward for a theme
I found the top half of the puzzle very easy The bottom was a little tougher but easy overall. Decent puzzle. I guessed that Rex wouldn’t like “I T” in 59 A and he delivered I read it as say the name three times works for me. However you spell it, that’s the character. So despite Rex singular is correct. Never saw either movie but it is hard to avoid knowing about the 2, especially if you read the Times Art section
(I read a postabout yesterday’s puzzle by Suzanne. She like me lives in RI. Scaws of draws - or sometimes drawuhs- is how I say that theme answer. So most of the time it would rhyme for me. Those of us who still have the Rhode Island accent drop all the r’s at word ends And I do mean all. )
Do you say Beetlejuice 3 times in a day, to get him to come, or is it spacef after a certain time frame, like when does he appear. After Halloween, the fifth of November? Hollow when.
I came here to echo that the G is not circled. But while I am here, Rex's first complaint is not valid. First of all, the "them" clearly refers to the circled letters, which you put together to get the sound of Beterlguese/Beetlejuice. Since the clue refernces the sound, not the spelling, it is correct.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
61 comments:
Pretty easy for a Wednesday. No overwrites and my only WOE was Shirley MANSON at 47D, and that was easy to get from crosses and inference.
C As in… 40(A) Bad and incorrect clue. When spelling in the NATO phonetic alphabet, you never say “as in.” So, the word “clue” when given in phonetics would be: Charlie Lima Uniform Echo. Not, C as in Charley, L as in Lima…
Once I got GOOSEGG, the music started. A fairly easy puzzle, except for the theme, which I never understood, not even after reading Rex's explanation.
Never saw the movie, did not discern the theme. Played it as a themeless and it still wasn’t bad. Most of the crosses were fair, and I did sense the “Halloween” type vibe going on.
Nice of Rex to give a mention to the talented and lovely Ms. Teri Garr - who was always welcome here. RIP Teri.
Lovers of the movie might like this puzzle, but I didn't. The fill was almost totally without sparkle (one red plus sign in the margins) and there were 24 threes clogging the grid. The legal limit is 20.
Love Shirley MANSON, but just could not come up with the name while solving until crosses got me there. Admittedly, my 'Bassey' was a bad guess for the clue.
Themes just keep getting dumber.
Ralph Garr would like a word with you, Rex.
PUT "THEM" TOGETHER? SAY "IT" THREE TIMES? The horror, the horror.
Actually bothered me not at all, probably not as much as turning BEAT ULGE GOOSE into BEETLEJUICE, which is a pretty big stretch.
Met ERIC today, how do you do, and found out what's in a lava lamp, which was interesting. We still have a couple which are in working order and have now survived three moves. No wonder we have so much stuff.
Appreciate the nod to Halloween, JMK, but Jeeze, Maybe Keep so much crosswordese out of your next one. Thanks for some early AM fun.
One of the happy-button aspects of solving for me is when an answer is out of my wheelhouse, but I get it anyway. That answer becomes a TIL, and it’s sweet to learn new things. Also, making the unknowable gettable is evidence of artful construction and editing, and brushes with excellence always bring me joy.
Today, the entire theme was out of my wheelhouse, as I’ve never seen any production of the Beetlejuice franchise (though I’m familiar with the character through ads). Yet it easily filled in, and I learned a delightful aspect of the story. Thus, much happy-button-ness.
Figuring out the circled letter aspect, and appreciating the skill behind making that happen was icing on the cake.
I loved the middle-of-the-grid crossing of two lovely words, INDULGENT and OTOLOGY. I liked seeing ETO, which used to be a crossword staple, but hasn’t appeared in the Times puzzle in more than a year (is someone who studies this answer an etologist?). I also liked seeing jaunty words CHUM and JEST as neighbors.
Lots of pleasure in this one for me. Thank you for that Josh, and congratulations on your debut!
Saw the first movie back in the day, but can’t figure out what ANTAGONISTS has to do with the theme, beyond the obvious fact that, like most films, this one had some. Can anyone explain?
Really feel like the clue on 30A is referencing AFROBEATs, not AFROBEAT. The former is the currently popular one.
I haven't seen the movie, so I assumed that "PUT THEM TOGETHER", whatever THEM refers to, and "SAY IT THREE TIMES" were actual quotes from the movie. But apparently, summoning BEETLEJUICE/BETELGEUSE doesn't involve putting things together and 17A is a classic example of "instructions as theme".
On the other hand, if the thing you put together is a grid with 7 (!) interlocked themers that go both Across and Down, then OOXTEPLERNON inevitably appears.
Easy for a Wednesday with a slow-ish NW. I couldn't get SARAN or SAP right away and like Rex, I wanted the "wrap" to be edible.
I suppose I knew Shirley MANSON somewhere in the back of my mind, but it was peculiar getting there. I read the clue and thought “who’s that weird guy with a woman’s name?” and wrote in MANSON, but then realized I was thinking of Marilyn Manson so took it out and waited for crosses.
Both movies are fun, and so is this puzzle. Works for me!
No second “G”.
easy solve but I kept repeating “no, no, no” to myself as I filled the grid. No to the theme (see OFL); no to the fill (ugh); no to Joel F (enough already).
Dumb.
Hey All !
ANTAGONISTS felt like a let-down. I had a sneaky suspicion it was BEETLEJUICE, put decided not to write it in until I got some crossers. That was fine, even the Oddish instructions were OK, but was looking for an apt-er description of said BEETLEguy then ANTAGONIST. MOVIE MONSTER, TROUBLEMAKER, RAPSCALLION, something.
Another missed opportunity for a "Supernatural" clue, especially the day before Halloween - CAS could've been, "Angel that helps the Winchesters in "Supernatural ", familiarly", or some such.
IFI, would've went with, "___ only had a brain..." as the clue, especially relevant to me, as I feel that way a lot!
Neat try at a Halloween-Movie theme, but needed a better descriptor. WACKYGHOULS would've fit.
Anyway, from a wacky Roo, have a good Wednesday! Watch out tonight for early Trick-or-Treaters.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
The "Beetlejuice" spelling didn't bother me at all because I had no idea his name was supposed to be spelled a different way. I didn't like "Afrobeat" in the singular, because I've only ever heard it said as "Afrobeats" plural. I figured it was Afrobeat, though, because what else could it be, so it didn't slow me down but it bothered me.
Question. If I were a wizard with a wand and if by waving it THREE TIMES I could ordain that for the rest of recorded history a puzzle of this ilk -- one with tiny little totally ignorable circles that are completely irrelevant to one's being able to solve the puzzle -- would never again appear in the NYTXW would you be...
A. Very peeved with me?
B. Completely indifferent?
C. Thrilled beyond all measure?
I'm rather curious, actually. Even though, alas, I do not have that superpower.
What bothered me more was that "Beatulgeoose" doesn't sound like Beetlejuice.
I've never seen the movie. What are we saying 3 times?
Nothing was said about NATO. I just thought about someone spelling out their last name (or first) for someone who might be looking their name up in a computer. Still. Kind of random to pick Charlie.
From a note on Wikipedia: "The title character is variously spelled "Betelgeuse", "Beetle Juice", and "Beetlejuice" in the film, script, and credits. The "Betelgeuse" spelling is used throughout this article for consistency."
"Betelgeuse" seem to be how the character himself spells it when he has the chance, but I think it's also arguable that what really matters is getting people to say the syllables (which he can't say himself) so any kind of spelling will do the trick.
Probably a lot of fun for BEETLEJUICE fans. This probably qualifies me as some sort of freak - but I’ve never seen it and don’t have the slightest idea what it’s about other than Michael Keaton wore a striped suit and had a scary face. So you could have circled IT or THEM or ROSY ICON MANTRA and told me to SAY IT THREE TIMES or 300 times. Wouldn’t have made any difference and I still would have felt like I had just been to sixth grade social hour.
And on a somber note, rest peacefully Teri Garr. Considering her presence in so many crosswords I’ve done and some of my favorite movies, I almost feel like I owe her a debt of gratitude. She brought a lot of laughter into the world.
If you’ve never seen the movie then go wstch it tonight…so good and so funny. I loved the mention of Shirley Manson, Garbage is a very underrated band. I’m surprised nobody mentioned NEHI, i moved here in the 80s but still had to cheat to make sure I had it correct. I hated that and ENOL.
Didn't Shohei Ohtani get hurt the other night trying to steal ABASE?
Quick greeting to Mr. Solo? LOHAN. And didn't he at one point visit the planet ROTHIRA?
I really wanted the ghoulish character to be BEETLE Bailey, but then I realized that no matter how many times Sarge yelled his name, he generally didn't appear.
Another Halloween reference could have been "Fright ________" for WIIG.
I wonder if Spanish fairy tales start with ONCE.
Crossword clues are absolutely required to be literally and factually descriptive of their answer. Hence @Rex's rant about BEETLEJUICE vs. Betelgeuse should result in an apology from the Gray Lady
Fun warm up for tomorrow. Thanks and congrats, Josh M. Kaufmann.
So nice to honor Teri Garr ... one of the best movie comedians ever!!
Well alrighty then. I figured @Rex would have problems with the circles because THAT didn’t ring quite right for me, BUT…(and he somewhat minimized this as an issue)…the “character” is actually Betelgeuse? Yeah. I looked at Wikipedia. First, this was NOT a book and hmmmm…I don’t really look at credits before or after a movie. Second, did I know Michael Keaton’s character name was a play on words for the star? Yes. Conclusion: Pfft on the character *actually* being Betelgeuse.
With that said, I do think the fill suffered because of the theme, but I really liked the theme since it’s the day before Halloween. So many great actors in a movie that is “scary,” silly, and funny at the same time. I’m the type that rarely looks at sequels…once and done is good for me because I’ve always been disappointed with sequels.
Thanks for the Halloween fun Mr. Kaufman!
@Nancy, there's a lot of room outside those three options, so i need None of the Above. And what are we going to do about the rest of unrecorded history? Anyway, I kind of like those little circles.
Acadia is a subject worth being familiar with (and Acadia National Park a place worth visiting). The English deportation of Acadian settlers to the American colonies in the mid 1700s was particularly galling. And yes, many ended up in Louisiana. There's lots available on the topic, but here's a start:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/history-of-acadia
Wikipedia's History of the Acadians is also worth a read, tho there's some 'accuracy' debate at the moment.
Roo, I get you…BEETLEJUICE was ALL
Oops! BEETLEJUICE was all of those things (less a monster, he would make himself look like a monster), but his primary job was to antagonize…in the first movie he was first trying to get the new “living” owners out of the house (for the dead owners), then switched it up to try to get the dead owners out…he antagonized pretty much everyone eventually.
Medium. Interesting idea but perhaps a bit too ambitious. It didn’t really work for me, so I’m with @Rex on this one.
Did not know MANSON
¡No lo digas tres veces!
I've never seen either of the Beetlejuice movies, but I have seen the Progressive ads where they dart Jamie in the neck as he's on repeat number three, so yay for Flo and the gang making crosswording more appealing.
Engaging puzzle. I enjoyed it. Lots of gunk, a little humor, a dead princess, a Disney princess, a monkey prince, and a data analyst. What's not to love?
Propers: 10 (eek)
Places: 4
Products: 5
Partials: 13 (wow)
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 34 of 78 (44%) {A new world record! (I think)}
Funnyisms: 4 🙂
Uniclues:
1 Smooth monkey man.
2 Repeat after me, playoff successes for the Denver Broncos over the last nine torturous years and now that carpet bagger quarterback is killin' in Pittsburgh.
3 Windows 11.
4 Former stretcher.
1 HAIR WAX APE
2 GOOSE EGG MANTRA (~)
3 ANTAGONIST'S IOS
4 YOGA ONE ONCE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What my Mercurochrome wielding mother rendered. IRATE FIRST AID.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I thought it was Marilyn MANSON. I dont think I ever heard of Shirley. We recently rewatched BEETLEJUICE In celebration of Halloween season. To tell you the truth, we all thought it was way overrated. OTOLOGY I messed up at first with ORAL_ _ _ _ .
Knowing only the title BEETLEJUICE from movie and show ads, I wasn't able to appreciate all that went into the theme - so more of an "okay, if you say so" solve for me. I do think, though, that the two grid-spanners work: PUT THEM TOGETHER: you combine BEAT ULGE OOSE into one word, and then you SAY IT (that word) THREE TIMES.
Talk about trivia! A theme based on a movie I've never seen, which requires me to know details of the plot--not only the "say my name three times" bit, but that the creature called up by that is an ANTAGONIST--which I had thought previously was some spirit one called upon for help. Fortunately I've seen just enough discussion of the movie to know the first, but not the second.
OTOH, TIL how a lava lamp works, so that was a plus.
There are a lot of debatable wordings here. HAIR would be a head liner if it were growing inside your skull--maybe it does, I can't really see in there, but I'm pretty sure it's covering my head, not lining it. Tarzan was king of the APES, but were they a tribe? As I recall he was also king of an African village, which was a tribe, so that was confusing (yes, I did read all the Tarzan books I could find, 20 or so, in my youth). NAILs are in holes in the wall, but they are not alive. And the DEA enforces the Controlled Substances Act, but that's not the same as carrying it out.
More defensible: MCAT works if the clue means it's a hurdle to use a bio major in one particular way; I first read it as a hurdle to completing a bio major, which is not the case. And a MANTRA is an aid to meditation, but often used colloquially in the sense clued.
TIL also what the platform for early super Mario games was, and got my memory refreshed on the difference between ABU (father of) and IBN (son of).
I did like the way that the circled letters were homophones of BEETLEJUICE, and that two of the three syllables were spread across the lines of circled letters, "TLE" and "ULJ.' Too bad about the BEAT.
Now I have to go look up the difference between AFROBEAT and Afropop. Back in a bit.
Easily solved, paying no attention to the silly little circle game. I'll watch the movie at my local theater.
Never saw BEETLEJUICE - nor am I sorry I didn't.
Not a fan of rebuses.
So aside from Rex's RIP to TERI Garr (who I loved in "Tootsie") - should I bother?
Oops - not a rebus. Sorry, John :)
BE ATUL GEOOSE! Just the way M&A would say it ... after maybe 3 tequila shots. Mighta then actually finished it with a GEOOSH, tho.
We have seen the original flick, but not the new one. Nice schlocky one to bring up, on Halloween Eve.
Took m&e a lil extra time, to come up with OTOLOGY. MANSON & ERIC were about the only out-and-out no-knows.
sooo ... pretty smoooth solvequest, here.
fave stuff: ERIE & OCT clues [nice dash of spookiness]. RENT clue [used extra nanoseconds, tryin to come up with poker bet answers, like CALL]. IREPEAT [3 times]. MANTRA.
staff weeject pick: CAS. har. Clear evidence that almost any desperado weeject is clue-worthy.
Thanx, Mr. Kaufmann dude. Congratz on yer juicy debut.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
happy Halloween Eve, all U spooks:
**gruntz**
Teri Garr was an excellent comic actress, but the gold standard is Meg Ryan. "I'll have what she's having."
I love pedantry, so i came here for this. ‘Beetlejuice’ is the name of the animated character, who is summoned using the threepeat of his name, so there is officially no foul on the clue.
I humbly apologize - first for posting your name wrong, JOSH. Second for judging the puzzle by the review before even doing it - which I will never do again (BEETLEJUICE intimidated me, I guess) & third for my trashy review. Fun puzzle, Josh & holiday-appropriate. Gonna blame it on pre-election anxiety since I read the news before coming here). All's good :)
Beetlejuice
Opening of that Spanish fairy tale: Eleven dwarves lived together in a cottage deep in the woods. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
Yes, the first time I saw the Jaime-takes-a-dart-to-the-neck ad was the TIL that you summoned old what's his name by repeating it three times. TV ads! What a font of useful information!
I solved the puzzle last evening, watched the baseball game (ugh), went to sleep. Woke up this morning and one of my first thoughts was: hey, I forgot to check what was in those circles! Checked; oh, uh okay.
What actually would have been more fun was a Schroedinger puzzle where you could spell the name either way -- JUICE or GEUSE -- and the acrosses would work. They could even have run it on Thursday.
32 across had me baffled at first... "Symbols of electrical resistance" == OHMS!... doesn't fit? Wait for it... oh yeah, it's asking for symbols, not units.
I had CARFARE, didn't know Manson, so it took me a while to grok out
Personally really liked this puzzle.Thought it was fun and sort of easy. Sometimes a lot of people on here really rip the puzzles apart looking for flaws and tbh it seems like quite a few people are overly critical. Aren't these puzzles supposed to be fun?
I don't get the whole issue Rex has with the Beetlejuice/Betelgeuse thing. One is the name of the movie and what others seem to call the character, the other is how the character actually writes his name.
Rex needs just chill out sometimes.
It never fails, everytime I think the puzzle is easy or entertaining, he hates it and says it's medium or hard.
lol, this exchange helped me understand the one clue i didn't get at all. i thought "Cas in Charlie" was some old tv show i'd never heard of or something XD
-stephanie.
nobody mentioned NEHI because it is crosswordese and appears A LOT. and after doing the crossword for...idk, maybe five years now? where i'm actually solving every day? today was the very first day i *finally* remembered the whole dang name without any crosses. and if it wasn't for google/the internet, i wouldn't even be sure it exists outside of crosswords. a lot of rough fill today. and i love BEETLEJUICE! but the fill to make those parts of the puzzle happen i sadly don't think was worth it. [love garbage tho!]
-stephanie.
5:36, solved essentially as a themeless. Wednesday should be harder, but proximity to Halloween wins out, I guess. A lot of moving parts; I would argue too many; most of questionable construction and utility.
Anonymous 9:48
Beetlejuice vs Beatulgeoose
Well the vowels are long e then a schwa for both. The consonant sounds are all the same, leaving the vowel sounds in the last syllable. Depending on how you say it. Clearly the intent was for the e to signal the soft g. If you don’t sound that e the 2 ARE pronounced the same.
Close enough for crosswords.
But I would agree that it was bit awkward for a theme
I found the top half of the puzzle very easy The bottom was a little tougher but easy overall. Decent puzzle.
I guessed that Rex wouldn’t like “I T” in 59 A and he delivered
I read it as say the name three times works for me. However you spell it, that’s the character. So despite Rex singular is correct.
Never saw either movie but it is hard to avoid knowing about the 2, especially if you read the Times Art section
(I read a postabout yesterday’s puzzle by Suzanne. She like me lives in RI.
Scaws of draws - or sometimes drawuhs- is how I say that theme answer. So most of the time it would rhyme for me. Those of us who still have the Rhode Island accent drop all the r’s at word ends And I do mean all. )
dgd
Do you say Beetlejuice 3 times in a day, to get him to come, or is it spacef after a certain time frame, like when does he appear. After Halloween, the fifth of November? Hollow when.
I came here to echo that the G is not circled. But while I am here, Rex's first complaint is not valid. First of all, the "them" clearly refers to the circled letters, which you put together to get the sound of Beterlguese/Beetlejuice. Since the clue refernces the sound, not the spelling, it is correct.
Oh wait was 29-D clued as the name of the character (I left the puzzle downstairs). If so, Rex is correct.
I think there's a poem about that, by the guy who wrote about Paul Revere's ride.
Nobody has mentioned it, so I'll just add that having "Charlie" in a clue and MANSON in the grid seems like another Halloween related touch.
Worst “theme” ever……
Cajun was a great clue. Yes, Acadians are French Canadians. But many were expelled by the British and ended up in still-then-French Louisiana.
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